Blogger Stumbles Across Best Blog Ever

Thanks to my friend Rob who writes so maniacally well for the East Bay Express for posting this in one of his articles.

I give you, the best blog ever.

(Takk...) About Excited...

So, we are going to see Sigur Ros tonight here in Columbus at the (formerly known as Promowest) Pavilion. Having never seen them before, I could not be more excited, as I've heard they are simply mind-blowing live. Melissa and I plan to meet up with some guys from my band, and make an evening out of the whole thing. From everything I've heard and read, this should be an amazing evening.

In the meantime, enjoy a little snippet.

A Win and a "Lost"

I believe the Curse of the Blog has been lifted! After giving up a goal 35 seconds into the game, and being down 3-1 at the end of the first period, it looked as though Lars was right: my blog had again cursed a hot sports team. They were headed for a second straight loss.

Five unanswered goals later, the Jackets again emerged victorious. This time, they didn't give the other team the freebie point for the shootout loss. And, they got two points from the team in the 8th playoff spot. They're now 17 points back with two games in hand above the Kings, who are reeling. For the sake of any playoff argument, you have to assume the Jackets win those two games in hand, and thus for all intents and purposes can be 13 points back. That's doable over a two-month span.

We also learned on "Lost" last night that Sawyer, despite all of his experiences with all of the people on the island, is still at his root a bad mothaf-shut yo mouth. Just talkin' bout Sawyer.

Then we can dig it.

And, even though my previous Lost post bashed the Charlie episode, last nights ep at least shed some light on why it was there.

There's a new sheriff in town!

Say hello to hockey, the other white meat!

Seriously, I love hockey, and I love to follow the Blue Jackets. But, until Christmas, they looked content to just roll over and die and have one of the worst seasons ever. But then, my boy Rick Nash (above) came back, and essentially the whole, original roster finally got healthy. Since Christmas, they've played 19 games and have gone 13-5-1 (equalling 27 points in 19 games... not bad for at that time the second worst team in hockey). They've gone from 19 points to 46 points in a little over a month.

Columbus is finally getting behind their team again, and the way the Jackets are playing, they have a legitimate shot at making a run at the #8 spot in the playoffs (and thus, the right to get smoked by Detroit in the first round).

But, I think it was Shakespeare who said, "It's better to get smoked in the first round of the playoffs than never to have been in the playoffs at all." Or something like that.

At any rate, this team is on fire. 8-2 in their last 10, including a 5-game winning streak (4 of which were against playoff teams, the last 2 on the road).

Stay tuned.

Our Big Break + State of the Union Scorecard

So, tonight could be the biggest show my band has ever played. We are again headlining Little Brother's which we first did back in December. That night, we probably had 70 people there.

Well, for the show tonight, we've passed out almost 2000 free tickets all across campus and other parts of the city. Our estimate was that maybe 1 in 10 tickets would show up at the door. Even at that rate, that's at least 200 people, which in this town for a Wednesday night show, is pretty damn good.

Some semi-important people (from some bigger bands in C-bus, one of which is signed I believe), are rumored to be at this show. Godspeed, House of Cards.

On to more pressing matters:

State of the Union Address Scorecard

Number of Minutes Actually Watched: ZERO. That's right. I can't stand to watch that man speak. It makes my blood pressure rise. My wife and I consider ourselves to be steeped in traditional moral values, but I believe at one point she said, "I hate that man with every fiber of my being." And I couldn't agree more.

Best Analysis: Tim Russert. Seriously, I love Tim Russert when it comes to things like this. He seems to be the only reporter these days who doesn't lob softballs at interviewees, and his assessment last night of what will actually be done in Congress in the coming year was fair, and probably accurate. I wish Tim was in the daily White House Press Corps sometimes, because you know he wouldn't let Scott McClellan get away with a quarter of the douchey dodging answers he gives essentially every day.

Brightest Political Future: Barrack Obama. He was only on NBC for about 45 seconds to a minute after the speech, but in that minute he said more of substance than most politicos can do. "He talked about the things that I think need to be talked about. Health care, education, energy independence, but there wasn't any beef there. There didn't seem to be any serious proposals that would call America to action." No spin. Thank heavens. I think it's too early in 2008 for any Presidential aspirations, but good God, they need to get him involved in that campaign.

Number of Times I Would Punch Bill Frist in the Face, Were it Legal: Cannot be Measured by Existing Technology. Seriously. He couldn't even properly recite the bullet points on NBC's post-speech coverage without messing up.

Most Unexpected Democratic Response: Tim Kaine of Virginia. Dude's been governor for all of a month, and he's the choice for Democratic response? At first I was like, "Wha?" but then I came to like the decision. Fresh blood. That's what the Dems need. They need to parade guys like Kaine (who, as Lt. Governor of Virginia has worked with a lot of actual bipartisanship to accomplish good things in that Republican state, and who has connected with white, rural, middle-class America) and Obama (who connects with people unlike any politician I've seen other than Bill Clinton) around early and often going into the 2006 and 2008 elections. To quote Agent Smith from The Matrix: "You've had your time. It's... OUR time... now."

Best Sarcastic Canned Response: The Democrats Giving a Standing-O to Bush's Caustic Remark about Not Passing His Social Security Privatization. Seriously. Brilliant. Hearing about that makes me almost wish I'd watched the speech.

Thing I Missed Most about Not Watching the SotU Address: Ted Kennedy's Eye-Rolling. Ted's always good for at least one big sigh and one big eye-roll while on camera when Bush says something he doesn't like. Melissa and I agreed: that's the only reason we would have watched the actual speech.

All in all, I really don't know exactly what the President said, as admittedly, I didn't watch his speech. But, much like David Letterman, I have a feeling that at least 60% of what he said is crap.

Crisp-for-Marte: The Re-Redux

So, this story just keeps getting better and better. Apparently, because Guillermo Mota's shoulder looked sketchy, the Tribe has asked Boston for *another* player. This one, while still technically a "prospect," has the potential to help the Indians this year. This would make the deal a little easier for me to swallow, in truth.

Boston is balking at this deal, which makes me think that if it happens, it can't be all bad. They'd be giving us three of the top young players in their organization for Coco Crisp. THAT sounds like a trade worth making, especially when one of them (Manny Delcarmen) could help us this season. Plus, it means that with this deal and then the impending deal with the Phillies, we're now swapping players straight up: back-up catcher for back-up catcher, middle relievers for middle relievers, and outfield for outfield. We then get Marte on top of everything. If he pans out like Lars thinks he will, seems like the Tribe wins on this deal, and basically a comparable team takes the field this year to the one that won 93 games last year. I can live with that.

Don't get me wrong: I still don't think I want these deals to go down, but if they do, I could live with it in THIS format better than I could when it was just Marte and Mota that we would be getting (in addition to Michaels, of course).


New Lost last night. Have to say that it left me a bit disappointed. I found it to grind any momentum that the show built (from last week's revelation of Zeke to Jack wanting to plan an army) to a screaching halt. So, you're telling me that all of this stuff happened, and Jack is too busy chatting it up with Ana Lucia about whether or not he's "hitting" Kate to even mention anything about his plans for an army, or the fact that they now have made contact with at least one faction of "Others?" No, instead we get some Charlie backstory time, and a teaser of Sun being kidnapped.

I guess I just didn't like being teased. It's like in the Simpsons, when Poochie made his debut on the Itchy and Scratchy show... they were driving down a road to a fireworks factory, and the signs kept telling of its impending arrival. Then they stop and pick up Poochie and he does his awful, awful thing. Milhouse exclaims, "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!?"

Indeed, Milhouse. When are we going to get to that fireworks factory, Lost?

No! Not 'Nice Guy Eddie' Too!

I can't believe Chris Penn died. He was only 40. While not the picture of health given his weight and what-not, this is still somewhat surprising.

Who can forget the image of him learning to "dance" from Kevin Bacon in Footloose, or, quite simply,

If you fucking beat this prick long enough, he'll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago fire, now that don't necessarily make it fucking so!

Hopefully we don't come to find out it was drugs. Selah.

Bob McKenzie: "Take off, eh! He's signin' my jersey!"

Is it me, or does Jhonny Peralta have a gigantic head?

At any rate, the Tribe press junket here in Columbus was fun. Got my jersey signed by Peralta, Ryan Garko, and Fernando Cabrera. For $5 to charity, I'd say it was money well spent.

And, incidentally, he's laughing because I asked him a stupid question.

More on Coco Crisp-for-Andy Marte

Some good debate happening in my comments section, which isn't something I ever thought I'd see on this blog. Wow!

For me, regardless of what Marte does on the field, I think Kokotan's statement sums up why I was/am so pissed about this potential trade:

"So we are planning on taking that final step in 2007 or will Marte need 77 games followed by a year in the minors to adjust (like jhonny) meaning we are planning for 08 or 09? After a season with 90 some wins? What players are we going to have to dump for salary reasons next year so we can plan for 2008? Unless this team plans on keeping some of its good players then they aren't going to compete every year, they will always be planning on next year."

And, while Marte's numbers may track well, unless the Boston GM is pulling a "Giles for Rincon" trade because they feel like CF/leadoff is that huge a deal to their offense, I'm skeptical that someone this good could be traded twice in the same off-season without a red-flag being there. And now on top of Crisp, we have to give up two MORE major-league (or at least AAAA) players to get this kid, when all he was worth to them was Edgar Renteria, who they were obviously so enamored with that they traded him and are willing to replace him with Alex Gonzalez.

In addition, the fact that we're not actually strengthening our bullpen now (if Riske--for Marte--and then Rhodes--for Michaels--go, only to be replaced by Mota, who *might* be injured), when it was the one area of a 93-win team to already take a huge hit in free-agency, I have to question exactly what the fuck Shapiro is doing if he claims he's not taking a step backward and planning for the future.

Fernando Cabrera for a whole year will be nice, but he doesn't replace both of your set-up men. Matt Miller *might* be back to pre-injury form, but he's been nothing if not inconsistent his entire Indians tenure. Mota *could* be good, but his numbers last year were abysmal when compared with his 2004 numbers. And, leaving a bullpen with only one lefthander (Scott Sauerbeck, who CANNOT get right handed hitters out) is not a smart thing. We tried that in 2004, and it was an awful experiment (Scott Stewart anyone?).


I guess I just can't believe the balls Shapiro has. After all the heat he took in 2002 for trading Colon and then to tell everyone, "Wait until 2005. You'll see," to have the balls now after 2005 to pull that shit again...

What do you do for an encore? Do you, like, anally rape my mother while pouring sugar in my gas tank?

Bitter much?

I guess I should be "proud" that a team from my division is going to the Super Bowl, but fuck that. Really. I know this is going to be entirely sour grapes on my part, but Fuck the Steelers. Seriously. In the pooper, if need be.

I'm so tired of the Steelers. Of Jerome Bettis. Of Fucking Big Ben. Of Bill Cowher's chin. I hate the Steelers so much I actually rooted for the Broncos this weekend! And that's saying something.

Now, I know that deep down, the Steelers are a well-run organization with great fans. They're the one team that didn't vote for Art Modell's plan to move the Browns. They wore patches for the Browns fans when we lost our team. They've done everything to reignite the Browns/Steelers rivalry (including pounding the shit out of us ad nauseum). They run a clean organization. You don't tend to hear about their players on police blotters.

That said, fuck them. Go Seattle.


And while we're on the subject of sports things that really piss me off, the Indians are trading one of their most popular players and an important cog in their young, potent lineup for a prospect. To Boston, of all teams (probably the one team in MLB that I hate more than the Yankees). For a prospect. A prospect. A prospect!

I've had some time to digest this, and despite the optimism of my Tribe colleague Lars, I still am not really happy about this move. And I'll endeavor to tell you why (and then wait for the comments from Lars that explain to all of you why I'm full of shit):

To me, the Indians from 2002-2005 had run a top-notch organization. They laid a plan in 2002 for the 2005-2006 time-frame. They set it up back in June and July of 2002 so that the future would be bright.

And now that the bright future is actually here (93-69, missing a playoff spot by 2 games in '05), they're taking a step backward to plan for the future again. To me, they apparently have no idea how to ride any momentum. They complained that they couldn't spend money until the fans came back. They put a great product on the field, and now the fans are coming back.

So, to reward the fans, they subject them to 162 games of Casey Motherfucking Blake in right field, and a possible platoon of Todd Fucking Hollandsworth and A Guy Who Likes to Get Into Fist-Fights with Cops (see link at bottom) in left field, all the while losing their .300 hitting #2 hitter, *JUST* on the prospect of a 22-year-old third baseman who *might* help them NEXT YEAR (i.e., IN 2007!).

Marte, 22, is the key to the deal for the Indians. They don't consider him a finished player and he'll probably open the season at Class AAA Buffalo. Aaron Boone is expected to open the season at third after the Indians picked up his 2006 option last year. Boone has a mutual option for 2007.

The Indians have a big hole at third base in the organization. They not only believe Marte can fill that hole, but that he could eventually be the right-handed, middle-of-the-order power hitter they've been unable to acquire over the past two years.

Marte hit .275 (107-for-389) with 20 homers and 74 RBI last season for Class AAA Richmond. He played 24 games for the Braves and hit .140 (8-for-57) with no homers and four RBI. (emphasis/itals mine)

Am I crazy, or are those numbers not all that great for "top-10 prospect" material at AAA-ball? And, not only are we sacrificing a .300 hitter in Crisp out of the 2006 lineup, but we still have to put up with Blake and Boone for another year.

I understand that the Tribe is making this deal contingent upon getting Jason Michaels from Philadelphia to fill Crisp's spot in the outfield, and that Andy Marte is ranked as one of the top-10 prospects in baseball, but come on. Alex Escobar (seriously, click the link and look at the gaudy MLB career numbers, including 301 total at-bats!) was once ranked as one of the top-10 prospects in baseball, too.

Furthermore, the pitcher we'd be getting from Boston is apparently worth so little to a free-agency-depleted bullpen that he's going to be turned around for Mr. Cinderella Man Cop Fighter with no recourse. And on top of that, we ALSO have to give Boston two minor league players??

So, to recap, we're going to trade a 26-year-old GOOD fielding outfielder with speed who hits .300 in the #2 hole behind Franchise McSizemore and in front of one of the best 3-6 lineups in baseball, BUT he's not worth more than a 22-year-old guy who hits .275 in AAA and a pitcher who is so worthless that we're going to turn him around for a career-fourth-outfielder who gets into fights with cops and may or may not have to platoon with an over-the-hill-possibly-never-was Todd Hollandsworth, AND we have to give up two minor league players just to get another minor leaguer from Boston? Am I missing something here?

I know Shapiro has made a lot of great trades over the past 3-4 years, and for that I should give him the benefit of the doubt (after all, he did get Crisp back in 2002 for Chuck "Please, Tawny, stop hitting me with your shoe and climb back onto David Coverdale's hood" Finley). But, this one leaves me scratching my head a little bit.

If it goes down, the 2006 Tribe better hit coming out of the gate MUCH better than the 2005 team did the first two months of last year, AND the 2007 Tribe had better run away and hide with the division.

Lest I get into a boxing stance and wrestle someone to the ground.

Interesting Baseball HoF Fallout and/or Maurice Carthon is a Dumb-ass

Just got finished reading a great, great article by Bob Ryan on Albert Belle and his chances for the Hall of Fame. Any concerned Cleveland sports fans that happen to read this blog should check it out.


Also just read a great column by Terry Pluto in the ABJ about Maurice Carthon and his loose lips. Good luck with that, ass.

Alright, alright: count me in, too

From others, I have read of this "Game of Four" business. Here goes nothin':

• 4 jobs you've had in your life: Dance Cotillion Drummer, Grocery Packer, Contract Coordinator for a copier company, and Media Editor for a college textbook publisher


• 4 movies you could watch over and over: Shawshenk Redemption, The Godfather, Office Space, Dazed and Confused


• 4 places you've lived: Wooster OH, Vermilion OH (sort of), Alliance OH, Columbus and/or Dublin OH


• 4 TV shows you love to watch: Simpsons, The Daily Show, Lost, Grey's Anatomy (this list promises to grow in potential once our DVR is installed on Thursday)


• 4 places you've been on vacation: Fort Collins (and skiing in the Rockies) CO, Ocho Rios Jamaica, Baltimore MD, Lake Placid NY


• 4 websites you visit daily: Cleveland.com, CNN.com, my band's discussion forum, ESPN.com


• 4 of your favorite foods: pizza, wings from Winking Lizard, shrimp cocktail, cheese and many things made/associated with it (a total cop-out, I know)


• 4 places you'd rather be: a beach with my wife, a Cleveland-team professional sporting event, skiing down a large mountain, at an amazing concert


• 4 albums you can't live without: Dave Matthews Band: Listener Supported, Sigur Ròs: ( ), Tool: Lateralus, Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump


• 4 people tagged next: like four people actually read this!

Vacation: Over

So, I was on vacation for a couple of weeks, and unlike many of my more dedicated colleagues in the blog-o-sphere, I chose not to do diddly shit on my blog while gone. Chalk part of that up due to travel, and part of it up due to laziness and enjoying time off with my wife.

At any rate, here I am. Back at work. Ugh. To update you:

• The band took some time off. We played our two shows December 14th-15th, and did really well. The Little Brother's show was off the fucking charts. We actually drew enough people to make money... at a big club. So much so, they have asked us back again on Wednesday, February 1st. We managed to get them to make that show a bit earlier in the evening, hopefully making it that much easier to get more asses on barstools. We're kicking off our 2006 with a show this Friday night at Scarlet and Grey Cafe, with some new material on top of it all. Hopefully it will be a good winter/spring for us and we can get some meathooks into some OSU kids before they leave.


• The Browns finished up at 6-10, which actually was a pleasant surprise. I went on record with my tailgating friends at 5-11, so they showed me what time it is. With John Collins being fired as president, and a full off-season from the new GM and head coach to come, not to mention getting Kellen Winslow and hopefully Braylon Edwards back, the Browns should be above .500 for the 2006 season. Which means, of course, that they will be 4-12 when it's all said and done with all of their playmakers on IR.


• The Tribe signed a bunch of scrubs. Just like they do every year. We shall see.


• We're getting our digital cable, DVR, and HD channels on Thursday. My next blog entry may be from a hospital bed after I pass out. Call me crazy, but I'm looking forward the most to Discovery HD Theater. I dig that nature-show shit, and to see it in 46 inches of high definition promises to be super sweet. Oh, and the NFL playoffs and March Madness in HD won't be too shabby either.


• Bill O'Reilly is a big, lying, splotchy lunatic. No big shocker there.


• Tom DeLay is out at House Majority Leader. About fucking time.


• This man will most likely doom us all.


• And now, for a truly un-Christian moment, of which I am ashamed (but not ashamed enough NOT to print it). Just die, already. Sorry about that.

I think that covers it for now. Thanks for hanging in, any and all of you that stuck around through my prolonged absence.

This Week is THE Week

Well, in response to my "quotes" post below, at least the Browns played well. They got jobbed on a "holding" call that ended up keeping Cincinnati's last-second game-winning field goal drive alive, but other than that, they did about all I could have hoped for.

In band news, we have two HUGE shows this week at HUGE venues for us.

Wednesday night, 12/14, we'll be headlining Little Brother's on High Street (w/ The Slide Machines and Fine Dining). This is going to be a HUGE show, and we have always wanted to play Little Brother's. We're expecting A LOT of people; hopefully they actually show up.

And, if that wasn't enough, we are ALSO be playing at The Basement (at Fat Eddie's Bar) on Thursday, 12/15 with Bullet Jones and others. This one may not be as heavily attended (and it's not as important to me as the LB's show is), but it should be a nice way to pocket some band money this week. One step closer to my own edition of MTV's Cribs...

A sick day may be calling my name on Friday.

The most important post you will ever read.

Remember where you saw this information when the time comes to finish your Christmas/Hannukuh/Kwanza/"Holiday" shopping.

Welcome to Pandora:


A little background from the Pandora folks:

Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask:

Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you.

I, for one, think this is a great idea in and of itself. However, after using Pandora for a month or so, I can't believe I ever lived without it. Basically, you pick a song or artist. Pandora plays that song or artist, and then, based on the Music Genome Project criteria, selects other music that it thinks you might like (but might have never heard of before). Each song that plays allows you to offer feedback: I like this song, play more like it. I hate this song, never play it again.

In essence, you develop a radio station that constantly evolves, so that you never hear crap that you don't like. You can create any number of radio stations. I have at least five that weave through the different styles of music that I like, and each is unique and constantly fluid to adjust to my tastes.

And, it's free, if you don't mind little adverts in the upper corner of a window that you can minimize anyway.

Don't wait. Go there now. Drop whatever you're doing. You'll thank me.

Things I'd like to say to people... in caption form...

Most Important

"Damn, you good lookin'."


Sports

"Good God, I hope you're ready. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life."


"Good God, I hope you're healthy, if only so that #9 up there doesn't get killed. Phil, pay the man."


"Okay, Whiney McContract. It's put-up or shut-up time. Braylon's gone. You want a new deal? In the words of John Houseman, make money the old fashioned way: EARN IT."


"What's that? Hoffman resigned with the Padres? Oh, no, Bob... we were never, uhh... serious... about that. We wanted you all along. Please, oh please... pitch in 2006 like you pitched in 2005."


"Before I even THINK of getting on board for this idea of you as my right fielder next year, the 1999 version of yourself had better show up yesterday."


Politics

"I may be stupider than you in the classical, don't-have-as-many-degrees sense, but I'll never be as much of a sell-out whore as you..... oh wait, and there's no fucking way I'm stupider than you are. Bitch."


"If, by 'amazing progress' you mean in terms of the death toll reaching new heights, then yes. 'There's an important debate going on in our nation's capital about Iraq.' There is. Too bad you're too fucking stupid and stubborn to let yourself be a part of it."


"Seriously. Shut the fuck up. Like, now. I have a sneaking suspicion you're going down next year."


Also, if you aren't listening to The Stephanie Miller Show, you probably should be.

That's all I got.

Cursed?

So, it's not bad enough that I spend $400 on football tickets for the season (slightly less this year due to the two games I've sold) and get up at the crack of pre-dawn several Sundays each fall/winter.

It's not bad enough that I sit in the cold, bundled up to the gills.

It's not bad enough that the Browns blew a 14-3 halftime lead and lost, 20-14.

No, on top of all of that, my favorite player and one of the Browns only certifiable playmakers has to blow out his knee.

Seriously, I don't believe in curses. But one has to admit (if one has ever spent any considerable amount of time following the Cleveland Browns) that there is something seriously fishy going on, here.

And I, for one, am powerless to do anything about it.

Image of Myself as Someone Else

Sometimes I get bored. Thanks to the good people somewhere in Denmark, however, I now know what my wife and I would look like as characters on South Park:


You can tell who the looker is in this group, and it sure as hell ain't me.

Go nuts here, everyone!

Current Events

Sadly, I'm not here to report of my band's impending gig with Bon Jovi. That honor went to Introspect, a local Nickelback knock-off. I guess I can't complain, as that's probably the kind of music the average Bon Jovi fan wants to hear. At least it didn't go to these fuckwads, as was originally rumored.

Even still, we played an unplugged set at the ShiSha Lounge just north of campus last week, and it went very well all things considered. We will be playing there on Thursday, December 1st, and will follow that up with shows at Bernie's on Friday, December 2nd and at The Basement on Thursday, December 15th.

In the meantime, we are planning to spend the entire day this coming Sunday in a recording studio. The finished product should be an EP that includes at least 5 tracks, and hopefully more, depending on how smoothing we can record. Since we're doing all of the mixing ourselves, that cuts out the most tedious and time-consuming part of the studio experience, and also allows us to spend all of our time recording this weekend. Look for an EP to be finished by December sometime, at which time we will begin peddling it mercilessly.

In other news, I can't believe the Browns won on Sunday. This is the second home game this season for which I've given up my season ticket (the other being the Bears game), and they're 2-0 when I decide not to go. Coincidence? Much like I was killing the Tribe by writing about them, perhaps I'm killing the Browns by watching them in person. I'm also killing the Cavs by even paying attention to them. I didn't watch or listen to the opener; they won handily. I turned on the Cavs/Spurs game; the Cavs were competitive at the time and were actually leading. They then tanked in the second half. I listened in the car on Saturday night, and when I turned it on they were ahead by 10. They lost.

I'm like a giant, 6'3" black cat that walks under a ladder while breaking a mirror for these teams. ESPN's early poll has the Indians picked to win the World Series next season. Maybe I shouldn't watch.


New episode of "Lost" this week. Apparently, someone is going to die. But who? Though the promos would have you believe Sawyer, I just can't see them killing him off. Not Shannon, since Boone just died and she has to further her freaky "Walt keeps appearing to me and freaking my shit out" storyline. Not any of the hatch-dwellers.

Needless to say, thankfully there's no band practice or band shows this week. Melissa and I should be able to watch it. I'm ready. It's about time.

Wow.

I'm sensing a theme here. A month passes. I write one blog entry.

I know that I'm very busy at work, but still. That's no excuse. The three people that read (or maybe, used to read) my blog demand more.

Some random news:

• Gig tonight at Oldfield's on High. We have one more next Thursday at Shi Sha Lounge, which will be an "unplugged" show and should be fun. After those two, we have nothing until December 15th at The Basement. The plan is to head into the studio and record as many tracks as possible for our demo. We also got a nice little press kit photo taken, finally:
  


• In other band news, there's a slim chance that we will be opening for BON FUCKING JOVI on November 9th. Apparently, they've booked most of their tour without openers, and each venue/city finds a local band to open for them. We obviously have no more shot than any other band entering this "contest" with the exception of the fact that our intrepid guitarist Steve has ins with two people on the Ohio Union Activities Board who will be lobbying for us to play this gig. Holy fuck, I don't know what I'd do with myself if we got to play a show that big.


• The White Sox won the World Series. Meh. Couldn't have happened to a bigger bunch of pricks. Seriously. They had a 15 game lead, and the Tribe cut it to 1.5 games. And then when the Tribe couldn't make the playoff push after all of that, he has the fucking nerve to do this. Asshole. Not to mention that their catcher is in the top 5 list of athletes whom I cannot stand.


• In other World Series news, you know who has to be suffering the most? Not Astros fans. Cubs fans. Their team hasn't won a World Series since 1908! Until one year ago, they had company (as misery LOVES company). Both Sox (Red and White) hadn't won a World Series since 1918 and 1917 respectively. Now, in a one year span, Cubs fans have to watch both of those teams win World Series titles in succession. Now, as a long-suffering Cleveland fan, I can relate. But damn... can you imagine being a Cubs fan in your 60's or 70's, even? You've lived your whole life and not seen your team win. Then, the other two teams who can relate to you suddenly both win theirs back to back. I know I'd shoot myself. The even worse news is that now, the team behind the Cubs for longest drout is none other than my very own Cleveland Indians, who have been close-but-no-cigar since 1948. Add in that Cleveland's last sports title was 13 years before I was born (1964 Browns, baby), and I just realized that it really SUCKS being a Cleveland fan. Thanks, Mom and Dad.


• And, wrapping up our World Series coverage, I find myself wondering if Brad Lidge recovers from this post-season... He was lights-out in last year's post-season and early in this one, but from game 5 of the NLCS on he was very mortal, and looked like he had no confidence. He gave up 3 games in the span of 6; he gave up a 3-run BOMB to Albert Pujols with the Astros 1 out away from the World Series. He gave up a walk-off game winner to a guy who had ZERO home runs during the regular season, spanning 507 at bats. He gave up the lead in a 0-0 game, a game that his team ended up losing and thus lost the series. I'm sure he'll have plenty of time this off-season to think about it. I mean, it never affected Byung-Hyun Kim, right?


• The Browns. Oh, the Browns. Get to 2-2, have 4 chump teams coming up, and then go in the tank. Lose your #1 cornerback. Have your veteran quarterback start sucking. The Browns continually think of new ways to take years off of my life. Every year.

So, that's what's going on.

Shot through the heart, and you're to blame. You give love a bad name.

Bad name.