The Blackout Report: August 15, 2003

September 21, 2003

The Blackout Report: August 15, 2003

I felt bad not contributing anything for two weeks in a row, so here is a little mish-mash, thrown together column that should hold everyone over until I finally get back to my regular schedule next week. Bear with me, as I have no real material to work with here.

Blackout 2003 – 9 Hours

As a New Yorker, I experienced the blackout on what had to be the hottest day/night in over a month. It was just plain brutal. Fortunately the part of Long Island that I’m on got its power restored by 1 AM. As I write this some homes in the same town as me still have nothing. Strange how random it is.

As soon as we found out exactly what happened yesterday afternoon it was then discovered that since we had been on vacation for a week there was NO food in the house. Interestingly enough the only grocery store that remained open was the one that I work at, so that turned out OK. Since power was back on relatively early on I was able to at least use a ceiling fan during the night.

In order to get the food I figured it would be quicker to walk than drive. Now seeing how all the traffic lights are out you would think that maybe SOMEBODY would stop their car so people could cross the street right? HA. Instead they decided to zoom at 50 and 60 MPH on a regularly 30 MPH street.

All in all, this could have been much worse for me personally. My area quickly returned to normal compared to other downed locations. Sure I missed SmackDown, but that might have been a blessing in disguise. Plus I hadn’t even started this weekend’s column yet. Actually good thing I didn’t because that would have been a huge waste of time.

Sportz Entertainment

Due to the blackout and my vacation, the only WWE programs I have seen in the last two weeks were both episodes of Raw. Really nothing all that good came out of either episode since it seems like they are plugging next week’s show as the one that we should all tune in for. Then again Test-Steiner Part 2,394 doesn’t seem all that appealing. The Hair match could be worthwhile since it is rumored Nash will be doing the job.

As far as SummerSlam goes, this should be one of the worst ones in recent memory…

Elimination Chamber: Let’s see we have two cripples, a guy who can only work 2 minute matches, a green rookie, a pretty good non-wrestler, and Raw’s version of God. At this point I have no idea who should win this one. Depending on how you want to look at it there are reasons for all the participants to NOT win the match. HHH is injury prone. Orton isn’t ready. Nash can barely move. Michaels doesn’t generate much of anything when it comes to fan interest. Goldberg is working on a very lenient contract and I don’t think the company should trust him as the Champion. Jericho has been made to look like the biggest joke in wrestling over the last couple of months. If only Flair was in the match…

Shane McMahon vs. Eric Bischoff: This will be the monthly personality vs. personality match that will take a decent amount of time away from the people who actually know how to work matches. Shane has been known to put on good matches with talented wrestlers, but this is Eric Bischoff. I don’t recall Eric ever being in a decent match against anyone.

Rob Van Dam vs. Kane: I said it last month and I’ll say it again, it’s really too bad that RVD is going to be squashed to all hell in this match. Shane should be the one to take the fall. Being Kane’s first real match since being unmasked, he should completely demolish his opponent. In my mind better he destroy a character like Shane McMahon than a fellow wrestler like Rob Van Dam.

Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle: From a technical standpoint this should be a tremendous match if both Kurt and Brock are allowed to go one on one the entire match. By that I mean that now with Vince McMahon entering this feud we all know that he will find some way to interject himself in this high profile match.

US Title 4 Way: Like with the above match, on paper this should be very good. Sometimes these multi-participant matches turn into really big messes but Benoit and Eddie will be able to hold it together and Tajiri has a lot of experience working matches like this one. Heyman used that damn Super Crazy-Tajiri-Guido match about two dozen times.

Undertaker vs. A-Train: I’m not even going to touch this one. How does a guy go from Velocity regular to being on the second biggest PPV of the year? Quite easily actually. All he has to do is run into a woman. Isn’t it kind of sad that A-Train has been on both WrestleMania XIX and SummerSlam? Matt Hardy on the other hand has been in the Royal Rumble (which I’m not counting) and opened XIX.

There is room for one more match from each brand, so I would bet on the Raw match being either Dudley Boyz-La Resistance or Christian-Hurricane. As for SmackDown I would like to see Matt Hardy-Zach Gowen, but another possibility would be a tag title rematch from Vengeance. Unless that feud was blown off last night on SmackDown. I really don’t know.

Vacation

I stayed at a resort in Lancaster, PA for five days. It’s pretty dead out there with everything closing rather early. Maybe I’m just used to “life in the fast lane” on Long Island. Yeah, that was sarcasm. I coped with the boredom by meeting some people, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Every day there was buffet breakfast and dinner served. Generally I would have tore that shit apart, but all the food was homecooked. I guess that my digestive system is used to processed crap, pizza, and Chinese because I was sick after every meal. In conclusion, if you want to go some place to just relax, Lancaster is alright. But if you expect to have a ton of fun, I would suggest going to a real city.

Television

FX’s new controversial series Nip/Tuck is definitely worth checking out if you like character-driven shows. Although FX billed the show as an edgy show about plastic surgery, the medical end of it is only a small part of each episode. It is mostly about how the surgeons’ jobs affect their love life, family life, and in a broader sense sanity. There might be a couple cringe worthy scenes for some, but for the most part I’m unaffected by them. Seeing how someone is given a “new” nose is actually quite disturbing, but in a fascinating kind of way. My only problem with the series is that they try and squeeze too much into each episode. The pilot alone concluded numerous plot lines that could have been carried out for much of the season. This fact sort of concerns me because the show might lose steam sooner rather than later if the writer’s decide to take a more laid back approach to it.

Also on Tuesday nights, Bravo is now the first network to use all three of their primetime hours for reality series based on homosexuals. Needless to say, Bravo is also seeing some of their highest ratings ever. The more popular show of the two, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has had two NBC specials and was featured on the Tonight Show all within ONE MONTH’S time. That’s nothing to sneeze at. The show itself is actually extremely funny and lighthearted. Plus they give us idiots a bunch of tips to use when it comes to looking decent and scoring. If you haven’t already, take a look at that show as well. And that recommendation is coming from someone who hates reality/makeover shows. In my mind the show is more of a reality comedy than anything else.

Now if you were to turn to Bravo one hour prior to QEFTSG (that’s quite the acronym), you will catch the first gay bachelor reality series, Boy Meets Boy. But ever since the inception of Joe Millionaire, all of these shows have some kind of twist. In this case the big surprise is that some of the guys gunning for the bachelor are actually straight. Yeah, these shows just keep getting more and more ridiculous. Personally I feel kind of bad for the bachelor since about half the guys he is trying to make a connection with are actually just in it for the $25,000. On the other hand, the show will probably help to kill some stereotypes that the media has been portraying for decades now. I think for this one we’ll have to wait it out before being able to make an accurate judgment.

Movies

If you do not already have American Pie or American Pie 2 on DVD and plan on picking them up, go for the new version that has the accompanying Beneath the Crust disc. The extra disc is essentially just a preview for a longer DVD that will come out alongside American Wedding. However, if you buy the DVD and go to American Wedding before August 31, you will be given a rebate on your movie ticket. That could be a $7 or $8 savings. Plus you get a $3 off coupon for the upcoming Animal House DVD. If you take advantage of those two opportunities, the cost of the DVD comes out to about $10.

Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman gets funnier every time I see it. For most comedies it is the opposite because once you hear the same jokes twice they don’t have the same effect. In this movie though it isn’t the jokes that are funny, but the way that the characters’ deliver their lines and their mannerisms. I know that Guest’s first film Spinal Tap has a cult following, but I didn’t really get into it. If you like comedies based on characters and not toilet humor rent either Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show. His latest film A Mighty Wind should be out on DVD sometime before the year’s end.

Plugs. Feedback. Etc.

If you are someone who usual avoids Scotsmanality.com like the plague, take a stroll over there sometime soon and check out the pure genius of Jay Bower and Ken Anderson.

Peter Kostka did a great job with Confidential last week. He might be positive now, but just wait a year and see what happens. I kid. Anyhow, speaking of Confidential here is my final piece of feedback concerning the show:

Hey, how are you my name is Mary Beth I like watching confidential. I love when the value please try to put Shawn Michael's more. I am the best fan can you

please write back thank you

Now that is what I call going out with a bang.

On the Dock

First of all, we’ll discuss upcoming events in my personal life. August 27, Meatloaf in concert. That should be interesting to say the least. August 31, SmackDown house show featuring Brock Lesnar-Undertaker-Big Show in a Contender’s Match with Vince McMahon as guest referee plus some Diva bikini crap. Well that card looks uninspiring so far. Finally an event that is guaranteed to kick ass… RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS IN CONCERT SEPTEMBER 13.

As for my upcoming contributions to the site, barring any preemption or power outage there will be a standard Booking Report. My Hulk Still Rules DVD review is coming along very nicely as pertains to content and format, but it also coming along quite slowly. Just be patient.

Hopefully something worthwhile came out of this. If not, I apologize for wasting five of your precious minutes.

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