NEW YORK (AP) -- Whether it's Toronto's big bats or punchless Tampa Bay, Chien-Ming Wang is overpowering everybody lately.

That's a momentous development for the surging New York Yankees, who need as much consistent pitching as they can get.

Wang tossed eight more shutout innings to win his fifth straight start, and Alex Rodriguez got two key hits in a six-run sixth that broke open New York's 7-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

"That sinkerball, it's a lot like a knuckleball pitcher. You can tell them what's coming and there's not a lot anybody can do about it," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "I feel so good when we write his name in the lineup."

Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada homered for the AL East-leading Yankees, who won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to 10-1-1 in their last 12 series.

Bobby Abreu singled and doubled for his first two hits with New York, and fellow newcomer Craig Wilson added a pair of singles in his Yankees debut.

Coming off a two-hitter against the Devil Rays last Friday for his first career shutout, Wang (13-4) buzzed through the best-hitting team in the major leagues and ran his scoreless streak to 18 innings.

"Before, sometimes my arm dropped down. Now, I stay on top," Wang said, adding that he's having "a lot of fun."

Pitching on a sweltering 97-degree night before a sellout crowd of 54,414, he allowed four hits and got 16 outs on grounders to beat the Blue Jays for the second time in 12 days. The right-hander walked three, all in the second inning, and struck out three.

"He's got that power sinker. He's a groundball machine," Toronto manager John Gibbons said.

Wang has a 1.64 ERA in his past five starts. With that string of stingy performances, he has surpassed an inconsistent Randy Johnson and become New York's No. 2 starter -- right behind Mike Mussina.

"It's really tough to say who's been the best for us," Johnny Damon said. "He's been as good as Moose has all season long."

Ron Villone gave up a two-run homer in the ninth to Troy Glaus, his 28th.

The Blue Jays, who have lost four straight and eight of 11, entered leading the majors in batting average (.293) and slugging percentage (.480). But Wang shut them down.

"The guy throws 95-plus with a sink like that, you've got to tip your cap to him," Toronto's Aaron Hill said.

Jeter hit a solo homer in the third off ex-Yankee Ted Lilly (9-10).

Rodriguez hustled his way to a leadoff double in the sixth, evading a tag at second base with a clever slide. Beaten badly by the throw, he pulled back his left arm and reached around to touch the base with his right -- drawing laughs from Jeter and other teammates on the bench.

"I was pretty confident until I saw the ball beat me by 25 feet," Rodriguez said. "It feels like you came in without your homework and the teacher calls your name."

Posada followed with his 13th homer, and Melky Cabrera's one-out double chased Lilly.

Damon hit an RBI single off Dustin McGowan, and Jeter walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-0.

After Abreu struck out against Scott Downs, Rodriguez hit a two-run single to left off the glove of diving shortstop John McDonald.

Lilly gave up five runs and 10 hits in 5 1-3 innings.

"Sometimes we want to win the game so bad it works against us," he said.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Directed by George Cukor
Staring Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart

The Philadelphia Story is a “screwball comedy” about a headstrong Philadelphian socialite (Hepburn) whose seemingly perfect world is suddenly disturbed by her charming ex-husband (Grant) and a tabloids reporter (Stewart) just days before her upcoming wedding.  The hilarious premise is set up quickly and skillfully by Cukor, and I was immediately thrust into nearly 2 hours of nonstop entertainment.  The script is clearly one of the best ever written in Hollywood.  There are so many wonderful exchanges of dialogue between the characters that it’s hard to catch everything with just one viewing.  Every actor in the movie gives a superb performance.  Hepburn as Tracy Lord gives her character great strength and individuality, remaining deeply flawed and fragile.  While Jimmy Stewart won an Oscar for his performance as the reluctant and cynical tabloids reporter who is really an intelligent and talented writer.  The famous “drunk” scene is hilarious, and really showcases Stewart’s wonderful comedy skills.  Virginia Weidler as the kid sister also steals a number of scenes throughout the movie with her wonderful acting.  There is nothing especially deep or groundbreaking about the movie, it is simply supreme entertainment, carried by great dialogue and great acting by the era’s biggest stars.  Classic Hollywood, they simply don’t make movies like these anymore.

10/10

Currently Listening 12 Play By R. Kelly see related

Lord of War (2005)

Directed by Andrew Niccol
Starting Nicholas Cage, Bridget Moynahan, Jared Leto, Ethan Hawke

Lord of War follows the career of Yuri Orlov, a poor immigrant from the Ukraine who eventually becomes the world’s leading arms dealer.  The nature of selling and buying weapons and how arms deals are worked out is explained through Orlov’s many interactions with his clients, from Russian generals to African war mongers.  According to Orlov, he “has sold guns to every army except the salvation army.”  From the interesting opening montage which follows the life of a bullet, the movie both informs and entertains, exposing to the audience the details of arms trafficking without becoming preachy.  The script is superb, as the dialogue is sharp and witty, and delivered well by the cast.  Nicholas Cage, manages to play Orlov as a morally and emotionally detached person, yet we understand why he does what he does.  Cage is perfect as Orlov, as we never sympathize with him, nor detest him, we simply see him and his actions, and are allowed to form our own opinion.  Bridget Moynahan plays the wife who doesn’t ask Orlov the important questions, because she doesn’t want to hear the answers, and when she finally does, it’s too late.  Jared Leto plays the little brother, who cannot detach himself from the industry as easy as his big brother.  Finally, Interpol agent Jack Valentine is played by Ethan Hawke, the strong-willed yet naïve cop whose morals never waiver.  (reprising his role from Training Day?)  When he has the chance to kill Orlov and stop the flow of guns into the hands of murderous guerilla armies, he doesn’t.   “Who would know?” his fellow agent asks him, “people disappear all the time around these parts”, to which Valentine answers, “We will.”  Valentine’s deep convictions and moral standards is an interesting contrast to Orlov’s moral detachment.  In a critical scene, Valetine tells Orlov that “you get rich by giving the poorest people on the planet the means to continue killing each other… nine out of ten war victims today are killed with assault rifles and small arms. Like yours. Those nuclear missiles, they're sitting in their silos. Your AK-47, that is the real weapon of mass destruction.”  However, Orlov responds by citing the statistics which reveal that more people are killed by cigarettes and alchohol related problems per year than firearms.  Lord of War achieves what Bowling for Columbine (the controversial Michael Moore documentary on gun control) aimed for but failed, to give information and raise awareness about the issues of guns and weapons, all while being an entertaining movie. We are given information on the situation and left to ponder the question, do guns kill people or do people kill people?

9/10

Currently Listening The Story Goes... By Craig David see related

The relationship between an architect and the client is definitely a rocky one.  Today I went to Tainan along with two other people from my firm to present our designs for a new community center.  In this case, the clients were various members of the city council and government officials.  It was nice to see my work up on the screen while a bunch of semi-important people studied it.  However, the looks on their faces went from interested to puzzled to befuddled in rapid progression.  They did not understand a single thing about my design.  To them, it was unnecessarily complex and expensive, while to me it was structurally expressive and spatially interesting.  All those hours I spent pondering the specificity of the form and the tectonic expression of the structure seemed to be in vain, as these middle aged, short, sweaty Asian men in strange clothing questioned my design.  Basically, they wanted a box that was as large as the budget would allow.

My boss told me not to worry, that all clients are difficult at first to accept new ideas.  Our firm gets paid the same amount whether we design a box or design the most beautiful and architecturally rich building in the history of the universe.  I think that’s the main reason most architects begin to get lazy, and draw up uninspired projects, just as long as the clients are happy and they’re getting paid.  The public should blame themselves for all the ugly buildings in the world.  I think the same can be said for any profession where products are produced and sold to the public, such as the movie and music industries.  So many movies are made simply because the studios know it will make money and the same goes for music albums.  This is the phenomenon that created the boy band phase and 4 sequels each to Home Alone and Jurassic Park.  It’s why Arnold Swartzenegger had a movie career and 50 Cent is a multi-platinum rapper.  I think the best movies, music, or architecture are all created by people who were truly inspired and had something personal they felt they needed to share with the public.  We as consumers need to demand more from these artists.  But then what do I know?  I listen to 50 cent and nsync, and watched all 3 of the terminator movies.  I guess I just have a new appreciation for what “artists” have to go through and I learned I have a lot more to learn until I can be able to express my ideas through architecture in a clear and understandable matter… for now I would settle for the ability to convince some people that a community center should be more than a box.

Currently Listening The Beautiful Struggle By Talib Kweli The Blast see related