Fun times at the poker table last night. First, a guy is sitting with his girlfriend when she gets a text message saying that her sister just got engaged. Of course, all eyes go to the boyfriend who had a look that screamed, "Well, there goes my weekend." Without a doubt, the girlfriend then went on to say that they have been dating for three and a half year and he still hasn't proposed. Everyone started joking that there was a chapel upstairs and the guy didn't seem thrilled at all.

Moments later, a guy in a suit, fedora, pony tail, who was carrying a suitcase sits down. Apparently he's a Vegas legend, The Duke of Fremont. He played his first hand against a poker pro who was at the table (not sure the guy's name but apparently he had a famous bluff and had won a bracelet in the past). They were joking and when the river came, Duke pulled out a box from his suitcase. He opened it and announced "100,000 dollars." Sure enough, the box was filled with 100's. The pro folded and the Duke announced that if that wasn't enough... and he pulled out another box of 100's. Then he said, "After that, we go to the thousands." and he pulled out a leather pouch with a bunch of 1000 dollar bills. As it turned out, Duke hit quad 5's on his hand and ended up winning a 120 jackpot.

As for me, I slowplayed my aces into a straight and lost my money but I bought back and ended the evening up 60 bucks. I won 180 the night before but then spent some cash at the dumpy karaoke bar we went to.

Baseball betting didn't pan out for me; I think I'm going to lay off of it. I might try it one more time if I have a slow day at work. My picks for Sunday are: $70 on the Bill/Saints Over 52, $20 on the Lions over the Redskins, a $20 parlay on the Titans -13, Vikings -7, Titans +3, and another parlay of 20 bucks on Giants -7, Saints -6, SD/MIA over 44, Packers -7, and Buff/NO over 52. Finally, I discovered teasers which pay half as much but you get a better line. For instance, the NO/Buff line is just 48 and the Giants and Packers are only -2. My 20 dollar teaser parlay is: Ravens -8, Packers -2, Dolphins +11, Giants -2, NO/Buff Over 48, SD/Mia Over 40.

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Decided to try my hand on some baseball betting. My picks are the Red Sox, Dodger, Phillies and then the over in the Bal/Tor, LAD/WAS, and CHC/Mil games. I also put 20 on the Sox but it only pays 10. If I can pull off my six team parlay, I'd win 100 bucks. I'm thinking I should have gone with a lower 3 team parlay but we'll see how this works out. The three team parlay pays 7 - 1 which isn't too shabby for the lowish risk.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pearl Jam's new album isn't on Lala.com so I'll listen to Pitchfork which gave Big Star's anthology a 9.3 rating. I haven't listened to it yet but I usually disagree with that site so who knows if I will like these guys.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One week in and I'm up about 400 dollars. I was up six but played like an idiot last night and lost my money fairly quickly. It was the trap of Vegas; I didn't really want to play but also didn't want to just sit in my room and was too tired to go out and do anything interesting. I need to figure out where the nearest movie theater is so I can avoid making that mistake again.

My sports betting has been a mixed bag. My "Sure Thing" bets have come through twice but I'm 0 - 4 on parlays but since I bet 100 bucks on the Vikings on Sunday I'm up around 35 dollars. Next week looks tough but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to bet the Over in the Bills/Saints game. Depending on the points, Minnesota might have to be my Sure Thing again, although I'm kind of liking the Giants against Tampa Bay or the Packers to bounce back against the Rams.

I've sworn off blackjack. My boss seems to win at it but it's nothing but a drain on my wallet. I don't think I've ever won money and I'm also not sure if I've ever lasted more than 10 minutes at a table.

The newspaper here is kind of a trip. I'm not sure if we get the casino version but every day, the front page is a huge picture of someone who is performing soon. To day was Wynona Judd. The sports page is all about betting and it's easier to find the line for the upcoming games than it is the scores from the previous night (or the standings for that matter).

30 days of buffet is going to wear on me. The food is fine but they never change up the menu. I guess when people usually aren't around for more than 3 days you can get away with that but I'm getting a little tired of it. The most disappointing section is the Asian food because it's always lousy King Pao chicken, noodles, and a vegetarian dish (and the Kung Pao Chicken is 75% veggies as well). I've heard that The Earl of Sandwich here is good and cheap so I might have to start checking that place out. There's a Pink's at Planet Hollywood but I never went to the one in actual Hollywood and the one here is supposedly twice as expensive. This week is a little tough but I might start venturing out and trying restaurants at other venues.

I took a walk to CVS yesterday, not because I needed anything but because I couldn't remember the last time I had been outside. Here's hoping that the next ten days include the same luck on the poker table and some more excitement in my limited downtime.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pretty busy here in Vegas but I'm getting into my schedule finally and I might have some time for some updates in the morning now. I don't have time to look for music so I thought this week's Tryout would be a no brainer, the new album from Muse. They are one of my favorite new bands. Them, Tegan & Sara, and Kings of Leon are two of the only groups that have really broken into a steady rotation amongst the pearl jam, Radiohead, and other older outfits. The early word on "The Resistance" is that it is probably Muse's worst album so I'm going to listen with lowered expectations.

The Parlay cards don't come out until tomorrow but I'm thinking that my "sure thing" bet is going to be on the Vikings again. 10.5 against the Lions. They should be able to cover that. This week is pretty tough. Last week I got four wrong on my Yahoo! pick 'em league and, of course, put all four on my parlays. I also need to switch up the games on my parlays so that one loss won't ruin all of my bets.

I'll post a longer update tomorrow but so far I'm up.

Posted by SoulHonky at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Right now I'm down 60 bucks. I'm with people who like blackjack, a game I have no luck in. I played poker last night and ended up only 8 bucks, although I did get to watch a guy fall over backwards because he was so drunk and someone in the table next to me lost on a bad beat and then sold his watch at the table to get more money to win back his cash.

My football bets are a $25 six team parlay (Vikings -4 over the Browns, Saints -13 over the Lions, Pats -11 over the Bills, Colts -7 over the Jags, Cards -6 over the Niners, and Chargers -10 over the Raiders. I have a $25 three team parlay of the Vikings, Chargers, and Patriots. Finally, my insurance bet is $50 on the Vikings. If I win that, I basically end up losing just 5 dollars if the parlays don't pan out.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I posted something about this film a while back but I never got a chance to see it. Now, the documentary about Tracy McGrady's trip to Darfur is available on Hulu so here it is. Injuries might have sapped T-Mac of his chance at greatness but I think that he could be the type of athlete whose true great deeds happen after his playing days are over.

If the video here comes up as "unavailable", click on the video and it should open up a new window (or just go to www.hulu.com). Once at Hulu, search "3 Points" and the page should come up.

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been a while but Raekwon has finally released his "Only Built For Cuban Linx pt. 2". Now I know this might cost me a lot of credibility in rap circles but I was never a huge fan of the Wu. There first album was a classic but after that I liked a few songs but never a full album. I don't know. Something about them never clicked with me.

A Fine Frenzy's album is out and just $3.99  at Lala.com. I listened to the first few songs and they were OK. Probably not an album I'd buy but at just 3.99 I'll definitely think about giving it a shot.

Wild Beasts are getting some love from critics although I'm not a fan of the falsetto. The songs without it are better but the ones with it bother me. Honestly, it sounds like someone at a karaoke bar.

But the Tryout of the Week is not just one album but a band. Yo La Tengo's been around for around a quarter-century and have a devoted fan base but I haven't really ever given them a listen. I have a few of their songs but I think it's high time for me to really check out their stuff (or, rather, it was going to be high time until I found out I was starting work today.) Anyway, check out their new album "Popular Songs" and then take a look at some of their past hits. 

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Play time is over sooner than I expected. I'm back to work tomorrow and then out of town for a bit so the ol' SoulHonky blog might be dormant for the next month or so. Hopefully I'll find some free time to drop a few notes and what not but not as much as I was expecting (especially with the fall TV season about to start. Looks like I won't be able to catch as many shows as I had planned to).

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my portfolio was down about 300 dollars last week. The most troubling part of the drop was that I should have only been down 200 but after looking more closely at my options, I realized that I never had a much money as I once thought. First off, Sharebuilder seems to make you sell options at the lowest price (the "Bid" price) and buy them at the top dollar (the "Ask" price). So not only are you overpaying for options but when it says your option is worth X amount of dollars, it is saying what the Ask price is, but that is less (sometimes significantly less) than what you can actually sell the option for.

The other issue is the reason that I'm starting to take my money out of sharebuilder. There quotes for options are ridiculously slow to update. I get that they aren't real time quotes but they only update the prices once a day and even then they sometimes don't have the right price listed on your main page. While the service is fine if you just want to invest monthly in a certain stock or two, it's horrible with options.

I've been looking for a new broker and right now I'm going to try OptionsXpress. It's a little more expensive per trade but it should be better for options trading. If that doesn't work out, I might look into ETrade, Scottrade, or Zecco (which has the cheapest trades but the website doesn't seem like it loads properly which makes me nervous about their site security).

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Judge's "Extract" is pretty much the epitome of a solid movie. The laughs are more chuckles than laugh out loud funny. Many of the funny parts are in the ads/trailers but there are still some hidden gems. The actors do a steady job but none of the characters are all that memorable. Jason Bateman hits the right tone while Ben Affleck does well enough in a role that seemed like it was screaming for Owen Wilson. There are a few scenes that miss the mark but the film doesn't really ever have a long spell in which it is boring. All in all, it's one of those films that will probably be judged based on expectations. People expecting another "Office Space" will give it a disappointing "It's OK" while people who go in hoping for little will walk out with a happy "It's was good."

Normally, this is the kind of film that screams rental but given the rest of the crap in theaters right now, it might be your best option. Don't expect the next great comedy but for a fun enough time at the movies, I'd recommend "Extract".

Posted by SoulHonky at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday Night Live recently added two more female cast members but they are STILL going to have to rely on guest stars to play Michelle Obama. While the lack of minorities on the NBC late night show is nothing new, it's really starting to look worse and worse now that we have an African-American president and nary an African-American who can play him on the NBC staple.

But as I said, this is hardly a new predicament. SNL has rarely had standout minority talent. Have they had a breakout non-white star since Eddie Murphy? You can't really count Damon Wayans since he was only a featured performer and was fired. All of those years on SNL and Tim Meadows can't even get his own throwaway Happy Madison feature. But you can't really blame the actors asa cast members from the early days have commented that a lot of Garrett Morris' material didn't make it because it didn't fit..

It's hard to figure out why this is happening and why it hasn't changed. Part of me thinking that the key issue is where SNL looks for talent. I went through the Groundlings' alumni photos and a quick glance found two African-Americans in some 34 pages of pictures. I've been to Upright Citizens Brigade in LA and I can't recall seeing a single minority performer (and there aren't many in the audience either). So is Improv a white person's game? Does the need for some shared experiences to make the ability to improv with one another draw a diving line between races or economic backgrounds? Or is there something with the way that these troupes are set up that they don't reach many minorities?

I don't know what the answer is but you'd think that, in this day and age, someone would have told Lorne Michaels that he might want to switch up his approach. It's not like the series is hitting home runs. There are still some great sketches but the show seems incapable of churning out two good shows in a row and Kristen Wiig can only appear in so many sketches.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why is it so hard to make a reliable web browser? I'm currently back to using mainly Safari since their last update has definitely been an improvement but there are still some sites that have something (I think it's a flash advertisement) that brings the browser to a standstill. Firefox doesn't have a problem with those pages but that browser (on Macs at least) is guaranteed to freeze up or just stop working at least three times a day. I tried Opera which was decent enough however when you go to sites, it often brings up whatever was last saved in the cache aka whatever was up the last time you visited. So every time you go to a page, you basically have to reload to get the most updated version. That's just too annoying. Finally there's Camino. I used it for a bit but wasn't impressed. They just had another update so I might check it out but as we stand, I've still yet to find a great web browser that won't tick me off at least once a day.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If you are in LA or are ever going to visit the area, one of the shows you have to check out is Point Break Live, a low rent theatrical rendition of Point Break (with the role of Keanu being played by an audience member who reads off of cue cards). I went to see it last Saturday and my friend Jay and I were both stunned at the fact that there is one line that is immensely popular for seemingly no reason whatsoever. I mean, "I am an F B I agent!" at least has Keanu's je ne sais quoi but this one line is a quotable for no apparent reason.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some friendly acquaintences of mine have created a web series. It will be released on Strike TV and the show is about a man in a coma trapped in his own mind. The webseries is called "Coma, Period". Congrats to everyone involved and everyone else, enjoy!

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Sugar" is an interesting film that takes a look at the life of a baseball prospect from the Dominican Republic. The lead character, nicknamed Sugar, lands in America but can't speak English, the struggles of which are shown to be far more vast than one would immediately think. In fact, the film is more about an immigrant's journey in American than it is a pitcher's attempt to make the majors. This helps the film avoid the typical sports film cliches and really stand out as an original, fresh look at both baseball and life in general.

I think the one thing that really kept me from loving the film was that it was a little too reportorial; its style and the pace just seemed a bit meandering. On the other hand, in order to portray life as it is, let things unfold, and not have obvious rights and wrongs, this style might be a necessity. The film is basically paced like life - it wanders around slowly and then shift suddenly. There was one shift in particular that really left me scrambling. You simply can't go into this film thinking that it is about the journey to the majors; you have to see it as a character study of a young man.

I'd recommend the film but, again, I have to state that the pace is extremely slow. That being said, this is also one of the only films released this year that actually gets better the more you think about it.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And by worst, I mean the least healthy. Yahoo! recently named their worst pizza and #1 for the third straight year is the Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza. Men's Health also had it as the worst pizza, citing the fact that "Downing this "personal" pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino's Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza." Want something more galling than that? Yahoo writes:

Uno knowingly sells an individual pizza that actually has three servings' worth of calories, fat, sodium, and carbs. This one individual pizza has more calories than you should eat in a day and more than two days' worth of sodium. (That's as much salt as you'll find in 27 small bags of Frito Lays Potato Chips!)

I was going to post a picture of the pie but I don't want it on my site. It looks like a pizza with herpes. Thankfully, I haven't been to an Uno in about, oh, a lifetime so I think I'm OK. Yahoo! also mentioned Red Lobster's Lobster Pizza which isn't healthy and doesn't sound all that appealing. I love pizza and love lobster but I can't say I've ever thought of combining the two. Somewhat surprisingly, Chuck E. Cheese has the healthiest individual pizza and Pizza Hut has the best meat lovers.

Of course, all of this is nice but I think most people don't often frequent these chains unless they are just plain lazy. Most people have their own local place. Growing up, Sal's Just Pizza in North Andover was the king (and probably my favorite pizza of all time) while in Los Angeles, I frequent NY Pizza & Pasta, Vito's, and Village Pizza.

Posted by SoulHonky at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I mentioned Mew in last week's tryout post but since there wasn't any new music that really caught my eye this week, I decided to with their album as this week's Tryout. I have a few of their songs and am a fan but I've never settled down to listen to one of their albums. They seem like a group that isn't really best suited for Lala since you only get one free listen on that site and it will take more than one listen to really connect with the songs. Hell, it will take more than one listen just to get through the title of the album, "No more stories Are told today I'm sorry They washed away No more stories The world is grey I'm tired Let's wash away".

After one listen, I like it but I don't love it and I'm not sure if it's something that I could see myself putting into heavy rotation. But, as I said, maybe it'll grow on me.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)