MSG

Last night, the Pistons played the Knicks in Madison Square Garden and it was a flashback of Ben Gordon's days as a Bull. He was on fire from the 3-point line, nailing 7 of them. That was just one shy of the record against the Knicks. He finished the game leading all scorers with 35. He had his best game of the season and it was the first time Detroit used him correctly, giving him the minutes and the ball. However, the outcome of the game wasn't reminiscent of the Bulls days. The Pistons lost and the final score did not reflect the awesome show by BG... 124-106. Besides Gordon, they really didn't have the pieces to win the game.

Gordon is just averaging 15 ppg, while on the Bulls he had 20-25. Though he came off the bench, he played as many minutes as a starter and had teammates that meshed with his style. Seeing him burn the Knicks really made me wish we still had him in our almost non-existent shooting guard position.

Weekend Sport Wrapup

Bulls
Make it 6 in a row! I can really get used to these streaks. I have a Yankees-like confidence in the Bulls now. Saturday's game was one of those taking-care-of-business ones against the Pacers. They had to make sure they didn't bring their playing level down to the 17-26 Pacers. The game was probably a little closer than it should've been, but the Bulls pulled away in the 4th and won 110-89. The still sick Rose scored 20 w/ 7 asts. Boozer had his usual double-double. Deng added 19 and made big plays once again. Korver was in the zone as he scored 16 in just 20 minutes.

Australian Open
This one wasn't as exciting because both Nadal and Federer were eliminated. I didn't even make the effort to watch after that, but for the women, Kim Clijsters defeated Li Na in a close 3-set match. Li was strong in the first set, but Clijsters came back for the championship. Li was also distracted by the Chinese fans and media. Clijsters was the better player, but people shouting at Li likely factored in too. On the men's side, it was Djokovic over Murray in the final.

Another Top Team Down

The Bulls dropped another top team last night, this time the Orlando Magic. Without Noah, there's no answer for Dwight Howard, so they just let him go and have a big 40-point game. The important thing is they pretty much shutdown everyone else. Arenas was hot for a few minutes, but only finished with 11. No one else was in double digits for Orlando. Rose played with a stomach ulcer and scored 22 pts and 12 asts. Deng was great as he made a lot of hustle plays, pulled down 8 rebs and lead the team with 26 pts. The Bulls were down at the half, then made a huge 3rd quarter run. They had a short drought in the 4th, but were again, clutch in the final minutes.

It certainly helped that Vince Carter is no longer on the Magic, but the Bulls have beaten all of the top teams this year... Lakers, Celtics, Heat and Magic. It's just odd that they lost to teams like the Nets, Knicks, Cavs and Bobcats. Still, beating the top teams proves that the Bulls are a legitimate contender and that Derrick Rose is the best player in the NBA.

Another Storm

I woke up a little earlier than normal, expecting delays during the morning commute. While a lot of snow is still on the ground and I had to walk around some mountains at the intersections, things were pretty much running at normal speeds. There were no train delays yet. I actually caught all of my trains just on time with no wait and made it to work a lot earlier. So the city did a good job of clearing the bus routes and preventing mechanical difficulties with the trains. This last storm dumped about the same amount as the one we had during the holidays, so it's a good comparison for the city's response.

The schools and most companies also made a good decision in shutting down for the day. The conditions were really bad in the morning, especially wit no bus service. So it would've been dangerous to commute. If you break things out by season rather than calendar year, you can say that we've already had over 50" of snow starting with the December storm. That's about double the average. We still have February to go and sometimes even March!

Maria Shampova

OK... this one's a little weird, but Maria Sharapova is Maria Sharapova:

Bulls vs. Bucks

The Bulls won again last night against the Central rival Bucks. It wasn't exactly a nice game as they struggled on the field with 39% shooting (vs a respectable 46% by the Bucks), but they still won 92-83... a pretty good margin. At one point, the Bulls extended to an 18-point lead, but then fell within 4. Like the previous game, they picked it up again with 2 minutes left in the 4th to seal the victory. It's reassuring that they play well at the end of the 4th all the time. It's something that has been missing for a number of years.

Early in this game, Korver was given a lot of minutes with Rose on the floor and he was on fire from 3. Hopefully Thibodeau uses more of this combo. It only makes sense... Rose cuts inside and takes the double team. He then kicks it out to Korver for a quick jumper. Jordan has always had a top 3-point shooter (Paxson, Armstrong, Kerr) and now Rose does. The Bulls should take advantage of this strategy more often.

Weekend Sports Wrapup

Bulls
There's still no win-loss-win-loss pattern for the Bulls this year. The big win against Dallas didn't cause a lax on Saturday's game against the lowly Cavs. The game was probably a little more exciting than it should've been though. The Bulls did put together a good lead in the 3rd, but had a drought in the beginning of the 4th. They allowed the Cavs to get too close, but then went on an 11-0 run to seal the deal. Rose had a 3-point play, followed by a Korver 3, Boozer 3-point play and Rose layup. Rose ended with a 28 pt/8 ast night. Deng and Boozer each had 20 and double-doubles as they helped prevent the Cavs from stealing one away.

Tennis
No American were left standing after the weekend. Venus Williams retired from a stomach injury early in her 3rd round match. Roddick was beaten in straight sets by Stanislas Wawrinka. Nadal had an easy match against local, Bernard Tomic. Tomic's best stretch was going up 3-0 in the 2nd, but I never felt Nadal was in trouble. He came all the way back and won that one in straights. Djokovic, Federer, Wozniacki and Li are still in it.

Jets
The Jets fell behind early in the game and never really recovered. The did make a late run with a couple of interceptions, but heart only goes so far when the skill isn't there. I think everyone in NY was so impressed with how they made it to the championship that they felt they were going to win.

NBA All-Star Voting (East)

F - Carlos Boozer & LeBron James
LeBron James will always have this spot as long as he's playing. He's going to one of the best player in the league for a long time. Because of that, I can't get Luol Deng in here this year.

C - Dwight Howard
I would've liked to vote for Noah at Center, but as good a center as he has become, Dwight Howard is truly unique. He has size and speed. Noah is definitely an alternate.

G - Derrick Rose & Ben Gordon
Like LeBron will always get my vote at F, Derrick Rose will always get my vote at G for the rest of his career. I feel he's the MVP for the league at this point in the season, not James. So he's automatic. I'm voting Ben Gordon in because he's one of my favorite players. Even though Detroit doesn't use him correctly, he's still got the moves and the deadly 3 ball in him.

NBA All-Star Voting (West)

F - Carmelo Anthony & Kevin Durant
Melo and Durant are no-brainers. They're two of the best scorers in the league. I think this is the first time I didn't put Tim Duncan in here. He's gotten older, but he's still very good. I'd definitely pick him as an alternate.

C - Yao Ming
Yao is still injured, but I just don't see a legitimate center in the West. So he gets the honorary mention this year though he won't play. Maybe Camby would be a good alternate with his defensive stats.

G - Vince Carter & Steve Nash
I went with 2 Suns for this one, which make a good point guard/shooting guard combo. Nash continues to make players better. He was disappointed with the Amare trade, but makes the best use of whatever team he's given.

Defensive Battle

With Derrick Rose shooting 9 of 28 from the field, one wouldn't think he'd end up with 26 points to lead all scorers, but just like Michael Jordan used to do, he found ways to score. During what would've been team shooting droughts, he drove it to the basket and got fouled. You can also tell he's been practicing from the line as he made all his free throws. On his drives to the basket, he had no intention of making the shot. It was all about getting the foul.

As a team, no other player scored in double digits other than Rose. This game was a defensive battle all the way with each team leading by no more than 6 points. The refs were stopping play with almost every possession, stretching the game out to over 3 hours. Deng had a bad offensive night, but held Dirk Nowitzki to xxx points, which was key at the end of the 4th quarter. Gibson and Thomas cleaned up a lot of missed shots. Asik made good use of his minutes as well. You can say this game was won with offensive rebounds as the Bulls pulled down 17 vs the Mavs' 9. Something else to note is Boozer was still out. So the Mavs were full force and the Bulls did not have Boozer or Noah. So as the second team gets more field time, the Bulls will have conditioned themselves to have the depth they were missing at the beginning of the season.

With the win, the Bulls have just done 2 things they were unable to accomplish since the Jordan era... they handed the Mavs their first season sweep. And at 15 games over .500, it's their best start since Jordan's Bulls.

Melo Update

The trade deadline is still a month away, but the news about where Carmelo Anthony will go is in the news every day and is ever-changing. About a week ago, things seemed to point to the Knicks. It's supposedly where he preferred to play and of the 2 local teams, the Knicks are doing better. The Nets back then were more serious about a deal and had legitimate pieces to close it. The Bulls were out o the picture although it was recommended by several commentators as the place to go if he truly wanted a ring. After yesterday, talks about the Knicks quieted down. The Nets owner downplayed the whole thing, say they're no longer interested and also adding that he has canceled the meeting with Melo. All of a sudden, the media started writing about the Bulls. Melo started complimenting the city of Denver as if he was going to stay. So what does this all mean? Absolutely nothing in the world of NBA deals! All teams are still in it and this thing likely won't be resolved until really close to the deadline.

Beaten by MJ Twice

Though the Bulls just had a 3-game win streak, the game before and last night's game after ended up in losses to Michael Jordan's Bobcats, a significantly lesser team with a worse than opposite record. The game was close in all quarters with the Bulls mostly playing from behind by single digits. No one on the Bobcats was really hot. They didn't have a player with 20 points or more. The Bulls just didn't produce enough themselves. It was really only Rose (33 pts), Gibson (9 pts/9 rebs/6 blocks) and Deng (10 pts/8 rebs). Scoring was spread out, as almost every active player contributed, but they could have used one more guy on fire to win this one. The only good news is they didn't get blown out and still tried hard throughout. They even had a chance to tie with the last possession, but it shouldn't have come down to that against a team like Charlotte. Now Tyrus Thomas can have bragging rights even though he didn't do anything significant in the wins!

Friday Night Fight Results

Here are the official FNF results:

- Steven Mandalfo def Alejandro Ramirez (TKO 2nd)
- Rebecca Hart def Laurie Cahill (Dec 3rd)
- Pascal Jean Michel def Jessie Cronier (Dec 5th)
- Andrea Messier def Watt Sriboonruang (Dec 3rd)
- Ashley Nichols def Alexis Asher (Dec 3rd)
- James Besselman def Dave Mcdonald (Dec 3rd)
- Marcus Fisher def Kingsley Opaku (Dec 5th)
- Roli Delgado def Turan Hasanov (Dec 3rd)
- Chris Kwiatkoski def Mike Erosa (KO 2nd)
- Mark Deluca def Kevin Molina (Dec 5th)
- Alexander Lavrushin def Chris Romulo (Dec 5h)
- Eric Utsch def Brian Daye Hernandez (Dec 5th)

Triple Double

I called it! Derrick Rose finished with a triple-double... 22 pts/10 rebs/12 asts. Korver's hot shooting continued into the 2nd half as he finished with 22 pts on 6 of 10 3 point shooting. Deng led the team with 28. Gibson added 10 along with a lot of hustle and cleanup plays. The Grizzlies made a couple of runs with OJ Mayo waking up in the 4th, but timely 3 pointers by Deng and Korver muted the crowd before they could really get into it. Zach Randolph went cold in the 2nd half.

The Knicks lost their MLK game in an offensive mirror match with the Phoenix Suns... 192-121 despite a 41-point performance by Stoudemire. The streaky Knicks have now lost 3 in a row.

Bulls at the Half

The Bulls are back for another holiday game. This time, they're on nationwide TV against the Memphis Grizzlies. It's not really a high market matchup, but I guess they were trying to play up Rose vs. Gay. The Bulls are looking good so far in this game despite missing Boozer out with a sprained ankle. Rose has 14 pts, 6 rebs and 4 asts so far... potential numbers for a triple-double. Deng was hot with 11 and Korver was on fire from 3... 4 of 5 with 14 points. So they're doing a good job of covering for Boozer so far. Gibson is doing his thing as he already has 4 blocks! For the Grizzlies, Randolph leads with 16, and there's not much from anyone else. The Bulls lead 53-42.

Weekend Sports Wrapup

NBA
As hot as the Knicks have been, they somehow made the Sacramento Kings, one of the worst teams in the NBA look like superstars. This isn't the team with Chris Webber, Mike Bibby and Vlade Divac anymore, but they hti their shots and thwarted the Knicks successfully in the Garden... very embarrassing. The Spurs continue to knock teams out and still only have 6 losses!

Muay Thai
I wasn't able to make the Friday Night Fights season opener, but Ashley Nichols, Pascal Jean-Michel, Eric Utsch and Mark DeLuca won their fights. Chris Romulo lost his, which was a shocker. I don't think he's had a loss in a couple of years at least. On the other side of the World, 6-time world champion, John Wayne Parr announced that he would retire after 2011. It's sad news for the Muay Thai world, but I'm happy that he's going out in his peak and on top of the rankings. He's going to go on to be a great teacher and I'm sure he'll find his way into the movies too.

Tennis
The Tennis season kicked off with the early rounds of the Australian Open. Federer, Roddick, Wozniacki, Venus, Sharapova and Bartoli all cruised in with straight set victories. Monfils had a tough 5-set marathon in which he dropped the first 2 sets... exciting match. Because of the time difference, this tournament is hard to keep up with, so I can only watch on weekends late night really.

Football
I don't watch football and didn't even see last night's Jets/Patriot's game, but it's always big news when New York beats Boston, no matter what sport it is. In this case, New England was the favored team by far. So the huge upset only made it sweeter.

The Circled Date

Back when Kyle Korver first signed with the Bulls, he was asked about the Miami Heat team. He responded with, "we're going to have that game circled on the calendar." He was happy to join the Bulls and believed the team could compete against the fully loaded Miami team. On Saturday night, that day came as the Heat came into the United Center for their first game of the season series. Previously, Miami had embarrassed every team that was wooing LeBron James in response to the boos. Though James was out with an injured ankle, the fans showered Wade with the boos. This ignited the star to play a great game, but not a better one than Derrick Rose... 34 pts, 8 asts, 4 rebs... and 3 blocks! Rose heard chants of MVP on his trips to the line. Even without James in the lineup, the Heat are still one of the toughest teams. The Bulls stayed with them the whole game and it was close down to the wire. Rose and Wade traded clutch shots in the final minute, but it was Kyle Korver that hit the game winning 3.

It was a good team effort as Boozer finished with a double-double. While no one other than Rose dominated the offense, every active player scored at least 2. At 27-13, the Bulls are currently the 3rd seed in the East

iPhone vs iPhone

It's not a rumor any more! It was announced earlier in the week that Verizon will be adding the iPhone 4 to their lineup on February 10. It's essentially and iPhone 4 in design, but since it was developed for Verizon's CDMA network, there are some differences.

Verizon iPhone
- can act as a wi-fi hotspot for up to 5 devices, like several of the Droid phones offered
- does not have the antenna issue, so you can hold the phone however you like without having to buy a bumper case
- has the best city coverage with minimal blackout areas
- cannot be used overseas
- cannot use other apps while making calls

AT&T iPhone
- has no hotspot feature
- fails to function when holding in a certain position unless you buy a case
- poor phone quality
- can be used overseas
- can page to other apps during calls

When you add this all up, Verizon has the edge. Most people will no take it overseas anyway. That's a very small business demographic. And why would you want to use other applications while on a call? You should be paying attention to the caller!

Storm #2

We just had our 2nd major storm and it's just early January and only a few weeks into Winter. Despite reports of 8 inches, the actual looked like 12 or higher. The cleanup response by sanitation was much better this time and they opened all public schools. Even my office, which was closed last time was open today. The accumulation was not far from the holiday storm and it was just as difficult to get to work, so why not another closure? It's basically because it's early in the season and schools & offices did not want to shutdown 2 times, so close to each other. There could be more storms like this coming. I think there would be closures if we had not had the first storm. Also, it stopped snowing earlier than was predicted. The skies were crystal clear just before the morning rush. Still, in my opinion, closures should be based on conditions and safety, not because we had closures 2 weeks ago.

Widening the Gap

The Bulls fully made up for their 2-game skid late last week with a 2nd win in a row against their Central rival Pistons. With the 95-82 victory, they widened the gap to 9.5 games ahead of Indiana for 1st place in their division. The Pistons lead for most of the game, but the Bulls came back in the 2nd half to secure the lead. Like the Celtics win, it was the big 3 providing almost all of the offense. Rose lead with 29, Boozer had 27 and Deng added 17. They actually got outrebounded and were practically even in every other category. But they stopped the Pistons from scoring, holding them to just 15 and 12 for the 3rd & 4th.

Ben Gordon had an off night offensively, but filled up the stat sheet completely with 5 pts, 4 rebs, 2 asts, 2 steals and a block. I still don't think Detroit has used Gordon that well at all. Ironically, his role still has not been filled on the Bulls either. I'm hoping he makes his way back by some weird chance. The current Bulls team with Gordon swapped in for Bogans would be the best in the East!

Sword of Azrael: 201101

Death by Fiery Sword
No contest. This one goes to Jared Lee Loughner, the man who all of a sudden shot Sen. Gabrielle Giffords, killed 6 others and wounded 19 at the scene. Of the 6 killed, there was a 9 year old girl. So Loughner should get a punishment equal to 26 deaths for the ones he killed as well as the ones he attempted to kill.

Slave Pit
A 70-year old bank robber had just completed his 22 year sentence and went straight back to the job a few days after his release. He attempted to rob a bank in Midtown Manhattan with a steak knife. He went over to customer service, where there's no money. When the manager came out, he fled, but cops were already alerted. Cops chased him and warned him to drop the knife. He charged and was shot in the leg. Once a criminal always a criminal. Lock him up and throw away the key.

Excommunication
This goes to the Department of Sanitation. I initially thought the snow was too much, which was why it took them days to plow every street. But then all the stories kept coming out. The commissioner of sanitation publicly gave the workers an A+ grade. 720 workers called in sick that day. Workers were also told that it was OK if they missed a street here and there. The 720 who called in sick should be fired. In a time of recession, I'm sure there are 720 people out there who are desperate for a job and would work hard if they got one.

Playoff Preview Match

It wasn't a bad weekend for the Bulls, after losing easy games to the Nets and Sixers. A big win against Boston more than makes up for it. Boston is one of the best teams in the East and a potential playoff opponent for the Bulls. All the mistakes that they made in the previous 2 games were corrected against a much better team. Everyone played good defense, holding the Celtics to 37% shooting. They normally shoot a league high 50%! Rose took advantage of the slow Shaq, drawing a lot of fouls, something the Bulls as a team have not done a good job of. It was also a convincing win as they lead for most of the game and finished 90-79. Beyond Rose's 36 and Boozer's 22, they didn't get much from anyone else offensively, but it was what they did defensively that won the game. They outrebounded the Celtics 48-27. Gibson & Thomas had 4 blocks a piece.... which is like taking away 8 points from the opponent.

Though I was in favor of Lawrence Frank or Jeff Van Gundy for the coaching position, one major plus about having Tom Thibodeau is he has a lot of inside information on the Celtics, which will be valuable if there's another playoff series against them.

ASUS EEE Slate

I've been reluctant to buy the iPad or any other tablet for that matter because they're all underpowered systems. They either have a phone OS like Android or iOS and not a full OS. While they make good eReaders, they perform less overall tasks than a much cheaper netbook. But last week, ASUS (again) changed that. They released the specs for the EEE Slate...

- Core i5 Processor (clock speed unknown... but I'd say at least a dual core 1.5 Ghz)
- 32 or 64 GB SSD
- 4 GB RAM
- SD Card Slot
- 2 MP Camera
- 2 USB Ports
- HDMI Port

Those look like laptop specs! As if that didn't blow away the competition enough, the package includes a bluetooth keyboard and a Wacom stylus. So the whole device can act as a Wacom tablet combined with a monitor. It's everything a tablet should have been when they first came out last year... a computer than can also open eBooks... not the other way around.

MetroCard Grace Period

This is important, so I'm reprinting this from the Straphanger's website:

*Unlimited Ride Metrocards purchased before the fares increase on December 30th must be swiped by January 10th to get the maximum value from it;

*A one-day Fun Pass will expire on January 10th

*A seven-day card or a seven-day express bus card will expire on January 16th

*A fourteen-day card will expire on January 23d

*The monthly card will lose its' value on February 8th

The one-day Fun Pass is being eliminated; The seven day Metrocard is increasing from $27 to $29; The fourteen-day Metrocard is being eliminated; The monthly Metrocard is increasing from $89 to $104 effective December 30, 2010.

New York Burger Co.

Location: 678 6th Avenue (btw 21st & 22nd St.)
Cuisine: Burgers
Phone: 212-229-1404
Website: www.newyorkburgerco.com
Prices: About $13 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 5
Value: 8
Environment: 6

Visits: 10+

Though the stats are still the same for this restaurant, I'm reposting this because they changed the names of most of their menu items. Instead of naming burgers by state, they took NYC names like Bowery, Chelsea and Flatiron burgers. After all, it's "NY Burger Co." and not "US Burger Co." All the sandwiches are still the same, just with different names. Here's how they matched up to the best of my memory...

Chelsea: (formerly Chicago) cherrywood smoked bacon, cheddar & thousand island

Bowery: (NEW... came out earlier last year I think) crispy onions, cheddar & chipotle honey

Flatiron: (formerly Dallas) grilled onions, roasted poblano, jack cheese & bbq sauce

Soho: (formerly Seattle) portobello, grilled onions, Swiss & NY Burger sauce

Tribeca: (NEW... came out with the new menu) cherrywood smoked bacon, blue & avocado

Of course the NY Burger and NY Cheese are still the same as before.

Stuck in the Net

Jason Kidd is long gone, but the Bulls still have their troubles with the Nets... in New Jersey at least. Last night, their 5-game win streak ended against a team they should have beaten, a team on a 5-game losing streak. For the most part, the Bulls have been taking care of business with the sub-500 teams, so I guess a loss once in a while is OK. Yesterday, I mentioned woes at the freethrow line and that's pretty much what happened here. If you break it down, the game was lost with the near-50% shooting, including Deng's 2 misses in the final minute. They also had way too many turnovers. If we put in their season avg. FT's and turnover rate, this game is easily a win.

The Bulls are in the middle of a tough week though. They just played the night before as well and will play again tonight against a 76ers team looking for payback.

Another 5

The Bulls blew out the Raptors last night for their 5th straight win. That's right... another win streak right after it was broken by the Knicks on Christmas. And they're doing it without Joakim Noah too. Gibson, Deng and Boozer are all picking up the slack with rebounds. Last night, all players who played scored. Six players were in double figures, lead by Deng's 24. The first quarter was close, but the Bulls started to build their lead in the second. They lead by as much as 24 in the third, but did have a bad drought where they just kept missing freethrows. They were still able to maintain the lead at 10 and then built it all back in the 4th.

The Bulls still have to do something about freethrows though. Naturally, without Gordon and Hinrich on the team, they went from one of the best FT percentages to one of the worst. The players have to practice and improve though because it's embarrassing if they lose games to missed FT's. Just imagine what kind of record they would have if they were an 80%+ team... maybe something close to the Spurs... 29-5!

U36JC Unboxing

Here's the official unboxing video of the ASUS U36JC:


Eat your heart out, Apple!

Suicide FAIL

It was back to work today, after a holiday week plagued with piles of snow. Because the sanitation vehicles and workers were busy cleaning up the city, there's a huge backlog of trash that hadn't been picked up since before Christmas. Apparently, someone on Midtown West tried to commit suicide by jumping from his apartment building. He was saved because his fall was cushioned by the extra bags of garbage he landed on. The most common thought is that the guy was lucky. No one survives a 9 story plunge. On the other hand, if he really intended to kill himself, he should have picked a clearer condition. Both the snow and garbage could've helped break his fall. Hopefully he sees this as a second chance rather than a failure though.

Holiday Games

Overall, the Bulls did well in 2010. They did lose the Christmas game to the Knicks, but ended the year with a New Year's Eve win against the Nets. Just before that game, the also beat the Central rival Pistons and Bucks. Yesterday, they opened 2011 with comeback win over the Cavs.

In Yesterday's game, the Bulls started out slow against a vastly inferior Cavs team. So it looked like they went back to their old ways of playing down to the level of a worse team, but they quickly made up ground with the Boozer/Rose combo that's looking better and better as they get used to each other. Rose ended with a 28 pt, 11 ast double-double. Boozer had a 20 pt, 11 reb double-double. Deng added 23 pts and Kurt Thomas had 13 rebs, but there wasn't much from the bench this game. Deng got the final free throw of the game to get the 100 points and free burgers for the fans!

Happy New Year

Like every New Yorker with common sense, I avoided the Times Square scene and just watched the event on TV. The weather was perfect for the people who attended live though, despite the storm at the beginning of the week. The TV programs focused a lot on the musical performances, so I kept flipping channels until I hit one that talked more about the event and people. I felt like the countdown was a lot lamer than previous years. I stuck with FOX because they usually do a good job... not this time. The camera was mostly on couples trying to reenact the Times Sq. kiss. The ball that came down was obscured by a large clock blocking its front and a video screen right under that.