The Olympics rock!

Hello,

I'm still basking in the moment of a thrilling finish at the Olympics in the 4 X 100 Men's Relay. The USA team beat the field in the 4 X 100 Relay in one of the most amazing finishes I have ever seen. France, their chief competitor, had come into the Olympics saying they were going to "smash" the Americans. In one of the most antcipated finals in this year's Olympics, America just barely touched the wall before France for the gold. If you haven't seen this race yet, go to NBCOlympics.com and watch it, it is amazing. (You may have to add a plug in, but that is very easy.) Not only did America win the gold but they knocked 4 seconds off the world record, which their B team had just set 15 hours earlier. America only beat France by 8/100's of a second. Other news so far Michael Phelps is 3 for 3 in the 8 events in which he is going for gold for. He's going for his fourth gold in prime time tonight.(Maybe France should get one of those invisibility cloaks that I have read so much about it. Be careful not to "smash" the invisibility cloak though. Oh yeah they are not very good at smashing things.)

I will now write about music. Here are some songs for you to check out by the great band The Donnas. They are a rock band of all girls and they rock. The drummer is a turbo and a powerful drummer. I have been fortunate to have seen The Donnas live in concert twice. They kicked butt. My favorite CD of theirs is probably "Spend The Night". If you get one of their CD's I would reccomend that it be that or "Gold Medal". Although "Bitchin" is good as well. Here are 10 songs I would highly reccomend to add to your collection or at least check out. From "Spend The Night" highlights include "It's All On The Rocks", "All Messed Up", "Not The One", "Pass It Around", "Please Don't Tease" and "I Don't Care (So There). From "Gold Medal" the highlights include "Don't Break Me Down" and "The Gold Medal", that is appropriate in an Olympic year. From their newest CD "Bitchin'" highlights include "Bitchin", "Wasted", "Tonights Alright" and "When The Show Is Over".

Some short notes: For those of you David Archuleta fans, his new single "Crush" is now available for purchase at iTunes and I am sure several other online music stores. For frequent readers of my blog (there has to be at least one of you, right?) you know that I was not a big fan of Archuleta on this last season of "American Idol". However I really do like this song.

One of the most anticipated movies of the summer is finally being released tomorrow. It's the Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey movie "Tropic Thunder". It's a parody of war movies. In "Tropic Thunder" Robert Downey plays a black man. His role in this movie earned him the most recent cover in Rolling Stone magazine. Also there is a major star making a surprise appearance in the movie. If you don't know who it is, I am not going to spoil it for you. I also have read you want to be in the theatre for the movie previews. Anyway the movie is out tomorrow. This movie is either going to be a great and hilarious movie or it is going to be a horrible disaster. I can't wait to see which.

Speaking of movies "Twilight" is coming out on December 12th. I have been a big fan of the books, but I am a little wary of the movie. Some of the actors who are playing the main characters look totally different than I expected and not for the good. Some of the main characters are suppose to be vampires and werewolves and some of these actors appear very wimpy. In spite of my wariness I plan on seeing the movie. I finished reading the third of the Twilight novels last night "Eclipse" and immeadiately started reading the fourth and last of the series, "Breaking Dawn". I have read the first 100 pages of that so far and I am enjoying it very much. The author, Stephenie Meyer, is a very good and enjoyable writer. Although on these books I think you will really like them or will not be interested.

As I previously mentioned I am going to be seeing Sheryl Crow in concert. She will be in concert two weeks ago from last night. I have listened to her new CD "Detours" and I think it is fantastic. There are a lot of songs dealing with her relationship with Lance Armstrong, apparantally a bitter breakup. There are a couple of songs on there that she could have left out, but over all "Detours" is pretty good CD.

I checked out her website and it is sort of lame. I was looking for her concert setlist and I wasn't pleased by its brevity. She usually sings between 17 to 19 songs at each concert, I guess that is not terrible. That being said I am really looking forward to seeing her in concert. At some shows she is singing with James Blunt on "The First Cut Is The Deepest" and at other shows she is singing with Toots Maytal. She also has an official youtube.com channel which has 19 videos of her live in performance. Along with her hits she also sings Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" and Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine". (She really rocks out on both. A girl after my own heart.) That makes me want to see her even more in concert.

For this concert she does have two opeining acts which I think is a bit excessive. One of the opening acts is James Blunt who sings one of my favorite all-time songs, "You're Beautiful". I think you probably know enough about him. The other opening act seems a bit out of place, they are Toots and the Maytals. So I won't be completely surprised by them I have been listening to them on Rhapsody. (Thanks Rhapsody!) Toots and the Maytals are currently touring behind a greatest hits set titled "Pressure Drop: The Definitive Collection". Rhapsody calls their music "Rock Steady". It is a more upbeat, almost danceable reggae mix. So they should be an enjoyable opening act as long as they don't overstay their welcome.

I will not be back again until Friday, currently I am working a lot of hours at my job. However Friday I have the day off. I am looking for things to write about for that day. Maybe a review of "Tropic Thunder" or Breaking Dawn". I probably will be reccomending some music from goombah.com. Have a good week. Even if you are not a sports fan I would highly reccomend you check out the Olympics, they are enjoyable. You never know when you will see history being made. themusicaddict