Raiders Draft 2010

Just a few thoughts on the Raiders' draft this year from a lifelong fan.

I was worried in two directions during the first round. I really hoped Al wouldn't reach for Bruce Campbell that early AND I really hoped Al would draft Bruce Campbell so that I could make allusions to Army of Darkness. Well, it clearly all worked out (they took Bruce in the 4th round) so I can now post these pictures which I spent 10 whole minutes making:




Ahhhh, that just feels right. Hope this kid works out in the long run and doesn't end up doing a crappy series on the USA network.

Seriously though, I'm happier with this draft for the Raiders than I have been for a long time. I found an interesting theory on why they did so well this year posted on a message board:

Raidernewjerz:
This is why I think my Raiders had a great draft. One, it could of been no one told Al Davis the draft started on Thursday. So when Saturday came, he came swinging by picking Bruce Campbell, then the fastest player at the combine, and after a bunch of DBs. Thats my theory! Either way great draft for us!

It's funny because it's so likely true.

I also like that we picked up Jason Campbell (two Campbells!?!!). The Raiders didn't look so bad when Russell was off the field last year. Not to say they looked particularly good, just not as bad. With an upgrade to JC and a little better defense, it seems likely we'll win some more games this year (hard to win fewer!).

Anyway, I won't be getting season tickets again this year. After 6 years of paying through the nose for little reward, we decided to hold off for a while. Still... go Raiders.

Transformers

This may contain a weak spoiler or two.

I go to the movies only about once every few months nowadays. My seasonal trip to the theatre took me to Transformers last night. Oh boy. Lots of crazy animation, a few explosions and a whole heap of transformations! The most AMAZING transformation of the movie, though, was the how the movie transformed my childhood joy into a pile of crap. So disappointing. I know it may be a little shocking to hear that a Michael Bay film lacked and semblance of soul, but, alas, it did. It wasn't that I was expecting anything too deep or moving, but it would have been nice to care a little about the main characters (or ANY characters for that matter). I guess it is good to see that some aspect of the 2-D original cartoon series was preserved in the flatness of the characters. Megatron wasn't in the movie much, but he had way more personality than anyone/thing in the movie. I almost wanted him to destroy the earth. Oh, spoiler alert: he doesn't destroy the earth.

Another interesting thing to look out for is the treatment of African-Americans in the film. There are a few black characters, a car salesman, a computer hacker, a soldier, and one of the transformers, Jazz, talks like a street stereotype. I'll just point you to this other blog post to get a more in depth understanding of Bay's treatment of these characters. Spoiler alert: To that, I'd only add that Jazz is the only Autobot ("good" transformer) that doesn't survive. For fun, take a look at how the Latino soldier and the Indian(?) phone operator characters.

More than meets the eye indeed.