Is the title of "The Walking Dead" a a meta reference to itself.

Hello,

Welcome to the 1000th blog of themusicaddict blog.

Last Sunday was Season 2, Episode 3 of "The Walking Dead". This episode was "Save The Last One". It certainly is better than the previous episode, but still not great. This show has grounded to a screeching halt. I find myself starting to not care about the characters. One by one the characters are losing their likability. Starting with Deputy Rick Grimes let's evaluate why I'm losing interest in each character and as a result the show itself. Rick is really starting to wear on me. His accent is horrendous. Like the rest of the show he's seems to be more focused on talking than doing. I know that he's given a lot of blood to his son, Carl. But can't he start planning for the future? Anything else besides this boring introspection.

Then his lovely (not) wife Lori Grimes, who's played by Sarah Wayne Cailles, is very annoying. I can't tell if she's a terrible actress? Or is that she's such a great actress and her job is to play Lori as a whiny, one dimensional character. I'm leaning towards she's just a bad actress. (She reminds me of the equally terrible bad actress in "The Killing", Michelle Forbes.) All the whining and complaining has got to end. Her whole speech Sunday night about whether it's best to be alive or not? Yawn. That scene represents the increasing mediocrity of this show. Why do these characters have to over talk everything? Also the more they whine and jabber the less I'm interested in them and the less I'm interested in the show.

Next up is Shane, he was starting to grow on me. That is until Sunday night when he shot Otis and left him behind. Now his excuse, if found out, was he was doing it to save Carl's life. Let's be honest though Shane's actions were all about saving Shane. The military believes in no man left behind. Well Shane seems to believe in Shane not being left behind. Otis's carcass should have sated quite a few zombies. Don't even start me on how the character of Rick took off his shirt, obviously meant for the ladies. This episode had some good moments. I enjoyed that Rick was handed Otis' clothes for after his shower. In "The Walking Dead" comic books Shane is killed off pretty quickly. Why was he kept around in the show?

Side note: The world is dead but the house has electricity and hot water still? Why is it that I never hear a generator? I mean didn't the producers think that out? Or did they think we just wouldn't care or notice? The showers at the CDC were explained, but Rick being able to take a shower never is. It's these inconsistencies in story telling that drives me crazy. What's with the zombies now moving at a half-run? I don't remember them being that fast last season. What are the zombies eating if no one is going near the school? The wildlife is only going to last so long. If the zombies aren't eating shouldn't they be getting weaker? Another random question, why didn't Rick and Otis bring more bullets to the school? Weren't either one Boy Scouts? Aren't they survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse and haven't they learned you can't ever have too much ammo?

I read that this past Sunday's episode is the last with Frank Darabont as show runner. Are these less than exciting past couple of episodes the reason why he's no longer the show runner? Will Glenn Mazarra do better as show runner? Let's hope so and that Season 2's last 10 episodes will be better. Glenn please drop the long, boring speeches and focus more on action. It's "The Walking Dead", not "The Walking Bored".

My favorite character is everyone else's favorite character, Daryl Dixon. He's having the time of his life and feels right at home in the zombie apocalypse. He's the only one who brings humor to this show. He would be the perfect cover for ZQ, you know Zombie Quarterly. Daryl gives no long winded speeches. He just kicks zombie ass as he's a man of action. This show desperately needs to take on his persona more. I keep on hoping Woody Harrelson's character from "Zombieland" shows up wanting a twinkie. This show desperately needs more of a sense-of-humor.

I also like the character Glenn, his inventiveness and his ability to get in and out of various buildings. He's clever and resourceful. Although it feels like the show doesn't know what to do with him. What was with him being caught praying? He acted like he felt ashamed, why? This show seems to have an uncomfortable relationship with religion. I can't tell if the producers behind this show are religious or hate religion. The show seems confused about what it's stance is on religion. It's important because the show talks a lot about religion. I thought the zombies were pretty much mindless, so why were they communing in a church? Is that suppose to be symbolic of church goers?

The lameness of T-Dog is driving me crazy. Isn't he about to be zombie food? Please. T-Dog had so much potential. His whole paranoid rant when he was hanging out with Dale on the highway was one of the many boring scenes in episode 2. Can we just change his name to T bone and he can become zombie food? Joining him as potential zombie food is another lame character, Dale Horvath. Is he suppose to be playing the wise old philosopher? If he is, he's doing a terrible job. He whines more than dispenses wisdom. He also seems to be the most codependent character on the show. One reason I hate Horvath is because he talked Andrea out of killing herself at the CDC. Why does he still care about her? Metaphorically she's the willful daughter to his out of touch father. What is her purpose on the show anyways? To drive down the ratings? This is a critique of the character not the actress. You can't blame the actress for the crap she's given. The three characters who've survived the zombie apocalypse, sure are wimpy. I just want to slap all 3 of them.

It's been alluded to that Hershel is going to be sending Rick and his fellow survivors from the farm. I like that because the action has suffered mightily ever sense they found Hershel's farm. "The Walking Dead" would be so much more exciting if the zombies found his farm. Other than a gate briefly alluded to, it seems his farm has no defense system. No one is scared of the zombies there. The zombies find the people who go out into the wilderness, why don't they find a house that's not exactly hidden and constantly has lights on? The zombies were sure able to find that high school WHERE THERE ARE NO PEOPLE! Aargh! I realize many of those zombies became zombies at the high school, but still....

Again it drives me crazy that the survivors don't lure a large group of zombies and kill a whole bunch of them. The survivors in Stephen King's "The Cell" do that. With Lori Grimes whining about what kind of life they are living, it seems to me they'd be more proactive in killing as many zombies as possible. Either that or building some kind of protective fortification. Once the zombies find Hershel's house, it's all over for them. The zombie free oasis of Hershel's farm is so unbelievable.

There are two story lines that are going on that have overstayed their welcome. The first is will Carl survive or not? The second is the lost Sophia. The longer she's gone, the more unlikely it will be when they miraculously discover her alive. (Either find her soon or let her die.) Who cares about either? They only lead to long winded, boring speeches and terrible acting. The actress playing Sophia's Mom was doing some of the fakest crying in this last Sunday's episode. I wanted to slap her. I was hoping Daryl would shoot her right there in the RV and put her out of our misery. Hopefully both of these story lines will be resolved in Sunday's episode.

I haven't read "The Walking Dead" comic books yet but they've got to be better than this show right?The 15th "Walking Dead" comic book collection is about to be released. What's about the comic book that makes it so popular? Other than brief flashes why hasn't that translated to the TV show?

I think that quality original series on AMC may be ending. AMC's original programming started off with the great "Mad Men". Next up was the much loved "Breaking Bad" which was followed by the too smart for TV audiences "Rubicon". Also somewhere was the awful looking "The Prisoner", that was probably the sign that AMC original programming isn't perfect.

After that came a half-decent first season of "The Walking Dead", which is looking all the better after this so far terrible second season. That was followed by "The Killing" which started out well. But as the season progressed the show got a lot less interesting. It eventually slowed down so much and then completely stopped on that horrific 13th episode. One of the worst episodes of TV ever!

Obviously in the mean time "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" continued being excellent according to most. Starting next week is "Hell On Wheels". A western about the transcontinental railroad. At first I was excited for this show but after some mediocre TV of late my expectations have been tempered. For AMC to continue it's winning streak "The Walking Dead" needs to improve very quickly. "Hell on Wheels" has to have the story telling that made "Breaking Bad" so successful. Last and it better not be least is the fifth season of "Mad Men" coming in January. I expect amazing things from their fifth season.

themusicaddict

Results from first day of Great Sports Weekend, No Surprise BYU loses to TCU

Hello,

The World Series ended last night with an anti-climactic 6-2 victory by St. Louis. This is the Cardinals 11th World Series title. Congrats St. Louis. I'm trying not to be too bitter that if Atlanta had won a couple more games, the Cardinals wouldn't have even been in the playoffs.

Sadly the San Jose Sharks went into Detroit and beat the Red Wings 4-2. After winning their first five matches, Detroit has now lost three straight. I'm hoping they can turn it around. Detroit is now tied for second place in the Western Conference's Central Division.

BYU played TCU and to no one's surprise TCU won the game. While not a big surprise, still a bit sad for me. I didn't expect BYU to win this game. After TCU jumped out to a 14-0 lead my hopes shifted to hoping the Cougars wouldn't get blown out. BYU certainly played with heart and pluck to make the game more competitive than the last time they played TCU. I actually have more interest in this team's season now than after last week's shellacking of Idaho State.

Again in their first year of independence BYU had to schedule anybody they could. So for the next two weekends they play a couple more speed bumps. They then close their regular season on the Islands as they play a slightly better than average Hawaii team. Once BYU got bowl eligible, they were already locked into the Armed Services Bowl.

Riley Nelson certainly gives BYU a better chance to win than Jake Heaps, but he's still an average quarterback. He'll never remind BYU fans of all the great quarterbacks of the past. I predict in the offseason that Jake Heaps will transfer. Then I'm hoping the next great BYU quarterback is at BYU or will sign before next season starts. I then expect to see Riley Nelson be the starting quarterback at the beginning of the season, before stud quarterback prospect takes over during the middle of the season. Then I hope potential stud quarterback returns BYU to the glory days. The glory days being at least 10 wins a season. I'm tired of the mediocrity of the last couple of seasons. I'd also like to see BYU's next great quarterback.

However this early Saturday morning has started off well. Arsenal, playing much better now, beat Chelsea 5-3 in EPL play. Arsenal beat Chelsea on their home field. This is the first time that Chelsea have given up five goals in Premier League play. Robin Van Persie scored the hat trick for Arsenal. After being 15th place early in the season Arsenal is now tied for 5th place in the EPL.

With celebrating my youngest son's birthday today, it's going to be a busy day. I'm hoping tonight though that I can watch a lot of the USC-Stanford and Utah-OSU games. Go Trojans! Go Utes!

themusicaddict

Great Sports Weekend, Spotify playlist

Hello,

It's shaping up to be a great sports weekend. Obviously the highlight of this great sports weekend is Game 7 of the World Series tonight. I didn't watch last night's game, but I did follow it on the internet. Now I wish I would have watched it. There were 3 different times that I thought that Texas had won the game, only for St. Louis to come back each time. Two times St. Louis were down to their final strike and still got a crucial hit to extend the inning. The Cardinals eventually won on David Freese's home run in the bottom of the 11th. As I was watching the highlights this morning on ESPN I was getting goosebumps. If you want to read a much more thorough recap of last night's amazing game go to grantland.com. Read Jonah Keri's article there. In honor of Freese's dramatic 11th inning home run:

I've got two pieces of good news for the St. Louis Cardinals. Chris Carpenter will be pitching for St. Louis. Also one of the biggest all-time MLB playoff chokers won't be playing. That's the highly over rated Matt Holliday. He's been virtually invisible at the plate and in the field he hasn't been much better. He had at least two highly questionable defensive plays last night. I also remember when the Dodgers were playing St. Louis in the playoffs a couple of years ago. Holliday dropped a very catchable ball and with that gift it propelled the Dodgers to the next round. Sometimes its hard to remember the Dodgers have had some good times in the McCourt era.

Then showing on ESPN at roughly the same time it will be 6-2 BYU vs. 5-2 TCU. As a humongous BYU fan, I'll be honest with you BYU isn't as good as their record indicates. Bill Parcell's famous quote is "You are what your record says you are". However I don't think that's true with this BYU team. They've played some really bad teams this season, yes Idaho State I'm looking at you. Tonight's game will be played at Cowboys Stadium against a TCU team having an off year. This game will be a good test of how good both teams are. If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on the Horned Frogs though. BYU is 1-0 in Cowboys Stadium.

Also playing tonight is the Detroit Red Wings vs. the San Jose Sharks in a rematch of last season's NHL Western Conference semi-finals. The Sharks have knocked the Red Wings out of the playoffs two years in a row. After winning their first five matches, Detroit has looked terrible in their last two matches. On espn.com's Streak for the Cash, 91.2% predicted Detroit to win tonight's hockey battle.

Possibly the college football game of the day tomorrow is 7-0 Stanford and Andrew Luck traveling to LA to play 6-1 USC and Matt Barkley in the Coliseum. This game kicks off at 8:00 EST and I hope I can catch some of it. This is a game that USC must win if they want to be considered an elite team again. Although the Trojans are still on probation, this would be a great victory for the future. It will help with recruiting and hopefully USC can regain their previous prominence. With Pat Haden as the AD, I expect them to win the right way.

Also playing tomorrow night at about the same time will be my alma mater Utah. (By the way Miami Hurricane fans, the University of Utah is the real U.) The 3-4 Utes will be playing at home against 2-5 Oregon State. I'm challenging the Utes to stand up and win this game. Yes, I know Jordan Wynn is out for the season, but no more excuses. Jordan Wynn isn't the answer anyway. I hope both BYU and Utah can get real quarterbacks next season. Anyway it's time for Utah to get their first Pac 12 conference win tomorrow. OSU is a terrible team, I could care less they've won two in a row. They've started playing better but remember this is a team who lost to a D2 team and got manhandled by BYU at home. Utes, it's time to man up! If the Utes lose this game they should go back to the WAC and see if they can get back into that league. Yes I said the WAC not the MWC.

Then finally on Sunday Night Football 3-3 Dallas travels to Philadelphia to play the 2-4 Eagles. This game will be interesting and will tell us a lot about both teams. I'm not hyped up over either team's playoff chances. I predict this could be a make or break game for both teams. Although this also could be one good victory for two teams really going nowhere. With Washington losing their starting running back and tight end for the rest of the season, they are now a shell of what was only a mediocre team anyway. Dallas, New York and Philadelphia all could win the NFC East. Although I predict it will end up being a two team race and the wheels will come off for one of the teams. It's so close though I'm not going to predict how that will break out.

I've been compiling a list of new CDs that I want to listen to on Spotify. Here's the list and a quick review of each CD if I've listened to it yet.

1) Glen Campbell: "Ghost on the Canvas". Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 4 months now. This is his final CD and he's going on a final tour. I was surprised by how much I like this CD. Yes it has some filler, but overall a good CD. Grade: B-

2) The Bangles: "Sweetheart of the Sun". I should have been tipped off the horrid title. This CD sounds like a last gasp attempt at stardom for a band that hasn't had a hit in 20 years. Although in the song "Ball n' Chain" it does have a good line. "If brains were clothes, you wouldn't have anything to wear". That was good for a chuckle but unfortunately is the highlight of this very bad CD. Grade: F-

3) Duran Duran: "All You Need Is Now". Another classic 80's band trying to remain relevant in the era of Lady Gaga and all the crap rap. They are slightly more successful than the Bangles, but overall this is still a mediocre CD. Some people say this is Duran Duran's best CD since the 80's. However that's code for while this CD isn't great it's much better than the crap they've put out the last 20+ years. I disagree with that because their 1993 so called Wedding Album is better than "All You Need Is Now".

That CD had a couple of classic songs on it, "Ordinary World":

It also features this absolutely amazing song, "Come Undone". The female back up singers add a great touch to this song.

It also has this song "Too Much Information", which is a return to their classic 80's sound:

I haven't listened to any of the below CDs yet, but plan on doing so.

4) "Stronger"- Kelly Clarkson

5) "World Wide Rebel Songs": The Nightwatchman

I did listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers "I'm With You" and I wasn't really impressed. But I keep on reading good reviews of it so I'm going to give it another chance.

themusicaddict

Great Theme Songs, Steaming Piles of Crap, The Disastrous "Lulu", "Lost" Episode "Psalm 23" and the Kaysville Beginning Orchestra

Hello,

Welcome to the 997th themusicaddict blog. So what are your plans to celebrate my 1000th blog? Are they the same as mine, doing absolutely nothing? It looks like my 1,000th blog will hit about Tuesday or Wednesday. My youngest child turns 8 on Monday, yes Halloween Day. I have my kids this weekend and we will be celebrating his birthday. The poor kid has had a lot of changes and upheavals in his life. Not only have his parents divorced but he's been forced to move a lot of times. That's not easy when he's so averse to change. I was able to see him last night as my middle son was performing at a concert. I felt very good that he came and sat by me.

My middle son performed with the Kaysville Beginning Orchestra. I'm glad to see him find something he likes to do, I just hope he sticks with it. Anyway last night's program finale was playing the "Theme From The Pink Panther":

Another great theme song is the theme from "Mission Impossible". The new "M:I" movie "Ghost Protocol" looks like a steaming pile of crap. If you can't even come up with a good title, how do you expect the movie to be good? At least we'll always have this song:

I hate to be the one that shouts that the king has no clothes, but haven't all the "Mission:Impossible" movies been steaming piles of crap? We really are in dark days of movies. There are so many crappy movie series that the movie studios are sucking dry of every penny they possibly can. I'm not talking about the "Harry Potter" or "Twilight" books. At least those series were planned out in advance. I'm talking about the "Transformers" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" type of films. The first "Pirates" movie was mildly amusing but way too long. It would have been a much better movie if a half-hour of bloat had been cut. I like a dumb summer popcorn movie as much as the next person, but some of these movies take being dumb too seriously.

Another all-time great song, not just an all-time great theme, is for "Hawaii-Five O". Though as in the case above the song is much better than the show it's from. The current "Hawaii Five-O" is mediocre television. I'd point out (again) how lame the stories are, but this show doesn't really have stories. It's more like a random collection of thoughts trying to make a story. Although in fairness the story is almost beside the point. It's hard to beat Grace Park in a bikini or Lauren German's amazing green eyes. I also love seeing two "Lost" alumni with Daniel Dae-Kim (Jin) and Terry O'Quinn (the amazing and mysterious John Locke). Anyway the theme song remains the best thing about the show.

Rereading the above paragraph I realize why I still like the show. Besides the things I mentioned, there's also the mostly cool characters, the amazing scenery and the show's humor.

There's been a lot of talk about the collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica, what some people refer to as Loutellica. The name of their CD is "Lulu" and it comes out Tuesday. I went to amazon.com to get a sense of what the CD is about. I knew there was going to be trouble when I read this "Lulu was inspired by German expressionist writer Frank Wedekind's plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box, which tell a story of a young abused dancer's life and relationships and are now collectively known as the 'Lulu Plays.'"

Really Metallica is working on a music project revolving around something called "Lulu Plays"? They are collaborating with Lou Reed? Lou Reed is even still alive? None of those things made me want to run to Graywhale and buy it Tuesday. While surfing the net the other day I stumbled across this review of "Lulu" at grantland.com. It's Chuck Klosterman's scathing review: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7146312/lou-reed-metallica-album

Honestly there's no reason that "Tokyo Oklahoma" should work, but somehow it does. This is John Anderson's "Tokyo Oklahoma":

Here's one of Anderson's greatest songs and also one of the most heart breaking songs ever. It also hits closer to home than I'd like it to.

This song kicks my butt every time I hear it and I'm thankful that this song doesn't hit close to home at all. I just wish I could find a better version of this song.

Sports and other follies"

The LA Dodgers, under Frank "Always In" McCourt have hit yet another new low. (I'm sorry because McCourt owns the Dodgers, it's hard to separate the two.) Now there's a lawsuit and McCourt is claiming Brian Stow is partially responsible for his own beating. McCourt's lawyer, Jerome Johnson, is using the it takes two to tango logic in trying to assign a percentage of blame on Stow for Stow being beaten. It's only in our troubled legal system that makes sense. It's the classic blame the victim philosophy.

Johnson does have precedent for this legal tactic. This really irritates me. I don't care if Stow was taunting the Dodgers fans who attacked him. That doesn't give anyone the right to attack a defenseless person. Stow was in a coma for several months and according to espn.com; "remains in a Bay Area rehabilitation facility. His family has said that he is speaking again and has made great progress since the March 31 attack, but that he still needs around-the-clock care indefinitely." (Thanks to espn.com)

Frank McCourt is quite simply a crap magnet. Of course, another word for that is karma. Hire a lawyer that suggests to blame the victim is abhorrent. How much will McCourt ruin this team before MLB can finally the Dodgers from his desperate grasp?

Thoughts on "Lost" Season Two, Episode 10 "The 23rd Psalm". The flashbacks are for Mr. Eko, including learning how he received that name. After killing a priest under duress, and to protect his brother, he was drafted into a marauding gang. That led to his rise until he became a warlord himself. In that childhood moment he shot a man so that his brother wouldn't have to. From that day the brothers took separate paths. The younger brother, Yemi, became a Priest and Eko became a warlord. Who knew it would take a mysterious island in the Pacific to reunite them? Unfortunately Yemi was dead as the result of Eko's poor choices in life. I liked how the cross necklace revolved between the brothers through the course of the show.

Mr. Eko remains a very cool character. He's the ultimate badass. Not only did he became a Nigerian warlord but he also faced down the smoke monster. The smoke monster was the one to flinch. That was a great scene. Charlie got off the line of the night when Mr. Eko told him that he wasn't scared of it. And Charlie with an incredulous note in his voice said "I can see that".

In the chorus of this song substitute smoke monster for the word ghost.

Later things weren't so good for Charlie when Claire kicked Charlie out of their tent. I hadn't realized that they had been living together. Although it's obvious they didn't consummate the relationship yet. Charlie went and turned to his stash of Virgin Mary/ heroin containers for comfort. I hope he didn't partake because that would be so lame. I know heroin is hard to kick, having read Nikki Sixx's "Heroin Diaries". (No, I'm not saying I understand in anyway how hard it is to kick heroin, but after reading that book I understand the process better.) But in fiction a cycle of addiction recovery addiction makes for a boring story. After the first 1.5 seasons being so amazing I expect better from J.J. Abrams and the gang.

I'm getting even more tired of the Michael/Walt story line. The Others have kidnapped Walt and I know this is suppose to make me feel sympathetic for Walt. However the only thing it illicits from me is a yawn. I just don't care. It also drives me crazy that Michael thinks he's communicating with his son through the computer. When will he see he's being played for a fool? Will he see it before it's too late? With Boone and Shannon recently being written out of the show, are Michael and Walt the next characters to leave?

I also like how Jack assured him that they would eventually get a group together and go get Walt. When they get that group together I hope it includes Mr. Eko, Locke and Ana Lucia. Mr. Eko is a born killer and Mr. Locke knows his way around both guns and knives. I know that Ana Lucia might be slightly unbalanced, but she knows how to kick out. She's killed at least two people we know of.

Finally with NBA owners and players meeting yesterday for 15 hours, and seeming to be making some progress, I think it's only a matter of days before they agree on a new CBA. It does make me laugh that with the season originally scheduled to start on November 1st, it wasn't until October 26th that they finally got some urgency. Greed put them in this predicament and it's what will get them out. To paraphrase a line from Blake Shelton's "Ol' Red", "greed got them in and greed got them out".

If there was ever any doubt that this lockout was mainly about greed, the two sides still wanting to play 82 games, proves that it is. David Stern previously said that the first two weeks of the season were "cancelled". The biggest loser of this whole NBA fiasco is Stern's reputation. Almost nothing he has said has come to fruition or has he kept his word.

With still having a free agency period, training camps and everything else how will they possibly still have a 82 game season? Chris Cooley, injured Washington Redskin, blames his season ending injury on the NFL Lockout. I think NBA players will also be injured if they are rushed into play just to make the mainly billionaire owners a few more dollars. Also there's still the NBA All-Star tour that's suppose to start Sunday. We have all these things in play so there are still roadblocks to a season starting still.

themusicaddict

3 Consecutive Good Rolling Stone Covers, Evangeline Lilly, Season Two of "Lost"

Hello,

Due to a time constraint I wasn't going to write a blog today. But then I found some time and started working on this blog. Once I started working on it I quickly had diarrhea of the mind. One thought led to several others. I can't finish this blog now, I'll finish it later when I have time. 2:00 MST

While the blog still isn't completed, I've worked on it a bit more. 11:00 MST

People continue to talk about the demise of Rolling Stone magazine. However it continues to live on and even thrive. From what I can tell it's still the most influential music magazine. I'm guessing that goes with it being the best music magazine out there. Rolling Stone covers both classic and new artists, although I'm not sure what their fascination with Lil Wayne is. Rolling Stone is very topical but also covers great music from the past. It's one of those magazines that I find 3 or 4 interesting things in each issue. It's sticky as people in the ad business say, which means RS can charge more for each ad.

Two other things in it's favor is that it's reasonably priced and comes out every other week . I enjoy most music magazines that come from England. Those include magazines like Mojo, Classic Rock and a couple of other titles I can't remember right off. However all those are monthly and cost over $10 per issue. Unless it's an amazing issue that's just too much to pay for a magazine. Many times they have longer and more in-depth articles. So they usually provide a lot of quality readying. I don't care if it has a free CD, many times the free CD blows. I wish they would get rid of the "free" CD and cut the price.

Spin is also a reasonably priced music magazine, but honestly it sucks. I do subscribe but only because of the price and it even occasionally has an interesting article. Although those don't come frequently enough. The last issue I looked through only took about 20 minutes. It was the fashion issue and that issue was non-sticky. Spin desperately tries to be so cutting edge that many times it's cover musician is someone I've never heard of. This month the cover artist is Dat Racist. I've heard of them but couldn't tell you anything about them and honestly I don't care. For instance, is Dat Racist one person or a band? But honestly again who cares? Then last month's musician I can't even remember her name. Probably the best thing about Spin is the free songs that come each issue. Each month they have a new iTunes code that one can use to download 10 to 15 songs a month. Occasionally I stumble across a gem in those free songs.

The new issue of Rolling Stone issue that was announced today, it has Eddie Murphy on the cover. He's riding a career resurgence and will be in the new movie "Tower Heist". He'll also be hosting the next Oscars. Although the movie looks like a return to form for Murphy, the movie looks terrible. In the article he says he'll no longer be doing family films. Thank goodness. As a father of four children I appreciate family films. However they are a complete waste for Murphy, he needs to return to making those kind of movies that made him a superstar in the first place. In other words Axel Foley not Mr. Doolittle.

The two previous Rolling Stone covers were for Steve Jobs, albeit he had to die to get that cover, and an article about Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". This is a relatively hot streak for Rolling Stone. The four previous covers before that, prepare to yawn now, Jon Stewart, George Harrison, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Sheepdogs. A fake news person, the third most important Beatle, a washed up band that hit their peak in the early 90's and an unsigned band that won a Rolling Stone contest.

Also Rolling Stone magazine your online archives suck. I read the article about Evangeline Lilly from 2005 in your archives. The article was written during the second season of "Lost". It was a weak article and to read the article online was almost more work than it was worth. Rolling Stone what you should do is steal, uh borrow, how DC Comics presents their online comic books. Their system works a lot better and is much more intuitive than your online archives.

Oh and one more thing RS, you put the gorgeous Miss Lilly on the cover of that issue. I'm not sure how you did it, but that's the worst I've seen her. She's an amazingly gorgeous woman. A gorgeous face and body. She looks gorgeous on "Lost", you should have used a picture from the show. Or at least posing as if in a scene from the show. I'm not sure why you featured a picture with Miss Lilly not looking her best.

I continue watching the second season of "Lost" on DVD. (Thanks to the Davis County Library system.) Last night I watched the episode "What Kate Did", that might be the best episode of Season 2. Season 1 ended so well with Locke and others looking down into the hatch. But Season 2 has started out slowly. However with the 9th episode of the season "Lost" got it's mojo back.

This was obviously the episode where we learned "What Kate Did". Katie, as her Dad says, has murder in her heart. She killed her step father, Wayne, in cold blood. Is anyone shedding a tear for the wife beating Wayne? No, but still there might be better options than killing him. Later Sawyer seemed to be channeling Wayne to both Jack and Kate. That was creepy. Also this is the episode where a horse ran in front of the car causing the Marshall to crash the car. Later we see the horse on the island. Both the horse and Kate seem to know each other, but so far no explanation has come yet.

In this very busy issue episode Mr. Eko presents Locke with a bit more of the orientation film. Mr. Eko had found this in a different place on the island. The new section of film has a very ominous warning on what the computer should and shouldn't be used for. (BTW, when are they going to stop entering in the code every 108 minutes? I'm sorry if I'd been Desmond one day I would have just laid in bed and ignored the alarm after a few weeks. Haven't they figured out yet that nothing will happen if the code isn't answered? For me at some point I'd stop being one of Pavlov's dogs.) As Eko and Locke are re watching the restored orientation film Michael is in the other room. Of course he's doing exactly what the film says he shouldn't do. He thinks he's talking with his son. Hasn't he learned yet that the Others like to mess with the Oceanic 815 survivors? That's what they do. He's no more talking to Walt than he was talking with me.

"What Kate Did" was probably the second best episode of all 34 episodes I've seen so far. It also has the advantage of coming after one of the shows worst episodes. The previous episode was "Abandoned", it is the show that featured Ana Lucia Cortez. we saw her flashbacks. We also know she has murder in her heart as she tracked down the burglar who shot her. However the rest of the episode was Michelle Rodriguez mourning in the jungle. This was obviously suppose to be a highlight episode for Rodriguez but it bombed spectacularly in that regard. I also love how she only had the skimpiest clothes available to wear. The pants are so tight on her I'm amazed she can breathe. This horrid episode is not the fault of Rodriguez, it's the fault of the folks that stuck her with the horrid script.

Locke continues to be my favorite character, but Mr. Eko is quickly growing on me. He has such cool quotes, paraphrasing here, "Don't mistake coincidence with fate". Of course, how can you not love Kate Austen. Also Sawyer, although having a terrible attitude and entirely in love with himself, is always good for a laugh. I'm also holding out hope that Ana Lucia will become a great character. I had such high hopes after she flirted with Jack in the Season 1 finale. Claire seems to be in the process of being relegated to being off the show soon. I like Michael okay although I'm tired of his story line involving his son. It seems the producers recognize that and that's why we haven't seen much of him in Season 2. I also love Sun and Jin, especially now that Jin is finally starting to learn English. Why did they take so long before his character started learning English. I'm also glad that Locke finally got the handcuff off of Jin's hand He's had that on for so long, I can't remember how he even got it on in the first place.

I can live without Charley, Hurley, Rose and Bernard. Also I won't miss Boone or Shannon too much. The actress playing Shannon seems to have fallen completely off the face of the earth. Any characters I'm not mentioning I've forgot about and seem not to interest me that much.

Two questions: 1) When are we going to see Locke's flashbacks that explain what made him such a resourceful person? He knows about boars, Nigerian drug runners, how to use dynamite, knives and how to splice film. That plus several other cool things he knows that we have no explanation how he knows them. 2) Also when are we going to find out about the Others and what they want. That is if they actually want anything or are they just jerking around the survivors? When they kidnap the plane survivors what do they do with them? Are they part of the experiment that's going on with the hatch?

Thinking about all that makes me want to skip out on the last few hours of work and go home and watch more episodes tonight.

themusicaddict

NBA Canceling More Games, The Greed of Lawyers, Great Songs

Hello,

According to espn.com the NBA will announce today that more regular season games will be cancelled. The NBA will cancel at least 102 more games through November 28th. So much for David Stern's non threat if a resolution wasn't reached by last Tuesday all games through Christmas Day would be cancelled. With all of Stern's false threats not coming to fruition, is it time to let someone else represent the NBA in negotiations? Also how many games are they going to cancel before they just cancel the whole season?

Today is Day 117 of the NBA Lockout and with no word of future negotiations it looks like they will sail past the NFL's 132 day lockout. On Day 117 in the NFL Lockout it was generally agreed that it was only a matter of time until their lockout ended. Other than the St. Louis Rams, Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins fans, most people are glad the NFL is back.

MLB owners and players, who are in the midst of a very tense and exciting World Series, I beg of you not to have a lockout/strike when your labor agreement expires on December 11th of this year. (The December 11th date may be wrong as I'm relying on my memory. I was unable to confirm the specific date.) Bud Selig et al. please learn from the greedy idiots of the NBA and NFL and resolve your labor issues asap. Now I know baseball players are just as greedy as those other leagues but I'm hoping MLB agrees to a new contract without any public dispute. Dearest MLB wouldn't you much rather advertise your league as a league that hasn't missed games this millennium? The last time MLB cancelled games was in the 1994-1995 season, that whole season was cancelled. It will be interesting to see how much the NHL and MLB can capitalize on the NFL and NBA lockouts.

A potential lockout/strike could be a future scourge of Major League Baseball. However Dodgers owner Frank McCourt remains a current scourge of MLB. Reports are coming out today that he took $190 million dollars from the Los Angeles Dodgers for personal reasons. This is one of the many issues currently being argued in a Delaware bankruptcy court. At what point is his stupidity and greed going to get him kicked out from being the Dodgers owner? He's learned how to tie up issues in court so he can keep the Dodgers as long as possible. Wouldn't it be better to use that money and go out and get Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder or Roy Oswalt signed to a free agent contract?

Here's a frightening number before I move on to more happy topics. In my few experiences with lawyers I hated it. Their greed and avarice are even more extreme than professional sports leagues. The McCourts have been battling each other for several months over their divorce. Through July of this year, over $20 million dollars has been spent on lawyers for both sides. That's just through July of this year. Both the McCourts have agreed to terms of a divorce, but a judge hasn't signed off on it yet. Imagine how much more money has been spent on lawyers since July?

This is just a complete guess, but lets say both sides have spent over $25 million dollars on attorneys through today. (I don't know if that total includes the money McCourt has spent for his bankruptcy charade or his battle with MLB.) Think about that number, $25 million, for a few minutes. Imagine what could be done with that kind of money. Couldn't the lawyers and courts split $1,000,000 and the rest of the money go to something much more productive?

Aren't there homeless children in LA that could use that money for permanent housing? Isn't the state of California in a severe financial bind now? Couldn't that money be used to pay off some of it's debts? Couldn't some of that money go to Brian Stow's family? He's the person beaten so badly at a Dodgers-Giants game that he was in a coma for a few months. I'm guessing his medical bills are high. Couldn't that money go to the educational system in California? Lawyers suck! I understand why people compare lawyers and vampires, but that comparison is unfair to vampires.

I think for Halloween I'm going to go as Frank McCourt. I'm going to put on a suit and walk around with my hand out.

Okay I think that's enough of the idiocy of sports.

Here are some great songs. Let's start first with a few of my favorite Smiths songs. Yes, they have many other great songs besides "How Soon Is Now". This is "Girlfriend In A Coma":

This might be my favorite Smiths song, "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". I especially love the lines "And if a double decker bus crashes into us to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die. And if a ten ton truck kills the both of us to die by your side well the pleasure, the privilege is mine."

Here's a song from one of the best 80's soundtracks ever, "Pretty In Pink". This song is "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want":

Recently it was announced that Madonna is going to be the Super Bowl halftime entertainment this season. I think that's a good choice, I was reminded of the greatness of her music when I heard "Like A Prayer" on my iPod this morning. She was great especially in the 80's, she released classic after classic all through that decade. I'm hoping she doesn't sing this lame version:

The above version strips the song of all the things that makes it such a classic song. Madonna please learn from the Black Eyed Peas Super Bowl halftime debacle. Do not repeat their mistakes. This is how "Like A Prayer" should sound:

Here's some other lesser known but still great songs. I'm starting with Southern Culture on the Skids. My thanks to Tom Tom Music for playing this CD when I was in their store many years ago. I'm not sure if Tom Tom Music is still around, but this great song still is. The CD Tom Tom was playing was "Plastic Seat Sweat", I would highly urge you to add that to your collection.

Here's one of the most obnoxious and annoying songs of all-time. In other words I absolutely love it. This is President of the United States "Peaches":

I don't feature the gorgeous Rihanna enough, this is the very sexy "Russian Roulette":

themusicaddict

NBA: We Will Survive Until You Come Back ! I promise, "The Walking Dead" continues to disappoint

Hello,

As you know the NBA is in an extended lockout, today is about Day 116 of the lockout. Any time the NBA players play in these charity games or are anywhere publicly, they usually make some comments about the current labor situation. One of those comments that tends to come out is how the NBA fan is suffering. This is one of those comments from Michael Beasley following a charity game in Oklahoma City.

"Fighting over 3 percent, that's kind of retarded to me," said Michael Beasley, who scored a game-high 56 points. "But it is what is. We'll come to an agreement. "The quicker we can get a deal done, the better," he added. "Like I've been saying before, the main ones suffering are our fans."

Thanks for the concern Michael, but believe me we aren't "suffering". Suffering is what is going on in Somalia, earthquake ravaged Haiti and China. There are people that work at the arenas and at the surrounding businesses that are having a drop in sales. Those are the ones that are suffering the most. As for the fans, there are some people that are missing the NBA. But David Stern, et al I think you might be surprised by how few people actually are missing the NBA. How many websites have popped up with people begging the NBA to get back to playing? I haven't heard of any. How many people are calling into sports radio complaining how they are missing the NBA? In the several hours of sports radio I've listened to over the last several weeks I haven't heard one call about that. Not only that but the NBA at this point is mostly an afterthought. The only person that seems to be missing the NBA greatly is Bill Simmons. But he's learning to cope and already has purchased LA Kings season tickets.

People say football is king and the king is comfortably ruling right now. In an era of media saturation the NBA isn't considered by many as that big of a loss. The NFL and college football are in mid season form. A very competitive World Series is being played now. The NHL and EPL Soccer seasons have recently started. Then there are all the TV series, movies, books, plays, music and Spotify that can be consumed. Also Christmas season is right on top of us. Even if the NBA was playing now, would we make a lot of effort following it?

Now when the NBA comes back I'll go back to following it on a limited basis, I look forward to seeing how a young Jazz team will do. But until then I'll do just fine without it.

Also Atlanta businessman Cal Darden is organizing a 6 game world tour with several of the NBA's biggest stars. Oh yeah Darden also invited Carlos Boozer. Does anyone consider Boozer as a big star anymore? The last thing I remember about Boozer comes from the 4th quarter of the Bulls last game of the season. It was in the playoffs against the Miami Heat with the Bulls on the verge of elimination. In the do or die game and Chicago's coach decided to keep Boozer on the bench for the whole 4th quarter. Since when do you do that to a superstar? That's something you'd do to a poorly playing alleged superstar though. I guess they need someone to ride the bench on this tour.

Although in a 6 game season, maybe Carlos could make it through without being injured. Of course, this is the same person that was injured before last season even started after tripping at home. Again I'm so glad the Jazz let him go before last season. From all Jazz fans thank you Chicago Bulls.

"The Walking Dead" season 2 has got off to a slow start. The first episode was uneven but had it's moments. But last night's episode, "Bloodletting" was a complete bust. The episode started off with a less than exciting flashback. I hope they don't resort to those to much. After watching the first couple of seasons of "Lost", I'm about done with flashbacks. Many times they seem to be lazy writing and most of the time aren't that illuminating.

Rick is running across the field to Herschel's farm with his injured son in his arms. I know that's suppose to be dramatic, but it really isn't. Not for one second do I believe that Carl's life is at risk. It's just the set up for other supposedly dramatic scenes to come. For instance, when Shane threatens to break Rick's legs. That was actually over dramatic.

Also the whole scene on the road with T Dog and Dale was unforgivingly bad. I loved that the writers actually had Dale calling T Dog by his nickname with a serious face. I can just see the look on the mid 60's actor Jeffrey DeMunn when he found out that he actually had to say that drivel. And then T Dog is talking about being lynched etc. Oh my that whole scene couldn't get over soon enough for me. Originally I thought T Dog was going to be a cool character, but he's been pretty wimpy lately. When he injured his arm in this season's first episode, that was the fakest looking injury in the history of television. That looked frighteningly fake. Also IronE Singleton's (T Dog) acting was equally bad.

Herschel tells Rick what supplies he'll need to perform life saving surgery on Carl. Of course they are at the local high school which is infested by zombies. However Shane and Otis go over to the high school to get the needed medical supplies. With all the zombies still there, Shane and Otis have to be creative to get into the trailer. I digress briefly I question the validity of the zombies still being at the high school in such large numbers. These zombies have been there for several weeks now. How are they living? What are they eating? Shouldn't they start dying soon from hunger?

Then I don't know how important of a character Otis is in in the comic books. It seems he might be zombie food soon. Otis and Shane are only being saved by a bolt from a horde of hungry zombies. (However my incredulity wasn't saved, being saved by that one thin bolt is unbelievable. That story line is equally thin. ) it looks like he could fall to the "Star Trek" expendable crewman syndrome. In "Star Trek" when the main stars and unknown actors beamed to the ground, you always knew the main cast was fine. But many time the actors you'd never seen were killed in the episode. Otis has that look of being expendable now. Again where is the suspense? We all know that Shane is going to somehow make it out. I don't know if Otis will, but we don't know him well enough to care at this point.

That brings me back to the point that drives me crazy about this show. Why isn't the zombies hunger and aggressiveness used against them? The zombies come running when they hear a shotgun blast. Why don't the survivors lure a big group of zombies in one place and destroy them? Some of you say but that would then lure more zombies. Well then kill those zombies too. Shouldn't they wipe out a big swath of zombies at one time. That would make that area safer for quite a while.

Which brings me to my next point: I realize that Hershel's farm is isolated, but they really haven't had any contact with zombies there. If Rick and crew had destroyed a whole bunch of zombies previously Hershel's safe farm would be more realistic. With zombies popping out of nowhere in the forest, why haven't the zombies discovered where a whole bunch of humans are? At Hershel's farm they don't even have guards posted or seemingly any fear that a zombie may come upon on their house at any time. Also why can Otis shoot his shotgun and not worry about attracting zombies.

Will someone please clarify to me what does it take to be turned into a zombie. I thought in season one if you touched the blood of the zombie you'd be infected. Maybe that's from a zombie movie I've seen previously. It does seem like they can get very close to the zombies without fear of infection.

Finally the whole will they or won't they find Sophia has worn me out. This is a character I'm not very emotionally involved with. At this point I just don't care anymore whether she lives or dies. The only thing I care about now is having this story line resolved completely

by next week's episode.

I also hope the episodes are much better by next week's episode as well.

themusicaddict

Two Nerds On The Loose!, Utah football: Don't fire Kyle

Hello,

Yesterday it wasn't my regular weekend to have my kids. However my ex-wife was nice enough to let me hang out with him. It sometimes seems like my middle son gets lost in the shuffle. I have four kids and the middle son isn't the oldest, isn't the youngest and isn't the girl. So to further show how much I love him I thought it would be a good idea if he and I hung out for a weekend.

Anyway I picked him up about noon yesterday and I was able to see my other kids as well. Anyway he and I went to the comic book store near his house, HaJoMaJe. We each picked up 3 comic books each. With DC Comics relaunching 52 classic titles I bought three of those. I bought the first issue of the new revamped Nightwing, Red Lanterns and Superman Action Comics. My son is a sponge, he remembers so much of what he hears. For instance, he told me that Nightwing is actually Robin. I had no idea.

Sadly they didn't have any of the first issues of the Batman comic books. I think Batman is my favorite superhero. (Actually spending time to think about one's favorite superhero is definitely a sign of a nerd.) There are three different Batman titles that have been relaunched. I hope to pick those up over the next few weeks.

After leaving HaJoMaJe we went to a new movie theatre that has been built near where I live. It's a 14 screen complex including having an IMAX screen. My boy and I watched "Real Steel" on IMAX. That's a nerd's paradise I will tell you. First of all "Real Steel" is a movie that's absolutely amazing. The trailers have been cut to leave out most of the cool parts of the story. The trailers don't even introduce us to the awesome robot Zeus. He literally is one of the biggest stars of the movie.

"Real Steal" is one of the two best movies I've seen all year, the other being "The Adjustment Bureau". I had mocked this movie earlier as "Rocky" with robots. There's some of that and at some points I was expecting Atom to yell out "Yo Adrian". But the movie has a lot of differences from "Rocky". The story of "Real Steel" is amazing. I won't give too much away but I loved how the ending isn't a cliche. This movie could have been a disaster with the father-son story, the too cute and smart kid and many other things. However the movie was able to use the best part of those story lines without making the movie maudlin. This was a movie that the action was so big to overcome the weaknesses of lack of a story, like the "Transformer" movies. The action and the story actually complimented each other.

Also seeing the movie on IMAX just added another element to it, it made the movie that much better. Seeing this movie on IMAX is a must for fellow nerds of the world. I know some of you are skeptical in wondering how much cooler it would be to see a movie on IMAX as compared to the usual movie theatre screen. That's equivalent to saying how much cooler would it be to see a movie on a regular movie screen as compared to a TV screen? In this case, size does make a difference. Yes, it did cost $17.50 to go see the movie on IMAX, but it was worth every penny. I've been critical of the idiotic 3D technology, I hate it so much I don't watch 3D movies anymore. However IMAX rocks. I recommend to sit back as far as you can while watching an IMAX movie. I'd hate to be on the front row of an IMAX movie.

Also this Megaplex theatre Legacy Crossing is brand new. My son pointed out to me that the floors aren't even stick. They have cool posters from some of the classic movies of all-time. They had a poster for the original "Star Wars". That took me back in time to when I was a kid going to see "Star Wars" for the first time. I would suggest that Megaplex bring back the original "Star Wars" and show it on the IMAX screen. I would love to see that movie in the theaters again.

After that we want and ate lunch at Apollo Burgers, amazing hamburgers and onion rings. Following we went to Greywhale CD store. I was looking to pick up a couple of the older Everlast CDs. They only had "Whitey Ford Sings The Blues". I bought that one and will keep my eye on when the other CDs will be sold used. Also my boy has been bugging me about playing U2 when we are hanging out. He has an iPod and with his burgeoning taste in music I picked him up U2's "The Joshua Tree". That's definitely one of the best 80's CDs ever. I love Greywhale and how they have used CD's they obviously just want to get rid of. Using my Greywhale card the cost of both CDs total: $4.50. That's a sweet deal.

I had one more errand to run and then we came back home for the rest of the night. He was able to hang out with his grandfather, they are two peas in a pod. And I was able to watch some college football. I enjoyed watching USC beat over rated, namby pamby Notre Dame.

Although one thing I was impressed with in Notre Dame football was a couple of songs they chose to play in key moments of the game. On defensive third downs this song came pouring out of the speakers, I was quite surprised the leadership of this school allowed this song to be played. It's a great song and it was a great song choice for those third downs.

They also played a snippet of this song from the White Stripes:

Unfortunately I also watched part of the Utah-Cal game. My alma mater fell flat on it's face in their game against California. Utah's offense didn't even show up. They scored those 10 points when the game was practically over. That game was ugly on so many levels that I was embarrassed for Utah. In their first season in Pac 12 play, they are now 0-4 in the conference. And I know that the Utes aren't that bad. Now Utah goes home to play fellow Pac 12 doormat Oregon State. Remember OSU is the same team that lost at home to a D2 school. Also the Beavers are the same team that were thoroughly dominated at home by an average BYU team. OSU did score 44 points last night, against yet another Pac12 doormat Washington State. That raises OSU's record to probably better than they should be 2-5.

If Utah doesn't beat Oregon State, they should be absolutely embarrassed with themselves. With Utah at only 3-4 and tied for dead last in the Pac 12 South Division I'm wondering when the calls will start coming for the head of Kyle Whittingham. However I think that would be a mistake for the Utes to get rid of Kyle Whittingham. I think he's a great coach. He and Urban Mayer have really built a solid football team that all Utah fans and alumni can be proud of. That would be great irony though if Kyle Whittingham does all that work to raise the profile of Utes to get an invite into the Pac 12. Then he loses his job due to the team not doing well in the new conference.

Although its only a matter of time now that Rick Neuheisel will be fired from UCLA. The Bruins are in Ruins. The Pac 12 should be embarrassed by the nationally televised debacle last Thursday night. I'm not even talking about the fight that caused 10 players to be suspend. I'm talking about a very bad 2-5 Arizona thrashing a very bad 3-4 UCLA team 48-12. With teams and records like that I call into question again the validity of how good the Pac 12 is as a conference. Does the Pac 12 have any quality out of conference wins? Wins over very bad Pittsburgh, Montana St and Duke teams don't count as quality wins.

Essentially the Pac 12 is 5 good teams and the seven dwarves. Although I do expect Utah to quickly get to be one of the best teams in the conference. Once they get a real quarterback they should be well on their way. Jordan Wynn isn't that real quarterback though. I predict he'll come back next season. He will win the starting job, play adequately and then get injured and be out for the rest of the season. That seems to be his mo.

themusicaddict

The world is going to end today, no really!. NBA Fiasco, Top 5 shows on TV

Hello,

Harold Camping, otherwise known as the idiot, has said that once again the world is going to end. I hope you've got everything prepared for the end of the world. Remember this is the same dude that predicted the world would end on April 21st, but then went into brief hiding when it didn't. Camping now says this about April 21st: "On May 21 Christ did come spiritually to put all of the unsaved throughout the world into judgment. But that universal judgment will not be physically seen until the last day of the five month judgment period, on October 21, 2011."

With the world ending I guess we don't have to worry about the NBA Lockout any more. Heck I'm going home, I don't want to be stuck at work while the world ends. What does one wear when the end of the world is coming down?

With the world ending at least the soundtrack should be good. Here are some good songs to enjoy your last few hours of life:

Yeah you knew this one was coming:

Here are two Def Leppard songs. The first is titled "Armageddon", although I think it's about anything but.

And instead of listening to the uninteresting World Series last night I was rocking out to the recently released live Def Leppard CD. I listened to this song over and over again:

The NBA fiasco continues to go on. After 3 days and 30 hours of meeting with a mediator things are still far apart for both sides. David Stern said if there wasn't an agreement reached by Tuesday, all games up to Christmas would be cancelled. Well David it's three days past that deadline and still no more games have been cancelled. What's going on? Obviously David Stern is a terrible bluffer, I hope he doesn't play poker. The players didn't fall for his bluff at all. I don't know if the public did either. And the longer that the NBA stays away, the less fans care.

How long do we have to go through this prolonged labor negotiation before the NBA just cancels the whole season and puts us all out of our misery? The sooner that happens the better. I'm afraid that we won't be that fortunate. We all know the lockout will end when the players eventually break. The owners want to use this lockout to get terms more favorable to them. They have many more resources and can wait out the players.

Top 5 shows currently on TV:

If it wasn't for Comcast On Demand, I don't know how much TV I would be watching this season. However On Demand is so darn convenient. I can watch a show anytime I want to watch it. Also the commercials are much less. If I miss a show for some reason, I can just catch it the next night On Demand.

This list may change, but here's my top 5 now.

1) "Castle" This show starring Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion continues their great story telling. There's an amazing chemistry between Castle and Beckett. The producers continue to tease us with the will they or won't they story line. Serena Kaye's character was brought in last week to cause a little jealousy on Beckett's part. She seems a little more vulnerable to the charms of losing him now after having that seemed to be a possibility. At the end of season three she was shot and Castle told her that he loved her. I'm sure she still has his "I love you" ringing in her ears. Although she still claims that she doesn't remember anything about the shooting. Also without a doubt Stana Katic has to be the most gorgeous woman on TV.

2) "Terra Nova", after watching the first two episodes of this show I thought it was dumb. It had many weak story lines from the father son dynamics to the sixes. Also having 12 executive producers seemed to be too many cooks making the stew. However over the last few weeks the show has actually grown a lot. It has dramatically improved to the point that I now look forward to watching it every Monday. The characters are great and I'm starting to care for them. It's cool seeing the dinosaurs and how much they play in the story lines. The dinosaurs actually have a purpose other than ratings.

3) "Revenge" While I'm not a fan of soap operas, this is a very good soap opera. It's much better than "Desperate Housewives". The revenge part of the story line is being lessened as the show goes along. I hate to use the word mature in terms of shows. However "Terra Nova" and "Revenge" are maturing before our very eyes. I like the growth of the character Daniel Grayson, he seems to be the only Grayson that actually resembles outside what he is inside. I like the main character Amanda. Her relationship with Daniel feels very real. I'm not sure how much she's really into him, or is this just part of her revenge scheme? Amanda does seem to be starting to get out of the mindset of revenge. I think that's a welcome change in the show.

4) "A Gifted Man" Honestly I'm surprised this show is so low on my list. While the show does have it's weaknesses, it also has a heart. Unlike "Revenge" we like the characters in this show. In "Revenge" we keep on watching because we like to see the greedy buggers of the Hamptons get their comeuppance. I think "Man" is at a critical juncture. It's time to improve the writing and have this show live up to it's full potential. With a just bit more quality writing, this show would be #1 on my list.

5) "Pan Am" I haven't seen the most recent episode, because I've been so busy watching all these other shows. Again I really dislike the whole stewardess as spy story line. However I do like how this show has had episodes in Cuba, Germany and other countries. I enjoy how the show has worked historical drama into each episode. I realized today that's why this show is set in JFK's Presidency. There were so many interesting things that happened in his presidency. I predict a big finale coming up surrounding JFK's assassination. That is if the ratings challenged show survives that long.

Sorry "Hawaii Five-O" your stories are just too lame. The whole perfection of Steve McGarret drives me crazy. In addition I hate the whole Wo Fat storyline, that has dragged on for way too long. For the rest of season two, it's time to move up to bigger and better things.

Also I'm a fan of both "Body of Proof" and "Blue Bloods". However with everything else going on I haven't had a chance to watch any of the episodes. Thanks to Comcast On Demand I should be able to watch them all soon enough.

Two shows I'm glad I haven't or will see. 1) The now cancelled "The Playboy Club" and 2) "X-Factor" I really liked Simon Cowell on "American Idol". So naturally I thought I would just start watching this show and fall in love with it. However for some reason I never had the interest of seeing it, maybe because "AI" has watered down the formula for 10 years? Thankfully and after some of the things I've heard about the show I'm glad I never started watching it. I think the panel is suppose to remind us of the early seasons of "American Idol". We have Simon and Paula Abdul, the only person who will give her a job is Simon. And at least on a subconscious level it seems to me that LA Reid it seems to me is suppose to remind us of Randy Jackson. I know that makes no sense to me either, but I wouldn't put any desperate tactic past Fox.

happy last day on earth, themusicaddict

Just songs today.

Hello,

It's been another crazy few days. Usually by Wednesday of a new quarter things have slowed quite a bit. However yesterday I spent 5.5 hours packing up books and getting them ready to send back. Also today has been another busy day, here are just a bunch of songs rocking my world.

First I'll start off with Arctic Monkey's take on the Amy Winehouse classic. And yes I realize how new of a song it is, but "You Know I'm No Good" is a classic:

Here's the amazing original:

Is there any doubt this is the best song of 2011:

A great cathartic song that can help you burn off some anger, especially if you are just leaving a relationship.

Did you get out all your tension, if not this song will help you.

The tension still isn't out? Okay this song will help you finish getting the tension out. If it doesn't you are way too tense.

While checking out new music on Spotify, I found out that Everlast has a new CD. While that CD is very mediocre, he did have quite a few good songs back in the day. Here are a few:

There's no way this song should work, but somehow it does. Although the video is frightfully unhappy.

Here's "The Warning", now don't make me tell you again :)

Here's an all-time classic song about a place I've never been and don't plan on going too.

Blake Shelton's "Some Beach":

I also quite like Blake Shelton's "Ol' Red", but Blake's record company is afraid they'll lost money if you can move the video to someone's blog. So instead of getting the real version, you get this version:

I think the above cover starts out well enough, I like the voice of the guy. But his little sister detracts from the song.

I'm guessing that No Doubt can sing their own and represent their own selves. I love the percolating rhythm of this song. Also this is one of the few songs where the rapping actually works within the song. As it does with "You Know I'm No Good".

The Cars "Let The Good Times Roll":

This is becoming one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs, "Speak Now":

World Series, "A Gifted Man"

Hello,

Welcome to blog #990 of themusicaddict.

I'm back today for a bit at least. With a new quarter starting at the school I work at and many of the medical students needing books it has been quite crazy. Then over the weekend I had my kids. We always have a lot of fun and of course my priority is my kids over my blog. Anyway I'd like to start off my blog with a couple of great songs.

I love this great Dan Seals song, although it always makes me sad.

Then here's this funky, less well known Depeche Mode song. I love this song:

Tomorrow night the World Series starts. And as a big MLB fan all I can is who cares? I don't like or dislike either the Rangers or Cardinals enough to have a rooting interest in this year's World Series. The only thing I really feel about this World Series is the sadness that the Atlanta Braves didn't make it to the playoffs. I don't know if they would have got to the World Series, and given the Braves recent playoff history it's doubtful, but I sure would have loved them having the chance.

My only prediction about the World Series is that I predict I'll be watching very little of it. Instead I'll continue to work through season two of "Lost". I love how Season One ended with Jack and Locke looking down the hatch. Then Season 2 starts right off with getting in the hatch and starting to find out the secrets of the Dharma Initiative. I think it's all a big psychological experiment. I'm not sure why they are going through the effort of punching in the code ever 108 minutes. Them doing that reminds me of some classic psychological experiments from the past.

Again for the most part I'm so over the flashbacks. If they were used sparingly it would be one thing. But since they take a rather significant part of each episode, they are now getting tiresome. I'm not caring a whole lot about Locke's back story about giving his kidney to his Dad or Hurley winning all the money in the lottery.

Another show I'm watching is "A Gifted Man". This past Friday's episode was, "In Case of Separation Anxiety". I love this show starring Patrick Wilson as Dr. Michael Holt. In last week's episode he cited his 100% surgery success rate. Him being perfect continues to be tiresome. Although I do like that he's slowly opening up. I love the character of his dead ex-wife Anna. Jennifer Ehle plays that role with such compassion and grace. Anna was a person who put the good of others before her own, sometimes to a fault. She's the heart and he's the brains of the show. Something similar those two characters discussed last night. With Anna being dead I wonder where are they going with those two characters.

As with any other show on TV, this show has it's requisite number of hotties, which starts with the gorgeous Julie Benz. I'm glad she bounced back from that atrocity known as "No Ordinary Family". Although like that show, which had a fast start before crashing, I'm getting a little bit nervous that "A Gifted Man" may follow the same path. (Another eerie similarity between the two shows is how they use similar episode titles. "NOF" started off each episode with "No Ordinary...". "A Gifted Man's" titles start with "In Case of..".)

But although "A Gifted Man" is having ratings struggles, it being cancelled wouldn't be the gorgeous Julie Benz's fault. Also it won't be Rachelle Lefevre's fault either. Lefevre plays Kate, who's now in charge of Anna's old clinic. Kate already has convinced Dr. Holt to work 10 hours at the clinic to impress the board and shore up the staff. That shouldn't be hard as it's only 10 blocks from where he works. Also he seems to be over at the clinic twice an episode anyway. Obviously the story is being set up as hinting that Kate and Dr. Holt will be getting together. From the sparks flying in this episode, that will be sooner rather than later.

Is this show perfect? Not even close. Dr. Holt never making a mistake has worn out it's welcome. It doesn't make for much drama or is it believable. The stories resolved in one episode also seems a bit unrealistic. Quality of episodes also seems to be dropping from week to week. Hopefully that's a brief lapse and not a trend. And every case being resolved in one week feels forced. Would it be bad to have a story line run over two or three episodes?

But I love the characters as I mentioned. I love the spirituality and positive themes in the show. They've just have got to be careful and not become too sappy. So far "A Gifted Man" has mostly avoided that sappiness, but it has come close. Please check it out because it has so much potential. I'd like it to stay on the air in hopes it can reach that potential.

themusicaddict