Lets just point out that this was in fact made by children. This magnificent magic eye mural of LEGO artwork was made by small humans. To put that into context, I did a 100 piece Snoopy puzzle on Christmas with the family and I almost flipped the table in blind rage nine times. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHICH BLUE SKY PIECE GOES WHERE??
Okay first things first, this movie looks incredible, but it is such a bummer because it takes all of the suspense out of Avengers: Endgame. We all know what’s going to happen, but at least let us pretend to think differently. Having the actors for Black Panther, Spider-Man and others already signed on to do multiple sequels and then dropping the trailers for those movies while they’re still technically dead is a lame duck move. Kinda takes the venom (see what I did there?) out of this scene too.
But aside from all that, this movie looks awesome and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio?
Can Marvel do what Sony failed to do over and over again? Build a universe around the Sinister Six? I don’t know, but this is a hell of a start from the small sample size we’ve seen.
We also get some always welcomed Nick Fury in this movie, which I was not expecting.
Clearly this movie is going to have a much larger impact on the MCU as a whole, which makes sense since some key Avengers are definitely going to die in Endgame. We might be looking at Spidey taking on the mantle as one of the leaders of the Avengers moving forward and Nick Fury will help launch us into that next Phase of movies.
This spring and summer is going to be an adrenaline shot to the chest if you’re a fan of the MUC with Captain Marvel coming out on March 8th, then Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and then followed up shortly thereafter with Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th. Buckle up.
Tom Brady and I must have a mental connection because on Saturday night I went deep down the rabbit hole of 2000’s rap and got into a debate (at a 30th birthday party because I’m washed) about how Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is one of the best rap albums of all time. So what does Tom bump for his celebratory Monday workout? Many Men from Get Rich or Die Tryin’ of course. It’s been 15 years, but this album still goes hard and *nothing* beats the over the top style of early 2000’s music videos.
Boston Globe –Ā The high-water mark of Bostonās unsuccessful bid to land Amazonās second headquarters came on a brisk Monday in early March, beginning with coffee in the Eagle Room at Boston City Hall and ending with oysters andĀ steak at More Than Words, a nonprofit bookstore and job-training center in the South End.
Press play before reading for the full blog experience.
The city of Boston was a finalist for Amazon HQ2, which as we know was unsuccessful, but some new details came out the other day on just what was in the pitch. Not exactly a Don Draper level presentation to be honest. Welcome to this hell hole of congestion where the traffic never ends, there’s always construction, and it’s impossible to get across the city in less than an hour during rush hour.
Without further ado, the pitch:
In their pitch, state and local officials worked together closely, promoted the regionās universities and educated workforce, and ā unlike most other cities involved in the chase ā offered no tax breaks beyond what is available to any large employer expanding here.
We have smart people for you to choose from, buttt you’ll pay through the nose to be here just like everyone else. Great start, really get the prospect interested from the get go. Always Be Closing guys, thats just Sales 101.
Then there were basic logistics to sort out, like what to feed the visitors from Seattle and how to show them as much of Boston as was practical in a short amount of time, without getting bogged down in traffic.
āIām really nervous about Tuesday,ā one City Hall staffer wrote at 1:50 a.m. the Friday before the visit, laying out the challenges of getting from Amazonās downtown hotel ā not named in the documents ā to Dudley Square to meet with school officials, and then to the roof of the Bolling Municipal Building to see development sites. āNice view ā not enough time,ā the staffer wrote.
HAHAH good luck showing anyone around Boston without getting bogged down in traffic. True story: my sister in law was running the Boston Marathon and a ton of family came up to watch her run, watching from various points throughout the course. The plan was to get from Newton to the finish line in real time to watch her finish, which with the traffic and the parking in this city is impossible. So I bombed down Storrow Drive with a car load of people, got as deep as possible into Back Bay and then just fell on my sword and told everyone to get out and walk the last couple of blocks while I went to find a parking garage by myself.
Long story short: traffic always has been and always will be a massive inconvenience in this city and I’m sure Amazon is smart enough to realize that.
Bostonās team tried to keep Amazon off tour buses. āWe wanted them walking. We wanted them on the T,ā Barros recalled Monday. āWe wanted them to experience getting around the way people who live here do.ā
“We wanted them on the T.” We should have just started and stopped the blog with that line right there. As soon as someone said this sentence out loud they should have known this pitch was doomed We really wanted Amazon to feel the inner rage that all of our residents feel on a daily basis.
Can’t believe they didn’t just write up a contract on a cocktail napkin after getting to experience the joys of riding the T. It was probably on time and everything.
Next, they hiked across Fort Point Channel to the penthouse of a Seaport apartment building to hear about buildings there.
The Seaport is dope, but it’s already running out of free space and will probably be underwater in 50 years.
The next day, after breakfast in Dudley Square and a visit to Assembly Row, Amazonās contingent headed out of town.
I work near Assembly Row and it’s a cool little spot for some outlet shopping, but it’s not exactly where I’d take a trillion dollar company to try and sell them on my city. You may have nearly gotten out of your car in traffic to stab someone getting here, but hey the PUMA outlet store has some really sweet deals!
While having a company like Amazon in Boston would have been cool, it also would have been a logistical nightmare like oh I don’t know HOSTING THE OLYMPICS. Except this would bring 50,000 people to Boston for a lot longer than 2 weeks. I ‘m already in pre-road rage because the city is planning a massive overhaul on Storrow Drive (we have such great history with highway projects) to go along with the guaranteed traffic from the upcoming opening of the Encore casino in Everett. If this city added a goddamn Amazon headquarters I’d literally have to buy a jet ski and bomb down the Charles for my morning commute. So maybe we dodged a bullet here guys.
Finally, an actual target I can mark down in my calendar unlike the last time Thrones was trending for a “premiere date” when it was revealed GoT would return in April….which is a month and not an actual date. So this was welcome news this AM.
The new trailer actually dropped last night, which I missed, ironically enough, because I am currently in the midst of a Thrones rewatch. And just like I said I wouldn’t do, I am woefully behind. Ned Stark is Protector of the Realm right now for christ’s sake. Currently I have 3 episodes remaining in Season 1 along with all of Seasons 2-7 so there are 66 episodes still left on my plate. With the April 14th premiere date, that means there are 91 days left until we hear that sweet, sweet opening music. (If I had to bet, I would say they go with a cold opening so we probably won’t hear the music to start, but thats besides the point)
So for anyone that has yet to get on the Game of Thrones bandwagon or for anyone that wants to start a rewatch, we are rapidly approaching an episode per day territory. April 14th cannot come soon enough. Gods be good.
First half of the Patriots Chargers game in one gif:
It took less than 30 minutes for the Patriots to completely break the will of the Chargers and it is glorious. The boys all had the Pats winning, but everyone had the game within a touchdown.
The week off has done the Patriots good as they came out of the gates flying. I was a little concerned the Pats may be overthinking it after they opted to receive rather than defer like they normally do. But, they came out with a 14 play drive that took up more than 7 minutes and punched it in with Sony Michel to get the early lead.
After Stephon Gilmore got his lunch money stolen by Keenan Allen on the following drive to tie the game 7-7, the Pats settled down. Then they started putting the screws to the Chargers.
Philip Rivers has been non stop bitching to the refs living up to his cry baby reputation that I honestly had almost forgotten about.
The Chargers put themselves in a hole that would take a legendary comeback to dig themselves out after FUMBLING a punt, allowing the Pats to score yet again.
Former #RedSox 3B Will Middlebrooks, who suffered a serious injury to his left leg in spring training with the #Phillies last season, is retiring. Played parts of six MLB seasons and had 17 HRs for the ’13 WS-champion Sox.
Though in a much, much smaller sample size and not nearly as popular a player as No. 5 ever was, I could never shake the parallel between the two guy’s careers. Just like Nomar Garciaparra, Will Middlebrooks was a young, homegrown talent that raked when he got to Fenway as a rookie in 2012. Hit for power, hit for average, looked like a staple in your lineup for years to come. Until a fastball caught them both in the wrist, vastly altering the projection of their careers. Nomar rebounded and made a few more All-Star teams, but was never again the same player as the one who flirted with hitting .400 before the injury.
Middlebrooks effectively fell off a cliff after the broken wrist. Before the injury Middlebrooks was hitting .288 his rookie year with 15 home runs and 54 RBI in just 286 Plate Appearance. His emergence at third base was part of the reason the Red Sox traded fan favorite Kevin Youkilis just two months before.
Thankfully Middlebrooks locked down a ride or die woman in Jenny Dell because he was never the same player. In 2013 he hit 17 home runs, just 2 more than he had in his breakout rookie campaign with nearly 100 more Plate Appearances, and his average dropped 61 points. Unfortunately he never hit double digit home runs in a season again, plagued by injuries, as his Batting Average hovered around the Mendoza Line for the rest of his career.
It’s a damn shame because I remember watching him and seeing huge potential.
Either way, Will Middlebrooks will always be remembered as a key cog in the 2013 World Series winning team as well as party to one of the weirdest plays in World Series history.
Can’t take away that championship ring though. Congrats Will, enjoy retirement.
Yahoo – New York Knicks center Enes Kanter is both a large man and an athlete. In order to keep himself in playing shape, Kanter requires more carbs than a normal person could dream up. Normally, his diet likely consists of healthy items. Lean proteins like chicken and starches like potatoes. Occasionally, though, he indulges himself in a cheat day.
Wednesday just so happened to be one of those days for Kanter. The 26-year-old made sure to show off his spread on Twitter. It was excessive.Ā Kanterās binging session doesnāt come with a happy ending, however. A day after eating all that food, Kanter left Knicks practice due to an illness, according to Newsdayās Steve Popper.
My dude Enes Kanter can EAT and he knows how to do a cheat day right. Three TRIPLE patty burgers with eggs on top, and then four more burgers with a tray full of fries on the side.
When you have a cheat day you want to eat so much greasy, fatty food that you are straight up sick the following day so you never want to eat unhealthy as long as you live. Well that is exactly what happened to Kanter. He literally made himself physically ill. Guy will probably eat like a monk for the next year. Savvy veteran.
Enes Kanter probably knows all about the Cheeseburger Picnic.
I remember I held off on seeing Thor until I had to no choice since it was a prerequisite for understanding the Avengers. Similar to when Iron Man first came out I had absolutely zero idea who the hell Thor was so I had pretty low expectations coming into this one. The story itself is a bit out there, but it presented the first opportunity for the MCU to really expand its grasp beyond that of Earth and it does it pretty well. It also does a great job of introducing SHIELD in a universal, nay galactic, role without totally shoehorning it into the movie. The highlight of the film though is definitely Chris Hemsworth, who was a complete unknown at this point, but became instantly enjoyable with his brash, aloof demi-god character.
Synopsis
Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, and Stellan SkarsgƄrd as Dr. Selvig are storm chasing, looking to unearth some type of astrological phenomenon, when they end up smoking an unidentified person with their van, who we learn is Chris Hemsworth falling from the sky.
An Anthony Hopkins voiceover explains the concept of life beyond Earth, officially introducing intergalactic characters into the MCU. The Frost Giants are introduced as the original big baddie with a weapon of mass destruction. This blue cube looks exactly like a lot of other colorful glowing cubes in the MCU, but this is *not* in fact an Infinity Stone. It’s actually The Casket of Ancient Winters.
(The first reference of an Infinity Stone in the MCU won’t be revealed until the end of this movie actually.) So as the Frost Giants tried to take over the universe, including Earth, Odin defeats them (and loses his eye in the process…just like his son would also do years later!) and returns home to Asgard with the ancient relic for safe keeping.
Years later Thor is on the precipice of being crowned the new king of Asgard and Loki is visibly bullshit. But, wait! Before Odin can officially say the words to make Thor king the Frost Giants have “somehow” snuck into Asgard and they want their blue cube back.
We also meet The Destroyer, who protects all of Odin’s dangerous toysĀ and subsequently kills the Frost Giant intruders. Don’t sleep on this guy because he’ll be back.
Thor defies his fathers wishes and goes toĀ Jotunheim, home of the Frost Giants, looking for answers and starts a big old battle. Key scene here shows one of Thorās warriors getting burned by a Frost Giant, yet when Loki gets touched his skin turns blue and we see the wheels start to turn in his head. The battle goes on before Odin not surprisingly has to come rescue the crew before banishing Thor for disobeying him.
I have to say, in the beginning of this movie, Thor sounds an awfulll lot like Prince Joffrey now that I rewatch it.
Full of arrogance, mean, and just itching to start a war before Odin shuts him down.
Back to Earth.
Along with Thor Odin sends his son’s hammer, Mjolnir, to Earth saying only he who is worthy of its power will be able to wield the weapon. (Not you, Loki)
In a direct reference to Excalibur (the director has a fondness for Shakespeare and such), Thor’s hammer lands in the New Mexico desert and people come from all over trying to pull it from the ground before SHIELD quarantines the entire area.
Natalie Portman has all of her scientific research confiscated by SHIELD and now that her and Hemsworth are acquainted, Thor promises to give her all the answers she seeks if she drives him out to the crash site where Mjolnir currently sits.
Weāre also introduced to Hawkeye for the very first time in this scene as Thor tries to fight through the SHIELD base to get his hammer back.
How about Jeremy Renner? Remember when he was tapped to be the next biggest movie star on the planet? He was in The Town, Thor, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and the Avengers back to back to back to back. Thats four absolute heaters in a row he starred in before making the snooze fest that was The Bourne Legacy followed up by Hansel and Gretel. WHO IS HIS AGENT?
Unfortunately Thor comes to learn without his powers he is unable to lift Mjolnir, which is what finally breaks his spirit from the cocky warrior that he has been. Luckily Dr. Selvig talks his way into getting Thor out of SHIELD custody.
THIS IS WHERE THE MOVIE HITS THE WRAP IT UP BOX
Thor’s righthand men and women (Lady Sif and the Warriors Three) take the bifrost bridge and teleport to Earth as they look to bring back their rightful king, which Loki doesnāt appreciate so he send the Defender to Earth to destroy them all. Once Thorās crew promptly gets their asses kicked, the Thunder God offers his own life to spare the others. His apparent death is the selfless act necessary to grant the return of his powers and Mjolnir. Thor then makes quick work of the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
This is where things get a little confusing. Loki cuts a deal with the Frost Giants to let them into Asgard so they can kill Odin…so he can become king…I guess. Then despite opening the goddamn door for them, Loki kills the Frost Giant before it can kill Odin. A cunning trickster indeed.
Loki reveals his grand plan is to open up the bifrost to destroy the Jotunheim.
Huh?
His plan was to rescue his father and then wipe the Frost Giants out to earn his father’s respect and become the true heir. I think? By starting war and committing genocide, which Odin was openly against from the start of the movie and is exactly what got Thor banished in the first place.
I donāt know, this never gets explained very well.
Iām pretty sure the third act of this movie is used solely to set up Thor’s reason for even being around during the Avengers. To stop Loki, Thor is forced to destroy the bifrost.
Odin wakes up from his dirt nap and a defeated LokiĀ lets himself fall from the broken bridge as we’re left to wonder where he went.
Apropos of Nothing:
Heimdall is still the best. Itās a shame how criminally underused Idris Alba was in the whole MCU.
Loki really is one of the best anti-heroes in comic book history. After learning of his Frost Giant heritage he flips out on Odin and gives us one of the most popular GIFs of all time:
The whole exchange gives Odin a heart attack and as he drops Loki cries out for the guards. Despite all the evil shit Loki does in the following movies, you canāt help but feel for the guy.
The Breadcrumbs of the MCU…
āI knew this scientist, the pioneer in gamma radiation. SHIELD showed up and he wasnāt heard from again.ā
What Has Aged Well
The one liners still land remarkably well.
Thor walks into a pet store and yells āI need a horse.ā
āThat still doesnāt explain how he was able to tear through our defenses?”
“STEROIDS!ā
“Is that one of Starkās?”
“I donāt know, he doesnāt tell me anything anymore.”
Thor calling Agent Coulson āSon of Cole.ā
Thursday = Thorās Day
What Has Not Aged Well
It took me seven years to figure it out, but I finally realized why Chris Hemsworth looks so weird in Thor 1 compared to all of the other movies heās in. They died his goddamn eyebrows for some reason in the first movie, but then never did it again.
Thor 1:
Avengers 1:
Thor 2:
Oh my god the product placement. I must have seen that 7/11 sign no less than 30 times.
Asgard has fucking TERRIBLE security as the whole realm gets invaded in 2/3rds of Thorās standalone films.
The Frost Giants look a hell of a lot like the White Walkers. Thor came out a month after Game of Thrones officially premiered, so GoT technically got the jump. After 7 seasons of Thrones they have the icy blue look on lock.
Rating
Thor was the first pleasant surprise of the MCU. Iron Man was great, but we had literally zero expectations for that. Hulk was always a disaster so anything after the Eric Bana mess would have been good enough. Thor was the first MCU movie that I was actively not looking forward to at all. A space god with long blonde hair directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, a guy best known for Henry V, Hamlet, and Shakespeare? Sounded like a recipe for a disaster, but ended up being very entertaining. Thor holds up surprisingly well seven years later and sets up the MCU to tackle stories beyond that of just Earth.
One of the first great concept tracks in hip hop history was Common’s human personification of the rap game. A classic song and a precursor to Common’s calling card; incredible story telling mixed with socially relevant themes throughout.
The 300s 