The Skolney Blog

1994: The hype is very real. The Shawshank Redemption really is among the very best films ever made. I came to this film the way most people did: once it was out of theaters. I was aware of it, and by this point, I did go to a lot of movies, albeit usually just once on a Saturday during the school year. This film didn't make the cut. The film still got a lot of critical acclaim and was even nominated for best picture. Then it hit video, back when hitting video was truly a second life for a lot of overlooked films. And that's when I saw it. And it's great. It's really, really great. Directed by then unknown Frank Darabont, and based on a non-horror story from Stephen King, the majority of the film takes place at Shawshank Prison, where Tim Robbins' Andy is sent on a murder conviction. There, he meets Morgan Freeman's Red, and that becomes the key relationship in the film, and probably one of the all-time movie friendships. The performances are amazing...

In Theaters: STRANGE DARLING I almost never go into a movie completely cold. I heard some about this movie but never saw a trailer, so I only knew vaguely what it even was. And holy shit, it is probably my favorite film of 2024 to this point. Told in chapters, out of sequence, the film might be just about a man and woman (Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald) getting together for a little hotel hookup. But the film is absolutely dazzling at how it keeps upending expectations and throwing surprises at you. It is wild, a top flight genre mash.  Both leads are great, but especially Fitzgerald, who is an absolute revelation. BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE The original Beetlejuice is a movie I watched a TON back in the days. It's got stuff in it I don't like, but most of it works and is one of my favorite Tim Burton movies. Still, a 30+ year later sequel, helmed again by Burton (whose 21st century track record ain't good), didn't inspire a ton of confidence. But this sequel, a massive...

VIKINGS 31 PACKERS 29 For one half of football today, the Minnesota Vikings played about as complete and dominant as a team possibly can. For the other half...😬 At least we get to start with the good stuff. The Vikings 1st half blitzkrieg began with the opening drive, as the offense drove right down the field. A long 3rd down conversion to Jalen Nailor was followed immediately by a touchdown throw to Jordan Addison, in his 1st action since week 1. Jordan Love was also seeing his 1st action since week 1, and he drove the Packers into field goal range. But, this 1st half was so blessed that the Packers kicker missed a relatively short field goal.  The Vikings offense rolled to touchdown #2 on a drive aided by a few Packer penalties. Sam Darnold hit Josh Oliver for the score. Things began to really get out of hand when Love was soon picked off by Kamu Grugier-Hill (on a play that also injured Christian Watson). The Vikings rolled to another touchdown, a shifty run by Addison. But the...

This sure came out of nowhere. I assumed my Friday night was going to be spent spewing more bile at the Tins. And, well, it was. They're officially eliminated after another listless loss. Oh, but at least Rocco is going to use it for future motivation. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 But the big news came from the NBA club, as the Wolves traded KAT to the Knicks for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a 1st round pick. I'm not sure what the hell they are doing. You have a team that just made a WCF run, and presumably has aspirations to make a deep run again. And you do a major roster blow-up NOW? I know Randle is very good, and that draft pick helps, but I don't like the deal.  Karl-Anthony Towns leaves as one of the most underappreciated athletes in Minnesota sports history. The guy took all the blame for bad seasons, all the blame for every playoff loss, got trashed because of his contract. Yeah, this all sounds like a former quarterback too, don't it? Guess who hated on Towns the mo...

TOP TO BOTTOM, FUCK ALL OF YOU! FOR SOME REASON I ACTUALLY WATCHED FROM THE 8TH INNING ON TONIGHT. I SAW A DEAD TEAM HAVE A LITTLE COMEBACK AGAINST THE MIGHTY MARLINS AND TURN A 4-0 DEFICIT INTO A TIE AND THEN HERE WE FUCKING GO INTO EXTRAS 10TH INNING MARLINS GET A SAC FLY. TWINS ARE HANDED BASES LOADED WITH NOBODY OUT. RYAN JEFFERS WORTHLESS ASS POPS OUT. WILLI CASTRO, WHO WAS SOMEHOW AN ALL STAR MONTHS AGO, SAC FLIES TO TIE IT BUT THAT'S ALL THEY GET. GREAT JOB CAPITALIZING YOU IMBECILIC FUCKS! 11TH INNING. HEY WE DIDN'T GIVE UP A RUN! HEY WE GOT BASES LOADED AGAIN, THIS TIME WITH NOBODY OUT. THEN ROYCE LEWIS, WHO WENT FROM BUDDING SUPERSTAR TO TOTAL BUM THIS YEAR, HITS RIGHT INTO THE DRAWN-IN INFIELD. FORCEOUT THEN FLYOUT. NO RUN. FUCK YOU! 12TH INNING. HEY NO RUN ALLOWED AGAIN. BROOKS LEE WALKED. JEFFERS USELESS DIPSHIT ASS TRIES TO BUNT AND POPS IT UP TO THE FIRST BASEMAN, WHO THEN DOUBLES OFF CARLOS SANTANA WHO HAD WANDERED OFF SECOND LIKE A FUCKING MORON! SOME VETERAN L...

LYNX 101 MERCURY 88 The Lynx were given all they could handle in their 1st round series against Phoenix. Game 1 was a rout-turned-squeaker. And game 2 was a struggle, too. A Phoenix team playing for their season, and with Diana Taurasi possibly playing for her career, again made things tough for the Lynx. Phoenix might have even taken this thing back to the desert for a game 3, but there was one problem: They don't have Napheesa Collier.  The MVP runner-up and DPOY followed up her 38 point game 1 performance (tying Maya Moore's team record) by tying the LEAGUE record with a 42 point masterpiece (adding in 5 boards, 4 assists, 2 blocks, a steal and a partridge in a pear tree).  The Lynx needed everything she had early, too, cause Phoenix came out firing and led for the whole opening quarter. The Lynx finally grabbed the lead early in the 2nd quarter. The lead got as big as 9, before Brittney Griner got pretty dominant against Alana Smith and helped the Mercury hit halftime down...

The Twins freefall out of the playoffs hit a new low with the start of their final homestand. Few attended, as the pathetic Twins lost 4-1 to the 99 loss Marlins. There were at least boos heard on the broadcast. Good luck to anyone working in the Twins ticket office, cause they will have the toughest job in town the next 6 months. Detroit won. Royals won 1-0 in 10 in Washington, with Joey Gallo making the final out. Seattle lost, remaining tied with the Twins. So, 2 out with 5 to go. And the idea the Twins can even win 2 more games feels preposterous. Baltimore clinched a playoff spot, though they did give up another goldilocks homerun to Judge. Guaranteed that MLB will get him to 60. In the WNBA playoffs, the Liberty and Aces completed sweeps. I'll be at Target Center Wednesday to hopefully see the Lynx advance.

We had a MNF doubleheader. The Bills go to 3-0 by mutilating the now 0-3 Jaguars. Remember when Tank For Trevor was all the rage?  Washington stunningly won at Cincy. Jayden Daniels definitely took the lead as the best rookie QB. I kind of thought he would be the best of the bunch. Bengals are a shocking 0-3. Good news with Sam Darnold's MRI. His knee is bruised, but good to go for week 4.  There's a whole deranged group on Twitter attacking everybody who didn't think Darnold would be great. Well, better attack the 31 other teams that didn't sign him then. And don't get me started on the gatekeeping I'm seeing from people saying that if you rooted for Kirk you can't be a Vikings fan now. In baseball, the Mariners won, so now they are just a half game back of the Twins. And hey, it ain't sports, but how about that Thunderbolts trailer drop! Florence Pugh, take me!  

VIKINGS 34 TEXANS 7 Week 5 of 2016. The Vikings blow out the Texans at US Bank Stadium to go to 5-0. I walk out of the building that day, dreaming of home field advantage and maybe a Super Bowl. Then the Vikings lost 8 of their last 11 games and missed the playoffs. Today, the Vikings blew out the Texans at US Bank Stadium to go to 3-0. And yeah, leaving that stadium I was thinking into the future about what could be in a few months. Why not? Dare to dream, because while this too may not last, at this exact moment the Minnesota Vikings are the BEST team in the NFL. They are. No other undefeated team has their quality of wins, the latest an absolute dismantling of a very good Houston Texans team 34-7 on Sunday. It wasn't even that close. The Texans' 1st official play was an interception by Kamu Grugier-Hill, starting for the injured Ivan Pace. A short drive later, Sam Darnold found Justin Jefferson for the first of his 4 touchdowns throws on the day.  Grugier-Hill should have ha...

Well, the Elon site that lets MAGAts spread any vile bullshit they want locked me out for a week for tweeting the "Die of gonorrhea and rot in hell" joke from Ace Ventura in regards to our town's college  football coach. So since I can't tweet on this packed Sunday (Vikings-Texans, Lynx-Phoenix game 1, Twins doubleheader in Boston, and a Kirko-Mahomes SNF game) this seems a fine time to do a live blog, which was a staple of my journaling days.  10:30 am Hopped on light rail to head to the purple palace. For some reason, I see Tua and Alvin Kamara jerseys. I myself have donned my purple rush #99 in honor of Danielle Hunter's return.  11:05 Off the train. Oh, there are the Texans fans. Nowhere near as many as Niner fans last week.  11:19  PURPLE PALACE I AM IN YOU! 11:33  Purple palace seat I am in you. (I could have also mentioned being in the purple palace bathroom, but that seemed a minor event)  11:39  Officially, I have the Vikings losing a clo...

Wasn't that just delightful?  After the Eagles blew their chance to clinch the game late, I tapped into the dark arts to summon up some classic 2022 Kirk. C'mon Kirk! And out the door went the rusty Kirk of the first 1 3/4 games. He led a 6 play, 70-yard drive in barely a minute to take the lead. And when Jalen Hurts was picked off shortly after, the Falcons and Kirk had a big win. I always found Kirk's best moments as a Viking especially satisfying. The hate he got from his own supposed fans was disgusting. The phony narratives that surrounded him were easy to debunk, yet people kept believing them anyway. The level of vitriol last week from still obsessed Vikings fans in this town was revolting. He played poorly, at home against a blistering Steelers defense. I thought it was a terrible idea for Atlanta to not play him in preseason. That Steeler game was his 1st game action in nearly a year. It makes sense that he would have a rough opener.  But the Kirk haters rejoiced, ...

VIKINGS 23 49ERS 17 Roughly 11 months ago, the San Francisco 49ers came to US Bank Stadium as big favorites, and their fans packed the stadium, only to leave disappointed. And on Sunday, the exact same thing happened. It was almost the same score. We can only hope what happens next goes better this time. Because while last year's win was by a team trying to rescue a season, this win was from a team that is good right away. Yes, this is a good team. It isn't a fluke. The Vikings are good, and might be good all the way through this, and just beat the toughest team on their schedule. The Vikings drew first blood, as CJ Ham blocked a punt, and set the Vikings up deep in Niner territory. We only got 3, and were kind of lucky to get it, as Sam Darnold nearly threw an endzone pick. The next Darnold throw would jolt the stadium like few plays ever had. First, we had to survive a long 49ers drdrive. Brock Purdy completed a long pass on 4th down as the key play, and soon they were inside...

Reds 8 Twins 4 The Twins have been in the midst of their second playoff-blowing meltdown in 3 years for close to a month now. What looked like a true division race dissolved into "well maybe we can still get the 2nd wild card" and now has sunk to "well maybe we can hold on to the last wild card" The collapse continued on Friday night, during probably my last 2024 trip to Target Field. In come the mediocre Reds, who I picked to win the NL Central this year but who have long since been out of any playoff contention. These are the teams you HAVE to beat, particularly at home, if you want to make the playoffs. But there we were again, having terrible at bats against some nobody pitcher, and unable to score. Bailey Ober was pitching well. His only blemish through 6 innings was a solo homerun that the wind kind of carried out. At last, the Twins feeble offense scored in the 5th. Byron Buxton, in his 1st game in a month, lasered a homerun to left. So we had at least tied i...

VIKINGS 28 GIANTS 6 Coming into this season, it felt like the Vikings were assured to be looking up in the division at better teams, with more hope. Obviously, it's never impossible to make the playoffs, but for this Vikings team it seemed like a longshot. After one afternoon it no longer feels like a longshot. At Met Life Stadium on Sunday, the Vikings displayed the template for what they could do, what they have to do, to not just compete this season but make it pretty fun. They absolutely demolished the Giants in a 28-6 game that really wasn't even that close.  All eyes on Sam Darnold, who went from being a very temporary bridge QB to being the guy for this whole season. His 1st drive was a disaster, though not due to him. Ed Ingram whiffed on a block and got Sam sacked. Then CJ Ham fumbled the ball right to the Giants. A 1st drive turnover following a season where we did this a lot. Not again.  But nothing squashes momentum like holding a team after a big turnover. The def...

Gophers 48 Rhode Island 0 Perfect fall Saturday weather, and super cheap tickets got me to Huntington Bank Stadium. And I felt true pity for the visiting Rhode Island Rams, because this game was easily the most lopsided Gophers win I've ever attended. And maybe one of the most lopsided there has ever been. 48-0, and that was with the Gophers' offense sputtering early, and leaving a couple of scores out there. The game means nothing for their season hopes. This is going to be a mediocre team probably scratching to make it to a lower tier bowl game.  But it was fun to see one of these on-paper routs actually become one. The Gophers offense warmed up and moved with ease, as Max Brosmer got in rhythm, and the run game was effective. But the defensive smothering was the story. The Rams did not cross the 50 until there were less than 7 minutes left IN THE GAME. And even then, they immediately got moved back by a false start. So yes, they did not take a single snap in Gopher territory...

I'm kind of ashamed at myself for how boring my picks this year are. I only have 3 new playoff teams, which is not going to be right. There were a few potential surprises I just couldn't pull the trigger on.  In: Colts, Bengals and Falcons Out: Steelers, Buccaneers, Browns  For the record, my would-be surprise teams in the AFC are the Chargers and Titans. In the NFC? The Cardinals, the Panthers, and, yeah, the Vikings. But I couldn't do it. For the first time since at least 2016 (I didn't go check), I'm not picking the Vikings to make the playoffs. Just all the vibes and warning signs tell me it ain't happening.  We lose JJ McCarthy for the season. And yeah, if Sam Darnold plays well, JJ might not have played much anyway. But it buzzkilled the excitement off that preseason game. Our secondary, already thin, had a horrible summer. Khyree Jackson died. Mekhi Blackmon was out for the year after one practice. Draft busts Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth were tossed aside...