I'm in NYC visiting Chan. [Note: I was totally home by the time I finished writing this, I just started writing it in NYC on Saturday night. So, let the record show I was in Providence when I posted this.] Before watching each of our respective college football teams have its dreams dashed, we walked down to 86th Street to see Fantastic Mr. Fox.

I've been a Wes Anderson fan since '96, and I've been hearing about his new movie for what seems like ten years, so this was a big day for me. And FMF delivered.

Members of the usual crowd are in it (Murray, Schwartzman, O. Wilson, Dafoe, Cox), plus George Clooney and Meryl Streep as mom & dad. The big difference with this movie, though, and if you have a talented eye you'll catch it, as that they're all stop-animated puppets.

The story is based on the Roald Dahl story of the same name. Ol' Roald didn't just teach and entertain milions of kids including me, he saved a lot of them, too. Anyway, the Anderson version goes way beyond the original story, and the fact that it's a cartoon only adds to the awesomeness. Go see it. I will be going back for another viewing.

But I'll be going at night. We went to a 1:50 Saturday showing, and it was like pre-school in there. I briefly flashed back to the opening scene of Ghostbusters II, when you see that the guys are still around, but they've been reduced to children's performers. And now I'm thinking back to the time I saw one of They Might Be Giants' "family" shows. Just weird when someone you've loved for years gets to the point where they're accessible to every single age group. But FMF is hardly a kids' film. It's just the next in the line of Wes Anderson movies...with cartoon foxes. It's beautiful. Oh, and if you think teenagers are messy, you should see what a movie theater full of toddlers looks like when the lights go up. I'm sure some of you have.

Jere's rating: 76 Gedmans out of 80.

Found this great shot of Gedman on ebay. In this picture, Rich is on deck. The pitcher he's about to face was born in the same city as what pitcher who was once a teammate of Geddy?

Shortstop update: It appears Marco Scutaro will be our new shortstop for '10.

His career Fenway stats: 100 at bats, 29 hits. Eight of 'em doubles, one dong. On base 32.1 percent of the time.

So what does this mean for Lowrie? If we've got Marco for the next two seasons, and this young kid coming up after that, Jed's gotta do something. I guess he'll just start fighting for the job in March and we'll take it from there.

Did a little more 'search on the Steiner Boys. The new version of Tom Palomino, Sam Enriquez, led me to Resolute Digital. This is the company that does this SEO shit for Steiner and other companies.

One of the blogs on their site (besides Sam's) talks about the rules of spamming. In it, they say talk about their "policy" based on the FTC rules:

Whenever a representative of Resolute Digital posts a comment on a blog, Twitter, Facebook, or other forum for user generated content, the representative will acknowledge that he or she works for the agency or client. Anonymous posting is not permitted.

Example: [...] Rather than post a comment like, “I’ve found a great new iPhone app, iPlay ‘n Learn&trade, which really helps small children learn to create alphabet characters,” we should write, “My client, Parents’ Magazine, has a great new iPhone app, iPlay ‘n Learn&trade, that uses the unique features of the phone to train small children to draw alphabet characters.”

So you see the guidelines Tom was using with his "my client, Steiner Sports" comments.

And I was going to end the post by just pointing out that they are doing it the legal way, slimy as it is to fool people the way they do. It's like they thought, "Okay, we've been given the new rules, so here's what we can do to get around them. Bombs away!"

BUT! Then I noticed that Resolute-ster Sam Enriquez is breaking the rules (the laws) that are so clearly defined for him! Check out the type of thing he's been writing on Yankee blogs:

I never thought the Yankees would take the series once again, I will have to sell my Yankees Memorabilia and make a fortune.

No mention of the client name. Just a blatant attempt to fool people into clicking the link and buying crap. (And with none of the insight Tom Palomino brought to the table! Wow, who'd have thought I'd be defending that shapeshifter?)

So now we've got Resolute doing Steiner's dirty work, annoying bloggers and fooling readers, and breaking the law in the process. From there we've got Steiner's people seemingly bidding on their own crap. Gettin' shadier and shadier....


[Here's my original post on this. And here's the second one you may have missed from Thanksgiving weekend.]

Check out the following sentence from the registration form for Xmas at Fenway (this appears in the special form for RSN members too):

In addition to having a guaranteed opportunity to purchase tickets, those in attendance will be visited by a variety of guests -- Red Sox players and coaches, Wally the Green Monster, and even Santa and Mrs. Clause.

Clause!

If you're gonna do a Christmas thing, the one name you have to know how to spell is freakin' Santa Claus.

Anyway, I'm glad they're doing the Yard Sale again. More non-Steiner junk for me! (If I'm selected...) After a few more years of this, I'll be building my own Fenway out of its old bricks.

Of all the contests this team has done, the one thing I've never won is Xmas at Fenway. However, people seem to think if you don't get selected, you don't get tickets. But you do. By getting them online at the same time. I prefer it that way anyway. I'd rather win the Yard Sale drawing.

My friends and I have been talking a lot about these "box breaks" you see on GooTube. In other words, a dude or dudes breaking open boxes or packs of baseball cards while recording it. I might actually do some "serious" ones at some point, but in the meantime, check out this jokey one I did:



Ha, I just watched it back--and Danzig meows in the final second!