A Letter Never Sent

2007 World Series of Poker

2007-07-15T10:46:00.001-04:00

The 2007 World Series of Poker is wrapping up with the Main Event, featuring a first prize of over $8 Million.

One of my fraternity brothers from Duke, John Armbrust, is in the top 30 and survived onto Day 6. The very least amount of money he will stand to win is $285,000, but he has a nice chip stack ($2.6 million) and he's a great player, so anything can happen.

He was in last place and down to a a couple hundred thousand chips before making a furious comeback. Here's a picture of him before making the run:

Here's an article on John written by Craig Cunningham of Pokerworks. Craig (cc) was a frequent commenter on this blog for a while before he got busy with his own website, Quest of a Closet Poker Player.

Check out John's blog to keep tabs on his experience, which he's been keeping since playing in a couple of other events. It's quite detailed and poker-heavy.

Best of luck to John the rest of the way, no matter what happens he's already made a great accomplishment and set himself up for a nice poker career, not to mention a good financial situation for the next few years!

John Armbrust's WSOP Blog
World Series of Poker Official Site
Card Player

Better Than Ezra @ Power Plant Live in Baltimore 06/22

2007-06-28T23:07:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend mentioned that Better Than Ezra was playing a free show in downtown Baltimore and asked if I wanted to go. Better Than Ezra? Free? I'm there.

BTE has always been one of my favorite bands. They've consistently produced great music starting in one of the golden ages of rock in the mid-nineties. Of their 5 major studio albums, not a single one has been bad. In fact, I'd venture to say that all of their output is excellent.

Better Than Ezra also seems to like playing in Baltimore. They've played the same venue, also free of charge, for the past four or five years straight, and they've come here consistently for most of the past decade. As for as bands go, they're like your favorite cool uncle that comes to visit over the holidays and gives you a bunch of cash and goes out drinking with you. Actually, that's a stupid analogy and I don't have an uncle like that, but hopefully you get the point. I love me my annual live BTE fix.

As for the show itself, a good time was had by all. The band played a quality set with a bunch of staples and spanned their catalogue fairly well. They didn't play a couple of my favorites, "Live Again" and "Daylight", but I can't complain. As usual, "A Lifetime" and "In the Blood" were great to hear.

For your listening pleasure, wholesome MP3's follow the setlist below.

setlist

Burned

Good

Pull

Sincerely Me

A Lifetime

Extra Ordinary

King of New Orleans

Southern Thing

At the Stars

Laid (James cover)

Miss You (Rolling Stones cover) ---> Juicy

Desperately Wanting

encore

Jolene (cover)

Girl of the North Country (Bob Dylan cover)

Misunderstood

In the Blood

MP3: Better Than Ezra - "Desperately Wanting"

MP3: Better Than Ezra - "Good"

MP3: Better Than Ezra - "A Lifetime"

MP3: Better Than Ezra - "Misunderstood"

MP3: Better Than Ezra - "Breathless"

MP3: Better Than Ezra - "Daylight"

a couple of good new tunes

2007-06-25T19:09:00.000-04:00

Just testing some file sharing spots with two new songs, the much-welcomed first single from the Smashing Pumpkins, and a nice song from Spoon's latest.

MP3: Smashing Pumpkins - "Tarantula"

MP3: Spoon - "The Underdog"

Badass of the week: Julio Franco

2007-05-14T00:45:00.000-04:00

Something which I forgot to mention which caught my eye recently: Julio Franco of the New York Mets hit a home run in a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamonbacks on May 4th. Now, normally someone hitting am opposite-field dinger isn't a big deal, but Franco became the oldest player in major league history to hit a home run - at 48 years, 8 months, and 12 days. Basically, the guy is 50 years old and he's still good enough to make a major league roster and hit bombs. The dude could easily be my dad.

Big Julio was born in 1958, in the midst of the early stages of the Cold War. Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States, and in Cuba, a young, brash Fidel Castro was busy pissing off his neighbors to the north. NASA was yet to put a man in space, and the world's population was less than 3 billion, less than half the current population.

Over 15,000 players have played the great sport of baseball, and Julio Franco is the oldest of them all to hit a home run. Needless to say, Franco's accomplishment deserves some applause.

Lollapalooza looking good

2007-04-17T18:35:00.000-04:00

This year's Lollapalooza lineup was recently announced, and the roster looks like one of the best they've had in a long time. Pearl Jam will be headlining an American festival for the first time in over a decade, and Muse will join them as the two best acts on the bill.

Here are just a few of the bands which highlight the dozens of bands:

Pearl Jam
Muse
Interpol
My Morning Jacket
Spoon
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Blonde Redhead
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

The event will be held August 3-5 in Chicago, the same weekend the Police, Smashing Pumpkins, and the Beastie Boys headline the V Festival here in Baltimore.

some tunes for your enjoyment:

MP3: Pearl Jam - "Alive"

MP3: Pearl Jam - "World Wide Suicide"

MP3: Pearl Jam - "Daughter"

MP3: Pearl Jam - "Rearviewmirror"

MP3: Muse - "Time is Running Out"

MP3: Muse - "Map of the Problematique"

MP3: Muse - "Plug In Baby"

MP3: Muse - "Stockholm Syndrome"

MP3: Interpol - "C'mere"

MP3: Interpol - "Obstacle 1"

MP3: Spoon - "The Way We Get By"

MP3: Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On"

MP3: My Morning Jacket - "Off the Record"

MP3: My Morning Jacket - "One Big Holiday"

MP3: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Under the Hedge"

The Sopranos last stand

2007-04-08T19:44:00.000-04:00

Later tonight, "The Sopranos" begins its final series run with the first of nine episodes. Easily one of the best TV series ever, the show has been captivating ever since it premiered in 1999 and has helped cement HBO as a creative force for some of the best television shows and series since (Band of Brothers, The Wire, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Even though the show has dropped off a little in quality since about Seasons 3 and 4 - a little too much time was spent with the Vito coming out of the closet storyline over the past season, for example - "The Sopranos" has consistently maintained a high level of output in bringing us the mob world of New Jersey. Picking up from the Martin Scorsese's gangster world of Goodfellas, the show has been a great ride, no matter how gratuitously violent or expletive-laden.

Things are going to go down in a glorious fury during these final episodes, and rumor has it that two main characters will get whacked/killed off. My guess is that Junior and Paulie will bite the bullet; Junior's dementia and desperation are too much for him to handle, and Paulie's hot temper and past trangressions will probably be his downfall. Christopher would be a prime cadidate, but he should survive. Silvio is too level-headed and careful to get whacked, and while it would be interesting to see the writers kill off Tony in the end, I don't think we'll see it happen (although another attempted hit against him wouldn't be surprising).

Regardless of what transpires, these last nine episodes should be a fuckin' blast.

Here's a video of every single death/whacking on the show:

MP3: A3 - "Woke Up This Morning" (Sopranos Theme Song)

Greg Oden the man-child

2007-03-31T16:17:00.000-04:00

How in the hell is this guy a teenager?? Image courtesy of a hilarious caption from The Onion. (Greg Oden On Final Four Appearance: 'I'm Happier Than I've Been In 30 Years')

MP3: Neil Young - "Old Man"

new Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm" MP3

2007-03-12T00:02:00.000-04:00

The Arctic Monkeys are back with a new single, "Brianstorm", a hard, frantic rocker that's a little heavier than most of their songs. Last year's Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was one of 2006's better records, and certainly an excellent debut. With some bands, like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, releasing disappointing follow-up records, a strong sophomore effort would be welcome. Their newest LP, Favorite Worst Nightmare, hits stores in late April.

MP3: Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm" [buy]

Here's my favorite song from last year, "A Certain Romance", a catchy guitar-driven tune, along with a couple others:

MP3: Arctic Monkeys - "A Certain Romance" [buy]

MP3: Arctic Monkeys - "The View From the Afternoon"

MP3: Arctic Monkeys - "Mardy Bum"

new tunes I've been digging

2007-03-07T08:17:00.000-05:00

some MP3's for your listening pleasure... enjoy.

MP3: the Killers - "Read My Mind" [buy]

MP3: Incubus - "Dig" [buy]

MP3: Bloc Party - "I Still Remember" [buy]

MP3: Arcade Fire - "Intervention" (live on SNL) [buy]

Let me know what you think.

Duke vs. Maryland

2007-02-27T17:15:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow night at 9 PM, Duke faces off against Maryland in college basketball. Maryland always plays Duke tough, and tonight should be another great game.

Below is a video clip of one of my favorite games between the two schools, from 2001 when Duke came back from 10 points down and less than one minute left to play, tying the game at the end of regulation before ultimately winning in overtime. It remains as perhaps my favorite sports moment, and I was lucky enough to have witnessed it in person.

After the win, Maryland started regularly beating Duke at home and away at Cameron Indoor; perhaps the 2001 comeback was a big reason for Maryland taking their play to another level against their hated ACC rivals.

Rage Against the Machine reunite

2007-02-03T14:38:00.000-05:00

In some of the best music news in a long while, Rage Against the Machine will be coming back together after a seven-year haitus to play the 2007 Coachella Festival in April.

Rage Against the Machine where a force in the 90's, introducing a form of rap-metal which dozens of bands have miserably failed to imitate. Despite the fact most of the band continued on in the form of Audioslave (Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, Tim Commerford plus Chris Cornell) - a good band in their own right - nothing can match the intensity of the original lineup. I managed to catch Rage live at the 2000 HFStival in DC, and I'm happy I was able to witness one of the most powerful live acts of my generation before they called it quits.

Whether or not the band will stick together beyond the festival date seems uncertain, but ideally Zack de la Rocha and company will find a way to record again.

MP3: Rage Against the Machine - "Bulls on Parade"

MP3: Rage Against the Machine - "Wake Up"

MP3: Rage Against the Machine - "Guerrilla Radio"

Rage Against the Machine Official Site

Congrats Cal Ripken: Hall of Fame-bound

2007-01-09T19:32:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Cal Ripken, Jr. - one of the Baltimore Orioles greats - as he has been voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. He is the 12th Oriole to be inducted into the Hall.

Cal received 98.5% of the vote, which is a record for a position player and quite an accomplishment considering a lot of baseball writers who cast ballots refuse to vote for players for reasons having nothing to due with the player's merits. One sportswriter submitted a blank ballot because he lumped Ripken and fellow inductee Tony Gwynn in with "the Steroids Era", and the writer refused to vote for anyone until more is known about steroids. Other writers (otherwise known as assclowns) just don't vote for any players on their first ballot out of principle.

A well deserved honor for one of the games best shortstops and a Baltimore icon.

ESPN link

albums to look forward to in 2007

2007-01-01T22:15:00.000-05:00

2006 was a lackluster year for rock music. Perhaps I'm just losing touch with the music scene, but the past year seemed even more boring and disappointing than the last few years, which has been a dead period in music to begin with. Aside from strong albums from Pearl Jam, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Bob Dylan, not much new or exciting surfaced. All we really got was the arrival of Panic! at the Disco and the continued success of Fall Out Boy, and both of those bands suck.

2007 seems to be a much more promising year. We'll get highly anticipated new albums from Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, and Wilco. We'll also get sophomore efforts from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Arcade Fire (which could be brilliant or huge letdowns), along with new records from indie darlings the Shins (their Wincing the Night Away is already getting early positive buzz) and mid-tempo rockers Spoon. Add in possible albums from U2 and R.E.M. late in the year, and the future looks good.

Here's to a solid '07.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T12:04:00.000-05:00

Casino Royale

2006-12-05T22:36:00.000-05:00

Casino Royale

When I first saw previews for the new Bond flick, I had trouble buying into Daniel Craig as the new 007. While Pierce Brosnan isn't a remarkable actor, I had gotten used to seeing him in the last few installments of the series. All of those films were fairly entertaining, with Goldeneye the best of the Brosnan era. But whereas Brosnan played Bond with a smartass confidence, Craig takes a much more raw approach which reveals more character than Brosnan ever did. Brosnan fulfilled a stereotype and caricature, never really providing any depth to the character. In Casino Royale, Craig is believable as a young, brash MI6 agent starting out his career, with a few missteps along the way to becoming an elite secret agent. Complex action scenes and fancy gadgets take a seat in favor of plot development during which the hero and villians take turns trying to outmaneuver each other. This was effectively accomplished in the setting of a super high-stakes poker tournament with millions on the line. It was good to see poker playing such a large role, as the poker scenes were interesting; several hands between Bond and the villian, Le Chiffre, are played out to dramatic effect.

As far as action movies go, Casino Royale is well done and worth seeing. With a new Bond on board, it looks like the franchise is headed in the right direction.

new Incubus - "Anna Molly" MP3

2006-11-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

The new Incubus album, Light Grenades, is due out November 28th. The catchy and rocking first single, "Anna Molly", features cool guitar riffs courtesy of Mike Einziger and is getting played on the radio. While it's not quite as good or epic as previous first singles "Megalomaniac" or "Wish You Were Here," "Anna Molly" is still a concise, quality song.

MP3: Incubus - "Anna Molly"

An Amityville Halloween: Noah's Ark Style

2006-10-24T00:13:00.000-04:00

Originally published October 2005

So I've been watching some horror recently, from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original and the remake, starring Jessica Biel's awesome bouncing rack, and co-starring Jessica Biel's amazing ass), to Rosemary's Baby, to The Amityville Horror (both the original and the remake). I've always been fascinated by the supernatural, and I enjoy finding great horror movies even though I haven't really seen too many flicks that truly scared me (the original Exorcist comes close).

More blogs about Jessica Biel.

The story of the Amityville house (pictured left) that the movies are based upon is an exceedingly creepy tale.

An Amityville house website

I've been thinking about how much fun (or how intensely scary) it would be to spend the night in a haunted/ possessed house like the one in Amityville. Being a believer in demons as agents of the devil, I would like the chance to see what goes on for myself.

But, I'm far too much of a pansy.

So, I figure if I ever go to a house, I would spend the night with a sizeable entourage (great show by the way). The members of this Crazy Crew would be carefully selected by yours truly. I would take 6 groups of two individuals each, for a grande total of 13 people including myself.

Here are my selections:

2 Paranormal Investigators These would be Ed and Lorraine Warren, the famous investigators who have decades of experience with exorcisms, hauntings, and paranormal phenomena. They're sort of like the Mulder and Scully of real life, except they're married and their roles are sort of reversed. The Warren's stories are terribly intriguing, and I'm sure the old couple would have a calming effect on me, even if, in reality, they happen to be complete cooks and phonies. The fact they've already been in the Amityville house would call for bonus points, so they are an indispensable pair on my list.

2 Roman Catholic Priests

These would be the old-school badass kind of priests, not the ones that fondle 7-year-old boys. They would be highly trained in the rites of exorcism; one priest would be in his late 50's and would have a weakness for a good glass of scotch. The other would be in his mid-30's and a huge football and baseball fan. The older one would quietly refer to his numerous battles with demons as difficult but necessary, while the younger one would constantly say how "we always make Satan our bitch" and that "Lucifer was clearly behind the Curse of the Bambino," but that "the Boston Red Sox suck, too."

2 Physicians

One would be a 45-year-old male general surgeon with an M.D. from Johns Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, or any of the top Ivy League Medical Schools. This guy would also have played Division I basketball as a 6'2, 215-pound wing as an undergrad, walking onto the team but getting significant minutes by the time he was a junior. This would give us an extra able-bodied guy if a situation calling for drastic measures were to arise.

The other doctor would be a pretty female 30-year-old blonde psychiatrist with an M.D. from either the University of Virginia, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, or University of California - Los Angeles. She would have paid her way through medical school by doing tasteful cover shoots for fashion magazines, in addition to writing reviews for a mildly successful rock publication not unlike Spin. She would be the middle child of a family of 8, losing her dad at a relatively young age in a tragic seawreck (her father died while heroically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a sinking battleship). She'd be sweet but cool under pressure, serving as a nice complementary player to the entourage.

Obviously these doctors would come in handy in case of any physical or psychological maladies, and the more intelligent people with me, the better.

2 Comedians

This is a really tough call. I would have to go with Will Ferrell and Dane Cook. If things get hairy inside the Amityville house, I still want to be able to have a chance to laugh once in a while. Plus, if both of those guys lose it, then I won't feel as bad when I pee my pants after seeing the Anti-Christ.

2 Super-Hotties/ Models

If I wind up having to come to terms with the fact my life could be ending at the hands of Beelzebub, I might as well try and hit up the two smoking hotties that will have to "come" on the haunted trip. These two honey babies, right now, would have to be Jessica Alba and Dagmara Dominczyk.

More blogs about Jessica Alba.

Alba is just ridiculously hot, and she strikes me as a pretty cool chick (the kind you could get drunk with and then hope that, for some crazy reason, she would subsequently get overly smashed and rape me). Meanwhile, Dagmara is amazingly gorgeous to the point that any guy in her presence would zone out and start drooling uncontrollably (she played Mercedes in The Count of Monte Cristo and was in a John Mayer video, among other things).

Dagmara's website

Even if it doesn't look like I might die, at least I'll have them constantly distracting me from Lucifer's evil forces.

2 Well-Rounded Scholar-Athletes

These guys would be two males, most likely an astronaut who played football at Yale before getting his Masters in Quantum Physics, and the other a genius Harvard dropout who found his way onto the elite Delta Force black ops of the United States armed forces (the dudes that can kill 50 armed men with only a fig and a toothbrush at their disposal). The Harvard/Yale rivalry would occasionally be a source for half-assed debate and shit-talking, that is until the Delta Force guy would stop caring because he dropped out of Harvard anyway. That, and the fact he could still kick everyone's ass.

With various practical and highly-specialized skills (one was the son of a mechanic while the other was a general contractor during his high school summers) available to them, these guys would be the glue of the team. Also having great taste in movies and music, these two will always have something interesting to say, and they'll never feel awkward when the doctors or the priests start talking about their professions. They could be a threat to boink the hotties, but I'm willing to take one for the team. If they get out of hand, I'll kick them out anyway, because I'm the fucking brains behind this operation anyway, so why don't you cry about it?

I'm fairly satisfied with my Amityville Team, and I'd be willing to go to war with them any night of the week.

The Departed

2006-10-15T22:45:00.000-04:00

The Departed

I caught The Departed last weekend, and Martin Scorsese's latest does not disappoint. With a stellar cast (Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and a funny Alec Baldwin) and plenty of suspense, this is as good as crime and gangster movies get. Unfortunately for Scorsese, due to the violence, subject matter, and lack of any strong female leads, he'll probably get shut out for the Best Director or Best Picture Oscars again, but this one is up there with his best films.

Baseball's biggest waste of money

2006-10-08T14:56:00.000-04:00

The Yankees and their $200 million payroll were sent home yesterday by the Detroit Tigers. It was priceless seeing the dejected looks of all the Yankee players towards the end of the game. George Steinbrenner will surely go nuts after this latest collapse, with Joe Torre apparently the first to go.

R.E.M. happenings

2006-09-20T23:07:00.000-04:00

Last week, R.E.M. was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and ex-drummer Bill Berry rejoined the band for a three-song set. Bill has been sorely missed since he left R.E.M. in 1998, and I've always hoped that he would rejoin the band before all is said and done. Good to see them back together for at least a little while.

I also happened to miss this article in which Mike Mills says that the next R.E.M. record will rock more, which is certainly good news.

Here is a review of the new R.E.M. compilation I Feel Fine.

My apologies for taking a bit of a summer hiatus from blogging, I'll try to keep this a little more updated in the coming weeks.

Pirates of the Caribbean

2006-07-19T23:50:00.000-04:00

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

I finally saw the movie that's made a billion dollars at the box office during the past two weeks. The new Pirates flick was solid, enjoyable but almost excruciatingly long at two and a half hours. Johnny Depp delivers another entertaining turn as Jack Sparrow,and while the action scenes were entertaining, almost every sequence went on for five minutes longer than needed. There's no reason this movie couldn't have been 30 minutes shorter, making it better in the process.

So far, the first is the better of the two, but I'll be looking forward to the next installment next summer.

Superman Returns

2006-07-05T00:08:00.000-04:00

Superman Returns

I took in Superman Returns this past weekend with some anticipation, especially since it has been fairly well reviewed. I came away somewhat disappointed, as the second half of the movie dragged on after a promising start. The script seemed to fall apart after the Kryptonite island entered the plot, and the running time was far too long. Also, Kate Bosworth wasn't very convincing as Lois Lane.

It will be interesting to see what the sequels hold, especially since we are introduced to the son of Superman (an underdeveloped plotline which wasn't handled well by the writers). Batman is where it's at in terms of the superhero genre now that Batman Begins has re-energized the franchise.

Hope everyone had a great 4th!

Chessboxing? Are you kidding me??

2006-06-23T13:47:00.000-04:00

I was perplexed to check out ESPN.com today and see that a sport called chessboxing was featured on the front page. You're got to be kidding, right? Leave it to the Europeans to come up with a ridiculous sport.

The rules of the "sport" are as follows:

Two competitors face each other in 11 alternating rounds, six of chess, five of boxing. A bout begins with chess, which is played on a board placed directly in the middle of the ring. Each round of chess lasts four minutes. After each chess round, the bell sounds, and workmen remove the chessboard for a two-minute round of boxing, the gloves go back on, the punching recommences. Participants win by way of knockout, checkmate, referee's decision, or if his opponent exceeds the allotted total of 12 minutes for an entire match on the chessboard.

I have to admit, as skeptical as I am of chessboxing, and as much as I am wondering if this is some sort of prank, the idea of watching some dude take out his chess frustrations out in the form of physical violence grows on you. "You just made me your bitch when you took out my queen, now I'm going to knock you unconscious!"

The amount of interest in these alternative sports is intriguing; just the other day, ESPN2 had a televised World Domino Tournament. Considering every player came from North America or the Caribbean, I wasn't exactly sure how the winners could claim to be the best of the world. The top prize was for a paltry $30,000 or so, which pales in comparison to the prize pools for televised poker tournaments, which fall into the same basic category of programming.

The games almost always draw spectators, so perhaps it is no surprise that the ESPN sports network has declared dominoes the next big spectator sport...

Domino matches "almost always" draw spectators? Sounds like a great reason to throw tons of money at a game few people play. Can't wait to see what the geniuses at ESPN throw at us next.

NBA Champs

2006-06-20T23:57:00.000-04:00

"i clearly don't belong anywhere near here," says a hideously out of place Jason Williams (cracker in the lower left corner) surrounded by other players who actually made meaningful contributions to Miami's title run.

Congrats to the Miami Heat for winning the NBA Championship in 6 games over the Dallas Mavericks.

This fourth ring vindicates Shaquille O'Neal, who has brought home the championship he promised Miami fans two years ago when he arrived to the Heat from the Lakers. This further makes Kobe Bryant - one of my most hated sports figures - look bad, since the Lakers have gone downhill ever since the Big Aristotle bolted for greener pastures.

Will Ferrell: Comic Genius

2006-06-16T00:43:00.000-04:00

One of my friends just pointed out that the trailer for the new Will Ferrell movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, is up and available here. It comes out in August, and it looks like NASCAR and redneck humor will be a winning combination.

Ferrell is one of those rare comedians who makes me laugh just by looking at him. He's also provided some of the funniest supporting characters for the big screen in recent memory.

For some weekend laughs, here's Ferrell doing the classic cowbell Blue Oyster Cult skit. Happy Friday.

Top 5 Will Ferrell Movie Characters

1. Ron Burgundy in Anchorman
2. Frank the Tank in Old School
3. Jacobin Mugatu in Zoolander
4. Chas Reinhold in Wedding Crashers
5. Big Gay Earl in Starsky and Hutch

Sports Morons of the Week

2006-06-13T12:37:00.000-04:00

Who pulled the dumber stunt: Ben Roethlisberger almost killing himself in a motorcycle crash, or J.J. Redick getting arrested for a DWI just weeks before his biggest payday in the NBA Draft?

let's go USA

2006-06-12T01:40:00.000-04:00

Update: 3-0 loss in the opener to the Czech Republic as the U.S. looks bad. Ouch.

gearing up for the World Cup

2006-06-08T01:29:00.000-04:00

The greatest sporting event in the world is set to begin tomorrow, June 9.

The U.S. team, faced with a tough draw but fielding perhaps its best team ever, will open against the Czech Republic. (ESPN preview)

The issue for the U.S. is that historically they have never fared well in Europe. Here's to a good showing for the American squad.

-------------

My only problem with soccer players is that they can be a little too flamboyant. Too much acting and crying after fouls, and too many pretty boys, such as some of the dudes below.

I figured I would get in the World Cup flow by analyzing some of the more ridiculous hair cuts in recent soccer history, focusing on several prominent players who rock long hair, often to disastrous effect.

Long hair is certainly a gamble for any heterosexual male. For soccer players, nothing looks worse than getting beat by a striker when you're a fullback or whiffing on an easy chance as a scorer, except for when you do it with stupid looking hair. It takes a certain talent to pull off the look without coming off as a pansy - you have to be a badass or suffer the consequences. The sport of soccer has provided many overly confident dudes who have been more than willing to give it a shot.

Here are some of my favorites and commentary:

David Beckham

Ah, Becks. You have to start off with one of the most recognizable sports figures and celebrities in the entire world. Females everywhere worship this man and his various haircuts. As a soccer player, he is vastly overrated, despite his sick left foot on set plays.

With that being said, Beckham is guilty of showcasing some of the most awful looking hair you'll ever see. I've never understood why this guy doesn't leave his bitchy Spice Girl wife when he's in the prime of his life and could hit any one of what must be a billion hotter hotties, but to each his own.

final analysis of the hair: UNCOOL

Francesco Totti

Totti is a badass. One of the best players in the world, Totti easily pulls off the long-haired look. I would love to be this guy. Exhibit A is just below, as Totti seduces the ladies with ease. Normally Italian soccer players are too full of themselves for their own good, but Totti backs everything up with stellar play and goals. Don't mess with Totti.

final analysis of the hair: VERY COOL

Alexi Lalas

I'm torn on this one. A posterboy for U.S. and MLS soccer in the mid-nineties, Lalas was easily found by looking for his freakishly orange and disheveled hair and absurd goatee. Lalas was on the Best Damn Sports Show Period a couple nights ago, and the funny thing is, he looks completely normal and respectable cleanly shaven and with short hair.

In the end, I have to give the guy props for making himself look like a clown and still managing to play decently.

final analysis of the hair: COOL (beard seals it)

Marcelo Balboa

Every time I see Balboa commentating on ESPN2, I cringe. He looked bad enough in 1994 when the U.S. team overachieved in the World Cup, but you would think 10 years later, after retiring, that he would take a clue from his teammate Alexi and get rid of the ridiculous hair. Doesn't he have a daughter that loves him? What about shame? The sport will not be taken seriously in this country until this clown finally gets a haircut.

final analysis of the hair: VERY UNCOOL

Carlos Valderrama

The Clown Prince of Soccer. The 90's sure featured alot of long-locked futbol players. This Ronald-McDonald-on-crack looking dude was always the center of attention thanks to his ridiculous fro masterpiece. Anybody that risks potentially damning their family names for centuries deserves some credit for the gall. Props to this eccentric Colombian.

final analysis of the hair: CIRCUS FREAK SHOW COOL

Jeff Agoos

Fuck you, Jeff Agoos. Another older player retired from the ranks, Agoos came off looking like a Steven Seagal clone, except whereas Seagal could kick a lot of ass when you get down to it, Agoos kicks NO ONE'S ass, especially in the 2002 World Cup during which he almost single-handedly led to the destruction of the U.S. defense. He would let attackers beat him and get past him almost as easily as the joke of a French Army allowed the German Blitzkreig to storm Paris in World War II. I would get so mad at this guy watching him cost my team, and his stupid looking hair did nothing but make me more furious.

final analysis of the hair: OFFENSIVELY UNCOOL

World Cup

more to come...

just because you believe God exists...

2006-06-06T01:19:00.000-04:00

... doesn't mean you should be stupid around wild animals.

I would have loved to have been in the crowd when some idiot entered the lions cage in a Kiev zoo and was mauled to death.

From the news article: "The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.
"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

Maybe the Devil was out a day early, since today is 6-6-06. Speaking of which, I was looking forward to the remake of The Omen, which comes out this week, but early reviews are fairly negative. Good horror flicks are tough to come by.

May you have a Satan-free day!

Verdict: Scientology is dumb.

2006-06-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

Some may have heard recently that a South Park episode was pulled from Comedy Central and the dude who does Chef's voice quit because the creators of the show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, parodied Scientology in a recent episode.

The Chef's voice actor (Isaac Hayes) quit because he's a Scientologist and refused to be a part of something that poked fun at his own religion, despite a show with 150-odd episodes that has harshly lampooned every conceivable subset of global culture. This is a guy who's first album was entitled "Black Moses" and who was featured on at least one Wu-Tang CD.

Comedy Central pulled the episode from rotation because Tom Cruise, a "renowned" Scientologist and royal fuckass, threatened to not publicize his upcoming third take on Mission Impossible. Maybe this time they'll get it right. Funny that Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount, who is producing Mission Impossible 3. It's also ironic that Hollywood demonizes the cronyism in politics that it inexorably emulates. How hollow the ivory pillars of Hollywood are...

All of this might be understandable if Scientology were itself reputable as a religion or belief. In fact, were it just a belief it would be pathetic enough, but that it's considered a "religion" is simply incomprehensible.

But who am I to derogate another's beliefs without at least understanding them? So let's take a look.

As I am consulting Wikipedia, I have to mention that this is the third time now that I've needed to remind myself of the basic tenants of this religion; the reason for which you may understand by the end of this post.

Scientology was founded about 50 years ago, i.e. after World War II, by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard liked to write about spaceships, aliens, and the spirits of living things. Throughout his life, Hubbard stood in the shadows of good science-fiction writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and H. G. Wells (who conceived modern space rocketry). Unlike Wells, he thought he knew what was best for everyone, so he decided to gather all the weak-minded people he could find to believe in his creation story.

[Everything in quotations below refers to Hubbard's own words]

75 million years ago, the Galactic Emperor Xenu (though Hubbard also referred to him as "Xemu" and as "Zenu," perhaps it was a typo), feeling that his Galactic Empire was vastly overpopulated (~76 planets with 178 billion people each) shuttled billions of humans to Earth on intergalactic spacecraft that were exact copies of the modern day Douglas DC-8 aircraft, "except the DC-8 had fans, propellers on it and the space plane didn't." Note that DC-8's have turbine engines, not propellers.

The pretense under which the billions of people were brought to Earth by Xen(m)u was that all of these billions were called for "income tax inspections." Upon arrival for these inspections at their local city hall, Xen(m)u had psychiatrists paralyze every single person with a combination of alcohol and glycol (antifreeze). The populace was then loaded onto the somehow-retrofitted DC-8's and transported to Earth to be stacked around volcanoes and ultimately destroyed by detonating hydrogen bombs within the volcanoes - they were all detonated simultaneously, for dramatic effect, I suppose.

I'm not sure why Xen(m)u chose a plan with such logistical headaches when he could have just send everyone into a black hole, or a star, or space itself, but I guess Hubbard was just a fucking moron.

Xenu or Xemu

Upon the calamitous explosions on Earth, the souls of the people (now called thetans) were collected by Xen(m)u using a cosmic vacuum cleaner and then place into a movie theater to watch, for 36 days, a "three-D, super colossal motion picture." Huh. Apparently this movie was pretty bad, because it implanted "various misleading data" into the memories of the thetans, "which has to do with God, the Devil, space opera, etcetera." Hubbard also states that the interior design of all movie theaters to be due to this brain-washing (though souls don't have brains). This is particularly interesting, since movie theaters have changed drastically in the 90 years popular cinema has been around. In fact, movies didn't have sound until 1927. Sigh.

Xen(m)u's cosmic vacuum was clearly stolen by Mel Brooks in Spaceballs

What happened between this pointless holocaust 75 million years ago and today is flat-out uninterpretable, due in large part to ridiculous and inconsistent naming, anachronisms, and the total lack of an understanding of how to structure and convey a story in the English language.

I should add that all of this was preceded by the creation of the Universe 4 quadrillion years ago, or 300,000 times older than the current scientific consensus. In this creation myth Hubbard describes what essentially is a generic Dark Ages painting; lots of light, a chariot, and a cherub with a trumpet.

Fuck, this is wearing me out, it's just so godamn stupid.

Strangely, the Church of Scientology denies knowing about the whole Xen(m)u thing, and refrains from speaking about it at all costs. It's either because only the top level acolytes of Scientology (called "OTVII") are ready to learn about Xen(m)u, or that this inane, nonsensical, unorganized science fiction story would embarass the Church and undermine the efforts of recruiting more idiots.

So what do Scientologists actually believe? They believe:

Mind-altering substances of any kind are prohibited, this includes alcohol and cigarettes. Note that Hubbard assisted his research (I can't imagine what he was actually doing that he called "research") by gorging on rum, uppers, and downers. Hubbard's assistant at the time wrote that he "was existing almost totally on a diet of drugs."
Psychiatric and psychological treament is forbidden, and psychiatrists and psychologists are evil. I guess this is because Xen(m)u used psychiatrists to paralyze all the humans. What the fuck...
The souls of humans are immortal. This is brilliant, I wonder if Hubbard had heard of other organized religions?
People have lived many past lives and will live many future lives. Same point as above.
A newcomer's mental readiness must be evaluated by a trained Scientologist and an E-Meter, which is the same device as I used in Intro to Electromagnetism in Sophomore year to measure the resistance across two battery nodes. This actually begins the brain-washing of the newcomers.
Birth must be silent! That's right, no one can speak, because any words spoken at birth may be retained by the newborn baby (who by the way doesn't know any languages yet) and associated to his/her detriment later in life. Hmm....sounds like psychology to me Hubbard. Or maybe he just meant that trained psychologists are evil.
Newborn babies must not be washed, but rather wrapped up tightly and left alone for an entire day. Read that again.
Breastfeeding is prohibited! In supplement, Hubbard recommends a mixture of barley water, homogenized milk, and corn syrup or honey. Honey can cause infant botulism - nerve-blocking and respiratory and musculoskeletal paralysis. Of the mixture, Hubbard said he "picked it up in Roman days." Corn syrup, made from maize, was not present outside of the Americas until after colonization by Europeans began.
Scientology is fully compatible with all religions. This is despite what we learned from the Xen(m)u incident I guess.
"Fair Game." This idea was introduced by Hubbard, and incites Scientologists to use criminal behavior, deception and exploitation of the legal system to resist "Suppresive Persons", i.e. people or groups that "actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts". He defined "Fair Game" as:
"ENEMY — SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."

Sadly, the last bullet is consistent with the Church's practice, being characterized by fighting numerous extremely long and costly legal battles, and even being implicated in the death of at least one Church member.

An evil psychiatrist and her helpless, misguided patient

I'm not even halfway through the material, but I think I've made my point:

If, by now, you are not convinced that Scientology's underlying principles may qualify not as a legitimate belief structure, but only as an honorable mention 5th grade science fiction contest entry, then I suggest you contact the Church and schedule an E-meter reading.

Summer Blockbusters

2006-05-31T23:58:00.000-04:00

Very brief reviews of a couple of big movies I've seen in the past couple weeks:

Mission: Impossible 3

I thought this one was the best of the franchise (M:I2 was awful and the first was entertaining). Even though I hate Tom Cruise almost as much as cancer, I was impressed by the action scenes and the cast did a fine job as far as popcorn action movies go.

The Da Vinci Code

Not sure why all the critics hung this movie in their reviews. I found it suspenseful and adequately-acted, with some occasional cheesy dialogue and the sometimes overbearing soundtrack score being my only complaints. Ian McKellan was great, as usal. And how can you go wrong with Tom Hanks? As long as you don't look too critically into the story and take it for what it is, which is pure fiction, you'll enjoy this one.

The Walkmen perform at 9:30 Club

2006-05-26T10:09:00.000-04:00

by The Monitors

I could have sworn I stood in the middle of a circle of people having a screaming contest with megaphones last night, but apparently I went to The Walkmen show at 9:30 Club in D.C.

There are two things that are initially striking about seeing this band live:
1. The lead singer is not the dark-haired moody that you picture from the albums but is a tall, blonde, Lacoste-wearing frat boy. He may as well be an SAE at Florida State.
2. They are LOUD.

The first item isn't too hard to get over, especially in comparison to discovering that the Caesars' bassist is about 60 years old. But the problem with The Walkmen live (and I've seen them twice) is that their sound is very disorganized. I like my music loud, but it seems like they fired their sound tech and turned every knob to 11.

What's great about their album tracks is that each song is carefully crafted, often very slowly building up emotional steam and growing louder and becoming unraveled as the song reaches climax. And the instruments are very well laid down, one doesn't drown out another, and it adds to the potential energy.

But this is entirely lost in the live show. There is no control of volume, nor control of vocals, and it really confuses the ear terribly. I don't think a live song should mimic the album, but this band's greatest strength is drowned in a poorly conceived stage show.

They must have played about 6 new songs, and since the album came out only 2 days earlier, few people would have a chance to hear it. We all heard them at the show, but I couldn't tell you which ones are winners because the sound was so cacaphonous.

To their credit, they delivered "The Rat," "Bows & Arrows," "Wake Up," and "Thinking of a Dream I Had" excellently, and it really got the crowd moving, including the requisite inhibitionless fist-pumping white guy with the crazy afro.

All in all, I give this show 3.0 stars out of 5.0, with Andrew W.K. being 5.0 and The Cardigans being 1.0.

Intellectual Steve pulls a fast one on the Borgata

2006-05-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

So, last week Intellectual Steve and yours truly headed up to Atlantic City and the Borgata to play some poker. Steve had gotten a free room from the kind, altruistic folks at Boyd Gaming, and he asked me a couple weeks back if I was down for the trip. I'm not one to turn down a free room and a good time, so I was there with gambling bells on.

We set out from his cozy pad in Riverside, MD and drove confidently towards the sordid, putrid marshes of the shittiest state in the Union. We had delusions of turning a few hundred dollars into thousands with little effort and expense, and we hoped to catch a free comedy show in the process. The world was our little oyster, and the pearl inside had a big black "B" and the Ace of spades on it.

the Borgata has been literally built and paid for by misguided blackjack bets.

Little did we know that our dreams were to be shattered, and that we were in for a rude awakening.

The trip got started on the wrong foot when Steve made the executive decision to start off the night playing blackjack. Historically, this spells disaster for your two heroes, as previous trips have featured Steve playing solid while I play like a drunken donkey and piss away all my chips as soon as I lose a couple of hands. Milk (blackjack) was a bad choice!

I always tell myself that I should never play blackjack, but when a friend of mine plays and asks me to join, who am I to ruin the fun and say no? I agreed to play along, which oftentimes is little better than riding shotgun with a notorious drunk driver and offering to pour him shots of Jager to "take off the edge" while he speeds to the nearest bar that sells discount six-packs of Natty Bo before 2 AM closing time. Blackjack is an evil game, and Steve and I had no problem taking on the Devil of all gambling Hell. Despite my better judgement, I took a shot with the understanding I would quit as soon as I turned a $25 profit.

The blackjack devils immediately sent a crystal clear message to the protagonists of this little tale by bending Intellectual Steve over and taking hundreds of his hard-earned dollars. A clear and ominous sign was sent out within the first 5 minutes of ill-advised play when Steve split 8's twice and also doubled down one of the splits, sending out $80 of his red soldiers against the dealer's paltry 6. Tragically, the 6 turned into an ugly 20 and Steve was down in the hole. Having learned that hard way that I suck at the game big time, I continued to bet $10 a hand like a little girl, losing a little before making a comeback and turning a profit for the session.

this looked alot like me and Steve, except Steve had a look of horror on his face, we looked more distressed, and we didn't look anywhere near as flamingly gay.

I ended up cashing out up $25 as I promised myself. Steve did not fair quite so well, as he fired $100 bet salvos into the highly-oxygenated Borgata air only to bust like a Ben Affleck movie, or watch the dealer destroy his 20's with blackjacks and fuck up his double downs with bricks and sick 5-card 21's. I had seen this before, and I could feel his pain.

Steve was getting whored, so I suggested we play poker. He sheepishly obliged in order to get a change of pace and halt his profuse hemorrhaging of chips. We took seats at a $1/$2 no-limit table before I got beat badly in a hand to the tune of $100 (my AK vs AQ, and the douchebag with AQ hit a Q on the turn after we both flopped Aces) and demanded we move to a limit table (no limit is for pansies, I always say). Not even 5 minutes elapsed when Steve took out his cell phone, and stood up from the table.

Intellectual Steve: "Hey man, I'll be right back, I just need to make a quick phone call."

me: "Sure dude, I'll be right here."

Well, Steve was bluffing, as he never returned. The game broke, so I went straight up to the blackjack tables, where I assumed Steve must have returned to resume his sadistic thrashing. Lo and behold, he was firmly planted in a seat, with a pile of greens and a look of desperation in his eye. "Oh hey, are you still playing?" said a mildly uncomfortable Steve, who was sweating his hundred dollar bet and barely paying attention to my answer when I explained the game broke as a direct result of his absence from the table downstairs.

Steve continued to take a pummeling. He couldn't get a winner to save his life. After a table change in vain to change his fortunes resulted in more profit for the evil Borgata gaming conglomerate, Steve and I decided to lick our wounds by drinking at the bar and relaxing for a bit.

After all, drinking always makes things much better, right??

We looked to grab seats at the bar, where strategically placed video poker machines entice drinkers to gamble even more, as if losing the family mortgage at the craps tables weren't enough. These casino fuckers are relentless.

Luckliy for Steve and me, I had stumbled onto a little trick to use the casinos video poker machines against their nefarious masters. You see, the B Bar at the Borgata will give you free drinks as long as you are playing the retarded video poker at the bar. So, I discovered a system where you throw 5 bucks into the machine, and bet 25 cents a credit ONLY when the bartenders come up to you and ask you for your drink of choice. The goal is to refrain from gambling and losing any money in between drink orders. This way, you never have to pay the absurd $8 a beer or 20 fucking dollars for mixed drinks, or whatever those bastards charge us poor suckers. It's pure genius, and Steve and I have been using it abusing it as soon as we found out about the policy.

They might take hundreds from us at the blackjacks tables, but we're going to get drunk for free, bitches! It feels damn good to be cheap sometimes.

As soon as we arrived at the bar to implement our scheme, we discovered that the only two available 25 cent machines were broken, as a technician of some sort was opening the things up and repairing them. Both of us waited patiently until they were repaired, with Steve jumping on the first one while I waited for the second to be fixed.

It was here when Steve busted out a brilliant move from his gambling playbook.

Without hesitation, Steve took out a crisp 5 dollar bill and inserted it into the vacuum of a slot machine. He immediately hailed the services of one of the metrosexual bartenders and ordered one of the most expensive items one the drink menu, a tart but delicious glass of red wine, normally a whopping $15. Steve pretended to be feverishly playing the video poker to make sure the drink was free, and was doing a damn good acting job.

Despite his theatrics, Steve is still a true gambler. He was ready to win a few quarters while getting free shit, so he pressed the "Deal" button and was dealt four cards to a straight. Fucking fantastic!

Now, I had noticed that the machine was still acting funny, since the lights on it kept turning on and off, and the graphics kept resetting at odd times. We even had to give it a couple of love taps to make sure it was working properly.

"I don't know about this Steve, I'm not sure it's working, you don't want to lose your five bucks in the machine, you know they'll screw you over for it," I said, honestly not really caring if he lost that much.

Steve, however, did not give a rat's ass, and as soon as he had the chance, he drew one card to get his straight. His hand was K-Q-J-10-5, so he held everything but the five. We gazed intently into the machine while the computer distributed the card, dust and grime gleaming off the screen. The new card was an ugly 6. Steve had lost.

Just then, the machine lights turned off again, only this time the screen completely reset. Steve's remaining $4.75 in credits was nowhere to be found. It was gone, possibly forever.

It was our good fortune, however, that a casino floorlady happened to be overseeing the technician's repairs. I quickly told Steve to get with the program, pretend to be pissed as hell, and tell the floorperson that the malfunctioning machine had robbed and embezzled him of his $5. After the requisite verification and questioning, the casino rep filled out a form for the lost monies. Casino refunds are a big deal to the house, and casinos rarely give them out unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are owed money on account of incompetence by the casino.

suck it! Steve walked away with a cool 5 dollar bill, quite similar to the one pictured above.

The beauty of this whole play was that Steve had played a losing hand of video poker. He clearly had a busted straight. The last time I checked, 6-10-J-Q-K did not make any sort of legitimate straight in any English-speaking modern societies.

Calmly imbibing his glass of otherwise ridiculously expensive red wine, Steve thanked the floorlady as she apologized for the inconvenience and handed the con artist a brand new 5 dollar bill.

"Do you want to keep playing?" I asked the shady wine drinker.

"No - let's get the fuck out of here!" he retorted; he was already walking quickly for the exit as soon as he realized he had shafted the casino out of a glass of wine AND a whole quarter.

I had a huge smile on my face. Steve had just dumped hundreds playing a table game he could not walk away from. As soon as he got a few cents from the casino illegitimately, he was happy as a kid in a candy store. For a few moments, we were big winners in the casino that night. I'll never forget the day Steve took the Borgata down, even if it was just a moral victory.

Cheers, brother!

Blogger Shout Outs

2006-05-22T23:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not updating sooner, but I've been busy with work and whatnot.

Just wanted to take some time to thank some bloggers who have frequented this site, all of whom have great blogs of their own.

Check them out:

Scatter o' Light

c loves her U2 and especially her Bono; to say she worships the humanitarian rock star might be an understatement.

She's turned me onto some good music with her many MP3 selections, and her love of soccer is much appreciated. In fact, I'll be doing a World Cup Blogger Pool which she is running, and we're going to try to get other people to join in. Definitely stop by Scatter and check out c's musings.

Mars Needs Guitars

merz contributes every so often here, and his blog is as good as it gets for MP3's. His blog is one of my favorites, and I recommend it for any rock fan looking for new bands to get into.

He'll be making another post soon, so look out for that.

Meandering Endlessly

Whitney showcases his highly sarcastic sense of humor on this hilarious blog. A contributor to this blog, Whitney likes to keep his own a little more private, but I still like trying to send more readers his way. He's an underappreciated source of comedy. His posts on David Williams' adventures in porn and a thesis on the merits of a couple of poker hotties are classics. I always look forward to reading his stuff and I hope he posts another rant soon.

Wallycrawler

Wallycrawler is one funny dude.

From his lofty perch in Canada, he basically makes fun of celebrities and George W. Bush with wreckless abandon. His hatred of Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology is something we can all celebrate.

The man has a talent for sarcastically ripping apart his subject matter, and it's a pleasure to check out his posts because I know I'm going to laugh at the expense of all the idiots in our entertainment culture that he blasts.He also appreciates hotties like Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansson. It's truly been an honor to have Wally stop by here on occasion, and I consider him a blogging brotha.

Highly recommended, although sometimes a nipple or two from Paris Hilton will make an appearance, so beware at work.

Quest of Closet Poker Player

cc has quite an interesting blog which details his poker exploits as a working man with a wife and three kids. He's interviewed a few pros for Poker Works, including a couple of guys I have played with, and he has a few tournament personalities lined up for future interviews. A great read for anyone who wants the perspective of a player trying to get better at a difficult game, balancing a time-consuming passion with the demands of a career and raising a family.

Craig is a class act, and I'm looking forward to getting a book (Positively Fifth Street by Jim McManus) he was kind enough to give away on his blog as part of a recent giveway.

other high quality blogs...

Rock 'n' Roll Star

Steve is an ultra-cool blogger who covers great bands and shows, and his site is one of my favorites to check out when I need my rock fix. He has great taste in music, and he manages to cover some really money shows.

Music Glob

Dan runs an awesome blog, and he also covers some of the most exciting bands out there. As far as rock music goes, this is one of the best I have seen for CD and concert reviews; honestly, I wish my own was as good as his.

Thank God: possible end to Sum 41??; Hot Chicks With D-Bags

2006-05-16T10:20:00.000-04:00

Guitarist Departs Awful Band

From Rolling Stone...

Sum 41 Guitarist Quits the Band

SUM 41 guitarist DAVE BAKSH has left the band to concentrate on his own metal band, BROWN BRIGADE. According to a statement on the band's Web site, the split was friendly and came as no shock to the other members. "The fact is Dave lost interest a long time ago," wrote frontman DERYCK WHIBLEY. Whibley maintains that Baksh has not participated creatively for some time and that his departure will have little effect on the group, who are currently in the midst of recording the follow-up to their 2004 gold album, Chuck.

I can't blame this guy for "losing interest a long time ago." Sum 41 SUCKS. This is potentially great news for all lovers of good music. Hopefully this catastrophic loss will lead to the necessary breakup of a shitty band.

By the way, I can't wait to hear Dave's new band Brown Brigade! Wait, I'm kidding - I won't pay ANY attention whatsoever, Brown Brigade can go fuck themselves.

I will soon be adding Sum 41 to my list of Bands I Hate With an Unnatural Disdain.

Hot Chicks With Douchebags

Keeping the focus squarely upon d-bags, c recently brought to my attention a stellar blog featuring hot chicks with douchebags. It is quite creatively titled Hot Chicks With Douchebags.

A preview from it is on the right (hottie Yasmine Bleeth featured).

The author has great taste when it comes to identifying his subject matter... it's hilarious, and definitely worth a look.

Tool and Pearl Jam top the charts

2006-05-15T01:19:00.000-04:00

Tool have the #1 selling record (10,000 Days) in the United States, and Pearl Jam's self-titled record follows with the #2 spot on the Billboard Charts.

Tool's first week sales of 564,000 copies is astonishing given the band's extreme lack of exposure on radio, television, and print media.

Long live rock.

new Muse - "Supermassive Black Hole" MP3

2006-05-11T16:05:00.000-04:00

Muse rocks.

Their newest song is called "Supermassive Black Hole". It features a slight techno-ish sound with the drums, but it's still good Muse nevertheless. I dig it, and I'm looking forward to more from the new record.

MP3: Muse - "Supermassive Black Hole"

the Official Muse Site

For those unfamiliar with Muse, they are a fantastic mix of Radiohead, Nirvana, the Pixies, and Rage Against the Machine (without the rapping).

Their new album is entitled Black Holes and Revelations, due July 3rd.

Hope you like it.

PokerStars Tourney

2006-05-08T01:57:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in
the PokerStars World
Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas
Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code:
7330476

Red Hot Chili Peppers are back

2006-05-07T23:17:00.000-04:00

Kudos to the Red Hot Chili Peppers for dominating SNL last night, as they performed their new single "Dani California" and old classic "Give it Away". They seem to be in great playing shape, as they were all on fire, especially John Fruscianti, who absolutely crushed his guitar during solos in the latter.

RHCP have a new double album coming out this Tuesday, May 9 - Stadium Arcadium. If it is on par with their last few releases, the Chilis can make a reasonable case for cracking this site's All Time Best Rock Bands list. Definitely an exciting month for rock fans, especially those of us who prefer our bands from the 90's.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Official Site

Pearl Jam and Tool record reviews: Rock and Roll is back... for a day, at least

2006-05-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam

Tool
10,000 Days

I have been thoroughly enjoying the new records from Pearl Jam and Tool, Pearl Jam and 10,000 Days, respectively. They've both been great company on my nearly two hours of driving time to and from Frederick these past couple of days.

By the way, definitely feel free to consider this "Pearl Jam and Tool Week" for this blog.

Quick summary: new PJ is one of their best records, period. Not as good as Ten or Vs., but still a five star album - and before anyone asks, "How can one 5-star album be worse than another 5-star album?", let me say that I think of scores for records from 1 to 100, with anything above a 95 getting a 5-star rating. It's also worth noting that, in my book, a lackluster Pearl Jam album is better than pretty much any other record you could ever buy.

Even though Pearl Jam is a classic, and superior to 10,000 Days, I find myself addicted to the new Tool and listening to it more. I'm just constantly amazed at the complexity, mystery, and pure anger behind Tool's songs.

new Tool tomorrow: May 2

2006-05-01T01:44:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite bands currently recording is Tool.

the band members are:

Danny Carey - drums
Justin Chancellor - bass guitar
Maynard James Keenan - vocals
Adam Jones - guitar

Highly adored by their fans, Tool's brand of guitar-heavy rock music proves to also be lowly accessible to the mass-consuming, music-buying public; let's just say that their music is considered extremely "loud" and "angry", and "only dudes seem to like it".

The musical virtuosity and synchronicty of their songs is what makes the band great. Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor are an incredible rhythm section, and both can be counted among the best at their respective instruments. Carey is often cited as one of the most talented rock drummers in the world.

Tool is a band I wish recorded far more material (just 4 LP's in about 12 years).

Their new record is entitled 10,000 Days, and it's due out May 2nd. "Vicarious", the lead single, while sounding like several of their other radio tracks ("The Grudge", "Schism", "Stinkfist"), is nevertheless a strong song, featuring metal guitarwork and drum hits during the closing seconds which harken Metallica's classic opus "One".

Pearl Jam's self-titled record comes out the very same day, so I'll be a happy camper at the record store tomorrow.

Two 90's powerhouse bands releasing highly anticipated albums? Count me in.

Both Tool and Pearl Jam have reputations for sick, exciting live shows. I can vouch for the latter first-hand, but I cannot - as of yet - safely say that I've witnessed the Tool live experience.

Speaking of the devil, I'm going to try to catch Tool in Philadelphia on May 17th, and Pearl Jam in DC on May 30th. The summer concert season in 2006 is looking like a great one.

more to come...

Tool Unveils North American Tour Plans

Official Tool Website

New Pearl Jam Update: World Wide Suicide MP3, Record Album Cover Artwork, Tour Dates - new PJ drops tomorrow

2006-05-01T01:27:00.000-04:00

by F.J. Delgado
originally posted March 8, 2006

First of all, check out merz's money MP3 Pearl Jam post...

The brand spanking new Pearl Jam single is available for free MP3 download on their official site (link below), and I've been listening to it non-stop. It's pretty badass, and things look good for the 8th studio album.

Stream the new record here

The song sounds like some songs off of Yield and Vitalogy. As Eddie Vedder has mentioned in recent articles, one can definitely hear some punk influences, as well as some sweet Who-inspired touches.

To be completely honest, "World Wide Suicide" is probably Pearl Jam's best lead single in more than a decade.

Pearl Jam could bust a move up the Letter Never Sent Best Bands of All Time list after this new studio record, we'll just have to wait and see.

download new PJ here ----> http://bootlegs.pearljam.com/wwslogin.aspx

UPDATE

One of the gentlemen in charge of online promotion for the new Pearl Jam record got in touch with me with the album cover artwork.

Here it is:

My Morning Jacket will open on the first leg of the tour.

Public on-sale dates and ticket information will be announced in local markets in the coming weeks.

Leg One of Pearl Jam's 2006 World Wide Tour follows:

DATE CITY VENUE

May 9 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
May 10 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
May 12 Albany, NY Pepsi Arena
May 13 Hartford, CT New England Dodge Music Center
May 16 Chicago, IL United Center
May 19 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
May 20 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
May 22 Detroit, MI Palace of Auburn Hills
May 24 Boston, MA TD Banknorth Garden
May 27 Philadelphia, PA Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
May 30 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center
June 1 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
June 3 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena

also... the below is reprinted from the following Rolling Stone article:

MAY

Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Out: May 2nd

"A couple of rock songs, a couple of ballads -- it's not rocket science," says Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard about the band's new disc. Not that he wants to undersell the hard work the band put into its eighth studio album, and its first studio record for Clive Davis' J Records. Pearl Jam entered Seattle's Studio X in November 2004, each member armed with ideas. After whittling about thirty songs to sixteen working tracks, singer Eddie Vedder took the rough sketches and wrote lyrics for them. "That took a while," says Gossard, "but it was worth the wait: He wrote some beautiful lyrics for this record." The title, Pearl Jam, reflects the group's most collaborative effort yet: It produced the album together, along with Adam Kasper; each member will receive writing credits; and, for the first time ever, guitarist Mike McCready contributes lyrics, to the album closer, "Inside Job."

The boys are also bracing for a yearlong world tour, to kick off in late spring. "All of our new stuff is so much fun to play," says Gossard, on a break from rehearsing the album's first single, "World Wide Suicide." "I can't wait." (AUSTIN SCAGGS)

Vanessa, do I make you horny...do I make you randy baby, do I?

2006-04-30T23:44:00.000-04:00

The WPT championship has just concluded. I kept up with the progress of the tournament, since I"m just a tourney nut. There were 3 women who made it deep...and all 3, are surprisingly hot.

Evelyn Ng was one of them. I was rooting for her to make it through, as she nursed a nice rack after days 1 and 2. She hasn't really broken through, and unfortunately this tourney wasn't meant to be. She finished in a respectable 39th.

Read above.

On the 6th day, 2 more hotties were left in the hunt. Erica Schoenberg, a successful black jack player turned poker player, comprised one of the last 19. She was a former model/volleyball player and has a dexterous handle on anyone's balls. Her tourney run premature ejacked when her AK lost to KQ. I remember seeing her play on GSN for some made for TV "Young Guns of Poker" crap. She played scared and confused. One year later, she's improved tenfold with +100k to boot. I hope for her future success.

Yep you are a hottie.

Last but definitley not least is a law student vixen, Vanessa Rousso. Vanessa is pretty hot (for poker standards I guess some would say). But all poker skills aside, there is something about her that gets my cajones going. First the pictures then the discussion.

Yes Ride 'Em Cowgirl

If I fold, will you show me more cleavage?

Can you imagine Doyle in a Von Dutch hat?

All right, now that you got that beating off out of the way, Vanessa made it really balls deep into the tournament. When the table got 7 handed, she was one spot away from tv stardom where fame and celebrity would've surely followed her. She went all-in with AK and got sucked out by AJ and that was that. As Pauly said, "The final table was set and Vanessa Rousso is not going to be at this one. The entire crowd filtered out with the largest case of blue balls after Vanessa Rousso's run. She failed to advance and a lot of media reps were bummed out that she's not going to be on TV."

Yeah that's too bad. I'm sure she was bummed out too, since it seems she already made preparations of winning a big one. I mean she has an agent/manager and her OWN website--www.vanessarousso.com

This is pretty good for someone who hasn't WON anything. I don't mean to be critical, but WTF right? This is like Anna Kournikova syndrome blown to egregious proportions. As I went to her site, I realized I was wasting my time on one gigantic self-cock stroking adulating shrine, immediately evident by her diva-like pictures appearing sequentially in flash media (as I guess you could see this once you open the page). Some amusing snippets from her biography:

A dual-citizen of the United States and France, Vanessa's eclectic upbringing molded her into an unconventional spirit often noted for her avant-garde approach to life. Her upbringing straddled two continents, four states, and half a dozen schools - taught in four languages. Her original style and quirky charisma along with her entrepreneurial instincts have led others to describe her as the Lady Maverick of Poker.

Lady Maverick of Poker? She signed a blog entry Vanessa "Lady Maverick" Rousso. Perhaps a publicist helped her coin that? Somewhere, Jodie Foster is pissed.

The daughter of a business mogul and school psychologist, Vanessa's logical savvy complemented her inherited intuition about human behavior and allowed for her to excel in competitive endeavors at a young age. At five years old, she could be found hustling adults in gin, poker, and backgammon. At thirteen, she was voted middle school vice president. In high school, she excelled as one of the nation's top debaters.

Dude when I was thirteen, I finally got pubes. Gotdamn!! Unfortunately, I was not talented to be elected middle school VP. If I had gotten elected, wow...let me tell you the myriad of things that would be different now....Mainly, I would've had a site dedicated to myself with my accomplishments centered around being elected middle vice president...middle school vice PREZ bitches!! EAT IT!

addendum: at first, I did not believe her when she said she had excelled as one of the nation's top high school debaters. I mean are you serious?!! No one can be THAT good!! Thank you for presenting us with a link to remove any suspicions whatsoever...

In 2001, Vanessa graduated as the Valedictorian of her high school in Wellington, Florida. She accepted a full scholarship to Duke University. In a record two and a half years, she graduated cum laude with a major in economics and a minor in political science. While at Duke, her studies in economics focused heavily on game theory - to which she attributes much of her poker playing success.

What record? Whose record did she break? Damn I bet that person is pissed.
Fuck..also,I did not get a Duke scholarship...I'll give her credit there. Hell if I had gotten a scholarship, I also would've graduated a year and a half early...I mean if I'm going to school for free, why not save Duke some money while I'm at it..I'm THAT much of a good person. Did I tell you I was middle school vice president?

addendum: is everyone a fucking game theory expert now? apparently, I asked why Phil Ivey has been so good in poker...he attributes his skills to reading the writings of Von Neumann and John Nash every night. Talk is cheap mother fucka!! But not game theory bitches!!

In May 2005, at the New Orleans World Series of Poker Circuit Event One, Vanessa final-tabled in a field of over 700 players. She earned seventh place, almost seven thousand dollars, and became the youngest woman to final table in World Series of Poker history - all at her very first professional poker tournament appearance. In New Orleans, Vanessa also won a $10,000 mega-satellite seat into that circuit's main event. She lost the main event with an ace high flush to an astonishing straight flush on the river. Nonetheless, her New Orleans experience ended on a positive note - with a 14th place finish in a field of hundreds of women in the Ladies International Poker Series event held there.

Actually, I know of this event in which my friend played. She final tabled the Special Olympics WSOP $20 buy-in event. She was 21. I'm sorry, but now my friend wants to use that title for her own site. It's ok...you can be called the 2nd youngest ever...I mean it's just as good since it IS the WORLD SERIES OF POKER and by WORLD SERIES OF POKER I MEAN THE WORLD SERIES OF MY ANUS.

In the summer of 2005, Vanessa continued to work on her game - reading every poker book she could get her hands on. She won the Palms Summer Series $200 buy-in and placed in the Women's World Championship event at the World Series of Poker. In the fall of 2005, she earned her first World Poker Tour victory by cashing in the Aruba circuit $500 buy-in event.

Victory...cashing...whatever it's all the same..I mean seriously, we're all gonna die anyways, right?

In 2006, Vanessa played the $1500 buy-in at the World Series of Poker Atlantic City Harrah's event in her bathrobe - going on to final table and earn fifth for almost twenty thousand dollars. This feat made her the youngest woman in history to final table twice in the World Series of Poker.

She actually bolded that part herself. Funny thing is that I played a tournament in my bathrobe too....One night I was doing my rounds...I wake up to find my ass getting booted out like a hangover on a Sunday morning. Before I could get my clothes, I was given 5 dollars for my services and told to never return. Where was the adoration on that one? God I always get fucked.

As a blonde, twenty-three year old female, Vanessa considers herself the 'Master of Low Expectations' at the poker table. She is known for her tight aggressive style and talkative table-demeanor. She is also notorious for supplying her tablemates with random sources of entertainment - from spontaneous freestyle raps to various tricks with cigars and chips.

What type of cigar tricks? I know someone who taught me some cigar tricks. Her name started with an "L" and ended in "-ewinksy".

I write this not because I am bitter or jealous (ok maybe I am..I mean I've always wanted my own agent and website without ACCOMPLISHING JACK CRAP). I like to compare this rant to Paul Phillips' incessant probing into Phil Hellmuth's grill. I mean this shit is great. I love a good ego of narcissim and self-cock stroking. Can you imagine going to Tiger Woods' site mixed in with a little Vanessa? Where would it even start?

"Hi, I'm Tiger Woods....I became victorious in every tournament, since I did CASH in all of them. You MAY have heard of me...I could tell you how great I am...but all I really want to tell you is that in middle school...I was elected vice president. Were you? That's what I thought........bitch."

Also check here for her law student spotlight...it's about as gold as her website. This is good stuff:

She was extremely involved in campus life and leadership positions at Duke. In addition to her involvement with the debate team, the business club, mock trial, and her sorority, Vanessa was the founder and president of the Duke Tax Assistance Program, the vice president of the Moot Court Club, the vice chair of the Duke Honor Council for Academic Integrity, and the spirit chair for the Cleland Selective House. Active in community service as well, Vanessa has volunteered for MADD, Toys and Tales, Walk for the Cure, Palm Beach Youth Court, Make-A-Wish-Foundation, and the Center for Race Relations at Duke. Between undergraduate and law school, Vanessa founded The Celebrity Players Tour Florida, a limited liability company that hosts several Florida-based celebrity golf tournaments for the benefit of charities.

I don't know what that all said...but I think it's just one long paragraph for, "WHY DO I GIVE A DAMN SO MUCH."

Might as well check out her myspace page too. At first I was writing this post to praise how hot she is and how awesome she would be for the game. Now I can only think how badly she belongs in a hardware store. In contrast, all the poker media have glamourized her, as they stroke themselves to her Von Douche hats. Pauly's statement:

"Vanessa Rousso is a great story I love typing her name. Sometimes I cut and past names because it's quicker than typing it out. Not for Vanessa Rousso. I get enjoyment with every key stroke. Vanessa Rousso is the Cinderella story of the year. She's the unknown who walked into the Bellagio and sat at the same table with Doyle Brunson, the Babe Ruth of poker and biggest swing dick in poker history... and the 23-year old law student held her own. Her mere existence gives me something to write about. It gives all of us hope that really anyone has a shot at the big time in poker. Anyone fool with $25,000 could have sat down and played. Some pros skipped the event. They knew it was -EV and stayed away. Vanessa Rousso gained more confidence after each player was busted. It's like getting into a fight. After you take the first and second punch you realize that it hurts, but that's the worst it's gonna hurt. You can take the pain and you're ready to dish it out."

Gutshot's comments:

"I'm going to take a moment to fill you all in on this Vanessa Rousso girl. She's hot, she's smart, she talks a good game, and plays even better. She has no fear and plays to win. She likes to talk trash and she likes to instigate. She is, the hottest girl in poker. A 23 year old law student from Florida, she was three hours late on the first day because she reportedly had class. The first hand she made quad queens and doubled up. Her stack has gone from over a million down to $30,000 and back up to over a million. You may not know who she is now, but I guarantee you everybody in the poker world will know and respect this woman."

There is no doubt she must be a talented player. I will give her props for her abilities. Phil Hellmuth commented on how she surprised him thinking her chips would start going on the down. Instead, she accumulated and wreaked havoc. It was also reported when she sat next to Doyle, he uttered, "Oh no not you again."

But seriously, I recognize talent when handled humbly. You think someone like Roger Federer tells everyone how GREAT he is. I think his game does enough talking. The great ones don't need to reiterate to everyone how GREAT they are. The ones who repeatedly do are actually not that great.

Plus, why the constant rant about your academic accomplishments? Yes we already know you're smart, but why overkill? Most people can't handle overt displays of success because most don't like feeling inconsequential (like myself). This brings me to the reason why I've been ragging on her so hard: her demeanor at the tables. Her arrogance and self-absorption reflects in her demeanor. You may ask yourself, "Well Whitney, a lot of players talk trash...why don't you rag on Matusow?" Well everyone's accepted that Matusow is a raving an idiot...but he usually needles his own buddies. I don't know how bad he really is, nor do I care. What I do care about is that antics like these should be not tolerated:

Four players were in for $40,000. It was Deeb, Vanessa Rousso, Chad Brown, and Vinny Vinh.

The flop came down 8s9c9h...all checked around the turn was 5s. Checked to Vanessa who bet 25k. Deeb c/r'd for 100k more, Vanessa called instantly and said, 'You've got ace high.' The river is a Tc. Deeb counted out some chips. Vanessa mimicked his movements indicating she would be calling if he bet. 'Check,' said Freddy. Rousso flipped up 22. 'I called your hand Freddy, will you show it to me? You have ace high.' 'Sure I show it to you, I have ace high,' Deeb said and politely showed...As Jd 'It's poor etiquette to ask someone to show their hand. Sometimes new players do that, but it's not right,' Hellmuth interjected. 'Oh is it really? I'm sorry,' replied Vanessa sarcastically.

I'm impressed by her play, but not her etiquette. Jean Gluck, a poker pro who is also very hot, shared her opinion. Before I get into that, I need to show a collage of of Jean Gluck before I go on. In addition, I might as well turn this post into hotties of the poker world (this excludes Paul Magriel, X-22). She seems like a really sweet girl and a reputed solid 100/200 Limit player. I would love her to mother my kids.

WTF, I was not out of town. This is bullshit.

Sorry I got carried away. Oh you can also get some video coverage of her here. And while I'm at it, might as well amp up the stalking abilities to her myspace page here too. Anyways, back to what I was saying about antics and douchebaggery. Jean chimed in on 2+2:

Some on this thread may think she's hot, some may not, but one things for sure this girl infuriated ALOT of poker pros. I think every person watching the final 6 tables and on (except her bf) wanted her to get knocked out. Freddy Deeb is not the only incident of foul poker play from her, there are a few others I heard about.

She rivered quads vs. Liz Lieu's full house, When Liz finally called on the river, Vanessa slow rolled by saying first "nice hand".

60 players left she flopped a Q high flush against a J high flush, when she saw her opponents hand she stood up to shake his hand before she showed her cards, She didn't even knock him out of the tournament!! A little arrogant.

The final thing I heard from was someone on the table asked her if she was afaid to play against anyone, she said no. The person asked "Even Doyle??". She responded "Why should I be afraid of Doyle, I have alot more chips than him". lol

I'm very suprised no one punched HER in the face the whole tournament. Also, I guess she was in Costa Rica at the same tournament I was, I don't remember her at all. I'm actually suprised she considers herself a pro. Her whole demeanor is very amateur. I'm sure she doesn't even realize she is hurting her future poker career.

Stay Classy Vanessa!! She sounds like all the Duke doucheyness that comprise the spirit of the student body who enjoy raping strippers and using racial slurs. Everyday I thank Buddha that I did not go to Duke. The fact that I had initially sent in my deposit and confirmation to Duke when deciding over schools induces horror. Well, honestly I don't think I was good enough anways...it's not like I was voted middle school vice president or anything.

But all joking aside. When I checked the progress of the tournament I was hoping she would make it. However a part of me, after glancing through her webpage and the report of her antics, wished for her to get screwed out of the tv table. But it maybe too late to prevent a tidal wave of extreme bragging. I'd love to see what her site says next.

Ideally, it would've been great if Erica, Evelyn, and Vanessa all made the tv table. I wished at least one of them would make the final 6 and at best, win it all. I'm sure the WPT was aching for this to happen in light of their declining ratings and complaints on how awful the season has been. Add maybe a Hellmuth, Brunson, or Chan as well or maybe all of three and we would be getting Moneymaker Effect 2.0.

To think if Vanessa won, we would be geting throngs of young women and pubescent horny boys like myself more attuned to poker. Think whenever Anna Kournikova was playing in a tennis match; no one gave a damn about women's tennis, but people gave a damn when she shoved that tennis ball up her panties. Vanessa would've made a great tv personality with her douchebaggish personality (I have never applied the term "douchebag" to a female before until now) and her hotness. She also represents what is worst for poker. Networks clamour for more personality and less substance. This makes sense for the ratings. We've already laid witness to ESPN and NBC giving more coverage to the jackass personalities (think Sheiky), while shying away from the real solid players who don't talk a big game but play one (think a lot of the Asian players who don't speak English well). Her image will also impact the influx of players who will absorb such behaviors for display at your home game.

I like her for her potential to bring added growth (and fishiness) to poker. I look down on her for her potential to erode table etiquette. Just think of the many assholes who adopt such behavior in order to get tv time. I don't claim to know her. She may actually be a good person. She should be proud of her academic accomplishments and sounds like a very smart girl (her website got me sold baby!). In fact, I would love to meet her. On the other hand, I don't know Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu or Greg Raymer either, and I can be sure they are genuine gentlemans. I hope people follow their example and not some has-been middle school president on some bitch storm to prove something. Happy masturbating.

Contributors' Archives

2006-04-30T19:15:00.000-04:00

This blog has some awesome contributors who have made several stellar posts.

Please do yourself a favor and read them:

The Monitors

a bad day for Caesar

ask Andrew W.K.

A Litigious Proposal

a crash course in indie music

a controversial post - a rumination on my access to porn

Kid You'll Move Mountains

Songs That Filled Me With Abject Rage

Well, that was a mindfuck: A story of a viewing of the film "Donnie Darko"

Dewey in repose

I Want to Own an Aviary - by Count Langenhoffen

merz

Pearl Jam As Requested

The Rest of the Request

By Request - Part I

Some Favorite Tunes

Whitney

Vanessa, do I make you horny... do I make you randy baby, do I?

my poker project

First Day in AC, meeting up with the man Fern Dog

The Top 11 Tennis Hotties

Intellectual Steve

Siesta Time: The New World

Letter Never Sent - Deep Thoughts by Intellectual Steve

Pearl Jam As Requested

2006-04-27T23:38:00.000-04:00

by Merz

As requested from my Maryland brother Fernando Delgado, a definite cool dude!

Make a Pearl Jam mix tape. The new one self titled Pearl Jam is out on May 2nd

Ten
Epic (1991)

Jeremy (mp3)

Even Flow (mp3)

Vs.
Epic (1993)

Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town (mp3)

Rearviewmirror (mp3)

Vitalogy
Epic (1994)

Spin The Black Circle (mp3)

Satan's Bed (mp3)

No Code
Epic (1996)

Off He Goes (mp3)

Who You Are (mp3)

Yield
Epic (1998)

Brain Of J. (mp3)

Do The Evolution (mp3)

Binaural
Epic (2000)

Nothing As It Seems (mp3)

Insignificance (mp3)

Riot Act
Sony (2002)

Save You (mp3)

You Are (mp3)

McRoberts Staying at Duke? Answer: YES

2006-04-27T00:37:00.000-04:00

"eat it!"

ESPN sez ---> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2006/news/story?id=2423422

the original speculation: http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=1273

" i am very confused as to whether or not I should peace out to The League. also, the dude behind me looks goofy as hell."

more from The Herald Sun ----> http://www.herald-sun.com/sports/18-728822.html

I Want to Own an Aviary

2006-04-24T09:40:00.000-04:00

by The Monitors

originally posted October 3, 2005

An Aviary (capitalized because I would own it, and everything I own instantly accords pronoun status) is a large enclosure filled with trees and such for the purpose of enclosing birds. You've seen aviaries in such blockbuster classics as Jurassic Park 3 (dazzlingly directed by Joe Johnston, between October Sky and Hidalgo) and The Haunting (which features a pre-celebrity Owen Wilson decapitated by a haunted fireplace[seriously]).

So, essentially, the birds think they can fly through the webbed steel forming the aviary, but it turns out that steel reacts to birds the same way it does to everything else; they hit it, fall, and usually die. BUT, as Darwin taught us, the next generation of birds will know how the system works, and shall obey it unflaggingly, and so they become the living attraction of said Aviary.

Now, my Aviary will be fucking enormous; not because the birds need room to fly, but because I'm a big guy. In fact, my Aviary will be devoid of those dirty ornithological rats. If birds find a way into my Aviary, it's probably entirely coincidental. As soon as you walk into my Aviary you'll be confronted by some kind of spike or boulder trap; notice I use "you," since I would never fall for my own traps. If you make it past the trap(s?), you'll notice the air is pungent with a tenebrous pall, due in large part to the still black pond to your right and the cobwebbed man-sized iron cages squeaking longingly towards the floor which are numerous and hanging from the roof.

Spiders are rampant, though not so many so as to draw your attention too much from an omniaural moan permeating the wispy white fog. There's some wilting shrubbery that's not been clipped for years, but its plainly obvious they were shorn to resemble souls writhing in the fires of Hell. Twisted trunks of half-dead trees litter the place haphazardly; there's a pretty cherry blossom, too (for contrast by juxtaposition). This is obviously just to create the mood for my Aviary, so that the next door neighbor's kids feel compelled to breach my Aviary.

Then, once inside, they'd be forced to serve me (not sexually) until their premature death or embark as a group on a dangerous quest for a pirate ship full of gold hidden in a secret cave within the sewers of the town. If none of the kid's are Asian, then they won't have the quest option, since no one can convincingly yell, "Booby traps!"

Now, being a business-minded person, considering the logistics of maintaining a model aviary requires some serious rumination.
First, manpower. Simple. Pay some poor Polish countrymen to immigrate over and upkeep my aviary (I wouldn't use "Aviary" in the newspaper ad so as not to stir suspicion). Their rudimentary belief in the spirits of the Old Country would surely remain alight as they torment in my hellish Aviary. And while they toil and cry out at spirits nonexistent, they'd come to me begging to allow their indenture to end. I, of course, would grow to twice my size and cackle ghoulishly at their simple beliefs and hilarious terror. I might allow them put a bird in my Aviary if they agree to stop being fed, but the odds that they learn conversational English are slim to none!

Another important logistic is always making sure the troops are officious in their duties, so once in awhile I'd release a pack of hounds or swarm of locusts into the Aviary. I might also release one of those badass string-tripped swinging log traps that did in The Predator, and I think also may have taken care of Benicio's character in the cinematic feast that is The Hunted.

If the INS or similar got too hot on my Aviary, I'd just cover it with a tarp whenever they came by looking for missing Poles. If they ask what's under the tarp I'd probably just make the whole damn thing send itself into another dimension, and then return when everyone's not looking.

What's most important for an Aviary is, of course, having a secret room where you crossbreed various hapless animals via torture. There'd be strungup bunny rabbits, kittens, otters, dolphins, parrots (since they can talk), chicken (in the form of buffalo wings in the freezer), and then a couple of random beating cows' hearts connected to more electrodes than seems necessary for good measure. I'd also pay Edgar Allen Poe's great grandson to sit in a tall black chair and read aloud "The Telltale Heart" and "The Raven" at odd temporal intervals. When the creatures I manifest are ready to unleash doom upon the world, I'd make sure they go straight for the places of worship, just to fuck with everyone's psyche.

One last item: let's throw in some gargantuan pterodactyls with lasers attached to their shoulders like those Dinobots.

I feel that building from this simple Aviary template, I'll have countless hours of entertainment to tide me over until my battleship is complete!

A Litigious Proposal

2006-04-21T13:25:00.000-04:00

by The Monitors

originally posted a couple months ago...

So I've been sick the past two days, and being sick, like any red-blooded American, I've been taking advantage of this rare opportunity to take over-the-counter pick-me-ups and slooow-me-downs to "relieve my symptoms." Sudafed LiquiCaps (non-drowsy), NyQuil, Robitussin lozenges, Halls Vapor Relief, Zinc lozenges, Tylenol, Advil, Trademark after motherfucking TM ... I am juiced. Needless to say my trip to Safeway a block away earlier today nearly ended in content resignation.

Anyway, this strangely altered state of mind has afforded me a comfortable glimpse into my meandering psyche, or "train of thought" or "stream of consciousness" depending on whether you are a rivertboat driver or train conductor, I guess.

My mind's usually pretty random anyway, often imagining something like the effects of a terrorist Jello bomb (cherry-flavored) in downtown DC during an August evening rush hour, or likewise.

Well this evening in communique via cellular handset with a friend I used to work with who became an intellectual property attorney (read: patent lawyer), "we" were coming up with ways to make money quickly and without any effort; you know, the welfare lottery approach. I used "we" in quotes because as a patent lawyer he need not worry about the usual trappings of modern capitalism and economics.

Speedily forgetting our conversation, I began to think of fun ways to annoy people, lots of people. Eventually I landed on concocting thousands of court-issued subpoenas to individuals I'd never met, being good for a laugh, because folk tend to react badly to unexpected litigious intervention.

Then it hit me. Chain letters. Rather than spending hours of my precious time typing up thousands of fake subpoenas, I would mail just 10 originals stating that "if you serve this court-ordered subpoena on 7 of your friends, the charges against you will be dropped." And to help things along, in each envelope I'll enclose handy postage-paid envelopes with letterhead saying "YOU GOT SERVED!"

Problem solved, AND I've now created a self-perpetuating process of limitless proportions! Not only have I pointlessly brought back the rightfully dead tradition of chain letters, but I've also fiendishly woven a sick modern satire into it! And the true beauty, from my personal perspective, is that I'm untraceable!

Genius.

Pearl Jam Request for MerzMan

2006-04-18T16:18:00.000-04:00

dear brother Merz,

Pearl Jam kicked major ass on SNL this past Saturday Night. The show itself was pretty good (Andy Samberg and Bill Hader are funny as hell, and are the future of the show), and even the slutty and, as of recently, emaciated Lindsey Lohan was looking pretty damn cute.

That second song ("Severed Hand") was a badass rocker, and their new single ("World Wide Suicide") is #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart.

PJ seems to be back with a vengeance, and to celebrate, would you mind posting a few PJ tunes spanning their illustrious rock career? That would be pretty fucking sweet!

As I have mentioned, I would love to hear a couple off my fave album of theirs, Vs. (namely "Glorified G", "Rearviewmirror", and "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town"), and perhaps a few others - "Brain of J" and "Do the Evolution" off Yield, "Spin the Black Circle" and "Satan's Bed" from Vitalogy, "Breathe" and "State of Love and Trust", "Off He Goes" from No Code, etc., and so on, and so forth.

Thanks in advance, hope you keep rockin' the shit with Mars Needs Guitars and spreading the rock love!

luv,
F.J. the PJ Fan

my poker project

2006-04-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

by Whitney

It seems rather popular among poker players to seek a goal, or a journey in hopes to come out better than your old self. I myself have decided to pursue a poker project in order to change the status quo. I am not doing something unrealistic like turning my shit into a million dollars or anything of that sort. My journey will deal with my main problem of never wanting to move up.

I enjoy beating up the chumpiest of the chumps at the low limit games. I like to see quick results and easy wins. A year ago I took a shot at 5/10 and got destroyed for over $700; this was when my usual game was 1/2. At the time, I was accustomed to losses being at most ~$100. This disastrous session inflicted deep psychological damage that didn't sit well with my risk-averse personality. Since then, I have always tried protect my bankroll, watching it grow slowly, but surely.

This mentality has left my skills stagnant, as I never took a shot at higher games, even with a suitable bankroll. A Penn kid from the poker club said you should move up as fast you can, which in my view is a risky move. I am not a strong proponent of going out on the deep end and drowning. And then learn why you drowned and fight yourself out of debt. I like to know I am a winner at a certain limit after playing a significant number of hands. When I'm confident enough at that level, I will make the move up. The problem is at this rate I'll want to play 10/20 when the poker boom will probably be dead or I'll be dead. With these profitable games and money for the taking, the time has called to stop being a pussy.

Phil Ivey started his poker career, working at McDonald's for minimum wage. After work, he would play cards with the money he had just made. Playing low limit stud, he raised every hand like a maniac. Subsequently, he would go broke, say 'bye' to everyone at the table and come back the next day to do it all over again. During this cycle, he began to learn how his opponents reacted to aggression. He of course harbored that aggression to become the ridiculous talent he is today. Not all was easy. Whenever he took a shot at $400-800, Henry Orenstein would regularly break him, forcing Ivey to move down and rebuild. At times, he was broke and couldn't pay for his utility bills. One night his electric company just shut everything off. Phil sat in the dark, thinking, "Wow I'm a bum."

Talk is cheap mother fucker!! SHIP IT!

Many of the top players have this similar journey. I am telling it because there's a common theme. These guys take huge risks, usually resulting in going broke, but then learning from the experience. This is a dangerous lifestyle to me and as a result, I will never be great because of my fear of gambling.

In order to get better I must be willing to take more risks. What is the best way? Well I never want to go broke and lose everything I've worked so hard to grind out (all those fucking hours at the 1/2 games). But I must change in order to step it up. I talked to a very knowledgeble kid who played with his whole bankroll, but disciplined himself. He played 4 tables of 2K Pot Limt Omaha in order to finance a summer trip. He had about 9k, and if his bankroll ever dipped at a certain limit he would move down. Through this management, he insured he would never go broke, but at times he would be forced to leave a a juicy game if the situation were to present itself.

My project will follow this stop loss management. Though, I won't be playing with my whole bankroll at 100/200, I will set aside $1200 and start from the 2/4 level with 300 bbs. When I get my bankoll gets to 300 bbs of the next level I will then move up. For example, if my bank gets to $1800, it is time for 3/6. Anytime a 100 bb downswing occurs, it is time to close up the asshole and move down. A 100 bb downswing is rather normal, but I have set this the limit of my "threshold of misery" as Mike Caro likes to call it.

So hopefully the journey will look like this:
$1200 at 2/4
$1800 at 3/6
$3000 at 5/10
$6,000 at 10/20

The plan is to get to 10/20. I don't know if I can ever handle swings at 15/30 and so on. One overarching flaw to my project is that I am setting aside a set amount and not my whole bankroll. This is good and bad. Good that I will not be under extreme duress of possibly losing everything have. Bad that I will also not be under extreme duress to dig deep and play on survival instinct. But in the end, this project will become great practice to psychologically separate myself from the value of money. This attitude will allow me to brush off the bad days and expedite my transitions between limits.

During this journey, I will be giving up money I would have won playing at my normal limit. That is the short-term opportunity cost. This trade off is worth it as a long-term investment. I may improve to beat the bigger games.

I will keep everyone up to date (if anyone gives a rat's ass) of my progress. If I find myself at the .o1/.02 level I will just pack my bags and quit for good. Wish me good luck.

Interviews

2006-04-14T07:25:00.000-04:00

Frederick Keys are Money

I've been interviewing professional baseball players as part of my reporting gig with Orioles Hangout on the Frederick Keys, the Single A minor league affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.

So far, I've witnessed the fourth no-hitter in team history, during which young gun Radhames Liz, a Dominican kid, struck out 13 of 15 batters he faced on 81 pitches, 12 swinging.

Sick.

I've also made sure to talk to stud prospect Nolan Reimold, since he might be getting promoted to AA Bowie sooner rather than later. I would be somehat surprised if Reimold isn't playing for the Orioles by late 2007, or in the Opening Day lineup as a starting OF by 2008. The kid hit two dingers yesterday.

Luke is also hot right now...

My good friend Luke Kim, who as of a couple months ago was a frequent visitor and poster to this site, apparently is enough of a big deal to pull an interview with an internet poker website (http://www.pokerworks.com).

It's sort of weird to see your friends get interviewed and read their opinions as if they are more important than usual. Way to go kid...

the "Luke Kim and F.J. Delgado Run Out of Gas Story" is on the way...

Update: A Good Cause

2006-04-09T15:36:00.000-04:00

Link courtesy of Observer Dan K.

Julia Serber is a fellow Dukie from my class. She is currently in Med School at the University of Maryland. This upcoming summer, Julia will be biking and raising money in memory of her best friend, a Duke Women's varisty soccer player who passed away in 2002.

I'll be donating to this, and will try to spread the word about it as best I can.

Julia Serber's Team In Training Page

Sara LaBosky, a star on and off the soccer field (Los Altos Town Crier)

UPDATE: Observer Dan K and yours truly will each be donating $25 to Julia's cause, and we hope to give more as her bike ride approaches.

new songs I've been digging (part 2) - MP3s added

2006-04-08T11:27:00.000-04:00

originally posted December 14th, 2005

I'm not gonna lie, let's start rocking out here. These songs kick major ass, and you need to listen to them now. Most of these songs are less than a year or two old, but we have one oldie but goodie from Australia for all to enjoy, mate!

new songs and singles I've been digging, PART 1 (from September 2005)

Foo Fighters - DOA (MP3)

Muse - Hysteria (MP3)

the Killers - Under the Gun

Weezer - Perfect Situation

My review of a Weezer show I attended in October 2005 at George Mason's Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA.

Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure (live from Austin City Limits Music Festival)

This tune is an awesome live rendition of a great Franz song. Highly recommended.

Green Day - She's a Rebel

Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) (MP3)

Ryan Adams - Trains

Seafood - Heat Walks Against Me (thanks to merz from Mars Needs Guitars for this one)

AC/DC - Hard as a Rock (MP3)

It is painfully obvious that AC/DC just decided to predominantly write songs about their schlongs, since, in the spirit of Spinal Tap, they claim to have armadillos in their trousers.

"Hard as a Rock" is the song that fellow, younger Aussie band Jet blatantly rips off with their tune, "Cold Hard Bitch." I'm of the thinking that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (all rock and roll essentially is), so that's ok by me.

much more to come, including more MP3s

Ask Andrew W.K. ...

2006-04-05T21:20:00.000-04:00

by The Monitors

I've been a fan of Andrew W.K. for a few years now, and one thing that's inspired me about him is his ability to boil life down to a few guitar solos, keyboard arpeggios, and party lyrics. So, I thought I'd put his divine insight to the test to answer some common, and not-so-common, questions that have plagued mankind since the dawn of human history.

Q: "Why is the sky blue?"
Awk: "Cos we're gonna have a FUN NIGHT! FUN NIGHT! FUN NIGHT! FUN NIGHT! Gonna get off! Gonna get off! Gonna get off! Gonna get off!"
[From "Fun Night" off of I Get Wet]

Q: "Where is the Adriatic Sea?"
Awk: "I can't explain it anymore / I'm not too young to know for sure. You get me, I get you, we get us."
[From "Really in Love" off of The Wolf]

Q: "Can you actually recharge non-rechargeable batteries or what?"
Awk: "You're not my mom and dad / And even they watch their backs; Cause they know what I hate; Any rules that I can't break."
[From "Your Rules" off of The Wolf]

Q: "How can I get from 19th & Q to the Target?"

Awk: "You won't know and we won't fucking go / We just keep on living. We always get what we want; We still get what we want 'cos we're never gonna stop (no we won't stop)."

[From "Fun Night" off of I Get Wet]

Q: "My sister Tesla is dating a guy who is 15 years older than him. Is this weird or should I stop being so protective?"
Awk: "The girl's too young / She don't need any better. It's all coming back / I can feel it. She is beautiful / She is beautiful / She is beautiful / She is beautiful. The girl is beautiful."
[From "She is Beautiful" off of I Get Wet]

Q: "Is pepperoni or sausage better on pizza?"
Awk: "This is why we are alive / We all live like we are going to die. We are here, We are high / And this is why we love to live our lives"
[From "Victory Strikes Again" off of The Wolf]

Q: "Would the benefits of narcotics legalization outweigh the detriment?"
Awk: "I Get Wet when the party is dying. I Get Wet without even trying. I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet / I Get Wet whenever you trying / I Get Wet when I know that you're dying / I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet I Get Wet."
[From "I Get Wet" off of I Get Wet]

Q: "What's your problem, jackass?"
Awk: "We do what we like and we like what we do. So let's get a party going (let's get a party going) / Now it's time to party and we'll party hard (party hard) / Let's get a party going (let's get a party going) / When it's time to party we will always party hard / Party hard (party hard, party hard, party hard party hard, party hard, party hard party hard, party hard, party hard...) ."
[From "Party Hard" off of I Get Wet]

The Monitors Post Archive

2006-04-05T00:37:00.000-04:00

"This kid looks GOOD!!"
- local news anchorman Ron Burgundy on The Monitors' dashing good looks

"Are you talking about that drunk guy that was walking around Adam's Morgan last night with aviator sunglasses on? Um, yeah, I guess I would have sex with him..."
- random drunk, somewhat slutty DC girl answering a reporter's question regarding The Monitors

"Yes... absolutely. Sometimes I do worry that The Monitors will perish before the age of 27, but that's honestly the main reason I love going out of my way to hang out with the guy whenever he's touring a region or town near me!"
- anonymous friend

"I'm The Monitors... I'm the stylish one of the group..."
- The Monitors

"that Monitors guy is so HOT right now!"
- Jacobin Mugatu from Zoolander

a bad day for Caesar

ask Andrew W.K.

A Litigious Proposal

a crash course in indie music

a controversial post - a rumination on my access to porn

Kid You'll Move Mountains

Songs That Filled Me With Abject Rage

Well, that was a mindfuck: A story of a viewing of the film "Donnie Darko"

Dewey in repose

I Want to Own an Aviary - by Count Langenhoffen

UPDATE: Movies I'm Looking Forward To

2006-04-04T20:54:00.000-04:00

by F.J. Delgado

originally posted September, 17 2005

Munich

This Steven Spielberg picture is based on the real-life terrorist killings of Israeli atheletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. An unfortunately appropriately-themed film given current events, this project has already amassed massive buzz and hype as a Best Picture contender. Given the director, and a usually strong Eric Bana in the lead role (despite his involvement in atrocities such as The Hulk, he was the highlight in the unfairly panned Troy), hopefully this movie will not disappoint.

The Departed

This promising film boasts a sick cast and director. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson, and Martin Sheen are directed by Martin Scorsese in a story about an Irish gang member and a police cadet who respectively infiltrate the other side as moles. A remake of the Hong Kong original Infernal Affairs, which was fairly well-done, one can see why Scorsese might have been excited to re-interpret a movie that came out only a few years ago. Scorsese is responsible for some of my favorite films - Goodfellas, The Last Waltz, and Gangs of New York - and classics such as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, among others.

DiCaprio, Damon, and Wahlberg have also appeared in some of my favorite movies; these guys are talented and, for the most part, they turn up in more good films than your average successful actor. The Departed is allegedly going to be violent and suspenseful, with Damon mentioning that a sequel would be hard to do given the bloodshed in it. This is one of those projects where it would be quite difficult to not at least entertain and feature high-quality filmmaking and production. This is a lot like when I first heard about a comedy starring Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson back in 2002 - I remember looking forward to Old School as comedic gold well before it was released theatrically. Different genres, but same principle at work.

Boondock II: All Saints Day

The sequel to Boondock Saints. One of my favorite movies, the original is simply badass. With several memorable scenes (the escape from the Russians post bar fight, taking out the Russian syndicate, the "firefight" sequence), a cool story, lots of violence and swearing, and a funny performace in his only on-screen role to date from David de la Rocco, it's a nice addition to the violent gangster genre that, while Saints is not in the same league, Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas tower over. Willem Dafoe is great as a high-strung FBI agent.

I get a kick out of the Irish Catholic vigilantes go on a morally paradoxical killing spree angle, given my own affinity for Catholicism. I'm also a fan of the fact both brothers have the Blessed Mother tattoed on their necks, but I might be the only person you'll ever hear say that. I hold Mary in the highest regard; the reasons for that I'll save for another post.

Either way, considering the original didn't get a full release because of the Columbine shootings AND the fact director Troy Duffy got blacklisted by Mirimax before it's release - it was only shown in 5 theaters across the country - it's impressive that the film was so enthusiastically received and was re-released on DVD solely on strong word-of-mouth. All for a film that basically went straight to video.

Duffy again is writing/directing the sequel, and, although there's no Dafoe, the two main characters are back, with the addition of what looks like a blonde Irish hottie. Sounds good to me!

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny

The first time I watched a Tenacious D episode was several years ago during college, and I could tell right away that I was seeing something outrageous and funny. At the same time, knowing I have a quirky sense of humor, and knowing that the series was out of left field even for HBO, I didn't think it would catch on. I was sort of right, but mostly wrong on that. The Tenacious D series did in fact die out, but luckily Jack Black is as resourceful and stubborn as his band name suggests. Never ashamed to call themselves the greatest band in the world, the D managed to record an album. The first time I heard their ballad "Fuck Her Gently" was on the internet, I rejoiced inside for I knew JB and KG had overcome the odds and triumphed; the D was a force, and it was here to stay.

Ben Stiller and John C. Reilly show up in the Pick of Destiny, along with Tim Robbins. On a sidenote, I have a love/hate relationship with Robbins (about 90% hate). I have always liked him because he played Andy Dufresne, a well-acted role in my all-time favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption. He's a good actor (despite his appearance in one of the worst movies ever: Mission to Mars), but I absolutely hate his political viewpoints on just about everything. I think he's a Communist ass, but at least he had a funny cameo in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, so hopefully he'll follow up with another one here. You also have to like the cheesy yet grandiose pun of a title. One of the few red flags associated with this movie is the unproven director attached to it, Liam Lynch. Either way, expect some funny songs, some wierd adventures, and some lofty claims from the D.

check out some Tenacious D videos, including "Fuck Her Gently", here

The Passion of the Clerks

Kevin Smith is a good writer-director, even though his work has been a little uneven and inconsistent over the years. Watching Clerks and Mallrats for the first time were memorable movie experiences. This sequel has a lot to live up to, as the first film came out of nowhere with virtually no budget to be an indie classic. Dante and Randal are classic characters despite obvious shortcomings in the script, most of the humor is scathing and crude (in the best way), and you can find some classic conversational dialogue between the novel characters. Jay and Silent Bob launched their recurring characters here, even though I'm still wondering why Jeff Anderson's career didn't pick up considering his performance as Randal was the funniest - he's been relegated to almost exclusively Smith projects. Maybe his style was perfectly suited for this type of movie only, or maybe he caught lightning in a bottle and was never a good comedic actor, who knows. Rosario Dawson just signed on to the project, and even though I'm not too big a fan of hers, she's still a hottie. Check out Kevin Smith's own website for the best updates on this flick.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Matt Damon will be back to reprise his role as Jason Bourne in the third of this series. The first two were quality espionage thrillers, and there's no reason to think this one will disappoint as long as the same people are involved. I've already mentioned that Damon is a favorite actor of mine (his turn as Will Hunting standing as my favorite character of his), and the Bourne series illustrates some of his range as an actor - it doesn't require too much in the area of thespianism to play Bourne, but he's still a good in a straightforward action role, and it's a departure from most of his more involving characters (excluding, of course, his wonderfully ridiculous cameo in Euro Trip).

Ed Moulton offers up his Major League Baseball preview

2006-04-02T12:42:00.000-04:00

by F.J. Delgado

Ed is a long-time pal of mine from our college days. His blog, which features a somewhat "unique" writing style, is one of the funniest sites you could possibly read whilst bored off your ass at work, or chillin' at home looking to cheer yourself up.

He currently resides in Las Vegas, NV. Moulton is a smartass proposition gambler, and he makes no bones that one of his personal heroes and immediate influences is the legendary Amarillo Slim. The kid is definitely a hustler with an edge in the intelligence department, a resource I have fallen victim to on more than one occasion.

A good sense of humor and an ability to tolerate the frequent misspellings (as well as a LOT of foul language) are required, but there is a reason Mr. Moulton is considering writing for a living instead of going to graduate school. Also, be on the lookout for random comments and haikus courtesy of yours truly.

His 2006 Major League Baseball preview is stellar, and despite the fact some of the projected records - for example his "objective" prediction that the Atlanta Braves will finish 36-126, while his hometown Phillies will dominate the NL East to the tune of a perfect 162-0 record - might just be his caustic sense of humor shining through, the dude still knows his baseball.

Ed Moulton's Journal

Happy April Fool's Day

2006-04-01T09:44:00.000-05:00

I was glad to hear that Duke is offering to play for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship - I like our chances.

George Mason Player Upsets Mother With Last-Second Long-Distance Call from Way Downtown

A.J. Pierzynski Predicts He Will Lead League in Offensiveness

The Rest Of The Request

2006-03-31T20:50:00.000-05:00

Don't thank me for these tunes, thank my kind host FJ Delgado. I am a little late on posting them up but here they are...

Our Lady Of Peace
Spiritual Machines (2001)

In Repair (mp3)

Life (mp3)

Somewhere Out There/Bring Back the Sun (2003)

Somewhere Out There (mp3)

She Wants Revenge
S/T (2006)

Tear You Apart (mp3)

Frederick Keys roster is set

2006-03-31T14:06:00.000-05:00

and it is right here.

I'm looking forward to meeting the ballplayers on the team, and our pitching staff looks quite solid.

Frederick won their league in 2005.

Leo Mazzone gets inked up

2006-03-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

Baltimore Orioles pitching coach Leo Mazzone recently got a tattoo under the supervision of newly acquired Kevin Millar. Millar is rapidly turning into one of my favorite current Orioles, which is pretty sad considering there are a ton of guys on the team that have been with the organization for several years.

Read Kevin Millar's blog/musings here.

Fuck Muslim Terrorists

2006-03-27T20:03:00.000-05:00

... right in the ear.

Terrorists suck balls

The penalty for all Muslim terrorists who kill Americans should be sodomy by a group of convicts, instead of the traditional death penalty. It would be nicer if the sodomy were publically televised, and repeated once a year on their birthday for the rest of their human lives. Then maybe they would think twice about waging war.
Moussaui says he was to hijack 5th plane, to get the death penalty would be an honorable death

Lacrosse players are pricks

also: a Duke and NCAA athletic controversy has been a big sports story recently, as the Duke Men's Lacrosse team has been accused of raping a black woman. Regardless of what may or may not have happened, this article, written by a Duke woman with a good perspective, sheds light on the situation.

In my not so humble opinion, the Duke lax team has buried not only Duke here, but also all lacrosse players. Almost every single lacrosse player I have ever met is a flaming asshole, and I have met hundreds upon hundreds since my high school days. This debacle does nothing to change my opinion.

NCAA officials are ignorant assholes, the NCAA and the Selection Committee are a bunch of stupid fuckheads...

2006-03-26T21:01:00.000-05:00

... watching the end of the Washington/UConn game made me want to throw up. The NCAA is a disgrace to all of competitive sports.

How great of a manlover is Jim Calhoun? He must be pretty good in bed to get all those calls from the Zebras...
UPDATE: Congratulations to George Mason for knocking off one of the dirtiest programs and coaches in Division I basketball, the UConnvicts and Jim Calhoun... thank you, God!

the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament History (stellar ESPN column)

also: thanks to my Duke brother Brando for sending me this hilarious link to a flash clip that makes fun of Coach K and his ubiquitous presence on television commercials: check it out here

The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert makes fun of the minor league baseball team I will be covering...

2006-03-24T17:35:00.000-05:00

by F.J. Delgado

Stephen Colbert is one of my favorite personalities on Comedy Central, quality cable programming that has brought us such great works of comedic art such as Chappelle's Show and The Daily Show.

The Colbert Report recently blasted the U.S. baseball team's failure to advance in the recently concluded World Baseball Classic. Part of the U.S. meltdown was losing to Team Canada, which beat the U.S. 8-6.

It was Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect Adam Loewen who shut out the U.S. for more than three innings and helped embarrass the Yankee-dominated starting lineup. Loewen pitched for the Frederick Keys last season, and Colbert highlighted this fact quite humorously toward the end of his bit.

I'll be reporting on the Keys during the 2006 Season as part of my new gig working for The Orioles Hangout. Loewen won't be there in 2006, but you never know who the next Orioles badass may be...

Check out the Colbert Report WBC clip here. (click on the clip marked "Baseball")

Funny stuff.

me in honey

2006-03-21T17:48:00.000-05:00

I have to give a shout out to C and her money blog, Scatter o' Light, especially after posting about my favorite band, R.E.M.

Letter Never Sent - Deep Thoughts by Intellectual Steve

2006-03-20T01:10:00.000-05:00

by Intellectual_ Steve

An Actual Letter That Was Never Sent

I came home from the bookstore (where I had about five $3.00 coffees) not too long ago, and in my mailbox I discovered a letter that I had mailed to my cousin about a week and a half prior.

You see my cousin, Adrian, is the industrious type, and about five years ago he unfortunately landed himself in a prison in Orlando, Florida. Yep, he'll be there for about fifteen more years.

More on that to follow.

At any rate, the letter I sent was returned from the prison with a Corrections stamp that stated "Prisoner #33126788 does not exist at this facility".

So, naturally, I checked his mailing address (went over old letters we have sent each other) and the address is correct - prisoner number and everything... (????)

Basically, I have two thoughts running through my mind:

1. Is there a hidden meaning behind 'Prisoner 33125788 does not exist at this facility'?

and

2. Why do they have a stamp for it?

First Day in AC, meeting up with the man Fern-Dog

2006-03-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

by Whitney

originally posted February 10, 2006

Day 3 didn't really start or end, since I did not go to freaking bed on Sat. night. As I was saying in the previous entry, Ian and I came back to campus around 3 am, with Ian aching for immense ass. After a couple of phone calls to make sure Ian wasn't missing out on supreme ass, we called it a night and cuddled in each other's arms.

As I mentioned previously, I had a train to catch around 6 am and had to make sure I made my informal appointment with Pokerwire. Therefore, I wasn't taking any chances if I missed the first train. I would still have plenty of time to take the next one, anticipating my lack of real-world skills in purchasing a train ticket (do not laugh assholes).

Well I basically could not go to sleep and once 5 am rolled out and I just packed my bags and shipped the eff out of there. Sunday was the first day of the WPT Borgata Event and I was ready to go talk to my possible future co-workers with NO sleep. I might as well have been high.

I got into AC around 8 am and took the Jitney to the Borgata. As I took my first step into the casino, I serendipitiously got a phone call from Fernando who wanted to meet up. I've met Fern before almost 3 years ago when I was 19 (damn) and it was good to meet him on a more personal level after getting to know him through our blog-communication. His friend Jay and him were up all night partying and just kept egging me on to put my name down and start playing cards. I was in no condition ready to play and had an appointment in a couple hours. We watched a short handed $500-$1,000 limit hold 'em game which is just sick.

Around 11 am, I went upstairs to the tournament section and was ready to scope out some pros. This is honestly an exciting moment for a fanboy. If you watch the NBA, you can attend the game in the nosebleed section but never get a chance to talk to the stars, introduce yourself, and make conversation. Poker is entering a transition phase of hitting big-time (well it may currently be considered big-time but we really don't know if this is the peak) as yesterday's big-time pros are now today's stars who are in the midst of the celebrity adjustment, or already adjusted (see Phil Hellmuth). Therefore, most aren't really accustomed to acting as celebrities because they've been playing poker for so long without being recognized. Now with with the advent of television, they are "minor" celebrities as Barry Greenstein would say and really just normal people who don't mind all the attention (see Danny Negreanu).

So as I was awaiting near the escalators I wondered who was gonna show up? Who was gonna be the first big tv pro I'll ever see? Who am I going to get a picture with? Who along with Evelyn Ng will I bone ragged? Only time will tell. Sooner or later, I see Dwilli (David Williams) walk by , say 'hi' to some people, and talk to Stevie Dannenmann. I was kind of awe-struck because I've seen them on TV numerous times and they are the World Series Runner-Ups. But one was just really a college student and the other a CPA before their poker fame. All of a sudden I hear someone yell a joke in a hallway and it was Daniel Negreanu. I saw Barry Greenstein stroll through toward the tournament room with his book in hand, looking extremely miserable. As I entered the tournament room, I turn around and see Scotty Nguyen yell some jibberish with "baby" and a short Danny DeVito looking character, who was Freddy Deeb himself.

As I saw the tournament participants file in I see this lanky black guy in the corner of my eye. Phil Ivey walks in nonchalantly with that intense stare that I guess never leaves the poker table. Some of the interesting tables I watched were Juan Carlos Mortenson the 2001 WSOP Champ and Ted Forrest. Ted Forrest was falling asleep in between hands and may have the shittest looking clothes for someone who plays 4k-8k poker. He probably never buys new clothes or changes into them. Another table had Eric Seidel, Paul "The Truth" Darden, and Nick Schulman, a 21 year old WPT champion. I found it particularly exciting to see these pros in person, but watching live poker without seeing their hole cards was extremely boring.

I briefly met with Pokerwire who were busy since the tournament started. Apparently the tournament started at 11 pm and not noon. As a result, I caught them at a bad time. I believe they've already given me the axe, as they stated they can't pay for my relocation. Perhaps I came off as an extreme toolbag and now they don't want to hurt my feelings making up the relocating issue as an excuse. I really think I'm eternally fucked in life. The owner is getting married to Andy Bloch and her uncle is Howard Lederer, which means she is also family to Annie Duke. Those are some pretty goddamn good connections.

Barry and Phil Ivey were playing on opposing tables. After an hour of play Phil Ivey was missing and I thought he already busted out and wanted go to shoot craps, which apparently he did the night before, winning +1.3 million. It ended up he doubled up early, and then went to go take a nap. I saw him come back later in the day to play. Also, as I watched Barry play poker , he might have induced the most pity I have ever given to a person. He would look at this hole cards, yawn, contort his face in some painful grimace and then put them in the muck. The guy seriously just looked miserable. Goddamn, BG get some sleep.

In afternoon play, I saw Danny get up from his table and leave. Then a hound of fans surrounded him to get his autograph and picture. So I joined in and he was really cool about it.

Me: I guess I'm gonna have to read how you busted out in your blog.
Danny: Yeah I just busted out (in that kind of humorous sarcastic tone that I'm signing autographs and taking pictures after i busted out, and it's not wrong at all to ask me since I'm supposed to be pissed off).

Danny seems just like an overall good, happy guy that is not full of himself. He is a great ambassador to poker and seems to always treat fans well.

Once dinner break rolled around, I felt like I had to brighten up Barry's day because he still looked miserable. So I stopped him while he was leaving the poker room.

As you can see he didn't really cheer up much. I gave him the "I hope you win" bs he probably always gets. He puts out his hand saying, "Take Care" as he was looking toward the door without eye contact. It was honestly the best, "I don't give a damn, but I will perfunctorily offer a handshake to not appear a dick," Barry look. I think Barry is my favorite player. You're my boy Barry!

As I left the poker room about to take the escalators down to the casino, I ran into another character. My boy Scotty Nguyen!! Dats No limit baby!!

Scotty is also another great guy who will always take time to say 'hi' to the fans. Plus he's always got his bling bling, a beer in one hand, and his 20 year old hottie in the other. He always seems to be in a good mood, cracking some joke, and ending it in "that's right baby." Frequently during the tournament, I would think he busted out because he was leaving the poker room, and with his arm around his hottie mistress. But then he just rolls back in, with his hottie mistress in hand of course. I honestly think wherever he goes he needs his hottie to come with him.

"Hey baby, I'm going to the bathroom, let's go baby."
Goddamn Scotty you are so pimp. That's right baby!!

Finally that night, I headed to the poker room and put myself on the 2/4 list because I did not want to challenge myself and was extremely sleep deprived. Interestingly, some WPT crew sat down at my table : a WPT cameraman and the WPT PR girl, who was hot. God, it sucked because I was at the other end of the table, and when a seat opened by her I didn't want to appear like OH I'll sit next to you and maybe get my jimmy rocked. I for one will say that, even though they work in poker, that does not make them good card players. But I really shouldn't expect anyone good to sit down at 2/4. As the early morning approached, I still had no place to stay as my head was pulsatingly begging for sleep.

Where the fuck was I going to sleep?

More blogs about poker.

Win Your Tuition - Click here to enter the College Poker Challenge

unlike Johnny Cash, I haven't really been anywhere....

2006-03-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have only visited roughly 41% of the U.S., and 9% of the world. And that's being generous with places I have visited...

check out this mapping program, pretty cool in my opinion.

create your own visited states map

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2006-03-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

IRA Update (CNN)

Humor (The Onion)

A bad day for Caesar

2006-03-15T22:39:00.000-05:00

by The Monitors

March 15, the "Ides of March." A bad day to be an emperor, at least it was in 44 BC Rome.

In general, Julius Caesar was a masterful military and political leader, renowned for his conquest of Gaul (modern-day France, Belgium, Switzerland) . The trouble began when he was proclaimed "Dictator Perpetuus," or Dictator for Life. This sat particularly poorly with the Roman tradition of The Republic, which split political power among numerous Senators and, to a lesser extent, influential wealthy land owners called equites. So, rather predictably, they murdered him on the floor of the Senate. He was stabbed between 26 and 35 times, depending on which account you read. One of the conspirators was Marcus Brutus, Caesar's distant cousin and a testamentary heir. Shakespeare delighted to dramatize this historic event in his play, Julius Caesar, and breathed the famous words, "Et tu Brute?" into the emperor to make them his last. Shakespeare also gave new vernacular meaning to the ides of March (ides = middle), having Caesar visit a soothsayer before his imminent death who warned him, "Beware the Ides of March!" Obviously Caesar didn't follow his advice, whether it really happened or not.

When Caesar was assassinated on March15 in 44 BC, Gaius Octavius was studying in Apollonia, in what is now Albania. When Caesar's will was read it revealed that, having no legitimate children, he had adopted his great-nephew as his son and main heir. By virtue of his adoption Octavius assumed the name Gaius Julius Caesar, and after a series of events too melodramatic even for daytime soaps, he defeated all of his rivals by 32 BC. He established a grand empire extending from Brittania to the Persian Gulf, and successfully began an age of relative peace, known as "Pax Romana," in an otherwise bellicose empire typified by warfare both civil and imperialistic.

But following the trend of everything else in the Universe since time began, the burgeoning Roman Empire eventually buckled under its own weight and collapsed back into chaos and unending civil wars.

Politics sure was more interesting in those days.

The lesson learned? "Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate." - Thomas Young

By Request - Part I

2006-03-13T21:30:00.000-05:00

By Request from Mr. FJ Delgado
I must admit that I have been stumped. I thought I had but I don't have any Our Lady Peace or She Wants Revenge. I have Artic Monkeys but can't find the damn CD in this mess I call my apartment. I will be back with Part II to correct this situation.

Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (mp3)
from Remain In Light (1980)

Talking Heads - Burning Down The House (mp3)
from Speaking In Tongues (1990)

Burning Brides - Last Man Standing (mp3)
Come Alive (mp3)
from Leave No Ashes (2004)

The Strokes - You Only Live Once (mp3)
Razorblade (mp3)
from First Impressions Of Earth (2006)

the new Orioles Hangout

2006-03-13T03:01:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the revamped #1 source for Baltimore Orioles news, discussion, rumors, analysis, and resources on the entire internet.

For absolutely anything related to the Orioles, go here.

Requests for merz

2006-03-12T12:50:00.000-05:00

Any chance of getting quick MP3s from the hot new records of ANY of the following bands:

the Strokes
Arctic Monkeys
She Wants Revenge

These babies are so hot right now, I figure that labels are hunting down bloggers to make examples of them... I need more COWBELL, baby!

also, would you be able to post any:

Talking Heads (specifically "Burning Down the House," "Road to Nowhere," "And She Was," or "Once in a Lifetime")
Our Lady Peace (I'm doing a write-up on these guys because I have been listening to them a ton recently, was hoping for 192 kbs versions of "Superman's Dead," "Starseed," "Clumsy," "4am" or "Naveed")
Burning Brides ("Arctic Snow," or any of the "singles" from their last album would rock)

Mars Needs Guitars

2006-03-09T23:59:00.000-05:00

One of my blogging brothers is kicking it with his money new blog, Mars Needs Guitars.

merz is some sort of rock and roll genius. He has an extensive library of rock gold, and the MP3's he shares are not only rare and great listens, but they are all of the highest sound quality, which always matters to music geeks like me. But the incredible thing is, he has unmatched great taste. He is constantly picking out great new bands I have never heard of, and every once in a while, when I have heard of the band, he seems to have a knack for showcasing my favorite songs.

Hopefully merz will post some stuff over here, but for now, I am quite honored that he posted a write up of the Who with some MP3 covers for rock fans like yours truly.

Rock on, merz!

$30K Update (Week 4)

2006-03-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

by Shaun Poulin

This past week has been relatively uneventful, but the results have been good.

I played pretty much only $2-$4 no-limit and was having a lot of fun doing so. I went up roughly $1,000 this past week, with 1/2 of it coming in one hand. Here's how it went down. I was playing at a six handed table and there were only three of us playing at the time. I had just over $5oo in front of me (Max buy-in is $400). Anyway, one of the players was playing super aggressive. He would put in a standard raise pre-flop, and then move all-in right after the flop with his full $500 to win the $25 in the pot. I definitely wasn't leaving the table, I was looking for a good opportunity to relieve this guy of his chips that he was so desperately trying to give away.

After about 15 minutes of this guy doing the same move, I get dealt AQ offsuit. He puts in his mandatory pre-flop raise, but he raises it a little more then usual making it $23 to go.....I wasn't quite sure what to make of this, but I was sure I wasn't going to lay my hand down pre-flop with only 3 of us. Surprisingly, the third player called as well. The flop was the most beautiful thing ever: KJT - all different suits.

The super aggressive player was the first to act and he did not let me down! He goes all-in after thinking for a fraction of a second after the flop. I delay a couple of seconds 1/2 hoping for a call from the third guy, but for that much money I was fairly confident he wasn't calling unless he had the same hand as me....Anyway I call player 3 folds, and super-aggressive player shows AA. My nuts on the flop are still the nuts by the river and I scooped up my first pot over $1,000 ever. Hopefully the next week goes smoothly; I'll update again next week.

Beg. Balance 2/3/2006: $2,000
2/27/2006: $3142.52 3/7/2006: $4163.26 Weekly ROI%: 32.48% Total ROI: 108.16%

Some Favorite Tunes

2006-03-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

by merz

I feel like I have neglected my blogging brother FJ Delgado since I haven't posted up here in awhile. So, here's a few favorite tracks of mine (some older, some newer) that I hope Bro Delgado and other's will enjoy.

Girls Against Boys
You Can't Fight What You Can't See
Jade Tree (2002)

Let It Breathe (mp3)

David Garza
Overdub
Atlantic/Wea (2001)

Soul Custody (mp3)

Film School
S/T
Beggars Banquest (2006)

Breet (mp3)

UHF
All Our Golden Tomorrows
Second Story (2006)

Revolving Door (mp3)

Witness UK
Under A Sun
MCA (2001)

Under A Sun (mp3)

The Stratford 4
The Revolt Against Tired Noises
Jet Set (2002)

All Mistakes Are Mine (mp3)

Hotties: A Tribute to the Gorgeous Jessica Alba

2006-03-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

I was watching the Oscars last night, and I just couldn't get over how much I want to do naughty things to Jessica Alba. This Latina honey baby has it going ON!

Regular readers and friends know of my love for this incredible hottie, but just in case, I will do the male gender a favor and post some photographic evidence... enjoy! (ps - apparently Alba loves taking pictures at the beach and beach-in-the-background shoot sets... fine by me).

Bands I Hate With an Unnatural Disdain

2006-03-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

by F.J. Delgado

Let's get something straight here: I don't love every rock and roll band that has experienced success and that has talent. Quite the contrary; I actually think most rock music I listen to sucks big time.

I happen to review a bunch of albums on this site because it's what I know, and because I like it. But, I need to be a fair critic, and I don't want to look like a pushover. Sometimes I honestly wish that all the guys in these horrible bands would do us all a favor and pull a Kurt Cobain on themselves... then, somehow bring Kurt back from the dead, because his band really did fucking rock.

Or, at least, I wish these bands would just stop recording and go back to their previous jobs as porn store peep show jizz-moppers or broke ass skateboarders (no offense to skateboarders, I'm trying hard not to offend too many people here, just because I hate these bands with a passion doesn't mean I have to go out there and offend innocent bystanders).

All of the bands I hate get NO stars, and I promise to try and punch them in the nose if I ever meet them for ruining rock and roll and forcing my lazy ass to change the radio station whenever their shitty songs are played.

So I present you with a list of bands that really make my blood boil... Enjoy!!!

Creed
- their first album was pretty fucking sweet, then Scott Stapp went insane and it became obvious that their principle song writers were mildly retarded and could only use a grande total of three power chords...

dude in Creed: "Hey! How about we have a part after the badass guitar solo where the song gets really quiet and where in the video Scott is on top of a mythical landmark singing his heart out, then we bust back into the chorus really fucking loud!

rest of band: "Yeah that would fucking rock, dude!!!"

Scott Stapp (barely coherent due to his hangover caused by drinking 5 handles of cheap vodka the night before): "Whatever guys, as long as it has a fundamentalist Christian message, I have a leather jacket on in the video, and it really sucks, I'll sign off on it. Where the fuck did I put my flask??"

Linkin Park

- I can't wait until a tragic bus accident derails their recording career. I hear that the guys in the band are actually nice, but I don't give a rat's ass. Go the fuck away!

Good Charlotte

- These guys are a fucking disgrace to real punk rock. They also are an embarrassment to their home state of Maryland, and they will probably be dead broke in 8 months. Good riddance.

the Click 5

- I sure hope these guys are getting plenty of ass from impressionable 18 year-old girls, because in about 2 years these dudes will be back at the local Walmart greeting Grandma Smith after a depressed night of drinking and reminiscing about the good old days when they were in that awful band that actually made people pay money for utter crap.

Nickelback

- Sometimes I can't tell if Chad Kroeger is laughing all the way to the bank, or if, in reality, he's a cool dude and he's just enjoying the ride, banging hot broads, and drinking himself silly. I'm not quite sure, but his band definitely blows hard and makes ridiculously cheesy videos.

Limp Bizkit

Don't even get me started. Go fuck yourself, Fred Durst. Hope you enjoyed banging Britney Spears and that you picked up chlamydia when you did.

Korn

- I hated these guys from the beginning. Their freak lead singer is probably a pansy who got molested by his stepdad and then decided to mask his insecurity by dressing up all weird and projecting his inner disturbances in the form of the goth-nu metal look which almost no one thinks is cool in any way whatsoever.

Five for Fighting

- Sensitive music for pussies.

Barenaked Ladies

- Alright, I have to admit, I used to like these guys... then they decided to really suck and I disowned them as a cool band. They are now widely celebrated by people with really bad taste in music.

Godsmack

- I really wish God would just get it over with and follow through on the band name and send these bastards straight to Hell. Their music is painfully unoriginal, and this is coming from a guy that will be the first to admit to you that all rock and roll these days is pretty much painfully unoriginal. I liked your guys' band the first time I heard it, when you dudes were called Stone Temple Pilots. Wait... that's not you guys? You just wish you could hold a candle to STP?? Stop making music and get the fuck out of here.

Train

- See Five for Fighting.

I'll be back with more soon, including a brutal, savage write-up about Maroon 5!

The Rivalry: #15 North Carolina @ #1 Duke

2006-03-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

by F.J. Delgado

Good luck to Duke tonight against archrivals North Carolina... it will be a great game regardless of the rankings.

What most sports fans don't objectively realize is that UNC/Duke is bar none the best and most prolific rivalry in all of American sports. ESPN might tell you that the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry is the most popular or best rivalry, but that's straight up bullshit.

The Red Sox, historically, have been a losing franchise, especially to the Yankees. "26 to 6" or "SCOREBOARD" is all you need to say to a Red Sox fan to get him to shut up about what a great rivalry they have. Once Red Sox fans mention their special little World Series Championship in 2004, all you have to do is remind them that they weren't alive for the last one 80+ years ago, and if they were, point to the cemetary across the street and politely ask them if they have investigated purchasing a plot there, because surely the fan in question will be dead in a few months.

Just because one team thinks two teams have a rivalry, doesn't make it a rivalry. And again, just because the greedy corporate pigs (I'm looking in your general direction, ESPN) make millions off of advertising it as such, doesn't make it a rivalry, either.

Duke and UNC in college basketball, however, is a PURE rivalry. It goes so much further than the game itself, for fans of both schools, and it is steeped in tradition, history, and true competetitiveness. The schools also produce some of the most amazing games ever played on a basketball court - year in, and year out.

when: 9:00 PM
where: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU

Jay Bilas previews tonight's game (ESPN)

joining the club: Gene Wojciechowski goes from Duke hater to Duke fan (ESPN)

UPDATE: congrats to the Tar Heels and especially Tyler Hansbrough for fucking up Duke on Senior Night. J.J. Redick had the worst game of his entire career on his most important night, and Duke was embarrassed by their archnemesis.

Roy Williams should - hands down - be the National Coach of the Year.

The last time the Duke Men's Basketball team lost a big game on a Senior Night, they won a National Championship.

Let's see if history repeats itself... Duke is angry now, and heads will roll - hopefully.

ALSO: my post/reply to an idiot on the Duke Basketball Report Message Board (which won't be posted because I go off on a rant on them):

Jumbo:

I have been reading these boards almost as long as you have been posting.

You are right about many things, but dead wrong on a few key points.

First of all, it is SICK that Marty Pocius hasn't gotten more time to develop his blatantly obvious offensive skills. He would be a great option on a Roy Williams squad, but on a Coach K squad, he wastes on the bench. Recruits will start seeing this, and they will stop coming to Duke (remember Kris Humphries, anyone?)

And the DBR better stop crying about "hey dude, watch what you say on these boards, recruits and parents read this!" Great for you DBR, here's a cookie. The last time I checked, this country was founded on the basic right of freedom of speech, and you guys abuse your power to no end. Get the hell out of here and go to France, Cuba, or Nazi Germany, you guys are missed in those places.

Anyway, Coach K is a an excellent recruiter and motivator. He is severely overrated as a tactician and developer of players. Having him as our Coach is a double-edged sword at times: without him, we would have 0 national championships. With a better tactical coach, Duke should easily have 6.

I also disagree about the UConn game in 2004. We were the better team that year, with more talent, with a dominant lead with few minutes to go, but we lost.... why is that?

If you think we got beat by the better team, you're dumber than I had previously thought. Coach K has constantly cost his teams with two incredibly obvious shortcomings: failure to manage the last 10 minutes of games with sizeable leads, and an absolutely arrogant and stubborn refusal to develop a freaking bench.

Tonight's loss was embarrassing to everyone associated with Duke University. And the only person to blame is none other than Coach K.

J.J. Redick has had a wonderful career for the ages. To blame anyone else BUT Coach K for how this team has imploded would be a travesty.

Oriole Way

Letter Never Sent Random Sports Minute

2006-03-02T13:47:00.000-05:00

The Mildly Bad News: College basketball

Duke gets outgunned by athletic FSU, loses first ACC game.

The Good News: U.S. Soccer

U.S. National Soccer team defeats Poland 1-0 in World Cup tuneup.

Bruce Arena happy with win over Poles.

Michael Lewis: win over Poland a good sign for U.S.

eat it, Poland! Clint Dempsey scored the game winner.

The Best News: Major League Baseball

Kevin Millar hopeful the day before Spring Training starts.

Mars Needs Guitars: Mojo Magazine - The Who Covered

2006-03-02T01:17:00.000-05:00

The Top 11 Tennis Hotties

2006-02-27T15:16:00.000-05:00

by Whitney

Welcome to a special post in light of the new year. We (FJDelgado and Whitney) have decided to collaborate to offer an accurate ranking of tennis females who grunt and split their way to masturbatory stardom. The criteria is composed of a variety of factors of beauty, body, brains, boobies, and tennis skill. Please sit back, grab a tissue, and enjoy the view.

#11. Karolina Sprem
We played anagrams with her name and came to the revelation that when you switch the "r" and the "e" you get the best name in tennis.

T#10. Jennifer Capriati and Amanda Coetzer
We grouped these 2 retired tennis stars because they are still boneable. JCap was the Drew Barrymore of tennis. She came out strong as as teenager and then snorted enough coke to kill a whole kindergarten class. But, all of a sudden she rose out of oblivion, stopped eating Ho-Hos and became the Comeback Kid. You would think JCap's burly arms would make us abstain in fright, but we, in fact, don't mind a girl who can spank...........the hell out of the tennis ball.

Amanda Coetzer was known as the one of the best counterpunchers on the circuit. She was like a little dust buster bunny at a dimunitive 5 feet that would not give up. I give her where credit is due: her stamina.

#9. Daniela Hantuchova
She suffered the Anna Kournikova syndrome. She started winning, people thought she was hot, and then started losing. Despite the fact she needs a couple Big Macs in her, with a cute face, long legs, daddy puts you in the at #9.

Hmm..yes we also agree, Daniela, you are a hottie

#8. Tatiana Golovin This young woman (1988! SHIT!) brings a new meaning to the low rider. She does not fuck around when it comes to sagging her shorts.

Question of the Day: Where does the tennis ball go? Seriously.. ...imagine throwing a hot dog in a hallway....now take the exact opposite.

#7. Ashley Harkleroad
Unfortunately American Ashley faded from the tennis scene. She is probably working at Panera bread as far as we know it. In her heyday, she was infamous for her extremely loud grunting and risque tennis-ware, pushing the bar as far as possible in terms of nudity. We give her #7 because we think that loud grunting has other applications off the court...

Damn Ashley you are a cutie. Now go make me a BLT sandwich. **Correction** she is still currently on the tour playing, so I overestimated the longevity of her career. I apologize for this mistake, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook with the BLT.

#6. Serena Williams
Much to most people's disgust we have placed a William sister on our hot list. After she got Punk'd, we immediately fell in love with her. She has something alluring with that sweet charming personality, which we believe mostly stems from those gnimorous buttocks. She probably pays exorbitant property tax on that fine piece of real estate. You keep on fighting the good fight, Serena

I think someone gave JLo run for her money. Anyone who can play tennis with that type of padding in a catsuit deserves some kind of props. *Warning: Spanking that baby will apparently cause the next biggest earthquake.

Fernando will round up the top 5 in a later post. Sorry to give you guys blue balls. Stay tuned.

More blogs about hotties.

college basketball: J.J. Redick article, favorite athletes

2006-02-27T07:01:00.000-05:00

ESPN has a good column on J.J. Redick, one of my all time favorite players. It does a decent job of looking at the evolution of his whole career thus far, comparing and contrasting his game at its current state to how it was his freshman and sophomore years at Duke.

My favorite players tend to be confident and cocky, the kind of players that frustrate and rile up their opponents, often bringing out the best and worst in their competitors. Kobe Bryant would be a huge exception, as I am biased against dumb people, and, even more so, rapists.

In many ways, Redick is a microcosm for the entire Duke basketball program: frequently the best, and always hated and respected by all.

Also, Redick - this past Sunday evening against Miami - surpassed the legendary Johnny Dawkins to become the #1 all-time leading scorer at Duke. He is set to break the all-time ACC scoring record against Temple this Saturday, barring catastrophe... the kid is just sick, and one of the best college players of all time.

a Washington Post article: Tony Kornheiser shows J.J. Redick some love.

UPDATE: Meet the ACC's new all time leading scorer:

top 5 NBA basketball players of all time
1. Michael Jordan
2. Larry Bird
3. Magic Johnson
4. Shaquille O'Neal
5. LeBron James

top 5 Duke players of all time
1. Johnny Dawkins
2. Elton Brand
3. Bobby Hurley
4. J.J. Redick
5. Christian Laettner (I hated him and rooted for Kentucky during the best tournament game ever played in 1992).

top 5 MLB baseball players of all time
1. Willie Mays
2. Brooks Robinson
3. Frank Robinson
4. Ty Cobb
5. Alex Rodriguez

top 5 NFL football players of all time
1. Johnny Unitas (you could set a watch to his haircut, sorry, Simpsons reference)
2. Gale Sayers
3. Joe Montana
4. Tony Siragusa (more because he's hilarious)
5. Todd Heap (he's a badass, and he's sort of a hero due to how ridiculously hot his wife is)

$30K Update (week 3)

2006-02-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

by Shaun Poulin

So this past week hasn't gone as smoothly as the first week. I went downhill and my quest to 30k has been delayed as I have gone from just over $4k to just over $3k. A number of things contributed to me going downhill, not going to blame bad beats or anything like that because for the most part I didn't play my A game. Sure there were definitely a couple of hands that hurt along the way (AA vs. QQ in an $800 pot to see a Queen spike on river). Mostly though I just wasn't at 100%.

The biggest mistake I made this past week was playing over my bankroll's capacity. I played a plethora of games ranging from $1-$2 no-limit, to $20-$40 limit, and a couple of $500 sit-n-go's where I broke even. Anyway, I'll go back to staying within my bankrolls limits since I took a shot this past week and fell short.

I'll update again in about a week.

Bankroll at different dates: 2/13 $2,000 2/20 $4,044.08 2/27 $3,142.52
Total ROI%: 57.13% This past weeks ROI%: -22.29%

By Request

2006-02-26T03:13:00.000-05:00

By Request from my blogging boss FJ Delgado, here is Hurricane #1:

Step Into My World (mp3)

And this one is for this post

"If you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end
Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your uncle or your lover
If you have a racist friend
now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end"

Racist Friend (mp3-The Special AKA)

Tags:music,mp3,download

The D Post Archive

2006-02-25T00:12:00.000-05:00

D is a rock and roll Master, and you are all privileged to read his stuff. All hail the D!

Peace Is Always The Word

By Request

I Am A Shoegazer

Mars Volta Were At The Drive In

You Know The One

Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

Fraternity Update

2006-02-22T12:27:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: I have made a couple of additions and subtractions to the rush list as we gear up for the 2006 WSOP.

Great strideshave been made in scouting out future brothers for the Anti-Crew, better known as The Fraternity.

The Fraternity was founded on December 22nd, 2005 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its founders were DisciplinedRobert and yours truly, pictured above.

I have the task of being the Godfather and Rush Chair for the Fraternity. What this means is that I identify talented players, and I encourage them to get initiated by the other brothers and ultimately join the fraternal organization.

Current brothers must be impressed by the rushees, and a unanimous vote is necessary for admission into The Fraternity.

Current Roster of Brothers

President (Number I): DisciplinedRobert

BIO:
skilled cash game limit Hold Em player and tournament player.
Geography: Akron, OH
alma mater: Ohio State University

Vice President (Number II) and Rush Chair: F.J. Delgado

BIO:
best cash game limit player known to mankind.
Geography: Baltimore, MD
alma mater: Duke University

List of Rushees

Prince Ivan the Great (possible Secretary of Defense and Press Secretary for Shit-Talking)

Intellectual Steve

Shaun Poulin ----> Glimpse Into My Head

Ed Moulton ----> Ed Moulton's Journal

Joey R.

Whitney----> Meandering Endlessly (possible Social Chair)

CoolHand Luke----> Life of a Poker Player (this guy claims he wants no part of the fraternity but we are rushing him hard anyway)

SickAshok
DukeStrasser
HopkinsJay

Keith ----> Caught Up in the Craze
ThrillHouse

Drew

Rules for Rushing The Fraternity

The only rules we have currently include the following:

1. absolutely no player who attended to University of Maryland - College Park, may gain admittance. exceptions could be made, but these exceptions will demand the worshiping of an idol in the likeness of J.J. Redick and embarrassing photography documenting the event.

2. you have to drink alcohol and love to have a good time. otherwise we don't need you and don't want you.

3. you have to love women. sorry, but we discriminate against switch-hitters and fudgepackers.

By Request

2006-02-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

I am sorry brother FJ Delgado. I have been feeling sorry for myself and have neglected my responsibility to you as my blogging brother. D ain't nobody, just a lonely old guy trying to get by in this messed up world and not succeeding well at it.

Thanks for being my friend bro....

Caesars - Paper Tigers

Soul Chaser (mp3)

My Heart Is Breaking Down (mp3)

Paper Tigers (mp3)

Neil Young - Silver & Gold

Good To See You (mp3)

Siesta Time: The New World

2006-02-20T19:13:00.000-05:00

A couple Fridays ago, I went to see the matinee viewing of The New World at Loews Theatres in White Marsh, MD.
Rather than put everyone through a lengthy review, I will only offer a few comments/suggestions.

1. To Colin Farrell - It is evident that you are just a pretty face. I recommend you start reading the scripts before telling your agent ..."I'm in, when do I start"... You see, Colin, the movie business is all about "What have you done lately", and quite frankly, if you keep this shit up you will have a very short career (read Phone Booth, Alexander).

2. To Terrence Malick (writer and director) - One of the main ingredients of a successful movie is "a story". Please keep that in mind when you undertake your next cinematic endeavor. Furthermore, although titles of movies do not have to give away the integral points of the story, plot, or theme, they should relate to the content in some meaningful way. For example, you chose The New World, and to be honest, I felt duped. Had you named the picture "The Love Triangle of Pocahontas" perhaps I would have had a better feeling as a exited the theatre in haste.

3. Go fuck yourself, New Line Cinema.

Intellectual_Steve

$30k Update (week 2) and Other Poker News

2006-02-19T20:37:00.000-05:00

by Shaun Poulin

I’ll get to the 30k progress, but first I want to address a couple of things about Party Poker that took place this week. The first is that Party Poker completely overhauled their site. The look is different, starting chips for tournaments have been increased, blind structures have been altered - basically it’s a whole new site. This definitely caught me by surprise and initially sent me into a panic since I’ve developed a successful formula for how to beat the SNG’s (Single Table Tournaments) on here, and altering the starting chips/blinds would directly effect my strategy.

The biggest downfall of the switch is that the SNG’s take so damn long to complete now. I used to be able to multi-table four SNG’s at once and have all four done within 30 minutes. Now completing one takes over an hour. The change will increase the ROI%(Return on Investment) for good players, but it may cut down on the hourly rate since fewer SNG’s will be played in any given hour. The new structure has definitely improved the late stages of the SNG’s. Upon getting down to 3 handed, players can comfortably play poker and not get impatient and be forced to push all their chips in on a prayer. Previous structure allowed for solid players to get into the top 5 only to rely on luck once the blinds got too big in correlation to the chip stacks. Definitely an improvement since the better players will win more often now once making it to the late stages. Previous SNG’s started with 800 or 1,000 in chips; new structure has players starting with 2,000 in chips.

The second thing that happened on Party this week probably happened without any of you knowing, unless you are a regular visitor of http://www.pocketfives.com/. Last Sunday Party hosted a million dollar guaranteed tournament with first place getting around $212,000. Anyway, JJProdigy - one of the ranked players on pocketfives - won the tournament and took home the huge cash prize. Upon JJ winning, one of his friends posted a thread on pocketfives congratulating him on the win. A lot of the readers of the thread logged into Party to verify the victory and couldn’t understand why JJProdigy finished in 2000th place and someone with the name “ablackcar” finished in 1st. This prompted a lot of the readers to be inquisitive and apparently this started a chain of events that led to Party Poker hearing about this and doing investigative work of their own.

Party soon found out that JJProdigy entered the tournament with 2 different accounts, and while his 2 screennames never were at the same table, they still played in the same tourney at the same time. Party promptly locked up JJ’s accounts while they were sorting it all out. Party eventually decided that they were going to take JJ’s $212,000 prize from him as well as another $40,000 that was in his account. You can read JJ’s response to this as well as the letter he received from Party Poker here: JJ's story.

His excuse was that it was his grandmother’s account.

The most disturbing part of the story is that JJ claims that he knows lots of players that often enter tournaments multiple times, sometimes as many as 10 in one tourney! I’m glad that I don’t play Multi-Table Tournaments often, as this would definitely bother me a lot more.

Alright, now I’ll get to the part that you guys are really interested in, the progress of the 30k project. Well, for my first week I devised a game plan that had me playing primarily the Mini-Steps SNG’s. For those that don’t know, the Mini-Steps are a series of step tournaments with 5 steps that culminate in Step 5 with cash prizes ranging from $200 to $2,000. The premise of it is real easy. You can buy in directly at any step you wish, and the top 2 finishers in that particular step advance to the next higher step. Buy-In for step 1 is $6, and buy in for step 5 is $430. Anyway, since I’m limited on the amount of time I can play since I have a job, I decided to risk almost my whole 2k and buy in for 10 entries at mini-step 4. Mini 4 costs $165, so I spent $1,650 in entry fees. My goal was to have 5 out of the10 entries advance to Mini 5. The average return on an entry in step 5 based on all players being equal would be $400 ($4,000/10). Obviously if you are better then half the players in step 5 your return will be greater, but I’m being conservative and assuming that we are all players on a level playing field.

I fell a little short of my goal of gaining 5 entries into Step 5, as I was only able to obtain 4 entries. This bothered me a little since my expected return per entry of $400 wouldn’t even net me back the $1,650 I invested. Anyway the first entry I played poorly and finished in 8th place. My next entry faired better with me taking home 2nd place for a cool $1k payout. I actually cost myself $500 in the second entry. I got down to heads up and was a big favorite with a $14k to $6k chip advantage, and blinds at $100/$200. Anyway we battle for about 10 minutes, and my opponent was outplaying me as well as me going completely card dead. About 10 minutes into it we are even in chip stacks with $10k a piece. I get dealt A5, and I proceed to ask my opponent if he wanted to chop the $3,000 in prize money and each of us take home $1,500. I tried to wait for an answer before betting, but I didn’t wait long enough. I proceeded to move all-in pre-flop at the same time he was typing “sure” in the chat box. Anyway once I moved all-in prematurely he typed, well now I can’t chop. He proceeded to call with 66 and it held up and I took home 2nd.

The third entry was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a step 5. One guy at the table named WildBill lived up to his name in a big way. He went through the tournament playing all-in poker. WildBill either was going all-in pre-flop or folding. I love it when someone is doing this and I’ll usually take my chances of doubling up against them when I feel that I have the advantage. In the first 10 minutes of play 4 different players called all-in bets by WildBill pre-flop and all 4 of them went down in flames. I was loving it. Top 5 get paid and WildBill single handedly got us down to 6 left without me even playing a hand. My first confrontation with WildBill took place once 6 of us were left. WildBill followed his usual MO, and moved in pre-flop. I’m holding AK which was an insta-call in my mind against him. He flips over AT, and we are going to the flop. The flop sucked ass! A dreaded Ten came on the flop and I was already planning on my next entry in step 5, but fortunately good prevailed and a beautiful king came on the turn. My next confrontation came when I was holding 77. Again same thing, WildBill moves in pre-flop and I call, not thrilled with 77 but calling anyway. WildBill held two overs and luckily my 77 held up and I was taking the chips that Bill was taking from others. I was loving life. WildBill was bulletproof against everyone at the table except me! It was great. Anyway, I had one more big confrontation with WildBill. By the time the third confrontation happened we were down to 3 players. I had 55 this time, and same sequence of events pre-flop. WildBill shows A5 with the Ace of clubs. I’m ecstatic as I only have to fade 3 aces and a combination 2,3,4 for a wheel and a plethora of clubs. Well the flop comes three clubs giving WildBill a lot of outs. Fortunately the fourth club never showed up to the party and I move up to $16k in chips verses $2k and $2k for the other players. I used my chip stack the remainder of the way to smother my opponents and I took home 1st place for $2k in my third entry. The fourth entry was rather uneventful as I didn’t finish in the money but in 7th.

So, although I didn’t reach my goal of obtaining 5 entries in step 5, I made up for it with a 1st and 2nd place finish with the four entries that I did have. Total investment in the Mini-Steps was $1,650 with a return of $3,000. My ROI was 81.82%.

I also entered one Multi-Table Tournament for the week for $11, and out of a field of 1,420 I managed to get 30th place for a whopping $72.

I also made approximately $600 playing a little bit of 6 handed $1/$2 no limit poker.

I am extremely pleased with my first week and I’ll keep you updated about my progress.

Starting Bankroll Feb. 13: $2,000
Ending Bankroll Feb. 20: $4,044.08
Net Gain/Loss: $2,044.08
Growth %: 102.20%

Peace Is Always The Word

2006-02-18T16:04:00.000-05:00

Mr. Blog sez:

yo D, we miss you, Dawg...

Requests

I hope you start posting up again... I could definitely use MP3s from the Caesars - "My Heart Is Breaking Down", "Soulchaser", and "Paper Tigers" especially ... some a-hole stole my Paper Tigers CD,and I can't find the MP3's anywhere... any chance you have this baby?.

Also, I could definitely use Neil Young's "Good to See You" off of the Silver + Gold LP... I met up with a girl I have a crush on last night, and it was good to see her again... and I wish I could have the song again (again, CD was stolen.. I suck!).
-----------

Peace is the right way, sometimes not easy to achieve, and something we should keep in the forefront of our minds. Life is too short and is wasted fighting with your brothers and sisters.

My brother Fernando has been the most gracious host and hopefully will still let me guest on his cool poker writing music playing blog. I had to try again on my own since in the past I have felt that I could never get it right. So, Indie Point Source was born. Let me know what you think and please visit both blogs often. We love you all....

Peace Attack (mp3-Sonic Youth-Sonic Nurse)

Devoured In Peace (mp3-The Cloud Room-S/T)

Love And Peace Or Else (mp3-U2-How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)

Tags:music,mp3,download

essential MP3s: a shout out to all of my Jewish friends - Matisyahu Update

2006-02-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

update:

It looks like Matisyahu, as I predicted, will continue to blow up and be a smash hit, and a well-deserved one, at that.

the following is a recent Rolling Stone write up on Matisyahu:

Matisyahu is blowin' up

originally posted 1/4/04

this first song is VERY hot right now, if you don't listen to it, listen to it now, and you will immediately increase your coolness level:

Matisyahu - King Without a Crown (live) (MP3)

Matisyahu is a proud, motivated musician. I could be mistaken, but if I remember correctly, he has strong Jewish roots, and is a very purpose-driven, religious man. These are the kinds of people I respect most in life. He mixes his own style of singing with reggae and powerful lyrics. Very nice guitar work as well.

Badass.

also....

much thanks to the rock and roll Master: D, from Grey Will Fade for:

The High Dials - Soul in Lust (MP3)

The High Dials freaking rock hard, but they do it in a very melodic way. Think a happier Interpol.

More blogs about MP3s.

Sammy Sosa Sucks Hard

2006-02-18T07:12:00.000-05:00

The awful, selfish Sammy Sosa has likely ended his baseball career. (ESPN article)

In a well-deserved display of public humiliation and shame, Sosa was widely reported to have considered a meager $500,000 non-guaranteed contract from the Washington Nationals.

I find all of this amusing, because, as of this moment, now the Baltimore Orioles have become an answer to a future sports trivia question:

What was the last team that steroid-injecting Sammy Sosa played for? ...