Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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

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