Tag Heuer Link Chronograph Watch

I want a watch. More specifically I want a Tag Heuer Link Chronograph watch. I've been on the lookout for one nearby because I don't trust buying things like jewelry online. I've been disappointed before, so I'm quite familiar with the feeling. It's just not sensible when what you're looking for easily costs $1,000+ and is such a rarity in stores because what happens is you waste your paycheck and the UPS guy delivers a tattered box from China. =/

The watch is supposed to be a gift from my parents for doing so well in school. My dad told me my mom wanted to get me some kind of tacky gold Omega watch, which I think was more for herself after he'd pointed it out. Not so sure about this watch, though. So far, it's only a candidate in the running to be part of my watch collection (I rarely wear jewelry, but almost always have a timepiece on hand). Anyway, I need a watch with the chronograph feature. That kinda stuff always comes in handy with the work I do.

Medium Hair Cut

I'm growing tired of my hair. My hair currently hits my inner elbows and bothers the heck out of me. Plus, upkeeping the fringe is a job all on its own. Let's be honest, I'm lazy in the morning. I need something that requires a little less maintenance. I used to be able to roll out of bed, not even having to brush my hair, and it'd look perfectly fine. At times I'd even get compliments and, to this day, I still wonder how the hell that was all possible. Now that it has gotten so long, I have get up, dampen it, blow dry or straighten the very ends, and apply some product. That is 30 minutes of valuable time that could be spent doing something of greater importance like sleep or homework. My solution is to chop it off. I'm considering a medium length cut like the one to the right since I have an oval face. Heck, I might even throw in some highlights if I'm feeling risky. I typically keep my hair all one color, but maybe it's time for a change.

And although summer is almost over, I'm still searching for a pair of Pierre Hardy gladiator sandals from Gap. I've only seen the ones with the little blue strip down the middle. I mean, they're okay, but I am literally dying to get my hands on a pair of these dark brown ones.   

Pierre Hardy for Gap

Aren't they lovely?

Anyway, I'm glad school is over so I'm getting a little break from summer sessions and waiting for the actual fall semester to commence in mid-August. I'm dreading taking 7 courses. That's 24 units, in case you're wondering. Six online courses and a Chemistry lecture/lab deal with the same Dr. H from last sem. I hope he remembers me because it would make a big difference in whether or not he replies to my discussion board posts. He's more likely to pay attention to you in class if you're a familiar face, so when Iyou've got a concerned look - he notices and directly asks if you understood the material. He's also more apt to give students a couple of "effort" points on exams when you answered incorrectly. Hopefully I can pass all 7 courses, I want an easy spring semester.  

To tell you the truth, I couldn't believe it myself. I've always been a big fan of Journey and now there's even more reason to like them - Arnel Pineda. He's the newest lead singer of the band and he's from the Philippines [Woohoo!], but I still say Steve Perry still rocks in my book. 

And I guess this makes up for the video I put up of Janina San Miguel winning the Miss Philippines Pageant. Oy.

Yet, again, I am the absolute definition of the term procrastination. I have exactly one day to write the most kickass essay of my life and I haven't even started yet.

T minus 24 hours.

I gave up on my stupid math class. I hated it and I dropped. I had no life for the past month all because I was working my ass off to make it in that class and I failed miserably. Seriously, there was absolutely no hope for me. I want to wallow, but then again I should at least pride myself in the fact that I actually tried. Oh, well. It means 24 units for the fall just to make the stupid transfer requirements. Mother effer - I'm going to try out for Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Maybe not. We'll see.

I'm a little disappointed in myself. Math is my strong point, but the pace we were going at was overwhelming. We started out as a class of 40 and we've winded down to 14. And some of the people in my class have already dropped, but are just showing up to get the jist of it. How sad would it be if it turned out that I was the only person that was still enrolled AND I failed? I swurr, I'd feel even more like an idiot.

Moving on.

Tennis lessons are back and so are the two awkward brothers from last summer. One whines and the other, well, does nothing. They act like 5-year-olds when they're 12 & 14. The youngest kid in the class doesn't even cry when he gets hit by the ball, but one of the bros throws a fit when the ball gets too close to him. OMG, you're TWELVE! And his older brother completely grosses me out. He's fourteen and lazy as fuck. He never runs with the rest of the class, doesn't stay in line, and he sniffs his fingers after he pops his pimples. MAJOR GAG! I'm shuddering just thinking about it. And don't forget their body odor! It's not entirely tolerable, but it is four times the normal level thanks to the 100+ degree weather.

Three. More. Days.

What have you been putting off all weekend?

Studying for my stupid effing exam tomorrow.

Three reasons for me to be mad right now:

1. My homework assignment exceeded the time limit.
2. I got kicked off of Blackboard for maintenance.
3. Because I was kicked off, I only received 13 out of 22 points.

I just spent the last hour or so working on my homework assignment online as soon as I click "Submit," the screen refreshes to a "Down for maintenance" notice. WDF? Please, please, please tell me my shit was successfully saved and submitted because I seriously do not have to the time nor effort to do any extra credit work for this damn class. For now, I'm going to have to cross my fingers and pray that I get all the points for it. And, might I add, I was supposed to have been given a pop-up notice that I had one minute left and nothing happened. Screw you, Blackboard.

Oh, and Ana Ivanovic lost. Man.. hopefully one of the William's sisters can take home Wimbledon or at least have Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova lose before the semis. I want Ana to stay numero uno! On the bright side, my boy, Janko Tipsarevic (yum!) is still in the game - eat your heart out Roddick.

I've done 4 out of 7 homeworks, which is pretty much everything except math. And I have a fucking quiz that I most absolutely need to ace just to give me a couple of measly points. I got a zero on the last quiz. =/ Boo-fucking-hoo. I think I'm going to stock up on Guava Juiced Rockstars tomorrow morning before class. I'm debating whether or not I should do my math homework now and sleep later or wake up @ 4 to watch the early rounds of Wimbledon and attempt to do it then. Maybe I'll do as much as I can now because I think I'm gonna be awake for a couple more hours. Ay.

For once, I positively absolutely hate school. For real. Screw you, Dr. She-who-shall-not-be-named!!! I hate your class and you can't teach for shit! Thank you for messing up my GPA!

So I've been putting all my senseless crap on a neighbors/friends only deal.

ONLY the TRUEST of peeps shall enter

and if I LURRVE you,

you're in. ;)

I just finished Watching Seasons 1 & 2 of Michael Mann's Crime Story and suggest to anyone who appreciate good TV ought to check it out.

Crime Story (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crime Story
Format	Crime / Drama
Created by	Chuck Adamson Gustave Reininger
Starring	Dennis Farina Anthony John Denison John Santucci Stephen Lang Bill Smitrovich Ted Levine
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	44
Production
Running time	60 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 18, 1986 – May 10, 1988
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Crime Story was an NBC TV drama created by Gustave Reininger and Chuck Adamson. It was executive produced by Michael Mann. The show premiered with a two hour pilot - a movie which had been exhibited theatrically - and was watched by over 30 million viewers. Crime Story then was scheduled to follow Miami Vice on Friday nights, and continued to attract a record number of viewers. NBC then moved the show to Tuesdays at 10 pm to counter program it opposite ABC's Moonlighting.

Set in the early - pre-Beatles -1960s, the series pitted two men against each other - Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) and mobster Ray Luca, (Anthony Denison) - in an obsessive drive to destroy each other. As Luca moved from street crime in Chicago, was "made" in the Chicago Outfit and was sent to Las Vegas to monitor their casinos, Det. Mike Torello followed Luca, as part of a special Organized Crime Task Force.

The first season ended with Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia on the lam, hiding from Det. Mike Torello, in a Nevada desert shack, which is located in an Atomic Bomb test area. An A-Bomb explodes, presumably obliteraing Luca and Taglia, in one of the most memorable cliffhangers in television history, leaving viewers wondering whether they were dead or alive, just as the show's creator were wondering if the series itself was dead or alive with NBC.^[1]

[edit]

Production

After the success of the first season of Miami Vice, Mann had complete freedom with NBC for another show.^[2] According to Mann, the genesis of the project was to follow a group of police officers in a major crimes unit in 1963 and how they change over 20 hours of television, "in 1980, with very different occupations, in a different city and in a different time."^[3] He asked Reininger and Adamson to write the a series pilot and a "Bible."

Reininger was a former Wall Street international investment banker who had come to Mann's attention based on a screenplay he had written about arson investigators, and a French film that he had written and produced. Reininger researched Crime Story by winning the confidence of Detective William Hanhardt who put him in touch with undercover officers in Chicago. They sent him on meetings with organized crime figures. Reininger risked wearing a body microphone and recorder. After visiting the crime scene of a gruesome gangland slaying of bookmaker Al Brown, Reininger backed off his Mob interviews.^[2]

In a June 1986 press conference, Mann said that the first season of the show would go from Chicago in 1963 to Las Vegas in 1980.^[3] He said, "It's a serial in the sense that we have continuing stories, and in that sense the show is one big novel."^[3] Mann and Reininger's inspiration for the 1963-1980 arc came from their mutual admiration of the epic 15+ hour film, Berlin Alexanderplatz, by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder'.^[4] Mann said, "The pace of our story is like the speed of light compared to that, but that's the idea - if you put it all together at the end you've got one hell of a 22-hour movie."^[4] Mann predicted a five-year network run for the show.^[4] However, due to budgetary constraints (the need for four sets of cars proved to be too expensive)^[2]. Tartikoff eventually allowed their series to move to Las Vegas for the last quarter of the 22 episodes.

NBC head Brandon Tartikoff (who had started his career in Chicago) gave an order for a two-hour movie, which had a theatrical release in a handful of U.S. theaters to invited guests only.^[4] Tartikoff also ordered 22 episodes which allowed Reininger and Adamson to tell a story with developing character arcs, and continuing stories (instead of episodic, self standing shows.). The ratings which began very strong when it followed Miami Vice, dipped when it was counter-programmed against ABC's Moonlighting.^[5] This prompted the network to move the show to Friday nights after Miami Vice on December 5, 1986^[2] where its ratings improved but it still lost to Falcon Crest.^[5] NBC temporarily pulled Crime Story off the schedule on March 13, 1987. In order to get more people to watch, Farina and other cast members promoted the show in five U.S. cities.^[5] After the first season, the show was nominated for three Emmys, all in technical categories.^[6] By the second season, an average episode cost between $1.3 and 1.4 million because it was shot on location, set during the 1960s and featured a large cast.^[7]

Two famous rock and roll musicians of the past contributed to Crime Story: Del Shannon sang a revised version of his hit "Runaway" as the theme song, and Todd Rundgren started the musical direction of the series with Al Kooper taking over as the series musical director.

[edit] Influences

Crime Story and its imitator Wiseguy were the prototypes for today's arc-driven television series, such as 24 and The Sopranos that have continuing story lines over multiple episodes.

In addition, Martin Scorsese directed and produced his movie "Casino" loosely basing it on elements of "Crime Story," which was recognized at the "Casino" premiere as an inspiration. Joe Pesci played the Spilotro character. With Spilotro dead, "Casino" writer Nick Pileggi was able tell much more of the details surrounding the Chicago "Outfit" and its Casino operations in Las Vegas.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Notable Guest Appearances

The series featured many well-known actors and actresses before they were well known.

• David Caruso appeared as Johnny O'Donnell in the pilot (episodes 1 and 2). He appeared in flashback scenes in episode 12, and in episode 19 of the second season.
• Julia Roberts appeared as a juvenile rape victim in "The Survivor" episode in season 1. It was her first TV appearance.
• Kevin Spacey appeared in second season premiere as a crusading, Kennedy-esque Senator. This was his first major television appearance.
• Deborah Harry appeared in the second to last episode of season 1, "Top Of The World", as the girlfriend of mobster Ray Luca. She did not sing.
• Gary Sinise appeared in the season 1 episode "For Love Or Money", as Howie Dressler, a husband forced to steal to pay for his wife's iron lung. He also directed two episodes, credited as "Gary A. Sinise."
• Ving Rhames appeared in the season 1 episode "Abrams For The Defense," as Hector Lincoln, a husband and father accused of assaulting his landlord. This was Rhames's second television appearance.
• William Russ was featured during the opening credits, even though his character (an MCU detective) was murdered in the pilot.
• Christian Slater played a teenager who discovered a body in the episode "Old Friends, Dead Ends".
• Paul Guilfoyle appeared in "Hide and Go Thief" as a criminal who gets into a shootout with the MCU. His hostage was played by Lorraine Bracco. Bracco's sister Elizabeth played a hostage in the pilot episode.
• Michael Rooker played a uniformed police officer in the pilot episode.
• Lili Taylor played a waitress in Frank Holman's Diner in the episode "Hide and Go Thief".
• Pam Grier played Suzanne Terry, an investigative journalist and girlfriend of federal attorney David Abrams, in five episodes spread out over both seasons.
• Jazz musician Miles Davis made a cameo in the first season episode "The War," and shared the scene with Stephen Lang.
• Stanley Tucci played bomber Zack Lowman in "The Battle of Las Vegas".
• David Hyde Pierce appears in the second season episode "Mig 21," as NSA Agent Carruthers (billed as David Pierce). That episode also featured George Dzundza, who would have later success on Law & Order.
• Season Two episode "Protected Witness" featured both Laura San Giacomo as Theresa Farantino, and Billy Zane as Frankie 'The Duke' Farantino.
• Michael J. Pollard played pimp Leon Barski, and William Hickey played Judge Neville Harmon in "The Brothel Wars."
• Dennis Haysbert appeared in "Moulin Rogue" and "Seize the Time" as the bookkeeper of a jazz club.
• Among others, Eric Bogosian, Michael Madsen, Vincent Gallo, and Armin Shimerman.

[edit] DVD Releases

Anchor Bay Entertainment has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.

A Region 4 release of Season 1 has been classified by the OFLC."^[8]

[edit] Basis in Chicago crime history

Before becoming an actor, Dennis Farina was a member of the Chicago police department, as was series co-creator Adamson. Adamason was a Sergeant and Farina was Detective in Chicago's Central Investigative Unit, the real-life counterpart to the "Major Crimes Unit" in the series, which was commanded by Det. William Hanhardt. John Santucci, who played mobster and safecracker Pauli Taglia, was, in his past, a notorious jewel thief. The museum score depicted in the pilot episode was based on a real heist in which Santucci participated. In his previous career Santucci had been arrested by both Adamson and Farina, and was a confidential informer for Det. William Handhardt.

Many of the early episodes were composited stories based on the Chicago mob, called "The Outfit", and the CIU, the special crimes and criminal unit of the Chicago Police Department that tracked the mobsters, and was run by Det. William Handardt. Torello was based on Det. William Hanhardt, the real life head of the anti-mob unit. Hanhardt's exploits were legendary in Chicago's press and police files. Reininger and Adamson based Luca, on Chicago mobster Anthony Spilotro. Spilotro started as the head of a sophisticated burglary "crew." He attracted the attention of Chicago Outfit because he "fenced" his merchandise through their associates. Spilotro is considered by the FBI to have made his "bones" by assassinating the legendary head of the Chicago Outfit, Sam "Momo" Giancana, who had become a liability because of his involvement with the CIA in events surrounding the Bay of Pigs. Spilotro went from street thief to mafia chief in record time. Eventually, he was sent to Las Vegas to monitor the unreported cash that was "skimmed" from Chicago crime-syndicate-owned casinos back to their bosses in the Windy City, and then distributed to other Mob "investors" in Milwaukee, Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland.

Spilatro was unsuccessfully prosecuted several times by Federal authorities. He never served jail time. In 1986, he was the target of a massive prosecutorial effort led by the Las Vegas and Chicago branches of the U. S. Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force. In early 1986, he was on trial in Federal Court in Las Vegas, being defended by attorney Oscar Goodman, who eventually was elected the Mayor of Las Vegas. Reininger was supoenaed as a material witness for Spilotro, who was alleging that the only way Reininger could have written scripts and the series "Bible" was by having access to Federal wiretaps of Spilotro. Reininger in turn discovered that his New York phones were being monitored. Reininger was served Spilotro's subpoena, and given a deadly warning, in a New York hotel bar by private detective Anthony Pellicano, who in 2006 was imprisoned for illegal wiretapping, blackmail and harassment while representing notable Los Angeles entertainment figures.

Ironically Spilotro, like Giancana before him, had become a liability to the "Outfit." On a weekend trial recess, Spilotro returned home to Chicago and was brutally murdered along with his brother Michael, and buried in an Indiana cornfield. The case was dismissed, and Reininger, who had sent all his "Crime Story" work materials to a former banking associate in Zurich, Switzerland, did not have to testify.

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