In honor of Halloween, here's a cool compilation of the Wilhelm Scream throughout movie history. You may not know it by name, but you'll definitely recognize the sound when you hear it.

Also, in about 3 hours I'll be making a complete fool of myself by dressing up as Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth. It will either be the best costume at the party I'm going to, or by far the worst. How am I pulling it off? I can't give away all the secrets, but it does involve a unitard and wearing pantyhose on my head...

This morning I had my fourth sleep clinic session. To update everyone, per instructions I had begun to move my bedtime earlier by 15 minutes every 4-5 days. The move to 1:45am went smoothly, as did 1:30; in both cases, I continued to fall asleep in about 3o minutes. However when I started going to sleep at 1:15, I regressed and began taking close to an hour to fall asleep. The doctor told me that I should schedule an appointment with the clinic's psychologist to give me relaxation exercises. She also suggested that I cut out chocolate. This is now getting ridiculous. I've already given up caffeine, staying out late, sleeping in, and alcohol past 11pm (er, for the most part). Eliminating chocolate is going too far. Is all of this sacrifice worth it? I'm starting to lean towards no.

On my visit, I noticed that the 99-cent store right next to the subway entrance (D train at 205th St.) has changed ownership. If you look at the sign below, you'll see that it boasts "everything 99 cents or more." You may not be able to tell from this photo, but the word "more" has clearly been pasted over the original sign. Did the previous owners offer everything at 99 cents or less? That seems like a much better deal to me. 99 cents or more could be anything. Hell, Ferrari dealerships could claim the same, as long as they at least sold a $0.99 keychain or something.
Finally, I'm glad so many people have been ripping into A-Rod for backing out of his contract (during the clinching game of the World Series, a point I should have mentioned but didn't). But so far, nobody has done a better job of it than Scott Miller at CBS Sportsline. His column is pure venom. I love it!

Blogger Andrew Sullivan was a panelist on last week's Real Time with Bill Maher. During the show, Maher mentioned that he loved Sullivan's post about questions to be asked at a Republican debate, specifically:
- Would you have sex with a man to stop a terrorist attack?
- If you had a time machine, would you travel back in time and abort Bin Laden?
Those are indeed great questions. And I put the probability of them ever actually being asked, let alone answered, slightly below the chance that the Yanks ever hire A-Rod to manage the team.

Sunday Night Bloody Sunday Night
I'm pretty pissed off right now. Not because the Dolphins are halfway through their season and still don't have a win, and not because the Red Sox just won the World Series (yup, another sweep... the 3rd in 4 years. Exciting.)... although those things do irk me. No, it's because Scott Boras announced about an hour ago that Ass-Rod has opted out of his contract with the Yankees. I really didn't think he'd go through with it. Turns out I drastically underestimated his selfishness.
The most annoying part of this is his lame excuse for opting out: that he wasn't sure if Rivera, Posada, and Pettitte would return to the Yanks. Total, utter bullshit. If that was really the reason, why not wait until the last possible day to decide? You've got 10 days from right now. Maybe once the Yanks announce their manager in the next day or two, things will fall in place. There's no need to jump the gun. He knows, and Boras knows, and I know, and everyone knows, it's all about money.
Seriously, can you think of a player more interested in money than A-Rod? $252 million (plus however much he made with the Mariners, and of course endorsements) isn't enough money for him? What on earth could possibly exist that he cannot afford? I could even understand it if another player had signed a bigger contract, so A-Rod justified his move by saying he wanted to once again become the highest-paid player in the league. But he's head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league in terms of salary.
It's pathetic that he cares more about a few extra dollars than about winning. Cause there's no way he's going to a serious contender. The Yanks won't bid on him. It seems unfathomable to me that the Red Sox would want him, given the history. The Mets don't really have anywhere to put him, as the left side of their infield is set. Of the other playoff teams from this season, I'd say only the Cubs and Angels can afford him (possibly the Phillies, but I doubt it), and let's be real... those teams are not winning the World Series anytime soon. So presumably he'll finish out his days breaking records but never winning a title. And that will sum up his career nicely; the ultimate selfish player.
Anyway, that's my rant...

The End Point
It's a sad day. Actually, yesterday was, but I'm just getting around to this now. Tommy Himself has pulled the plug on The Sticking Point. The two of us had talked a couple of weeks ago about our mutual current lack of enthusiasm for blogging (or, since he hates that word, web-logging). And while I'm keeping my site on life support, he decided walk away. Maybe he was inspired by Joe Torre.
It's too bad. His posts had become few and far between, but they remained entertaining. He's got a style of writing that manages to be both conversational and poetic at the same time. It puts me to shame. Must be the extra decade+ of writing experience he's got on me...
TSP, you'll be missed.

I just read this MySpace bulletin from Motley Crue (yes, I'm MySpace friends with Motley Crue):

Vince will soon be opening up his new bar in West Palm Beach, FL called VINCE NEIL'S DR. FEELGOOD'S. Set to open up in late November sometime, Vince hopes to be able to perform at the grand opening of it. Vince was in West Palm Beach this past Tuesday to see how things are going with the bar. Vince also states that he hopes to open up more locations in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

West Palm Beach? End of November? Hmm, that's where I will be for Thanksgiving. Could be perfect timing. Although I have seen Vince perform solo once before, at BB King's here in NYC, and it's not a pretty sight. During "Girls Girls Girls" he brought some strippers out on stage, and when members of the audience reached out to touch her, Vince freaked out and stormed off. As this was only the 4th song of the set, the audience started booing and chanting "asshole" and "refund." Eventually management forced Vince to finish his set, but not before they put metal barricades up in front of the stage. So maybe I shouldn't be this excited to rehash that experience. And yet, I am. Go figure.
Dr. Feelgood's is a good name for a bar, though.

I Think I'm Blind
Alright, it's time for me to come clean about what I was really doing in the weeks without a post...
YouPorn.
What a site. It's got professional porn. Homemade amateur porn. Celebrity sex tapes. Sex scenes from Hollywood movies. This insane video of the ultimate squirter. Plus so much more.
And it's all free and streaming, just like YouTube.
Happy hunting!

Not "Disappointed"
Months after the Morrissey ticket debacle, I saw him perform at Hammerstein last night. It was the 2nd show of his 5-night residency there, and was a phenomenal show. Almost a perfect setlist (no "You're the One for Me, Fatty," though)... it blew away the first night's, adding "Disappointed," "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side," "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" (which he changed to "get who I want"), and a cover of the New York Dolls' "Human Being." During the encore, a fan jumped onstage to hug Morrissey, which opened the floodgates for half the audience to try. Security was tackling people left and right (some took pretty nasty spills), but many managed to reach him. The scene reminded me of the live version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" video.
AND I was standing next to Chloe Sevigny for most of the show! She's quite attractive in person.
AND I found a $20 bill outside the venue!
AND I got a free Fruit of the Loom undershirt on the way out!
Overall, a great night.

Sunday's New York Times featured an article about an apartment at 84 E. 4th St... or rather, a guy who lived there and had a desperate search for a better place, because he was living in a noisy 7 ft x 9 ft "bedroom." I happened to live in that apartment for 10 weeks in the summer of 2000, and the article doesn't do that room justice. It is literally a walk-in closet that is used as a bedroom. The person living there has to walk through the master bedroom to enter it. It has enough space for a bed, and that's it (which is why most people use a loft bed, so that they can store stuff underneath). Back in my time there (which was the era of the roommate in the living room with a folding screen), the closet was occupied by a tiny Hispanic room. I figured small room, small girl, no problem. I have no idea how a full-sized man could even think about living there.
Also, nice plug to Liz Tormes, the lease-holder. Of my former roommates there, she's the one I've kept best in touch with. She's an excellent musician... buy her new CD!

Finally, this could be one of the strangest websites ever created. But it's good to know that both Paul Reubens and George Clooney think that a Centaur with a crossbow would defeat a Minotaur with a trident.

It has been quite a long time since my last post. Almost a month. Sorry, I just cannot seem to get motivated to post. Odd, since I've got more free time these days. You'd think I would want to use this as an outlet to write something. But then, you'd be wrong. Honestly, I'm on the verge of retiring the site. But not yet... cause I've finally got some stuff on my mind.

- You know I'm a huge Yankees fan, and a huge Joe Torre fan. And I think it's despicable the way Steinbrenner threatened Torre at the start of the playoffs. But Torre needs to lay off calling the Yanks' offer an "insult." $5 million would still make him the highest-paid manager in baseball, and if he reached all the incentives, he would make more money than he earned this year. I do think he's still the best manager in baseball. Probably. At least there's nobody I would immediately say I'd rather have manage my team. But it's true that the Yanks haven't been to the World Series since he signed his last extension. So is it that unfair to lower the base salary? If I were Torre, I wouldn't want to manage the team anymore, so I think it's fine that he's walking away. But don't blame the offer.

- I also hope that the Yanks go after Joe Girardi rather than promote Don Mattingly. Girardi has proven he can manage a team; Mattingly still seems a bit green to me.

- One last baseball note: Cleveland's third-base coach Joel Skinner should be crucified for holding Lofton at 3rd in the 7th. There's no way Manny would've gunned Lofton down at the plate. And yes, it's possible Blake would still have grounded into a double play. But if Manny had thrown home, Guitierrez might've made it to 2nd, eliminating the double play... and who knows what happens after that.

- On last week's Real Time with Bill Maher, a bunch of crazy 9/11 conspiracy theorists who had infiltrated the audience began heckling and yelling. At one point, an agitated Maher became annoyed that security hadn't thrown the man out yet and rushed into the audience to help. Come on Bill, who are you kidding? Like you would really get into a physical altercation with an audience member if they guy wasn't 1) much older than you, and 2) already being restrained by security. Way to make yourself look like a tough guy for your viewers.

- I don't know why I like this video of Nintendo sports bloopers. It must be the music... "Yakety Sax" (a.k.a. the theme from The Benny Hill Show) makes almost anything funny.

- Went to the Ghostland Observatory show at Webster Hall on Friday night (I had to choose between a free ticket to that or paying $40 to see Christopher Cross at B.B. King's... I think I made the right decision, even though one of my friends who went to CC called the show "magical"). Ghostland put on an amazing show. Plus, I was informed by a reliable source that the guy responsible for the laser show used to handle Pink Floyd's laser show. Lasers make every concert better... my friend Jared and I can't understand why more bands don't use them these days. (Maybe it's a safety issue... another guy I knew at the concert took a laser in the eye and started feeling discomfort. Although maybe it'll help his vision in the long run... kinda like free LASIK)