Lord of The Curry

I might go down to Oscar Peterson Way and pay my respects a bit later. Dude was a great human being and like Carlito said one of the greatest jazz pianists ever.

I hear all this talk of Nicholson, DeNiro and Pacino as the best actors going today or the best of all time and I can't help but laugh because despite all the good they've done they've also done bad. In some cases very bad. Daniel Day-Lewis, for all purposes has never put in a bad performance. Ever. From My Left Foot to The Boxer to Last of The Mohicans and on the man has pretty much been the most solid actor of the last 25 years. If your "personal opinion" is that he isn't then you're either retarded or feel very confident in naming another actor. Either way, like he does once every four or so years D-Day is showing up this Christmas to blow us all the fuck away. Again. I'd be remiss to not mention that he has a very talented director in Paul Thomas Anderson backing him in this tale of an oil baron and his obsession with greed in early 1900's Texas. D-Day plays a ruthless tycoon named Daniel Plainview who has come to a small community that's recently struck it big in finding a huge oil field to convince the locals that he's the man they want to sell the land to. His nemesis comes in the form of Paul Dano, most known for his role in Little Miss Sunshine who's the spiritual leader of the community and has a reputation as a healer. Right now in terms of reviews this movie is getting it seems like it's a shoe-in for best picture, director and actor at the Oscars come March. We all saw how a great director can bring the best out of Lewis in Gangs of New York and I've no doubt in my mind that we will be seeing the same here. I've had to wait for three years for this movie to come out and thankfully, the wait won't be much longer.

One of Canada's greatest musicians and one of the most talented Jazz pianists died today in his Mississauga home of kidney failure at age 82. Courtesy of the CP24.com site....... He won eight Grammys, was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and even had his legend honoured on a Canada Post 50-cent stamp. Oscar Peterson, a Canadian jazz music treasure and a piano wizard, has died at his Mississauga home. The Montreal-born Peterson, who had been sick for a number of years, succumbed to kidney failure at the age of 82. It's the end of a long and storied career that has seen the music master jam with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald. Born in 1925, Peterson's music career began more than five decades ago when he played Montreal jazz clubs as a young man in the 1950s. His talent was undeniable and soon Peterson found himself sharing a stage with other legends of the genre. He enjoyed working with them as much as they enjoyed his performances. "There's an extreme joy I get in playing that I've never been able to explain," Peterson explained in 1996. "I can only transmit it through the playing; I can't put it into words." But there weren't words for the craft of this amazing man. He let his music do all the talking. And it spoke volumes. The acclaim brought him an ever-growing audience, and soon he was playing not the modest jazz bars of his hometown but some of the biggest venues in the world - including New York's Carnegie Hall. And it wasn't just the people he played with that were impressive - it was those he performed for, as well. They included the Queen and former then-U.S. President Richard Nixon. Peterson overcame prejudice and poverty to win eight Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement nod in 1997, innumerable prizes from his peers, and the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement. In all, he recorded nearly 200 albums, some of the most famous with partners Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, often cited as one of the world's finest jazz threesomes. "You saw the greatness immediately," Ellis recalled of his partner. "He was awesome right away -- always." Peterson was proudly Canadian but his greatness led many down south to consider him one of their own. "I've achieved a funny kind of status in Canada," he once related. "Most of it comes because I went to the United States and other places, and as a result of Canadians having seen me repeatedly on the television shows of people like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin ... I think that has weighed heavily with Canadians." His status allowed him special honours rarely afforded a mere mortal music man. He helped open Toronto's Advanced School of Contemporary Music in 1960, but it failed for a lack of funding. He later served as an adjunct music professor at York University in the mid-1980s and became its chancellor in the 1990s. His health began to fail about 20 years ago, first stricken with the most terrible ailment that could befall a piano player - arthritis. He suffered a stroke in 1993 but recovered. But he never let age or infirmity get in the way of the music. "Age doesn't seem to enter into my thought to that great an extent," he noted in 2001. "I just figure that the love I have of the instrument and my group and the medium itself works as a sort of a rejuvenating factor for me." Not to mention all those who heard him play. He leaves behind a wife, a daughter and millions of fans.

Don and Nick are pretty much this seasons "Haven't fucked up badly enough to get hurt by it", in that for every error they've made another team has made it worse. I don't know if they're competitive enough to keep up with The Goths or Nate and Jen in terms of workrate though.

Unless I'm wrong The Wire has never done any flashbacks episodes so I doubt it though I wouldn't mind seeing D show up again.

I'm glad that Kynt and Vyxsin were saved, I think they just had an off-day but next weeks preview looks like they undertake the "By whatever means necessary" approach to winning which I'm down with. Out of the teams that are left I'm rooting for The Goths and TK and Rachel. The old man and the kid I'm indifferent to, Christina is boring and Ron is an asshole and Nate and Jen were pretty much made for each other. I love how Jen talks about how she's not sure where they'll be when they're done the race when I totally see them as a "Guy knocks girl up, marriage follows and the trap is set" kind of relationships.

Alexander getting tooled in the fashion he did was probably the least surprising thing in MMA this year to me.

Well, here it is. Obviously the exception is M1, K1 and UFC on the 29th which of course can be filled in after. This is a thread meant for both opinions and discussion. If you're bringing two-word sentences, please fuck right off. DEE-SKUSH-ON. Fight of The Year Fighter of the Year Show of The Year KO of The Year Submission of The Year BTW, this is all stuff we can build on. Feel free to add your own category but it'd better be worth our time. Fight of The Year: Fuck, this is close mainly because Tyson Griffin and Roger Huerta made a decision to completely steal the show from every other UFC fighter in 2007 but I'm going with Tyson Griffin vs Frankie Edgar from UFC 67. Going into the fight we knew that Griffin had a big rep going for him but within 2 minutes of that fight you knew that Frankie Edgar gave two shits about Tyson's reputation and just wanted to win. For every move in this fight there was a counter. For every counter, a counter-counter. Griffin takes Edgar down, Frankie reverses it. Edgar shows great boxing standing, Tyson lands a huge uppercut. Mad takedowns, scrambles and everything else that makes MMA awesome. Oh, and one of the craziest endings to a fight in a long, long time. Honorable mentions: Tyson Griffin vs Clay Guida, UFC 72, Clay Guida vs Roger Huerta, Ultimate Finale Live. Fighter of The Year: Again, a tough category but I'm gonna be a bitch and award a tie to Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva mainly because both guys mirror each other in terms of the year they've each had. Both started it off at UFC 67 and looked less-then-perfect against mid-level opponents but managed to come back strong in the second and finish it off. Then in their second fight both were looked at as the underdog with Silva against Marquardt and Jackson against Liddell. Again, both shock us all with completely and utterly destructive performances that leaves no doubt in anyones mind that these guys are at the top of the heap in MMA for their respective divisions. The third fight is a mixed bag as we all knew that Henderson would be a tough test for Rampage but he still managed to show heart and toughness on the ground and well......Silva running through Franklin like a hot knife through butter was beautiful to watch. Show of The Year: UFC 74 comes to mind right off the bat. Huerta/Crane was crazy good, GSP taking out Koscheck, Cote pulling out the upset and Randy being Randy is a very solid show. Oddly enough the UFC free cards on Spike make a very good argument with the Stout/Fisher UFN and Guida/Huerta Ultimate Finale Live card being very fun but I'm going with PRIDE: The Second Coming in Vegas which had basically everything you could want in a card. Awesome 155 fights with Danzig/Sakurai and Ireland/Hansen, the African Assassin making his name known against 205 Noguiera, Diaz/Gomi putting on a FOTYC, Shogun going Superman on Overeem and a great M.E with Hendo/Silva and crazy-ass finish. Honorable Mentions: UFC 74, Stout vs Fisher UFN KO of The Year: There have been quite a few to choose from in UFC alone with Gonzaga/Mirko and Salmon/Rashad but I'm going to go with Marios Zromskis vs Ross Mason from Cage Rage. If there were ever a flying knee that could challenge the greatness that is Anderson Silva vs Carlos Newton this one would be it. The fact that it was a good fight before the finish is the cherry on top. Marios actually had a good 2007 with three solid fights and wins under his belt. Honorable mention: The above-mentioned fights. High-kicks in 2007, ya heard? Submission of the Year: Chris Lytle vs Jason Gilliam from UFC 73 where Lytle makes the decision to go rapist on Gilliams head and arms locking in a "Good Jesus that looks painful" topside triangle choke/americana combo. Honorable mentions: Nick Diaz's gogoplata on Gomi at the PRIDE show in February, Joe Lauzon's rear naked choke on Jason Reinhardt at UFC 78. Bring the goodness, forum.

Ease up Barron, JC has proven to be one of the more talented actors in a long fuckin' time. Just not in this movie that's all.

I'm honestly not surprised that Walk Hard did poorly, it looks like most of the funny moments are in the trailers and in terms of what people expect from Apatow and Co. nowadays it doesn't look like it fits the mold.

So I'm not sure how reliable this report is but word is that Walk Hard bombed like Nagasaki this weekend, coming in something like fourth or fifth place. National Treasure 2 was #1 with something around 45 million which would normally look good but after I Am Legend's haul it'll be tough to top.

Thanks for the post, good interview.

I'm pretty curious to see how far along Apatow-Association can go. I imagine Walk Hard will do fairly well this weekend and Seth Rogen was box office gold in 2007 so Pineapple will likely hold its own as well.

Yeah but......it's not a flattering name.

Agreed but then again you're talking a legit preview for Sarah Marshall and a 4 minute clip of Franco and Rogan talking shit for Pineapple so I don't think it's fair to compare the two.

The key thing to note about that article is the $30 million dollar payday" line, something that will never happen in MMA. Gotta give Cuban credit here, he knows there's likely a small chance of Floyd actually going through with it but he's using the situation to draw attention towards HDNet Fights.

I'm not really seeing this as anything big at the moment, simply because with Floyd taking time off from boxing plus the amount of time he'd need to train his wrestling and jitz if he commits we likely wouldn't see him fight until at least 2 years from now. Or they bring him in and pay a guy off to only stand with him. Or that.

Can we just pass some kind of law that says Bell needs to just wear a bikini wherever she goes?

JZ/Aoki apparently OFF due to M1 being fucking stupid and promoting the show without even talking to JZ who's just coming off knee surgery. FERFUCKSAKE.

Not speaking for YPOV but it doesn't.

Mir isn't a small dude by any means and Brock has only had one fight in which I didn't see anything special in terms of strength so that question is more or less up in the air air right now. I've no doubt he's a strong guy but whether or not he'll be able to utilize that strength without gassing is the question.

Yeah, I mean Hughes isn't making it a secret that at least a portion of his strategy is "Try not to die for the first two rounds" but I don't think he'll make it past then anyways.

The person who made that gets extra props for GSP not landing the backflip cleanly.

I'm by no means saying Lindland isn't a talented fighter, I'd likely have him in my Top Ten P4P in the world but there's no way in hell he can be ranked due to his weight fluctuation and the fact that he hasn't faced a top ten MW in some time. You could make the argument for Horn but even then Horn wouldn't have been up there enough.

Aside from shit-talking Raine Maida (and really, who hasn't?) your attempt at a response isn't really convincing. Care to reference anything specific?