"The Dark Knight" continues to shatter the box office!

In a matter of 3 weeks, "The Dark Knight" has amassed $450 million at the US Box Office. It is utterly mindblowing. Heath Ledger should get nominated for an academy award in February 2009 for Best Supporting Actor. Hopefully, he will win posthumously. As for Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart, the film's other stars, they put on some great performances too. Aaron Eckhart has mentioned that he should be back for the next Batman movie. Holy cow, another batman movie! Yes, it is quite possible that chris nolan, christian bale, and the rest of the cast (minus Heath Ledger) could be back in a couple of years. We'll have to wait and see! Of course, Hollywood G. will be there to give another fun review on the Warner Bros. picture. Au revoir til next time!

"The Greatest Men's Wimbledon Final Ever"

In an epic five set match for the recordbooks, Rafael Nadal is the new 2008 Men's Wimbledon champion. By beating Roger Federer, the current No. 1, Rafa won his first Wimbledon trophy. Rafa won the fifth set, 9-7, right before darkness fell on centre court at 9:16 pm London time. It was the longest men's final ever. Rafa Nadal now leads the head to head battle by six victories over Roger Federer. Rafa has won 12 out of eighteen matches against Roger Federer. Roger only coverted one out of 14 break point chances. The match was 12 minutes short of the 5 hour mark. Rafa won the first two sets by the score of 6-4, then Roger won the next 2 sets in two wild tiebreaks. Nadal finally prevailed in the fifth set after two rain delays. Rafa Nadal has won two of the three majors this year. Roger still may be No. 1, but Rafa is not that far behind! Vamos Rafa!

French Open recap! Rafa wins lopsided final, plus Ana Ivanovic is the new #1.

Today, The men's final of the French open was one of the most lopsided finals ever. Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in 3 sets, and Rafa remains undefeated at Roland Garros. He ran his record to 28 wins, 0 losses. It brings in the question, "Is Rafa indeed unstoppable on the clay surface in Paris?" As for the ladies final, Ana Ivanovic won in 2 sets over Dinara Safina. Safina was the biggest surprise in the ladies final as she beat her other fellow russian teammates one by one. First, she beat Sharapova in the 4th round, followed by a stunning defeat of Dementieva in the quarters, and Kuznetsova in the semis. Safina seems to be following in her brother, Marat Safin's footsteps. Safin has won the US Open and the Australian Open in his career. With the french open title as her first grand slam championship, Ana Ivanovic is the new #1 in the WTA tour rankings. In two weeks, Ivanovic will begin her defense at Wimbledon. Will she win her first wimbledon? It will be tough, but anything is possible.

This week's shocker (Justine Henin retires abruptly!)

Two days ago, Justine Henin shocked the tennis world by announcing her retirement from the sport. The current #1 ranked player will relinquish her top ranking this week. This means that the new #1 women's tennis player will be Maria Sharapova. Maria held the #1 ranking in 2007 for a short time, and in 2005 for a short period also. The top Russian femme fatale has won 3 tournaments (Doha, Melbourne, and Amelia Island) in 2008. But, it is quite sad to see Justine Henin leave the game. She won 7 Grand Slam titles, including 4 times at Roland Garros. She was dominant on the clay surface. Long Live the Belgian Baseliner!

It's April, and the top Two Men's Players are winless!

Yes, this is true. Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal have not won a single tournament in 2008 yet. Today, Rafael Nadal lost in the finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, FL to Nikolay Davydenko. This year, Rafa is 0 for 2 in tournaments finals with losses to Mikhail Youhzny (in Chennai) & Nikolay Davydenko (in Miami). Roger F. has not made it to a tournament final this year. The tennis champion battled mononucleosis earlier this year. Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick have won 2 titles each already. Djokovic won the Australian Open, and in Indian Wells. Roddick won in San Jose, and in Dubai. On the women's side, Justine Henin has not made it to a tournament final in 2008 yet. Ana Ivanovic has made it to 2 finals, the Australian Open and Indian Wells. She beat Kuznetsova in Indian Wells, but lost to Maria Sharapova in Melbourne. Speaking of Sharapova, she has won 2 titles this year. In closing, both sides have no clear favorite yet. On the men's side, Federer is not dominating for now. On the women's side, familiar names are coming back to win big titles like Serena Williams (in Key Biscayne, FL and Maria S (in Dubai and Australia). The next 7 months should bring some more excitement to both genders. Let's see what happens next at Roland Garros at the end of May. Will Roger finally break through to win the one elusive, Grand Slam title that he's lost to Nadal 2 years in a row? Will Justine continue her dominance on clay courts in Paris? Finally, Andy Roddick got engaged to model, Brooklyn Decker. See the picture of the talented twosome below. Congrats, Andy!

Chilling in My Palazzo in Las Vegas

Well, G. Ripley is back from vegas physically. Yet, his mind is still on a fun weekend which transpired in some wacky ways. Let's go over some highlights. First, RSG saw the 40/40 club in The Palazzo hotel. This club is designed and owned by Jay-Z and his partners. The hip-hop extraordinaire has put jerseys of basketball players, baseball players, and NFL football players in this cool lounge. There are tons of high definition tvs and plasmas so the place has the feel of a sports bar in the day, nightclub at night. After G. Ripley took pictures in the sports club, RSG saw the rest of the Palazzo. Then, RSG went to the Wynn hotel to see the maserati ferrari dealership. It was great to see maseratis, ferraris, and one lamborghini too. Next, RSG got into a ferrari 430 spider and did a photo shoot. RSG took 4 pictures in that car, and one of them is framed. It's part of the admission when you go to the dealership. The dealership is awesome. As for saturday night, RSG hit up Tryst. The wait in line was for a short amount of time (25 minutes), and then into one of the best clubs in the world. The waterfall at tryst, plus the dancers, and the cosmopolitan women were great. On friday night and most of saturday, RSG gambled on ncaa basketball and nba basketball at the sportsbooks in casinos. The fans of college teams (like wisconsin, UNC tar heels, or Kentucky) go all out for their team by wearing their school colors, and raving about their teams. One fan from wisconsin was totally loud and boisterous, that he started imitating Dick Vitale and ragging on the michigan state squad like there was no tomorrow. Many people in the casino sportsbook, including myself, thought the wisconsin fan provided tons of entertainment. RSG won 3 out of the 6 games which he bet on. Ganpuleone ended up losing $40 cuz various dollar amounts ($20 or $40 or $60) were bet on certain games, but it was fun. Lastly, check the waterfall picture below. It's a picture of the 90 foot waterfall at Tryst.

Review of "Breaking Back"

Yesterday, I finished reading "Breaking Back" by James Blake. It's a great book about James Blake's battle with Herpes Zoster and his other battles (specifically his dad's demise from stomach cancer) in 2004. The story will open your mind and give you the idea that "there is always hope in life." Hope is a good thought to think about and it helps you to keep going. For the author of this post, this book was special because it hit home. In early February 2008, Shingles entered G. Ripley's face (specifically the right eye) and it distorted vision plus it brought about shooting pain in various parts of the body. Three weeks later, the right eye was back to normal. The bumps on the right eyelid had disappeared as well. Back to my review, the book gives a timeline of James tennis career starting from 1999 to 2006. Since G. Ripley follows tennis passionately, it was good to catch up on tour results from the ATP. Last year, I saw James Blake on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". James was poised in his interview with the comedian. He talked about his book, and how the medical experience changed his life forever. Once you read the book, you will know that life is truly about "getting better."