Last Place Wisdom: Playoff Semi-finals - The Definitive Rankings
To be completely honest, I'm really not that sure how much I want to talk about football right now. I'm on a bit of winning streak that has felt like it has largely coincided with not paying as close as attention to fantasy football and to this blog as I have in the past. Right now, I don't really want to switch anything up, given that I feel I need all the luck I can get to continue the run I've been on. I've lost 3 games this year where I scored the 2nd lowest, 3rd lowest and 3rd lowest points of the week, and beyond those 3 games I have managed to avoid playing anyone having a crazy good week. This has continued into the playoffs, where despite a horrible week I managed to pull out a tight win over Andrew. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if I won the rest of the games 75-70, since that seems to be just how the season has gone for me.
And I just realized that I've spent most of the blog talking about football, so I just might as well embrace it and realize that if I lose now I have that to blame (or the Russians, since that seems to be all the rage right now). My 1st round playoff predictions didn't go over so well. Curt had a bad week after looking like his team had turned the corner. Of the 4 teams that have yet to win a Championship, only Clarke is left carrying the flag for this prediction of mine. There was a major injury to Melvin Gordon that almost cost me the game, however I managed to overcome it and win regardless. Given my lack of success, I'm going to stop making playoff predictions and just let it play out.
I did want to mention I feel particularly bad for Shayne and Dawson; Shayne having lost his matchup with a score that would have given him a win over most of the teams in the playoffs, and Dawson for being so close only to get absolutely crushed in the Monday Night football game. On the plus side, there are no teams more consistently good than Shayne and Dawson, and I expect them to be back strong next year.
Mr. Manager of the Week Award
This week, the award is going for John and his forward thinking in terms of Doug Martin and Chris Hogan. John overcame injuries to Julio Jones, AJ Green and Adrian Peterson to score the most points in the playoffs quarterfinals. Hogan was a particularly good pickup, taking place just this past Sunday. Looking back on it, Hogan has had a pretty decent run of games, and this just goes to show how being active on the waiver wire right up till the end can be so important. In hindsight, these are the types of moves that can win championships.
The Papa John's Pizza Positivity Party of the Week
This week's Positivity Party is a little bit more obscure. You might have guessed that I would have gone with "Boom", which would have been a fine choice as it's a great song that really get's the people going. You might have also guessed that I'd go with "Youth of the Nation", but you'd be wrong because that song is seriously depressing and this is all about being positive. I decided to go with "Set It Off", the opening track to their breakout album. As you watch the music video, I want you to pay particular attention to what a real early 2000s party was like. I also want you to help me look and see if you can find the guy's son lost in the moshpit, as I can only assume he is still missing from that fateful night 13 years ago. (My money is on the kid with the Bulls jersey).
Definitive Last Place Wisdom Christopher Nolan Rankings
Rankings might be Clarke's responsibility this year, but that won't stop me from looking back at Christopher Nolan's filmography. I just realized that this year was the first time in 10 years that Nolan has broken his streak of releasing a film every 2nd year, which has me even more excited for Dunkirk to come out next summer. On to the rankings:
4. Inception - This feels to me like it belongs right in the middle of the list. It's a solid, workmanlike entry that is unique, action packed, keeps you thinking but manages to stay coherent the whole way through. I like everything about Inception, but don't particularly love any one thing. It's kind of like the Frank Gore of Christopher Nolan films.
And I just realized that I've spent most of the blog talking about football, so I just might as well embrace it and realize that if I lose now I have that to blame (or the Russians, since that seems to be all the rage right now). My 1st round playoff predictions didn't go over so well. Curt had a bad week after looking like his team had turned the corner. Of the 4 teams that have yet to win a Championship, only Clarke is left carrying the flag for this prediction of mine. There was a major injury to Melvin Gordon that almost cost me the game, however I managed to overcome it and win regardless. Given my lack of success, I'm going to stop making playoff predictions and just let it play out.
I did want to mention I feel particularly bad for Shayne and Dawson; Shayne having lost his matchup with a score that would have given him a win over most of the teams in the playoffs, and Dawson for being so close only to get absolutely crushed in the Monday Night football game. On the plus side, there are no teams more consistently good than Shayne and Dawson, and I expect them to be back strong next year.
Mr. Manager of the Week Award
This week, the award is going for John and his forward thinking in terms of Doug Martin and Chris Hogan. John overcame injuries to Julio Jones, AJ Green and Adrian Peterson to score the most points in the playoffs quarterfinals. Hogan was a particularly good pickup, taking place just this past Sunday. Looking back on it, Hogan has had a pretty decent run of games, and this just goes to show how being active on the waiver wire right up till the end can be so important. In hindsight, these are the types of moves that can win championships.
The Papa John's Pizza Positivity Party of the Week
This week's Positivity Party is a little bit more obscure. You might have guessed that I would have gone with "Boom", which would have been a fine choice as it's a great song that really get's the people going. You might have also guessed that I'd go with "Youth of the Nation", but you'd be wrong because that song is seriously depressing and this is all about being positive. I decided to go with "Set It Off", the opening track to their breakout album. As you watch the music video, I want you to pay particular attention to what a real early 2000s party was like. I also want you to help me look and see if you can find the guy's son lost in the moshpit, as I can only assume he is still missing from that fateful night 13 years ago. (My money is on the kid with the Bulls jersey).
Definitive Last Place Wisdom Christopher Nolan Rankings
Rankings might be Clarke's responsibility this year, but that won't stop me from looking back at Christopher Nolan's filmography. I just realized that this year was the first time in 10 years that Nolan has broken his streak of releasing a film every 2nd year, which has me even more excited for Dunkirk to come out next summer. On to the rankings:
- The Dark Knight - The gold standard in superhero movies, and my personal gold standard for all movies. No film has ever engrossed me as much as watching the Dark Knight for the first time did, and the unpredictability and plotting of the film are of particular note to me, as well as overall great performances by the actors. It's the only movie where I left the theatre and could honestly say that I wanted to go back and watch it again. I probably don't think about this movie dispassionately enough, but it's my clear #1.
- The Prestige - It's a twist movie that doesn't rely on the twist in order to be great. Following 2 flawed and rather unlikable magicians, it doesn't have a clear hero/villain and that stands out to me. Also, David Bowie as Nikolai Tesla....excellent.
- The Dark Knight Rises - probably the most controversial entry on this list. In my opinion still the 2nd best superhero film, and I think it takes unnecessary heat given that it's nearly impossible to live up to the standard set by TDK. It ties the trilogy up perfectly, and manages to bring closure to a story that is hard to close. It suffers by not being able to revisit the Joker, by the (spoiler alert) Talia twist being a little too obvious, and for an overly complicated plot by Bane. However, Bane ended up being a way better villain than almost anyone could have predicted.
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| Obligatory Trump reference |
4. Inception - This feels to me like it belongs right in the middle of the list. It's a solid, workmanlike entry that is unique, action packed, keeps you thinking but manages to stay coherent the whole way through. I like everything about Inception, but don't particularly love any one thing. It's kind of like the Frank Gore of Christopher Nolan films.
5. Batman Begins - This is my least favourite of the Batman films and I'm not 100% sure why. It rebooted the Batman franchise and is ultimately responsible for rekindling much of my love for the character, but there is just something missing in the film that doesn't let it live up to the 2 sequels. I do give it incredibly high marks for the way it pays homage to the source material.
6. Interstellar - Interstellar has some problems on a philosophical level, which probably goes outside the scope of this blog. It relates to a problem in Science Fiction in general, where in order to keep some sense of meaning in a godless, uncaring universe, writers feel the need to turn to quantum mechanics for some kind of Deus Ex Machina. I find it interesting the path that science fiction has taken, much as how I find the film itself interesting but don't love it.
7. Memento - I was just giving Travis a hard time about Interstellar being at the bottom of the list, that belongs to Memento for me. To be fair I have only seen this film once, and in order to properly rank it I should probably watch it again, but it just had the feeling of a filmmaker getting his feet wet. As a first movie it is pretty incredible, but I think it certainly deserves this spot on the list nonetheless
On the Next Last Place Wisdom
- I continue to spend more time talking movies than talking football
- I get scores of angry hate mail for leaving Insomnia off my list.
- I take the time to actually watch Insomnia.
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