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I recently watched Something The Lord Made on HBO and fell in love with it. The movie is a story of two men, one white and one black, who go against common medical practice and racial lines to develop a revolutionary procedure that helps save babies suffering from Blue Baby Syndrome.

Alan Rickman plays Dr. Alfred Blalock, a white doctor, who is famous for his research on shock and how it affects the body. Dr. Blalock is the arrogant doctor type who brings along a black assistant, Vivien Thomas, to help him on his new assignment at John Hopkins Hospital. While there, Vivien and Dr. Alfred stumble upon the “blue baby” issue and help develop a procedure to cure it. Alan’s native British accent comes out in some parts but for the most part his southern accent is tolerable along with his acting.

“It’s a relationship that starts out as master and servant, in a way. And then it becomes teacher and pupil. And then they’re pretty much joined at the hip on a practical level - the one can’t move without the other.” - HBO Interview

Mos Def is the star of the movie and gives a stunning performance playing Vivien Thomas. With every slight pause in dialogue, crack of his voice, or subtle mannerism, the audience really grows to love Vivien towards the end of the movie. As you can imagine I was already a Mos Def fan before this movie but after watching this movie I have greater respect for him as an actor.

All in all, the movie does a really good job of explaining and giving credit to Vivien Thomas as paving the way for current day heart surgery, even though Dr. Blalock was the only person who is formally given credit.

Who would have thought that the guy who directed Jaws: The Revenge could make such a good drama, let alone stay alive long enough to do it. Joseph Sargent is ancient (born 1925).

I know this subject has been a controversy for some time but recently it hit home for me. Should the Mexico World Cup team be allowed to play with non-Mexican born players? I know the rules for the World Cup state that all players must be citizens of the country they play for but is this enough?

In 1997, Mexico hired a new coach named Ricardo LaVolpe who was born in Argentina and played for Argentina in the 1978 World Cup. His addition was to attempt to end Mexico’s poor World Cup history. Recently Lavolpe signed two non-Mexican born players to the Mexican National team, Brazil-born midfielder Antonio Naelson (nickname Zinha) and forward Guillermo Franco of Argentina. Mexican fans have so much pride that they feel that if they win they should win with only Mexican born participants.

“If the constitution says they’re Mexican,” Lavolpe said, “they’re Mexican.” - source

The inclusion of these two players has caused a major rift within the team. Veteran Mexican-born players have refused to share a locker room with the new team members along with other actions of protest.

When Mexicans risk their lives to come to the U.S, they want to have the same rights as everybody else in the U.S. That’s what the marches were for right? It’s quite hilarious that when it comes to Mexican futbol they are very “no, no, no, this isn’t your country.”

I personally wish it was a rule that all members of a World Cup team be required to be born in that country but rules are rules. I ‘m all for a 100% Mexican-born World Cup team, but Mexicans have to look in the mirror before trying to discriminate against foreigners. And plus, in the past it hasn’t worked. I bet not one fan would even mention this issue again if Mexico won the cup this year.

Update: Zinha, one of their “foreigners”, scored a goal in today’s game and helped clinch the 3-1 win over Iran.

Viva Mexico!

I was born in Texas and would take the U.S over Mexico any day of the week.

You know what really grinds my gears? Unusable salsa bowls at Mexican restaurants. All of the restaurants in my area use a similar bowl that you can never get all of the salsa out while you wait for your waiter to refill. There are times when I want every drop of salsa in that damn salsa bowl but can’t seem to get it with a normal chip. What do they expect us to do? Tip the bowl? Break the already crumbled chips to the size of a quarter in order to be able to scoop deep in the bowl? All I have to say is that every Mexican restaurant needs to take a step back and ask themselves, “Is this bowl usable for my customers?” No, it’s not. Don’t get me started on soggy chips either. And that’s what really grinds my gears.

On another note, tonight is the first game of the NBA finals. GO MAVS!!!

I am hooked on the Miller Lite Man Laws commercials. If you haven’t seen these commercials, they are a bunch of well-known men sitting at a square table discussing issues that every man goes through. One of my favorite’s is the “you poke it, you own it” commercial. This episode is about how sometimes guys will buy many beers for their buddies and carry them by sticking their fingers through the necks of the bottles. Who wants to drink out of a container that was molested by your friend’s fingers? I don’t know about you but I surely don’t want to put my lips on something that my friends were touching.

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