What I Won't Be Writing About Today 1/15/13: The San Francisco 49ers

Hello,

These are things I won't be writing about today:

Sports:

1) I won't be writing about the 49ers impressive victory over the Packers this past Saturday. Although it's clear that Jim Harbaugh made the right decision by going with Colin Kaepernick over Alex Smith. Although I wasn't sure of that when Kaepernick threw that Pick 6 to start off the game. However after that he settled down and had an amazing game. Next up is Atlanta and I think the Falcons are very beatable. I won't be able to watch it so I ask my fellow 49ers to cheer for me.

2) I definitely won't be writing about the Patriots, I'm so tired of them. I'm not real jazzed by the Ravens either though. I'm not sure if I'll even be watching the AFC Championship Game, why can't that be the early game? If Atlanta wins I probably won't be watching the Super Bowl.

3) How about those Jazz! The Jazz had a very impressive victory last night over the defending NBA champs Miami Heat. A win is a win. Although I'm very tired of the Jazz building a big lead, and then either losing or barely holding on. Fortunately they barely held on against the Heat last night. The Jazz are a 1/2 game out of the playoff race.

4) I also definitely won't be talking about the Lakers. Do you ever get the feeling that Mike D'Antoni isn't a very good coach? Honestly the team hasn't played very well since he took over as head coach. He's a coach that stresses offense over defense. Now his brilliant plan is to have Kobe play defense on the best player on any team they play? I sort of understand that. However on the other hand does he really want to wear out his best player? I think instead he should try and get more out of The Big Stiffy (Gasol) and Mr. All About Me! (you know who.) (Again I never want the Big Stiffy or Mr. All About Me! on my Jazz.)

Come on Milwaukee, with your new coach, you can beat the Fakers tonight. I know the game is in LA, but it's not like the Lakers are a stellar road team. The Lakers are only 11-9 at home on the season.

5) I definitely won't be writing about the USDA's witch hunt of Lance Armstong. How much money have they spent persecuting, uh I mean stalking him? I can only think of about million better places that money could have been spent.

Here's a non-newsflash, Armstrong took steroids in chasing Tour De France titles. Usually I hate cheaters, but this time I just don't give a damn. The fact that he even got back off the couch after being diagnosed with testicular cancer is amazing. The fact that he was even able to compete with other elite racers is one of the greatest triumphs of the human spirit I've ever seen. And words can't express that not only did he win the Tour De France, but he won it 7 times! (Also please let's not be naive and think he was the only one who was juicing. If all the riders weren't juicing, I think most of the other riders were juicing as well. So in a bizarre way, it was a fairly competitive competition.)

And if that was the peak, then that would be very impressive. However all the money his Livestrong organization has raised to fight cancer is the greatest thing about this whole story.

Entertainment:

1) I won't be raving about the amazing "Homeland". I finished watching Season 1 Sunday night. What a great, great first season. I was a bit disappointed by the ending. I think "Homeland's" show runner wimped out a bit when Brody's bomb didn't go off. However maybe that will just lead to better drama in the future. I was disappointed to see that Season 2 isn't available yet to buy. I definitely won't be adding Showtime to an already expensive Comcast bill.

2) Ingrid Michaelson and kids from Sandy Hook Elementary singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". This is pretty cool:



Alleged entertainment:

1) From the what the hell? department. AMC, showing absolutely no common sense, is bringing "The Killing" back for a third season. It seems all the hate and the low ratings did nothing to remind AMC why they didn't rush to renew this show. (It makes me wonder why AMC didn't renew "Rubicon", a show that actually is good.) Look for another nonsensical case stretched out for too long (to maximize ratings). Season 3 is suppose to be 12 episodes, which means that it should only be 6 episodes. The first two seasons should have been merged into one season and it would have been much better.

I'll not be watching this steaming pile of crap and I'll urge you not to. This is the kind of thinking that Jerry Jones uses and it doesn't work for him either.

themusicaddict

"Homeland" Season 1 is Fantastic

Hello,

I know I'm late to the party with "Homeland", but I don't have Showtime. And frankly it's not worth paying for. However with Showtime's Freeview weekend starting this past Friday, I started watching Season 1 of "Homeland". All I can say is this is a magnificent show. First of all let me start off with the casting. The actors playing each member of the cast are perfect for each role. Claire Danes as the obsessive, mentally fractured Carrie Mathison is a revelation. Damien Lewis is fantastic as Nick Brody. The best is Mandy Patinkin, he's amazing as Carrie's mentor and CIA analyst Saul Berenson.

And for those of you who like eye candy, there's the absolutely gorgeous Morena Baccarin, who plays Brody's long suffering wife. Thinking he was dead she still waited 6 years for him to come home, too bad it was 8 years before he came home. Nick and Jessica readjusting to being a married couple has been one of the most interesting story lines in a show full of amazing story lines. (Also Jessica Brody as a mother reminds me a lot of January Jones' Betty Francis.)

I think she looks better with long hair, but she looks amazing here. The lovely Miss Baccarin:

Anyway I've watched the first 9 episodes of Season 1 so far and I'm madly in love with this show.  I mean the main question is Nicholas Brody a terrorist or not? Just when I think I have that figured out, the rug is pulled out from underneath me. Then when I'm accepting a new reality about Nicholas, the rug is pulled out from underneath me again. The best thing I can say about this show is that it's anything but predictable.

My only quibble is the way too many uses of the F bomb and the way more graphic than needed sex scenes. It's funny with so much on the line how much time everyone has for sex.

The first season of "Homeland" is 12 episodes long and I plan on watching the last 3 episodes after I get home from church.

themusicaddict

Go 49ers. San Francisco's Playoffs Start Today, Other Sports Notes

Hello,

In a few hours the 49ers will be taking the field at Candlestick Park against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC's Divisional Playoff round. Although my lifelong team is the Cowboys, I've got tired of all the dumb decisions they've made the last several years. I'm also sick of not having someone to cheer for in the playoffs. The playoffs just are much less interesting when you don't have a rooting interest. In addition to Dallas, I also adopted the 49ers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I'm very excited to watch the game today. (Please just keep Kyle Williams away from the ball.)

I'm starting to feel that nervousness build up about today's big game.

Aaron Rodgers, after the 49ers win today, please will you retire the championship belt celebration. It lost it's charm a long time ago. Those State Farm commercials can go away too.

In the other three playoff games this weekend: As long as Peyton Manning remains upright, I predict Denver gets by Baltimore today. Then tomorrow it will be Atlanta vs. Seattle. If I was a betting man I'd bet on the Falcons. However I won't be surprised at all if the Seahawks win. A third battle between the 49ers and Seahawks to go to the Super Bowl could be very fun. I predict that New England is just too good for the Texans. (Unlike that other NFL team from Texas, at least Houston can make the playoffs. Of course they don't have a meddling owner and a puppet for a head coach.)

Thank you North Carolina State for beating the lerpy Dukies today. I have a great respect for the Blue Devils men's basketball program, however I dislike them. Do they have a farm in Durham where they grow big lerpy white guys? Is that why they have so many year after year after year? Starting with Mike Gminski, Jay Bilas (although I like him on ESPN), Cherokee Parks, Christian Laettner, Kyle Singler, Ryan Kelly and now the Plumlee twins. Like one Plumlee wasn't bad enough? Yes, I know one of the Plumlees is being ineffective in the NBA now. Thanks again Wolfpack!

It's no coincidence that A'mare Stoudemire has come back to the Knicks and that they've lost 3 games in a row. He's not that good of a player and clogs up the Knicks offense. I also love how the Knicks say they are going to limit his minutes due to his health. That's a nice way for the Knicks to say they don't want to play the black hole. It's good to see the Knicks reverting back to the team they truly are.

The Jazz seemed to have finally started heading in the right direction, although their loss to Atlanta last night was disappointing. They had a 15 point lead at one point but still ended up losing. I like the fact that Coach Corbin is giving Alec Burks point guard minutes. Hopefully he can turn into the long term solution as the Jazz's point guard. The Devin Harris and Mo Williams stopgap measures the last couple of seasons have been less than inspiring. I think Williams being out with an injury has been a blessing in disguise for the Jazz.

Oh yeah is it the baseball season yet? I'm excited to see how the Dodgers, Braves, Red Sox and Pirates do this season. Although I question the Pirates spending so much money for Russell Martin. Russell Martin? It will also be interesting to see how the Cubs mess up this season. Sadly they have been a dysfunctional franchise for such a long time.

I also thought the message sending voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame was interesting. There's no question where they stand when it comes to the steroid era. Clearly enough of them didn't want these alleged cheaters in the Hall of Fame. Now I wonder will they vote like this every year? Roger Clemons only received 37.6% of the vote, but he probably deserves to make the hall. Barry Bonds only received 36.2% of the vote. Let's be honest Bonds had earned being inducted into the Hall of Fame before he started taking steroids. I hated when my teams played against bonds, he could beat you with both his feet and his bat. Both Clemons and Bonds were reported to be jerks, I'm sure that had something to do with both getting so few votes.

Mark McGwire only received 16.9%, Sammy Sosa 12.5% and Rafeal Palmeiro only received 8.8% of the vote. That's not an encouraging trend for players like Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz and their hopes of making the Hall of Fame when they become eligible.

themusicaddict

Amazon's Auto Rip

Hello,

What is Auto Rip you ask? When you go to amazon.com and buy a physical CD, the digital copy is automatically sent to your amazon.com cloud player. (Don't worry it's free for any songs you buy from amazon.com.) Then from there you can listen to the song in the cloud player or download it to your computer. In other words you bought the physical CD, but you don't have to wait for it to arrive before you can start listening to it.

I wanted to check out Auto Rip, so I bought Cinderella's "Gold" yesterday. The CD automatically went to my cloud player. From my cloud player I downloaded it to my computer. If you are scared about if you can do this, don't worry you can. As with most things on the Internet, it's extremely user friendly. I say this as someone who isn't a computer geek. Not only do I have the digital copy, but the physical CD is on the way so I can look at the booklet.

But here's even more good news, but an explanation first. I'm old school and so I've always preferred the actual physical CD. I like being able to listen to it in my car, to look at the booklet (usually for the lyrics) and a CD lasts for a long time.  although I have a lot of digital music on my iTunes. One of my criticisms about digital music has always been that what happens when you lose that music?  Previously in the past it was just gone, if you wanted it again you'd have to buy it again. However with this new Auto Rip, any Auto Rip eligible CD that you've purchased since 1998 you can now re-download to your computer. (No you don't get the physical CD again.) That was a welcome thing of Auto Rip. iTunes had a similar program a year or two ago.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday looking through all the music I've purchased from amazon.com over the years. I was able to re add 181 songs to my computer that have been missing for who knows how long. That included music by The White Stripes, The Strokes ("Is This It") , Living Colour, Erasure, Mother Love Bone, Counting Crows and Jurassic 5. (Although I could also re download Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" I didn't at this time. I'm sorry, but that's one of the most overrated CDs ever.)

Honestly a lot of that lost music I hadn't even missed, but it's good to have it on my computer again. On my iTunes I've been listening to the recently added playlist the last couple of days. I've ran into some long lost friends. Happy day!

Auto Rip is decent. You may not love it immediately, but it's good to have access to it. And honestly I'm surprised this idea hasn't happened before. Now that it's happened, it seems so obvious. I didn't explain this as well as I wanted. For more information go to the amazon.com MP3 section. They have videos there that explain this much better than me.

themusicaddict

Is Jim Buss The Next Jerry Jones?

Hello,

The following is what Jim Buss said on Thursday:

"We still like this team a lot," Buss said Thursday in an interview with ESPNLA 710 radio in Los Angeles. "How can you not believe in this team? This team is built to win. It's a very, very solid team. We haven't seen them all together and play together for games. In my mind, we would not consider a temporary fix or blow it up. Why blow up something we have a future with?

"It's very difficult to talk this way because we're five games under or six games under .500, and we've dug ourselves a hole. But at the same time, I feel that if we put it together, we can string seven or eight games in a row and dig ourselves out of this hole. If we play with the energy we've seen in the last two games, then I think you go into the playoffs with momentum (Thanks to espn.com.)

As a Dallas Cowboys fan for many years, this delusional thinking sounds so familiar. As of now the Lakers are 15-20 and 11th place in the Western Conference. That means if the playoffs started today, the Lakers wouldn't be going. Currently the Lakers are 5 games behind the 8th seeded Nuggets. More bad news for Lakers fans, they welcome one of the best teams in the NBA tonight. That team being the second best team in the Western Conference record wise, the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

What issues do the Lakers have? For one is Mike D'Antoni the person who should be coaching them? From how bad they've played since he joined the team, I would say no. The Lakers are extremely old with Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Ron Arrest and Pau Gasol all in their 30's. And who's on their bench? Hmm, let me think. Oh yeah that's right a bunch of scrubs. Do any of these players scare you: Steve Blake, Jordan Hill, Earl Clark? Me either. 

Also Dwight Howard is an old 26 years old. His body has already started breaking down. He's a player whose reputation is built on hype. He's already missed several games this season due to injury and he's currently out indefinitely. Also Howard is a player who doesn't care about playing hard and he doesn't seem to be much of a team player. From his infrequent play this season, you can already see him starting to mail in on the rest of this season. When the Lakers were getting beaten by the Spurs a couple of days ago, he acted like he was everybody's friend. But from his boorish off season behavior, that's hard to believe. He wants to seem like he's this lovable and fun guy. I'm sorry I just don't buy it. I can't believe that the Lakers would even want him back next season. But as a Lakers hater, I hope he's a Laker for many years to come. 

I'll enjoy watching the Thunder beat on the Lakers and dropping them to 15-21 tonight. That's exactly what happened. The Thunder made the Lakers look pathetic and thoroughly dominated them in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicates. Do you ever get the sense that Mike D'Antoni has no clue how to get this Lakers team back on track? I love that he says the season starts on Sunday. They play one of the worst teams in the NBA at home, the Cavaliers. Of course they lost to the Cavaliers earlier in the season.

The Lakers next 10 games:

Fri, Jan 11	vs Oklahoma City (Loss 15-21)
Sun, Jan 13	vs Cleveland (Win 16-21)
Tue, Jan 15	vs Milwaukee (Win 17-21)
Thu, Jan 17	vs Miami (Loss 17-22)
Sun, Jan 20	@ Toronto (Win 18-22)
Mon, Jan 21	@ Chicago (Loss 18-23)
Wed, Jan 23	@ Memphis (Loss 18-24)
Fri, Jan 25	vs Utah (Win 19-24)
Sun, Jan 27	vs Oklahoma City (Loss 19-25)
Tue, Jan 29	vs New Orleans (Win 20-25)

The scheduling gods have them a relatively wimpy schedule over the next 10 days. I predict they go 5-5 over those games. The Jazz game could be a loss though. The Jazz already beat the Lakers in LA earlier this season. Also the Jazz have been playing a lot better of late.

I understand why Cowboys haters are haters, it's probably much the same feeling I have about the Lakers.

themusicaddict

Jerry Jones Continues To Be A Dumb Ass!

Hello,

Funny when Jerry said he was going to be making "changes", I thought he was going to be making good changes.

From the department of you can't make this stuff up. According to many sources Idiot Jones is seriously considering hiring 72 year old Monte Kiffin to be the new Cowboys defensive coordinator. Kiffin has been working for his son Lane the last 4 years. After USC finished their extremely disappointing season last year the senior Kiffin was forced out. (According to ESPN's Dallas Todd Archer Kiffin has been hired as the Cowboys defensive coordinator.)

Many people in the know that know about NFL football, which doesn't include me, think this is a good move for the Cowboys. Although he was atrocious at USC, he had many years of success with the Buccaneers. He has won a Super Bowl as Tampa Bay's defensive coordinator. He created the so called Tampa 2 defense which considerably slowed down the explosive St. Louis Rams offenses of that era.

As a Cowboys fan I'll give Kiffin the benefit of the doubt, not that I have much of a choice. At 72, how many years will he be a DC? an effective DC? alive? Even if this move works out, what is the best case scenario for someone that turns 73 next month?

It's only with the Cowboys that such potentially terrible decisions even be considered, let alone followed through on. My prediction is that this might work out in the short term, but years from now we'll look back on it as a very bad move. Of course making bad moves is Idiot's forte.

themusicaddict

Songs of The Day: Forgotten 80's Songs

Hello,

Climb into the way back machine. Here are a couple of songs that will take you back many years. These are songs that have been forgotten, but shouldn't have been. Writing this blog just makes me realize once again how good 80's music is. All genres produced great songs that decade! And these are the more obscure songs. No musical idea was off limits in the 80's. Experimentation was key, either resulting in great success or great failure. But at least every song didn't sound alike.

I'm not including all the classics from Madonna, Journey, Def Leppard, U2......

The Thompson Twins "If You Were Here":



From 1984, this is Tommy Shaw's "Girls With Guns":



The other main singer from Styx, Dennis DeYoung's "Desert Moon":



The Fabulous Thunderbirds "Tuff Enuff":



El Debarge's "Who's Johnny":



El Debarge's other forgotten 80's song, "Who's Holding Donna Now":



Everybody remembers "Oh Sherrie", but this song is sadly forgotten. This is "Foolish Heart":



JoBoxers "Just Got Lucky":



Bruce Hornsby and the Range's amazing "The Way It Is":



Gene Loves Jezebal "Jealous":



Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him":



Icehouse's "Electric Blue":



It probably won't surprise you that Alan Parsons worked with Pink Floyd in making some of their greatest music ever. Alan Parsons Project: "Time":



Another good song from Alan Parsons Project "Eye In The Sky":



The Motels are completely forgotten and I'm not sure why. They had 4 or 5 great songs in the 80's. Those songs include "Take The L", "Suddenly Last Summer", Shame" and "Remember The Nights". This is "Only The Lonely" (I love the sax solo):



The Bruce he thanks at the start of the video is Bruce Springsteen. Gary US Bonds "This Little Girl":



Like the Motels, the Hooters have been completely forgotten. Their debut CD "Nervous Night" is an excellent CD. Check it out. Here are a couple of their best songs.

This is "Where Do The Children Go?":



"Nervous Night":



When you hear the Hooters announced as a one hit wonder, this is the "hit" they are talking about. They may have had only one "hit", but they have many great songs. This is "And We Danced":



themusicaddict