Politics and Religion shouldn't mix....

Want to know why I could care less about talking politics? That would be because our political system and electoral ways are based around what a person's religious beliefs are. Instead of caring about how a Presidential candidate plans on fixing our healthcare system or the War in Iraq, the majority of America (the religious right) cares about a candidate's religion. Case in point, would be the upcoming Mitt Romney speech which is being compared to JFK's speech in which he had to reassure voters that the Pope wouldn't be running the country using JFK as his puppet. They interviewed Richard Land, a Southern Baptist leader, who had this to say about voting for Mitt Romney, a Mormon:

"I do not believe that Mormonism is an orthodox, trinitarian, apostolic Christian religion, but that would not keep me from voting for a Mormon," Land said. "I would vote for a Mormon who agreed with me on important issues like abortion and same-sex marriage"

This is why I have a disgust for born-again Christians and don't care to talk about politics...

SAY ANYTHING... one of my favorite bands??

Yet another reason why Say Anything is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. Max Bemis is becoming a bit of cult hero... Take that all you assholes on AbsolutePunk...

FANTASY FOOTBALL WOES

Do you want to know how bad of season I'm having in Bri's "Pardon the Interception IV" league? My current starting running back, Priest Holmes has just announced that he's retiring in mid-season... After trading away Reggie Wayne for damaged goods in Steve Smith and a running back who doesn't do anything in Julius Jones... Woe is me. At least things are looking up in TJ's "Definately Ditka" league where I am in second place and starting to gear up for the playoffs...

JIMMY ROLLINS IS YOUR NL MVP!!!

This afternoon, Jimmy Rollins was crowned the NL MVP and it was well overdue. They waited like three weeks after the season ended to make this announcement. That's such bullshit. But this award is well deserved by JRoll. Fuck Matt Holliday and those goddamn Colorado Rockies. Way to make the World Series interesting...

A DAN UPDATE

Things are afoot in my life right now and I wanted to update everyone on what's going on. My work status should be changing in the near future. I set a deadline for the beginning of next year to start looking for a new job. I've had a little too much fun splitting my time between doing my mindless job at the credit union and my promotions job at the radio station. I'm looking to get into some kind of entry-level business type job in which I'll be able to grow and eventually be able to go back to school for my MBA or something along those lines. So if anyone has any suggestions or an inside track on a job that may be opening up, hook a brotha up.

Musically, I'm still chugging along in the highly popular cover band, EWE TOO ROCKS ME, and we should have a show coming up in December at Marty Magee's. Be there or be square. I've also decided that I am going to start a pop-punk band, a dream I've always had. Now I understand that most pop-punk bands start up when kids are in high school, but I've been a dedicated fan of the genre for years and I want to contribute to the music scene. Pattitude has already volunteered his services as bassist and Dusty has shown interest in contributing to the band if he can learn how to play some sort of instrument. Influences of the band will probably consist of MXPX, All Time Low, New Found Glory, The Starting Line, etc. etc. So if anybody else is interested in getting in on this, you know who to call.

I'm enjoying the weekly podcasts myself, Marty, and Clavin have been putting on. We've got some really good material and the show seems to be going in a good direction. If only we could build up a listenership... I've got to start working on befriend people on the myspace and facebook and feel free to spread the word yourself and tell all your friends about us.

Girls still continue to baffle me and confuse me more and more. Why can't dating and flirtations be more cut and dry? Don't worry I'm not going to rant about my problems. There are some perks to being single...

So that's about it for now, expect regular postings now that I've redicated myself...

MY RE-DEDICATION TO THE BLOG

So I've been slacking off from writing on the blog lately with my participation in the weekly podcast, DROP BEETS NOT BOMBS. Therefore I am hereby re-dedicating myself to better serve my audience (all 10 of you) and I now will be regularly updating this artistic masterpiece...

Fantasy Football Week 6 & 7 Analysis...

I LOST BOTH WEEKS IN BOTH LEAGUES... I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT

DROP BEETS NOT BOMBS - The Podcast

Jim Clavin, Marty West, and myself have started our own podcast called DROP BEETS NOT BOMBS and everyone must listen to it. I'm going to be blogging a lot less now because all of my thoughts and stories are now going to be dedicated to the podcast. So start listening to the weekly podcast, generally we'll be recording Monday nights and will usually have them posted on the website by Tuesday. So each week you'll get to hear about the exploits that go on in each of our lives and we're also going to talk Technology, Fantasy Football / Sports, Entertainment News, and we'll feature a Band of the Week. We're also working on having call-ins as a part of the show to heighten the experience. So listen to the podcasts and befriend us on MYSPACE .

Fantasy Football Week 4 & 5 Analysis

I've been pretty lazy in posting lately because I've been working on stuff for the "DROP BEETS NOT BOMBS" podcast among other things. So I'm just going to give a brief synopsis of both weeks.

In Bri's "Pardon the Interception IV" league, I squeeked out a victory in Week 4 and then lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds of the Cowboys-Bills game that led me to defeat. Week 4 saw Reggie Brown, Jericho Cotchery, and Ronnie Brown (the prodigal son) carrying my team to victory. The Chad Pennington experiment got me a modest 7 points and I quickly snatched up Daunte Culpepper in the hope that this is his turnaround season. Luckily for me, the team I was facing was full of underachievers who continued their struggles including Steve Smith and Frank Gore. Definitely glad I drafted neither one of them in any of my leagues. Week 5 saw me exude alot of confidence considering my team was 3-1. But alas, my team tanked with the exceptions of Reggie Wayne and Ronnie Brown, my heavy hitters. The guy I was playing against got a lot of above par performances from his team and I came into the Monday Night game down 11 points with the Cowboys defense. Playing against a rookie QB on a horrible team, they should have tore shit up but instead they manage just 3 sacks and 1 interception and they only got me 9 points leaving me with a 2 point defeat. Prospects aren't looking so good in this league anymore unless Shaun Alexander gets healthy and Daunte Culpepper returns to superstar status.

In TJ's "Definately Ditka" league, I continued my torid pace with decisive wins in both Week 4 and 5. Week 4 saw Brett Favre, Santonio Holmes, and Willis McGahee have huge games while Week 5 had Favre, McGahee, and Torry Holt having good games, making up for the fact that Joseph Addai and Santonio Holmes both were late scratches for their games. The best part of the victory in Week 5 is that it was over Finnegan. Granted it's not the same with Finnegan living up on Long Island and me not being able to brag about it all the time to him, but it still feels good. It's a shame that he couldn't take advantage of all the injuries my team is enduring. At first, next week wasn't looking very promising because I'm playing the #1 team in the league and 3 of my WRs will be out due to injury and / or byes and Joseph Addai is also on bye but I've mastered the art of Waiver Wire pickups by securing Santana Moss (whoever put him on the Waiver Wires was a moron) and Devery Henderson who is due for a good game this week. He's got to make up for all his drops. I'm a little worried about Dallas' defense taking on New England but I didn't have any other players I could drop to pick up another defense. So hopefully this pans out.

A New CHICK-FILA...

So a new Chick-Fila opened up basically like right around the corner from me and already there's traffic issues all around that area. Right smack in the middle of rush hour the other night, I actually saw a Ridley cop directing traffic in the parking lot. That's correct he was directing traffic NOT on a public road but a private parking lot. Good to see where the tax dollars are being spent.

PS. I'm a big fan of their chicken...

Fantasy Football Week 3 Analysis

BRETT FAVRE... BRETT FAVRE... BRETT FAVRE... the man that carried my fantasy team to the championship last year is saving my season again. The Matt Leinart experiment is all but over in both of my leagues after he was replaced by Kurt Warner in the second half of the Cardinals game and Warner was a lot more successful. Now all I need is for the Cardinals to name Warner their starter and then I'll be able to pick up a bonafided number two starter (or in the case of Bri's league a number one). This week I pulled off wins in both leagues as I took on the managers of both of my leagues Bri and TJ.

In Bri's "Pardon the Interception IV" league, I dodged the below-par performances of Matt Leinart, Reggie Wayne, Calvin Johnson, and Shaun Alexander to beat Bri's team 108-94 thanks to huge games by Donald Driver and RONNIE BROWN... YES YES the Ronnie Brown pick of the second round of the draft final paid off with a 35 fantasy point performance. Luckily, Bri's running back combination of Steven Jackson and Deuce McAllister popped a squat so I was able to overcome the performances of Jon Kitna and Housh on his team. This week I'm taking on a team that according to the predicted scores, I'm evenly matched against but I'm feeling a loss coming on because half of my team is on the Probable / Questionable list (which means at least one player I start probably won't play) and I've resorted to starting Chad Pennington because he's the only viable QB left on the Waiver Wire.

In TJ's "Definately Ditka" league, I handily took down TJ's team with monster performances from Brett Favre, Roy Williams, Joseph Addai, and Dallas' defense. And here's the best part: BRETT FAVRE outscored TJ's Peyton Manning this week. Obviously, I was orignially scared shitless to have to play against Peyton but BRETT FAVRE beat him. YES YES. So of course TJ had no chance after that. So with my QB position finally stable with Favre at the helms, I've now got to work on moving Willis McGahee because Adrian Peterson has been tearing it up on my bench and I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. I'm heavily favored to win this week coming up but looks can be deceiving and I'm not going to get too full of myself like a certain Dusty who enjoys bragging about his goddamn Patriots players.

Aerosmith & Joan Jett

I don't know if I can stress it enough that my job at the radio station is AWESOME. Saturday night I worked the Aerosmith and Joan Jett concert down at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Normally, it can suck having to drive down to AC and be stuck right outside the concert venue without access to the show. NOT THIS NIGHT.

As soon as we had our table set up and ready for the crowd, I had some down time to wander around the casino a little bit and play some slots. I've previously had great success with the Wheel of Fortune slot machines (total winnings all time are around $1500) so I found my machines and in two minutes time, I was up $100. Normally, I'd want to press my luck a little bit, but after realizing I had just doubled what I'd be making for working that night, I decided to walk away on top. And the night would just get better.

So apparently Aerosmith concerts bring out some of the hottest women in the tri-state area. Luckily I was working with Feldman, a ladies man on crew in his 40's, who has some of the cheesiest lines, but the women eat it all up. The theme of our event this night was "COUGARS". They were crawling all over the table and us and most of them were drunk as skunks which makes it even more entertaining. It was like shooting fish in barrel (is that the saying?). I'd just point out hott women from across the way and Feldman would just reel them in. One of the games we were playing that night amongst ourselves was keeping track of how many hookers we saw and how many transvestites we saw. Surprisingly, we only saw two hookers, but we definitely saw four trannys. HILARIOUS. And the best part was that Feldman reeled in two of the trannys and definitely got a kiss from both of them. So we got to make fun of him for that the whole night.

As the night wore on, it was still apparent that we really didn't have a way to actually get into the concert. We were set up right outside the venue and could hear the concert pretty loud and clear but it's more of an experience to see the band as well as hear them. Luckily, Larry Mullin, the manager of the Borgata made an appearance at our table and hooked us up with VIP access which got us into the concert and also entitled us to the open bar at the side of the stage. So I was able to watch about 45 minutes of the show and I was also able to have a few beers on the house. I must say, Aerosmith can still put on an awesome show. It sounded like I was just listening to a CD, it was that flawless. And I'm nominating Joe Perry as his generation's Keith Richards. He looks the corpse of someone who died five years ago.

The night almost ended with a bang as a fight almost broke out in front of our table as everyone was exiting the venue but cooler heads prevailed as one of our listeners bitched out an ex-boyfriend who was starting trouble with her current boyfriend. Classic.

Probably one of the best concerts I've worked and should continue to be interesting next Saturday as I work the Heart concert down at the Trump Marina.

GENESIS concert...

Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of working the Genesis concert down at the Wachovia Center. Once I got over my hatred of the dreaded MGK prize wheel, I was able to take in some of the show and I learned a couple of things.

1) I'm definitely not a fan of prog-rock.
2) Genesis has more songs I don't know than I do know
3) Some of Genesis' songs seem to drag on forever
4) Dueling drums solos are definitely uncalled for and a waste of time
5) I think I enjoy Phil Collins' solo work better than the music of Genesis

So it may seem that I hated seeing Genesis from the comments I had about the show, but in reality it was actually entertaining. We were actually able to take in about 45 minutes of the show, in seats on the side of the stage and it sounded pretty good. But, other than that, the night just seemed to drag on.

Fantasy Football Week 2 Analysis

So maybe I jumped to some conclusions after my teams' poor performances in Week One. Week Two gave me the opposite results of Week One with both of my teams fucking dominating. But we'll see if it can hold up throughout the season.

In Bri's "Pardon the Interception IV" league, I got a huge scare from Clavin's team because he got huge games from Carson Palmer, Dallas Clark, and Chicago's defense. Luckily his running backs were Leon Washington, Chris Brown and his flex was Laurence Maroney who combined for a total of 5 fantasy points. In regards to Maroney, I might be looking like a bit of genius for picking up his backup, Sammy Morris who scored a touchdown and had 51 rushing yards with limited reps. We'll see how that pans out. Anyway, I got some strong performances from Donald Driver, Calvin Johnson, Todd Heap, and Neil Rackers, and was just able to fend off Clavin's late second surge from David Akers and Santana Moss. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get crushed this week, with my quarterback situation still pretty crappy and to make matters worse, Leinart is taking on Baltimore this week so I'm looking at negative points from him (my back up is JP Losman who's taking on New England, FUCK). I'm taking on Bri's team this week and he's looking primed to give me an ass whoopin'.

In TJ's "Definately Ditka" league, I scored the league's highest point total this season while destroying my opponent. I got a huge boost from the ageless wonder, BRETT FAVRE who seems primed to save my team once again this year. Keep in mind, Brett was the QB of my team last year that made it to the championship. My experiment with Matt Leinart once again blew up in my face in this league as well. But yeah my whole team dominated with the big problem coming out of this week is the injury to Andre Johnson. I've got Santonio Holmes waiting in the wings and I think he's due for a big game this week against San Francisco. My problem this week going against TJ's team will be the fact that he has Peyton Manning and I'm going to be playing Brett Favre who has to oppose a San Diego defense that will probably be trying to redeem itself after getting their asses handed to them by New England. But there is hope. Houston usually matches up well with Indy and their defense has improved this year so they could give Peyton a run for his money.

Optimism is high right now.

Fantasy Football Week 1 Analysis

After a first week of turbulent NFL action, all three of my fantasy football teams are 0-1 and things aren't looking very optimistic. To put it in the simplest terms possible... I'M FUCKED. I'm not going to bother talking about my Yahoo public league because who gives a shit about that.

In Bri's "Pardon the Interception IV" league, I got my ass handed to me by Plaxico Burress (3 touchdowns), Peyton Manning (3 touchdowns), and Jason Witten (1 touchdown, 116 yds). That's basically the team I had last year in Bri's league so here's hoping Plexiglass bombs like he did last year. My team had no shows from Matt Leinart, Ronnie Brown, and Dallas' defense. I think I even managed to get negative points from the defense. So I quickly tried to clean up my defensive act by picking up Indy's speedy defense in the hope that they're not just a one week fluke.

In TJ's "Definately Ditka" league, my team is hindered by a faulty scoring system in the league. I failed to take a look at the scoring system prior to the draft and failed to notice that this is a QB-favored league. You get 4 points per touchdown thrown and a point per completion among other things. I'm fucked in that I drafted as if it were a RB-favored league, failing to notice that there isn't even a flex position on the starting roster. So right now, I've got Joseph Addai and Willis McGahee starting, with Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch wasting away on the bench. And because TJ is a fuck, it's going to cost me $5 per trade. I've now got to figure out how to wrangle away one of the top QBs from someone and also which RB will be expendable. Back to the scoring of my Week 1 matchup with Dusty. Dusty is going to ride the Patriots for everything they're worth this year, with Tom Brady as his QB and Randy Moss as one of his WRs. He lucked out big time this week. So Brady and Moss basically singlehandedly destroyed my team which was once again sunk by Leinart and Dallas's defense. So Dusty can gloat all he wants, but I should be able to come up with some kind of trade with my overstock of RBs in my war chest.

Final Fantasy Football Roster...

Alright here's the fantasy football team I selected last week at an in-person draft at Marty's. I'm not really happy about my roster at this point. I think the turning point of the draft was in the second round when I drafted Ronnie Brown over Edge... you be the judge.

Brian's "Pardon the Interruption IV" league
Team Name: DAS BOOT

QBs: Matt Leinart (ARI), JP Losman (BUF)
RBs: Sean Alexander (SEA), Ronnie Brown (MIA), Dominic Rhodes (OAK), Mike Bell (DEN)
WRs: Reggie Wayne (IND), Donald Driver (GB), Calvin Johnson (DET), Jericho Cotchery (NYJ), Brandon Jones (TEN), Ted Ginn Jr (MIA)
TEs: Todd Heap (BAL), Owen Daniels (HOU)
K: Neil Rackers (ARI)
DEF: Dallas

EWE TOO ROCKS ME's final show???

I'm about a week late in posting this but I just wanted to chronicle EWE TOO ROCKS ME's latest show, rumored to be the last. If you've been living under a rock, then you've missed the band threatening to break up after each and every performance so there might not be that much substance to the breaking up statement. Last I heard, there's a possibility that we're playing a benefit for one of Adam's mom's friends, but who knows? Anyway back to the show which occurred Saturday, August 25th at Steph's house over in Gibbstown, NJ. Yes, EWE TOO ROCKS ME has now played in two states so we've now achieved national success.

To sum up this show in one word, it would be CRAP. It has become very predictable of us to follow up an awesome performance with a dud and sure enough we delivered. The day started off pretty badly with it being the hottest day of the summer so our spirits were already dampened (no pun intended). But yeah, our guest singer Bill, who had sung a couple of songs for us at our last gig was unable to make the show because he was down the shore, so the singing duties fell exclusively to me and Rhys (Joe was in a bad mood so he decided he didn't want to sing any of his songs). Luckily, our boy Rich was in the crowd and had offered to help us out where needed, and God knows we needed it. What made matters even worse was that Rhys had switched up our Set list the night before and we were starting off the show, with "Twist and Shout", for which we didn't have a singer. BAD WAY TO START A SHOW. So we brought Kelly Scott and Maggie out of the crowd to sing and it was awkwardly completed because A) we had barely practiced the song and B) the girls hadn't practiced at all with us so it was a bit tough. We then struggled on through the first half of our set, having abandoned the set list Rhys created and adlibing along the way. First half of the show ended up being one of our worst showings.

Fortunately, we had left all of our crowd favorites for the second half and with the crowd participating the second half went pretty smoothly and was a success. Highlights of the show had to be Rhys and Gooch jumping in the pool following Rhys's rendition of "Eruption" and the band successfully pulling off "Don't Go Away" by Oasis as requested by Steph. From what I heard, the song brought Steph and her mom to tears, not because it was a horrible rendition but because of the emotions stirred up by the song and Steph's eventual move to San Francisco. So that was pretty cool, our music actually held some meaning. But yeah, I'd say the show was a success to a certain extent, but definitely nowhere near as good as the show we put on at my house. Enjoy these pics:


EWE TOO ROCKS ME as a whole


At times, it was as if we were just playing to one person...


I decided to join the crowd and sit and act bored like everyone else...


Pointing at Rhys' male cameltoe

Fantasy Football Rosters

It's my favorite time of year once again, the beginnings of the NFL season. And what's an NFL season without that addiction known as Fantasy Football. So this year I'm going to be in 3 fantasy football leagues: TJ's ($50 entry fee), Bri's ($20 entry fee), and then I just did one public league so I could sharpen up my drafting skills. I've already drafted for the public league and TJ's and I've got Bri's draft coming up later tonight. So here are the two rosters that I've got so far let me know what everyone thinks:

TJ's "Definitely Ditka" League
Team Name: THE CHICKEN CUTLET
QBs: Matt Leinert (ARI), Brett Favre (GB)
RBs: Joseph Addai (IND), Willis McGahee (BAL), Marshawn Lynch (BUF), Adrian Peterson (MIN)
WRs: Torry Holt (STL), Roy Williams (DET), Andre Johnson (HOU), Santonio Holmes (PIT), D.J. Hackett (SEA)
TEs: Kellen Winslow (CLE), Eric Johnson (NO)
K: Stephen Gostkowski (NE)
DEF: Dallas

YAHOO! Public League
Team Name: Monkey Knife Fight
QBs: Donovan McNabb (PHI), Matt Leinert (ARI)
RBs: Stephen Jackson (STL), Edgerrin James (ARI), Marshawn Lynch (BUF), DeAngelo Williams (CAR)
WRs: Chad Johnson (CIN), Javon Walker (DEN), Braylon Edwards (CLE), Devery Henderson (NO), Jerry Porter (OAK)
TEs: Vernon Davis (SF), Owen Daniels (HOU)
K: Josh Brown (SEA)
DEF: Denver

WORST BAND NAME EVER...

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA



I had been hearing about this band for a while now and was putting off listening to them because of their gay ass name. But I gave them a listen at the Hot Topic listening station and decided to buy their new album in part because apparently both Best Buy and Hot Topic don't properly stock their stores when new releases come out. So instead of listening to the anticipated new Scary Kids Scaring Kids album, I settled for The Devil Wears Prada and I was more than impressed. Their music is pretty viscious - a mix of The Chariot, newer Underoath, and Chiodos. So despite one of the worst band names ever, I still highly recommend giving a listen to The Devil Wears Prada.

DRUNKEN OBSERVATIONS...

Alright so we went to Marty Magee's for a night of drinking, debate, and possibly darts. Instead we had Guitar Hero II, the Eagles preseason game, and The Terribles performing live at Marty Magee's.

1) Bri is a scumbag for hopping on the Kevin Kolb Bandwagon. Bri spent the whole night talking about how Kolb had "moxie". What the fuck is moxie and how the hell can you have it if you play basically three full quarters and only score on your last drive. More like mediocre.
2) Do not entrust Brian with your money when there's tips involved. So Bri and I decided to order some food from Cornerstone, which is right down the street from Magee's. The delivery guy could basically walk the order down the street to Magee's. He didn't even have to walk... So hotshot Bri is carrying around a 50 dollar bill, which obviously the delivery guy cannot break so I decide to cover Bri's part, knowing he'd hit me back later. The bill comes to 11 something and I hand Bri $20 and tell him to tip whatever is needed. I hear the delivery guy give a hearty "Thanks Alot" and I know I've been screwed again. Sure enough, Bri gave a $7 tip for an $11 dollar delivery. HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO 20%? So then Bri had to break his $50 at the bar and reimburse me what was properly needed. That's the second time Bri has messed with my money.
3) Dart sharks are scumbags.
4) Highlight of my night was being asked by Elliot of The Terribles as to whether I'd be interested in being their second guitarist. Dude I'd definitely be down for that since EWE TOO ROCKS ME is winding down and most of their songs consist of four chords. FUCK YEAH

pretty fruitful night down at Magee's.

NEW Dashboard album.... sure why not.

Dashboard Confessional's new album, "The Shade of Poison Apples" is coming out and it's a return to Chris Carrabba's original acoustic sound and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty hyped to hear the album. I was disappointed in "A Mark, A Mission..." and the album that followed that but I'm definitely down for a return to Dashboard's roots. I've already listened to "Little Bombs" and "Thick as Thieves" on the band's myspace and the goods are definitely on display. I'll be the first to admit that back in high school, I was one of those 'woe is me' kids who ate up every word that Chris Carrabba and any other emo band had to offer, but listening to those two new songs took me back a little bit (don't worry I'm not crying in my room or thinking about slitting my wrists) to some of the best days of my life, high school. Plus, Dashboard was the reason that I bought an acoustic guitar and was able to eventually grow some balls and play open mics in front of people instead of just spending all my time playing along to mxpx songs in my room. So I'm going to represent and pick up this new album when it hits the streets on October 2nd.

Saban = Satan

As the NFL season approaches and I'm taking a look at the chances of my team, the Miami Dolphins, my hatred for Nick Saban has continued to increase. The man jumped ship on the Dolphins and left the team in shambles, after the whole Daunte Culpepper debacle. The worst part is that he lied about it the whole time. I hope he's a failure at Alabama and gets run out of the racist hotbed.

But back to the Dolphins. Had Saban still been in control for the draft, there's no way he passes up on drafting Brady Quinn with the #9 Pick. TED GINN JR!? TED GINN JR!? The Dolphins already had a pretty good return man in Wes Welker who they turned around and traded to the rival New England Patriots. All I have to say is that Cam Cameron's offense better be as high powered as the offense he had in San Diego next year. I want Ronnie Brown to be the second coming of Ladanian Tomlinson. I also came upon this picture on SI.com with the caption, "Only one letter separates Nick Saban and the king of evil, Satan." I would have signed my life away with "the devil" for a chance at an awesome team with Brady Quinn at the helm.

"CHOKE" the movie...

So I was checking out Chuck Palahniuk's (author of Fight Club for you simpletons who don't read books) website to see if his new book had come out and I found out that they're making one of my favorite Palahniuk books, CHOKE, into a movie starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, and Kelly MacDonald, that hot Scottish chick from Trainspotting. I'm fucking psyched!!! If you haven't read this book yet, for the love of god read it before the movie comes out in 2008. Here's a little subplot of the book / soon to be movie:

Victor Mancini (Rockwell) is a medical-school dropout who has devised an ingenious scam to pay elder care for his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be "saved" by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, go on to send checks to support him. When he's not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park.

Professional Athletes are Morons

Why do athletes keep stepping forward and supporting Michael Vick? Stephon Marbury took it one step further and compared dogfighting to hunting, even calling it a "sport, except that it's just behind closed doors." MORON. Dogfighting is cruelty to animals. From the dogs inception, it is treated horribly, training it to become a fighter. Now granted, I'm not really a fan of hunting myself, but I don't think you can compare the two things. This whole fraternity of professional athletes is starting to get out of control. Stop sticking up for each other, learn the facts, and make an educated statement.

Golden Monkey beer kicked my ass last night...

I was feeling a little frisky last night, so I decided to purchase a $15.25 six-pack of Golden Monkey beer, the beer that is 9.5% alcohol by volume. BAD IDEA when you're spending the night playing drinking games. I had three Golden Monkeys and one of Sean's Red Stripe beers and I had an extremely good buzz going on. Once I got to that point, we all decided to head up to Marty Magee's for their One Year Anniversary celebration - we felt obligated because we've been with them from the start. So with that buzz going on, I proceeded to have a couple more Yuenglings and somebody kept buying shots for the group so I had a couple of them. With the DJ pumping some sweet jams in the bar, we ended up dancing the night away, stayed til way past Last Call, took a walk to Wawa and flipped out when Steph Schramm refused to let us walk her home. Apparently chivalry is dead. And then I just ended up heading home, pretty drunk at that point. I would have done a Drunken Observations post but I was only running on 5 hours of sleep so I passed out shortly after I got home. When I woke up this morning, it took me a full minute to even slightly comprehend where and what I had done last night. That was a long minute of nothingness. I also woke up with more money in my pocket then what I had last night. I may have been holding money for someone and never gave it back. So if it's yours please claim it. But anyway I recommend Golden Monkey as a casual drinking beer, don't mix it with drinking games, shots, and/or binge drinking. It can be the makings of a bad hangover.

Pat Benatar / Neil Giraldo show...

One of the many perks of my job at the radio station is that I get paid to attend concerts and I was certainly treated to an amazing show Thursday night at the Keswick when Pat Benatar and her songwriter husband Neil Giraldo came to town. I was a little skeptical at first being that Pat Benatar is now in her 50's, but she can still rock out with the best of them. It was amazing how many songs I knew as she ran through her catalog of songs. And her vocal range was off the charts so she is able to hit the highest of notes and some of the lower notes as well. So her voice was amazing and Neil Giraldo can still wail on the guitar as well and the acoustics in the Keswick are top notch so it sounded awesome.

Highlights of the night for me:
- Seeing a few women dressed up as the 80's Pat Benatar. It was straight out of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And they were pretty hott as well... wink wink
- I'm pretty sure Marissa, who I was working with, was jealous because this girl probably in her early 20's with a nice rack was checking me out hardcore every time she walked by. I returned the stares and even prominently displayed my crotch as is the customary reply. Marissa aptly nicknamed her "Boobs McGee." But Marissa had me beat with the usual round of creepy old guys unsuccessfully trying to flirt with her.
- Being given folding chairs at the back of the theater to sit and watch the show. The people at the Keswick are always extremely accomodating to the MGK crew, even giving us free bottles of water.
- Pat Benatar has a ton of lesbians for fans. Everywhere I looked there were women that looked like guys. Tons of butch lesbians. One that stood out to me, was a woman wearing a t-shirt that said "Define Girlfriend". Yup she was a lesbian.
- Luckily there were a ton of scantily clad older women to offset all the women playing for the other team. Apparently concerts are the one time when moms feel they can just let loose, wear something provocative, get drunk, and then ask the guy working the MGK table if he wants to "booby-trap" them. Just another one of the perks of my job.

Ace Enders review on AbsolutePunk.net

Here's my review of the Ace Ender's show that I posted under the Music forum on AbsolutePunk.net

ACE ENDERS @ The Balcony

I went up to the Balcony @ the Trocadero on Wednesday, August 15th to see Ace Enders, former lead singer of The Early November, on his first solo tour under the monicker Ace Ender & A Million Different People. Opening for Ace were Pete Nischt, the first artist signed to Ace's Regular Music label, and Paper Rival, straight outta Nashville. This is my biased review of the show, I'm hopefully going to complete a formal review of the show tomorrow and probably post it on AbsolutePunk.net.

I arrived at the Balcony at 7PM, doors had opened at 6PM and the show was sold out so by the time I climbed the steps up to the venue, the place was packed and no band had even gone on yet. So I immediately made my way to the bar, grabbed a quick Yeungling and then went back in to catch the beginning of Pete Nischt's set. First let me talk about the crowd at the show tonight. Like usual, it consisted of high school girls with big hair, the usual scene kids who need to be seen, and an odd mix of some surfer dude preppy fucks. The crowd can be summed up by an encounter that this one girl had with Ace Enders. It wasn't even an encounter. As we're standing there waiting for them to set up the equipment for one of the bands, Ace just casually walks by, I notice everyone around me just seem to tense up, possibly there were some jaws dropping. After he passes, I watch this girl grab her cell phone and text a message that begins, "OMG Ace Enders just walked by me..." That sums up the crowd. Who gives a fuck if some guy from a band walks by you? It happens all the time. The only encounter I can remember from all of the shows I've attended was the time Tristan was tying his shoe and Kenny from The Starting Line tripped on him and Kenny said he was sorry. For some odd reason we found that hilarious and always tend to reference it in various conversations...

But anyway, the opening act was Pete Nischt, a self-described pop folk-rock singer song writer who's CD happened to be released this past Tuesday. His music kind of reminded me of John Mayer and his bassist was the spitting image of my friend Joe Julien if he wore glasses. The music was alright and Pete did something interesting with his acoustic guitar during the bridge of one of his songs - he sang into the accoustic. It was an intriguing effect to his voice. Very innovative I guess.

The second band was Paper Rival and it seemed to take them forever to get everything set up for their set. They seemed to be in a pissy mood from something that happened to them earlier in the day and that's not something you want to carry over onto your stage performance. And their lead singer seemed to be an asshole, but he seemed pretty cool after their set when I was talking to him over at their merch table. But once they went into their first song, the music was really good. The guitars seemed to have an effect similar to the one that The Killers use on their guitars and it gave them an atomospheric feel. And the singer's voice was pretty versatle. I bought their EP cd and listened to it on my way home and it was pretty amazing. According to the free stickers they were handing out, their first full length album will be out sometime this fall so keep an eye out. That's Paper Rival.

Finally, the closer, Ace Enders entered the stage with his accoustic. It was a family affair on stage, with his brother Dan playing bass, and his wife manning the controls on the iPod. As soon as the set began, it seemed like everyone in the audience had their cameras out snapping shots. I even managed to take a picture with my phone, although it looks pretty crappy as you can see at the top of this post. The show ended up being one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences as the mood of the show was very laid back and casual. Ace didn't even have a set list, he was taking requests from the crowd and he even had some of the lyrics for his new songs written on some paper plates. He ended up playing a good mix of Early November songs, I can Make a Mess Like Nobody Else songs (his 1st side project), and new songs that may potentially be on his first release. Ace spent a lot of time in between songs, joking with the crowd, and interacting one-on-one with the people in the crowd. Highlight of the show had to be when he brought some kid out of the crowd to help him sing "1000 Times a Day" because he was having trouble remembering the lyrics towards the end of the song. The set ended with one of my favorite Early November songs, "Ever So Sweet", ironically a bittersweet ending to the show. He ended up playing between 8-10 songs and made the declaration that this tour would probably be the last time he would ever play Early November songs, which was highly disappointing. So I recommend getting tickets to the second show that was added at the Troc on Saturday, August 18th. It may be the last time you'll see Early November songs performed and you'll get to experience a highly intimate engagement. Can't wait for the new record to come out.

EWE TOO ROCKS ME's third show... SUCCESS

EWE TOO ROCKS ME's third show was held in my backyard on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and it was probably the greatest show we may ever play. We had an estimated crowd of 50-60 people consisting of my close friends, friends from the radio station, family, and Bill's contingent of friends. The show went off with hardly any flaws (obviously there are going to be some flaws in our playing because we are the best crappiest cover band around). Joe actually wore what could resemble a costume (he represented when he took off his shirt to reveal his extreme hairiness and Thug Life ways). Gooch played the part of the ninja pretty well, we hardly even knew he was there. Rhys definitely pulled off looking like a transvestite, all the way down to his Preston and Steve thong. Our special guest singer Bill had the stage pressence of a young Alice Cooper minus the guilltine which we couldn't find in time for the show. I had the greatest pair of sideburns and mustache a boy could ever wish for - I even garnered a nickname - "General Burnside", there was plenty of crotch to go around for everyone and I plan on exploiting my crotch even further in future shows with some even tighter wardrobe. In looking at the pics from the show, I've come to the conclusion that I have a sexy pair of legs. Huh? Huh? But yeah the crowd was actually there to see us and THEY LOVED US!!! THEY REALLY LOVED US!!!

It seemed like everyone was having a really good time, we kicked the keg in record time. I didn't really get a chance to drink anything because I was being an exceptional party host and because during the show, Rhys was being an asshole and kept throwing my beers into the crowd. I was able to acquire some groupies from the crowd after show, unfortunately one of the ladies, Er happens to be married and her partner in crime, Helen is very well taken. They sure had fun putting me in an awkward situation and watching me squirm (nothing sexual meant by this you perverts). But I realize it was all in good fun. There was also a lot of grab-ass going on after the show and I'm looking in TJ's direction on this one... So I'm going to go out on a limb and say this party was a success and the show was probably one of the best I may ever be a part of as an amateur musicians. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it and who came out and represented!! Enjoy a few of the highlights of the show. Feel free to add comments on your favorite parts of the show.


Dusty getting a crotch to the face from General Burnside


Check out those sideburns


Pattitude representing during Basket Case


A EWE TOO ROCKS ME show wouldn't be complete without fireworks and a dead baby

CHEATER

So Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's homerun record last night and it's just another black eye for Major League Baseball. Everyone knows that he took steroids but he still refuses to admit to it. Asked by one reporter at the postgame conference whether this record were tainted, Bonds responded, "This record is not tainted at all. At all. Period." Right...just keep on lying Barry, just like when you were before a grand jury and you said you had never knowingly used steroids. Oh you thought the cream you were rubbing on your arms was flax seed oil. Flax seed oil?! What bull shit. I hope Barry Bonds lies his way right to hell!

On a more comical note, how funny was it seeing Bud Selig's reactions at the game when Barry hit 755. He wanted nothing to do with this homerun race and it showed on his face and in how he reacted. At least he was classy enough to make an appearance and make some kind of previously prepared statement.

Finally, I'd like to thank Barry for providing me with one of the most entertaining Phillies games I've ever been to. Last season on Cinco de Mayo, myself, TJ, Coz, Sean, and Sean's brother Joe took in the game against the Giants with our traditional sombreros and TJ looking even more like a Mexican with a Corona poncho on. So while we were in the parking lot doing some hardcore tailgating, these high school kids had bought a foam oversized needle with the word "Cheater" on it and they were parading it around. Somehow, TJ was able to steal it off of them and smuggle it into the game. So we spent most of the game (we were eventually told to move on at some point in the game for directing some derogatory comments towards Tim Worrell)perched at the bullpen area in centerfield leading the "Cheater" chants with the foam needle. CLASSIC.

New Albums that I've Bought That You Should Listen to...

Here are some of the latest albums that I've bought or downloaded; They all come highly recommended:

The Starting Line - Direction
Evergreen Terrace - Wolfbiker
Tegan & Sara - The Con
The Almost - Southern Weather
All Time Low - Put Up or Shut Up
MXPX - Secret Weapon
Horse the Band - A Natural Death
Manchester Orchestra - I'm like a Virgin Losing a Child

I'll probably continue adding to the list as I remember all of the albums recently bought.

More Hatorade for Harry Potter....

I'm thinking about buying this shirt.

QUIZZO team now taking applications...

Alright so for the first time in the year or so that we've been going to QUIZZO on Monday nights at the Kildare's in Media, we did not make the Quizzo Championship round. For those of you who don't know the specifics of Quizzo, a season of Quizzo consists of about 12 weeks. Each week, the first place team receives 3 points in the standings (and a $50 Kildares Gift Card), second receives 2 points (and a $25 gift card), and third receives 1 point (and a $10 gift card). At the end of the season, the three teams with the most points go on to the championship round, where the winning team will receive $150 cash, second $100, and third $50. For the previous three seasons that we competed in, we won the Championship our first season, and then had two disappointing third place finishes the following two seasons. This season that just ended yesterday, basically everyone previously on the team decided not to show up anymore so all of the parts of our once well-oiled machine weren't fully functioning. So I'm sending out an open invitation to everyone to join the team. If you've got a lot of random / pop culture knowledge, we'd love to have you aboard. The next season should be starting up in the next couple of weeks. The more people we have the better. So let me know if you want in and I can give you all of the details.

THE POLICE... in concert

One of the benefits of working for a radio station, is being able to get paid to attend concerts. So on Thursday, MGK broadcast live right outside of Citizen's Bank Park for The Police's 30th Anniversary Reunion Tour and I was working.

This event initially looked to be a disaster because we were told by the Citizen's Bank Park people that only our DJ was allowed inside of the stadium and we were to go no where near inside, thus preventing us from watching the show. Luckily, since we were right by the entrance to the stadium, anyone who was unable to sell their extra tickets in the parking lot were just dropping off the extra tickets at our tent for our own personal use. So by the time that the concert was about to start, we accumulated about 10-15 tickets between ourselves and our co-workers at the MMRmy.

So with these extra tickets, I was able to watch about 45 minutes of The Police's set and musically, it was pretty amazing. Obviously, I now have the bragging rights to say that I've seen The Police in concert, but what's even more awesome is the fact that Sting, Andy Summers, & Stewart Copeland are all talented musicians and they know how to put on a good show.

The only problem I had with the show was the fact that it was in a stadium and the stage was out in deep centerfield. So it was pretty difficult to even see them on stage. And what made matters worse, was that the sound was not matching up with the video on the screen. There was about a 2-3 second delay and its the minor things in life that always bother me so that was definitely getting to me. But just being able to experience their music live was pretty awesome. I'm definitely planning on working their next concert when they return to the Wachovia Center (a better place to see a show than the Cit) on November 14th.

Oh and I can't forget that myself, Adam, and Lauren raided Goodwill for Police uniforms to wear in celebration of the concert. And I definitely got my picture taken with Sting and some nice pretty ladies.

FALLOUT - The Day After a Heavy Night of Drinking

So I'm looking at my DRUNKEN RECALL that I posted last night and I don't even remember writing it... which makes me feel like a complete asshole because I drove myself home that night, putting everyone out on the road in danger, as well as Lori's sister who was in the car. So first off I will apologize for being a complete moron but let it be known that I paid the consequences this morning. I woke up around 10AM with a wicked hangover, that whole drained feeling and a false sense of hunger. So I decided to grab a glass of water and a granola bar. Let's just say that a granola bar tastes a lot better going down than coming up. I didn't even get halfway through the bar before I was yacking in my trashcan. After that I tried to go back to sleep but I was blessed with a nice case of the dry-heaves and it also didn't help that I had third degree sunburn from working outside Saturday without any sunscreen. Another incident I was unable to report in my previous post was the fact that I decided to do a ripchord shirtless with Lori's sister. I managed to get most of the beer all over my chest and down my pants, creating what looked to be a pee spot. And let's just say that chest hair retains the smell of beer so that definitely contributed to the dry-heaves as I was trying not to think about beer. So I was finally able to fall back asleep and I slept off the rest of the dry-heaves until about 1:30. And for the rest of the day, I felt like complete shit and that continues to be the trend, now at 11 o'clock at night.

FUCK HARRY POTTER...

And fuck everyone who are spending their weekend reading that goddamn book. I saw more than one person's away message mentioning that they're "still reading" and shit like that and my mom keeps giving me updates on how many more pages she has left. I've never read any of those books or seen any of the movies and I feel like I've accomplished something by not wasting my time on that shit

DRUNKEN RECALL...

That's right I'm not calling it DRUNKEN OBSERVATIONS tonight because I didn't observe it as much as I experienced it / recalled it. So first off, Lori Armbruster and the Armbruster family can throw an awesome block party. There was plenty of beer, and when I showed up there was a good amount of flip cup going on. Highlight of my night (good or bad) would have been when Durgen threw up after having finished 7 cups by himself to beat myself and Pat Ryan. Keep in mind that me and Pat were the DREAM TEAM!! So Durgan disqualified himself by throwing up all over the table as well as me and Pat. BEAT!! So after Lori's successful block party, we headed to Guaro's AKA Matthew's over in Norwood. After demolishing Pat in pool, we enjoyed ourselves at the bar and the music that was played via Steph. After Eileen Keever left, leaving me with the couples, it became obvious that I was the odd man out and I needed to head out and do my own thing. Keep in mind that Eileen left without sayng anything to anybody. So I ended up leaving, getting the hiccups, getting rid of the hiccups by holding my breath and closing my eyes, and realizing that Loris' sister Gina needed a ride home. Let's just say she's lucky that I don't drive with my eyes closed. So I safely drove her home and now I'm left pondering myself as I'm sitting here at my computer.... Why did I waste my time writing out this blog... What a fuck head I am...

CENSORSHIP IN AMERICA

I was just watching the music video for Eve's "Tambourine" and they actually blurred out her hand when she made it look like a gun as she said, "stick 'em up". What the fuck?! We can't even make our hands look like guns now on TV. I'm tired of this fucking fascist bullshit where you've always got the FCC aka Big Brother watching every little move that everyone makes on TV and fining stations for the littlest of questionable material. But making your hand look like a gun? Little kids have been doing that for as long as guns have existed. And no I don't think they saw it on MTV back in the 1800's when kids were doing it then too. This fucking Conservative Right bullshit is really starting to get to me...

EWE TOO ROCKS ME's second show... CRASH & BURN

So the second EWE TOO ROCKS ME show was a complete disaster and actually saw this coming. We were playing a party at our drummer Gooch's friend's house. As soon as we pulled up and started unloading, we noticed that the backyard straight up smelled like shit and our staging area was pretty cramped with a door into the house directly behind us (which everyone in the audience continued to use even as we were playing). We didn't know anyone in the crowd except for our friends Adam, Gill, and his girlfriend and the rest of the crowd consisted of douche bags who probably pop their collars on a regular basis. So we were in hostile grounds and our stage show / presence does not accomodate that very well.

Of course when we went on stage, nobody got our wardrobe or sense of humor so those everyone just went about their own ways playing the card game, Asshole and also a fucking game of Flip-Cup broke out on the folding table that we had brought for our stuff. Also working against us was the fact that we didn't go on stage until about 7:30PM so time was working against us as darkness approached and the neighbors waited by anxiously for the time to call the cops on us. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the first half of our set was painful because out of the 20 or so people that were there, we were really only playing to about 5 of them tops. Everyone else could give two shits about whether we were there and we even heard someone say that it sounded better when we weren't playing. So we took mid-show break and then this drunk old guy comes up and wants to jam with us and then he, Rhys, and Gooch proceed to jam a little bit and now it was completely dark.

We were finally able to get the old guy off the stage and we jumped into a pretty good version of Stranglehold. As the song began to take a hold of us, someone in the crowd informs us that the cops are here and we need to stop. So the girl who threw the party talks with the cop, and apparently the compromise is if we lower the volume, then we can keep playing. We then attempt to play Summer of '69 at a lower volume and with it completely dark, making it impossible to read any of the lyrics to the song. HORRIBLE.

Now this girl's younger brother starts getting pissy and wants us to stop playing because he's got some underagers at this party drinking and he doesn't want the cops coming back because he thinks they'll get busted. So the brother and sister duo then begin yelling at each other and that's when we decided to call it a night, 2 songs into the second half of our show. As we start to pack everything up and start loading out, the old guy comes back on stage, grabs Joe's guitar and proceeds to play what seemed like a half hour set of something that barely resembled music. All of this going on while we're packing up i n pitch black darkness because there are no lights in the backyard. A perfect ending to a crappy night.

What smarts even more about this is the fact that I cancelled a possible trip up to see Dusty in NYC this weekend. What a fucking waste.

And finally I'd like to make a rebuttal about a statement I made previously about Marty. It worked out that he had his bbq the night of the show because it was a positive ending to a sucky night. Mad props on an entertaining bbq.

DRUNKEN OBSERVATIONS...

alright so we spent a night at marty magee's with steph schramm's sister as the guest bartender. I spent most of the night writing notes on my hand so I'm going to try to comprehend what I have written down.

- Previously, Coz and I had a conversation about a future feature piece on the blog about things you shouldn't do in real life. FIRST on the agenda: DON'T GO OUT ON A BOUGHT WITH A DRUG DEALER THAT YOU OWE MONEY TO.

- From what I can comprehend, apparently, I face-grinded Steph Schramm... HO-HAH!!

- Eileen Keever left early from the bar venture because she had to feed some dogs or something that she was dog-sitting... WHATEVER....

-And I got NOSE RAPED by Eileen as well... I'm pretty sure she blew out my ear drums and cleared out my sinuses

Alright that's all that was written on my hand. Stay in School and Don't do drugs.... from Gruff McGruff

PS. Marty is a punk for having a bbq the weekend of a EWE TOO ROCKS ME show

JIMI HENDRIX = GUITAR GOD

There's been an ongoing debate between myself and Finnegan over who was the greatest guitarist of all time. I've said all along that it was Hendrix but, Finnegan swears by Clapton. While I do respect Clapton and rank him among the best of all time, Hendrix, hands down is the greatest of all time. I was reminded of this today as I was watching Jimi's performance at the Monterrey Pop Festival. Simply breath-taking...

Sports Wrap... TAKE TWO

Now that I've gotten all of that basketball talk out of the way, we get to the good stuff: HOCKEY! I was getting exciting as the beginning of free agency loomed on July 1st and it certainly did not disappoint.

Having already completed a trade with Nashville for the rights to sign Kimmo Timonen, a number one defenseman, and Scott Hartnell, Paul Holmgren continued to work his magic by signing Daniel Briere. While it's pretty obvious that the Flyers definitely overpaid Briere, he should be a key acquisition for the Flyers. Pencil him in as the center of the Flyers top line with Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble and you've got a pretty potent #1 scoring line.

And as if signing Briere wasn't enough, Holmgren pulls the trigger on a trade, sending Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson to the Oilers for Joffrey Lupel and defenseman Jason Smith. Pure genius.

So with all of this revamping of the Flyers, they have now added three former Captains and a lot of young talent can blossom into some really special players. Dare I say that they are a playoff team now? I'm going to go out on a limb and say if everyone stays healthy and some of the young guys like Jeff Carter and Mike Richards step up, then indeed the Flyers will be a playoff team and definitely a force to be reckoned with.

While everything seems to be looking up for the Flyers, a shadow was cast over Philadelphia with the Rangers signing both Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to lucrative deals. The Rangers now have at least two elite scoring lines and a goalie who can be lights out frequently and who is only starting to hit his prime. The question that lingers for the Rangers regards their depth and also their blue liners. But I think that they can dominate with just the two scoring lines if need be.

The Penguins are also a scary good team that the Flyers will have to face eight times next season. They weren't big suitors in free agency, but they didn't necessarily need to be. They've got a great core of young players who are only going to get better and of course there's always that bastard Sidney Crosby. The Penguins weak link will continue to be Mark-Andre Fleury who tends to be inconsistent.

As for the other two teams in the division, the Devils and the Islanders, stick a fork in both of them because they're done; the Islanders more so than the Devils. That's right I'm saying it. The Devils have already lost Brian Rafalski and Scott Gomez to free agency. So unless the Devils pull off some kind of blockbuster trade, they will not be making the playoffs this year. Of course Brodeur will continue to keep them in a lot of games and they'll continue to have a stingy defense, but I don't think they have enough scoring for when Brodeur is off. So like I said, they'll compete but they will not be making the playoffs this year.

I'm thinking I might even do an abbreviated season preview right around when the season starts. Should be interesting.

Sports Wrap... TAKE ONE

Alright so I was pretty busy this whole weekend otherwise I would have posted this sooner. I was a big fan of watching the NBA draft this year because A) there were so many good players in the draft and B) the Sixers had three first round picks so there was a possibility they were going to be creating some fireworks via a trade.


"With the 12th pick, the Philadelphia 76ers select Thaddeus Young from the University of Georgia Tech..."

Alright so the Sixers surprised everyone by selecting Young, a freshman out of GA Tech who seemed off of the Sixers' draft radar towards the end there. I really thought they were going to select Al Thorton who seemed more NBA ready but apparently Young has a major upside. Of course I also remember a number of years ago when the Sixers randomly selected another underclassmen with major upside, Larry Hughes and we all know how that turned out. So I'm a little sceptical about how he is going to turn out and I'm also a little curious about the pick because he seems to be a clone of Andre Igoudala. Could they possibly be looking at not resigning Igoudala after this year with one year left on his rookie contract?

I was driving home from work listening to draft coverage of SportsRadio 950 when I heard the Sixers next pick, Daequen Cook and I started flipping out because at that point they had drafted two guys that were going to need a lot of work before they were NBA-ready. However shortly after that pick, it was announced that they had traded Cook to Miami for 7'0 center Jason Smith out of Colorado State. I thought this was a great pick because he's athletic, he can shoot the ball, and he can rebound, but I'm a little wary of it because he went to a small school and the competition might not have been that great. So what I play favorites with the big name schools.

After what seemed like twenty trades, with their final two picks, Sixers ended up with 6'7 swingman Derrick Byars out of Vanderbilt and 6'10 forward Herbert Hill. Byars was a scorer at Vanderbilt so I think he could possibly pan out as a shoot guard and Hill seems to be a prototypical big man project, who can rebound and block shots, but who also may not even make the team. I think the Sixers should have used one of their second round picks on a foreign player that they could keep overseas for a couple of years and let develop. They originally drafted two different foreign players but traded both of them for Byars and Hill.

So overall it seems that the Sixers have drafted a lot of players with upside. So who knows how it will pan out. All we do know is that Billy King was drafting for the future and not for this upcoming season. So it could be another long season.

Morons on absolute punk...

So I came across this forum posting on absolutepunk.net while I was killing time at work and apparently fans of 30 Seconds to Mars not only like bad music, they're also uneducated morons. This kid didn't even know that Jared Leto was an actor or even that the only reason that 30 Seconds to Mars has been successful is because they're relying on his previous celebrity status. Get a clue kid and watch old episodes of My So Called Life or one of my favorite movies of all time, American Psycho.

EWE TOO ROCKS ME's first show....

alright so we had our first show at Adam's mom's 50th birthday party and I'd like to say it was a success. We played all our songs pretty well, our costumes were a hit with everyone, and our stage pressence was outstanding and we even managed to kind of blow up a guitar and destroy an amp. We videotaped the whole show (I'm working on transferring it onto my computer) and there were a ton of pictures taken that are posted on our myspace so check it out. This is only the beginning for EWE TOO ROCKS ME... we tentatively have a couple of shows coming up at the end of the summer and I'm working on putting together a party at my house for us to play. So keep an eye out and if you're looking to book EWE TOO ROCKS ME for your next party or gathering let me know and we can make it happen.

www.myspace.com/ewetoorocksme

DRUNKEN OBSERVATIONS...

Observations from a night spent at Dolan's down by the 7-11 in Ridley Park.

1) The dart game Cricket is only fun if the chalkboard that is supposed to accompany the game is next to / near the dartboard instead of further down the wall from the board.
2) It is never too early to talk about fantasy football even if training camp hasn't even started. You heard it hear first, LaDanian Tomlinson will unfortunately get hurt this year. He's due... that's all that I'm saying.
3) The 7-11 in Ridley Park is illequiped for drunks as they're leaving the bar. This 7-11, run by that crazy Vietnam Vet, didn't have any tacquitos (my favorite) or pizza rolls (Coz's favorite). What the fuck am I supposed to eat to suck up all that beer that I drank tonight. COME ON!!
4) It's a lot cheaper to get water from the water cooler you have at home than to buy a bottle of water at the store.
5) Double Decker should stay open later to accomodate drunkards. You know how much money they would make on all of the ISOPs that drunk people would order...

The NEW Sunday Night Lineup...

Having gone through a week of conspiracy theories galore with everybody's individual opinion of how The Sopranos ended, I'm ready to move on enjoy some other great shows that HBO has to offer. In The Sopranos' former time slot, I've got an amazing show in John from Cinncinati. Some crazy shit is going on in that show and I'm completely drawn in. I highly recommend this show to everyone. At first you're gonna be like, "What the hell is this?", but once you start to grasp what is going on, it's pretty enthralling. So John is followed up by an HBO classic, Entourage, where the guys are busy working on / screwing up their masterpiece, Medellin. Gotta love it. At the 10:30 slot, we've got a new addition in Flight of the Conchords, about a New Zealand musical duo trying to make it in New York City. The first episode was a little slow, but it had its moments. Should be more to come from them. Looks like my Sunday nights are booked for the next couple weeks / months.

Ewe TOO ROCKS ME..........@aol.com

Alright so everyone must check out the newest and greatest cover band to hit the scene... EWE TOO ROCKS ME. It's me and three of my friends from the radio station butchering all of your favorite cover songs. We're playing our friend Adam's mom's 50th birthday party next weekend, then a possible show in my backyard later this summer, maybe a party over at steph's over in jersey, and there's talk of playing my aunt's labor day party down the shore in september. So check out what we've recorded so far, befriend us, and keep an eye out for when the next show will be near you.

This is my new girlfriend...

...AMY WINEHOUSE

She's everything you would want in a girlfriend. She has a drinking problem, it's rumored she has been diagnosed as manic-depressive and won't take meds for it, she admitted to having eating disorders at one time or another, and she's got some sick pin-up girl tattoos.

So I heard all the hype about her months ago and didn't bother listening to any of her music and then I randomly came upon her performing "Rehab" on the MTV Movie Awards and I was immediately drawn in by her music and her beauty. What can I say, I'm smitten with her now...

Bees Can Suck It...

So I found this bees nest hanging right outside the window at one of the bank branches I work out and I found that it's extremely entertaining to tap on the glass and aggravating the bees. The bees get pissed off and there's nothing they can do about it... HA-HA

Observations from a weekend down the shore...

This past weekend was the 4th Annual "I have my Uncle's beach house for the weekend" weekend down in Sea Isle City and it was quite the good time. This year's participants were Matt & Steph (Steph S and Kelly were down for a little bit but not long enough to attain full participant status). So Friday night we pre-gamed at the house and then headed out to the Ocean Drive and Saturday night was Sean's graduation party down at his grandmom's house in Cape May. Plenty of observations were made:

1) Bars down the shore during the summer season are a rip off with $7 covers and $4.50 Miller Lite bottles.
2) The only girls that go out to these bars are extremely slutty, extremely hott (and out of my league), or extremely slutty and extremely hott.
3) It's important to put sunscreen on your legs and also the bottoms of your feet.
4)A notice to girls: Don't wear a bikini bottom that causes you to have a constant wedgie. Guys notice when you're picking out said wedgie.
5) Nothing brings a family together better than drinking games like Flip Cup & Beer Pong
6) Apparently it's a Finnegan family trait to want to beat me in competition.
7) I've got a new Grams down in Cape May and I've offered my services to stand in for Sean (we've got the same body type) at family functions since he lives up in Long Island now.
8) Matt Lenza is a P.I.M.P.
9) Don't drink wine that comes from a can that looks like an energy drink can.
10) The "Big Mofo" at the Steak Out & Waffle House is the greatest breakfast meal I've ever had: Two waffles, two scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, & fucking waffle fries - yes waffle fries.
11) An iPod on shuffle mode is the greatest road trip companion.

My Thoughts on the final Sopranos episode...

If you haven't seen it yet, I'm about to ruin it for you. I was a little hyped about seeing what was going to happen but it was a little bittersweet because the show that had encompassed what I did on Sunday nights was now over (I've still got Entourage and I'm digging the new John from Cincinnati - more on that later). So my dad was in one of his weird moods where he wants to know who the singer is of each song that he heard on the show. So that ended up being our running joke of the night, making fun of my dad.

But anyway back to the Sopranos. While alot of people are complaining about how it was one of the worst endings of a show ever, I found it to be pretty comical. David Chase spent the final minutes of the show, setting up what looked to be a big bang ending with Tony finally getting whacked, but instead the screen just went to black before we found out what happened. When it first went to black, everyone in my family thought that it was the HD signal, but when the credits came up shortly after that, you could feel everyone's disgust, with me being the exception. It's awesome that David Chase ended it like that. It was the biggest pie-in-the-face that we could have gotten as viewers. I was reminded of some of the stunts that Andy Kaufmann used to pull off. COMEDY GOLD. But in regards to some of the closures that came about with this being the final episode: I think Phil Leotardo finally got what was coming to him with him getting whacked. And the icing on the cake was when his car ran over his head with his grandchildren still in the car in their carseats. AJ's character is one of the worst human beings (if he were real, but I'm sure there is someone out there just like him) that I've ever encountered. He was well informed about any of the realities of the world that he was complaining about and it was amazing how quickly he went from depressed whiner back to his old self by just getting a cushy job with a movie production company. Why can't I get a job like that?? I also didn't understand why everyone kept visiting Junior. At this point, he doesn't know what's going on and I don't think anything was resolved or achieved by having that in the script.

All in all, The Sopranos was a groundbreaking show and highly entertaining over the past 8 years and I'm glad that I was able to enjoy it all this time. Thanks for the memories, Sopranos, and thanks for showing me how many different ways a person can be killed. I still think my all-time favorite, even though the guy didn't die, was when Tony curbed the guy on Phil's crew who made some crude comments to Meadow. FUCK YEAH, KISS THE CURB...

Immediately following The Sopranos was the debut of John from Cincinnati. I was intrigued to watch it because it was from the guy who did NYPD BLUE and Deadwood and also because we had been doing some subliminal advertising of the show on MGK. The first episode was pretty out there, but I was immediately drawn into it and I highly recommend it to everyone. The highlight of the show so far has to be crazy Vietnam Vet played by Ed O'Neill. Very reminiscent of the chracter he played in Wayne's World, except he's more caring and less vengeful. CLASSIC

You Gotta Love our Justice System...

Paris Hilton was released from jail this morning after only serving 5 days of her 3 weeks sentence. So she's being put on house arrest for 40 days. Who wants to make a bet that she'll end up going out to some club because she thought her publicist said it was okay to go outside if it was for business... just another reason why our justice system is so jaded

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas...

I'm sitting here at work listening to the radio and Tom Jones' "She's a Lady" came on and whenever I hear that song, I immediately think of the scene in F & L in Las Vegas when they're driving down the Vegas strip in a drunken / drugged out haze. My favorite book / movie of all-time and if you didn't know that already, take a look at my right arm sometime. If you haven't seen the movie yet, read the book first then watch the movie. The book is always better than the movie. And if you've never heard of Hunter S Thompson, I don't know if we can be friends anymore.


ALSO I should be posting a review of HORSE the band's new album, "A Natural Death" later tonight when I have enough time to actually listen and digest this musical masterpiece

NEW MUSIC ALERT...

...or at least it's new to me. My friend Tristan has turned me onto Girl Talk - "hip hop hits, soft rock radio standards, party classics, grunge masterpieces, R&B singles, glossy club-shakers, and rock anthems are all layered and pieced meticulously together into one non-stop celebration of pop and excess" That was the best description I had gotten of this guy, but yeah the music is amazing and both Tristan and I highly recommend it. It's the shit. Here's two links for Girl Talk:

www.myspace.com/girltalkmusic
www.girl-talk.net

ENJOY

I got paid to see Roger Waters live....

Have I mentioned that I love the perks of my job at the radio station? Last night I got paid to watch Roger Waters play at the Wachovia Center. I was able to watch most of the show about 15 feet away from the stage and it was probably one of the greatest concert moments of my life. He performed the whole Dark Side of the Moon album, uninterrupted and it was just simply amazing. I was getting goosebumps just taking in everything. And the lead guitarist had me questioning who David Gilmour was, again? Highlights included Time, Money, The Great Gig in the Sky, and my favorite Pink Floyd song, Have a Cigar. I will definitely be buying tickets the next time he's in town because it's just one of those concerts that you want to experience as a whole and not just in segments as my job permitted me to do. I also noticed that there was a lot of hott girls that attended the Roger Waters concert and I'm going to say the highlight of night girlwise, was probably the hottest Mother/Daughter combination I have ever seen (there was some debate among my co-workers as to whether they really were mother and daughter but I decided for fantasy's sake, they've got to be a Mother and her daughter attending the Roger Waters show). And for any of you people that think I'm a pervert, no the daughter was not in her teens, she had to be around 21 because she had a beer.

NEW Circa Survive...

I'm listening to the new album on their myspace (www.myspace.com/circasurvive) and its pretty fucking amazing. I'll be picking it up when it drops tomorrow. I highly suggest everyone gives it a listen...

DRUNKEN OBSERVATIONS made the morning after...

I was going to make some observations last night while I was still drunk but I was still pretty salty about the clean up. So I'll give it a whirl now that I've finally finished cleaning up everything.

1) My friends never eat enough of the food I put out at parties.
2) I've come to the conclusion that I lack common sense when it comes to what foods need to be wrapped up and saved at the end of the night.
3) There always seems to be way too much drama whenever I throw a party at my house. Someone always ends up leaving early followed by someone who's had too much to drink trying to drive after them.
4) People who are married / are in a relationship always seem to be better party guests in that they bring elaborate food dishes. Us single people have no common sense when it comes to bringing stuff to parties, although mad props to Troy for bringing an apple pie.
5) If beer pong or flip cup end up happening at a party, then the clean up is ten times worse than it originally would have been.
6) Rain can be a real damper on a cookout...
7) Parties are only successful if everyone has a good time and it seemed like everyone did so... SUCCESS


...finally mad props also goes to Toto for being able to incorporate both Sarangetti and Mt. Kilimanjaro into the lyrics of "Africa"

666 the Number of the Beast??

This happened a year ago, but I was reminded of it by the same guy who said it to me then. A guy that I work with saw my skull and crossbones tattoo and the first thing out of his mouth was not "hey nice tattoo" or "wow you have a tattoo". The first thing that could come to his head was, "Do you worship the devil?" Now granted I had had a conversation with him earlier about how I had used to be in a hardcore band (I also defined what hardcore music was), but is it right for him to assume I "worship the devil" if all that I have is a skull and crossbones tattoo? Am I that menacing looking? Maybe I need to cut back on my blood lattes...

Revamping of The Life & times of Dan?

Alright so I was asking for constructive criticism of my blog here, and a friend of mine suggested I stop complaining about my life / job, quit said job, and just drink all of the time and have a continuous "Drunken Observations" section. While I would love to quit my job and just drink all the time, the issue of where will I get money to pay the bills still lingers. So.... any financial backers / sugar mommas?

FUCKING SKINHEADS

So I forgot to mention that there were a couple of skinheads at the MXPX show. I could tell from their obvious bald heads and how they had no right to be in a punk rawk pit. What also pissed me off, aside from their obvious beliefs, was they turned their backs on the band whenever they played one of their newer songs. Fucking skinheads. Go back to your neo-Nazi bullshit and stay away from any punk show I go to. I hate that skinheads and neo-Nazis have been able to associate themselves with punk rock and it's unfortunate that these fuckers have latched on to MXPX.

Oh and something that I found funny last night was when I pulled into the parking lot I usually park in and the guy came up to my car window to take my money and I had MXPX's cover of The Ramone's "KKK Took my Baby Away" blasting. He kind of gave me a look when he heard the chorus of the song. That's comedy gold...

My weekend was pretty weak... how was yours?

So this was the weekend from hell with me working every day this week and it just seemed to get worse as the weekend went on.

Thursday night started off pretty good out celebrating Sean's graduation out at magee's and durty nelly's. Problem was that I didn't go to bed until really late and then I had to get up early to spend five hours at a bar while I had a nice hangover going. Can't beat that. And after work, my issues with Riggins Gas station began to develop. On the way back from the Hometown B-Cast, we filled up the MGK van with gas at Riggins, where Greater Media has an account. This was at about 8PM and they don't usually close until about 9. Once we got back to the station, I decided to take the MGK Jeep home because it would save me some time / gas by having everything packed and ready to go for my event Saturday morning. Because we had to drive out to fucking Hershey on Saturday morning, I needed to gas up the Jeep and to save time I was going to do it Friday night. But when I got to the gas station at 8:30ish, the fucking guy that worked there came out to tell me they were closed because they were out of gas. Now I knew the guy was just closing up to get out of there early so I decided to call his bluff and inform him that we had filled up the MGK van no more than 30 mins before that and there was no way they ran out of gas between then and now. I had caught the guy in his lie and now all he could say was, "I know, I know"... fucking asshole. So I just drove away and just headed home to hang out at TJ's for board game night, which I usually dominate (Cranium, Scene It, etc.)... Well that night I was off my game because I was still a tad hungover so I didn't win anything.... fucking beat.

Saturday brought a new day, but the same old shit. I had to drive an hour and half up to Hershey for a fucking event at a car show. And I had to get up early on top of that. Stopped at Riggins first, and surprise surprise, they had gas. So we drove the hour and half to Hershey and when we got there, it ended up that the organizers had thought we were coming Sunday and not Saturday so they had no space for us. So they set us up in the fucking parking lot away from the exposure we would have gotten if we had been in the car show. And on top of that, I had to pay $8 for parking. And now it's going to take a couple of months to get reimbursed by the radio station. So the event went off without a problem, but then we had to deal with the long car ride home. By the time I got home, I was pretty beat and with the spector of having to wake up at 5:30AM on Sunday for two more events, I made the decision to stay in Saturday night. I instead hit up Best Buy and picked up two underappreciated comedies on DVD (High School High & Baseketball) and I finally gave in and bought the new Bayside which was fucking amazing. I've been listening to it nonstop and it's catchy as hell. Highly Recommended. Oh and my day was dampened even more when I got my GRE scores in the mail and I had score on average in each of sections of the test. Keeping in mind that I'm pretty full of myself and arrogant when it comes to my intelligence, that really put me in a bad mood. I was definitely bummed.

So because I actually went to bed early Saturday night, getting up at 5:30AM wasn't as bad as it has previously been and the two events I worked were successes. Marissa and I first worked a Bike Ride to benefit Diabetes research at CB South high school with Andre Gardner (who rode 15 miles) and we followed that up by hanging in the Willow Grove Mall for a couple of hours and then went to our next event at Carber's Chocolate & Smoochie's Water Ice with Ray Koob. Because I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to common sense, I didn't bother to put any sunscreen on and I successfully burnt myself pretty good. And then there came my next battle with the fucking Riggins. We needed to fill up the Explorer on the way back from our events so I stopped at Riggins at about 3:30 in the afternoon. We pull up and we make eye contact with the guy that works events for WJJZ, our sister station. It looks like he just filled up. So I go the pump where he just was and wait for the Riggins guy to swipe the Greater Media credit card so I can fill up, only there isn't anyone in their little office. So I go up to the glass and start pounding on it, hoping that the guy is just in the bathroom and he'll come out to help a brother out. But, NOOOO, nobody's in their little office so I once again got screwed by fucking Riggins because I wasn't able to fill up the gas because nobody was there working during regular hours. GOD I HATE FUCKING RIGGINS.

So with the day taking a turn for the worst after the Riggins fiasco, I still had one saving grace in that I was going to see MXPX, my favorite band, at the Troc. The doors opened at 5 but I could give two shits about seeing the opening bands so I decided to arrive fashionably late at about 7:30. When I parked in my usual lot though, I noticed there were only about 5 cars in the whole lot. Usually on a concert night, this lot would be full, but 5 cars?! So I immediately made the assumption that show had been cancelled without me knowing. So I walked to the Troc and luckily the show was still on, but when I walked into the staging area, it became all clear to me. The Troc was only one quarters of the way full. MXPX can no longer draw the crowds that they used to draw back when I was seeing them in high school. I really felt bad for them. But they still put on an awesome show and I was able to sing along and get into all of their songs with the energetic crowd that was there. They ended up playing about an hour set, but I feel like they could have played a lot longer, since one of the opening bands didn't even show up to play. I think what hindered them from playing more songs was that they had a replacement drummer for Yuri, who was with his wive and new child, and the drummer didn't know all of the MXPX catalog. So I was a little disappointed yet again.

So this weekend was pretty beat. Hopefully next weekend will be the complete opposite. Otherwise I'll have more complaining to do...