Monitor picks
Hardwood Redemption
The US men's basketball team is looking to atone for its poor showing at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Round 1 of the FIBA World Basketball Championship tips off Saturday (ESPN2, 1 a.m. EDT) as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony face Puerto Rico, which beat the US in Athens. Finals are Sept. 3.
If you're a Netflix subscriber, then you can now rent the first episode of one of fall's most anticipated TV debuts: Studio 60 on Sunset Strip. The series, a behind-the-scenes look at a "Saturday Night Live"-style show, stars Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry and feels like "The West Wing" meets "Sports Night." Classic Aaron Sorkin in other words, right down to his signature verbal volleys as characters stride through winding corridors.
The new issue of Entertainment Weekly offers in-depth coverage of James Bond – literally. Peel back the cover of Daniel Craig, the latest actor to don a tuxedo as Britain's superspy, and you'll discover five more mock-up magazine fronts featuring each of the 007 actors. It's enough to make Miss Moneypenny faint. A report from the set of "Casino Royale" kicks off the magazine's superlative guide to fall movies.
The Waterboys had an appropriate name for its sound: The Big Music. On 1988's Fisherman's Blues, the band infused fiddle-led celtic rock with lyrics of wide-eyed, Yeats-inspired splendor. The seminal album has been reissued with 14 extra tracks, including a cover of Dylan's "The Girl From the North Country."
Baseball fanatics will relish the access writer Seth Mnookin had for Feeding the Monster, the story behind the 2004 Boston Red Sox. Watch from the inside as the team's brain trust cobbles together castoffs, including David Ortiz, now an MVP candidate; trades fan fave Nomar Garciaparra; and butts heads, leading to the departure (and eventual return) of wunderkind GM Theo Epstein. Monstrously good.
