There is this awesome group called Improv Everywhere. They set up situations with tons of improv actors and film the resulting scene. They’ve done things such as show up to Best Buy wearing blue polo shirts (looking like Best Buy employees), going to Abercrombie and Fitch and taking off their shirts, wearing no pants on the subway, and freezing in Grand Central Station. There latest video is a spontaneous musical in a food court. I love the people’s reactions. They are an impressive group and I love their videos. Here is the musical.

I’m back to using WordPress for now. This is nothing against Habari. I’m just not ready for it. I spent several hours for a few days trying to get things to work the way I wanted them to. The Habari community was extremely helpful and I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did without them. My thanks to them. I just felt bad constantly asking for help. I’m not a coder. I manage to get by. I also had to constantly modify themes to get them to work (or to get them to work how I wanted them to work) and to look right in various browsers. I’m still excited to use it, but it will probably be a bit before that happens, not because their product isn’t stable, but because I’m not. ;)

Today I purchased Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii. I remember playing a SSB game on the N64 and finding it entertaining, but I never bought it. That was one of the only times I ever rented a game. I swung by Best Buy after work and picked up a copy. I got home and was instantly thrilled with the game. The introduction showing all the Nintendo Universe characters was amazing. I’m really impressed with the graphics in this game. The Wii definitely continues to amaze me. I played the game solo and find it quite fun being the different characters with the different powers and moves. The scenery is amazing as well. Skippy invited me to play with him and his daughters via the Wii Connect feature where you can play across the internet with other people. So, we played and it was fun, when it wasn’t lagging. Since the game just came out, and it was a highly anticipated release, Nintendo servers were being bombarded. This meant we kept freezing or being disconnected from the servers. I can see how it will be really fun playing against other people. I can’t wait until the servers calm down so I can have some online SSB fun!

Dmondark in #habari did me a huge favor and ported the wordpress audio player plugin. That was essentially my last major hurdle I had to overcome in order to switch to Habari. I already have an install up and running with all my blog posts and plugins. Everything seems to be running smoothly. So, this weekend, I may be moving the blog from WordPress to Habari. If I do move, I’ll have a new feed address, so make sure you stop by the site to get the new address so you can update your feed readers.

All throughout the Mid-West the words baseball and Buck are synonymous. For almost 50 years Jack Buck broadcasted for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a class act and could be heard, on a clear night, as far south as Arkansas and as far north as Iowa. Generations grew up listening to Jack Buck. I remember BBQing in the summer and listening to Jack Buck and Mike Shannon announce the wonderful Cardinals. As Jack’s son Joe got older he started broadcasting. He’s such a knowledgeable man in the sports arena that he is the lead announcer for the NFL and MLB on Fox. It was announced this week that he would no longer broadcast any games for the Cardinals. It will be weird to not have a Buck announce any games this year. Though I’ll miss him announcing, I’m very happy for all his success. From StL Today:

For the first time since 1960, there won’t be a Buck in a Cardinals broadcast booth this year.

Joe Buck, who had been doing the play-by-play for a few Redbirds games on FSN Midwest in recent seasons, has decided not to return in order to enjoy himself at the ballpark in a nonworking capacity.

“It’s nothing more than it feels like it’s time to make that change and to concentrate on some other things and basically go to Cardinals games as a fan,” he said Monday night. “I’m a fan, and I love to go down there with my wife and two daughters. The fun of that now is more appealing than anything to me.”

Despite Buck’s burgeoning career nationally at the Fox network, for which he is lead baseball and football play-by-play announcer, he had kept his ties to the Redbirds booth — where he got his start in big-league broadcasting in 1991 at age 21.

But he had been cutting back in recent seasons on his Cards workload, going from a busy schedule while filling in on radio while his father, Jack Buck, was ailing in 2002 to 31 FSN games in 2003 to 10 last season.

His departure ends a lengthy run of Bucks in the booth. His dad joined the club’s radio broadcast team in 1954 and was there every year except 1960 until falling ill after the 2001 season and dying the following year.

But Joe Buck said that family streak never was a reason he kept doing Redbirds games.

“I don’t think like that,” he said. “My dad’s career stands on its own. It was not a birthright of mine when I went there on a full-time basis in 1991, and it’s not a birthright now. There’s nothing written in stone that somebody with the last name of Buck has to be sitting in that booth.

“And really, we’re only talking about 10 games. … To do it just to say I’m on the list as one of the announcers is silly to me.”

FSN Midwest general manager Jack Donovan said Buck will be missed.

“We’re sorry to see him leave, but we were lucky to have him as long as we did,” Donovan said. “Unquestionably, he’s the best play-by-play guy in sports.”

Buck said the flexibility of FSN management, which allowed him to pick his schedule, was what had kept him aboard in recent seasons.

“The fact they let me do as many or as few as I felt I needed to do meant a lot to me,” he said.

He said there was another reason, too.

“I still continue to this day to feel indebted to the Cardinals for all they provided me,” he said. “I’m (not) the lead voice of the NFL and Major League Baseball on Fox if I don’t get that job (with the team), and if I don’t get that chance to grow up and learn about the game and learn about broadcasting in the Cardinals’ booth. Everything stemmed off that.”

Buck won’t be totally gone from Cardinals broadcasts, as he is scheduled to do a couple of their games for Fox. But those have a different tone than local telecasts because they air in the market of the opposing team as well as in St. Louis.

Donovan said Rick Horton, who does the commentary on KSDK (Channel 5) telecasts of Cards games, will help fill the gap created by Buck’s departure.

Horton will work with Dan McLaughlin (play-by-play) or Al Hrabosky (analysis) on about 10 FSN Midwest telecasts this season.

Horton also will continue as a regular on FSN Midwest’s Cards postgame shows.