Getting "Lost" in 2011, Evangaline Lilly's glorious strand of hair

Hello,

Thanks to a very generous brother and sister-in-law I now have a relatively new MacBook at my disposal. My brother bought a new hard drive for me, as the new computer's hard drive didn't hold all the music from my previous laptop. I'm so glad I have a laptop back at work. As long as I stay on top of all the work I have to do at my job, it's pretty slow. That's the way it is today, very slow. With my new computer I've been adding a bunch of new songs to my iTunes. Most of those songs are free. Both amazon.com and iTunes are very liberal in giving away music, especially amazon.com. I'm grateful because that's usually the way I find new music. I can't tolerate listening to radio anymore. So thanks again to all those that helped me with my new computer.

Sunday I started watching "Lost" from the first episode. Other than a few brief moments, I never watched this show when it was originally on. Yes I know that the TV series "Lost" started in 2004. I live in Utah, so forgive me for being 7 years behind the curb. I didn't get into "Lost" back then as honestly the show seemed kind of stupid. I also hated how far apart the episodes were. It seems like ABC played games when they were going to show it. It seemed like business decisions trumped artistic decisions. I briefly watched a few seconds of the show and I just wasn't impressed. I didn't see any reason in watching it, that wasn't even an after thought. However the other day I was at the library, one of my favorite places in the world, and they had the complete Season 1 DVD's available to be checked out. I thought to myself what the heck and checked it out.

The last two nights I've watched the first and second episodes of Season 1. So far I've been very impressed. Unlike some recent TV shows that hinted there would be excitement coming in the next few episodes, this show delivers excitement from the very first episode. The survivors crash and they don't have much time to rest until they realize they aren't the only ones on the island. They also realize that the other creatures may not be friendly. While watching the first two episodes the same word keeps on coming to my mind: spooky. I love how the atmosphere of the show is slowly built.

I watched Season 1, Episode 2 last night. There are so many cool parts about this episode. One of the biggest stars of this series is uncredited, the exquisite strand of hair hanging off of Evangaline Lilly's head. That's received more airtime than many of the other characters. Of course it doesn't hurt that she's a gorgeous woman. I wonder if that strand of hair has a publicist. Was it able to find work once "Lost" ended?

I also like how rush decisions we make everyday is flipped on it's side. Just because one has a certain expectation for someone else, doesn't mean that viewpoint is correct. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, people are like a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get. For instance, the viewer thinks they know all they need to about Sawyer and Sayid. They are having a fistfight, seemingly caused by Sawyer. The fight is breaking up when Sawyer accuses Sayid of possibly being a terrorist and bringing down the plane. Sawyer's opinion is based on scant evidence but still he think he knows all about Sayid. To make things worse, he picks a course of action on his limited information and racism.

Later Hurley goes over and talks to Sayid. Hurley is giving Sayid the benefit of the doubt as he realizes he also knows very little about Sayid. Sayid informs him that he fought in Desert Storm. Hurley had a friend who fought in the same conflict and hew wonders which arm of the service Sayid fought in. Hurley being an open minded guy asks him which American armed services he fought it. Sayid tells him that he fought in the Republican Guard, which obviously was the elite fighting force for Saddam Hussein. Sawyer would take great comfort in this knowledge, probably having a told you so look on his face. However we don't know anything about Fayid's service in the Republican Guard. How committed was he to Hussein? Did he fight as a willing participant or did he not have a choice? The creative people behind this show seem to be telling us to be careful about making decisions about other people. Then of course Fayid could also be lying, maybe he was actually an Al Queda operative.

Also Kate Austen looks like the girl next door. She does nothing to show anything different in the first 1.5 episodes of this series. Then in a flashback we see that Kate was being transported back to America with a Federal Marshall. We don't learn anymore what she did, but it could be anything. Again with her wearing handcuffs one would presume that she committed a fairly serious crime. However we don't know what she has been charged with. And even if we did, that doesn't mean she's guilty. There are so many possibilities at play here.

All the above mentioned people at least speak English. But what is going on with the character, Jin Soo-Kwan? Who is that woman he's traveling with? Is that his wife, his servant or possibly a sister. Exactly what is their relationship? He obviously feels protective to the woman, is that out of love or ownership though? Also does he really know English and is just pretending he doesn't. What is that "food" that he got out of the ocean? I'd be like Hurley and say I'm not that hungry. The actor that plays Soo-Kwan is Daniel Dae Kim. Again I didn't watch much of "Lost" when it was previously on the air, so I know very little about Soo-Kwan's character. However I do know about his character on "Hawaii Five-0", he's a very cool character. I'm hoping that the "Lost" character he plays becomes a cool character.

Other random questions are there people on the plane that were planted there for some devious purpose? Did they possibly help bring down the plane? How far does this situation go?

What is going on with the broken transceiver? it seems to be jammed by another distress call. I love how the message keeps on repeating over and over again. The message is about 30 seconds long and is spoken in French. Following the distress call an automated voice states what iteration that message is. Sayid calculates in his mind that this message has been repeating for over 16 years. That's spooky for two reasons. One, it seems that person was never rescued, what happened to her? Also with all the creatures on the island what kind of chances do those people have of getting off the island alive. They certainly didn't land on Gilligan's Island. I also think that's there's more going on that just a distress call, meaning is that even a legitimate distress call. If it's a fake distress call, what better way to block a real distress call.

Also what was the monster that pulled the airline pilot (shout out to Judd from "Love Bites") out of the cabin of the broken up plane? We later encounter a polar bear, was the earlier creature a bigger polar bear or was it something else? What exactly is a polar bear doing in such a tropical environment? Not that I know anything about bears, but I always thought polar bears were considered to be a relatively gentle animal.

I like how we are finding out a little bit about each character via the brief flashbacks right before the plane crashes. Although this doesn't tell us a lot and it might be used as a way to misdirect us. This show so far has been very intense, great storytelling, good acting and a lot of gorgeous female bodies in very little clothing. You can always tell when a man is behind is behind a TV series.

I look forward to watching the rest of the series over the next couple of years as seasons continue to be available at the library. I've heard things about hatches, smoke monsters, the others and many other things. I'm looking forward to all these things, how will develop and what they have to do with the larger "Lost" mythology.

Random things: I saw a print ad for the TV series "Alphas" recently. The tag line is "Impossible Is What They Do Best". The tag line should read boredom is what they do best. Or stupidity or many other non complimentary words. Seriously that's an atrocious show, everything in it feels low budget. From the lame actors to the absolutely boring stories. You would like this show if "The Event" was too exciting for you. One of the worst TV series of recent years. Also the answer to the trivia question, what is a worse show than "The Event". At least with "The Event" I watched a few episodes before giving up on it. Stay far away from "Alphas" even if you are related to the cast members. You don't want to have that bad memory of your relatives.

For some reason "Men In Black 3" is being made. It's looking like next year will be another craptastic year for movies. Be sure to avoid the theaters on May 25th, 2012.

Alright here's some great songs for your entertainment:

The other day I mentioned how Neneh Cherry's "Raw Like Sushi" is one of the greatest debut CDs ever. Another one of the greatest debut CDs ever is Joan Osborne's "Relish". THe most famous song off of that CD is "One of Us". While that is a good song, there are many other great songs on this CD. I love the very bluesy feeling of this CD.

This is one of my favorite songs from "Relish":



Annie's incredibly catchy "Me Plus One":



The Dixie Chicks "Goodbye Earl":



themusicaddict

Greatest Hits 2

Hello,

I'm still in the process of changing to a new computer, so I'm using the folks computer. So for today's blog I'm just going to have a bunch more greatest hits. I have my kids this weekend so I don't know how much time I will find to write blogs until this weekend is over. Enjoy these greatest hits.

A song that helped me get through my divorce, a song that can help with any break up.



I told you yesterday that I love the Smiths.



Since I'm going to go see Taylor Swift in concert soon, the videos I pick will skew towards some of her songs. I'm starting off with this song that is just awful ad I hope I never have to hear it again.



Now here are a couple of Taylor's many great songs:



and this very sweet song:



I'm not sure what deal Tenacious D made with the devil to come up with this great song, but this is their only good song. I absolutely love this song. It always surprises me how well Jack Black can sing.



This song is a bit obscure, but such a great song.



I love many songs by the Beastie Boys but this may be my favorite:



In spite of their recent crappy CD, the Arctic Monkeys have made a lot of good songs. Here one of them:



How about some Rush?



themusicaddict

Steve Jobs, Greatest Hits

Hello,

Yesterday it was announced that one of the best ever business minds, Steve Jobs, would be stepping down effectively immediately as the CEO of Apple. I use the products that be was behind every day of my life. I'm not going into a list of all the amazing things he has done. I'd just like to talk about iTunes and the iPod. Digital music gets a bad reputation for not having high quality sound. I've never been an audiophile, but I love hearing music on my iPod. The sound is crystal clear and brings out many nuances of songs I've heard hundreds of times before. Just this morning I heard something from a song I had never heard before. I usually listen to iTunes about 10-15 hours a day, I love everything about it. I love the playlists, love being able to buy music from the iTunes store without leaving my bedroom, how it keeps track of counts of my listens etc. Not only that but two of my kids get their music from my iTunes.

While Apple or Steve Jobs isn't saying too much about his health, which is no surprise, I'm fearful of the worst. I'm not trying to be an alarmist but with Steve Jobs stepping down, I'm more than a little nervous about his long term prognosis. Also with the very secretive Jobs authorizing a biography, I think Jobs wants to secure his legacy. He will still be on Apple's Board of Directors. Even if he's never going to be behind another great Apple product, his vision has lead to some of the favorite things in my life.

Thanks Steve and Apple! Yes, I realize that many people think both of those are the same thing, but they aren't. Steve thanks for yours and Steve Wozniak's vision in starting Apple in a garage. Steve you'll be in my prayers to live a long and healthy life. I hope you and your wife grow old together and at least you'll be able to raise your kids until they are old enough to go out on their own.

Thanks to the generosity of my brother and sister-in-law I'll be without my laptop at work today. They are passing on a new to me laptop. Thanks J & L!! I just wanted to write up a quick blog writing about Steve Jobs. I also want to include videos for some of the greatest hits of all time.

While exercising this song came on my iPod and it made me think of Steve Jobs and the trials he and his family are going through. I dedicate this to Steve Jobs. Thanks again Steve. This is just an amazing, beautiful and poignant song.



Whatever happened to this band, I love this song!



Can anyone ever argue the absolute greatness of this song?



I remember this song playing as we drove to the hospital for the birth of our daughter. It's also an amazing song. Nelly Furtado rules! I dedicate this song to my daughter. I love you!



This is from one of the greatest debut CD's ever, "Raw Like Sushi". Neneh Cherry's amazing "Buffalo Stance":



Oh man do I love the Smiths and this amazing song. Why didn't my brother get me into this band back in the day. Although when I was a teenager I really didn't understand this kind of music, so it's not his fault.



Could the Commodores do anything wrong in the 70's. One of their many great songs from that decade. Again this is such a beautiful song. If this song doesn't move you, you are dead.



This isn't the most obvious Billy Idol song, but this might be my favorite of his songs:



Alas I've run out of time. I also wanted to include The Police's "Synchronicity 2", "Today 4U" from "Rent", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", Paula Abdul's "Straight Up", Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" and "Romeo and Juliet".

Have a great day, themusicaddict

Free Spotify Invites, The Greatness of Sinead O'Connor

Hello,

After some fairly heavy sports blog entries lately I realized I should resume writing about music. After all I am themusicaddict. However I do love sports and reading, so those things will continue to pop up on this blog. Occasionally there will be some personal things as well, although I try to limit those.

This morning I went on Spotify to listen to the new CD by the Pistol Annies. I had a message from Spotify waiting for me. They've selected me to give out Spotify invites. (Although I expect every other regular user of Spotify received a similar opportunity.) I figure those that really want Spotify already have it. However if you don't have Spotify and would like it, just leave a comment on my blog. All I need is your e-mail address and I will send you an invite, there's no quid pro quo. It seems I can send out an unlimited amount of invites.

After about a month of having Spotify, I still like it a lot. I finally cancelled my napster membership yesterday. I was sad about that as at $5.00 it has been a good value. However there's no better value than free. Spotify has about 15 million songs, so it's rare when I can't find the songs I'm looking for on their site. I've only remember two instances of not finding the music I want. When I wrote my blog about Bob Dylan, Spotify had a very limited selection of his music. The second time was when I read about a mid 80's all female metal band called Precious Metal. Spin magazine highly recommended their 1985 CD. It may or may not be called "What You See Is What You Get" and Spotify didn't have it. napster.com didn't have any of their music either. However they do have a myspace.com page and have several videos on youtube.com. Did any of you hear of Precious Metal back in the day? Their name or none of their songs sound familiar to me.

Here's a quick review of some bands I've listened to lately on Spotify. These bands and singers come highly recommended. Chances of listening to again (Cola) follow each opinion.

I'll first start off with the Pistol Annies. I don't know a lot about this band other than Miranda Lambert is in it. I love Miranda Lambert, but these songs sounds like Miranda Lambert. It makes me wonder why not just do another Miranda Lambert solo CD. I do like the song "Hell On Heels" though. Cola: 10%

Airborne Toxic Event: First of all I thought this would be a rock or heavy metal band. Imagine my surprise when I found out they weren't. Not only are they not rock, but they also aren't very good. They sound a lot like Wilco and that's not a compliment. Cola: 5%

Anna Calvi, she had a couple of moments of good music. But it wasn't enough for the hype some publications are giving her. Although she's still young and may get better over time. Cola: 50%.

Skyler Grey, she has sung on some fairly famous songs. Spotify only has two of her solo songs available now. That's not a representative sample, but neither song was that impressive. I will give her another chance when Spotify has more of her music. Cola: 50%.

Taking Back Sunday is generic rock. Cola: 20%.

Wild Flag, which features two members from Sleater-Kinney is okay. Although they have solid rock cred, their music is disappointingly wimpy. Cola: 25%.

Joy Formidable are the best of the bands I listened to recently. They've got a strong rock vibe. They sound a lot like Silversun Pickups, that's a compliment. Cola: 100%

Although they aren't a new band, Precious Metal has some nice moments. They have such cool songs as "Sweet Sweet", "Trouble" and their rocking version of "Mr. Big Stuff". Cola: 95%

Great songs. I first heard this song sung by Lauren Alaina on "American Idol". The song is originally sung by The Band Perry. Here's "If I Die Young":



A little over a month from today I'll be going to see Taylor Swift in concert in Salt Lake City with two of my kids. One of the songs from her recent "Speak Now" CD is "Haunted". It's a song she sang in Denver, so hopefully she'll sing it in Salt Lake City. This is a very cool song that I really like. I'm glad that Taylor is branching out from the pretty limited country genre. This song was recently featured on "True Blood". "Haunted" seems a very good fit with it's Evanescenceish feel:



I really like this song, it's Every Avenue's "Tell Me I'm A Wreck":



Sinead O'Connor is a very interesting person, recently she's completely changed her look. That doesn't take anything away from her amazing singing voice and all the great songs she sings. Enjoy this very literal video for "Red Football":



"Troy":



Sinead O'Connor wrote many angry songs, this is one of her angriest. "Black Boys On Mopeds" is such an amazing song:



If you are trying to explain what catharsis is to someone, show them this video. This is Sinead's very therapeutic, catharsic (okay I made up a new word, if Sarah Palin can do it so can I :) , end of relationship song "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance":



A couple more from Sinead, "The Emperor's New Clothes":



I even love her take on the standard "Success Has Made A Failure of Our Home":



Sinead drops the F bomb in the following song a couple of times, this song is great but not for delicate ears. "Daddy I'm Fine":



Of all the starts of songs this is one of my favorites, I love how the singer starts off with the line I believe in miracles. Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing".



Another song that has an amazing beginning and overall is a great song. The Cure's "Just Like Heaven":



This is one of the most bizarre videos. It was the 80's so what do you expect? Men Without Hats "Safety Dance":



Last but not least a much more recent great song:



themusicaddict

USC Trojans Football Preview

Hello,

Today I'm previewing USC's 2011 football schedule. These blogs are so time consuming, this will probably be my last college football preview. I will be previewing the Dallas Cowboys probably soon. I will also do skeleton previews for the Bucs and 49ers. I'm excited to see how Josh Freeman will do this year, I'm expecting a big season from him this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see him with a Pro Bowl year.

This is USC's schedule.

Sat, Sept 3 vs Minnesota 3:30 PM ET ABC ESPN2
Sat, Sept 10 vs Utah 7:30 PM ET Versus
Sat, Sept 17 vs Syracuse 8:00 PM ET FX
Sat, Sept 24 @ Arizona State 10:15 PM ET
Sat, Oct 1 vs Arizona TBD
Thu, Oct 13 @ California 9:00 PM ET ESPN ESPN3.com
Sat, Oct 22 @ #16 Notre Dame 7:30 PM ET NBC
Sat, Oct 29 vs #7 Stanford 8:00 PM ET ABC
Fri, Nov 4 @ Colorado 9:00 PM ET ESPN2 ESPN3.com
Sat, Nov 12 vs Washington 3:30 PM ET
Sat, Nov 19 @ #3 Oregon 8:00 PM ET ABC
Sat, Nov 26 vs UCLA 10:00 PM ET

The Pac 10 added Utah and Colorado, both of whom are playing their first season in the now Pac 12. The conference was split into two divisions. The North Division has the California Golden Bears • Oregon Ducks • Oregon State Beavers • Stanford Cardinal • Washington Huskies • Washington State Cougars. The South Division has the Arizona Wildcats • Arizona State Sun Devils • Colorado Buffaloes • UCLA Bruins • USC Trojans • Utah Utes.

The first Pac 12 Conference Championship will be held on December 2nd. It will be played between the winners of the North and South divisions, "with the team with the best overall conference record as host to the event". (Thanks to wikipedia.org). With USC on probation they aren't eligible for the Pac 12 Championship Game or a bowl game this season. If the Utah Utes don't play in the first Pac 12 Championship that would be a major disappointment. With USC not allowed to play, Utah should be the cream of the South division.

USC plays in the Pac 12's South Division and will play all other 5 teams in their division. They also play 4 teams in the North Division, including the powerhouse Stanford Cardinal and Oregon Ducks. As usual USC plays an elite schedule. They also play preseason ranked #16 Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. I predict that the Fighting Irish will be over ranked as usual. I think at best Notre Dame is the 4th toughest team USC will play this season.

USC is dealing with a suspension because of issues stemming from Reggie Bush's time at USC. In spite of that they still have a lot of talent. USC will still be trying to win every game of course. But since they aren't playing for the BCS National Championship, their next goal is to probably derail other teams national title hopes. Also the Trojans can still be the AP National Champion. If they win all their games, they'll be hard to deny for the AP title. Even though I expect a good season from USC, it seems their biggest weakness is head coach Lane Kiffin. I don't have a lot of confidence in him nor do I trust him much.

USC plays their first three games of the season at home, in the Coliseum. This gives USC a solid shot to start off the season 3-0. Their first game is against mid-tier Big 10 team Minnesota. With Matt Barkley, freshman Marqise Lee and Robert Woods starring for the Trojans I don't see USC losing this game. Next they play the Utah Utes, this will be the Utes first Pac 12 game. Starting on the road in the Pac 12 is very scary, although the Pac 12 isn't the strongest conference in the nation. This will be a very interesting game as either team can win this game. USC will be playing for pride, how long does that sustain you? The Utes will be playing for respect to show they belong in the Pac 12. They definitely do and I predict Utah will show that this season.

Then USC closes out their 3 game home stand by playing the Orangemen of Syracuse. Syracuse plays in the Little East conference. That's a ridiculous conference that for some reason still has an automatic BCS bid. They still have that BCS bid in spite of their conference's mediocrity. TCU joins the Little East next year and I predict they'll dominate the conference for at least the next several years. If USC is playing at full efficiency they will dominate Syracuse. At worst USC will be 2-1 after their first three games.

For their next three games USC plays three mid-tier Pac 12 teams. They play at Arizona State on September 24th. Next they play back at home on October 1st vs. Arizona. Then the Trojans have a bye before going to play at Cal on Thursday, October 13th. USC traditionally suffers an upset each year against one of the lesser teams of this conference. It's possible that USC will lose one of these games. Although again if USC is firing on all cylinders I expect they will win all these games by double digits. I project USC to be 5-1 at this point.

After playing traditional rival Cal, USC goes and plays another traditional rival on the road. They play Notre Dame on Saturday, October 22nd. Although Notre Dame is starting off as #16 in the preseason, I expect by this point we'll see that the emperor has no clothes. Once exposed the Irish will be playing mainly for pride and a mediocre bowl game. Notre Dame's last good season was in 2006 when they finished 10-3. They were blown out in their bowl game that year though, LSU destroyed them 41-14. In fact, before Notre Dame won their last two bowl games, they had lost their previous 9 bowl games. Including their 2006 season, Notre Dame is only 34-29 over the last 5 seasons. USC should be playing well at this point and the Irish will want to knock them off. However I predict USC will prevail to move to 6-1 on the season.

USC returns home on October 29th to play #7 ranked Stanford. (If you're wondering Stanford plays Oregon on November 12th.) Stanford returns stud quarterback Andrew Luck, many people project him as the #1 pick in the next NFL Draft. (Dallas Cowboys you aren't going to be a very good team this year anyway, can you lose enough games to get that #1 overall pick?) He also has a solid chance to win the Heisman. From everything I've read he deserves his high reputation very much. USC could win this game, but I don't see it happening. USC will fall to a still very solid 6-2 record.

USC then finishes out both their regular and overall season by playing 3 mediocre or less Pac 12 teams. They also have to play a very tough game in that 4 game stretch. November 4th they travel to Colorado to play the Buffaloes. Their mascot is appropriate as they buffaloed the Pac 12 by being invited into this conference. Let's be honest teams are mainly invited for their athletic success, but when is the last time Colorado truly had athletic success? It's been over a decade! USC fully deserves their Pac 12 membership and will be 7-2 after this game.

On Saturday, November 12th USC will host Washington. This will be a battle of Pete Carrol disciples. Both head coaches Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin were assistant coaches under Carrol. Washington always plays well against USC, having won a couple of games over the last few years. I'm giving USC the edge here simply because they are playing at home, although Washington won at the Coliseum last season 32-31. There were questionable decisions made by Lane Kiffin. Kiffin ended the game with 3 time outs still at his disposal. Even if he wanted to let the clock run, couldn't he have called at least one time out to freeze the Washington kicker? I have a feeling that USC will lose at least one game due to Kiffin's poor decision making. I'll try not to think about it.

Then on November 19th they play at Oregon and I think this will be another loss for the Trojans. Oregon's explosive offense is very frightening. USC will now be 8-3. They'll then return home to play and beat UCLA to end their season at 9-3. I think that game will be Rick Neuheisal's final game at UCLA. (Thanks to wikipedia.org which I used liberally in writing this blog. Also thanks to youtube.com to watch the end of the USC-Washington 2010 game.)

9-3 isn't a terrible record, but it is for USC. Maybe USC will just have to settle for a rebuilding season in preparation for when they come off of suspension. Hopefully in a couple of seasons they'll challenge for a national title again.

themusicaddict

Final update for the song from "Blue Bloods" episode "After Hours", 3D movie sales continue to tank

Hello,

I've had people ask me many times about the song from the "Blue Bloods" episode "After Hours". Thus I've followed up on it. However this will be the last time I follow up on it. Out of the hundreds of things I've written about on this blog, the most visited blog entries have been the songs on the "Blue Bloods" episode December 3rd, 2011. After much research by me and others it was determined the name of one of the songs was "We're Going Out Tonight". It is sung by Jimmy Marsh. Despite the massive exposure the song received, it is still relatively obscure.

I also received questions about other songs that appear later in the show. Thanks to Comcast On Demand, I was finally able to watch that episode again last night. From what I can tell there were three additional songs played in the "After Hours" episode.

1) From what I could tell the lyrics were something like "can't get the best of me, run like you've never seen, whole city...." Usually on google.com one can find almost any song if all they do is put a line of the lyric from the song. I googled the above lyrics. I even broke up the lyrics, but still wasn't able to find anything that told me the names of these songs.

2) The second song had lyrics that sounded like "bouncing on the walls, move like I do". The lyric also could be "bouncing off the walls". But again I couldn't find any songs matching the lyrics. Both searches brought up songs with similar sets of words, but neither were the songs played on "After Hours".

3) The last song that played on that episode I didn't have to google, it's a classic by the Commodores. It's the absolutely great "Brick House". The version playing in the background seemed to be a dance mix of "Brick House". As the Commodores sing "36-24-36 what a winning hand". Here's the original:



Thankfully the greedy and lame 3D technology continues to fall out of favor with the general public. From ew.com today about this weekend's box office results:

"After those two holdovers ("The Help", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"), the rest of the box office looks pretty grim, as all four new releases debuted to awful numbers. Notably, three of these new releases — Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, Conan the Barbarian, and Fright Night — were released in 3-D. In fact, every movie from third to seventh place at the box office is a 3-D release, and of those five films, only The Smurfs is really doing well." (BTW the 4D smellorama gimmick thing was stupid. There are 8 places in the movie where the audience is suppose to scratch a card and it will produce a smell that goes with the scene being shown. As you would expect that didn't work at all. All the smells on the card smelled the same.)

"These three box office disappointments beg the question: Did the fact that they were released in 3-D actually cause them to do worse business? We’ll never be able to know for sure, but it’s clear that 3-D is not currently thriving like it used to.

The 3-D format proved exciting and fresh to audiences when it first resurged in 2008 and 2009, helping movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and Avatar find success, but audiences have recently exhibited a preference against the technology, which jacks up ticket prices (and, according to many, worsens the moviegoing experience) substantially. Despite a higher availability of 3-D venues versus two years, grosses from 3-D theaters have been down this summer, and I have to wonder whether movies like Conan, Spy Kids, and Fright Night would actually have earned more if they hadn’t been associated with 3-D at all. Thoughts? Either way, between the weak 3-D performances this weekend and the underwhelming opening of Glee: The 3D Concert Movie last weekend, I wonder whether Hollywood will take a good, long look at whether they really want to commit more dollars to a technology that seems increasingly unpopular."

Dallas Cowboys update: The Boys played their second preseason game yesterday and lost to San Diego 20-7. Since it's the preseason I'm not overly concerned. However I see no reason to raise my expectations for Dallas's season and Tony Romo's performance this season. He played three possessions last night and was solid. Romo completed 8 of 12 passes, I'd be very happy with that completion percentage during the regular season. After all not all incomplete passes are the quarterback's fault. Receivers do drop passes and occaisonally quarterbacks need to throw the ball away. However in a steady performance Romo did have one bad Romo like moment from the past. His only interception was when he threw into triple coverage. Triple coverage? What's the best case scenario in that situation? What's the worst case scenario and what is more likely to happen? The main thing that drives me crazy about Romo is his sometimes poor decision making process. At that point he should have thrown the ball away and live to fight another day.

As much as I'm excited about the Jake Heaps era at BYU, I dread the last few years of the Tony Romo era at Dallas. For me Dallas can't get rid of Romo quick enough. I will continue to use my blog as a way to encourage Dallas to move forward with a new quarterback. I sort of expected that Dallas would end up with Terelle Pryor in today's supplemental draft.

themusicaddict

BYU 2011 football Preview,

Hello,

This is BYU's football schedule for 2011. After the bowl game I predict BYU finishes the season at 9-4. This will be a solid rebuilding season for BYU. Although if you have tickets to any of their home games you may want to think about skipping a few of those games. Other than Utah, BYU has a horrendous home schedule.

Sat, Sept 3 @ Ole Miss 4:45 PM ET ESPN ESPN3.com
Sat, Sept 10 @ Texas 7:00 PM ET ESPN2 ESPN3.com
Sat, Sept 17 vs Utah 9:15 PM ET ESPN2 ESPN3.com
Fri, Sept 23 vs UCF 8:00 PM ET ESPN ESPN3.com
Fri, Sept 30 vs Utah State 8:00 PM ET ESPN ESPN3.com
Sat, Oct 8 vs San Jose State TBD
Sat, Oct 15 @ Oregon State TBD
Sat, Oct 22 vs Idaho State 3:00 PM ET
Fri, Oct 28 @ #14 TCU 8:00 PM ET ESPN ESPN3.com
Sat, Nov 12 vs Idaho TBD
Sat, Nov 19 vs New Mexico State TBD
Sat, Dec 3 @ Hawaii 7:30 PM ET ESPN2 ESPN3.com

Obviously we'll find out a lot about how good BYU is in their first four games. In those first 4 games they play some very good teams. In their final 8 games they only play 3 decent teams: Oregon State, TCU and Hawaii. All three of those games are on the road. Again BYU has a terrible home schedule this year. Other than Utah and maybe UCF, the rest of their home schedule are cream puffs. A lot of that has to do with BYU being an independent, which means they don't have a conference schedule. With them only knowing they would be independent when most of the schedules were set, BYU had to scramble for any team that would play them. Thus the astonishingly bad schedule. Things should be better going into future seasons though.

BYU starts off their season playing in Oxford, Mississippi. They play the SEC team Ole Miss. Yes they are a SEC team, but traditionally a bottom dweller in the SEC. They Rebels are the Washington State of the SEC. Although BYU should expect more of a challenge from Ole Miss than Utah should expect from Washington State. This game could go either way, it's too close to call now. BYU will probably be better at the end of the season. With this being the first game of the season and BYU playing on the road BYU could lose this game. Next the Cougars play again on the road. On September 10th BYU plays Big 12 powerhouse Texas. Texas is coming off a terrible year by their standards. Head coach Mack Brown is anxious to show last season was an anomaly. Again at this time of the year we know so very little about these two teams. Who knows how they will play when the games actually mean something.

BYU returns to Lavell Edwards Stadium on Sept 17th to play traditional rival Utah. I hate this game being played so early in the season. This game usually is such a great way to end the season. It seems with Utah's scrimmage this past Saturday, their offense really looked good. Both quarterbacks were lights out for Utah. With Coach Whittingham in charge of the defense, it should always be at least solid. Yes, I know BYU alumnus Kalani Sitake is Utah's defensive coordinator, but the defense is Coach Whit's baby. On Sept 23rd BYU plays again at Lavell Edwards Stadium and will host UCF. Up to this point all four of their games could go either way. Sticking with the 50-50 theme I'm predicting BYU will be 2-2 after their first four games of the season.

On Friday, September 30th BYU plays their third straight home game. They play the Aggies of Utah State. If BYU doesn't win this game by more than 28 points they should be ashamed. BYU should be in regular season form by this point. They are playing a team that usually is mediocre at best. At this point of the season USU is usually looking forward to basketball season. BYU has the revenge factor working in their favor, USU beat BYU 31-16 last yet. The only question about this game is when will Coach Mendenhall call off the dogs. Losing to USU was probably the low light of BYU's tumultuous year last year. BYU wins this season's game easily and will be 3-2 at this point.

After demolishing San Jose State on October 8th, BYU will be 4-2. San Jose State had one of their worst seasons ever last year. It's better for BYU to be independent than playing in the ridiculous MWC. For instance, BYU will get $7 million per season rather than 1.3 million they would have got from the MTN. This is where BYU not playing in a conference really hurts them. They have to settle for a game against anybody, no matter how awful they are. The next week BYU goes to play Oregon State, again playing games where either team could win. To be safe I'm projecting BYU will lose to the Beavers and fall to 4-3. BYU next plays another cream puff on October 22nd when they play the Vandals in Provo. The Vandals, please what a misleading name. At this point I would mock Idaho's football tradition, if they had any.

Next BYU goes to Cowboys Stadium to play their old nemesis TCU. (I'm hoping that neither one of these quarterbacks has a better game than Tony Romo does in this building.) Not only does TCU usually dominate BYU, they usually dominate everybody. Although the game is played at an alleged neutral field, it will essentially be a home game for TCU. Usually TCU doesn't need that advantage or any other advantage. I predict TCU beats BYU again (sigh). But I'll feel really good about BYU if they can at least keep it close. BYU will now be 5-4.

The Cougars close out their pathetic home record with two more games against less than frightening opponents. BYU could score a combined total of 100 points in these two games and should win both easily. BYU should improve to 7-4, at the worst. BYU closes out on the road on December 3rd as they visit Hawaii. I won't care what the records of these two teams will be at this point as the Warriors always get fired up for this game. BYU has suffered many defeats on the islands. I predict BYU will find a way to beat Hawaii this season though and finish their regular season at 8-4. Then like last year BYU will play an over matched team in a lame bowl game. They will finish the season around 9-4. A record better than that will be gravy. A record worse than that and rumors will start about how Bronco Mendenhall's job will be in danger. Whether it actually would be is questionable though.

Tomorrow a review of USC's football season.

themusicaddict

"Spy Kids", BYU & U. of U. football

Hello,

I went with some of my kids to see "Spy Kids: All The Time In The World". I wasn't expecting much from this movie, we purposely didn't see it in 3D. 3D is the Scotty McDreary of films, its a one trick pony. Once I've seen 3D once that's enough for me. It's cool the first time but then it quickly follows the law of diminishing returns. How was the movie overall you wonder? I actually thought it was half-decent. I liked both the special effects and the characters. Even if it weren't for those things Jessica Alba is in the movie. She's one of the hottest women in Hollywood. I read a comment from her saying after she had her babies, her body is never going to be same. That may be true, but that doesn't make her any less attractive.

I'm a big BYU fan but graduated from the University of Utah. That means that I cheer for both teams unless they play each other. Then I'm cheering on the Cougars. I'm disappointed that the Utes and Cougars play so early in the year.

Two weeks from yesterday BYU takes the field in Oxford, Mississippi for a college football game. I can't tell you how ready I am for some football. I expect a 8 or 9 win season from BYU and a lot of growth from quarterback Jake Heaps. I love that BYU has a veteran offensive line, that's always such a huge component of football success.

The University of Utah Utes (Dearest Miami Hurricanes the University of Utah is really the U!) should have a great season. A lot of Ute fans are excited by their first season in the Pac 12. I agree that's exciting, but they are still playing a lot of either mediocre or bad teams. Here's their schedule:

Thu, Sept 1 Montana State 8:00 PM ET
Sat, Sept 10 @ #25 USC 7:30 PM ET Versus
Sat, Sept 17 @ Brigham Young 9:15 PM ET ESPN2 ESPN3.com
Sat, Oct 1 vs Washington TBD
Sat, Oct 8 vs Arizona State TBD
Sat, Oct 15 @ Pittsburgh TBD
Sat, Oct 22 @ California TBD
Sat, Oct 29 vs Oregon State TBD
Sat, Nov 5 @ Arizona TBD
Sat, Nov 12 vs UCLA TBD
Sat, Nov 19 @ Washington State TBD
Fri, Nov 25 vs Colorado 3:30 PM ET

The Utes start off at home with Montana State, that's essentially a guaranteed victory. It's more of a practice or scrimmage than a game. Next the Utes go on the road to play USC, as you can see they are ranked #25 in the nation. USC is still on probation and can't play in a bowl game this season. That means their regular season games will be even more important. If USC can win all their regular season games they could be the AP National Champs. The AP is independent of the bogus BCS. It's hard to tell what kind of team USC is going to be. As usual they have a bunch of young studs. But will those young studs play to their potential or will they under perform? Junior qb Matt Barkley has started two seasons already for USC. With a good game against Utah, Barkley could solidly be in the Heisman race this year. That game could go either way. The more I think about it the more I give the edge to the Trojans. USC will have the home field advantage, but will be at a loss in the head coach comparison.

Then Utah stays on the road, going to Provo, Utah to play their traditional rival BYU. That is a game that could go either way. Both teams will have played twice by then and we'll know a lot more about both going into that game. When that game is over Utah should either be 1-2 or 2-1. For them to start out 3-0 a lot of things will have to break their way. I don't totally dismiss a 3-0 start as it is possible. On October 1st, the Utes then return home to play Steve Sarkisian's Washington Huskies. The next weekend the Utes will again play at home against Arizona State. Both of those teams, at best, are mediocre Pac 12 teams. Sarkisian has Washington on the upswing, but they are still a long ways away from being an elite Pac 12 team. Then Arizona St. traditionally is one of those teams that flirts with .500 each season. They are neither great nor terrible. I predict Utah wins both of those games. After 5 games of the season, they might have played two very good teams. At the very worst Utah should be 3-2 at this point.

Then Utah will play 3 of 4 games on the road. On October 15th they go to Pittsburgh to play the Panthers. Traditionally Pittsburgh is a team that is always well thought of to start the season but usually crashes and burns during the season. I don't see anything that suggests they'll be better this year. Next Utah goes and plays at California, yet another bad or mediocre Pac 12 team. Cal should be in the midst of their mid to late season collapse when Utah plays them. They then return home go play guess who, yes another bad or mediocre Pac 12 team. That would be the Wildcats of Arizona. At worst, I see Utah winning 2 of 3 of these games.

On November 12th Utah welcomes UCLA to Rice-Eccles Stadium. This is the first of Utah's three straight games against below average teams. By this point I expect the Utes will have built up a pretty good head of steam and be rolling. Utah's new offensive coordinator is Norm Chow. He was the offensive coordinator for UCLA last season, he didn't leave under the best of circumstances. UCLA is another one of the Pac 12's mediocre or bad teams. I suggest the Bruins are closer to being a bad team. I highly doubt UCLA does much better than .500 this season. I expect Rick Neuheisel to be fired at the end of the season if not sooner.

Then to close out the season they travel to play Washington State. The Cougars are usually the worst team in the Pac-12 each season. They are so bad that they probably don't belong in a BCS league. Playing at home will give them a bit of an edge, but I expect Utah to win this game handily. The Utes close out their first Pac 12 season by playing Colorado in Salt Lake City. Colorado has been awful for several years, they are only 21-40 over their last 5 seasons.

Best case scenario the Utes could be 12-0 at the end of the regular season and preparing for the Pac 12 Championship Game. That would be very cool for their first season in the Pac 12. Noticeably absent from Utah's schedule is the two best teams in the Pac 12. Utah doesn't play the high scoring Oregon team. They also don't play Stanford and their stud quarterback Andrew Luck. I can almost assure both those games would be losses for the Utes, but the only way they play one of the those teams is in the Pac 12 Championship. I predict that the two toughest games Utah will play all year are their second and third games of the season. Both USC and BYU games will be played on the road. The Utes should be at least 10-2 at the end of their regular season. If they qualify for the Pac 12 Championship game, they'll lose. Then they should be okay in a bowl game.

Tomorrow more of a BYU preview.

themusicaddict

Happy Birthday Robert Plant.

Happy Birthday Robert Plant! Thanks for all the great music.

Christine O'Donnell or Piers Morgan: Can't we do better than these two?

Hello,

I usually stay far away from politics on my blog and in general. As a rule I hate politics, especially failed politicians. Politicians are about as loathsome as lawyers. However on ew.com I saw a video of Christine O'Donnell talking on the Today show. She's talking about walking off of the Piers Morgan show. Here's that link:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/08/18/christine-odonnell-piers-morgan/

I thought the interviewer, Savannah, asked fair questions. But O'Donnell comes off looking bad again. She was trying to defend her actions for the below interview. She called Morgan's interview "borderline sexual harassment". Really asking questions that you raise in the book you are promoting is sexual harassment? O'Donnell said three times that Morgan needs the ratings even saying one time he's "desperate for ratings". That's hilarious because that's why she's on that show to get publicity for her book. In all honesty I doubt I would have heard of her book if she hadn't walked off his show. And Christine if I want to read fiction I'll read Stephen King.

Also Christine I can tell you have a high opinion of yourself, but if I were desperate for ratings I wouldn't ask you to be on my show. Christine you don't seem very intelligient, you aren't quick on your feet and you gave non answers to both Morgan and Savannah You also come off as extremely thin skinned. She doesn't rely on her gut or instincts. She said two times in her interview with Savannah about going with her gut. It makes me laugh she actually made a commercial where she said she wasn't a witch. How did she not know that was going to be a bad idea? The other time she said she didn't want to go on Piers Morgan's show, then why did you. Who's in charge of your life?

What has O'Donnell ever done where she has such a high opinion of herself? She claims she "remains a voice" and a leader. She hopes her book is "a rallying cry". Having not read the book, but having heard enough tea party propaganda I hope this serves as a rallying cry for the tea party to go away. She claims that people that have read her book call it "surprising and motivating". Yes, Christine it's very surprising that you can write a book, of course she had a ghost writer. (I don't know that for sure, but it seems highly likely after seeing her speak.) And the only thing motivating about her book for me is that I would be motivated to burn it as soon as I could.



Her appearance on Piers Morgan was wrong for so many reasons. First of all who is Christine O'Donnell? Why does anyone claim her as a spokesman? Is this really the best the tea party (republicans lite) can do? She's not well spoken, is defensive about her viewpoints and she keeps on trying to bring the conversation back to her book. She wants her book to be "inspirational". For whom I wondering? For inspiring other people who have nothing better to do besides writing crappy books? (For the record I probably agree with most of O'Donnell's views about sex. However I find her very off putting, she's not a very good advocate for her veiwpoints.)

It also disturbs me when she talks about the "second American revolution". What's this revolution against? A fairly elected President, is it against democracy? Any revolution that Christine O'Donnell is leading I want to run far away from. It was bad enough with the last Republican President, I can't think of how bad it would be with a tea party President. I hate the tea party.

Now Piers Morgan doesn't get a free pass either. He's an arrogant asshole and how he has a job in any form of media blows my mind. I love how he referred to himself as "charming". Really Piers? You are about as charming as kick in the head. He's certainly much more well spoken than Christine O'Donnell, but so is my 7 year old.

I did think all the questions that he was asking were completely fair. She talks about these sex related things in her book and she's on the show talking about her book. Christine if you appear on someones show they can ask you anything. Did you noticed it wasn't called the Christine O'Donnell show when you walked in?

It disheartens me that these two people have such a public forum. I'm all for people to make decisions on their own. People that need a political party to tell them what to think scare me. I especially hate those people who vote straight ticket for either party. Surely there are people in both parties that have good thoughts.

Also don't get me started on how bad the Republicans running for President as a group are.

thedisheartenedmusicaddict

Taylor Swift, People Who Need To Go Away

Hello,

"Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life". What a great song.

Welcome to Blog 935 of themusicaddict.

As you know I'm a big sports fan. One of the many websites I have up all day everyday is espn.com. I love that website and am constantly on it. Two names I'm sick of hearing from ESPN.com and others (Colin Cowherd was talking about him on his program this morning)are Tiger Woods and Tim Tebow. Tiger Woods please just go away, at this point he's just becoming a parody of himself. I have a special request for the the Denver Broncos, please just let Tim Tebow be the starting quarterback for the first few games of the season. We can see if he'll be any good, he won't, and then he can go back to being a non-story. I'm not a big fan of Scam Newton either. But when I hear about him at least he's playing well.

The countdown is on until my two middle kids and I go see Taylor Swift on September 28th in Salt Lake City. I've loaded up my iPod with 28 of her songs, so I can get more familiar with her newer music. As usual most of it is good. Taylor I just want to say you write great songs, are very attractive and are a very good singer. However Taylor I ask you please don't perform the below song, this is one of your few boring songs.

"You're Not Sorry":



It seems she's not playing the song on her current tour. I would really like her to sing the below song though, although she hasn't been singing this song either.

"Should've Said No":



This video has much better sound:



Prince's "Let's Go Crazy":



Other news and notes: The greed fest continues in 3D movies. Usually a great indicator if a movie is going to be bad is if it's in 3D. The movie studios know it's bad so it's released in 3D. With the opening weekend box office so important now, movie studios realize a large amount of their income comes then. In order to maximize profit, studios add 3D and charge $2 more per ticket. The movie usually tanks after the first weekend, but the movie studios were able to maximize what could have been a complete liability. August is generally a month when bad movies are also dumped in.

With those two factors I know that "Shark Night" and "Fright Night" are both going to be bad. "Fright Night" was bad in the 80's, I couldn't get through it a few weeks ago. The new Colin Ferrell version looks awful as well. That movie was so bad in the 80's that I don't remember hearing about it back then. I was a big fan of 80's movies. "Fright Night" doesn't look any better now.

Other August movies that look terrible: "Conan The Barbarian" and "One Day". "Conan" looks awful in every way. From the alleged actor playing Conan the Boringman to the over the top special effects. It seems another story where there's a lot of action in hopes of hiding the fact that there's very little story. Then "One Day" has received terrible reviews, which is disappointing to me. That's because I read the book and the book was amazing. I loved the two main characters and really thought it was a poignant book. Skip the movie, but definitely read the book.

themusicaddict

I Love the MLB Network!, Great Songs!

Hello,

Last night after a long and boring day at work I drove home. I wanted to watch some TV. I chose to watch the MLB Network. I'm glad I did as they showed many of my favorite teams. As long time readers of this blog know I follow 5 MLB teams. They are the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, Braves and the Pirates. As I ate dinner I was able to see the end of the Atlanta-San Francisco game. I watched the last couple of innings of that game. For the second straight night the Braves won in walk off fashion. In the bottom of the 11th the Braves rallied again. Martin Prado ended the game with his two out walk off single.

When that game was over MLB Network switched to the Chicago-Houston game. It was in time to see the Cubs Tyler Colvin hit his 5th home run of the season. Thankfully that was all I saw as the Cubs alleged closer Carlos Marmol choked yet again. He gave up a pinch hit walk off grand slam in the bottom of the 9th. Although Marmol has been pitching better of late, he saved his last 9 games, this was his 8th blown save of the season. I'm sorry that's not good enough. The Cubs need to rid themselves of a lot of their over priced, under performing players asap. There are still 14 days in the waiver deadline period and Chicago you aren't going anywhere. If you can't get rid of your dead weight now please do so after the season is over. Of course bad signings, trades, inept offense, head cases and blown saves are what makes the Cubs the Cubs. Although LA currently has a terrible owner, there's hope for the Dodgers. Once Frank McCourt is gone the Dodgers could have a bright future.

Next the MLB Network switched to the Dodgers-Brewers game. They showed a few minutes of that game as LA looked like their usual, mediocre selves. There's no shame in losing to the hot Brewers though. Milwaukee is absolutely on fire, having won 18 of 20 and steamrolling their opposition.

Finally the MLB Network went to Pittsburgh in time to see Pittsburgh's Garrett Jones hit a massive home run. It was fun to see that home run. Since the Pirates have been so bad for so long, their fans aren't jaded. The crowd was loud when Jones' home run left PNC Park. The ball bounced out of the stadium and landed in the Allegheny River. In the top of the 11th inning Andrew McCutchen robbed Albert Pujols of at least a double with a magnificent catch. Those are the kind of moments I absolutely enjoy as a sports fan. Pittsburgh won a couple of crucial games, but they still are way out of the playoffs. They trail Milwaukee by 13 games in the NL Central and they trail the Braves by 13 games in the NL Wild Card.

Thanks MLB Network, it was good to see almost all of my teams play. Of course with the Red Sox such a big MLB brand name I'm able to see them usually once or twice a week.

That was an awesome hour of TV.

Now for some good songs (as always brought to you by my iPod):

Madonna's "Causing A Commotion":


I'm guessing the following video cost about 50c to make. Del Amitri's "Roll With Me":


I love both of these rolling songs:


With that outfit I'm guessing Lionel Richie just left "The Planet of the Apes" film set. This is truly one of the greatest bands of the 70's, who had some of the The Commodores "Easy".


The Power Station's "Some Like It Hot":


Finally the extended version of The Power Station's "Get In On (Bang A Gong)":


themusicaddict

Congrats Jim Thome!

Hello,

Yesterday Jim Thome hit career home runs number 599 and 600, he becomes the 8th person in MLB history with at least 600 home runs. Thome reportedly is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Also there never has been the hint of him ever taking steroids. Finally he's also a great home run hitter. Congrats Jim Thome, may you have a few more home runs left in your career.

The other 7 members of the 600 HR club include such legends as Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. There's also Ken Griffey Jr. Then having hit 600 home runs but having steroids taint all over them is Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.

Also congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers for completing a triple play yesterday. Since they were playing the Dodgers that takes a bit of excitement out of their feat. Speaking of the Brewers, they remain on fire. They've won 9 of their last 10 games and they are running away from the rest of the NL Central. They lead second place St. Louis by 6 games.

St. Louis lost to Pittsburgh yesterday 6-2, the Pirates move to 57-63 this season. They trail those on fire Brewers by 13 games. It was a great dream just a few weeks ago that the Pirates could qualify for the playoffs. Now that looks highly unlikely (although I'm still hoping for them and being an optimist). Over the season's final 40 games I'd like to see them work on playing hard and never giving up. I'd also like the Pirates to use this time to get into the habit of winning. Practice these skills and then hopefully they can challenge for the NL Central title next year.

Boston and New York are tied for first place in the AL East, both have 73-46 records. Keep it going Boston. I see those two teams playing in the ALCS in what should be another classic match up.

Meanwhile Atlanta is doing all they can do to stay within range of the ferocious Phillies. The Phillies have one of the best pitching staffs in the history of MLB. They play like they aren't going to be denied. There truly is a feeling of destiny surrounding their team.

The Braves are probably going to make the playoffs, which they definitely deserve. In spite of Atlanta being 20 games above .500, they still trail Philadelphia by 8.5 games. Thankfully Atlanta is dominating the NL Wild Card race this year. Thanks to MLB Network I was able to watch the bottom of the 9th inning of the Braves-Giants game. The Braves scored three runs to come back and win, they beat closer Brian Wilson. Atlanta leads the Giants by 5 games in the NL Wild Card. The Giants and Diamondbacks will probably be fighting for the NL West title for the rest of the season, with the loser almost certainly not making the playoffs.

Also since I had some of my kids with me yesterday, I took them to the movies. My daughter went to see "The Smurfs" which has received horrible reviews. There was no way I was going to go watch that. But "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was playing about the same time. I went and saw that with my middle son. That was a lot better movie than I expected. Previews don't capture what that movie is about at all. However the end of the movie was much longer than it needed to be. In this year of very bad movies, this "Planet" was one of the best movies I've seen this year. Again by this year's standards, that's faint praise.

Although when I read that the people behind the movie have planned a trilogy, that did make me nervous. We don't need two more of these movies. Also in watching previews, there's yet another movie about aliens trying to take over the world. This one is set in Moscow. When the previews showed party scenes from Moscow, I had no idea that this was another aliens taking over the world movie.

"In Time":



The above movie looks like it has some potential. Justin Timberlake is a pretty good actor, I can definitely buy him as an action star. I still laugh at the previews for the new Taylor Lautner movie. He has as much action credibility as Ryan Reynolds. Anyway I didn't like how much of a neutered character Timberlake was forced to play in "Bad Teacher". He should stick with truly funny and action roles. Also he was amazing playing the character Sean Parker in "The Social Network". I say character because I have no idea how Sean Parker really is.

themusicaddict

The August Book Club Wrap Up

Hello,

I finished reading the 385 pages of "The Havana Room" last Friday night. Overall I'd have to give the book a B-. I was a little disappointed by the end. I didn't like the potential of Bill and Judith getting back together. First of all I don't see that as being realistic. Relationships break up for a reason. As a general rule unless things change dramatically two people shouldn't get back together. But overall I'm not very interested in whether they do eventually get back together. These characters are one book characters. I'm not really interested in seeing what happens with them going forward.

The theme of this book is everything isn't what it seems to be, that is also the case in most of life.

For people who haven't read the book I'm not going to spill a lot of the details. Did you think that Ha would play such a central role in the book? Where do you think he ended up? He obviously was more than just the maintainence man. He knew people that clean up dead bodies. I think he might have worked for Chairman Mao, but I don't think it was only as a cook. Did you like how Ha and others used the secret of the Havana Room was against H.L. and his crew? I thought that was one of the most interesting ideas of the book.

To me the most tortured character and the one who ended up the worse was Jay Rainey. He only met his daughter for one brief time and that wasn't under the best of circumstances. What do you think about Sally never finding out that Jay was her father? What ultimately happened to Jay? What happened in Jay's life that he decided not to tell Sally the truth? I'm good with her not finding out who her real dad is. Don't you think ultimately she's going to find out who her real Dad is. Although Sally is young, she still might have a sense that everything isn't what it seems. She's being raised by two people who aren't her real parents and the only Bill seems to know that. Does Bill owe her an explanation later in Sally's life.

We also found out what happened to Jay's Mom? I've seen that story line in other media, for instance, "The Town". I saw that ending coming a mile away and that ending feels a bit tired now. Was what happened to Jay's Mom a surprise to you? Do you think that's an interesting take?

If Jay is the most tortured character, Allison Sparks has to be second. What do you think of what happened to her? She seemed to have landed back on her feet back in her old unhappy life. It may not be a good life but it is what she knows. She seems to be the good little worker bee, the sort of person who gets lost in her work. The type of person who uses work as an escape and also a way to keep self-esteem. Even though she seems to have lost what made her job so rewarding, I bet she still works the same amount of hours.

To me one of the things she was escaping from was a certain type of man. She'd been hurt and I guess she also had hurt men before. She was careful to stay away from men that wanted commitment. She worked a schedule where commitment was hard. She seems to have a love/hate relationship with men. She reminds me of the line from the Bob Seger song, "I used her, she used me neither one cared". She used work as a way to protect herself from love and she also picked men who weren't interested in long term relationships with her.

Some happy things happened in this book, but overall what a sad book. The dual tragedies of Jay's life: losing his health and the woman of his dreams. Allison seemed to be stuck in neutral in the part of her life we know of her. It seems that's what she wanted or at least was comfortable with. But that's sad as well. Bill tried to do the right thing most of the time. Although one uninformed decision led to his whole adventure. Did he become a better person because of what he went through? Like life this book gave us more questions than answers.

themusicaddict

Dan Uggla, "Good": The Subtle Seduction of Power

Hello,

As I write this blog Dan Uggla is going for his 34th consecutive game with a hit. The last couple of games he got the hit in his first at bat taking all the drama for that out of the rest of the game. In his first at bat today, he took one for the team. He hit a sacrifice fly that resulted in the Braves first run of the game. Then in the third inning he fouled out to first.

Later Brian McCann is back in Atlanta's lineup and he's hitting now. Up next was Dan Uggla. However he popped out to second base on that at bat. In the bottom of the 7th, Uggla hit again, this may be his last chance to extend his consecutive hitting streak. The Braves led 5-4. In the next inning the Cubs took a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the 7th. With the Braves down by one run, they really need Uggla to come through now. Dan Uggla's streak may be over. In his 4th at bat, Uggla popped out to shortstop. If he doesn't get another chance to bat, it has been a great run. It's also the longest hitting streak in MLB this season. Uggla didn't get a fifth attempt to hit and thus ends his streak. It was a good run. To make things worse the Cubs came back and won the game 6-5.

Tiger Woods didn't make the recent PGA Tour event cut. I knew all about that, but I couldn't tell you who was winning the tournament. I know Woods has been an incredible golfer over the years. I understand he remains very popular. But that doesn't explain why he's followed so closely. Obviously he's a shell of what he use to be. When he isn't even making the cut or when he does he finishes in 37th place, why is still the main golf story. Sometimes he's the main sports story. That's like making the Dodgers-Astros game the #1 baseball story with all the exciting pennant races going on now. ESPN and other sports news sources can we please have some perspective?

Quick reviews: I recently saw the latest "Harry Potter and the Ghostly Hallows" and I don't have anything against the series. On the other hand I've never been a big fan either. I went and watched that because the two kids of mine that were with me wanted to watch it. While I didn't understand what was going on most of the time, I still thought it was an okay movie. Since my knowledge is so limited about "Harry Potter" I can't give it a fair grade. I will say that I did feel every one of the 130 minutes of the movie. Actually the movie felt longer than that.

We watched "Soul Surfer" last night. It's the surfing movie about Bethany Hamilton's having her arm savagely ripped off by a shark. The movie stars Dennis Quaid, AnnaSophia Robb and Helen Hunt. Robb plays the inspired and inspiring Hamilton, who resumes competitive surfing. We follow her as she's able to resume her surfing career with only a slight tweak to her surfboard. A tweak that doesn't give her a competitive advantage. It's amazing what one can do when you set your mind to it. She still is currently competing. An inspiring story, but the movie was just a bit cheesy. Also I love Carrie Underwood, she's gorgeous and a great singer. However the woman can't act worth a lick. She's a better actor than Vin Diesel at least.

I also watched the movie titled "Good", it stars Viggo Mortensen. He does a fantastic job portraying a teacher caught up in Nazism. The movie is about the subtle pull of power and even a good man can get swept up in it. Mortensen's character is friends with a Jew and we see the strains on their friendship as Hitler comes to power. There's a great scene where the two old friends are talking about how they might have been ordering Hitler around during the first World War.

Tomorrow the final questions and thoughts about Colin Harrison's "The Havana Room" should be coming. I've finished the book and am searching for the September book club. With football starting in September, it might be football related. I'll have to think about that. "Friday Night Lights" and "The Blind Side" are great books, I definitely reccomend you read both of them. However they won't be September's book club selection. I have a couple of books that look interesting. Currently I'm reading Daniel Wilson's "Robopocolypse".

themusicaddict

RIP Jani Lane, "AI" Drags On, BSC again

Hello,

Former Warrant singer Jani Lane was found dead in a LA hotel room last night. He was 47. Warrant was one of the mid-80's hair metal bands that I kind of grew up with. Now some of these people whose music I grew up with are starting to die. That reminds me of my mortality even more, Lane is only 3 years older than me. Also to me it's incredibly sad when your body is found in a hotel room. R.I.P. Jani.

Warrant was of the generation of Cinderella, Motley Crue, Tesla, Ratt, Whitesnake and Poison. Many people consider Nirvana's rise as the death knell of heavy metal. Heavy metal had a good 10 year run, I'm still surprised it got as popular as I did. The terribly lame "AI" contestant James Durbin is trying to bring heavy metal back. Instead he's only killing it more. Maybe someday I'll write up a heavy metal blog.

When I think of Warrant and Jani Lane, this will be the video I think of first. Warrant's song dedicated to food, "Cherry Pie". It is about food, right? As of Friday morning this song has 1,664,065 page views.



Some people said Jani Lane hated the above song. Sure it's cheesy and I can see why he would be embarrassed by it. However it's another song that's fun, isn't that what rock music is suppose to be. That song came from their second album. Their first album was much more hard rocking. Here are a few of my favorite songs from their first CD, "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich":

I believe this was their first song, "Down Boys":



The following song is "32 Pennies". Not only does the song rock, but I love the lyrics. This is one of your more intelligent hair metal songs, all things being relative of course.



Yes I know I'm being sappy, but I really love this song:



It's official: all three lame judges from last season's "American Idol" are coming back for Season 11. I guess that J Lo. couldn't find anything else better to do. Well at least she doesn't have to be in "Hawthorne". You could tell in her body language that she was tired of being on the show at the end of last season. These lame, tired judges will lead to another boring season. The 3 praise only judges made me miss Simon Cowell even more.

This show is already so tired. I'm hoping with "X Factor" debuting this fall and another lackluster season of "AI", that its 11th season will be its last season. Fox, you've sucked nearly all the money you can out of this tired franchise, now you are only tarnishing it's rapidly fading reputation. Also returning is Nigel Lythgoe. That means another season of emotional manipulation, excessive hype and under talented performers. Can they find another winner who will under achieve more than the last 3?

I'm still madly in love with Black Stone Cherry. On Spotify I was listening to some of their older music. On their new CD, "Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", they show a lot of growth. There is still some lowest common denominator rock lyrics, but rock music won't ever escape it. However the boys show their growth by branching out with their musical palette. Their brand new CD has 11 solid songs on it and the 12th song probably should have been left off. In trying to create a classic heavy metal ballad, like Warrant's "Heaven" above, they made a very sappy song. But I'll forgive them for having 11 great songs on one CD. With the corporate America emphasis on marketing rather than musicianship not many CDs have even 3 or 4 good songs now.

Here's a couple of other songs from "Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea":

I'm starting off with probably the most fun song on this CD. This song will not mentally tax you in anyway, it's just dumb, fun and goofy. This is "Let Me See You Shake":



This is "Such A Shame" live:



Quick sports hits: 1) The USMNT (United States Men's National Team) played a rematch with Mexico in a friendly in Philadelphia. The USA looked a lot better than they did in their 4-2 beat down at the hands of Mexico in the Gold Cup finals. Some of the main players for both teams didn't play, but that doesn't take away from the USA's effort. I keep on hearing about this Jozy Altidore, but he's never impressed me. However playing for the USA was 18 year old Juan Agudelo. Wow he's really fun to watch and I can see him scoring many goals for the USMNT over the next several years. Put him and Landon Donavon up front and let them attack the defense. It was a good debut Mr. Klinnsman.

2) Baseball: The red hot Phillies start a new series against the mediocre Nationals today. Philadelphia has won 12 of 13 and won 9 of 10 on their recent road swing. The road trip finale was them sweeping the woeful Dodgers, which really isn't that impressive. Not a slight on Philadelphia, but a slight on the damage that Frank McCourt continues to do to this team. All I'm asking is can someone please beat this team? This team is gaining momentum going into the stretch run of this season. They are already going to be very formidable in the post season.

Dan Uggla has hit in his last 31 games and he puts his streak on the line today. The Braves will play at home against the woeful Cubs. (Although the Cubs have shown some life lately, winning 8 of 10 and two in a row.) The temperamental and volcanic Carlos Zambrano will be pitching for the Cubs.

3) I know it's only preseason, but it was so good seeing some real life NFL football last night. Although when I turned on the Dallas-Denver game the first play I saw was Dallas quarterback Stephen McGee being intercepted. I hope that's not an omen for the entire season. He played the rest of the game after Tony Romo and Jon Kitna each played one series. Now if we could only figure out a way to get Tony Romo to only play one series in the regular season:) Again I know it's only preseason, but a win is a win. Against second and third stringers Stephen McGee looked good. He completed 14 of 24 passes for 208 yards. He did throw the interception but he also had 3 touchdown passes. He showed poise in getting the Cowboys a touchdown and two point conversion near the end of the game. Rarely do I see Tony Romo play that well in crunch time and I don't expect it to start this season.

Here are some other good songs:

"Postcards" by An Horse:



Matchbox Twenty's "Back 2 Good" (live):



My favorite Matchbox Twenty song "Bright Lights":



themusicaddict

Hottie Hannah Storm, themusicaddict's August bookclub

Hello,

The above picture is of the incredibly gorgeous Hannah Storm. It was good to see her back on ESPN's morning Sports Center. She's been gone too long. She's one of the hottest women involved in sports currently.

Going from the hottest to the lamest. Carlos Boozer and his idiocy strike again. With the NBA lockout extending for who knows how long, he's talking about playing internationally as well. If you want a good laugh, find that story at ESPN and then read the fan comments. Many of the comments are from Chicago Bulls fans. The best comment is along the lines of "hearing the bench is more comfortable in Europe" I would say at least 85% of the comments have the theme that he should go international and stay in whatever country he ends up in. Many Bulls fans don't want him and his $15 million average per year contract back. I think the Bulls now realize how worthless he is and they've been bamboozled. Boozer I hope you tipped your agent appropriately. Boozer won't finish the contract, the Bulls will cut him long before it is over. I would say someone might trade for him, but who's going to pay for a whiny, oft injured Loozer?

Dear NBA players: please stop telling us your going to play internationally if the lockout eats into the season. We don't believe you and who would want some of the players being mentioned? Does anyone really want Ron Artest and all the baggage he brings? No! With Boozer thinking he's better than he is, which international team will pay him to his demands? No one! A lot of teams may want Dwayne Wade and Kobe Bryant, but how many international teams can afford to pay them? I'm guessing not many. With both having injury problems, how good of an idea is it for them to risk their career internationally? My guess is the player's union is telling it's players to say they will play internationally in hopes of pressuring the NBA to accept their demands. However I don't think the players are going to win this game of chicken.

Again the book club selection for this month is Colin Harrison's "The Havana Room". I've read to page 182 so far. Here are some questions that you can think about and respond to if you would like.

First here's a list of the main characters. The protagonist is Bill Wyeth. He's a lawyer, unlike most lawyers he seems to have some scruples. He's divorced and father of a son. His ex-wife and son has moved to California and married a Silicon Valley big shot. She divorced him following a disastrous lawsuit that financially ruined him.

Jay Rainey seems to think of himself as a real estate mogul, a low rent Donald Trump. He recently traded property he grew up on. However the land he got rid of and the land he traded for both have many legal issues. Jay is also hard to find, he makes himself scarce. He seems to be hiding from someone.

Allison Sparks is the manager of the unnamed Manhattan steakhouse. At this point the book alludes to the fact that Sparks and Rainey are lovers. They don't have a set schedule for when they get together. Jay calls Allison and lets her know where to meet him. I question whether they are really lovers. While sex may be a component of their relationship, there seems to be more to the relationship than that.

The Havana Room is a private room at the Manhattan steakhouse. Very few people are allowed in there and you must receive an invite. Although an invite is never guaranteed and you can lose your invite if you are an idiot.

Other characters. Ha the mysterious man behind some of the "entertainment" that occurs in the Havana Room. Lipper claims he's the owner of the steakhouse. Marcelo is the new owner of Jay's old property. Mrs Hallock is a realtor that was involved in a private sale of Jay's old property. Poppy is the nephew of Mrs. Hallock and an employee of Jay. Hershel is the man who died on the tractor, we only meet him after he died. He was doing something suspicious, presumably at the direction of Rainey, when he died. For some reason he was out in the cold without his socks on.

Why doesn't the Manhattan steakhouse have an official name? Who really owns the Manhattan steakhouse? Old man Lipper says he owns it now and that Frank Sinatra used to own it. However Bill didn't find either name listed when he looked at city property records. What does that mean? Who really owns the steakhouse and why are they so secretive about it?

The more we learn about Jay the more it seems like he's hiding something. But what is he hiding? Also it seems he had an abusive childhood. Did he kill his Dad? Is his Dad buried at his former property? Jay obviously is very complicated, is he a good guy or a bad guy?

What is so important about the new property Jay has bought. From watching too many TV shows and reading too much fiction my thought is there's something hidden there. And that Jay will only have claim to it if he owns the property.

I'm not liking that the story has veered so far away from the steakhouse. The story just seems to have a tangential link to the steakhouse now. As the story continues, the action seems to be getting further away from the steakhouse. Do you like this and why do you think the author is doing that? I don't like it although I remain very intrigued by the story.

There have been multiple explicit sexual scenes. Some of the sex acts are described in excruciating detail. Do you like this or not? Do you think this adds or detracts from the book. How much does graphic sex scenes determine your pleasure in reading?

We keep on meeting characters that don't seem to be the most wholesome people in the world. We meet Mr. Marceno, he's the owner of Jay's old property. He wants to create a vineyard on that property. However he has some concerns. There seems to be a threat of things not going well for Bill if things don't work out for Marceno. How much of Marceno's threat is a bluff? If it's not a bluff, how far will Marceno go to get what he wants?

Jay is giving me the creeps with his binoculars watching the 14 year old Sally Cowles play basketball. Especially with her dad being own of the business owners at Jay's new property. Nothing is as it seems in this book. The only straight shooter, at least at this point, is Bill Wyeth.

After meeting the classy but threatening Marcelo, the next person we meet is the scummy HJ. He's related to the dearly departed Hershel. He's also the owner of dance club and studio. That makes me wonder why didn't Hershel work for his own relative. Or did he and this is his way to blame his death on someone else? HJ has no pretensions or sophistication, he's a gangster that loves the benefits that brings. He has Wyeth taken to visit him and demands $300,000 from Wyeth.

At the bottom of page 172, most of the above is explained in a more concise fashion. These are Bill Wyeth thoughts: "I began to see that whatever was going on with Marceno, H.J., Poppy, Mrs. Jones (also related to Hershel) and Jay constituted, in its entirety, a piece of machinery, call it a gear, that was engaged with another smaller gear, this one sprocketed by Jay, and the building on Reade Street he so badly wanted, a building that housed the business owned by David Cowles, whose daughter, Sally Cowles, apparently so fascinated Jay that he was secretly attending her high school basketball games. Did Jay himself understand these two sets of complications? And where did Allison fit in?"

My thoughts about where Bill fits in. Is he involved because he happened to be a random lawyer when Jay desperately needed one. Or is he part of a plan that he's completely unaware of. I'm hoping this and other questions are answered in the next 200+ pages.

themusicaddict

The Bad Boy Rock and Roll of AC/DC

Hello,

A band that seems to me that doesn't get the respect they deserve is AC/DC. I'm not specifically talking about their hits, I'm talking about some of their more obscure songs. For instance, I was listening to the "Highway To Hell" CD on my way to work this morning. Basically the only well known song off that CD is the title track.

However there are other good songs on that CD, examples include "Girls Got Rhythm":



One cliche that holds true about AC/DC and many other rockers is that they only sing about one thing. We see that with the above and this song. "Beating Around The Bush":

"Shot Down In Flames":



Another worthy older AC/DC song "Shake Your Foundations":



I also like some of their boogie rock. They have a reputation for all their songs sounding the same. However that's not true. They have the crunch rock of "Back In Black", the almost tender feeling of "Ride On" and the funky underbelly of "She's Got The Jack". Also who doesn't love the cannons of "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" or the bells of "Hells Bells"? They're also one of the very few older bands who have new music as good as their earlier stuff. Their most recent release, "Black Ice" is 15 slabs of excellent rock music. If you don't agree you need to listen to "Black Ice" again.

"Money Made":



"War Machine":



I'd love to take a ride on the "Rock 'N Roll Train":



Congrats to Dan Uggla, last night he hit in his 30th consecutive game. He's now tied with the Dodgers' Andre Ethier for longest consecutive hit streak this season. (We Dodgers fans have to take the bright spots where we can find them this season. Those bright spots have been hard to find.)

Also the Dallas Cowboys were going to attend Terrelle Pryor's pro day, it has been postponed though. The NFL still needs to make a definitive ruling on whether he's eligible for that or not. I hope this is Dallas finally admitting that Tony Romo isn't a good enough quarterback to be their starter. Not that I think Pryor will be an outstanding pro quarterback, I'm just glad the Cowboys are considering their options.

Then from the are you kidding me file? Rex Grossman, probably the worst quarterback to ever start a Super Bowl, is predicting the Redskins will win the NFC East. Please Rex! Grossman goes on to say, "We're fine being the sleepers right now". Rex you guys aren't sleepers, the Redskins are in a coma! If you or John Beck are the Redskins quarterback you'll be lucky to finish .500. In fact, I predict Washington will be battling Dallas for third place in the NFC East this season. Hey but thanks Rex for the laugh.

themusicaddict

Pia Toscano, Quick reviews, Pennant Race Baseball

Hello,

Here's the gorgeous Pia Toscano's new CD, "This Time":



When is her CD coming out already?

Kelly Rowland's new CD, "Here I Am" is out now. I listened to it this morning thanks to my friends at Spotify. I hate to write this but it sucks. Unbelievably 8 of the 14 tracks have guest rappers. Having a guest rapper on a song rarely works. But why would Kelly's producers have 8 songs with a guest rapper? That's a crazy lack of originality. The producer has run out of ideas and brings a rapper on to rap some unneeded lyrics. As usual the rappers add almost nothing. When someone can sing as well as Kelly Rowland, why clutter her music with rappers? Kelly please see below and learn from Janet Jackson. No guest rappers just great songs. This is the very good and easily the best song on "Here I Am":



I also listened to a lot of Theory of A Deadman yesterday. Another band that needlessly uses explicit lyrics. They are okay, but one of many okay rock bands that are currently working. They don't do anything that makes them stand out from the many other similar sounding bands. My favorite song of theirs is the following song. When it started playing I thought "hey I've heard that song before", then I realized it's an Alice in Chains cover. Theory Of A Deadman do a nice cover of "Got Me Wrong":



I would have the official video but again embedding is disabled by request. They've chosen that over getting a free plug on my blog. My favorite of their original songs is this song that hits really close to home. This is "Not Meant To Be":



I finished listening to the "Glee The 3D Concert Movie" soundtrack. It's decent, rightfully Lea Michele is spotlighted. She has such an amazing voice. The highlights include "Glee" versions of "Born This Way", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), "Sing", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Forget You" and "Don't Rain On My Parade". They also do justice to Cee Lo's "Forget You" it is an undeniably catchy song. I'd have liked to see "Bad Romance" been their Lady Gaga song though. Also where's Michele's version of the powerhouse song "Taking Chances"?

This is the Glee version of "Forget You" with special guest star Gwyneth Paltrow:



One of the least appreciated singers of the 90's is the lead singer of Sixpence None The Richer. Her name is Leigh Nash and she simply has an amazing voice. I've also been enjoying them on Spotify today. What an amazing voice, this is their big hit "Kiss Me":



I realize that Sixpence None The Richer isn't the first to sing "There She Goes", but they perform it to perfection:



I also like their take on Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over":



One final song "Breathe Your Name":



Pennant race baseball: The Red Sox won two of three against the evil empire this past weekend. Bill Simmons, who is The Sports Guy and a big Red Sox fan, was on PTI yesterday. I just want to mention that only because Bill you need to get rid of that hideous caterpillar on your lip.

Boston also won again last night and lead Darth Vader's minions by 1.5 games in the AL East. It was good to see David Ortiz have a great game. He had four hits and 3 RBIs, he now has 74 RBIs on the season. He also hit his 22nd home run. The Red Sox really need his offense coming this post season. I have a feeling this year's World Series is going to come down to Boston's offense against Philadelphia's pitching.

Alfredo Aceves won the game in relief and is 8-1 on the season. Johnathan Papelbon pitched a very efficient 9th inning to pick up his 25th save on the season. With those two pitching very effectively Daniel Bard was able to get a rest. It's too bad that Tim Wakefield wasn't able to get his 200th victory. Wakefield has been very crucial for the Red Sox this season. I'm so happy he's still playing with all their injuries and John Lackey's inadequacies.

Pittsburgh also won finally, they broke their 10 game losing streak. They beat the other team that's choking as much as them, the San Francisco Giants. The Giants have lost 9 of their last 11 games. To show how weak the NL West is, they still are in first place. The Pirates are now 55-59, but they are 9.5 games out of first place in the NL Central. While the Pirates have been choking, Milwaukee has won 9 of 10. It was a nice run for the Pirates this season, even being able to spend a few days in first place. But unfortunately reality has come crushing down. All I now want for the Pirates is to learn how to win and incorporate that into their culture. I also would like to see them finish their season at least at .500.

Finally Atlanta won again, they beat Florida 8-5. They won't catch red hot Phillidelphia though. The Phillies have won 9 of their last 10 games and lead second place Atlanta by 8.5 games in the NL East. Atlanta leads Arizona by 3.5 games in the NL wild card. The other story from the Braves-Marlins game is that Dan Uggla has hit in 29 straight games. (Fellow Brave Freddie Freeman had a recent hit streak stopped at 20 games.) After a horrendous start, Uggla has really bounced back. (Uggla probably has the most unfortunate name in MLB.) The Braves really need him to perform well if they have any hope of knocking off the Phillies in the NL Playoffs.

The most annoying "controversy" has got to end. That's Tiger Woods firing his caddie Steve Williams. Steve Williams bounced back and became the caddie for Adam Scott. Scott went on to win the tournament, which was played last weekend. Meanwhile Tiger finished in 37th place. Isn't it about time for him to change his name to Kitten Woods. I'm worried about that because Kitten sounds like a stripper's name and that just might confuse Tiger. How about Lion Woods, or even better Lyin' Woods. Anyway Williams is a caddie, so who cares? I don't care what Tiger Woods has to say and the same goes for his former caddie. Can this story please just go away?

Happy 44th Birthday Neon Deion Sanders. He just was inducted into the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame. He gave a very emotional speech talking about his Mom and all the sacrifices she made for him. Not only that but Deion Sanders played for the Cowboys back when they were actually relevant.

Dallas starts this season on September 11th by traveling to New York to play the Jets. It will be a showdown between the Ryan brothers. Rex is the head coach of New York and Rob is the defensive coordinator for the Cowboys. Usually this time of year I'm very excited about the Boys. However that's not the case this season. I'm dreading this season because I think the Cowboys are going to be dreadful. Right now I'd be happy with a 8-8 record. They just didn't do enough in free agency. And Tony Romo inspires no confidence in me. He has good stats but he simply isn't a winner. He's talking about the second phase of his career. I'm hoping he'll be good this phase of his career. If he doesn't have a career best season, it's time for the Cowboys to start over at quarterback. I wish they would do that anyway.

Here's some songs brought to my mind thanks to my iPod while I was exercising this morning.

R.E.M.'s "Near Wild Heaven":



And because R.E.M. recently released a pretty amazing CD, here's a new song off that CD "Collapse Into Now". This is "Walk It Back":



Janet Jackson's "Nasty". Kelly Rowland you can take some lessons from Miss Jackson. "That's Miss Jackson if you're nasty". "The only nasty thing I like is a nasty groove, will this one do? Uh huh" Kesha can also learn from Miss Jackson. Kesha likes to talk during her songs and for the most part it's lame. Kesha listen to how the funk princess Janet does it.



Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue":



I think this might be my favorite Thompson Twins song "You Take Me Up":



I love the blues. This song is an example of why, I love the exquisate guitar work. Albert King's "Driving Wheel":



Nada Surf's "Do It Again":



One of the greatest bands ever singing their best song. This is Guns N' Roses "Mr. Brownstone":



This is also pretty cool, although Jimmy Fallon is a bit lame here. I won't criticize this is how I might act if I was introducing the mighty Zepp.



themusicaddict