Dudes, let's go to Vancouver for the Olympics...

Brah! Dudebrah!



Best Olympics logo ever. Now where are those twinkies?

Olympic musings

What's with all the ugly sportsmanship this year? I thought Usain Bolt was bad in the 100, but the men's and women's British 4x400 teams, in heats, were just fucking terrible. The woman lollygagged her ass to the line for that last 80 meters or so and almost lost the 3rd qualifying spot. The men's anchor was taunting as he crossed the finish line, waving his baton, doing the "shhhhhh" finger-to-mouth thing, etc. Is your goal in life to be hateable?

I really hope the Jamaicans crush them in the final.

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Speaking of crush, the men's 4x100 was hilarious. I think a couple teams were still on the baton exchange when Powell crossed the finish line. Bolt could have won the damned thing, and he was just jogging out the momentum after the handoff and exhorting Powell to go. That's gotta be embarrassing for everyone else. Almost a full second to second place? Wow.

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The woman who is part of the diving announcing team is almost Susyn Waldman-level terrible.

It's a thing of beauty

This is phenomenal. Be sure to Full-Screen it.

Marco!

I should add that this is funny because it was posted on a major new site's photo-stream, where they just grab a bunch of pictures and make a gallery.

It was up for a couple hours until they realized...

Welcome to China: Please Ignore the Communism

Where were we?

Oh, yeah. Working like a fucking dog again. Office by day, working at home until 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning every night.

Hence the radio silence.

~~~~~

Let's start a shuffle while I spew.

Kings of Leon - Holy Roller Novocaine (Youth and Young Manhood)
In my KoL top 5. Filthy, filthy groove. Come on baby, you and me, let's get together and do the nasty. Ah, but "Lord's gonna get us back." The band consists of the three brothers and the cousin Followill. They come from a long line of Pentacostal preachers, and grew up steeped in deep-South religion. This conflict of the rock-n-roll life with their upbringing comes up quite often in their lyrics.

Judas Priest - Diamonds and Rust (Unleashed in the East)
What fucking power he had. This album is stupendous because of Halford alone.

Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Stevie Wonder's a musical genius!!!!! There aren't many booty shakers above this on the all-time list of booty shakers.

Black Crowes - Hard to Handle (Shake your Moneymaker)
Yesaroun'
I haven't heard this in 3+ years, I'd guess. Holds up pretty nicely all these years later.

Talking Heads - Slippery People (Stop Making Sense)
One of the all time great bands. I fuckin' love David Byrne. A freaky, freaky genius. And what a concert this was. Seriously, if you've never watched this movie, do yourself the favor. Beautifully conceptualized and filmed. This is my favorite song from it.

Franklin Micare Trio - Coconut Woman
This is the band that played our wedding. Their two albums are just so good. Amazing what you can find locally, if you look. I remember when he had just moved into the area, and played Rolls for the first time, just him and his guitar. At the end of the night, I turned to Tom, the bartender/owner, and said "you'd better make this fucking guy a regular." "Way ahead of you," he said. He wins the Metroland "best jazz vocalist" year in and year out, and puts on one HELL of a bar show.

Jimmy Eat World - The Middle (Bleed American)
Awesome. Killer hooky chorus, uplifting message, solid groove.

Robert Plant - Big Love (Manic Nirvana)
Filthy. Filthy. Filthy. Plant put out some kick-ass material post Zeppelin. Page, not so much. Remember Coverdale/Page? What a steaming pile of shit that was. Could he have picked a worse Plant-wannabe-poseur? I think not. Also, nice way to admit you got nuttin'.

Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
Shake it baby, shake it.

Ramones - Rockaway Beach
OK, who wrote the best 2-minute songs? These guys, or Buddy Holly? That's a tough call.

Public Enemy - Can't Truss It (Apocalypse '91 - The Enemy Strike Black)
All right all right
Bass in your face
Not an eight track
Gettin' it good to the wood
So the people
Give you some a dat
Reactin' to the fax
That I kick and it stick
And it stay around
Pointin' to the joint put the Buddha down
Goin' goin' gettin' to the roots
Ain't givin' it up
So turn me loose
But then again I got a story
That's harder than the hardcore
Cost of the holocaust
I'm talkin' 'bout the one still goin' on
I know
Where I'm from, not dum diddie dum
From the base motherland
The place of the drum
Invaded by the wack diddie wack
Fooled the black, left us faded
King and chief probably had a big beef
Because of dat now I grit my teeth
So here's a song to the strong
'Bout a shake of a snake
And the smile went along wit dat
Can't truss it

'nuff said.

Damn those guys were good.

Scorpions - Blackout
This song is so fucking rude, but I don't care. It sounds too good to get all high and mighty about it.

I miss my Matthias Jabs striped pants.


Except mine were black and white. They were quite the sensation at Delta Phi parties. Seriously, I was just goofing around, but the ladies always had to flirt and comment. Those pants got me some.

Apostolos Nikolaidis - Panta me glyko hassisi
Wine, women, song, and good black hash. What else do you need, really?

Zagoraios - Pou Pas Memeti
Hey, it's like Two for Tuesday, Hellenic style! Another kick-ass groove. If I had to pick a favorite genre of music, it would probably be Greek "rebel" music.

Pearl Jam - Green Disease (Riot Act)
It's a disease, and they're all green
It emanates from their being
A satiation with occupation

And like weeds with big leaves
Stealing light from what's beneath
Where they have more
Still they take more

A top-5 PJ song for me. And just unbelievable live.

Ramones - Teenage Lobotomy
Now I guess I'll have to tell'em
That I ain't got no cerebellum

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (Live Under Blackpool Lights)
This is another mind-blowing concert DVD. Watching him make all that wonderful noise with one strangely-tuned guitar and a couple pedals is crazy. Crazy good.

Limbo Maniacs - Butt Funkin'
Some random band I got from Toast. The whole album is too much to take in one dose, but this is really good shuffle stuff. Great grooves. The lyrics, well... you can surmise the maturity level from the title of this song.

Arctic Monkeys - 505 (Favourite Worst Nightmare)
A great way to close an album out. Builds slowly, a little organ, a little guitar, some rhythm section, and finish cathartically. Yes!

Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere (Magic)
Yeah, this puppy holds up.

Weezer - Dope Nose (some untitled album with a color)
Hey! Another great 2-minute song band. It's the anti-Metallica competition.

Clapton and a zillion others - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Concert for George)
Very well done tribute concert.

The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations (Boys and Girls in America)
An all-timer. In my top-20 songs ever, fer sure.

Gogol Bordello - 60 Revolutions (Underdog World Strike)
Where posers and models with guitars
Boogie to the shit for beats
I make a better rock revolution
Alone with my dick!

Another top-20 song. These immigrant punks kick some ass.

Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot (Employment)
Rockin', hooky, groovy, with an eminently shoutable chorus.

Masters of Reality - She Got Me (when she got her dress on) (Sunrise on the Sufferbus)
What an amazing one-off project this was. Ginger Baker hooked up with a couple buddies and put together quite a collection of tunes. This one right here is positively dangerous if you're driving. I literally put my cruise control on when this song comes up.

~~~~~

Spent last weekend in Boston, playing at my friend Tom's golf club at the annual 3-day Member-Guest Tournament.

We sucked balls. We couldn't catch a break Friday and Saturday, and the guys we played were catching all of them. We started the weekend 0 for 5. That's record futility for us. Sunday came around, and it was spoiler time. We won both of our matches, and I shot a pretty damned good 83. We slid up from the basement to 4th place of 6, so at least we won't be hearing about it for the whole next year.

Tried to hook up with oddjob. He suggested the place. We showed up at 7:45, grabbed some bar space for us and stools for the girls. I proceeded to walk around the whole establishment and the outside seating area, looking for the guy "about 6' tall, with thinning brown hair and glasses... wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt and black pants." I did this 5 times over the next hour. Nine o'clock and a $90 tab later, we left.

He was outside the whole time. How does this happen?

~~~~~

My company makes the big move next week, into some phenomenal new digs. The building used to be the largest knitting mill in the world, until a big fire. It's been sitting around all decrepit for years, because the textile industry is non-existent in the US. OK, pretty much all industry is gone. We've got the entire second and third floors of a fully-restored factory building. We're talking straight out of an HGTV show. Exposed brick and ventilation ducts, the whole 9 yards. I'll post pictures. Oh, and I get an office! Semi-private, but I actually prefer that. The better to oversee my minions. {rubs hands together and grins evil grin}

~~~~~

OK, that drum routine during the opening ceremony was outstanding.

It freaked Erica out. Gave her visions of Hitler-esque marches or something. Can't say I disagree with her, but still, awesome.

I, for one, welcome our Chinese drumming overlords. They own us already, they just haven't moved in yet.

~~~~~

Olympics

I've suddenly taken an interest in synchronized swimming.

Hot faux-lez Brazilian twins? Sign me the fuck up!

Wait, what year is it again? (part 2)

On ESPN right now, there is a profile of some American chick that's playing for ZOMG RUSSIA's women's basketball team in the Olympics this summer. OK, finally caught her name - Becky Hammon. That sounds familiar. Apparently she plays for the WNBA when that season's on here, then goes to Russia to play for a team in their professional league. She has a citizenship over there too.

The soundbites from the antis are hilarious. Some over-made-up woman with big hair saying "This is bad for her image. She can't be viewed as an All-American girl anymore." Wow. What're the odds that was a pageant mom? 100 to 1? 1000? A former coach (I missed whether it was high school or college) said playing for Russia calls her patriotism into question, another woman calls her a traitor outright. "There's history there!"

OK, Russia is a country now. This ain't your daddy's CCCP ladies. Sure, it's run by a murderous, petty little tyrant (just like the US!), but come on! In the last 15 years, has any of you really thought about Russia the same way you used to in the early 80s? If so, might I ask: "What the hell is wrong with you?" You're 45 years old, you should know better!

This lack of the ability to adapt to new information puzzles me. It's the calling card of a Bush voter, though, I can tell you that much.

UPDATE: Video is available. Not the complete segment, but enough.



Well, no more video. But here's a good link with the full story, and the absolutely pathetic quotes by the Team USA coach.