Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game winning streak in 1974."

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. Click the Book to read the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information.

2 Days in Paris (1/10)

by Tony Medley

Anyone who doesn’t think that producer-writer-director-star Julie Delpy is trying to foist selfish lower middle class morals on an unsuspecting public after seeing Before Sunset (2004), in which she made it romantic rather than reprehensible for a man to abandon his wife and young 4-year-old son to move in with her in Paris, should reflect on her following statement about how she obtained investors for this film:

“There were 2 lines that convinced the financiers to jump in:

I would say that a blowjob is a big deal; after all it is a blowjob that brought down America’s last chance at a healthy democracy.

 and

Is this a kid’s size condom? Do they make condoms for kids?”

If you realize that this is the intellectual level behind the making of these films, you might not be disappointed if you actually decide to spend money to sit through this monotonous 96-minute film.

The bare bones story involves Marion (Delpy) and her lover, Jack (Adam Goldberg), embarking on a European trip to try to salvage their romance. According to a friend of mine who has known Goldberg for almost his entire life, this is apparently a roman à clef about a real relationship that once existed between Delpy and Goldberg. To add to the verisimilitude, Delpy cast her real parents as Marion's parents.

When one of her former lovers appears, Adam asks if they had a relationship. “I gave him a blowjob,” Marion replies. If this is something that actually happened between Delpy and Goldberg, it’s no wonder they are no longer an item. That’s not the image one wants to pop into one’s head when kissing the love of his life.

Talented people might be able to pull off making a film without admirable protagonists, like, for instance, Mike Nichols, Edward Albee, and Ernest Lehman, who made an entire film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) without one person the audience could like and root for. But Julie isn’t Mike or Edward or Ernest…yet, anyway. Her character isn’t particularly likeable and Adam is a grossly tattooed, relatively unattractive, selfish oaf.

Delpy makes it even worse with her political digs. There are a couple of anti-Bush comments in the film. That’s another questionable idea; put something in your film that is sure to offend one-quarter to one-half of its audience. Epitomizing the superficiality of the knee-jerk thought processes of these entertainment people, here’s a story about Delpy as reported by the LBN Alert:

Die-hard environmentalist Julie Delpy was on a press tour in Chicago promoting "2 Days in Paris" when she jumped up during breakfast with a Chicago Tribune reporter. The French actress "saw a large truck idling in front of the restaurant with its engine running," said a witness. When she couldn't find the driver, Delpy climbed into the cab and turned off the engine. The driver eventually returned to explain the engine "had to be on because the truck was carrying fresh meat and poultry.”

So, let’s see, this has two unlikable protagonists, a low moral tone, not much humor, no chemistry between the stars, and a political POV. Not my cup of tea, but, hey, maybe it’s right up your alley.

June 26, 2007