Grab Bag Late Summer Edition! Valkyries make herstory, US Open Slam time, Cal Bears kick off college football season, Giants notes. Wednesday Part One and Two reviews, and an odd movie or two!

Oh, it's been a minute! Getting used to my new living digs (liking it!) and running all over town getting medical tests done, plus an avalanche of sports stuff has come down. There WILL be a Grab Bag next week as one sport basically finishes, one starts up, and one has playoff potential! Let's start with entertainment first! Culture Club: Movie and TV reviews!

Mickey 17: Odd, odd flick from the director of the Oscar Best Picture for "Parasite" director. A tricky one to review, so forgive the scatteredness of my thought process! The plot in this sci-fi future is that Mickey (played brilliantly by Robert Pattinson's performance, as he plays the main character of Mickey, a "reprinted" clone (he was human when he started, then has his memories/essence stored on a backup drive, who as the title suggests, has gone thru 17 clone reprints when the movie starts. Mickey is part of a space vessel of , well, religious, "pure-breed" fanatics that want to settle on a new planet. Mark Ruffalo plays the cult leader, with Toni Collette plays his wife (she loves her "sauces"!) , and are obviously the one percent of the crew and are just as obnoxious as you might imagine. Things go awry when Mickey 17 goes out on a mission to communicate with the local alien species ( hard to describe, but they can curl up and roll), and is apparently killed in an ice cave-in (or eaten, as the fanatics think) with his encounter with the alien species ( they are actually kinda cute!). The problem arises when our colonists fanatics believe Mickey 17 is dead, and reprint Mickey 18! 18 is much more aggressive and prone to violence than our meek and sweet 17, which lead to them clashing, complicated romantic entanglements, and NOPE there cannot be TWO clone duplicates! Eventually, the time comes when our colonists are ready to invade, destroy and kill the aliens, but ( I did not mention this, but the aliens saved 17 and sent him back to the ship, so he has a connection with the aliens), both Mickey's, along with a small group of rebels who despise the colonists plans, rise up to try and stop the alien genocide. That's pretty much the plot. My take is I kinda liked it. The negatives are it's too long, some stuff just does not make sense, and it was tricky to grasp onto what was happening at times (apparently there was a bounty hunter on the OG Mickey???). The performances were good, loved the piano saloon soundtrack, and Pattinson is the main reason you stick around- loved his performance (s)! I kinda recommend this quirky flick, but it is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. This promo is pretty darn good at giving a visual overview of what I attempted above!

Thunderbolts* : I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this MCU film, very surprised in fact! I knew I would enjoy Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as the scheming villain Valentina, and the rest of the cast, led by Yelena Bulova, played by Florence Pugh (the actress got her Tom Cruise wish; in the opening shot, she dives off the second tallest building in the world, in Malaysia!). Yelena is the de-facto leader of a bunch of assassin anti-heroes, including the "first Captain America" Walker, and from Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ghost (who can vibrate thru solid objects- I was REALLY happy to see her again!), along with Bucky/Winter Soldier and Yelena's father, the Red Guardian (the Captain America of Russia). Oh, and Bob. Bob plays a critical role in this flick, I type any more and it's spoilery!

What makes this one of the better MCU films, is the underlying topic of one not having a purpose, of an emptiness inside our souls. Wasn't expecting a mental health element to be part of a big MCU action flick! When all things come together near the end of the film, we get what is one of the scariest sequences since Thanos and his snap-very creepy! The asterisk in the title is explained in the one of the two post-credits scenes, btw. Highly recommended. Now airing on Disney Plus.

An excellent promo reel, except It does kind of spoil a few things I was being evasive about!

Wednesday- first 4 eps: On Netflix. Let's start with the good news- the acting, especially Jenna Ortega as Wednesday, is terrific. Also we get Catherine Zeta-jones for the entire series as Morticia, and Joanna Lumley as the crafty Grandma! The sets are fine, and there are some great dry humor tossed about. Now the bad news: Terrible casting of Steve Buscemi as the new Headmaster of Nevermore! Also, too many storylines to keep track of! To wit: There is the red-eyed raven story thats out to get Wednesday, then there is the zombie story to give Pugsley a storyline, then there is the story of our Siren teenager Bianca hiding her mother from a cult leader. Then there is the story of the return of the Hyde monster! Other stuff too, but I get a headache just writing what I did, same as when I watched these first four episodes. the ending of episode 4 was a shocker, as it was unexpected. Love the show and Jenna, just prepare for your brain to do a lot of work!

Wednesday- last 4 eps: Well, the first episode made me very happy with the return of a character that was a pleasant surprise, and a thorn in Wednesday's side. Besides that, we get some answers that were needed to move the story along, as connections are being made. Oh, look, a new storyline, this one for Enid! Argh! Episode 5 though was a delight! We get a brief scene with Gaga, and a body-double switch with Enid and Wednesday!

Bonus in Episode 7- We get a dance routine with two of the character's dancing to a NEW Gaga song! The finale gave us a shocking twist on a legacy character, (teaser: five fingers!) that completely gob-smacked me! THAT'S the kind of writing I love! The Season 2 finale very much delivered! Secrets revealed, new adventures to be had, twists and turns as all the stories come to their conclusion. Season 3 should be fun! Oh, and my scene-stealer vote goes to Joanna Lumley as Granmama- such a nasty crone, that one!

Sports ball time! Herstory made at Chase Center!

Golden State Valkyries: After a week off, and fighting for a playoff spot the Vals on Saturday, played aggressively and pummeled the Washington Mystics, 99-62!!! Sunday, the Indiana Fever visited ValHalla (Chase Center) the next day and without Caitlin Clark, and dealing with clock problems (became a 2 hour plus game!) 75-63! New York Liberty came to town as a heavy favorite reigning champions, and the Vals defense shut. them. down. 32% shooting for the Liberty, four Val players got into double figures to get the upset, 66-58! Magice number to make the WNBA playoffs now two!

Dallas Wings came to Valhalla (Chase) on Thursday, the Vals opened ugly, trailing the Wings 10-0 right out the gate, and trailing by double-digits at halftime, but the Vals fought back to take the lead, but Dallas would not go away, and the Vals helped Dallas with over 20 turnovers! In the end though, rookie Janelle Salun and vet Veronica Burton (taking the team leader role when Kayla Thornton went down with an injury), flexed their skills to win this game and make herstory as the FIRST EVER EXPANSION PLAYOFF TEAM , beating the worst team in the WNBA, who was playing very feisty this game, by a score of 84-80! Oh, and the Vals are on aa six game win streak, with three games to go, including two against the best WNBA team, the Minnesota Lynx. Also, the first home playoff games will NOT be played at Valhalla (Chase), due to the Laver Cup tennis tourney already being booked for that time, so the first "home" playoff game will be at SAP Center in San Jose.

WNBA playoff bound Veronica Burton of the Golden State Valkyries.

In related WNBA news, the Indiana Fever will be without Caitlin Clark for the rest of the season as Caitlin's previous injury that has kept her out of multiple games isn't healing as was hoped for. Sad for the WNBA to lose one of their marquee players.

US Open: The final Slam tourney of the season started a week earlier than I was prepared for- so this is what I was able to scramble together to keep you updated! Fifth ranked American Jessica Keys was ousted in a first round upset. Danai Medevev throws a hissy fit before being upset. His inner saboteur got him again!

Second round found a struggling and emotional Coco Gauff overcome her anxiety (so many double-faults!) and show great resilience in battling those emotional demons and defeating her opponent to move on to the 2nd round.

Either nothing else of note happened in the 2nd round or I didn't see it. Or both! :)

Third round found 7th ranked Italian Jasmine Paolini upset in straight sets, while on the Men's side, after playing four sets, a very emotional 6th ranked Ben Sheldon (USA) had to retire his match due to an shoulder injury. Outside of Alcaraz and Sinner (and Fritz!), Sheldon was getting the most buzz of possibly making the Finals. The fans were very upset by this sad development.

It was a rough day for the USA players as 17th ranked Francis Tiafoe went down in three sets, as did 10th ranked Emma Navarro in three sets. Good news for the Americans is that 4th ranked Taylor Fritz won a tough match against his Swiss opponent in four sets, and the very classy, very educated Taylor Townsend won her match, after the confrontation she had with her last opponent, which you can read about hit here: https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/46099769/taylor-townsend-receives-support-us-open-confrontation

Last days of third-round action, and I am happy to report Naomi Osaka has made it this far, winning her first two matches, while 45 years young Venus Williams and her Doubles partner have done the same in women's doubles! Update: Both Osaka and Gauff won their 3rd round matches and move onto the Sweet Sixteen! They will play each other in round four.

Number one ranked Jannik Sinner needed four sets to defeat his opponent, and moves on. Venus Williams and her doubles partner Laylah Fernandez thrilled the crowd as they moved on to the Sweet 16; Venus was having fun for someone at 45 years old, and not having played in a few years! The upset of the day go to Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked 25th, who defeated third-ranked Alexander Zverev in four tough sets! Felix and his fiance, Nina, are social media fan favorites, she is an equestrian, and both attend their "gigs" when time allows! The last match of Saturday night turned into a tennis war, with American Tommy Paul, ranked 14th, going into an almost FOUR hour battle with his opponent, Alexander Bublik, in a match that ended after at 1AM New York time. The match went to a full five sets, But Paul had nothing left in the tank for the last set, and Bublik pulls off the upset, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 and moves onto the final sixteen. I was exhausted watching this match!

All the favorites sailed thru their 4th round matches on Sunday, but Taylor Townsend did lose her match to end her US Open run. Definitely a fan favorite though! OH, and Oshopenko apologized for her comments she made to Taylor in their match that is covered in the link above.

Oh, Carlos may have made the shot of the tourney so far! Check this out:

The Alchemy of Alcaraz, indeed!

Labor day action had Canada's Felix AA continue to play spoiler, upsetting #15 ranked Andrey Rublev in straight sets, so Felix moves onto the Quarterfinals!

The match of the day though was between 3rd ranked Coco Gauff and 23rd ranked Naomi Osaka of Japan, continuing her comeback to women's tennis. From the get-go, it was pretty obvious that Coco didn't have her head in the game, and Naomi was locked in, ending with Osaka pulling off the upset of the day, beating Coco in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2 to move onto the Quarters since 2021. It has been a rough couple of weeks for Coco, so hopefully she can use the time off to get things right and come back stronger!

Oh, Venus Williams and her women's doubles partner, Laylah Fernandez also advance the Quarters in a straight set victory over their opponents! The stadium was packed for this one, and the crowd was very enthusiastic for Venus and Laylah- definitely a party atmosphere for this match!

Number one ranked Jannik Sinner breezed past Alexander Bublik in straight sets to also reach the Quarters. I mention this match because I think Bublik was not in top form (Sinner was the first opponent to break Alex' serve after 3 rounds of play), as Alex' body was still recovering from from that epic 5 set battle with Tommy Paul less than 48 hours ago! Final was 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in under 90 minutes.

Quarterfinals give us the first big match-up on the Men's side with Fritz vs Djokivic! Novak took the first two sets, 6-3, 7-5, but Fritzie came back to take the third set, 6-3. But Novak finishes off the match, winning the 4th set, 6-4. Rough fact: Fritz has now lost to Novak 0-11!

Oh, and Carlos won his quarterfinal match in straight sets and will face Novak in the semis!

Elsewhere, Venus and Laylah lost their doubles quarterfinal match as their very fun US Open run comes to an end.

Seventh ranked Jessica Pegula sailed thru her matches in straight sets, and move onto the semis. Pegula has not lost a set yet in the tourney. Top ranked Aryna Sabalenka automatically moved into the semis when her opponent retired before the match started. Sabalynka and Pegula face off in the semis Thursday!

Canada's Feliz A-A and eighth ranked Aussie Alex De Minaur went head to head in a great battle with Felix pulling out the huge upset, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 7-6. Felix is now one of the lowest ranking (25th) men's players to reach the Quarterfinals! Felix will play Jannik Sinner in their Semifinal match.

Surprise of the 2025 US Open: Felix Auger- Aliassime - or Felix AA as I refer to him!

More upsets! Second ranked Iga Swiatek fell in straight sets to American Amanda Anisinova, who was ranked 8th, and in the most (for this fan) the other upset found 23rd ranked Naomi Osaka moving onto the Semis as well with a straight sets victory over 11th ranked Karolina Muchova! Sabalenka and Anisinova will play each other in the Semis!

In the women's semi-finals, Jessica Pegula surprised the Flushing Meadows, New York crowd by taking the first set against #1 ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-4. The second set, Sabalenka found her service and ground game, taking the second set, 6-3, setting up a deciding third set, in which Sabalenka traded games with Pegula until too many unforced errors did Pegula in, with Sabalenka taking the the match with a 6-3 final set. The other women's semi-final had Naomi Osaka facing off against Amanda Anisimova. Naomi was up 2-0 and could've gone up 3-0, but let a game point get away, and Amanda rebounded to bring the first set to a tie-breaker, where Amanda committed too many unforced errors, and Naomi ended up winning the tie-breaker, 7-4 and the first set, 7-6, which took an hour. Second set found Amanda still struggling, but she also found her "game"with her powerful first serve that Naomi had trouble returning (Naomi actually showed emotion and whacked her racket on the hard court a few times!). A this point in the match (almost two hours), the audience/crowd could tell that both players REALLY want to win this match; so Amanda took the second set, 7-6, winning the tie-breaker, 7-4.

The decisive third set (its after midnight!) , The third match found Amanda on her game, and Naomi running out of gas, with too many unforced errors, and a weaker serve, as Amanda Anisimova wins the set, 6-3 and the match.

Our women's US Open Final is set: Number one ranked Sabalenka vs eighth ranked Anisimova.

Our first men's semifinal starts with Novak Djokivic taking on Carlos Alcaraz. Update on Carlos hair; he has gone from shaved bald at the start of the tourney to a buzzcut at the start of this match! Both players serving up 125 MPH aces and are controlling their first serve game, but Carlos takes advantage of Novak's weaker 2nd serve to win the first set, 6-4. Novak came back in the 2nd strong going up 3-0, before Carlos broke Novak's serve, and evened the set at 3-3. The wily veteran though comes back and wins the next to games, as does Carlos to bring the set to a 5-5. And this set goes to a tie-break, with Novak gets in a couple of nasty drop shots on Carlos, but Carlos gets a couple of aces on his serve and wins the tie-break 7-4 and the set, 7-6. Father time caught up with Novak in the 3rd set, with the 38 year old Novak running out of gas against the speedy Carlitos who wins the set 6-3 and the match and moves on to the Men's Final on Sunday! Who will Carlos play on Sunday? Jannik or Felix? Won't find the answer here, as I've hit my deadline, and that match is later on Friday. I suspect Jannik, but Felix could pull off a major upset!

California Golden Bears: The California Golden Bears kicked off their 2025 season (2nd in the ACC) in Corvallis, Oregon against the Beavers Saturday. Cal lost 37 players to the transfer portal, including their number one QB and top running back, amongst others, so LOTS of new players, including a true freshman quarterback from Hawaii, who was ranked very well on the prospects lists by many pundits. His name is a typists nightmare (whee), Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (Saga-polo-tele), who had a hot first first half, going 17-25 for 191 yards and two TD's in the first half to give the Bears a 17-3 halftime lead. Cal defense contributed in the 2nd half with two turnovers. JKS finishes the game with a line of 20-30, 235 passing yards and three touchdowns as the Cal Bears get their forst win of the season on the road, 34-15!

In other college football news, #1 ranked Texas lost to #3 ranked Ohio State, as I thought they would. #8 Alabama lost to Florida State, which was an upset, while #9 ranked LSU played a tight defensive game, beating #4 ranked Clemson! Oh, and Tennessee beat Syracuse- better mention that for Lisa! And Miami defeated Notre Dame!

My top 5 teams for the season? Ohio State Georgia, LSU, Oregon and (cough) USC.

SF Giants: Fire batting coach and improve the preventative injury staff! I typed that sentence about 2 weeks ago, and for the last week of August, the Giants went 9-2 while scoring over 60 runs! Perhaps I should do mare drafts like that to motivate them! Bad news is that Giants All-Star closer Randy Rodriguez went on the 60-day injured list for an elbow injury, effectively ending his 2025 season. I have gone from No way to making the playoffs, to a very long shot- Giants have to win games and count on the teams ahead of them to lose games to get a spot in the playoffs. The team IS coming together, especially if there is a scrum that is going to be thrown down, like there was In Denver early this week, as you can see from the video below! The Rockies pitcher and Giants Matt Chapman and Willy Adames got tossed from this game (Giants went on to win it btw).

Have a great weekend, and may your teams odds be forever in their favor (unless you playing any of my SF/Bay Area teams, then a pox on your house!) :)