Ryan Beltram
Passionate about movies, sports and writing, Ryan hails from Bend but lives in Springfield now. He earned his college degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and hopes to one day write a novel. He also enjoys sunsets and long walks on the beach.
Where Did The Week Go…
It’s been a terrible season for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. With the replacement-officials fiasco, ongoing issues with former and current players regarding player safety and pending lawsuits with players who may or may not have been involved in the New Orleans Saints’ bounty program, Goodell might not see those man-hugs from future players in next year’s NFL draft.
But there has been one shinning light through all of the ugly haze that has blanketed this season and that light is colored pink.
The NFL’s breast cancer awareness campaign is in its fourth year and with each year has come more and more players supporting the month of October with pink hats, shoes and towels.
Why didn’t anyone think of these sooner?
This weekend, in the final installment of that campaign, one game will take the cause even further. During the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins game, officials will use pink penalty flags. And who came up with this genius idea? An 11-year-old boy from New Jersey.
Dante Cano, a fifth-grade student at Asher Holmes Elementary School, wrote in a letter to Goodell:
“My name is Dante Cano. I am 11 years old and I am from Marlboro, New Jersey. I wanted to know if you could use my idea of pink penalty flags in October for breast cancer awareness,” Dante wrote. “Please write back.”
Not only did Goodell oblige Cano, he also invited Dante and his family to MetLife Stadium where they will present the pink penalty flags to the officials prior to the game.
“Dante had a great idea and I am looking forward to meeting with him on Sunday to put it into action,” said Goodell. “Sometimes the simplest ideas can be the best. I applaud Dante for sending in his recommendation.”
This is a cool little story. Here’s hoping this expands even further next year and we have pink flags in every NFL game on the last day of the month.
Netflix Instant Pick: The Snowtown Murders
A series of homicides in South Australia occurred between August 1992 and May 1999. Eleven bodies were discovered in a town called Snowtown. The crimes were uncovered when the remains of eight victims were found in barrels of acid. The Snowtown Murders depicts the four men behind these murders.
Sixteen-year-old Jamie lives with his mother, Elizabeth, and two younger brothers, Alex and Nicholas, in a lower-class neighborhood. There is never any mention of their father as the mother struggles to provide for her sons. After discovering that her boyfriend and neighbor has been molesting the boys, she informs the authorities and attempts to repair her damaged sons.
A grisly, often unsettling thriller.
Rather quickly, Elizabeth meets John Bunting, a charismatic man who unexpectedly comes to the families’ aid following the tragedy. As John spends more and more time with Jamie’s family, they begin to experience much needed stability and a sense of family and normalcy they seemingly haven’t felt in a long time.
But what the family doesn’t know is that underneath the charisma and nurture lies a man full of bigotry, righteousness and malice. Bunting has a particular disdain for people he believes to be pedophiles and homosexuals and using his skills as a manipulator, he convinces three others, including Jamie, to help him in ridding the world of these people. What begins as justified vigilantism in their eyes quickly turns into a sadistic and evil game of killing anybody Bunting feels unfit for this world.
The Snowtown Murders is the one of those movies that stays with you. It’s bleak, depressing and unsettling. Perfect for Halloween right? Except unlike your typical Saw or Hostel movie, Snowtown relies heavily on scenes where there is no violence at all. The constant unpredictability of Bunting in every scene he’s in creates a palpable tension that continues for the duration of the film. The majority of violence is offscreen, which in some ways can be worse because it leaves us to our own imagination. But in the few moments where there is violence, it feels so real and gruesome that you have a hard time watching it.
So I recommend you see The Snowtown Murders. Once is probably enough, but I recommend seeing it this week since it is that time of year. I also completely understand if after reading this review you decide to stay away from it. That might be a good decision too.
Blazers Cut Five for Start of Season including Adam Morrison.
With the NBA season starting Tuesday, the Blazers had to reduce its roster from 20 players down to 15. It was a forgone conclusion that Demonte Harper, Dallas Lauderdale, Justin Holiday and Coby Karl would be waived, but it was that fifth player; between Adam Morrison and Sasha Pavlocic, that seemed up in the air.
He would have fit right in here with that hair.
All that speculation came to an end on Friday as Adam Morrison was informed he would be cut. It was perhaps Morrison’s last chance at maintaining an NBA career. The former No. 3 overall pick in the 2006 draft will go down as one of the bigger busts in recent memory.
Despite an outstanding college career at Gonzaga, Morrison was never able to do the one thing that would have made his pro career last, shoot the ball consistently. Known more as a scorer than a shooter, Morrison’s lack of athletic ability prevented him from creating his own shot or playing defense at a high level.
After being drafted by the Charlotte Bobcats, Morrison’s best season proved to be his rookie campaign where he averaged nearly 12 points per game. But an injury caused him to miss his entire sophomore season and just 44 in his third season before Charlotte traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite being a part of two championship seasons in L.A., Morrison was relegated to the bench for most of their success.
At the start of training camp Morrison hinted at the idea that he would retire from the game of basketball if he didn’t make the Blazers’ roster. Who knows if he will decide to play overseas again (he’s still only 28), but it appears this was the last act in Morrison’s far too brief NBA career.
