A couple of things

Isn't Sneakers a great movie? Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, Dan Ackroyd and David Strathairn. What a great cast and what a fun movie. Just watched it again last night. It's only been 16-17 years, but they just don't make 'em like they used to anymore.

And someone near and very dear to my heart is thinking about starting her own blog. Words of encouragement are always appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the hackers are doing it.

Music Video Fridays - Judgement Night soundtrack

A little bit of a different take for this week's edition. And some of you might hate it. Not that I care. Inspired by something that NYC Watchdog wrote on his blog earlier this week, I began listening again to the rap/hard rock fusion from the early 90's that came out of Anthrax and Public Enemy getting together to record a new version of Bring the Noise.

Now there was some awful stuff that came out of that movement. Can you say Limp Bizkit? But in 1993 there was an awfully wonderful film called Judgement Night made, and the soundtrack for the film was filled with collaborations between established rap acts and hard rock acts. Great stuff.

Here is the title track off of the album, "Judgement Night" by Onyx and Biohazard. You might recognize a few of the artists in this video as Evan Seinfeld from Biohazard and Sticky Fingaz and Fredro Starr have all since done a bit of acting. And if you've seen Evan Seinfeld really recently, then you are a dirty dog. Because he is doing pornos know with his wife Tera Patrick. Yeah. I'm gonna skip the lyrics on this one, but I do love the last part of the song that begins around the 2:30 mark on the video.

"Yo, gimme that shit! Ya fuckin' bald-headed bastard!"

The next video up is a bit lighter fare. "Fallin'" by Teenage Fan Club and De La Soul (with an assist from a Tom Petty sample). I'm a big fan of De La Soul and a moderate fan of Teenage Fan Club. This a great song. Period. Gotta love a band that uses references from The Six Million Dollar Man.

Fallin'
Travellinnnnnnnnnnnn' at the speeeeeeeed...of thought...

Hey yo kids! (What's up!)
Remember when I used to be dope? (Yeah...)
I owned a pocketful of fame...
(But look what you're doin' now!)
I know well I know
I lost touch with reality now my personality
Is an unwanted commodity (believe it!)
Can't believe I used to be Mr Steve Austin on the mic
Six million ways I used to run it
I guess Oscar Goldman got mad
Cos I got loose circuits (so loose, sigga-sigga so loose...)
I be the Mother Goose with the eggs
That seem to be...
[Fallin'...]

You played yourself
You played yourself
You played yourself
You played yourself

A-yo, pack my bags cos I'm outta here
Mama don't love me and my mama don't care
Read the papers the headlines say
"Washed up Rapper Got Some [Buck-kawk!]"
Lingo's busted while the guitar sways
B-side copy for the radio plays for somethin'
I knew I blew the whole fandango
When the drum programmer wore a Kangol
Never could be light, great fish won't bite
Fake, realise that I'm over like clover
No good luckin' so Mase beep the f(Hey!)ckin' beat
While the Teenage fan the heat
I bring it to the glues, paid all my dues
So what's gone's dead, let me use my forehead
Easy, pack it up, man, let me stop stallin'
Cos everything I do is like Fallin'
[Fallin'...]

Repeat chorus

The last video is from the largest rap act in the world. And I'm not talking about best-selling. I mean these Samoans are huge. It's the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E and Faith No More with "Another Body Murdered". This one brings the pain just like the first one, so turn it up or turn it down as you see fit. I'll skip the lyrics on this one as well. Enjoy! (The sound on this one sucks)

Previous Music Video Fridays
Sleater-Kinney
Keb' Mo'
Siouxsie & the Banshees

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the cool kids are doing it.

Not Today

Since yesterday was the first day of exhibition baseball, a few quotes fer ya...

Don't tell me about the world. Not today. It's springtime and they're knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. - Pete Hamill

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring - Rogers Hornsby

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. - A. Bartlett Giamatti

What are we at the park for except to win? I'd trip my mother. I'd help her up, brusher her off, tell her I'm sorry. But mother don't make it to third. - Leo Durocher

England and America should scrap cricket and baseball and come up with a new game that they both can play. Like baseball, for example. - Robert Benchley

There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them work. - Charlie Lau

Ninety feet between home plate and first base may be the closest man has ever come to perfection. - Red Smith

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. - Annie Savoy via Ron Shelton

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. - Bryant Gumbel

That's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball. - Bill Veeck

The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid. And if the hitter is timid, he has to remind the hitter he's timid. - Don Drysdale

I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it. - Rogers Hornsby

And finally...

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. - Walt Whitman

PS - A couple of new beers reviewed over at my beer blog. Check it out, y'all. - Earl

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Ernie Banks would want you to place twice...if you could.

Dead Sexy Bullets - "I dunno" Edition

It's bullet time again! Isn't everyone excited? You know you could at least pretend. This week's episode is brought to you by the band The Airborne Toxic Event. You know how sometimes music comes at you all at once? I first heard of this band on Carrie Brownstein's blog on NPR a couple of weeks ago. Then yesterday I heard them again on an episode of NCIS. Now I'm in. Check it out. Hey, that probably should have been the first bullet on the post. What was I thinking? I dunno.

• I lost a follower the other day. So did Slyde. We don't know who it is, and it might not even be the same person. One day they are there, the next...poof! Sometimes this whole "following" thing on Blogger is a bit puzzling to me. It's a great tool for, well...following other folk's blogs. Once you click on the "follow this blog" link it automatically updates your blog list on Google Reader. I like that. But it seems kind of pretentious to have it sitting there on the sidebar of my blog. And there are other problems with it. I tend to manually update Google Reader as well to put it in a specific category, so if I want to delete that blog from my reader (it has happened) then I have to do it in Google Reader and on my Blogger dashboard or on the individual's blog itself. So it's a bit clunky and pretentious is all I'm saying. A lot of folks like it though, so I'm about 50-50 on getting rid of it. I dunno.
• The President addressed Congress and the nation last night. But it wasn't a State of the Union address. I'm a bit confused, but I like it. We've seen more of this guy in his first month than we saw of the last guy in his first nine months. Agree with him, disagree with him. At least he's out there. These addresses are a little ridiculous though. Stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight! I'm gonna really respect the politician who instructs the audience to save their appreciation for the end of the speech. Not too much to ask. It's not like we are at a High School pep rally anymore. I dunno.
  
• Still on track to see my 500th post next Thursday or Friday. And I still haven't decided how to celebrate it. Maybe I'll just ignore it and wait until lucky number 1,000. I dunno.
• Have you ever been sitting at your computer and you find that you need another word for vagina, but you are drawing a blank? At last there is a solution. Just keep on re-loading that page. Heaven's Door might be a new favorite of mine. I dunno.
• Mel Gibson was on Jimmy Kimmel a couple of nights ago. And he did this really bizarre fake movie trailer for The Colonel. Does he hate chickens as much as he hates Jews? I dunno.
• I had the MLB Network on in the background yesterday while I was working. They were showing a replay of Opening Day in 1981 when the White Sox and their new catcher Carlton Fisk played the Red Sox at Fenway. Best thing about it, besides the Red Sox losing? Harry Caray did the play-by-play. At one point he introduces Dennis Eckersley who is starting the game for the BoSox. He says "There's Eckersley with his long, shoulder length hair. He says it helps him to hide his sinker ball." Cracked me up. I could totally picture Will Ferrell saying something like that while impersonating Caray. There used to be some great stuff on Youtube featuring Ferrell as Caray, but alot of it is gone now. I'd like to blame Hulu for it. I dunno.
• I had a lot more in my head that I was gonna write about here, but now it is gone. I dunno.
  

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the cool kids are doing it, I guess. I dunno.

20 Albums

This meme has been all over the blogosphere the past few days, and I'm nothing if not a follower. So here goes.

Think of 20 albums, CDs, LPs (if you’re over 40), that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazoo, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 15 others (yeah, not doing that), including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill.

Besides the first album on the list, I'm not sure that any of these had any real affect on my life. But I started to listen to Jimmy Buffett at age 10, and becoming a Parrothead really did change my life. It affected my attitude, my choice of clothing and it's the only reason that I discovered my favorite place on Earth in Key West. The rest of them are important because of a time and a place, but not really sure of any "profound" effect they had on my life. And this is NOT a list of my favorite 20 albums of all-time. That would be a much more difficult list to come up with.

1. Jimmy Buffett - Son Of Son Of A Sailor
2. The Who - Quadrophenia
3. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
4. John Cougar (pre-Mellencamp) - Nothin' Matters And What If It Did
5. Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus (Live)
   
6. The Pretenders - The Pretenders
7. Blondie - Parallel Lines
   
8. Pink Floyd - The Wall
   
9. The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
10. Sonic Youth - Goo
11. The Pixies - Doolittle
    
12. The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
13. Sub Pop 200 - compilation album (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Green River, Screaming Trees, Steven J. Bernstein, etc...)
    
14. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - More Noise And Other Disturbances
15. Shonen Knife - Let's Knife
    
16. PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
17. Sleater-Kinney - All Hands On The Bad One
18. Cake - Fashion Nugget
19. Sublime - 40 Oz. To Freedom
20. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
    

Howsabout you?

Here's a little video for ya to round things off. Sublime with "Badfish" - Enjoy!

Badfish - Sublime
When you grab a hold of me
Tell me that I'll never be set free
But I'm a parasite
Creep and crawl I step into the night.
Two pints of booze
Tell me are you a badfish too? Are you a badfish too?
Ain't got no money to spend
I hope the night will never end
Lord knows I'm weak
Won't somebody get me off of this reef

Baby your a big blue whale
Grab the reef when all duck diving fails
I swim but I wish I've never learned
The water's too polluted with germs
I dive deep when it's ten feet overhead
Grab the reef underneath my bed
It's underneath my bed
Ain't got no quarrels with God
Ain't got no time to grow old
Lord knows I'm weak
Won't somebody get me off of this reef

Ain't got no quarrels with God. Ain't got no time to get old
Lord knows I'm weak
Won't somebody get me off of this reef

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the bad fish are doing it.

We were there, where were you?

Live blogging the Oscars was a success and a lot of fun.

Thanks to Michelle, Becky, Savannah, Holly, Kate, Slyde and a certain dude who smells like a wet dog for stopping by. Hope I didn't miss anyone there.

PS - oh, and if you are up to it, head over to Paige's joint and discuss. - Earl

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the silly fucks are doing it.

Live Blogging the Oscars

I semi-sorta live blogged the Oscars last year. I sat down and just brain dumped onto a blog post anything that popped into my head onto a blog post for you all to ignore. What fun, he?

This year, I'm kicking it up a notch and I will be hosting a real live blogging event for the Oscars right here. So come on down around 8PM (EST) for the red carpet parade and join me in busting on the Oscars. If you absolutely have nothing better to do, that is.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the live bloggers are doing it.

Music Video Fridays - Siouxsie & the Banshees

This week's edition was inspired by Dave2 who channeled his inner Goth and became Death yesterday.

For those of you who aren't comic-book geeks (and you should be), Death is a character created by Neil Gaiman back in the late 80's as part of a family of anthropomorphic beings called The Endless. He wrote about them in his series The Sandman. She was a pixie-ish waif of a girl, very Goth and Gaiman's clear inspiration for her was Siouxsie Sioux who fronted Siouxsie & the Banshees. Well, Gaimain along with artists Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III. Give credit where credit is due.

Anyway, Siouxsie & the Banshees were an early favorite band of mine. My first concert ever was a Siouxsie show in 1982 or 1983. There were so many cute Goth girlies there that I feared permanent damage to my innocent 16 year-old heart. I dug the Goth aesthetic. Still do, to a degree. While I myself was never Goth, I had a thing for Goth chickies. An itch that never got scratched, by the way. A boy can dream though. My current Goth fixation is with Pauley Perrette who plays Goth cutie Abby Sciutto on NCIS. Yum. She's not Goth in real life, but she may have been at one point. I don't know. Isn't she cute though?

Onward to the music. This first song up is an all-time favorite of mine. And one of those songs that brings me right back to the mid-80's. "Cities in Dust" was a pretty big hit for them back in 1986. The entire album ("Tinderbox") was great.

Cities in Dust
Water was running; children were running
You were running out of time
Under the mountain, a golden fountain
Were you praying at the Lares shrine?
But ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend

We found you hiding, we found you lying
Choking on the dirt and sand
Your former glories and all the stories
Dragged and washed with eager hands

But ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
your city lies in dust

Water was running; children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
Water was running; children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
your city lies in dust
ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend

Hot and burning in your nostrils
Pouring down your gaping mouth
Your molten bodies blanket of cinders
Caught in the throes .......

Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend
Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend

Your city lies in dust

The next song is a cover of an Iggy Pop tune called "The Passenger" which was on their album "Through the Looking Glass". An entire album of covers released in 1987. In a lot of ways, this is my favorite Siouxsie album along with "Tinderbox". Kraftwerk, Television, Roxy Music, The Doors, John Cale and The Doors were all covered as well. Great fun album.

The Passenger (by Iggy Pop)
I am the passenger
And I ride and I ride
I ride through the city's backside
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah, they're bright in a hollow sky
You know it looks so good tonight

I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city's a rip in the sky
And everything looks good tonight
Singin la la la la la-la-la la
La la la la la-la-la la
La la la la la-la-la la la-la

Get into the car
Well be the passenger
Well ride through the city tonight
See the city's ripped insides
Well see the bright and hollow sky
Well see the stars that shine so bright
The sky was made for us tonight

Oh the passenger
How how he rides
Oh the passenger
He rides and he rides
He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He see the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
cause it just belongs to you and me
So lets take a ride and see whats mine
Singing...

Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He sees things from under glass
He looks through his windows eye
He sees the things he knows are his
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the city asleep at night
He sees the stars are out tonight
And all of it is yours and mine
And all of it is yours and mine
Oh, lets ride and ride and ride and ride...
Singing...

The last video is an old one from 1980 and the album "Kaleidoscope". I just heard "Christine" the other day on one of the cooler XM stations. Man, I love this song and this band.

Christine
She tries not to shatter,kaleidoscope style
personality changes behind her red smile
every new problem brings a stranger inside
helplessly forcing one more new disguise

Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady
Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady

singing sweet savages lost in our world
This big eyed-girl sees her faces unfurl
Now she's in purple
Now she's the turtle

Disintegrating

Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady
Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine sees her faces unfurl

Now she's in purple
Now she's the turtle

Disintegrating

Christine,Christine

Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine-banana split lady
Christine-the strawberry girl
Christine sees her faces unfurl

Christine,Christine,Christine,Christine turn into faces

Disintegrating

Christine,Christine,Christine

Disintegrating.......

Previous Music Video Fridays
Sleater-Kinney
Keb' Mo'

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the yummy Goths are doing it.

Booze and Whores

I love digging into someone's iPod to see what kind of weird stuff is on there. I'm guilty of having some sappy crappy stuff on my machine. I'm sure we all have something in there that someone else would think as weird.

One of the weirdest things I ever found was The Andrew Sisters version of "Rum and Coca-Cola" on Gia's iPod. It's actually a very cute and catchy Calypso tune, but something you don't expect to find. Normally. But whoever said Gia was normal. She digs me, after all. That ain't normal.

I was just thinking about it last night and I decided to look it up on the old Interwebs so I could post it for y'all. What I found was soooo much better than just some lame Youtube video. No, what I found was gold. Gold, Jerry!

I went to the Wikipedia, as I am apt to do, and saw that Morey Amsterdam was listed as "writing" the song. Remember Morey? He was part of the comedy writing team, along with Dick Van Dyke and Rose Marie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He played Buddy Sorrell, probably he most well known role. I loved that show. Morey was hilarious on it, and it's a clear pre-cursor of shows like 30 Rock. That "behind the scenes" look at a hit television show. He also played Cappy in Frankie and Annette's Beach Party movies.

But, of course, Morey didn't really write the song. When the song was first recorded here in the US, Morey was listed as the lyricist and he copyrighted the song. Problem is that a Calypso artist from Trinidad named Lord Invader (really) actually wrote it. Morey plagiarized the tune, and it became a big hit for him with The Andrews Sisters. He first heard it in 1943 when he visited Trinidad with a USO tour. I'm also trying to wrap my mind around why the USO would be visiting lovely Trinidad during the height of World War II. Which soldiers stationed in Trinidad* during World War II really needed their spirits raised by entertainers? C'mon.

So Amsterdam heard the song while entertaining the troops, loved it and then he wrote his own version of it that lessened the original's political message. And, um, well...he kinda implied that the women "working for the Yankee dollar" were whores. Booze and whores? Why wouldn't it be a huge hit here in the US? Ha!

Anyway, Lord Invader eventually sued Amsterdam and won a settlement even though Amsterdam was still granted copyright privileges.

The surreal shit you can find out on the Interwebs these days, eh?

*I will readily admit that I am too lazy to look up why we had soldiers stationed in Trinidad during World War II. So forgive me if I spoke out of line here.

PS - I had you at "Booze and Whores", didn't I? - Earl

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Morey would want you to do it.

Who is to blame?

In the wake of A-Rod's second confession and apology in the matter of a week, I thought it was time that someone (me) listed everyone who should share a portion of the blame for the steroid mess that baseball currently finds itself in.

So here goes:

• The Players - Of course, the players. They are the ones taking the drugs and performance enhancers and the ones benefiting from them. Supposedly. I don't know if Barry Bonds would have hit 73 home runs in 2001 au naturale. No one does. But it is suspect, isn't it? Dude hit 38 dingers in 1998 when he noticed everyone else juicing. Then 49 in 2000 and the ridiculous number of 73 the following year. That's a bit of a jump if you ask me. Anyway, none of this mess would have happened if baseball weren't a business that paid for performance. Chicks dig home runs, so dudes bulked up and Hulk started to smash. They are culprit numero uno.
• The Owners - For these guys, more than anyone else, baseball is profit. Home runs get fans to the ballpark and increases the viewing numbers at home. Both of those increase revenues for the owners. Why wouldn't they turn a blind eye to ballplayers that look like superheroes? Especially after the disaster of the 1994 strike. Which they blame on the players, of course.
  
• The Commissioner - Bud Selig, more than any commish in the history of the game, is all about making money and deflecting blame. You know he is a former owner who still has ties to the Brewers, right? He is paid over $18 million a year to make as much money for the owners as possible. Now he wants everyone to know that he isn't to blame. Bullshit. Stand in line and take your blame, dipshit. When you retire you go down in history as the worst commissioner the game has ever seen. Nice job.
  
• The Agents - This one is rather simple. Steroids enhance performance, right? Performance enhances salaries, right? Higher salaries equals higher commissions for the agents, right? Isn't math easy?
• The Managers - And coaches. More so than anyone, they see what goes on in the clubhouse. And to a man, each one of them had denied "actual" knowledge of players juicing up. I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. I'm gonna have a whole boatload of respect for the first manager to come out and admit he knew what was going on. Because they all know.
• The Press - This one really gets to me. Some of them admit their participation in the fraud, but some of them sound so sanctimonious when talking about it now. "I will never vote for Barry Bonds for the Hall of Fame. Not with what we know now!" Bullshit! Everyone knew Barry was on something in 2001 when he broke the single season home run record. Especially the press. Didn't stop them from voting Barry the MVP of the National League that year. Or the next year. Or the next year. Or...wait for it...yes, the next year. By huge margins. So let me get this straight? The press aren't stupid. They knew Barry was juicing from 2001-2004 and it may have inflated his numbers, but they voted him the MVP of the league each of those seasons? And now they say they won't put him in the Hall for the same reason? Even though there is no actual proof*? What a bunch of dicks!
• The Fans - Yes, the fans. We all bought into it. Back in 1998, we saw how big McGwire and Sosa got. And we also saw them race towards a formerly sacred record in that glorious summer and we bought into it. We loved it. It brought us back to the game that had betrayed us in 1994. So we watched them swat baseballs over the fence and we chuckled about how big they had all become and we let it happen. Because Sosa and McGwire were kinda nice guys. It wasn't until Barry the douchebag bulked up the following year that some folks started to question it all. Sad. And it wasn't until our "heroes" started getting caught up in allegations years later that it seemed to matter to anyone. Sadder still.
  

So who is to blame for it all? We are. And by "we", I mean everyone who is employed by baseball and everyone who enjoys it as a fan. Most of you fuckers probably don't give a shit at all because you aren't fans. But the rest of us need to step up and get a slice of the blame pie. We have earned it.

*Well, there might be proof. That's gonna all come out in his trial in a couple of weeks.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the sanctimonious bastards are doing it.

Just watch ol' Bandit run

If you told me on Friday that my favorite new show of the weekend WASN'T going to be Dollhouse, well...I would have told you how nuts you are. And Dollhouse was good, mind you. Not extraordinary, but real good. It's gonna need a few episodes to kick in, I think. Too bad it will be canceled so soon. But a new show by Joss Whedon should have been my favorite show of the weekend.

Except that on Sunday, HBO premiered the new Danny McBride comedy Eastbound & Down and it was freakin' hysterical!

If you are a fan of The Foot Fist Way (and you should be) or McBride's work in Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express, then you are gonna love Eastbound & Down. McBride plays a former major league relief pitcher who is a cross between John Rocker and Mitch Williams. He returns home after bombing out of the bigs and gets a job as a substitute gym teacher. This is a bad, bad guy. Racist, misogynistic, drunk, steroid abuser...you name it. But so much fun to watch. A real douchebag. I laughed out loud throughout the entire show.

And it was just the first episode. Gina Gershon and Will Ferrell haven't even shown up yet!

Here is the HBO Making Of promo for it. Enjoy.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the douchebags are doing it.

Snob

I've been called a beer snob by some folks. I don't buy it. I love good beer, sure. But I also drink Bud, Miller (High Life), Coors (gold not silver) and PBR. It's all good. And different times and places require different types of brews. The last time I went to the beer store to buy a little some some, I walked away with a 12-pack of PBR and a 4-pack of Belhaven Scottish Ale. That's pretty standard for me. The dichotomy of the choices, not the actual beers themselves.

I have been a tequila snob at one point in my life though. It was between 12-15 years ago when good tequila first started hitting big here in the States. If it wasn't anejo and it wasn't expensive, I wasn't interested in it. I tried it all. I remember finding a shitty restaurant in Jacksonville, FL that, for some reason, had a bottle of Porfidio Single Barrel Anejo behind the bar and they were selling it on the ridiculous cheap. That was a good night.

Then, somehow, I started to enjoy the blancos and reposados even more. They were stronger tasting, peppery and had a delicious tequila flavor. I know...tequila with a tequila flavor. Sounds weird, right? But some of the anejos are aged to the point where they taste mellow enough to be a Bourbon. That's when I really knew I had become a tequila snob. Because I could easily wade through the crap (Patron) and the uber-expensive (Herradura Seleccion Suprema) to find the hidden gem that was Cazadores Reposado. Or something similar.

But I don't really drink tequila anymore. No real reason. Just kind of organically happened. I still enjoy it on occasion, but I've become more of a whiskey/whisky guy lately. Not a snob though.

Too late of a start in life to become a Scotch snob. It's such an acquired taste and there are so many distilleries that I just don't have the energy to focus myself into becoming a Scotch snob. And I like good Bourbon, but there are so many folks that I know that can spot a great Bourbon from a mile away that I usually defer to them when it comes to picking a good sipper.

But I think I wanna become an Irish Whiskey snob.

It appeals to me on many levels. I'm a product of a primarily Irish background, for one thing. And there aren't nearly as many distillers in Ireland as their are in Scotland. But there is definitely some good stuff out there.

Yesterday, I had to pick up a bottle of Bourbon at the liquor store to bring to a party (to make these) and I spied a bottle of Irish Whiskey I had never seen before.

A 1994 Knappogue Castle pot-stilled Single Malt Irish Whiskey.


It was much paler than any whiskey I had ever seen before. And the price was downright reasonable for a Single Malt at $33 for a liter. So I figured why the hell not?

I had a wee glass when I got home from the party and it was absolutely delicious. Love at first taste. Not the best whiskey I've ever had, but unbeatable for the price.

So yeah...I think I want to become an Irish Whiskey snob.

Everyone has to have a goal, right?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fucking snobs are doing it.

483 and counting

Noticed recently that my 500th post is rapidly approaching. Should occur sometime around 2 and 1/2 weeks from now.

Here are a few ways that I am thinking of celebrating it:

• Making my own bacon-infused bourbon.
• Pretending like it never happened.
• More kitten pics.
• 500 random things about me.
• Yeah, I was just kidding about that last one.
• Seriously.
• Finally posting an actual picture of myself.
• Followed by my address, date of birth and social security number.
• (Yeah, right)
• A guest post by my hetero life-mate, Slyde.
• An immediate retraction and apology on my part for Slyde's guest post.
• Four words: Pants off, dance off!
  

So whaddya think?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the prolific bloggers are doing it.

Music Video Fridays - Keb' Mo'

Happy Friday the 13th.

Continuing a proud tradition that is at least a week old, I give you Keb' Mo' this Friday for your music video pleasure.

For those of you not familiar with him, Keb' Mo' (born Kevin Moore) is an American guitarist and blues singer originally from Los Angeles, CA. He's received a lot of mainstream recognition lately for his soulful style and appearances on shows like "The West Wing" as himself, of course.

The first video is his rendition of "America the Beautiful" and it is my favorite version of the song. No need to provide the lyrics, eh?

The next video is a collaboration with reggae/blues artist Corey Harris on "Sweet Home Chicago". I was lucky enough to see Corey Harris live at The Green Parrot in Key West a couple of years ago. He's a great musician and a smart dude. I've written about him before on this blog. Once again, if you have even a rudimentary knowledge of the blues then lyrics won't be necessary.

The last video is a live performance of an original song by Keb' called "Perpetual Blues Machine". This was one had a bit of a crossover appeal and played on some alternative/public radio stations when it first was released back in the 90's. And it's the first time he ever flew into my radar.

Perpetual Blues Machine

You had style, you had class
you had everything to make a love last
you had grace, you had charm
you had me hanging on your arm
when I found out you were a fake
you rared up and bit me like a snake
and I was ready to let go
and let all my feelings show.

Chorus:
Tell me why you wanna be so cold
why you wanna be so mean
you've gone and let your true colors show
you're a perpetual blues machine.

We could've been just fine
if you'd have only been all mine
'cause I was for real, but you did not know
that you were steppin' on my heart
as you were walking out the door.
But now I know who you are
and it's a damn good thing we didn't get too far
'cause I'm not the one who's right for you.
You need a man to do your rolling
like you want him to do.

Chorus

Now you've gone, and I'm glad
that we didn't let it get too bad
you know I tried to make it go
but there was just no way to tell you so.

Chorus

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Don't let the blues get you down.

Not again. Not this time.

I've been guilty in the past on missing out on some of the best that television has had to offer when they originally aired. Joss Whedon just happened to be the genius behind all of them. Check it out...

March 10, 1997 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer premieres. "Welcome to the Hellmouth", indeed. I didn't start watching Buffy until it ran in syndication on the FX network. Sometime late in 2003, I believe. In one way I'm glad that happened because I was able to watch the entire series in a couple of months. But I still feel like I missed out on watching it as it happened. The anticipation, the not knowing. Yet it still became my favorite television show of all time.

October 5, 1999 - Angel premieres. I only began to watch it after I fell in love with Buffy. And I didn't like it as much as Buffy. At first. I just recently finished watching the entire series again* and it is absolutely fantastic. Angel's character development is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen on TV. It's still in second place when it comes to Joss Whedon's creations...but it's sneaking up on Buffy.

September 20, 2002 - Firefly premieres. I still hadn't seen Buffy and FOX fucked this one up from the get go. Bad promotion, timeslots and they re-arranged the airings of the episodes for some reason. It seemed like they just didn't want it to succeed. But while it only lasted 1 season and 14 episodes, it may be the finest work that Whedon has done thus far. Great characters, plots and settings. Just brilliant. All with Whedon's trademarked humor and pathos. The subsequent feature film was even more fun...and devastating.

That leads us to this:


February 13, 2009 - Dollhouse premieres on FOX at 9PM EST. Yeah, it's on a shitty network on a shitty night in a shitty time slot. One that is probably gonna change two or three times this spring. Because you really can't expect a show to succeed on a Friday night at 9PM now, can you? I don't really know that much about it, and I only recognize a couple of the folks starring in it. Doesn't matter. I'm not gonna be left behind again. It's already programmed into the DVR and I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure that it does succeed.

Like writing a blog post about it so that a handful of like-minded folks are aware that something magical might be happening again. The rest of it is up to you.

Are you gonna watch?

*OK...a few quick observations about Angel from just having watched it again:

1. I liked evil Angel (Angelus for those of us not on crack, eh Faiqa?) and goofy fun Angel much better than somber, righteous Angel. He just bored me when he was mopey.
   
2. I wish Cordy the Warrior had a longer run. She was always a great character, but she was just coming into her own when, ya know...things went bad.
3. Conner was a life-sucking abyss of a character that almost ruined the show for me. I know that it was necessary and all, but man I hated that kid.
4. Amy Acker is a talented actress and cute as a button, but I never really liked Fred as a character.
5. I dug dark Wesley just as much as goofy, brainy Wesley. And that guy could really act. "I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me" might be one of my favorite lines ever uttered on television. So powerful and chilling.
6. Holtz was pretty ridiculous as a bad guy, wasn't he?
   
7. Spike, for me, was a welcome addition to the show in Season 5. I enjoyed his interaction/competition with Angel and I could have enjoyed it for several more seasons.
   
8. Gunn was more fun as a brainy lawyer in that last season than he was as the muscle in previous ones.
9. I don't really know what to say about Lorne. Was something going on between Andy Hallett and Joss Whedon in real life? He was often funny, sure. But he just seemed like an excuse to introduce vaudeville to the audience. I dunno.
10. And finally, Wolfram & Hart. Best bad guys ever on a television show! Lilah, Gavin and, of course, Lindsey. They each gave it their all, didn't they? Well done, kids!
    

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Buffy would want you to do it.

OVERKILL!!!

Looks cool, huh? And can you see (clicky to make it go biggy) who directed it? That's right. Well...not really.

It's just an image created from a zombie movie poster generator provided by the nice folks peddling the new House of the Dead game for the Wii.

Stacie Ponder over at Final Girl is asking her readers to create their own zombie movie poster for a feature she occasionally runs on Fridays.

I'm still having fun with it, so I don't think this will be the one that I submit. Needs tweaking.

It's way too much fun, though. Hehe.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the walking dead are doing it.

Crap! I missed it.

Last Friday was World Nude Day. Who knew?

Actually, it's mostly just a bunch of freaks down in New Zealand, but they are trying to spread the word of peace, love and nudity to the rest of the freaks in the world. That sure was nice of them.

You can click on that link to check out some videos that were sent in to celebrate the festive day, but I warn ya...it's mostly the fellas that get in the all together. Something for the ladies, you know.

And Slyde, of course.

(Yes...that was a preemptive strike against my friend of many years. It only serves to lessen the inevitable blow of him calling me gay in the comments for posting a website that features male nudity. What can I say? I'm weak. Let's see if he takes the high road. - Earl)

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the naked dudes are doing it.

Ponder this

Despite yesterday's news regarding A-Whatever, I've been pretty excited this Winter for the upcoming baseball season. So much so that I'm thinking long and hard about running a Fantasy Baseball League for the first time since 2002.

A friend and I started our own fantasy league back before the ease of the Internet and CBS Sportsline. Way back in 1990 or 1991, I believe. We made up our own rules and our own scoring system, based on existing fantasy leagues. We didn't do Rotisserie rules and this new league I'm thinking about forming won't be Roto either. It will be fantasy point based. With lineups and everyting. We wanted to make it resemble the actual baseball season as much as possible. And Roto doesn't really allow that. Like a team would really traded Albert Pujols for Jose Reyes after the All-Star break just becuase they needed SB? Seriously.

Anyway, I want to gauge the interest of the bloggy world about joining the league. I would set up a new blog just for the league and it would be open to anyone who reads this blog or friends of those who do.

It's not going to be a simple "draft your team and then sit there" league. It will require weekly lineups, roster maintenance, active trading, waiver wire transactions and free agent signings. I also would prefer to do an Auction rather than a Draft, if I can find the online service that supports it. Auctions are fun!

So how about it?

Anyone interested?

Email me at babyburke at aol dot com if you are seriously interested in joining. Or you can just leave a comment. But what fun is that?

Oh, and in the latest on boobs...Yowza!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fantasy freaks are doing it.

A-Roid

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Yeah, I know...their is no "proof" that they cheated. Well, there might be some proof on Bonds. But none of the allegations have surprised me. I watched Sosa and McGwire in 1998. You knew they were using something. Everyone knew it. And when Bonds showed up at camp the next year looking like a Marvel superhero, everyone knew he was using something. HGH or steroids. Whatever.

Roger Clemens didn't shock me. The guy seems like a Grade A asshole and someone who would do anything to perform better. Plus he threw a bat handle at Mike Piazza. Who does that?

Jose Canseco (admitted), Jason Giambi (admitted), Rafael Palmiero (caught), Luis Gonzalez (rumors), Gary Sheffield (delusional), Jay Gibbons (caught), Ken Caminiti (admitted and dead), Andy Pettitte (admitted and born again), Miguel Tejada (implicated and, frankly...older)...the list goes on. And none of them have surprised me or particularly disappointed me.

I'm angry, shocked and thoroughly disappointed in the news today that Alex Rodriguez failed a steroids test in 2003. He may be a prima donna and a jackass, but I always thought he was clean.

I don't give a crap that it was part of a test program to determine how wide-spread the steroids problem was in baseball. I don't care that there were no penalties in 2003 for steroid use. I don't care that he is the only one out of the 104 players that tested positive for steroids whose name was leaked to the media. I don't if he only used steroids one time, as I'm sure he will claim when he finally comes clean. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care.

But this was supposed to be the clean guy who would take back the HR record from dirty, dirty Barry Bonds in a few years. The guy who was so talented right out of High School that he would never need to juice. The guy who told Katie Couric on 60 Minutes that he never used steroids or HGH, never considered it and never would.

He's a cheat. He's a juicer. He's a liar. Once. Always.

So that's it. I will never believe any of them anymore. I will not be surprised when the next names are revealed. I don't care who it is. Chase Utley, David Ortiz, Tim Lincecum, Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramirez, CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera...they are all suspects. And none of it will ever shock me again.

Fuckers!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fucking frauds are doing it.

Music Video Fridays - Sleater-Kinney

I spent the night nursing an upset stomach, watching the kittens run around like crazy and watching old music videos on Youtube.

Not a bad evening. Except for the upset stomach.

There is so much good shit out there. So much that I've forgotten over the years. Remember bands like Ned's Atomic Dustbin or Carter USM from the UK's Grebo scene? No? I barely do either. But I was listening to them almost exclusively back in 1991-92. Right around the time that grunge kicked in here in the US.

Anyway, I'm starting a new feature here on The Verdant Dude. Music videos on Fridays. Yay! I've noticed lots of other folks doing it around the Interwebs as well, and I'm nothing if not a sheep. So I'll post a couple of vids from the past for y'all to either enjoy or ignore. Either ways is fine with me.

Our first edition features a couple of videos by one of my favorite all-time bands, Sleater-Kinney. They are on what may be a permanent hiatus right now. Shame. These women did it the right way. The first video is a song called "Modern Girl" and it features Carrie Brownstein on vocals. I'm generally more of a fan of the songs that Corin Tucker sings. I dig her warble. But this one off of their final album in 2005 is one of my favorites.

MODERN GIRL
My baby loves me
I'm so happy
Happiness makes me
A modern girl
I took my money
And bought a TV
TV Brings me
Closer to the world

My baby loves me
I'm so hungry
Hunger makes me
A modern girl
I took my money
And bought a donut
The hole's the size of
The entire world

My baby loves me
I'm so angry
Anger makes me
A modern girl
I took my money
I couldn't buy nothin'
I'm sick of this
Brave new world

My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day

My whole life
looked like a picture
of a sunny day

The next video is from their album "All Hands on The Bad One" released in 2000, and it features Corin Tucker on vocals. Mostly. The song is called "You're No Rock and Roll Fun" and strangely enough...it is a lot of rock and roll fun. Enjoy!

YOU'RE NO ROCK AND ROLL FUN
You're no rock n' roll fun
like a party that's over
before it's begun
You're no walk in the park
more like a shot in the dark
with clues left for no one

And all the boys in the band
know how to get down
fill our Christmas socks
with whiskey drinks
and chocolate bars
and when the evening ends we won't
be thinking of you then
Although the best man
won't hang out with the girl band!

You're no rock n' roll fun
like a piece of art
that no one can touch
Your head is always up in the clouds
writing your songs
won't you ever come down?

And all the boys in the band
know how to get down
fill our Christmas socks
with whiskey drinks
and chocolate bars
and when the evening ends we won't
be thinking of you then
Even if your song
is playing on the jukebox

You wanna party with the lights on
Come on I like it dark!
You always wanna hear the same old song
Come on play another song!

You're no rock n' roll fun

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the riot grrls are doing it.

Witch's Tit

Whenever I want to really get to the bottom of something, I go to Wikipedia. I mean, if it's on the Internets it has to be fact-checked. Right? Anyway, here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Witches' mark or Witch's Teat or Witch's Tit, if you prefer. I prefer tits. If I was given a choice between marks, teats or tits I would probably pick tits every time. Unless I needed some milk for my coffee. I can't drink my coffee without some kind of dairy product. Half and half would be best, but I don't know how it comes out of the cow exactly. And where does buttermilk fit in? Wait, what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, Wikipedia and the Witches' Teat. "According to witch-hunters during the height of the witch trials (c. 1645), the witches’ mark (also called a Devil's mark or a witches' teat) indicated that an individual was a witch. The witches' mark, witches' teat, and the devil's mark are all terms applied to essentially the same mark. The beliefs about the mark differ depending on the trial location and the accusation made against the witch. {snip} Sometimes, the mark was believed to have been left by the Devil licking the individual."

"The witches' teat is associated with the feeding of witches' imps or familiars; the witches' familiars supposedly aided the witch in her magic in exchange for nourishment (blood) from sacrificial animals or from the witch's teat[4]. It is also where the devil supposedly suckles when he comes at night to bed his faithful servants, sometimes impregnating them with his seed. Once the devilish half-breed has been conceived, the cambion may only feed upon this teat and no other. Folklore suggests that on the 7th day of the 7th week of consecutive feeding upon the teat, the cambion would grow to adulthood immediately and begin wreaking havoc with a range of demonic powers inherited from its supernatural father. {snip} Witches’ marks were commonly believed to include moles, scars, birthmarks, skin tags, supernumerary nipples, natural blemishes and insensitive patches of skin."

And in current culture and slang you can find mention of the witch's teat when talking about something like the weather when it gets particularly cold. Wikipedia says so. "The "witch's teat" has been adapted to mean something of a cold or foreboding nature. A common function of the word as slang is used as a representation of cold temperatures. An example of this is: "It's colder than a witch's teat out here!" or "Teats, it's cold!" The first time I had heard this expression was while watching the film All That Jazz with Roy Scheider. Someone said that one of the dancers was "uglier than a witch's tit." Someone else argued that the proper phrase was "colder than a witch's tit." I was 13, so all I cared about was "tit". Of course.


So yeah, it was colder than a witch's tit in New York yesterday.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the sexy witches are doing it.

Meet the kittens

Now these suckers barely stop moving for a minute all day long, so it wasn't very easy to get pictures of them. But we tried.

Here they are just waking up from a nap. Wolowitz is on the left and Gogo Yubari is on the right. Kinda difficult to tell apart, eh? We know. Well, without picking them up to check under the hood.


Wolowitz looks a bit darker colored than Gogo because she is a bit furrier. You can really tell it's her because of the extra tufty hair in her ears. As you can see they are very attached. They like to sleep directly on top of each other. See?


There's Wolowitz all by himself. They both have the same mustard colored eyes. Even though it doesn't come through in these pics. Their coats are mostly black with some brown and white speckled through. He's a big purrer and a big cuddler. Loves to be picked up.


And there is Gogo. She's a bit more vocal than her brother. And so far (it's only been a little over a day) she is not as much of a cuddler. Maybe that will change. You can see how much fluff she has in this picture.


Let's not forget Sammi. She is none too thrilled with the new additions to the house. All they want to do is play with her, but she isn't into it yet. She is doing better than when we first brought them home, but it might take a few more days for her to adjust.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fun, new kittens are doing it.