--I was going to badmouth the Sox after their disastrous 1-5 road trip last week, but they’ve won their last two games against the A’s by a combined score of 22-3 and look poised to sweep with Curt Schilling on the mound tonight. So I don’t know. If they can keep playing like this, we’re certain to be playing in late October. But this team has been so erratic this season it’s hard to get excited about a two game stretch.

--Picked up Del Tha Funkee Homosapian’s greatest hits (the one covering his Elektra stuff) this past weekend. You might remember Del as the guy rapping on the Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood” (one of the top ten singles of the 00’s). Del’s actually the cousin of Ice Cube, although lyrically they’re very different (I don’t think Cube would write an ode to guys sleeping on his couch). Fun stuff.

--Also picked up Spider Man 2 for the Ps2. There’s a very prevalent Grand Theft Auto influence in the game. No, Spidey doesn’t hit hookers over the head with a bat—you’re let loose in New York City and you’re free to explore and tackle side missions (finding icons, races, helping citizens). The “helping citizens” portion gets a bit repetitive (I’ve stopped about 100 armored car robberies and been ambushed 200 times), but the main story is pretty good. They even through in some additional bad guys (Rhino, Mysterio, and Shocker (MVP “B” level bad guy)). And I tell ya, it gets no better than jumping off the Empire State building and swinging just before you hit the pavement. It even has Bruce Campbell as the narrator/instructor.