mungmungdog's Xanga

wow... the oscars really suck

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:10:27 GMT

i'm watching the oscars right now, and it is tacky tacky tacky beyond words. i've always hated the oscars, but this year's is worse than ever!

"the musical is back!" shouts the host hugh jackman... except it's actually dying faster than ever? all the broadway shows are closing everywhere in new york, and i haven't seen one decent new production, ever?

oscars, suck?
mungmung, dog?

randumb thoughts: nba all-star weekend edition

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:57:38 GMT

yeah, i'm back. it's been way too long... sorry.

i used to be a hoops junkie - a pretty serious one. i mean, i have a few crazy friends who were a lot more into it than i was, but there was a time when i could name almost every players on every team, and where half of them went to college, as well as name 7 of shawn kemp's illegitimate kids. now? i don't know as much. all the newcomers look the same, and i get depressed knowing they're all younger than me. i was told to brush my teeth with sensodyne.

not having cable is one big reason i fell away from hoops, but more than anything, i just haven't had time. just have too much going on - life, work, marriage, baby, and other crap - but i seem to give that same excuse for everything these days.

this past weekend, i had the opportunity to catch the nba all-star weekend on tv, which i used to celebrate every year like it was christmas. for non hoop fans out there, it's an action-packed 3 day hoops extravaganza that takes place at the half way mark of the season. here's what the schedule generally looks like:

friday: rookie vs sophomore game and a d-list celebrity game (that's not a D hyphen, but a D minus)
saturday: 3-point shooing contest, slam dunk contest, horse, and a bunch of other useless competitions
sunday: the actual all-star game: east vs west

here are 10 random thoughts i had while watching the all-star weekend

1 - the long-awaited h.o.r.s.e. competition, aka "geico" was a huge disappointment. the fact that they held it outdoors on saturday afternoon and not as part of the night events showed that david stern (the commissioner) didn't take the contest seriously. david stern can suck it. he sucks.

yeah, so it didn't meet my expectations. they only had three competitors, their shot selections weren't so challenging, and everything about it was dull. kevin durant won w/ mostly mid-to-long range shots which was as exciting as watching made-for-tv lifetime movie. i was hoping to see something more like this... (this is pete maravich at the 1977-78 horse competition.)

durant was determined, & got hot at the end... then he saw the horse trophy he won, and with a face like he's chewing on a piece of fresh crap, he regretted participating in the first place.

he was expecting something like this (left) and instead he won this (right) piece of crap

2 - i love watching the slam dunk competition in general, but the judging is always so unfair. it's not based on the quality of the dunk, but the popularity of the participant. in the past, there have been so many poor/biased judging, that really dull dunks ended up winning the contest.

like here - at the 1997 slam dunk competition, darvin hamm gets jipped just because he was a relatively unknown player on a bad team (denver), and the nba wanted its new shining rookie star kobe bryant to win it. and he did. check out hamm's two dunks from :30 to 1:00. kobe's dunks are so lame, ordinary and uncreative, in comparison.

this year, the best dunk of the night actually came from rudy fernandez, but he was eliminated after the 1st round. he's white, and a foreigner, so that didn't help his cause. ok, he couldn't manage to dunk within the 2 minute given time, but nobody seemed to mind

3 - grant hill's wife who sang the canadian national anthem is hot. and she can sing!

4 - jordin sparks who sang the star spanking banner, however, is NOT hot. but she sang well.

5 - i have to say - shaq has grown on me a little. i've always hated his arrogance and his ugly game (& still do). but i hear he buys poor kids toys and makes trips to walmart after games, and treats the 10 people behind him at the checkout line just because. he's still not funny whatsoever in my opinion.

6 - kobe is still an a-hole. i hate when he tries to show everyone that he can have fun and get along with his teammates in front of camera, except everything about it looks forced and awkward. i would accept him if he just said "screw it", and turned into a bad guy, like hulk hogan did with the nwo. he should just embrace his dark side and just play a bad guy: groom a fu-manchu, take the "mamba" thing to the extreme - wear yellow and purple contact lenses, curse and smoke, change his jersey number to 69 or 666, and recruit a 5 member ho-train that sits front row at every game (remember the pimp character wrestler that had a ho-train?) this would boost the popularity of the sport, and i would even buy a kobe jersey

7 - dwight howard had a bad weekend. first he loses the slam dunk competition to a 4'11" nate robinson by being a prop in a weak dunks (not to mention - robinson's man-sack slapped the back of howard's head), but he also got showed up by shaq during the all-star game w/ this between-the-leg pass

8 - if the refs toughen up on lebron's walking issue, i wonder how good he'd be. yeah, he's amazingly good and unbelievably athletic, but he gets away w/ so much. again - like stern and the nba did for kobe/shaq & the lakers, they are going to make lebron & the cavs win the title this year. because kobe's been so unlikable and because he returned the favor w/ such negative publicity for the league (rape charge/selfishness/a-holeness), they have been trying to replace him as the poster boy quick. they tried to do it w/ dwane wade, and they gave him a ring, but he kept getting injured. and now that the heat don't have a shaq or solid supporting star, they pretty much have no chance to win it this year.

just remember my words - lebron will be the mvp, & the cavs will win the title this year.

9 - NOT ONE washington wizard/bullet participated in this year's festivities. not in the 3-point shooting contest, not even in the rookie/sophomore game!! this is an obvious thing to point out, but the bullets are back to where they always were, during the wes unseld gm years... as of 2/16, we are 11-42, and in a way, as a long-time fan, i feel strangely ...ok. i feel like a college student coming back to a disfunctional yet comfortable home, and something inside me is telling me "ah... just like the good old days... the way it should be..." is that wrong?

10 - the west won easily, and ironically - shaq & kobe, who hate each other's guts won co-mvp's. it would have been awesome if shaq turned to kobe during the award ceremony and said loudly into the mic, "kobe, tell me how my ass tastes"

stupid flight attendant

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:32:29 GMT

i was on a plane coming home this past sunday while the chargers-steelers game was happening. i guess the flight attendant thought it’d be nice to update the passengers with the score, so she announced…

flight attendant: for those who are wondering about the football game, seattle is beating the chargers 21 to 10
passengers: (all looking at each other) huh?

(a minute later…)
flight attendant: correction. seattle is beating san diego 21 to 10

…yeah

go to the hell!!!!

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:59:53 GMT

i was at a chinese restaurant, waiting for my take out. the phone rang and the lady behind the counter answered with a very thick chinese accent,

“harro, (name of the restaurant) ”
“…no, yoo hab long namba.”
“i sad, yoo hab long namba!”
(getting irritated) “long namba!”
(getting louder) “yoo, hab, long, namba!”
“GO TO THE HELL!!!” and she hung up

and that, my friends - made my day!

my taekwon-v inspired nike id shoes

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:56:56 GMT

recently as a gift, i was treated to go to the nike store to custom design my own shoes. ok, i didn't actually custom design the kicks - the shoes were already designed by someone else. ...i just chose colors to my liking to the blank shoe pallet.

yeah... it says 'mungmung'. i'm lame

as you can see, i didn't go buckwild w/ too many colors. didn't want it to be tacky, and wanted to be able to wear these as much as i can forever and ever

in fact, this was inspired by the vintage korean cartoon robot taekwon-v, which is a rip off of japan's mazinga-z (aka mazinger z, tranzor z). if you're not familiar with it, taekwon-v was a hugely popular south korean cartoon in the 70s and 80s about a robot that fought off japanese imperialists and north korean communists. yes - awesomely hilarious today, but true!

then as i was typing this xanga entry and googling for images, i found out that...

korea is making a robot taekwon-v movie!!! it's scheduled for a 2009 release! check out this clip below - the computer graphics actually look pretty wicked!

no matter how bad it will be, we can already establish that it's going to be much much better than the crappy transformers movie, since that couldn't possibly be any worse. oh, except for the chick in it

cheers,
mungmung-v

ping pong - big in asia

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:25:46 GMT

did you enjoy or watch any of the olympics? i didn't see much of it. and when the thing ended, i didn't care. to be honest, my interest level in the global event is an all-time low, probably cuz of what they show on tv here in the U.S. the problem is, tv stations show mostly lame sports - like gymnastics, swimming and some hair braiding contest...

when i lived in korea, tv stations got everyone's attention by featuring cooler sporting events - like soccer, basketball, wrestling, judo, and ...the greatest olympic sports of all time: ping-pong

yes - it's so exciting to watch, and they take the sport super seriously! to prove how seriously they take it, i'm posting some pictures from the korean table tennis association's pre-olympics meeting. check it out, it's AWESOME!!!

believe it or not, the man in the white jacket (on the ground) is yoo nam-kyu, a ping-pong legend and gold medalist that dominated the table tennis world in late 80s. he was certainly a national hero. too bad he got owned in these pictures...

...yeah, as always, i have nothing to say. just posting up humiliating pics of random people

cheers,
dan

Friday, August 01, 2008

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:28:56 GMT

there's something awesomely hilarious about ron artest here... check it out

i love ...keith morrison?

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:17:24 GMT

while flipping channels, have you ever stumbled up on a murder mystery (more specifically, dateline on nbc), only to find yourself completely sucked in to the program? or simply mesmerized by ...the narrator's voice itself? that familiar, soothing, wise and powerful voice, much more enlightening than morgan freeman's, much richer than donald sutherland's. you know whose voice i'm talking about. you can almost hear it now. the man whose voice sounds almost like a grandfather with glasses resting on his nose, reading a bedtime story ...except he's actually describing a brutal murder/rape/kidnapping coldcase. if you have been wondering, that voice belongs to mr. keith morrison

if you have never heard his voice before, then you haven't really lived. click on any of the below videos for a sample, and you will see why i worship the man. by the way, you don't have to watch the whole thing. you only have to listen to the first few lines to get the idea. (but if you want to watch the whole thing, be my guest! you'll fall in love!)

so yes - mr morrison is a correspondent for dateline nbc, and is bar none, the best personality on television, and i dare you to name a better talent of any kind! he is pure 100% genius!!!

i got into mr. morrison's creepy readings only a year or so ago, on a bored saturday night, when nothing else was on tv. but little did i know that this accidental discovery would give me a hero i can look up to, and more!

here keith does the erotic

i don't know why - perhaps it's my love for good narrators, but i can't think of anything better than mr. morrison's reports on dateline. some of the details he narrates are just gruesome and horrible, but still he makes it sound oh-so-pleasant! he could recite any gangsta rap, and make it sound like a nursery rhyme, or like hans christian andersen

while looking him up on wikipedia, i learned that he is a canadian journalist(!!!! canadian & literate!!!) covered the tiananmen sq riot in 1989, and has won emmy, christopher, sigma delta chi and edward r. murrow awards. but mr morrison certainly deserves more than that! perhaps a lifetime achievement award of some kind. or something called like the james earl jones cool voice award, or kurt loder award...

guess what else i found out? mr. morrison is chandler's step-father! ---> yes, matthew perry, the most likable "friend" from friends! is that the coolest random fact or what?! i wonder if keith read chandler any bedtime stories when he was little... "once upon a time, in a small village, there was a terrible, terrible murder, which no king, knight, or sheriff could solve..."

check out this one. the opening for this is probably one of my favorites. keith does the creepy

after watching and analyzing his magic over and over again, i figured out what makes him stand out above the rest: his awesome intros. yes, his voice is haunting and the way he bends his tone at the end of each sentence is so perfected, but you should listen to the way he opens each story. he sets the tone with such beautiful and poetic description of the location/situation, that he commands your attention right from the start. it's hard to turn away, and he knows how to make you want to pull up a chair

check out this one, it's pretty good: dui man disappears, pt 1:

to be frank, i cannot get enough of keith. if i had more time, and if my wife weren't so disturbed, i would launch a site called www.ilovekeithmorrison.com or create wrist bands that say wwkmd?... by the way, the web domain is available (last time i checked), if you want to take on that task

dui man disappears, pt 2:

since i don't have much time to set up & manage an actual fan site, i went ahead and started a fan club called I LOVE KEITH MORRISON!!! on facebook. i thought about naming it "TOTALLY GAY FOR KEITH MORRISON", but decided against it. please join the group & spread the word

i hope you discover the beauty of keith morrison's amazing storytelling ability. i will have your eternal gratitude

cheers,
#1 keith morrison fan,
mungmungdog

my thoughts while watching the euro final

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:22:32 GMT

my thoughts while watching the euro final between germany and spain…

bastian schweinsteiger and sergio ramos look like lesbians

8 for 8! ...then down hill

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:24:18 GMT

i know i am too late cuz i didn't do a euro preview post (been busy), and that i will sound like an annoying know-it-all guy, but i got all 8 picks on who would make the knock out stage. yes, i picked turkey over czech republic and russia over sweden or greece

the only thing i got wrong were the order in 2 groups: i had germany over croatia in group b and italy over holland in group c. i still am the man. i tell myself that everyday. ...gotta feel good about myself somehow

however, since then, i have gotten pretty much all of it wrong. my pick for the champ, holland stunk up as bad as the horribly tacky movie mr holland's opus, italy's gone, and croatia's been eliminated by the awesome turks. it's a good thing i don't gamble

here is my take on the rest of the tourney. (if you don't know anything about soccer, you can just read the below few paragraphs and tell the exact things to your friends. it will make you sound like you know your stuff)

in case you didn't know, there are now only 4 left - germany will face turkey, and spain against russia

turkey has been awesome and fun to watch, coming back to win the past 3 games, but i think their run is done, as much as i hate to say it. they have too many injuries & suspensions to key leaders. plus germany is stacked w/ talent and healthy. germany 3-0 turkey

spain beat russia in their first group d match 4-1, and here they meet again in the semis. russia got so much better since, and showed they could beat one of the world's best teams in holland. gus hiddink is the man, and i'm sure he came up w/ a plan for this rematch. however, spain is spain, and really really good. i say spain 2-1 russia

and the finals?
germany 2-2 spain
germany 4-2 spain in penalties

yeah yeah... now that i've done a post, i'll probably get everything wrong

cheers,
mungmungdog