Power Poll - 8/18

# TEAM NAME (Record) (Previous Rank)

1. Philadelphia Phillies (79-42) (1)

2. TIE Boston Red Sox (74-48) (2)

2. TIE New York Yankees (74-47) (3)

4. Milwaukee Brewers (73-52) (9)

5. TIE Atlanta Braves (72-52) (4)

5. TIE Texas Rangers (72-52) (6)

7. Arizona Diamondbacks (69-54) (13)

8. San Francisco Giants (67-57) (5)

9. Tampa Bay Rays (66-56) (7)

10. St Louis Cardinals (66-58) (11)

11. Detroit Tigers (65-58) (10)

12. Los Angeles Angels (65-59) (8)

13. Toronto Blue Jays (63-60) (14)

14. Cleveland Indians (61-58) (12)

15. Chicago White Sox (61-61) (19)

16. Cincinnati Reds (60-63) (16)

17. New York Mets (60-63) (17)

18. Washington Nationals (58-63) (18)

19. Pittsburgh Pirates (58-64) (15)

20. Colorado Rockies (58-67) (22)

21. Florida Marlins (57-66) (21)

22. Los Angeles Dodgers (56-67) (24)

23. Oakland A's (55-68) (25)

24. Minnesota Twins (54-68) (23)

25. Chicago Cubs (54-70) (29)

26. San Diego Padres (55-70) (26)

27. Seattle Mariners (53-69) (20)

28. Kansas City Royals (51-73) (28)

29. Baltimore Orioles (47-74) (27)

30. Houston Astros (40-84) (30)

All standings through 8/18/11

LOVE

Blink-182 front man Tom Delonge started Angels and Airwaves after the demise of blink-182 (who are now back together), it was a new band and an outlet for him to try things that he felt blink-182 was holding him back from. The band's first album, We Don't Need To Whisper (2006) was on constant play in my room, I would often need music to fall asleep and it would always be the first of 6 cd's in my cd player. I loved that album because it was dreamy but also had insightful lyrics and rocked at certain points. Angels and Airwaves would release their sophomore album in 2007, it was called I-Empire which I enjoyed but not as much as the first album. In 2010 Angels and Airwaves released LOVE, a free album which could be downloaded on their web site for no cost.

It was around then that I started to hear that they were filming a movie to the music of the LOVE album. What I didn't know is that they started working on the movie 5 years ago. The band wanted to convey a message to the fans through other ways besides music. Delonge hired William Eubank and the band produced the movie on a shoe string budget, which was $500,000. Eubank built sets in his parents driveway building each set piece mostly with just a few people helping him out. The movie also features a small civil war battle which was all filmed in his parents back yard. Having seen the film, some of it looks like it was professionally done and I give many kudos to Eubank for taking 5 long years of his life to make the sets and work his hardest on the film. It is not everyday that a band realses a movie and I think it was a cool way to get their message out.


The trailer for LOVE



I saw the movie earlier this week, it was one of those fanthom events you often see before a movie starts. The band took questions from write ins after the movie as well as playing a small set of songs including the debut of a new song. I won't say the theater was crowded but they people in the audience were real fans of Angels and Airwaves music. About 20 minutes before the show started Delonge introduced some shorts that tie into the movie and then they showed the movie itself. I am not going to explain the entire plot but here is my thought on the movie: I really liked that the band went out on a limb and the film conveys a message but does so in a long and drawn out way. I respect the hell out of Delonge and Eubank, but the movie lags in several spots and makes you wonder when the end will come. The movie does look amazing, they paid great detail to everything you see in it and it looks the budget of it was much more then what is being reported. Eubank was a cinematographer on 8 other movies and knows how to make a movie look its best.

LOVE, was a great experiment in movie making. I love that a band produced a movie and stuck through with it for 5 years. They really wanted to show their die hard fans that they are very serious about the music and its messages. I wanted to really love the movie but I cannot say I did, but I can also say that I think it was a good idea and maybe one day it will sink in but for now the movie sort of missed its overall mark.

Flea Market Report

Last Sunday I again went to the flea with my good friend Dennis and again I made some good and cheap finds. Again it was a perfect day outside and we were ready to make some interesting finds at the Capitol flea market. Dennis also gave me a gift of a badass Back To The Future DeLorean toy that I wanted, check it out!



You usually find all the best stuff early on and at first this didn't seem to be the case as I was coming up empty early on, that was until I saw something that I wanted. What I saw was an old Oakland Invaders pennant. The Invaders were part of the USFL a league that tried to compete with NFL from 1983-1987, the Invaders had a really good and classic symbol that stands the test of time. I remember seeing a similar pennant a lot when I was a kid and once I saw it I knew I wanted it because it is somewhat rare and took my back to my childhood. Dennis said he asked about the pennants before and they wanted like $5, but when I asked they said $2 so I took that without any hesitation.





I was pretty happy with my find and willing to leave but Dennis was on a search for something nearby and I circled back to the same seller and saw a Mad magazine that had a Jaws spoof which intrigued me. I looked at the date and it was from 1976, so it was an original. Since I'm a huge Jaws fan I thought it would be cool to have this somewhat older piece. Right next to the Jaws magazine were a bunch of older NFL stickers. I saw a 49ers sticker from 7-11 as well as a bunch of other teams. I wanted the 49ers sticker as well, I could immediately seeing it being on my car somewhere. The other teams they had were: Dolphins, Bills, Chiefs, Giants, and Cowboys which I decided against. Now that I wanted the stickers and Jaws magazine I had to negotiate a price. They lady said everything was a dollar each so she was looking to get $7 or so, I said how about $5 and a deal was made. Some of the stickers appear to be from the bottom of cups of 7-11 sodas, I would say most are from the mid to late 70's. The 49ers one is really cool because it looks like that somewhat vintage look and is sticky on the front, I have already put it on my car.






The Mad magazine is really a nice piece as well. You can see the cover yourself below. I read the story which they called Jaw'd. It is about Chief Brooding, Captian Squint, and Clod Hopper on their search for a shark who has its own theme music. The other movie featured in the magazine is Mirthquake aka Eathquake.




After that massive score I hit a cold streak. It seems like a lot of the deals are found in one area of the flea market, usually sellers who are not there a lot. The ones who are there every weekend are on the other side and usually have the same old shit because they will not sell unless they get the exact price they want. We were almost done with the entire middle section when we came around to a seller who was super crowded. We wondered why everyone was at this one guys place and decided to check it out further.

Dennis saw some Nintendo games in a box on the floor and after he said something I knew he had something good. He came out with Contra for NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). I was sorta bummed because I am an avid NES collector and always like to collect the classic games. Lucky for me the guy had a few more games that I wanted, one that is long considered a classic NES game, Metroid! I was able to get it for $2 bucks, a steal for what this game is worth. Dennis got Contra and Three Stooges on NES. It appears the seller was someone who buys out old storage units and sells them off at flea markets. I was happy to add a classic game to my collection of NES games.





Well after that not much else was found by me. I know Dennis scored some VHS movies but the weather was getting hot so it was time to go and get some Taco Bell. Next weekend i am going to the flea market in Pasadena with my brother, so i hope to have another flea market report up soon. Thanks for reading, see you at the flea!