themusicaddict: Conan O'Brien, what the hell?, Utes, Jazz and my Top 50 Continued: 41 to 39

This is my friend's book, he's drawing attention to a book he has written. Check it out on facebook. Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=304984697029 He describes the book as: "I've written a novel called “Wilderness” which I'm sending out to agents (think "Calvin and Hobbes" written by Neil Gaiman)" He also says "one who friends the group will get any messages from me, they will just be helping a young aspiring novelist." I think that's a worthy cause.

Hello,

Yesterday I wondered about what makes John Mayer so popular with the ladies. I have another question, the cover for the next Rolling Stone is Conan O'Brien, why? I don't get that either. He's not that funny. He's fighting with his old network over a specific kind of bear skit. If you've seen his show you know what I'm talking about. It's just not that funny, he's not that funny. I watched his show a few times over the years and I laughed rarely. In fact I'm surprised he still has a show. He, like John Mayer, is popular without seemingly any rationale.

Here's the cover:

I talked to my female informant about Conan O'Brien's appeal. She says he's "goofy" and "girls like guys that make them laugh". Ok, I get that. But then she surprised me as in a way she finds him "attractive". Um, okay. Again women make no sense to me. Neither does Conan's popularity.

Overall this looks like an extremely lame issue of Rolling Stone. Why are they talking to Bill Gates about Global Warming? Are they next going to talk to Jenna Jameson about acting skills? Are they going to talk to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney about honesty? Come on Rolling Stone! Maybe I should write a whole blog entry about bad article ideas. Other lame articles include one about Lil Wayne, yet another lame over rated rapper. An article about Phoenix, yawn? That's the French band not the American city. Finally an article about the long-time unfunny "Doonesbury" comic strip. Thankfully they do have a review of the new Taylor Swift CD. I won't have to use the whole issue as toilet paper.

The Jazz are in mid-season form, they lost 110-88 to the Denver Nuggets last night in Denver. They start out 0-1 and play another 0-1 team tonight at the Energy Solutions Arena. The winner of this game will have their first victory of the season. I watched about the first quarter of the game, that's about all I could watch. I don't know what it is but I just can't sit down and watch a basketball game straight through anymore. It just doesn't hold my interest like it use to. Of course it doesn't help when the Jazz were clearly out of sync all night.

I'm gearing up for the big Oregon-USC game Saturday night. I'll be cheering for USC because I'm a big fan of theirs, but also they could be knocking off the number 1 team in the nation. A USC victory would help the BCS Bowl chances of TCU, Boise State and my alma mater Utah. However Oregon is a very tough team and as of now are very deserving of the #1 ranking. I watched Oregon destroy UCLA. USC can win but it will be a battle.

From a recent Sports Illustrated, here's some frightening stats about the Oregon offense. First to slow down Oregon's awesome offense, many teams have had players fake injuries and stay on the field. Through the first 5 games of their season, Oregon had 23 of 31 touchdowns take 1:49 or less. Then 12 touchdowns were scored in a minute or less. But the most amazing stat of all is that Oregon scored 31 touchdowns in 5 games. That puts Oregon at 36 points a game just on touchdowns alone. Now add extra points, field goals and any scoring the defense does.

Even though I'm a humongous BYU fan, it will be good seeing the Utes in the Pac 12 next year. I think they'll start out being one of the Top 3 or 4 teams immediately. USC, Oregon and Oregon State are probably going to be tough most years. Stanford and Washington may or may not join their ranks. But as for the rest of the teams, I see mediocrity at best. I think Utah would beat UCLA, Colorado (also joining soon), Washington State and California pretty easily.

Although the Pac-10 is down this year, but that being said Utah is leaving the MWC just in time. If TCU really joins the Big East, that would leave Boise State as the only national football respected team in the MWC. They won't have any national respected basketball teams. Big East conference be careful what you wish for. TCU would give your conference immediate legitimacy (and let's be honest you need it desperately as the Big East is the weakest of all BCS conferences) , but you might get sick of losing to them every year. TCU doesn't just beat teams, they dominate teams. It will be a battle for the ages when TCU invades Utah on November 6th.

Continuing the Top 50:

41) Poison: They are down 28 notches from the first poll, and I have 38 Poison songs on my iTunes. Looking back I'm not sure how they rated so high on my first list. I thought they were a band I really liked, until I listened to their Greatest Hits CD. I then realized they really only have about 5 or 6 great songs. They also have a lot of dreck. They helped themselves when they released a CD of covers: "Poison'd". They picked some very solid covers and perform them well. But when one thinks of Poison, the song most people think of is this one:

Nickelback has a similar themed song as this, except their songs is the much more inferior song titled "Shakin' Hands". This however is the much superior "Fallen Angel".

Here's a couple from "Poison'd". This of course is the David Bowie classic, his best song.

Here's their version of a Rolling Stones classic, "Dead Flowers".

40) Meat Loaf: He moves up 7 notches from my first Top 50, and I have 52 Meat Loaf songs on my iTunes. I've never seen him in concert, but I'd like too. I bet it's a big theatrical show. Meat Loaf has now branched out into acting. I enjoyed his cell phone commercial of a few years ago. It was so over the top it was entertaining.

Here's another one, don't die Meat. He needs his band and back up singers to carry the weight of a lot of the singing. While watching this video I thought ol' Meat was about to have a heart attack.

Here's some anime for you, "Everything Is Louder Than Everything Else":

Is that you Angelina Jolie? "Rock 'n' Roll Dreams Come True":

39) Paramore: They are the fourth debut in my Top 50. I have 34 Paramore songs on my iTunes. Hayley sings these songs with such power and I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to pull it off live. Thankfully I was wrong, she has an amazing voice both live and on CD. She's also got a bit of sass that adds to the band. There's no doubt she's the star of the band, but she does have a solid band behind her.