Grab Bag: NFL Draft time! Warriors bruising playoffs, Giants hold steady, and a slew of TV stuff, including my surprise fave new show of this season! And movies!

Good day, gentle readers! As baseball season is ramping up, the NBA is now into the playoffs, and the television season is winding down for the summer. So a lot to cover in this post.

Before we get to all that stuff, I just want to send positive vibes to those who are mourning the passing of Pope Francis. While not religious myself, I am spiritual, and want folks to know I care while you are going thru this difficult time. Pope Francis seemed to be one of the better Popes of this planet's history, so there is a slight dim of the light these days with his loss.

Onto the sportsball. San Francisco 49ers: It's the 2025 NFL Draft! The 49ers have the 11th pick, and a lot of needs, but not quarterback (Purdy still hasn't signed as of this posting), so what will they do? I have no idea, I'm just going to report Day One of the draft! (I will post a link to all the Niners picks in a future blog post!).

They stayed with the 11th pick and chose a position player I though they would; Defensive End/Edge rusher Mykel Williams from the Georgia Bulldogs. If Williams lives up to his potential, he will make for a nice bookend with Nick Bosa.

Golden State Warriors: The Dubs played their first playoff two games (best of seven series) in Houston against the Rockets, and game one was basically a rugby match played on the basketball court with bodies hitting the court, dang near wrestling matches and overall, just a scrum (the Brits are getting to me!) of a game, which the Warriors won, 95-85, thanks to their defense, which in the 2nd quarter, held the Rockets to just 13 points! It was the lowest scoring game of all the NBA playoff games of the weekend! Playoff Jimmy Butler is back, scoring 25 points and directing the offense against the giants (almost all of them are over 6'10"!), who were mugging Steph Curry, but Steph was able to drop 31 points. The Rockets are a league worst at the free throw line, so that helped offset Houston's monster advantage on rebounds, 52-36! Coach Kerr said afterward that definitely needs to be addressed. as well as protecting the ball, keep those turnovers low! Expect a very physical series.

Game two summary: Painful on so many levels. Eight minutes in, Jimmy Butler went high for a rebound and landed HARD on his hip/pelvic area, and did not return. MRI scheduled for Thursday, fingers crossed that he is okay. Podz was physically ill, and while he was on the floor, fans could tell he was not well, and his play showed it, scoring zero points. The Rockets, unlike Game 1, went nuts from the 3-point arc, dropping ELEVEN 3's on the Dubs, and their star player Jalen Green, who was shut down by the Dubs defense on game one, had a career night, scoring 38 points. With his Robin out, Curry's Batman could only score 20 points, as this was yet another rough and tumble physical game, which is how Houston plays and got to be the #2 seed in the Western Division. Pat Spencer and Quentin Post came off the bench and added some help, but they are not Jimmy Butler, and the rest of the lineup was constantly under pressure from the Rockets defense and their rebounding prowess. In the end, the Rockets beat the Warriors, 109-94, a score that looks much closer than the blowout that it was. It's now onto Chase Center for games 3 and 4, in a series that is now tied at 1-1. UPDATE: Butler's MRI showed he suffered a pelvic contusion, and other medical jargon that basically says his left buttock is very very sore from the fall he took in Game 2. Butler is listed as Questionable for Saturday's game. Worst case scenario is that he only misses Saturday's game.

San Francisco Giants: After dropping two out of three in Anaheim to close out the 10 game road-trip, the Giants returned home Oracle Park for a four game series against the Milwaukee Brewers. First game saw Robbie Ray start the game, then get relieved by starter-to-be Hayden Birdsong and the bullpen held the Brewers to two runs, as the Giants won, 5-2. DH Wilmer Flores stayed hot, now leading the major league in RBI's . Game two was one Giants fans and the pitching staff would like to forget, losing to the Brewers, 11-3, highlighted by a Christian Yelich grand slam. Game three gave us a pitching duel with Logan Webb and the Giants coming out on top 4-2, with Flores and Jung Hoo-Lee (now with a .333 batting average) leading the offense in a Brewer error-filled sixth inning. The final game of this series had Mike Yastrzsemski hit a tying two run home run early as the game was now knotted up, 2-2. The Brewers scored three runs off of starter Landon Roupp in the 4th inning to take a 5-2 lead. 3B Matt Chapman added a two-run homer in the 5th to make it 5-4. The Giants scrapped together two runs in the 8th (thx to another Brewers error), and Camilo Doval closed out the game for his 4th save as the Giants win, 6-5 and improve to 17-9. The Texas Rangers come to Oracle next for a weekend series.

Stay hot, Wilmer Flores!

The Culture Club (I settled on a name for the non-sportball stuff!):

Movie reviews! Drop: Now in cinemas, but not for long, as box office number were light, so should "drop" on a streaming service soon. <grin>. The b/f and I really wanted to see this flick together, so opening weekend it was!

Synopsis: Violet is a widowed mother who goes to an upscale restaurant to meet Henry, her charming and handsome date. However, her pleasant evening soon turns into a living nightmare when she receives phone messages from a mysterious, hooded figure who threatens to kill her young son and sister unless she kills Henry.

Our take: Quite entertaining if you like playing the "Who is it?" game that Violet has to play at the top of the tower restaurant. Red herrings, near misses, fatal errors (to lime or not to lime?) and a very exciting last 20 minutes! Teasers: hockey puck, toy car, and a panna cotta dessert! Highly recommended for a rainy or foggy evening viewing!

Companion: On HBO/MAX: I've been waiting for this sci-fi/thriller flick to hit streaming for a bit now, considering the buzz about it, and it did not disappoint! Synopsis: A weekend getaway at a remote cabin turns to chaos when it's revealed that one of the guests -- a subservient android built for human companionship -- has gone haywire.

My take: The movie starts with spoiling the ending, so it's the ride to get there that is the compelling part. Yep, we are rooting for the synthetic! Small cast movie, and everyone delivers their parts well. "Did you jailbreak your sex-bot" is one of my fave lines of the year, in this fiendishly quiet tale of manufactured domestic bliss and meaning of one's own personal autonomy, whether human or robot. There is one twist I was NOT expecting, that really amps the movies tension up to the final confrontation. A "chill" thriller, that is more interested in its storytelling than the blood splatter. TV stuff! The Last of Us: on HBO/Max. Well, those who know the video game that this series is based on knew it was coming, and last Sunday.....it happened. Those who haven't played the video game were very distraught. Yes, I'm being vague here, both because like the lead actor, and the fans, I'm in denial! 911 on ABC: Okay, NO ONE saw that coming, and we are not okay! The last three episodes of this season eight are going to be gut-wrenching as the fallout from THAT death reaches far and wide!

Daredevil:Reborn on Netflix. The show finished it's first season, with the last episode in a way, circling back to the tragic event of the first episode. This is a very gritty show, highlighting the real streets of New York and real citizens as there is a ying-yang pull of support of the vigilantes like Daredevil versus the corruption at City Hall and the police department. And who better to take advantage of this delicate state of affairs than Kingpin...err Mayor Wilson Fisk!

One of the fun parts of the season was watching Kingpin navigate the political world, which is not as quick results oriented as his criminal underworld is. Daredevil's alter, Matt Murdoch, struggles mightily to believe in the law, and to suppress his vigilante urges, but in the season finale, when Kingpin goes full autocrat, Matt has no choice to bring Daredevil out...because season two is going to be an all-out war for the soul of New York! Now that the peace is broken, let the chaos begin! Oh, Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio are outstanding as Daredevil and Kingpin! They only have one true scene together which is the one in the diner below, but their fates keep bringing them closer and closer!

My new favorite series of the season is: Matlock on CBS! Starring Kathy Bates who uses the famous name and her lil ole lady status to get a job in one of New York's biggest law firms so that when not playing Maddie Matlock, she is at her MANSION with her huge crime board trying to figure out who was responsible at the firm for hiding the damning opioid report that would have taken the drug off the market; the drug that ended up killing her addicted daughter! Kathy Bates is out for justice, y'all! While Maddie is doing her sleuthing there are cases of the week to fill each episode. A strong cast, which also has my favorite new actor of the season: Skye Marshall as Olympia, who ends up bonding with Maddie, even though Maddie has her as one of the main culprits in the cover-up! The season finale was bangin' and a great cliffhanger as to what direction season two will go in!

Doctor Who on Disney Plus: Lastly, I highly recommend seeing the second episode of the new season, titled "Lux". So creative and fun! The episode breaks down so many walls and the in-jokes are spot-on! Animation is involved! Don't be a Scooby, be a Velma! ")