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Twins hit the break. What are they?

Twins 4 Angels 2 I made it out to Target Field for my 1st Twins game in nearly 3 months, a gap caused by an assortment of reasons. It was the last game before the all-star break, a sweltering hot day for a ballgame. It was the rubber game against the Angels, the worst team in the AL. The game itself was a little nondescript. Taj Bradley started for the Twins, and went 7 very strong innings. The only blemishes were a pair of solo homeruns, but he wiggled out of a 1st and 3rd, nobody out jam in the 6th.  The Twins didn't get a lot of offense, but 4 straight hits in the 3rd inning gave them 3 runs, and Trevor Larnach homered for a late insurance run. Andrew Morris pitched a 2 inning save, and the Twins had their 8th series win in the last 9, which included the exceptionally rare 2 of 3 at Yankee Stadium.  They hit the break just 48-49, but have been playing pretty well for the last month, and even with a still sub-.500 record are tied for the final wild card and are just a few ga...
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Cinematic Throwbacks: June 1986/1996/2006

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1986: John Hughes owned the 1980s, with revered teen classics one after another. For me, his magnum opus, and best movie, is Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  Like virtually every movie I liked prior to the 90s, I came to this movie through cable. I got into movie watching on cable around 1988, which would have been right around the time this was getting shown constantly.  We all know the story. That rascal Ferris fakes sick to get out of school, and goes on an adventure in Chicago with his best friend Cameron and girlfriend Sloane.  Whereas most of the Hughes movies at some point aim for some depth and sentiment, Ferris Bueller is just a great time. Hey, we're skipping school for this day, and we are going to have the most fun day imaginable. I suppose enough years have passed to admit that this movie absolutely inspired me to skip school on multiple occasions. Ferris fakes a fever. I think my go-to was a fake headache. I never had grand adventures like this. I did ...
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June movie reviews

In theaters: DISCLOSURE DAY Steven Spielberg's latest alien movie, this one about a whistle-blower trying to expose the existence of alien life. Like many movies these days, this was picked apart for largely stupid reasons. It has some flaws, sure, like a somewhat unsatisfying finale, and the way those crystal-type things can do whatever the plot needs from them at any given moment. But purely as a conspiracy/chase thriller, it's pretty good. Excellent performances from Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor.  TOY STORY 5 Do they need to keep making these? Well, they still haven't made a bad one. This isn't on the level of those first 3, which are all pretty much unquestioned classics, but it's at least as good as 4. I didn't laugh that much at this, and some characters get sidelined, but it's another sweet movie with something to say about modern tech and screens and all that. It's fun. Good year for Pixar.  SUPERGIRL (2026) Stop me if you've heard this ...
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Cinematic Throwbacks: May 1986/1996/2006/2016

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1986: I'm not sure there is another film quite as quintessentially 80s as Top Gun. This film made a superstar, launched a major directing career, and added to one of the great producer runs of all time. I personally was very late in ever getting around to watching Top Gun. By the time I did, probably a good decade after it came out, I largely knew the movie through its brilliant parody Hot Shots. I mean, I still can't watch Top Gun without chuckling at some of the moments directly spoofed.  Tom Cruise had already had a couple of notable movies, but this was his first blockbuster smash, that cemented him as a major movie star. He's certainly given better performances, but he's so effortlessly good here as the cocky flyboy that it stuck as his screen persona for a long time. Tony Scott was almost a total unknown as a director, having made only 1 film to that point, but he was a perfect choice by producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Scott's style wa...
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May movie reviews

In theaters: MICHAEL Like almost every "controversial" movie these days that riles up the internet, Michael is really neither good enough nor bad enough to be worth all the fuss. The good: Both actors playing Michael are good. Some of the recreations of performances are enjoyable. A handful of scenes actually try to make us understand Michael as a person. The bad: Even if you don't know anything about the production, it has a veneer of inauthenticity. And it's so uncreative, just following the biopic formula every step of the way. MORTAL KOMBAT 2 I remembered virtually nothing about the original of this rebooted franchise from a few years ago, but I don't think that mattered much. This is a to the point movie that delivers a bunch of crazy fights and some wild kills.  IN THE GREY The ever prolific Guy Ritchie's latest, a way too convoluted thriller about covert ops and Middle Eastern bad guys and a bunch of stuff that I didn't follow. Worth it mostly for a...
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The Mandalorian and Grogu review

Guess what, everyone! A new Star Wars movie is here! Which means only one thing anymore: CULTURE WAR!!!! Yes, because no franchise (not even Marvel) has become more of an object for internet fandoms to whine and argue about incessantly, often for political reasons. Yes, how DARE a franchise that began as a Vietnam allegory and featured bad guys called "stormtroopers" insert anything even vaguely political into its product! I loathed the discourse around the prequels back in the day, but at least that was mostly left to the films themselves. The Disney Star Wars era has proven that the prequel era was not an outlier. Star Wars fans exist to bitch. They hate everything. If it came out after 1980, it is shit. And now in this era we have all the added whining from the deplorables, the ones who hold extra disdain for all things Star Wars now that there were projects fronted by women, or prominently featuring any non-straight white male 100% of the time. And when the overseer of al...
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Our winter sports teams teased, then tumbled

Just over 2 weeks ago, Minnesota sports had one of the coolest nights we have ever had, a truly unique convergence of teams and stakes, with the Timberwolves and Wild both clinching 1st round playoff series wins at home. But the problem with winning in the 1st round is that you then have a 2nd round. Never before had the Wolves and Wild both advanced in the same year. Could they do it again and against superior competition?  Well, this IS Minnesota sports. Even when we DO get some playoff success (Minneapolis Miracle, the Twins 2023 wild card win), it doesn't sustain itself. And in the span of 3 days this week, the championship-less (hell, finals appearance-less) Wolves and Wild were once again brushed aside, so some other team that isn't from Minnesota can win a championship. Each found their own way to add to our state's big 4 misery. The Wild, in the 2nd round for the first time since 2015, faced the Colorado Avalanche, league leaders in points, and generally believed to...
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