For the snowed-in people of Michigan, Netflix can be man’s new best friend. That being said, it is only necessary that the people of the world be recommended by the best as to what should be playing on their respective television. And today’s pick of the week…

Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)

Plot provided by imdb.com:

Humbert Humbert, a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze, his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman's 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty.

Lolita Trailer:

The rundown:

This lesser known Kubrick classic hasn’t really been the topic of discussion since its initial release during a Hollywood cinema era marked by a strict movie rating code censoring many ideas in movies that are common today (in Lolita’s case pedophilia). In fact, Kubrick and fellow director Otto Preminger led the forefront of the war against censorship in the 60’s that led to its ultimate collapse.

Lolita, based on the still-controversial book by Vladimir Nabokov, is a hidden cinema gem that I have decided to bring back to life. This is one film that is sure to entertain you on those snowy nights this winter (Especially out here in Michigan!)

Coming off their second 34-48 season last year, the Nets were ranked near the bottom for both attendance and viewership and the Nets were desperate for attention. Entertainment mogul and part owner Jay-Z was no help, so the Nets looked to another source; attention glutton Vince McMahon. While there was no official meeting or even a statement of inspiration, the results speak for themselves. Before the season even started, the Nets had been promoting their 10 game match-up plan. Not only was this an absurd publicity stunt, but it also pissed off die-hard lifelong fans; a key aspect of McMahon’s business plan (see John Cena and Hornswoggle). Allow me to elaborate, the ten game match-up consists of ten games, in to getting 10 tickets you also got five reversible jerseys. Conventional wisdom might lead you to think that these jerseys would perhaps consist of a home side and an away side, or perhaps a modern day side and a retro side. Conventional wisdom would be wrong, rather these jerseys promoted on one side a current Net and on the reverse a star player of another team (such as Kobe or Lebron). What was the result of this promotion, well it was twofold; 1) outrage the fans who this as an admission that the Nets weren’t worth supporting 2) drawing more fans of the opposing teams than fans of the Nets. As an added twist of the knife, the Nets decided to put these same stars (i.e Kobe and Lebron) on the tickets. Shit on your loyal fans than question where fan support is? Yup sounds like a classic Vince move.


As their record breaking 18th season starting loss approached the Nets entered a dead panic. Rather than simply offer discounts, the Nets went all or nothing, issuing free tickets to almost every single home game. Yet this still wasn’t the most ridiculous of all their promotions. As if to mock their own lack of ability, the Nets also ran a contest in which the winner could call one play at a future game. Although the play did not result in a score, the player did manage to get the shot off unblocked; he just missed. To build off this the Nets decided they should instead allow fans to coach an entire game, the results of this has yet to be seen. In a last ditch effort to garner interest, the Nets take a page straight out of WWE circa 2007-2008. Just as McMahon faked his death in 2007, the Nets too are coming up with ridiculous rumors, 1) John Wall is lock to join the Nets (wrong: The NBA employs a draft lottery) 2) Duke’s Coach K is joining the Nets next season 3) Lebron is joining the Nets during free agency. To further the Lebron rumors, Dominos has announced that once Lebron joins the Nets they will have one lucky fan get a pizza delivered by the Nets, Nets dancers, and Sly. If that isn’t McMahon’s Million Dollar Giveaway (in which McMahon personally called the lucky winner) I don’t know what is. To top it all off, the Nets recently acquired their own eccentric billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

It’s not only ridiculous promotions that the Nets borrowed from Vince either, but also actual performance. In the past few years, Vince has been known to push stars with limited wrestling ability such as the Great Khali, John Cena, Koslov, and Mark Henry, while firing young talented and entertaining athletes such as Brian Kendrick, Elijah Burke, and Charlie Haas. Similarly, the Nets continually put in garbage players such as YI Jianlian (worst defense in the league), while their bench mainly Kris Humphries dominates all aspects of the game.

"Really good," those were the only word Texas Tech coach Bob Knight could come up with after Texas Freshman, Kevin Durant, dropped 37 points on his team while also getting 23 rebounds... that was in 2007. Since then Durant has become one of the most prolific players in the NBA, averaging 29.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. I don't know if you can really call this a breakout year since he averaged 25.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last season, but he is definitely on pace for a phenomenal NBA career.

Durant is currently in the middle of an amazing streak of consecutive 25-point games, he is at 25 consecutive games. NBA legend Michael Jordan currently hold the record which is 40 games, Durant is certainly well on his way there, but we need to see if opponents will try to shut him down with more authority in the weeks following the All-Star Weekend. Thus far, there has been very little respect toward Durant as far as defensive assignments go, he should be covered in much the same way Kobe and Lebron are, however most teams are sticking a single defender on him, and that strategy clearly hasn't stopped his dominance on the floor.

Durant participated in the 2nd annual All-Star H.O.R.S.E. game last night and defended his title from last year. He won in a shoot-off against fellow competitor Rajon Rondo due to time constraints, each took 3-pointers, and each miss was a letter. Tonight marks his All-Star game debut, he is playing for the Western All-Stars along side great NBA talent such as Melo, Dirk Nowitzki, and Steve Nash. Hopefully a surge of extraordinary talent around this gifted player really sparks something, and he has a huge game to really make people remember that he isn't going anywhere for a while.