Author: News on Shuffle

World Cup News – The Final Showdown

After a month of soccer (or football, depending where you are from) taking over our lives, it all comes down to the final matches. With the semifinals over, we now know who will be competing for the #1 spot. Drum roll, please…

This year’s World Cup Final will be between Netherlands and Spain. The Third Place match will be between Uruguay and Germany. I was really hoping to get a Netherlands-Germany final, but this just means I can route for Netherlands and actually care about the Third Place match (Go Deutschland!).

Predictions: I don’t think Netherlands should have too many problems defeating Spain, but I knock on wood as I say that for fear of jinxing them. As for the third place match, Germany shouldn’t have too many problems defeating Uruguay (again, knocking on wood here).

What do you think about this year’s final? And who do you think will come out on top? Sound off in the comments section below.

The third place match is July 10th, and the final July 11th. Both matches air on ABC at 2:30pm.

Sports Round-up

Happy Independence Day, sports fans (and everyone else for that matter). Today’s post contains updates for both the World Cup and Wimbledon.

First up, the semifinals for World Cup will be July 6th & 7th. First will be Uruguay v Netherlands at 2:30 on the 6th. Germany v Spain will follow the next day. My predictions: Netherlands v Germany for the Final. More like I really hope that is the case, but it has a good chance at becoming a reality. Netherlands’ upset against Brazil blew the soccer world away (much like Germany blew Argentina away in their Quarterfinal match). I believe these are the two teams to watch out for.

Next, tennis – the Wimbledon finals were this weekend, and here are the results:
For the Ladies Final, Serena blew away Zvonareva on Saturday by a score of 6-3, 6-2. As for the Men’s Final, Nadal beat Berdych earlier today 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. I predicted both outcomes, but hoped for a better showing from Berdych. Even still, congrats to him for making it as far as he did, and congrats to all the players for their own achievements.

Thus concludes the sports round-up for today. Here is a little inspirational something to say Happy Birthday to my fellow Americans. It is a clip from the movie Independence Day.

Wimbledon Gentlemen’s & Ladies’ Finals

Well, folks, we’re finally here. The Wimbledon Finals are this weekend. For the Ladies, we get Zvonareva vs Serena Williams. I predict Serena should win this, but I wouldn’t be opposed to finally seeing someone new win for a change. As for the Gentlemen, their final match will be Berdych vs Nadal. I was really disappointed to see Murray go down in straight sets, especially since he looked strong throughout most of the match. He played his heart out though, so kudos to him anyway. Unfortunately his loss means British fans will have to wait even longer now to see one of their own make it to the Finals at Wimbledon.

Predictions: I think this is going to be Nadal’s year, but I also wouldn’t count Berdych out before the match has even started. After all, this is the guy who knocked Federer out in the Quarters, so he definitely is a force to be reckoned with.

Ladies Finals will be tomorrow, and Men’s Finals will be Sunday. Enjoy your weekend, tennis fans.

Dallas Alice Doesn’t Live Here in Happy Town Anymore

*Yada, yada, yada, SPOILERS AHEAD*

This week’s episode started with the aftermath of Big Dave’s death and some dead birds in the forest. While at Dave’s funeral, Tommy has a run-in with Mrs. Friddle that leaves questions as to whether his mother’s death was a natural one like he thought or if maybe something else happened to her that no one told him about. He brings these concerns to his father who tells him that at one point he had thought it was murder but eventually chalked it up to just needing someone else to blame for his loss. He says he eventually accepted her death, and Tommy should too. It looks like they are going to drop this story right up until the end – when Henley walks into the police station and hands Tommy the mystery hammer, claiming it is the weapon Peggy Haplin used to kill his mother. #shockoftheday So what should we ask first, why Peggy killed Alice or how the hell Mrs. Friddle knew about it? Both very good questions to add to the heaping pile of them this show has buried us in.

Going back a little to how Henley got the hammer back in the first place – with the help of her new best friend Merritt Grieves, of course! Henley has asked Grieves to help her break into Peggy Haplin’s home to retrieve the hammer. Since Grieves was invited to a party there, he says it shouldn’t be a problem. I loved the comment about being the only Brit at a Daughters of the American Revolution event. Anyone else find the funny in that one? Henley goes poking around the house only to be caught by Peggy Haplin. Based on how they were talking it seems they know each other from way back when, or at least know some of the same people. Will the mysteries surrounding this girl never cease? I sure hope we find out everything there is to know about her in a somewhat satisfying way before this whole thing wraps up next week. My only concern is that anything we do find out will feel too forced because of the shortened time-span. Back to the present though… Grieves eventually manages to get both the hammer and Henley away from the house. Peggy is none too happy to find out that she has been betrayed by someone she thought had cared about her. If I were Greives, I would watch out for the Queen Bee’s wrath.

So remember back in the previous episode when Dan Farmer told Georgia not to tell anyone about him or else? Well she totally ignores him and tells Tommy Conroy. She goes one step further though and fingers him as the Magic Man. Truth? Possibly. He definitely seems psycho enough that he could do something like this. Tommy works out a plan to tip Farmer off that they know about the trailer then follow him to see what he does next. Farmer must realize what they are up to though, because he blows up his truck to set the cop off his trail. He steals the Stiviletto’s truck and drives to the boarding house. He then proceeds to kidnap Dot Meadows and takes her to the woods where she had previously filed a police report on some dead birds (and you thought I had forgotten about them from the beginning of the episode, didn’t you?). Farmer takes Dot Meadows to the same spot Big Dave had found (where he thought the Magic Man had been hiding his victims). This makes it seem like he could very well be the man they are looking for. A couple townsfolk stumble upon the site, shoot him, and drag him to the police station. He claims he is not the Magic Man, just the one who is going to catch him and mumbles something about being “so close”. Looks like another wrong turn on the path to finding who the Magic Man is. Or is it…? At least we don’t have too much longer to wait, right?

Thus concludes this week’s recap of Happy Town. Next week was scheduled to be the series finale, but instead they have posted it online for us to watch now. Guess they have completely given up on the show and just don’t care anymore. Hopefully all our questions have at least been answered with some satisfaction. Feel free to leave any comments you might have on the show, as well as any questions you feel need answering. I’m going to wait to watch the finale, so please no spoilers on how it all ends until after I post my recap.

Happy Town – Questions and Antlers

Sorry for the late post here, but now that I’m done with summer classes it shouldn’t happen again. Perfect timing considering next week is going to be the series finale…

This is the recap for the June 16th episode. I’m watching last night’s episode today as well, so you’ll be getting that recap shortly. For now, enjoy this little flashback to events past and see if it connects any dots you might have missed on your own viewing. Of course it goes without saying that there will be plenty of SPOILERS for those who are even further behind than I am. Consider yourselves warned.

Last week we seemed to be getting closer to finally figuring out who the Magic Man is. Boy were we wrong there…

We picked up this week at the police station with John Haplin being questioned about the severed hand that showed up in the bread factory in a previous episode. They get interrupted by Mrs. Friddle who is there to accuse Dave Duncan of killing her husband. Because Tommy Conroy really thought he was keeping that one a secret forever, right? Conroy realizes it has gone too far when John Haplin is about to be charged with the crime, so he asks Dave to come into the station and confess. Dave asks for time so he can tell his mother and uses that as a chance to make a run for it. While running through the woods he falls through a hole underground that has seven cages and thinks he has found where the Magic Man was holding his victims. When he tries to show Tommy though, he can’t find the spot anymore and becomes extremely agitated. Well, that’s the nice way of putting it. Really he goes crazy and starts yelling how he’s not crazy and he’s not going to jail and Tommy is not going to be able to stop him. Tommy, realizing his friend has lost it, has no choice but to shoot him. It was kill or be killed, and no one wants to be killed, right?

The other big story has been Henley and all the mysteries that surround her. Merritt Grieves got involved last week when he said he would transport a briefcase for her. That briefcase was stolen en route with no clue as to who did it. Henley thinks she knows though – Greggy Stiviletto. She goes to confront him about this in an interesting way. I was always a little suspicious of Greggy, but the way Henley has him chained up makes me think she may actually be the crazier of the two of them. What the hell is this girls story?! Seriously, I never pictured Greggy to be the sane one in that pair. Eventually she gets him to talk and we find out he was just doing it because Peggy Haplin told him too. I guess being ordered by basically the Queen of the town is a good enough reason to do something.

The semi-new (but kinda sorta connected to the original) big story is the two kids stumbling on that trailer in the woods and getting trapped inside. It turns out the owner of said trailer is the same guy who kidnapped Georgia the first time around (although anyone else think of V for Vendetta when he was making the crepes in that one scene?). Georgia is now stuck alone in a trailer with the creepiest guy ever. “Where’s Andrew?” you ask. He’s chained to the outside of the trailer. Oh, and creep is actually Dan Farmer, police officer!!! I knew there was something off about that guy when we first met him way back in one of the first episodes. It turns out he is a psycho obsessed cop who is determined to find the Magic Man… by any means necessary. He does eventually let the kids go, but warns them what will happen if they tell anyone what he did to them.

For those who are curious, the song at the end of this episode was “Hand of Fate” by The Rolling Stones. With all of Dan Farmer’s talk about the hand of fate, I guess they thought it was appropriate.

That’s all I have to say for this one. Feel free to leave any comments you want, but more discussion about predictions for the finale will come in the recap for this week’s episode, so keep that in mind.

Wimbledon Gentlemen’s & Ladies’ Semifinals

The Men’s Quarterfinals were today, and boy were there some surprises. Shock of the day came when Roger Federer lost to Tomas Berdych in 4 sets. We almost had another shocker with Nadal, but he was able to bounce back and win his match against Soderling. The draw for the Semis stands as thus:

Berdych vs Djokovic
Murray vs. Nadal

Predictions: I would love to see a Djokovic-Murray Final match, but I also realize Murray will have a real fight if he wants to beat Nadal. For that matter, anyone who beats Roger Federer is someone to watch out for, so Djokovic better be careful if he doesn’t want to be eliminated.

The Ladies Semifinals are tomorrow, and unfortunately do not include my favorite player that from the Quarters – Kim Clijsters. Instead we can look forward to Serena Williams vs Kvitova and Zvonareva vs Pironkova. The only player I even know anything about here is Serena, and I’ll be shocked if she doesn’t at the very least make it to the Finals. Then again, none of my predictions from the Quarters proved to be right (except Serena winning her match) so I guess I’m not one to judge the Ladies side of this tournament. Like I said in a previous post though, I am much more familiar with the Men’s draw. That’s probably why the only one I got wrong on that side was Federer losing (and let’s be honest – no one saw that coming).

Who do you think will make it to the finals this year at Wimbledon? Is it the person you are routing for or someone else? Sound off in the comments section below.

World Cup News – Quarterfinal Matches

After a month of following the best teams in the world, the World Cup Quarterfinals are finally here. Matches start July 2nd. First will be Netherlands vs. Brazil at 10am followed by Uruguay vs. Ghana at 2:30pm. Ghana beat Team USA to make it this far, so it’s ok to route for Uruguay to get a little payback. Don’t worry, it won’t make you a bad person to do so…

July 3rd will conclude the Quarters with Argentina vs. Germany followed by Paraguay vs. Spain. With Team USA knocked out of this tournament, I’ve been routing for Germany to go all the way to the finish line.

Predictions: Seeing as how I didn’t see either Uruguay or Ghana making it this far, it’s hard for me to say here which one will come out with the win. I’m going to hazard a guess and say Uruguay (mostly it’s just a hope they do come out with the win actually, but I’m still putting my money on them anyway). As for the Netherlands-Brazil match, I predict great things and a possible upset here. If Brazil wins, it is not going to be easy. For tomorrow’s matches – I like Germany and Spain for the wins there. If I’m right it means a Germany-Spain semifinal, which would make this football fan very happy.

Who do you think will make it to the Semifinals? And what team are you routing for now that USA is out? Sound off in the comments section below.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer

Mugglenet uploaded the official trailer for HP & the Deathly Hallows earlier tonight, and boy does it look good. I have been looking forward to this installment since the book first came out a few years ago. Now that it is here, it’s hard to believe though. I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that this time next year we will be closing the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga. When the last book was released, we still had the movies to look forward to. Now that the last movies are being released, what do we have left? I suppose we can always go visit Hogwarts through a nice Florida vacation, but it won’t be the same kind of anticipation that we had with the books and movies. Thinking about it is rather depressing though, and I would rather just be excited about this trailer, if you don’t mind. Said trailer can be found below, for your viewing pleasure. Or if you like, you can go to the website it was originally posted on. Enjoy : )

Doctor Who – Vincent and the Doctor

As usually is the case when doing a review/recap of a thing, SPOILERS HAPPEN HERE. So you should probably go watch the episode being reviewed before reading any further. Just saying…

This week’s episode features one of my favorite artists: Vincent van Gogh (played brilliantly by Tony Curran). Anyone who thought they recognized the actor might remember him from Underworld: Evolution (he played Marcus) or any number of guest appearances on various shows (The Mentalist, 24, and Numb3rs being among them). Full list of credits can be found here.

Van Gogh may be one of the most famous painters today, but back in his day he was not so fortunate. It’s a shame really, because his work is actually quite good. One of my favorite paintings of all time is his Starry Night. (For those who care, my other favorite is Portrait of a German Officer by Marsden Hartley). But that really has nothing to do with van Gogh or Doctor Who, so I should probably move along to something more relevant…

Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, something I am quite interested in as a Psychology student. Even without that psychological background though, you could still tell it was going to be interesting to see how crazy old van Gogh would interact with The Doctor. I definitely was not disappointed. Especially not with invisible creatures that only the crazy painter can see running around. (Sidebar: loved The Doctor’s gadget that made it so he could see the beast-y as well). Armed with “overconfidence, this [referring to a briefcase holding gadget-of-the-day] and a small screwdriver” he finds said beast-y inside the church that van Gogh is painting and goes after it.

A word to The Doctor – you should know that when you tell Amy to wait somewhere, she is NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU. So really you should just stop trying and let her do her own thing.

Because she’s going to anyway.

Whether you like it or not.

So there.

Moving right along then…

Beast-y bites the dust thanks to a lethal case of the stabs brought on by Vincent, and thus ends that part of the story. Favorite moment for me came right after when we saw through van Gogh’s eyes and into the heart and soul of previously mentioned favorite painting, Starry Night. Yes, I am an art geek (among other things). No, I am not ashamed of this. In fact, I hope this inspires others to go check out an art museum sometime and experience some of his work (and others) for themselves.

Second favorite moment was van Gogh getting a peek inside the TARDIS. I love everyone’s usual reaction of “OMG it’s bigger on the inside” but his was especially good – “How is it I’m the crazy one and you’ve remained sane”. And thank you very very much to The Doctor for showing Vincent van Gogh how important his work is going to become to future generations. He may be about ready to die in his time, but now he knows that his work will live forever. It reminded me of when he did a similar thing for Charles Dickens in letting him know his books would be timeless. I only can wish that someone like The Doctor really comes around and lets these greats know how truly special they were.

Wimbledon Gentlemen’s & Ladies’ Quarterfinals

Wimbledon is in week 2, which means we are getting down to the wire here. Tomorrow will be the Ladies Quarterfinals. Matches are as follows:

On Centre Court – first match is Clijsters vs. Zvonareva followed by Serena Williams vs. La Ni of China.

On Court 1 – first up is Pironkova vs. Venus Williams followed by Kvitova vs. Kanepi

Predictions: Clijsters, both Williams sisters, and… I’m not sure. That last match features two people I am not familiar with, as I tend to follow Men’s Singles much more closely than the Ladies, as of late.

Wednesday will be the Men’s Quarterfinals, which looks like it will be much more interesting (in my opinion). The draw stands as thus:

Federer vs. Berdych
Djokovic vs. Lu (who beat Andy Roddick for a spot in the Quarters)
Tsonga vs. Murray
Soderling vs. Nadal

Predictions – Federer, Djokovic, Murray, and… I’m not sure. I want to say Nadal but I know he is having knee problems, so that makes this tricky. He might make it past the Quarters, but if he plays Murray in the Semifinals then I think it will at least be a pretty decent battle to the Finals. I’d personally love to see Murray vs. either Federer or Djokovic in the Final match. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. After all, in this tournament anything is possible.