NBA Playoffs Day 2: Not So Amazing, The Eastern Conference's "Real" Rankings

Hello,

Yesterday was the second day of the NBA playoffs, it was nowhere near as exciting as Day 1. The first three games of the day were all yawners. The day started off with the yawner between Utah and San Antonio. I expected the Spurs to win by about 15 points and that's what they did. Gregg Popovich got his big three players out of the game with about 3 minutes left to play. That's a good idea Coach Pop. I wonder why all coaches don't use that same strategy.

Next was the yawner between the Nuggets and LA Kobes. I give the Nuggets about 5% chance to win this series. The yawner games continued with Boston vs. Atlanta. There aren't too many things more boring to watch than a low scoring, Eastern Conference playoff slugfest. Day 2's night cap was the humongous collapse by the Memphis Grizzilies, they completely melted down in losing to the Clippers. I was quite surprised when I woke up and found out the Clippers had won

Here are my real NBA Eastern Conference rankings and my reason/ reasons for that.

1) Miami Heat: They are clearly the class of the East. I really don't see another Eastern Conference team challenging them. I'd love to see Miami throttle the Knicks for a second time tonight. If LeBron James comes out with the Jordanesque killer instinct, who can stop him? He's so big, strong and fluid. James needs to stop that getting his teammates involved in the game bs. Please! Why try to get Marijuana Mario Chalmers involved when you can get yourself involved? I also love Dwayne Wade. He's a clutch shooter, extremely athletic and so much fun to watch. He's the heart and the true leader of the team.

Honestly there's a big gap between Miami and Chicago. As I think about it, this Eastern Conference playoffs could lack excitement.

2) Chicago Bulls: The only reason the Bulls are this high is because the rest of the Eastern Conference is less than inspiring. Chicago through the 76ers have several glaring weaknesses. Obviously the biggest question for the Bulls is what are they going to do without Derrick Rose? I know Chicago had a decent regular season record without him, but that's the regular season. I thought it was instance that I'm Coach Tibs still had Rose in the game when he blew out his ACL. I'm glad that so called NBA experts say that Coach Tibs should have had Derrick Rose out of the game when he tore his ACL. Of course now it's mute. But who's going to be their go to guy? Without Rose this Bulls team has so many weaknesses exposed.

3) Atlanta Hawks: They were able to protect home court and win the first game in this series. Rajon Rondo will likely be suspended at least one game for his bumping a ref. I love all the apologists coming out in defense of Rondo, his bumping the ref looked pretty intentional to me. When's the last time the Hawks really scared someone?

4) Boston Celtics: Although they lost their first playoff game, I expect this team to bounce back. They'll miss Rondo, but I wouldn't be surprised if Boston wins this series. I could see Boston getting past the Bulls in the second round. They could send out their Big 3 with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

5) Orlando Magic: I don't think the Magic are a great team, with or without Hack A Howard. But they played just well enough to steal the first game in this series. They took full advantage of the Pacers collapse. I still expect the Pacers to win this series, but it won't matter. Either team will be destroyed by the Heat in the second round of the playoffs.

6) Indiana Pacers: Their meltdown Saturday night wasn't a thing of beauty. In the final four minutes of the game, the Pacers didn't score a point. The Pacers didn't seem to know how to step up in the clutch. Even the team's star, Danny Granger, missed two big free throws down the stretch. It will be interesting to see how the Magic-Pacers Game 2 ends tonight.

7) The New York Knicks lost by 33 points. Do I need to write anything else? Okay they also lost Iman Shumpert for the rest of the season. (With Caron Butler out for the season, that's three players that have been knocked out for the season for the playoffs. That doesn't include players like Dwight Howard and Earl Watson who were out for the season before the playoffs even started.) Shumpert is one of the Knick's best defenders. Jeremy Lin says that he might be back by Game 4 of the series, but at that point will it matter? I look for the Heat to take a dominating 2-0 lead tonight. Then for the Knicks to win the series, they'd have to win 4 of the final 5 games. Chances of that happening: very small, slightly better than me marrying Jennifer Aniston.

8) Philly 76ers: With or without Rose I don't see the 76ers beating the Bulls. Chicago is too deep for the 76ers. I expect the series to be more competitive now, but overall I don't expect that to make much of a difference. Bulls in 5.

Tomorrow the Western Conference's "Real" Top 8.

themusicaddict

NBA Playoffs Day 1: Amazing

Hello,

If the NBA Playoffs maintain their frenetic pace of the first day, this will be one of the most exciting playoffs ever. And on the first day, there was mayhem. What happened? The #1 seeded Bulls won their first game of the year, by beating the Philadelphia 76ers 103-91. That's the good news, the bad news is Derrick Rose tore his ACL and is out for the season. Why Rose was in the game with a minute left and the Bulls up by 10+ points I don't know. I read Coach Thibodeaux's reasoning and it came off extremely defensive. Being defensive is usually an admittance to being wrong. Also his rationale made no sense.

I still expect the Bulls to get past the 76ers in the first round, but in the second round they could have some trouble. I would be surprised if Miami doesn't represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. In one of my favorite scores of the day, the Heat destroyed the loved by the media New York Knicks 100-67. The amazing  overrated Carmelo Anthony missed 12 of 15 shots. But my favorite stat of the day is when Carmelo was on the floor the Knicks were outscored by 35 points. Isn't that usually what happens when you can't make a basket or play defense. I hope this playoffs exposes Carmelo as the creature of hype that he is. And in the torn ACL department, Knicks point guard Iman Shumpert tore his ACL. He's out for 6-8 months. Miami was going to win this series regardless, but this will make it even easier for them. Now it may be a sweep. Then let the Phil Jackson rumors to the Knicks heat up.

Meanwhile the Indiana Pacers choked at home, losing to the Dwight Howard less Orlando Magic. I watched the last few minutes of this game and it was ugly. Quite simply the Pacers choked and Orlando did just enough to win. The Pacers didn't score the final four minutes of the game, even star Danny Granger missed two free throws. It was too bad for the Pacers that Dwight Howard wasn't playing, they could have used the Hack A Howard defense forcing Howard to go to the foul line.

The most exciting finish of the day was when the Thunder beat the Mavericks 99-98 on that Kevin Durrant hanging in the air shot. I thought the Mavericks were going to win this game. However a seemingly concussion free James Harden was the glue that held the Thunder together and the Thunder did just enough to win this game. However this is going to be a good series.

Will Day 2 be as good. The games today are the Jazz going to their chamber of horrors in San Antonio. I expect the Spurs to win this game and series easily. I'm hoping that the Jazz can at least win one game in the series and all their young stud players to gain valuable experience. Then in the afternoon, we have the NBA's favorite team the Lakers playing the Nuggets. Look for Kobe to get a bunch of superstar calls in an easy Lakers victory. I'm cheering for the Nuggets though and I would love for them at least to beat up the Lakers a bit. Then neither the Celtics-Hawks or Clippers-Grizzilies games hold much interest for me, at least at this point. But with Derrick Rose out for the rest of the season, doesn't that make the Heat the Eastern Conference's real #1 seed? Then with the Pacers imploding yesterday, am I wrong to consider the Knicks the Eastern Conference's real #2 seed?

themusicaddict

Dallas Cowboys First Round Draft Pick, iTunes playlist: Queen

Hello,

Dallas had their 59th draft day trade yesterday and traded up to get LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne. To me this seems like a pretty good trade, Dallas only swapped first round picks and a second round pick to get a potential shut down cornerback. Something the Cowboys have lacked for far too long. In the offseason they signed Brandon Carr to a long term, very expensive free agency contract. They also resigned Orlando Scandrick to a 5 year- $27 million dollar extension. I'm fine with the first move, but the second move sounds a bit iffy. But when Jerry Jones is the decision maker, I'm happy if he's right 50% of the time.

I do have some concerns about their first round pick though. Claiborne only scored a 4 on the Wonderlic test. That's the reported lowest score in a dozen years. In his defense, this is what Claiborne says about the test: "I mean, I looked on the test and wasn't nothing on the test that came with football, so I pretty much blew the test off." (Thanks as always to espn.com.) 

That's all well and good. However I have two concerns about the above statement. 1) It makes me wonder how many other things he will "blow off". Or did he "blow off" the test after he didn't know the answer to any of the questions? 2) The Wonderlic may or may not be ridiculous. But it's part of a job interview, so he should have taken it more seriously. The test was only 12 minutes, why not give it your all? And what do those two things say about his work ethic and level of dedication?

I listened to Claiborne's interview on ESPN radio and he sounded intelligent enough. He sounded a lot smarter than Karl Malone did on his new radio show.

Other teams that I thought did well in the first round of the NFL Draft were the Colts and the Redskins. To no one's surprise Andrew Luck went #1 to the Colts. The Redskins then selected Robert Griffin 3, RG3, at #2. He's obviously is suppose to be their franchise quarterback for many years to come. That makes the quarterbacks in the NFC East RG3, Eli Manning, Michael Vick and the great Tony Romo.

I also was impressed with the Browns draft. They traded up to get Trent Richardson at #3. Richardson has made some of the most amazing moves I've ever seen on a football field. He'll probably be a solid running back for at least a few years. My main concern is with the NFL moving to more of a passing attack how much longer will the running back remain relevant in most NFL offenses? Also how durable will Richardson be? I'm not questioning his toughness but being a NFL running back is a very grueling and taxing occupation. You literally get hit on almost every play by someone bigger than you and it's usually hit by multiple players bigger than you. It reminds me of the plight of Marion Barber. He had a couple good years for the Cowboys, one mediocre year for the Bears and then retired at the age of 27.

Also the Browns drafted a potential starting quarterback, Brandon Weeden from Oklahoma State. Let's hope he develops quickly as he'll be 29 when this football season starts. What would the NFL be like with the Browns as a relevant franchise?

My other two teams: Tampa Bay drafted Alabama safety Mark Barron at #7. And at #31 they drafted the Boise State running back Doug Martin. I'm hoping this is a bounce back year for the Bucs and their quarterback Josh Freeman. Then I thought that the 49ers made a bit of a strange draft pick. They picked Illinois wide receiver AJ Jenkins. I really don't know anything about Jenkins and he may be a great wide receiver. What I'm wondering is why did the 49ers draft a wide receiver? They already have Michael Crabtree, Mario Manningham, Randy Moss and Ted Ginn Jr. Maybe they are hoping to trade one of their wide receivers for a more pressing concern? But then why didn't they just draft for that?

The other day on iTunes in the search spot I typed in the word "queen". I loved the songs that played for that word. The search brought up 132 songs, obviously included songs by Queen. I had forgotten how many good songs they have. But the playlist also played songs from Queensryche, Queens of the Stone Age and assorted oddities. I quite enjoyed listening to music like this and I'm going to continue doing it, but trying other words.

Some of the better songs that played in the above playlist:

Sheryl Crow's "Steve McQueen":



Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody":



Queensryche "Best I Can":



Queensryche "Jet City Woman":



Billy Ocean's "Caribbean Queen":



Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts":



The classic Guns N' Roses lineup on  "Rocket Queen":



Mountain's "Mississippi Queen":



From one extreme to another, Abba's "Dancing Queen":



I'll close this with the great Johnny Cash, "The Ballad of Teenage Queen":



Adding the above Juice Newton song made me think of another one of her amazing songs:



themusicaddict

NFL Draft, Karl Malone's Train Wreck "Thru My Eyes"

Hello,

Tonight is the NFL Draft. Do you care? I do but only very little, I won't be watching it at all. I'll see who Tampa Bay gets at 5, who Dallas gets at 14th and who San Francisco gets at 30.  But I'll be relying on my good friends over at ESPN and espn.com for that information. We already know that the Colts will be drafting Andrew Luck at 1 and that the Redskins will be drafting RG3 at 2. (Good luck Robert, that's a terrible situation for you to be going to.) Then at 3 will the Vikings select Trent Richardson, ex-USC stud Matt Kalil or someone else?

My only concern for the Cowboys is Jerry Jones. Since he's such a football "genius", he likes to get cute and trade up and down in the draft trying to find the best players. As there is every year, there's rumors he'll do the same thing this year. For instance, a couple of years ago he traded up to get Dez Bryant. Well Jerry that hasn't turned out so well. I wish that Jerry would get out of the way of the people who really know football on the Cowboys. Why does Jerry Jones remind me of:



They both have way too much oil money, but Jerry Jones may be a bit more clueless.

What I will be watching tonight once I get home is the Boston-Chicago MLB game. The Red Sox have won 3 in a row and scored 24 runs in their series against the Twins. I don't know if that says the Red Sox are any good or that the Twins are that bad. But I do look forward to seeing how the Red Sox do tonight against Philip Humber. Humber is the pitcher who pitched the 21st perfect game in MLB history in his last start.

The Red Sox have improved to 7-10, but remain last place in the AL East. They still trail the first place Orioles by 3.5 games. According to ESPN, Boston's chances of making the playoffs improved from 20.6% to 27.4%. But will they have enough to remain relevant in the playoff chase until they get Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury and designated closer Andrew Miller back? Also can they get another reliable starter through a trade? Daisuke Matsuzaka is supposedly rehabbing now. But how good will he be if and when he comes back. And what will Boston do about their closer position until Miller gets back? And what will they do if Miller isn't quite what they expect him to be?

The NFL Draft probably isn't the most boring thing related to the NFL. Actually that would be the NFL's Pro Bowl. Word is coming from the NFL that they are thinking about "suspending" the Pro Bowl.  I completely agree, my only question is what has taken them so long? I can't remember the last Pro Bowl I watched even a few minutes of. I think it was back in the late 80s. Of all the All-Star games it's the most boring. Most All-Star games aren't that interesting, but the NFL's Pro Bowl isn't much more than a glorified flag football game. I haven't watched the NBA All-Star game for a few years now. The only All-Star game I might watch is MLBs. Baseball seems to work with the All-Star format better.

I love local radio station ESPN 700. I like listening to Mike and Mike on the days I drive to work when they are on. I also like Bill Riley, although he repeats himself way too much. He's also a spin doctor for the teams ESPN700 hosts. But generally he's fair minded and interesting. I was cautiously optimistic, and a bit apprehensive, when he said he was going to announce a new on air personality. But I was very disappointed when the "big announcement" was made.  I had been imagining all these intriguing possibilities.

But when it was announced that Karl Malone would be the new on air personality, I couldn't believe it. Although Karl Malone had many amazing years with the Utah Jazz, he was never very interesting. The main thing I remember about Karl is how much he whined about wanting more money, wanting different players on the Jazz and whatever else he could whine about. He never seemed to be happy and we had to hear about it.

The name of Malone's show is "Thru My Eyes" and it's a two hour a week train wreck. The program is every Wednesday from 4:00 to 6:00MST. I find that I don't care how the world looks through Malone's eyes. I did listen to the show a bit yesterday and it was bad as I expected. Things that were bad include Karl Malone talking in the third person. He's not very eloquent and he murders the poor, undefended English language. He was as uninteresting as all those years ago when he played for the Jazz. In fact those days remind me of my favorite Karl Malone quote of all-time. It's "Karl Malone gotta do what Karl Malone gotta do." That's true Karl, but that doesn't mean I need to listen to it.

I don't care about Malone's opinion on the military, Ted Nugent, current NBA players, family etc. I could have just said I don't care about Malone's opinion on anything. Other than giving him a chance yesterday I won't be listening to his show. Even the teaser clip of Karl Malone that ESPN700 is playing shows how bad of an idea of Malone having a show is.

I feel sorry for Bill Riley having to cohost "Thru My Eyes" with Malone. Riley has to hear Malone's annoying opinions, tortured syntax and basically carry the show. A consolation for Riley is that this show won't last long.

(By the way for the ESPN700 Hot or Not feature of Jessica Pare, she's very hot. Pare plays Megan Draper in "Mad Men".)

Some quality tunes for your pleasure. This is Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls":



The very funky Boz Scaggs song "Lowdown":



I love this very intriguing, quirky song by a band named Noah and the Whale. The song is titled "Blue Skies":



And is this song fun or annoying? POTUS' "Peaches":



themusicaddict

Ron Artest: 7 game suspension, Utah Jazz, "Smash" episode "Publicity"

Hello,

The NBA announced yesterday that Ron Artest will be suspended for 7 games. He'll be suspended for their regular season game Thursday night against the Sacramento Kings. That game is meaningless pretty much in every way, except that Kobe may be going after the scoring title.  After that Artest will miss 6 playoff games. It looks like the Lakers will play the Mavericks or Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. I was hoping that the Lakers would have to play Memphis in the first round. Memphis is a damn good team and could beat the Lakers. I don't think either the Nuggets or the Mavericks are going to beat the Lakers. Of course, I thought the same thing about the Mavericks last season, but then they steamrolled the Lakers. However that was a much different Mavericks team. Please anyone but the Lakers. I'm so tired of them, Kobe and all the superstar calls he gets.

The Utah Jazz clinched the Western Conference's 8th seed last night by beating the Suns 100-88. It's good, I guess, that the Jazz qualified for the playoffs. But in the end will it matter any when they get swept out of the playoffs by either the Spurs or the Thunder? I love Al Jefferson's enthusiasm and how he's talking about how the Jazz are going to "shock the world". I'm not sure what he means by that. But the Jazz are the 8th seeded playoff team for a reason. However a deep playoff run won't happen for the Jazz this season, in fact I'd be a bit shocked if the Jazz are even able to win a playoff game at all.

Of course I'll still be cheering for the Jazz, they will always be my favorite NBA team. This year my second favorite team will be whoever plays the Lakers in the first round. Again I'm looking forward to this year's NBA playoffs, there will be some great games. There are probably at least 4 teams that can win a NBA title this season.

Now after I write a few sentences it's probably going to seem like I hate the TV show "Smash". However I don't, but there are some deeply unsatisfying things about it. First of all why is Leo even on the show? I mean what's the point. What does he add to the show? The alleged drama about him missing I know is suppose to be exciting. But I couldn't care less if he came back, in fact I didn't want him to come back.

Also Ellis is a scumbag. With a new show runner coming aboard for Season Two, I hope his role is minimize or eliminated. I've written about this before and I know jerk characters are suppose to create tension and make the show more interesting. Does that really have to be case?

Also I'm so tired of Ivy Lynn's doing anything to win the role of Marilyn Monroe. She aligned herself with Ellis, temporarily that might be a "good" thing. But in the long run I think that will come back and bite her. Ellis only cares about one thing: Ellis. She got Karen to go home and has won for now, but I have a feeling that Karen "Iowa" Cartright will come out on top eventually. Although Ivy (Megan Hilty) sounded pretty good on "Second Hand White Baby Grand":



One person for sure that won't is Rebecca Duvall. I'm glad her 5 episode arc is coming to an end. Next week they'll be in Boston for the practice run. Is that where she'll explode and the role can rightfully go to either Cartwright or Lynn?

Speaking of people's stories coming to an end, it's about time for Dev to go away. At first I liked his character, but he's become boring now. Again the story lines of Dev and Leo point to the main weakness of this show. When this show focuses on the personal lives of the characters, the show grinds near to a stop. If they really must focus on the characters personal lives, I wish they would take a few pointers from "The Good Wife". That show is equally interesting whether dealing with the law and the characters personal lives.

If I never have to see Leo, Ellis, Dev or Ivy ever again I'll be fine with that.

The "Smash" soundtrack will be released on May 1st, this Tuesday. It looks like a pretty good selection, but why do they have the Nick Jonas song in it?

themusicaddict

Sports, "Mad Men" and A Bunch of Great Songs

Hello,

No word on how long of a suspension that Ron Artest will be serving yet. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who refuses to refer to him by his ridiculous legal name. The announcement of his suspension could come any minute now. Now what about the player he viciously elbowed, James Harden. Harden received a concussion and as of this morning Harden hasn't been cleared by team doctors to play. At the very minimum Artest should be out as long as Harden. With the Thunder locked into the #2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, I would suggest Harden not play in either one of these games.

San Antonio has clinched the Western Conference's #1 seed. That's who the Jazz in all likelihood will be playing in the playoffs. The Spurs absolutely own the Jazz, just as much as the New York Giants own the Cowboys. Please forgive me if I'm not too excited about the Jazz's playoff chances this season. It's not like us Jazz fans are repeating "We're Number 8".

Congrats to the Boston Red Sox (21.0% poff), they beat a team that is bad as them last night. Thanks to Cody Ross's two home runs they beat the Twins 6-5. Boston has now improved their record to 5-10. I do hope they aren't too excited by only winning one-third of their games. In the extremely deep AL East, they still remain in last place.

The LA Dodgers (66.2% poff) continue on their hot streak. They split their recent six game road series by winning 3 of the games. After their hot start, the Dodgers really haven't cooled down. They've won 7 of their last 10 games. They remain in first place in the NL West, leading second place San Francisco by 3.5 games.

One final sports thought: New Orleans Saint General Manager Mickey Loomis needs to be fired asap. First there was Bountygate, which I never cared much about. I don't care what current and former players are saying, I bet that kind of thing goes on in nearly every NFL locker room. However the latest revelations of eavesdropping are fairly disturbing. ESPN says it best: "A joint Louisiana state police and FBI task force is investigating allegations that the New Orleans Saints set up general manager Mickey Loomis' booth in the Superdome so he could listen in on opposing coaches." (Thanks to ESPN.com.)

This past weeks "Mad Men" was absolutely bizarre. The episode titled "Far Away Places" featured a lot of weird things. We had Roger and Jane Sterling (Peyton List) dropping acid, which led to them ending their marriage. We saw a lot more of the gorgeous Peyton List than is usually shown on television. There was also Don Draper with the harried look on his face, he looked like he lost his Mommy. Bert Cooper, who has been missing and relegated to crazy old coot, reminded Don whose business Draper works for.

Now here are a bunch of great songs. Enjoy.

I don't think this song received it's proper due back in the 80's. Simply Red were more known for their cover of "If You Don't Know Me By Now". However I think "Holding Back The Years" is an equally great song:



Men Without Hat's "Pop Goes The World":



Gossip's "Pop Goes The World", this thankfully isn't a remake of the above song.



A couple of classics from Cat Stevens. "Wild World":



"Peace Train":



Joss Stone's "Headturner" I'm not sure why she isn't a bigger star.



Carly Smithson is another person that I'm not sure why she never made it big. It's an "American Idol" landscape with the scattered remains of Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Lee DeWyze, Michael Lynch, David Archuleta (thankfully out of the spotlight for a couple of years) and even the great Crystal Bowersox. I would like to know why hasn't Carly Smithson made it? She seriously has one of the best and most powerful voices on "AI" ever. Listen to that amazing voice:



She choosing to sing this song on "American Idol" was controversial, which I never understood.



Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown":



I'll spare you from another Youtube Hopscotch, however the above song listed the below song as possibly a song of interest. This is Terry Jacks "Season In The Sun":



One of my all-time favorite songs, America's "Sister Golden Hair":



themusicaddict

(Updated December 17th, 2019) The Best of The Scorpions, Part 1

Hello,

I updated this blog on December 17th, 2019. I originally published this on April 23rd, 2012. Going back 7 years some of the text was too wordy, so I fixed that. Also the videos were no longer showing so I'm replacing the blank spaces where videos should be. I still haven't seen the Scorpions in concert, maybe in 2020? Part 2 of this blog will be published in 2019 or 2020.

I'm seriously thinking of going to the Scorpions-Queensryche concert in SLC, Utah on June 11th. It should be a great concert and a way to mark my former wedding anniversary. I've seen many 80's bands, but I've never seen the Scorpions in concert. I would love to see them once at least. Allegedly this is the last time they are touring ever. (Uh huh.) (Update: the Scorpions are still touring in 2019.) Thanks to my friends over at Spotify, I enjoyed listening to their latest CD, "Sting In The Tail". Let's be honest once a band is past their prime, usually any music they make after that sucks. Honestly that's what I expected of their recent CD. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like Sting. I also  quite like their previous CD, 2007's "Humanity Hour 1". Although there are a few good songs on "Sting", this is my favorite song on "Raised On Rock:

This is their most recent set list. This is from their April 21st, 2012 concert in Russia. (Thanks to setlist.fm.) Sadly "Lorelei" wasn't in their most recent setlist.

1) "Sting In The Tail":

2) "Make It Real": (I found myself singing this song last night.)

3) "Is There Anybody There":

4) "The Zoo": I don't know how to describe the cool sound in this song, other than the churning sound of the guitars. This is probably one of my favorite Scorpions songs. Does anyone ever know what Klaus is saying? I would love to hear this song live!

5) "Coast to Coast":

6) "Loving You Sunday Morning"

7) "Living For Tomorrow":

8) "The Best Is Yet To Come":

9) "Always Somewhere":

10) "Holiday":

11) "Raised On Rock" This is another one of my favorite songs on their latest CD. Yeah the start of this song reminds me of "Rock You Like A Hurricane" too.

12) "Tease Me Please Me"

13) "Hit Between The Eyes":

14) "Kottak Attack": (Unnecessary Drum Solo)

15) "Blackout":

16 "Six String Attack": (Unnecessary Guitar Solo)

17) "Big City Nights":

Encore

18) "Still Loving You":

19) "Winds of Change"

20) "Rock You Like A Hurricane":

It looks like a pretty good setlist, but honestly I'm a little disappointed. I love the heavy metal ballad as much as the next person, in fact they are some of the greatest songs ever, but on the other hand I don't want too many ballads. It seems I missed the memo, but when did the Scorpions become a ballads band? I count about 7 ballads in their setlist, 35% of the songs they play in this concert.

I suggest that they dump at least 3 ballads and replace them with songs that kick butt. I dislike having two ballads in the chorus, especially that sappy "Winds of Change". I believe an encore should rock and send the crowd out in the night buzzing. Here's a list of songs they could add to make their concert even more kick butt. The number in parenthesis is where the song is listed on iTunes Top 200 songs by the Scorpions. Some songs are listed multiple times, for those songs I listed the version of the song that is the highest. I do that to illustrate that I'm not the only one that likes these songs. And to be frank, no one is going to see the Scorpions to hear songs from the new CD.

"No One Like You" (2) According to setlist.fm, they've only played this song twice on their current tour. I can't believe they don't play this song every night. This song kicks butt and is one of their most iconic songs:

"Rhythm of Love" (4) No rock cliche was hurt in the making of this video.

"Dynamite" (14):

"I Can't Explain" (18):

"Another Piece Of Meat" (23):

"Can't Live Without You" (37):

"Bad Boys Running Wild" (40):

"Don't Stop At The Top" (116):

"Alien Nation" (132) This isn't one of their most well known songs, but I quite like it:

"Don't Believe Her" (142):

I'm adding these songs on December 17th, 2019. I don't see this song in the iTunes Top 100. "Rock'n'Roll Band" (unknown):

themusicaddict

Ron Artest Greatest Hits (literally)

Hello,

I'm checking espn.com every couple of hours to see how long Ron Artest will be suspended for his latest stupid act. He'll probably be suspended at least for the rest of the season and some of the playoffs. The only question is how many playoff games will he be suspended for? I refuse to refer to him by Metta World Peace. However I have no problem calling him Mega Douche Bag or possibly Ron Arrest? But at least he should change his name back to Ron Artest.

A few days ago I heard an interview with Artest and what an idiot he is. He seems to think he's one of the greatest players in NBA history. He talked about showing the young bucks a thing or two. He's completely unaware of how arrogant and laughable he comes off as. Also when he played in Houston sometimes he would board the Rockets team bus to the stadium in his underwear.



I didn't see the above play yesterday live. But it doesn't surprise me that this idiot would do this kind of play. At first when Artest said that this was just part of his celebration I believed him. I didn't see anything malicious. But after listening to some former NBA players, including Lakers homer Magic Johnson, saying this wasn't innocent I've changed my mind.

Ron Artest Greatest Hits:



One more. I love the following video because one of the announcers you hear is Jeff Van Gundy, he's very passionate and entertaining with his viewpoint.



In all fairness I hate the Lakers. I'm so sick of hearing about Kobe Bryant and it's time for him to go away.

If the playoffs started today the Lakers would probably play Denver in the first round of the playoffs. They should be able to beat the Nuggets with or without Artest rather easy. However if the Lakers wind up playing Memphis in the first round, that would be a completely different story. That series would be a battle for the Lakers even if Artest was playing. Maybe the penalty should be based on who the Lakers draw in the first round.

themusicaddict

"The Bobby Valentine's Day Massacre"

Hello,

Oh my! New Yorker and ESPN reader @jdubs88 was the person who came up with the above blog title. It's from a comment he made on ESPN concerning the Red Sox's inexplicable meltdown against the Yankees yesterday! at home!

What can be said about Boston jumping out to a 9-0 lead yesterday, seemingly restoring some of the shine to the Sox season? But then some questionable decisions made by Valentine and Boston's horrendous pitching bit Boston in the butt. The Yankees went on to score the next 15 runs on their way to a 15-9 laugher.

Here are some of the scary numbers from the Red Sox 4-10 start:

1) They are last place in the AL East. They are the 4th worst team in MLB record wise. According to ESPN, their chances of making the playoffs are currently 21.1%.

2) They've lost 5 straight games at home. Although the Yankees aren't playing lights out baseball, only 9-6, they lead the Red Sox by 4.5 games. Boston trails the annual AL East doormat Baltimore by 3.5 games. The Red Sox have about $66,000,000 more in salary than Baltimore does.

3) Boston has been out scored 45-17 in their last 4 games, again all of those games were at home. Yesterday Boston relievers gave up 14 runs on 12 hits.

4) The Red Sox have the fourth highest payroll in MLB at $146,000,000. Nearly 54,000,000 of that payroll is currently going to players who aren't even playing. That's not counting Kevin Youkilis who is officially listed as day-to-day. That includes some of the Red Sox worst signings in the last several years, players like John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka. It's undetermined whether Carl Crawford will fall in that same category.

5) The Red Sox are in desperate need of help. They traded for Marlon Byrd, who currently is hitting .70. And although their pitching staff is brutal, they traded away a pitcher to get him. Red Sox starting pitching has a 6.09 ERA so far this season. That's without John Lackey even pitching.

6) Sunday Night Baseball tonight and the Yankees are sending CC Sabathia (1-0) against Daniel Bard (0-2).

Update: In a bit of mercy from the baseball gods, the Sunday Night Game was rained out. That gave a surprise night off to a team that needs it. Now the Red Sox go on the road for a 3 game series with the horrible Twins. The combined record of the Red Sox and the Twins is 9-21. Combined both teams have only won 30% of their games. Jon Lester (0-2) and his Lackey like ERA of 5.82 will be the starting pitcher tonight for the Red Sox. I hope the Red Sox can win 2 of 3 of these games and rediscover their mojo a bit.

Where the Red Sox messed up the most with the 2012 team is in their starting pitching. The two worst examples of this are Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey. However I don't blame Theo Epstein et al for the signing of Matsuzaka. When signing a player from Japan you are always taking a bit of a risk. You really never know what you are getting. It's also easy to fall in love with the potential of a player.

I think that's what happened with the Red Sox signing of Matsuzaka. Unfortunately Boston is suffering buyer's remorse now and can't wait to dump Matsuzaka. Boston probably would have never guessed how relatively ineffective Matsuzaka would be. I bet they would be surprised that after 5 seasons he would only be 49-30 with a 4.25 ERA. They would have never expected that that he would miss parts of two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Matsuzaka is scheduled to be starting a rehab assignment today in Single A Salem, Virginia.

I was glad that Yu Darvish didn't end up with the Red Sox. So far he's pitching decent. However for a MLB team to sign a Japanese player, the current system is heavily weighted in the favor of the player. First the MLB team has to pay a "posting" fee to the Japanese league of usually about $50 million for a player with a high upside. However none of that money goes to a contract for the player. The team still has to pay the player usually a rather large contract. For instance, the Red Sox paid about $100 million total to procure the services of Matsuzaka. That money could've gone to so many other more productive players. They probably could have signed two solid starting pitchers. If they had those two pitchers, instead of an ineffective and injured Matsuzaka, things might be so much better for the Red Sox now.

However I do blame Epstein for the signing of John Lackey. What the hell was he thinking when he signed Lackey? The signing of Lackey could go down as the worst deal of the Epstein era. Before the 2010 season the Red Sox signed Lackey to a 5 year-82.5 million contract. What will the Red Sox get from Lackey through the first 3 years of that contract? They'll get 26 wins and a ERA hovering over 5.00. Also thanks to Boston's prolific offense, Lackey probably has more wins than he deserves. Last year Lackey was 12-12 with a 6.41 ERA. That should explain why I wasn't exactly heartbroken when the Red Sox announced he'll be out for this season. He's recovering from Tommy John surgery.

As always thanks to ESPN.com for the best news and stats to supplement my blog.

themusicaddict

Youtube Hopscotch Again, Sports: Fenway's 100th Anniversary

Hello,

Just a few quick sports thoughts before getting to my latest exciting adventure of Youtube Hopscotch.

The Boston Red Sox celebrate Fenway Park's 100th anniversary today. Basically anyone that has added to the legend of Fenway Park, and is still alive, will be there. I'm guessing Bobby Valentine will also be showing up. To make the celebration complete the Red Sox are playing a game today as well. And who else would be better to play than the Yankees? That game begins at 3:10 EST. The school I work at had a new quarter start this last Monday. Thus I have to work today. (Not a complaint: I have a great job. One of the best benefits of my job is that I usually have Fridays off. I love a job where nearly every weekend is a three day weekend.) I'm disappointed I won't be able to watch at least part of this game.

It's unlikely that Boston will be able to crawl out of the AL East's cellar by the end of this 3 game series. But it would be good if the Red Sox could win at least 2 of the games, especially today. I'd love to see the Red Sox get a desperately needed jump start on their season. This series culminates in Sunday Night Baseball.

If you like to read about the Fenway's original opening day, ESPNBoston has a good and very long article here:

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/7834152/boston-red-sox-opening-day-last

Another big game that I will miss part of because of work is Game 5 of the Red Wings-Predators first round Stanley Cup series. Not only are the Red Wings down 3-1, this game is in Nashville. Predators fans will be hopped up cheering for the Predators to advance. It's time for the Red Wings to man up and stick a few goals down the Predator's throats. It would be nice for Detroit's offense to wake up, they have only scored 8 goals in the first 4 games. (Side note: I've heard the rational on why fighting is allowed in hockey. However it just doesn't make sense to me. Fighting only distracts from what can make hockey fun to watch.)

The Dwight Howard fiasco continues. He's been officially ruled out throughout the rest of the regular season and the playoffs due to a back injury. He'll also miss playing for the United States in the Olympics, which I'm perfectly fine with. I really don't want such a whiner to represent the great country that I live in.

Dwight before you further erode any more goodwill I have some advice. 1) Shut The Hell Up! The less we hear of you until the start of the next NBA season the better. 2) Work on your free throw shooting. It boggles my mind that a NBA player can't even make 50% of his foul shots. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to Howard. He claims he's not "quitting" on his teammates. But from the way he's acted this year, I don't blame anyone that would be skeptical of . Even with Howard I don't think the Magic are a well constructed team. Without Howard will the Magic even win one playoff game?

Take an example from Carlos Boozer. He whined for a couple of seasons, however this season very little has been heard from him. He's just gone out and played to near the limit of his ability. Although Boozer will go down as one of the worst free agency signings ever, at least he's acting like a gentleman.

I thought of Boozer last night because I watched part of last night's very boring Heat-Bulls matchup. The Bulls for the most part looked horrendous. I know they were without the services of dynamic point guard Derrick Rose, but still their level of play was abysmal. ESPN called their play "punchless", which is a perfect description.

Although Miami didn't look very good either. To me the Heat are the class of the Eastern Conference. I can't see any other Eastern team qualifying for the NBA Finals, especially if Rose isn't at 100%. I read a comment from LeBron James about how much he would like to win a 3rd NBA MVP. What LeBron needs to focus on is winning a NBA Finals MVP. Of course, that would require him to not disappear in 4th quarters of Finals games. And enough of this nonsense of trying to get his teammates involved. He's the man and he needs to act accordingly. He needs to lead the Heat to the NBA Championship. Although it's more likely that Dwayne Wade, who has actually won a NBA Championship, should be the leader.

Now the game that's sweeping the nation. It's time for another edition of Youtube Hopscotch. I started the Hopscotch with this song:

"All Cried Out" lead to many great songs. Some songs very predictable but some weren't so predictable. Some old school Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton etc. But I was more interested in the songs that were a bit more obscure. Also if I got bored with Youtube Hopscotch I would mix it up a bit and throw in an offbeat song like:

Here are some of the obscure songs that I stumbled across yesterday. This was my favorite of all the songs. I listened to Sade's "Smooth Operator" multiple times yesterday:

Sade's "Soldier of Love":

Gregory Abbot's "Shake You Down" is one of the sexiest songs ever:

Another amazing and incredibly sexy song, this is from Freddie Jackson. "You Are My Lady":

"The Rain"- Oran "Juice" Jones. This might be the video with the most spoken dialogue ever. It really distracts from the song quickly. Although I admitted I laughed at the line "I bought you things you couldn't even pronounce".

Don't you just love "the acting" in this video. The Deele's "Shoot 'em Up Movies":

Taylor Dayne's "Love Will Lead You Back":

Another great Taylor Dayne song:

I love Martika's voice on "Toy Soldiers":

The System's "Don't Disturb This Groove":

Karyn White's "Superwoman":

Here's an oddball, Timex Social Club's "Rumors":

themusicaddict

Neon Trees, The Disastrous First Year of Bobby Valentine, Dwight Howard Again?, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam

Hello,

I've been enjoying the new Neon Trees CD this morning, the title is "Picture Show". You remember Neon Trees, don't you? The band from Provo, Utah that absolutely exploded a couple of years ago with this song:



They are also featured in a current television ad. I can't remember what for, because I pay as little attention to commercials as possible. When Taylor Swift was on tour in Salt Lake she sang the same Neon Trees song:



Some of the incredibly catchy and better songs off "Picture Show":



"Trust": (sadly only a snippet of the least interesting part of the song)



Then a song they sing with Kaskade, "Lessons In Love":



Although the above is a great song, it shouldn't be confused with the Level 42 classic:



Speaking of bands, I have a great band name for aspiring rockers: The Disastrous First Year of Bobby Valentine. Obviously a reference to the beleaguered Red Sox manager. He's been criticized by all-time Red Sox great Curt Schilling, criticized his own current player Kevin Youkilis and has "led" the Red Sox to a 4-8 start. Yes, that's the same Youkilis that was called "The Greek God of Walks" in the book "Moneyball".

I watched about the last inning of the Red Sox-Rangers game last night. It looked like the Red Sox were going to rally. That is until Jarrod Saltamachia hit into a double play. He hit the ball hard, the Ranger player just made a great play. After the play the camera panned to Valentine's face, he looked like he was in shock. He also had the look that he had no idea what to do. It's that second look that worries me the most. That loss dropped the Red Sox to 4-8 as they remain last in the AL East.  They trail first place Baltimore, never thought I would write that, by 3 games. There's no shame in losing to the Rangers, they are currently MLB's best team. However giving up 24 runs in two games is terrible. According to espn.com, Boston's Poff is 29.9%.

Red Sox fans: Terry Francona will be at Fenway on Friday. Will someone please kidnap him and make him manage the Red Sox? I never thought I would long for the days of the beer and chicken Red Sox.

Another team that is struggling, but very few people are surprised by, is the Chicago Cubs. Currently the Cubs are tied for the second worst record in MLB. The Cubs are 3-9 and tied with the Royals for that dubious second to worst record in MLB. But both teams are hot on the trail of MLB's worst team, the 3-10 Padres. A Cubs-Padres series would be about as exciting as a Bobcats-Wizards NBA game.

Other Cubs lowlights from their early season of hell: Chicago is 3-7 over their last 10 games. Chicago has lost 4 games in a row. They are also sixth, and last, place in the NL Central. After only playing 12 games, the Cubs trail first place St. Louis by 6 games. According to espn.com's Playoff percentage, they have a 8.9% chance of making the playoffs. Of course, only 1/13th way through the season that statistic can tell us very little. However it is a good statistic to tell how bad the Cubs early part of the season has been.

Update: Thankfully Epstein says he's building for the long term, which I think is the exactly right thing to do. I would rather have a sustained time of excellence. That's better than one season of greatness by mortgaging your own future. With the Cubs losing Thursday, they now drop to 3-10 on the season. And that kind of crappy play is painful to Cubs fans. But when isn't it painful to be a Cubs fan? But for the long run Epstein is making the right choices now.                                      

The world's biggest whiner has struck again. It seem poor wittle Dwight got his feelings hurt. Allegedly he called Magic owner Rich DeVos and said he didn't want to play for Stan Van Gundy any more. To be fair it seems there's some dispute whether Dwight actually made this call. But this kind of whining is exactly what Howard has done many times in the past. He's missed 6 games due to "back spasms" already and could miss the entire postseason for the Magic. That's a well thought out move by Dwight though. This way when the Magic get unceremoniously dumped from the playoffs in the early rounds yet again Howard won't be blamed. And as usual as his teammates fight for playoff positioning, Howard is only worried about his #1 priority: himself.

Quite simply Dwight Howard is the Tony Romo of the NBA. Both have great stats and a lot of athletic ability, but neither will ever win a title. But at least I think Romo plays his heart out, he just chokes in the clutch. Howard has no heart at all. He's just there for the paycheck and attention. If I were the Magic I would get rid of Howard asap. I don't know that I would keep Van Gundy, but I wouldn't make that decision based on Howard's input.

Great songs:

Linkin Park's "Somewhere I Belong":



Michael Jackson's amazing "Dirty Diana":



And back from when "American Idol" was still relevant, this is Alexis Grace's excellent version of "Dirty Diana". Grace was sent home way too early. Sadly the video's embedding is disabled by request. A Fox show having greed, who would have thunk?

The B-52s' "Rock Lobster". It takes about 25 seconds for the sound to start. This song takes me back to the good old days of stomps:



Dwight Yoakam's "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose":



Bloc Party's "Banquet":



Okay there's nothing going on in my life that's making me think of this song, this is just a great song. A slice of the great 80's pure pop. Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam:



Most of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's songs were upbeat, here are a couple of my favorites. This is "I Wonder If I Take You Home". Lisa Lisa's voice sounds kind of tinny on this song and it does run on a bit long. But other than that it's a great song. This song shows that making a pop song doesn't have to be hard or complicated. This song is built around a simple synth track. Many great 80's songs were built around a simple synth track.



"Lost In Emotion":



Last, and certainly not least, the extremely catchy "Head To Toe":



themusicaddict

"Smash" episode "The Movie Star", Kill "The Killing", Soundgarden

Hello,

This blog is driving me crazy and I'm taking a break. I'll probably be back to work more on it.

The latest episode of "Smash" was "The Movie Star". I've a couple of thoughts about the latest episode and the series in general. Like Rebecca Duvall I have a lot of thoughts how to make this show better. First, when the story follow the cast of "Bombshell's" personal lives, the show quickly runs out of steam. Seriously why is Leo still getting screen time? Who cares whether Julia and Frank's marriage survives? Thankfully the story about Julia and Frank adopting seems to have gone away. Why do we have to watch Nick and Eileen get together? Again that's boring and is also an unbelievable relationship. Not as unbelievable as anyone wanting to be with Ellis though.

Secondly, for this show to continue to improve it needs to trim several peripheral characters. Again the less we know about the character's personal lives the better. That's unless both characters are directly involved with the Monroe play "Bombshell". Even then I still don't care about Tom's commitment issues. Characters that need to be excised include Frank, Leo, Michael, Dev, RJ and Colin. What can replace those characters? How about more Karen and more songs. It seemed this episode "The Movie Star" was mocking itself with the running gag about a musical actually having songs. By my count this episode only had two songs. I can live without the dancing, but please bring on more singing. I'd like to see at least 4 or 5 songs each episode.

I'm also not a big Ivy Lynn fan. Her whole drug regimen story line was Grade A boredom.

Why do shows have jerk characters? Many shows I love have an annoying or jerk character. Why is that needed to drive the action? Three shows that I love all have an extremely annoying character. In "Smash", it's Ellis, in "Mad Men" it's Pete Campbell and in "The Good Wife" it's Jackie. Can't shows survive without these characters? Why are these annoying characters so important? I do realize that the annoying characters have driven story in the past several episodes. But why can't a more charming character do that?

Yesterday I listened to a hilarious podcast on Grantland.com. It was Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald talking about great TV shows like "Mad Men". But they also spent 10 minutes making fun critiquing  "The Killing". To be honest I was a big fan of this show through the first few episodes of Season One. But by episode 7 or 8 the show slowed down and started repeating itself. After the disastrous Season One finale I was undecided if I was going to watch any of Season Two. I decided to give it one more chance and watched the first two episodes of Season 2. I wasn't impressed. After that two hours I hadn't given up on this show yet. But after thinking about it for a couple of days I told "The Killing" I needed some space. I haven't watched any episodes since.

Anyway from what Ryan and Greenwald discussed it sounds like I've missed nothing at all. Plots that I thought couldn't have gotten worse seemed to actually have. The momentum of the crappy Season 1 finale continues on to season 2. One of Grantland's commenters said something like "Veena Sud already said this show won't reveal the killer until episode 12, that's like 8 more hours with these people". Yes, that does sound horrifying. They mocked the return of Jasper and Sterling, two characters we haven't thought about in months. Also Richmond and Jamie are having an affair now? Really? What the hell? They also mocked Belko's suicide by cop and Stan's mob ties. All are unbelievably stupid ideas and deserve mocking.

Why am I suggesting this show be killed? I wrote about the jerk character a couple of paragraphs above. "The Killing" has several annoying characters, in fact nearly everyone is annoying. I don't care about any of the characters. There are also bizarre and unnecessary story lines as in the paragraph directly above. Also the fact this show tells the same story over and over again. It also tells the story incredibly slowly. It feels like Rosie was killed years ago, not days ago. All good reasons to kill this show.

Other things qualifying this show for the death penalty include unnecessary characters. For instance, Sterling and Jasper. Why has Sud chosen to have those students come back? I doubt they have anything to do with the killing of Rosie, they are just more red herrings. The Richmond for Mayor campaign has never been interesting. Does this show cut it's losses though, no it keeps on stretching Richmond for Mayor out beyond belief. (Give the show credit for realism, that's what a real election feels like.) Also if Sud wanted us to care about the Larsens, why did she make them so boring?

This show was suppose to be a three prong attack. The idea that the race for mayor, the killing of Rosie and the Larson family dynamics were suppose to make this show exciting. That leaves Rosie's death as the most exciting thing about this show. When that story line wears us out, then what is left? Nothing. We are now at that point with this show. AMC please kill "The Killing" and just tell us who killed Rosie. But again if I didn't find out it wouldn't matter.

It seems the only way "The Killing" tells it's stories is by intentionally misleading the viewer. How many false clues have we seen so far? How many more will be seen. How many suspected killers of Rosie will there be? Will everyone in Seattle be a suspect at one point? I predict Rosie's killer will be completely a surprise and not in a good way. It will be someone that has only been involved in the show on the periphery. For instance someone like Linden's ex. Once the big reveal is unveiled Sud will try to explain why it was such a great idea, but it will ring hollow. One of the things I hate the most about Sud is that she actually had the chutzpah to compare this show to "Mad Men". "Mad Men" is already an all-time classic. Meanwhile "The Killing" will be quickly forgotten once it's mercifully killed.

"The Killing" remains the little show that couldn't. This show needs to be exterminated with extreme predujice asap. Veena Sud is clearly in over her head as a show runner. She continues to show how little she knows.

According to wikipedia.org the show had 1.8 million viewers through the first 3 episodes. By the fourth episode, "Ogi Jun", that number had fallen to 1.65 million viewers. I expect that number to continue to drop throughout the season. Then it will have a brief resurgence when the show finally reveals who killed Rosie. Although at this point I'm wondering why anyone cares anymore. I'm expecting AMC to have announced by that point there won't be a third season by then.

Please AMC just kill "The Killing".

For a limited time you can listen to Jack White's new CD "Blunderbuss" for free on iTunes. I listened to it this morning and I was less than inspired. Also on iTunes you can download the new song from Soundgarden, it's from the new "Avengers" movie. The title of the song is "Live To Rise":



Wow "Live To Rise" is an incredibly boring song, isn't it. Soundgarden should have left this song unreleased.

Speaking of Soundgarden (isn't that the coolest band name ever?) I have been listening a lot to their CD "Live on I-5" on Spotify. I was never able to see them in concert back in the day, but they sound like they were a pretty dynamic live band. I love hearing classics like "Outshined", "Rusty Cage" and "Spoonman" again. This is "Rusty Cage":



I'm still not understanding all the love for "Someone I Used To Know". What I think that song was trying to be was something like this:



I have been haunted by the above song, it's just such an amazing song. Their performance is simply amazing.

Other great songs:

Rooney's "Daisy Duke":



The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)":



Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam "All Cried Out":



Gene Loves Jezebal "Jealous":



Melinda Doolittle's "I'm A Woman":



Boom Crash Opera's "Onion Skin":



Toni Basil's "Mickey":



themusicaddict

NBA Basketball Playoff Gear Up. "Mad Men" Instant Classic Episode "Signal 30",

Hello,

Again I'm getting excited for the upcoming NBA playoffs. There should be several great series, starting in the first round hopefully going all through to the finals. Speaking of the playoffs, last night's Jazz-Mavericks game had an intense playoff atmosphere. The Jazz went on to prevail in triple overtime 123-121. I only watched a few minutes of last night's Dallas-Utah game and I was reminded again why I hate the NBA. Within the space of 1 minute of game action Dirk Nowitski was "fouled" and sent to the free throw line 4 times. Of course he made all 4 free throws on his way to making 12 of 12 free throws on the night. Strangely enough the Jazz's Al Jefferson, in 54 minutes, didn't shoot any free throws. I've often said that when the NBA wants a team to win they send them to the free throw line several times. In this game the Jazz did shoot 12 more free throws than Dallas did. In fairness to the NBA, they seem to be trying to make things more equitable. It's not like back in the day when someone breathed on Michael Jordan and it was called a flagrant foul.

I love that the Mavericks have dropped to 7th place in the Western Conference playoffs. I still can't believe they won the title last season. Then they traded Tyson Chandler to New York and let JJ Barea go to Minnesota. And it looks like the Jet is about to crash. It will probably be another quick exit for Dallas from the playoffs. Mavericks fans just be glad your team won a title. I don't see the Cowboys winning a title for the foreseeable future.

In the West I see Oklahoma City going to the NBA Finals and hope the Lakers get outed by the second round. I would love for the Mavericks to play the Lakers in the playoffs again this year. And just like last year I would love the Mavericks to destroy the Lakers.

Congrats to the Knicks for moving up to 7th place in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Now instead of getting swept by the Bulls in the first round, they'll get swept by the Heat in the first round. In fact, with Rose's questionable health, Chicago might be a better matchup for the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony will be exposed for his one dimensional game once again. I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to bring it up again. Jeremy Lin, who apparently is a comedian, said he should be ready for the second round of the playoffs. Hey Jeremy come over and hang out with me, we'll both be watching the second round from the comfort of our couches.

Dwight Howard has hurt himself and is out for the rest of the regular season. Orlando is now tied for 5th place in the Eastern Conference playoff race. I'd be surprised if they don't finish 6th in the Eastern Conference though. As of right now that means they'd play the Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. I expect that would be a competitive series. I don't see them surviving the second round though.

Once Howard and Anthony are unceremoniously kicked out of the playoffs, can the hype about these two very over rated players please stop?

Bobby Valentine please shut the hell up. Stop questioning your player's commitment in the media. Why do you think that will be effective? This obviously wasn't a mistake as Valentine has been in the media, this was obviously a failed motivational tool. My real question is why did the Red Sox hire Valentine again? Is it too late to bring back Terry Francona? The Red Sox brought Theo Epstein back after a brief separation a few years ago.

This past Sunday's episode of "Mad Men" was an instant classic. This episode "Signal 30" dealt with the very annoying Pete Campbell. He and Trudy hosted the Cosgroves and Drapers at their house in the country. Also he now has even Roger Sterling deferring to him for hell's sake. How did that power shift happen anyway? (Is that why Roger chewed out Ken later in the episode about his writing? Is he trying to maintain some influence?) Pete Campbell finally got his driver's license and tried to hit on a high school senior. Campbell thankfully got shut down and out maneuvered by a high school kid.

Thankfully Joan is back in the office. She always knows the best and right thing to do and say. Layne is right that Joan could do his job, but she's too nice to admit it. It's just not SCDP without Joan running the office. She let's the partner's act like they are in charge, but we all know better. Although I did find it curious no mention was made of her baby or mother.

Campbell took Layne's Jaguar friend out on the town for some "fun". Unfortunately the "fun" led to chewing gum being left on Layne's friends "pubus". (Did Weiner get that idea from Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist"?) That lead to Layne confronting Pete in a meeting. He graciously excused Joan first. Pete Campbell, seeming to think he's the cock of the walk, ran his mouth. Finally Layne had had enough and challenged Pete to a fight. Incidentally, following Roger Sterling, Price is the second named partner of SCDP to challenge Pete to a fight. Don or Bert you are next up.

In one of the funniest scenes to have ever graced "Mad Men" Pete and Layne have a "fight". This scene is funny for so many reasons. Starting with the fighting stance each took in their fight, that was the first indication this scene was played for laughs. My favorite part of the scene was Roger and Don closed the drapes on the conference room so that no one outside can see the fight. I loved that small touch, it's those kind of touches that make this show so great.

The alleged "fight" was hilarious, again it was obviously played for laughs. After the fight Sterling said he had his money on Price. Well of course he did, did anyone think Pete would win the fight? (Sadly the fight has yet to make it's way to youtube.) Ultimately though the fight diminished both of the fighters. Campbell literally left the office a very defeated man, where he whined about not being friends. I hope he went home and Trudy made him feel like a man again. I hope he didn't compound his mistake and flee to the arms of a prostitute.

Layne Price was able to get a kiss out of it from the lovely Miss Joan. I'm not the only one that's glad she's back in the office.

Megan continues to assert her control over Don, she clearly is starting to wear the pants in the family. From limiting his drinking before the party to choosing which sports jacket he should wear. She let him have his way with her, but explained why first.

The episode ended with a defeated Campbell watching Handsome fondle what he was hoping to be his conquest. Although it was very unsettling and unnecessary scene seeing Handsome feel up the girl while watching the driver's ed film. Where will Pete go from here? Will this be Roger's chance to assert control again? Will he care?  Sterling seems to be happy with not having to make decisions, he likes to coast. What will be the fallout from Price-Cooper 1? Hopefully at least a less annoying Pete will come from the fight.

themusicaddict

Youtube Hop Scotch, Dodgers and Red Sox

Hello,

In listening to music on the internet, for me it begins and ends with Spotify. I know that a lot of people like Pandora and it's Music Genome Project. However if I want to listen to the Dixie Chicks, a few songs later I don't want to be listening to Mary J. Blige. Frustratingly that has been my reality has all too often with Pandora. As frequent readers of this blog know, I spend a lot of time on Youtube. It's where I get the videos I put on this blog. I like how after a video plays they recommend several other songs. I was on a 80's kick the other day and Youtube kept on recommending great 80's songs followed by another great 80's song.

Pandora plays one song based on it's Music Genome Project and either a song or artist that was entered in the website. I can only skip so many songs before I have to listen to whatever they play, even if that's a song I don't want to hear. Of course with Pandora, I pay a lot less attention to the music playing. The music becomes background noise. Youtube hop scotch requires one to pay more attention to the music playing. But I'm rewarded with being able to listen several great songs and many times can watch the original video. Youtube let's me have unlimited skipping of songs. Of course since they offer at least 10 video options, I'm never forced to skip a song. Youtube lists several songs I can choose from and I can listen to any song they recommend. Obviously I'm referring to Youtube's recommendation engine as, it seems to be more accurate than Pandoras.

Today I played Youtube Hop Scotch for awhile to see what songs it would recommend. Since Youtube recommended a 80's song first I went with that theme for this experiment. I'm an unabashed lover of almost anything 80's, but I especially love nearly everything about 80's music. I went to Youtube and without me typing in anything, they recommended Thompson Twins "Hold Me Now". It was followed by Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". That lead next to a song I haven't thought about for a long time, The Cutting Crew's "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight". Next up was the great ballad "The Next Time I Fall" from Amy Grant and Peter Cetera.

Then: Starship's "Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now"
Next up one of my all time favorite songs "The Glory of Love".
John Parr's "St. Elmo's Fire" (Man In Motion) I love the line "You broke the boy in me, but you won't break the man".
Toto's "Africa" Great song, but a really, really bad video.
Kim Carnes "Bette Davis Eyes" (A song Taylor Swift covered at least once on her recent tour.)
Double's "The Captain of Her Heart". Wow, I had completely forgotten about this song:



Al Stewart's "The Year of the Cat":



Simply Red's "Holding Back The Years":



The Commodore's "Sail On":



Looking Glass's "Brandi You're A Fine Girl":



Christopher Cross's "Ride Like The Wind":



The Dodgers continue on their season starting hot streak. LA is led by the National League MVP in the making, Matt Kemp, it seems without steroids (cough Ryan Braun), he leads the NL in home runs (5), RBIs (15) and Batting Average (.457). Now have I started gearing myself up to celebrate a Dodgers World Series title? Um, no. The Dodgers are 8-1, however those victories have come against teams that currently are 4-13. LA's Poff is 67.6%. Starting on Tuesday I expect the Dodgers to crash back to reality as they go on a 9 game road trip. They play 3 games in Milwaukee, 3 in Houston and close out the road trip with 3 games in Atlanta. Currently none of those 3 teams have a winning record.

Curt Schilling said that he liked Bobby Valentine personally, but didn't know if Valentine was the right manager for the Red Sox. After listening to an interview with Valentine the other night, I agree with Schilling. Valentine comes off as extremely defensive and thin skinned. My therapist said one shouldn't be defensive. Defensive causes one to try and justify their mistakes and maybe even lying to justify their behavior. Usually that only makes the issue worse. She also said one should own up to their mistakes and fix whatever happened. Also doesn't being defensive come off as weakness? I wouldn't be surprised to see Valentine quit through the season or only survive one season. He's not off to a good start.

Although it was nice to see the Red Sox score 25 runs in their last two games. Boston is still 3-5 and last place in the AL East. Their Poff (chances of making the playoffs) is 44.2%. That's in MLB's toughest division.

themusicaddict

I Just Don't Get It: Why all the love for the Goyte Song?

Hello,

Just exactly what's the appeal of this song? Please someone explain it to me. This video has had 156 million views on youtube.com. The music is boring, the lyrics are more mumbled than sung and this video is pointless. The second half of the song is more interesting than the first half, but how are you able to stay awake through the first half?



And why is this dynamic song sung by two incredible voices not a worldwide hit? The amazing Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli's "Time To Say Goodbye":



Is there any chance that this movie will be good?



How about this one?



I could barely get through the previews for "The Three Stooges". I think I'm going to take my two oldest boys to see this movie tonight:



Did I hear this song in the background in the above preview? Either I heard "New World Order" or a song that sounds a lot like it. This song, which is much better than "Somebody I Used To Know", only has 70,000 views.



themusicaddict

"Smash", Sports update

Hello,

A couple of days ago I wrote about some TV shows that I'm watching. One of those shows is "Smash", starring the gorgeous Katharine McPhee. I'd written that I wasn't watching "Smash" temporarily because an episode wasn't available on Comcast On Demand yet. However I realized yesterday morning I might be able to watch the episode on the NBC website. Sure enough I was and I watched that episode yesterday morning online. Last night I watched the two most recent episodes On Demand. I don't think I've seen any of these episodes at the actual broadcast time.

Other than sports I rarely watch television shows "live" any more. I love the flexibility that the internet and On Demand gives me in watching my shows. The other great thing about those viewing options is there are less commercials. I'm able watch these shows when it's convenient for me. About the only show I watch close to it's original broadcast time is "Mad Men".

Thoughts on the 3 episodes of "Smash" I watched yesterday. They are episodes 8 to 10. The titles of the shows in order: "The Coup", "Hell On Earth" and "The Understudy".

1) First of all "Smash" is at it's best when it focuses on the making and producing of the Marilyn Monroe play "Bombshell". In comic book speak, it's origin story. Please let's see more of this.
2) "Smash" suffers when it focuses on the personal stories of the characters. For one example lets take the personal life of Julia Houston.
A) She previously had an affair with Michael. Then Michael was hired to work on her new show. I hated that they rekindled their affair. Again I really hate story lines based on a really bad or dumb decision by a character. Julia made several bad decisions Then why the hell would she write a song about her affair? Did she want to be caught.
B) Frank and Julia's son Leo. This might be one of the least interesting characters currently on TV. According to wikipedia.org, Leo goes missing in a future episode. Let's hope he'll be Mahatma Katie and go to Alaska to count salmon.
C) The whole story line involving Frank and Julia adopting a baby. Thankfully that story line seems to have been dropped. Julia already has enough boring family members, she doesn't need anymore.
D) Then finally the whole boring storyline about Julia and Frank's separation. Yawn.
3) But I'm also getting bored of Dev and the political shenanigans of New York. Although is Dev about to leave the show. The reporter RJ is throwing herself at him. We almost had a Dev ultimatum making Karen choose him or Broadway. Maybe we'll be rid of him and political story lines. Although it was funny that Tom was thinking of breaking off a relationship because he was dating a Republican. There's a reason why I don't follow politics in actual life much. That's because politics are boring.
4) Speaking of Mahatma Katie, we need much more of her in this show. She brings a non-theatre sensibility to the very insular New York theatre scene. She feels like a real person, not a caricature of a real person. Some characters, Ellis for instance, feel like a caricature. Katie is a breath of fresh air for a show that can spend too much time in the cloistered lives of the characters in "Smash".
5) Ellis, the weasel, has got to go away. By far the most annoying character on TV of the shows I watch.   I love that the show gives him a girlfriend. The actor that plays Ellis is gay, there's no doubt about that. So why the charade? I also didn't like how he traded sex to secure a better chance to get Rebecca Duvall on the show. (Ellis reminds me too much of Tyler in "Revenge". Can someone please shoot Ellis too?) Ellis is even more annoying than Pete Campbell, Mitch Larsen or Lori Grimes.
6) Have you seen the preview of next week's episode where we Uma Thurman "sing"? Girl can't sing. That combined with Derek seeing McPhee as if she were in character as Marilyn on Broadway seems to be foreshadowing that in a few episodes McPhee will officially take over as Monroe. Let's hope that's permanent.
7) Some of us are single men, it's not good for us to see the lovely Miss McPhee in a skintight CGI outfit or writhing around on a bed. Especially when she's singing this song:



Sports: The Red Wings lost a disappointing game to the Nashville Predators last night. With Nashville's 3-2 victory that gives them an early 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. To me it seems crucial that Detroit win Game 2. The Red Wings don't want to go back to Detroit down 0-2 and have to win 4 of 5 games to move to the next round of the playoffs.

Good news Dallas flag football fans. From Tim MacMahon's latest article about Tony Romo. "Tony Romo, recognizing that quarterbacks are "defined" by Super Bowl titles, said he won't be satisfied with his career until he wins one". Later in that same article and this is the Tony Romo I think of: "Yet, at this point, Romo's career is recognized as much, if not more, for his failures as his accomplishments. He has only one playoff victory, and Romo's most memorable moments have been disappointing season finales: the playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks sealed by his botched hold on a field goal, losing to the Giants as a No. 1 seed in the 2007 playoffs, a 44-6 loss to thePhiladelphia Eagles in 2008 with a playoff berth on the line and the loss to the Giants in last season's finale."

Why is this good news for Dallas flag football teams? That's because Romo won't ever win a Super Bowl, he just doesn't have the ability to take the Cowboys that far. In fact in 3 of the last 4 years the Cowboys haven't even qualified for the playoffs. Jerry Jones is still the GM and Romo is still the alleged quarterback. Has something else changed enough to compensate for those two? I doubt it. So once Romo's days in the NFL end, the sooner the better, he'll still be looking to win that elusive title. This might be a good time to begin the recruiting process Dallas area flag football teams.

I think this Giants fan said it best: Giants21Joe10: "As a Giants fan, I like Romo. He's bad enough that the Cowboys will never win a Super Bowl with him, but good enough that they'll never get a top pick or decide it's time to move on to another QB."

That's something that Jerry Jones just can't, or won't see.

In the MLB, the Dodgers are rolling along. They are 5-1 with great contributions from Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw and Andre Ethier. I always feel good about the Dodgers chances of winning a game when Kershaw takes the mound. However out of my five MLB teams they are the only team that has a winning record.

When do you give up on a baseball team? My other four teams have losing records. I know it's too early to give up on the Red Sox at this point, although I think we can put a fork in the Cubs. That's in spite of both teams having the same 1-5 record. Did anyone really expect the Cubs to contend this year. As for the Red Sox they just have too much talent, did anyone not expect them to contend this year. Although the AL East will be fun to watch all season. The top 4 teams seem decent plus they will all get wins by constantly beating up on the Orioles.

I expect Atlanta to get in a better place as well and I would love to see the Pirates finish above .500 this season. Of course it's only a few games into the season, having a realistic point of how teams are going to do this season is very premature. I love how ESPN includes a team's chance of making the playoffs on the MLB standings even though it's so early in the season.

Am I the only one that thinks this movie looks stupid:



Great songs:

This is a very pretty song. Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through The Night":



Another very pretty song: Kenny Rogers "She Believes In Me". I've featured this video before and am featuring it again because it shows the amazing lyrics. This has got to be a Top 100 song.



Ok here are a couple more upbeat songs. This is INXS's "Need You Tonight":



Taco's "Puttin On The Ritz":

 

Whitesnake's "Fool For Your Loving":



If you are going to rip off Led Zeppelin, you might as well kick some ass while doing so. Whitesnake's "In The Still Of The Night":



themusicaddict