Bracketology: The Wire

Without getting into the characters that were left out of the bracket, like Slim Charles and Carver, I'll try and go through and fill my bracket. Let's not waste time here:

West Baltimore Region:

I've got Omar over Ziggy. This is really a no brainer, although Ziggy Sobotka is much easier to take on the second watch, Omar is The Wire. He's one of the best characters that's been on TV. Chris Partlow versus Dennis "Cutty" Wise is a tough one, but Cutty has one of my favorite quotes:

"The game, it ain't in me no more."

So I'd take Cutty over Partlow. Snoop versus D'Angelo is also a tough one. Snoop is a part of the Stanfield crew, who I generally did not like. D'Angelo is mentally weak and breaks down when he finds out that Stringer killed Wallace. Snoop wins this match up. Michael Lee is my favorite character from the crew of young uns. He demolishes Cheese, even though Cheese has this brilliant quote: 

Omar takes down Cutty and Michael Lee takes down Snoop, just like he did in the show. In the regional final, I have Michael Lee over Omar. Shocker? May be. Michael Lee becomes the Omar type renegade outcast at the end of the show. Take what you will out of that.

Hamsterdam Region:

Brother Mouzone is one of the best minor characters in television. Bunk Moreland is fucking Bunk Moreland:

Let's just say Bunk is one of my favorites to win this thing. He's a smooth talker and a ladies' man with a drinking problem. He's the man. 

Maurice Levy is one of the least likable characters in The Wire, but he's supposed to be that way. He's a sleazy lawyer. Wallace is a bitch who snitches (snitches get stitches). He clearly isn't ready for the world of drug trafficking. Levy takes this one. 

McNulty versus Daniels is a big mismatch for me. Daniels is one of my absolute least favorite characters on the show. I hate fifth season McNulty, but for most of the show, McNulty is the man. Furthermore, he pulls the hottest piece of ass on the entire show, Theresa D'Agostino:

McNulty wins that handily. 

Clay Davis versus Bubbles is a tough one because I don't like these characters much either. Bubbles is a smooth talking snitch. Davis is a corrupt politician. The winner between the two is pretty easy though:

Clay Davis wins.

In regional semis, Bunk defeats Levy and McNulty takes down Clay Davis, like he couldn't on the show. That gets us to Bunk versus McNulty in the region's final, partners. 

Bunk dominates for being sane.

The Ports Region:
Avon Barksdale, played by Wood Harris, is one of the realest characters on the show. Roland Pryzbylewski is an incompetent cop turned teacher. Barksdale takes this first round match up easily.

As Kenard says, "Dukie fight like a bitch." Meanwhile, Carcetti is a successful white politician in a black city. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do? Carcetti for Mayor! For governor! For bracket buster?

I have Sergei "Boris" Malatov defeating Bunny Colvin. Sergei is a bad man. Prop Joe takes down Frank Sobotka. In the semis, I have Avon over Carcetti and Prop Joe over Boris.

In the basketball game between the East side and the West side, Prop Joe saves his ringer for the second half after they've upped the wager. The West side wins the basketball game. In this match up, Avon wins. Period. No propositions to be made Prop Joe. You lose.

East Baltimore Region:

Stringer Bell is a great character and beloved by many, but not this guy. He's a drug dealer, but he's not street. He has no spine. He doesn't understand the game.

He's not hard enough for the game, not smart enough to be legit. Herc on the other hand, he's awesome:

Herc takes down Stringer Bell in a first round upset. Wee-Bay is a stand up dude who takes a million murder charges. Lester Freemon is a great detective, but also helps McNulty get his case against Marlo in the fifth season. You've got to give that match up to Wee-Bay. 

Bodie Broadus versus William Rawls is a joke. Bodie is like that top seeded team that got overlooked. He destroys Rawls in this. Stanfield versus Kima is very interesting as well. I don't like either of these two characters very much. I'll give it to Marlo. 

The top of this bracket is weak, but you've got to give it to Herc. Unlike the show, Bodie takes down Marlo and Bodie takes down Herc to take the region. 

Final Four:

In the Final Four, I have Michael Lee versus Bunk Moreland and Avon Barksdale against Bodie Broadus.

I like Mike Lee a lot because he's true with his friends, a stand up dude, and a gangster. He doesn't let people push him around and he takes care of his crew and his lil bro. Bunk's virtues have already been stated. He's so quotable: 

I've got to give this one to Bunk, to advance to the finals.

The other match up is tough. Avon and Bodie are two of my favorites in the Barksdale crew. They're very similar too in their outlook. I relate more to Bodie as a growing adolescent though, so I have to give it to Bodie. Bodie also has the best death scene in the entire show: 

Bunk versus Bodie in the finals. This is still a tough call, but I think you've got to give it to Bunk.

Bunk Moreland, Champion of The Wire.

Censorship and My Issues with it

Last night, I was watching my favorite movie of all time: The Godfather. I was watching this on AMC, which is having a celebration this week for the movie's 40th anniversary. I understand that there are certain things that you cannot put on TV. You have to censor some of the content.

But who decides what is offensive and what is not?

I ask this because of the editing in this scene:


"Piece of ass" was edited to "piece of stuff,"  but a sentence later "guinea charm" was not edited.

Now, I don't see what is offensive about "piece of ass." Are they censoring that because it might be offensive to women? Are we going to pretend like misogyny doesn't exist? Meanwhile, we can keep the slurs towards Italian people. It just seems hypocritical to me that they are censoring for one group of people, but not another. It sends a mixed message.

Now, I would say that the Italian slurs are essential to what makes The Godfather The Godfather since it is a story about an Italian family in a developing and changing America. However, I'd also say that the existence of misogyny at the time is important to the integrity of the movie's setting.

I hate censorship. I understand that certain content, such as nudity (Apollonia wedding night scene always gets cut), cannot be aired on basic cable. However, words are words, and this is America. What's the First Amendment? Oh yeah, something about free speech? If you're going to air The Godfather, you should do so with the entire dialogue in tact. You know what you're going to air, and there's no reason to change it. They're just words.

The GM-Peugeot Partnership

Not quite sure what the executives in Detroit are doing.

So GM plans to take a stake in Peugeot, and I'm not sure why. Well, we have an explanation:

LONDON—General Motors Co. is to take as much as a 7% stake in smaller French rival PSA Peugeot Citroën SA as part of a new auto-making alliance the two companies are negotiating to prop up their unprofitable European operations, people familiar with the talks said Tuesday.

But that explanation still makes no sense to me. I'm talking about the core concept of the matter:

In buying a stake in Peugeot, GM would make the French auto maker its primary partner in Europe to share engineering and development costs as well as provide funds to help the French company in its drive to reduce debt by selling assets, the person said.

This type of agreement has been done before. It did not work out well. GM hurt its public perception by trying to produce cars through parts sharing. A lot of their cars shared the same uninspired characteristics. This bean counting cut car quality and put GM in the hole that led to the 2008 bailout.

We've also seen brands within the GM conglomerate fail including Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saab. Making the same cars with different grills is not the way to success. It remains to be seen what this partnership with Peugeot holds in store, but I'm skeptical because of past failures in execution. On paper, it makes sense. However, history says otherwise.

Why am I so excited to see Colin Quinn?

So I'm seeing Colin Quinn's Long Story Short tonight down at Foxwoods. Quinn has become one of my favorite comedians over the last several months, from watching Tough Crowd clips on Youtube. Over the course of these shows, I've grown to appreciate not only his intellectualism that he infuses into his jokes, but also his promotion of other comics. He gave an outlet for comics like Patrice O'Neal, Greg Giraldo, and Jim Norton to display their comic prowess. He was also on SNL as the Irish drunk:

The guy has had a long career in television, which started as an announcer/sidekick on MTV's Remote Control. He also performed on HBO's One Night Stand:

He's had a long career. While it hasn't been the most successful, he's made a lot of people laugh. One of my personal favorites is his performance in the roast of Artie Lange:

So yeah, I'm pretty fucking amped to see this critically acclaimed show. It was between this and Bill Burr, but I wanted to see this before he stops performing it. I can see Burr another day. Jerry Seinfeld directed Long Story Short, and I can't wait.

What I am not looking forward to the drive to Foxwoods. I could've seen this at the Wilbur, but I was too lazy. This is the price I have to pay. Whatever, it should be a great show full of laughs. May be I'll have a review of it tomorrow if I feel up to it.

The Greek Riots

If you were too busy watching The Grammy's, you might have missed the Greek riots as their government came to an agreement on austerity. This isn't the first time that Greece has rioted:

Yes, I very much like riot footage. What's interesting to me though is the Riot Police. Greece has no money. How can they afford the riot police? What kind of compensation are these guys receiving if they are against their fellow countrymen? Austerity is the issue in Greece; don't these policemen have their own thoughts on this?

Personally, I'd love to beat down some Greeks to get rid of some of the pent up aggression. I'd be a mercenary, but I'm all in for the cause if I can wail on some defenseless people standing up for what they believe in.

So what would I want in return for my professionally delivered beatings?

For starters, I'll take a chicken souvlaki plate. Giving out beatings is tough work and you've got to make sure I've got the energy to bring the pain. I'd also love it if they sweetened the deal a little bit. How about some baklava? No deal is complete without incentives. If I meet my quotas and do a superlative job, I deserve a bonus. Some Tzatziki sauce would be wonderful.

In all honesty, I don't know how Greece is holding it together. I don't know how the EU is holding it together. I expect things to fall apart. Things should fall apart. You can't keep trying to support a house with wood because the wood will rot, and the house will fall.

Greece needs to go back to the drawing board and lay the foundation for a new economy, and the EU has to decide whether they want to support Greece or not. A broken bone will not heal if you keep putting it under stress. You need to relieve the stress with rest.

There's no relief in Greece.

The Unexpected English

The Champions League restarts today and you might feel like something is missing...

That's right, both of the Manchester teams are out of the competition. It's a surprise to say the least because they've been the two strongest English teams this season. What's more is that Arsenal made it into the Knockout Phase, despite starting the season like this:

Losing Fabregas and Nasri killed Arsenal early in the season. The low point was the trip to Old Trafford, where United trashed Arsenal to the tune of 8-2. That was probably the worst game I've seen since the traveshamockery of last year's Champions League.

Chelsea has not been as good this season either. They've sucked at times. They've been great at times. They've been inconsistent all the time.  While they were considered contenders at the start of the season, the season itself has gone more like this:

They've had some great chances, but they've...well whatever you call missing a sitter. So it's a grand surprise to see Arsenal and Chelsea, the London Clubs, still in the Champions League, while the Manchester Clubs are sitting at home counting their money and not knowing what to do with it.

The Champions League is one of the most exciting competitions in the world. We kick back off today with Barcelona visiting Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon hosting Apoel Nicosia. If you want to skip out of work to have a midday pint, this is your excuse.

META

I want to blog more. I feel a lot of times that I want to write something, but I have no outlet to do it. I feel like sometimes I confine myself to certain topics, and then when I want to write about something else, I feel restricted by what I've already written. I feel like so often, writing for something is writing about a certain thing. That's not why I created this blog.

Fact is I'm happier when I blog. I like writing. It's like therapy. So you'll be seeing more of it.

The Smart Car Gets Company

Toyota is bringing legitimacy to the Kei Car Market

Toyota is introducing a new micro-compact under the Scion moniker called the iQ. The iQ is the first real competitor against the Smart ForTwo. I see a lot of people look at the Smart Car and laugh at it, but I really see a lot of potential in the Kei Car market. With one of the major automakers entering the segment, the Kei Car market is finally achieving some legitimacy.

With the movement towards smaller more fuel efficient cars, these two seat minicars definitely could become the new craze. First of all, they get better mileage. They're lighter and they have smaller engines. It makes sense for automakers to try to push these cars as they try to meet federal MPG requirements.

Challenges:
The first challenge is price. The Smart Car starts a shade under $12,500 and the iQ should start about two grand above that. These cars aren't exactly cheap. I think there will be a bias against them for that because you can get more car for the same price. The pricing structure of cars in America is such that the more you pay the more you get. For these cars to succeed, they will need to prove they are worth the money. I don't know if better fuel economy and better maneuverability can do that.

The second challenge is safety. No matter how many airbags these companies put in these cars, there's going to be some concern. It's simple physics. The smaller car is going to take more of an impact than a bigger car because of its light mass. When you're driving around larger cars and SUVs, there is going to be inherent danger all around. The only real way to make the cars safer is to surround it on the road with vehicles of similar sizes. That doesn't appear like it will happen.

A third challenge is space. How much can a Kei Car hold? Can it hold groceries? Can it hold golf clubs? I personally feel the need for storage space in a car is overstated, but there has to be a minimum for what it can hold. The Smart Car can hold golf clubs, which means it should be able to hold groceries and whatever other small things you need to carry.

Why It Will Succeed:
Toyota getting into this market is a huge deal. I believe that automakers can create new markets if there is a demand and there is good execution. The SUV wasn't a staple of the auto industry until 20 years ago when Ford introduced the Explorer. I believe that when a brand like Toyota gets into this market segment, it increase the potential of the market to grow.

It's important to keep in mind that these cars are geared towards city folks. The maneuverability and small size should make it easier to get around the city and find parking. Furthermore, how much stuff do people in the city have to carry in their car? I think that the need for trunk space is not as big a deal as people think. The amount of money you save from having a more efficient vehicle probably can help make up the money to rent a vehicle when a trunk is necessary.

I think the safety concern is much more important than the price. The key thing is to market towards the city dwellers. These cars are more at risk where cars operate at higher speeds. In a city, there is less speeding and as a result, these cars will be less vulnerable to dangerous crashes. People aren't going to buy these cars if they don't feel safe in them. There will always be innovation in safety and these automakers must make sure that it trickles down into these cars.

It will be interesting to see how these Kei Cars do and whether they can finally be accepted by Americans.