FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES breaks up...

So apparently FATA called it quits today. Was it an omen of things to come that I had listed one of their albums as one of my top 5 most influential??

TOP 5 MOST INFLUENTIAL ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

I'm going to preface my TOP 5 MOST INFLUENTIAL ALBUMS OF ALL TIME list by saying that the choices of these albums were based on the following criteria: These albums shaped the way I listen to music today and the different genres that I listen to. A lot of them were stepping stones for me in these different genres. And I am able to put these albuma on and listen to them from start to finish and am not tempted to skip any of the songs whatsoever. These are the albums that made Dan who he is today in somewhat chronological order:

WEEZER - WEEZER (BLUE ALBUM)

This was the first CD ever in my possession, during the Christmas when I got a stereo with a CD player from Santa. It was also the first real rock album I owned, as I progressed from New Kids on the Block, to Vanilla Ice & MC Hammer, to Soul Asylum & the Hooters, to finally Weezer, the Offspring, and Green Day... Wow what a ride so far.


MXPX - SLOWLY GOING THE WAY OF THE BUFFALO

Aside from Blink 182 and Fenix Tx, this was the first pop-punk band that I really got into, during my high school years and they continue to hold the distinction of being my favorite band of all time. Finally, I was moving away from listening to music that was only being played on the radio.


SAVES THE DAY - THROUGH BEING COOL

When I first started working at CVS during my junior year of high school, my boy Clavin began exposing me to new bands like Alkaline Trio and Saves the Day. This album definitely put me on the path to where I am now musically.


THE GET UP KIDS - SOMETHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT

I still remember randomly coming upon this album at Best Buy after hearing about them on some message board. I bought it on a whim without having even heard any of their songs and they immediately became one of my favorite bands. They never put out an album that I didn't like and the band members' side projects like Reggie & the Full Effect and the New Amsterdams also became some of my favorites.


FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES - TOO BAD YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL

FATA was the first of what would be many bands I listened to from the metalcore / hardcore genre. It boggled my mind that they could from melodic singing to straight up screaming and angst. Mad props to TJ and Tristan for introducing me to this genre of music...

SAVES THE DAY, ARMOR FOR SLEEP, & SET YOUR GOALS @ the TLA

On Thursday, May 1st, Marty and I attended the Bamboozle Roadshow featuring Saves the Day, Armor for Sleep, and Set Your Goals at the TLA. Luckily there were no Flyers games to contend with so we didn't have to worry about watching any games before / during the show. Quick preface, we missed the first two opening bands (don't remember who they were) in favor of having more time to get to the venue and to also grab a beer at Mako's Bar, across from the TLA.

We arrived at the TLA just in time for the start of Set Your Goals set. I've been a passive fan of SYG, mainly because a lot of their songs are pretty short along the lines of traditional punk. I hadn't taken the time to see the dynamics of the band beforehand and was really surprised to find that they employed two lead singers, one tall, overweight guy and the other a short, skinny guy. So automatically, that catches more of my attention than the actual music so I was distracted by that for most of their set. Aside from the makeup of the band, their set was pretty solid and there was a bit of circle pit going on in the center of the floor as would be expected with their brand of music.

Next came Armor for Sleep's set, which we took in from the bar area, on the side of the TLA. One uncomfortable note about the bar area is that it's small and they pack the people into this little area. And also, the waitress walking around the bar area decided not to wear deodorant this night and she was continuously walking around with her arm up holding the tray, thus putting her armpit area right at face height for me. So I was getting some pretty clear whiffs of her every time she walked by... pretty gross. Aside from resonating B.O. smell, Armor for Sleep put on a typical set with a brand of music that has you tapping your toes and nodding your head a little bit, but nothing else. Don't get me wrong, I love Armor for Sleep's music, but their music is more of a background sounds kind of music, not necessarily the best to see live. This was probably about the 5th or 6th time I've seen them so I would know. And they didn't help their cause by getting into the music a little too much on stage and asking for circle pits during songs which they falsely identified as heavier songs. But musically, they're right on par with their albums.

Finally, it was time for Saves the Day to hit the stage. I had only ever seen them one other time, during my Freshman year of college when they were on tour with Dashboard Confessional. I had shunned the band for a little while after they released the album, "In Reverie" which had taken the band in a completely different direction from what they originally were. But they've made a comeback as of late (in mind), releasing two great albums, "Sound the Alarm" and "Under the Boards" and adding two members of Glassjaw to play bass and the drums. So I was pretty psyched to see them again. after a bit of a hiatus from the band.

Chris Conley entered the stage and immediately made the announcement that usually their setlist would consist of them playing a song they want, then playing a song requested by the audience, but on this night, they were only going to play songs requested by the audience. I had seen MXPX do this one previous time, but they wanted people to write down requests on pieces of paper and throw them on stage (which isn't the best idea), but Chris was just going to take requests from what he heard from the people up front. So the show, ended up being a good mix of mostly older songs from "Can't Slow Down", "Stay What You Are" and "Through Being Cool", probably one of my Top 5 Albums of All Time. (Actually, you know what, for my next posting, I am indeed going to post my Top 5 Albums of All Time... more on that later). They also played some songs from their latest album, but only seemed to play the filler songs of the album, not the songs that I considered to be the best off that album. So that was a bit disappointing. But they ended up playing close to two hours altogether and you could see towards the end of the show that a lot of the crowd was starting to get a little anzy for the show to be over. And in fact, there were a good amount of people that just left early because it was a marathon of a set. I spent the whole night hoping that they would play "Rocks Tonic Juice Magic", my favorite song off "Through Being Cool" and they ended up closing with it, which was pretty awesome! For the most part, the crowd seemed pretty satisfied, except for the fact that they didn't play "All-Star Me", which was routinely chanted for by the crowd, but fell upon deaf ears in regards to being played.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome show. I got to hear basically every Saves the Day song I would ever want to hear played live. And additionally Saves the Day was selling accoustic albums of their best songs which could only be picked up at their shows. I ended buying two of the three albums. Why I didn't fork over the extra five bucks to get the third album boggles my mind. So I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't pick up the third album but the two that I do have are pretty amazing...

NFL Draft Analysis for my teams: Miami Dolphins & Philadelphia Eagles

I'm a faithful observer of the NFL draft each and every year because it's an exciting time of year when your team is primed to improve the team and look to the future. This year certainly brought some excitement with the Miami Dolphins holding the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and the Eagles possessing 11 picks overall and a promise to Donovan McNabb to bring in some playmakers, whether it'd be through the draft or a trade.

The Dolphins took some of the excitement out of who they were going to draft with the first pick a week ahead of time by inking Jake Long, Offensive Tackle out of Michigan. I found this to be a pretty solid pick. Long is projected to be the cornerstone of the Dolphins OL for years to come and he should provide adequate protection for both the QB of the future and Ronnie Brown, our stud running back. With their next pick, the first pick of the second round, the Dolphins selected the heir apparent to Jason Taylor, Defensive End Phillip Merling out of Clemson. So with their first two picks, the Dolphins addressed both lines and now it was time to pick up a possible QB of the future with their next pick. Quick little story. I was keeping an eye on the NFL draft on TV during commercial breaks of the Flyers playoff game and I'm pretty sure it was bugging the hell out of Coz because I kept getting caught up in the draft and I kept forgetting to change back to the game (we even missed the Flyers second goal). But anyway, as the Dolphins' third pick approached, I was becoming extremely excited because both Brian Brohm (Louisville) and Chad Henne (Michigan) were both still on the boards and the teams who had yet to pick weren't in need of a possible franchise QB. Then came the bombshell - the Green Bay Packers, the pick right before the Dolphins, selected Brian Brohm. So now we were down to one decent available QB and the Dolphins were on the clock. So they had to select Chad Henne. Luckily, ESPN had a camera at the Henne residence, so before any pick was made, they had a shot of Chad getting on the phone with the Dolphins when they make the obligatory, "We're going to draft you" phone call. Finally, the pick was officially made and I began to celebrate while Dusty and Coz who were watching the Flyers game with me at the time just shook their heads. I even went for a high five from Coz and was immediately shut down and told to put the Flyers game back on.

So now the Dolphins have a franchise Offensive Tackle, possible franchise Defensive End, and hopefully the QB of the future in Chad Henne, who should compete and eventually overtake John Beck to become the Dolphins #1 QB. I think we're going to be talking playoffs in about two years - you heard it here first!!

As for the Eagles, they continued their trend of trading out of the first round to avoid having to pay first round money to their draft picks. I can see their logic in that from the position that they've been drafting at, the quality of players is significantly lower and so far they've been able to find the players they were predicted to draft by the "experts" in the second round. And it worked out that way again this year when they drafted Defensive Tackle Trevor Laws out of Notre Dame and Wide Receiver DeSean Jackson out of California in the second round. Jackson was the Eagles' projected first round pick in a good amount of mock drafts so for them to be able to draft in the second round and save some money on that pick, mad props for that. But had that backfired, they would have had egg on their face.

The Eagles were also unable to draft unhappy Cornerback Lito Sheppard leaving a crowded defensive backfield. In addition to not being able to trade Lito, they couldn't pull the trigger on a trade for an elite Wide Receiver to add to Donovan McNabb's weapons. Now obviously, I would have loved to see the Eagles bring in a bonafide Number One Wide Receiver, but I think their offense can still be high powered with what they've already got. If McNabb and Westbrook continue to be healthy and LJ Smith returns to 2006 form, this offense can be pretty formidable. I'll go out on a limb and say Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown are above average WRs and if Jackson can open up the field a little bit with his speed, or if Jason Avant and / or Hank Baskett continue to progress, then they've got some pretty good WRs. But it's definitely a big IF.

We'll see as the offseason progresses. Training camp in less than 3 months...

FOALS show & VIA AUDIO / SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN show

For two days this week, I was an inhabitant of Fishtown as I took in two shows, two days in a row at Johnny Brenda's bar. It was my first experience at Johnny Brenda's and I've had some likes and dislikes about the bar. As a concert venue, it doesn't get any more intimate than their second floor stage. There's also a balcony area that hangs above the stage and has its own separate bar so no matter where you are in the place, beer is always in reach. And Johnny Brenda's prides itself in providing beer from local breweries so you're able to sample different beers at a reasonable price as opposed to being overcharged for the same old shit. One of the major flaws of Johnny Brenda's, especially with the hockey playoffs upon us, was the fact that there was not one single TV in the place. Apparently trendy hipsters don't watch TV.

Enter Murph's Bar, conveniently located across the street from Johnny Brenda's. From having spent two nights there drinking with the regulars, Murph's Bar is now one of my top 5 bar experiences of all time - but that can be attributed to an emotional night of watching Game 7 in which the Flyers scored the game winning goal in overtime. Here's a rundown of my two nights at Johnny Brenda's / Murph's Bar.

On Tuesday night, Marty and I embarked on a night of some upbeat indie dance-type music provided by the british band, FOALS. Unfortunately for us, the Flyers decided to choke in Game 6 of their playoff series with Washington, forcing a Game 7 on the night we were seeing FOALS. So we decided we'd head up early to the show, watch the Flyers game and then seemless transition from the bar area to the stage area for the show. But, since Johnny Brenda's is too trendy for TVs, we decided to take our business elsewhere until the Flyers game / the show started. So we headed across the street to Murph's Bar which Marty was originally afraid to go into because he thought we get some trouble from the locals for not being from Fishtown, but it was the total opposite. They welcomed us with arms wide open, in a sense, allowing us to partaking in the excitement of Flyers playoff hockey. And an added bonus was that during Flyers game, Balantine Pale Ales were only a dollar a piece. So we were getting to watch the Flyers game with a festive crowd, and were able to get sloshed for an extremely reasonable price. But as the Flyers game wore on and showtime quickly approached, it became apparent that we may be faced with the decision of either missing some of the show or the end of the Flyers game. Fortunately for us, the start of the show was delayed and we were able to watch the whole game, even as it went into overtime. As the Flyers scored the game winning goal, we celebrated with our festive crowd, high fives all around and now we were superhyped to see FOALS.

At Johnny Brenda's, I started off the night by giving the doorman trouble for not having any TVs in the bar, pronouncing that they had lost our business earlier because of it. We then hit up the bar and grabbed a couple of Yards Philly Pale Ales which were very good and we set up shop in front of the stages for FOALS to come out. I'd estimate the crowd at maybe about 50 people tops so it was quite the intimate show. FOALS put on an amazing show, with everyone in the crowd seemingly getting into the music as they played the majority of their recently released album, Antidotes. Funny side note of the night, Marty managed to offended some hot blonde chick with a half sleeve on her forearm at the show by making fun of the opening band, Ghosts, who weren't very good... But all in all it was a pretty amazing show and I'll definitely see them again whenever they come back to town.

The second night of my doubleheader brought a change in the lineup of who was going to the show. Marty texted me early in the day to inform me that he couldn't go because he had a sore throat and a fever. Bummer. So the quest was on to find someone to take his ticket and apparently Wednesdays are the absolute worst day to find someone last minute to go the show. In a last act of desperation, I offered the ticket to Coz, who has never been one for going to shows, but still enjoys a night out at the bar. And it was also an opportunity to celebrate, in a sense, Coz's new job that he had gotten the other day. So Coz and I embarked on a night of good indie music from one of my favorite bands, Via Audio and Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsin. We got up to Johnny Brenda's at 8:30, only to find that Via Audio wasn't hitting the stage until 10:30. So now we had two hours on our hands to kill and still no TVs in Johnny Brenda's. So it was off to Murph's Bar once again to drink some more Ballantine Ales and take in the Phillies game.

We headed over to Johnny Brenda's around 10 to get some more Yards Philly Pale Ales and to set up shop front and center of the stage. On my way in, I picked up the new SSLYBY album which I was able to find anywhere around me. New music to listen to...check. We caught the last two songs from the opening band, whose name has slipped my mind and then it was time for Via Audio to set up their gear. And then Jessica, the lead singer of Via Audio entered the bar and entranced by her beauty and stage pressence. Quick backstory, the last time Via Audio was in town, Marty and I went up to see them at the NorthStar Bar and Jess pointed us out in the crowd as one of the few people that knew their songs and had been singing along. So after that set, we were able to hang out with her a little bit and we were both smitten with her personality and indie girl good looks. So back to Via Audio's set at Johnny Brenda's. They played yet another amazing show, intermixing their classics and even playing what I deemed to be a couple of new songs. And once again I was singing along to all their songs, seemingly the only one in the crowd doing so. So after their set, Coz and I were just hanging out and Jess B-lined right for me, proclaiming, "Hey, you know our songs." And so I got into a quick conversation with her about how I love their music and had met her previously at their last show in Philly. She was extremely appreciative and thankful that I was a fan and had come out to the show and that just enhanced my ongoing crush on her...

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin closed out the night and they put on a pretty good show. I had only been exposed to their music through their myspace because I couldn't find their album anywhere, but I was still able to get into the music nonetheless. The highlight of their performance had to be when they brought everyone from Via Audio on stage to join them for a cover of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box... pretty awesome.

So my two nights spent down in Fishtown at Johnny Brenda's / Murph's Bar involved a lot of drinking and a lot of great music... can't wait to go back again

With the first pick in this year's NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins select...

Jake Long - Offensive Tackle out of Michigan!!


As a Dolphins fan, I'm pretty psyched and committed to this pick. They've got him signed to a deal already so there won't be any notions of holding out so he'll be with the team from the start. And the Dolphins will be able to draft a possible franchise QB early in the second round or trade up into the late first round to take Chad Henne or Brian Brohm...

Prospect Park Celebrity Gossip...

This just in from the AP wire aka the gossip my Moms brings home from school board meetings:

An indie-drama movie, "Happy Tears" is going to be filmed at a house right down the street from my house starring Demi Moore, Parker Posey, and Rip Torn! Not really sure when it'll be going down but apparently filming is starting at some point next month.

No word yet on whether A) I'll be having a guest role in the movie or B) Parker Posey will be staying at my house when she's in town...

THE STARTING LINE, BAYSIDE, & FOUR YEAR STRONG... AMAZING SHOW

On Friday night, Dusty, Pattitude, and I attended The Starting Line's farewell tour at the Electric Factory, as TSL prepares to go on a "hiatus" which basically means they're breaking up and won't be getting back together any time soon. Well they made sure to go out with a bang by lining up Bayside and Four Year Strong as their opening acts (Steel Train was the first opening act, but they were horrible so I won't bother acknowledging that they actually played). And an added bonus for this show was that The Starting Line were filming this show to eventually be put on DVD so automatically we wanted to go out of our ways to be seen on this DVD.

We started off the night up in the bar area of the Electric Factory for a pre show beer (which by the way was one of the worst beers I had ever had because I was grotesquely hungover that day from the previous night's engagements which involved Molson Golden). As soon as the the first band was done, we set off for the front of the crowd so we could adequately be able to get into Four Year Strong's set. We had seen them one previous time at The Troc but were sitting up in the bar area so we couldn't get into the music. As the band took the stage, Dusty and Pattitude rode the wave to basically the very front while I got a little more to the side which actually worked out for the best once crowd surfing commenced and I didn't have people dropping in on my head.

Four Year Strong played an amazing set (basically their whole cd that's out right now) which the crowd was definitely getting into. I was surrounded by an equal number of people who either extensively knew FYS's music and those who had no idea who they were... but everyone was getting into it. Throughout the whole show, there was a constant current going through the crowd. I was continually pushed back and forth as crowd surfing commenced and attempts were made to get a pit going. From my vantage point, I was never able to see a pit going on but the bands were reacting as if there were one so I'll go ahead and assume people were trying to dance.

Bayside came on next and their music seemed a lot more mellow sitting between Four Year Strong and The Starting Line. Bayside has been a long time favorite of mine and this was my first chance to see them live and they did not disappoint. Musically and vocally, they were on par with their records and with their live show, they were able to get me to end my embargo on their self-titled album, which had long been my least favorite of their albums. It's all I've been listening to in my car the last few days...

Finally, the cameras were put in place and The Starting Line came out to a ruckus crowd. There was a camera on a dolly floating above the crowd for most of the show getting crowd shots so that'll be my best chance to be on camera but the fact that I was more towards to the left might hinder that. Dusty and Pattitude were front and center so they probably got more camera time but they paid the price by having people landing on top of them via crowd surfing.

Considering that this was their last tour, TSL pulled out all the stops in their song selections playing a lot of their older stuff while still mixing in some of their newer songs. They were very business-like, not really talking too much in between songs, which probably can be attributed to the fact that the show was filmed. But, it was funny seeing how many of the young Starting Line fans didn't know any of their old stuff, which I consider to be their best stuff. Dusty was intent on hearing "Greg's Last Day", one of their oldest songs and had planned on yelling for it until they played it. Unfortunately for him, that was the second song they played so he was able to fulfill the role of "that guy"...haha.

All in all, it was an amazing show and as an added bonus, I was able to grab one of the TSL guitar picks they were throwing out to the crowd after the show. What can I say, I got caught up in the frenzy...

We're talking Politics...blah

With the Pennsylvania Primary coming up next Tuesday, the Debate between Hillary and Obama had my full attention because I'm still on the fence as to who to vote for. After that less than festive debate, I find myself leaning a little more towards Hillary but I'm not completely satisfied just yet. I thought that some of the questions that were debated were pretty trivial and shouldn't affect who we vote for. I don't really care if Obama accused small town Pennsylvanians of being bitter about losing their jobs and clinging to religion and guns. It's the truth in a sense. That's what religion and guns are - a means of salvation for those less fortunate. And why should this topic dominate a half hour of the debate when there are more important things to discuss like the economy, Social Security, and Iraq. It's funny that those topics took second stage to questions about Obama's pastor and Hillary's jaded account of arriving in Bosnia under sniper fire. Topics like that and abortion are what seem to dominate people's decisions as to who to vote for anymore and it's one of the reasons that we've been stuck with someone who drove our economy into the ground for eight years...

Also on an interesting side note, Rep Jim Sestak's people placed a call to my house last night while I was watching the debate asking whether myself or my mom would be interested in working the polls on Tuesday... shouldn't they be watching the debate instead of placing phone calls that will distract their constituents from the debate??

Recently Purchased Albums That I Can't Get Enough of...

It's been a slow year so far in regards to releases but I'm finding some hidden gems out there / picking up on what the latest "it" bands are so give all of these albums a listen:

Vampire Weekend - Self Titled
Yes Marty I know you had been talking about them for weeks but they didn't get my full attention until their performances on SNL... now I can't get enough of them
A Day To Remember - For Those Who Have Heart
Another one of those pop-punk hardcore hybrids along the same lines as Four Year Strong
Kate Nash - Made of Bricks
A lovely British songbird with infectious lyrics and an adorable British accent which I love
FOALS - Antidotes
Another Marty recommendation, I haven't given the album a full listen yet, but I'll be seeing them with Marty at Johnny Brenda's next week... should be a good show from what I've heard thus far
Foxy Shazam - Introducing Foxy Shazam
Some piano-centric music with vocals reminiscent of Chiodos
Panic at the Disco - Pretty. Odd.
They've dropped the exclamation mark from their title and that's not the only thing that's dropped out. It seems that they're trying to distance themselves from pop-punk and instead trying to cop off The Beatles with a Sgt Pepper's-esque change of music... still haven't been able to fully bond with this album yet

Upcoming Album Releases I'm Anticipating - New Found Glory / International Super Heroes of Hardcore (NFG's hardcore alter-ego), Paper Rival, Forever the Sickest Kids, Neil Diamond, Flight of the Conchords, REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT

John McCain - a fan of reality TV

Here's another reason why I find John McCain appealling as a person, not necessarily as a politician. It's not enough that he spent five years in a POW camp or that he's a Maverick Senator - he's also a fan of The Hills, MTV's reality spin off of surreal soap opera Laguna Beach. When told that Heidi Montag of The Hills had endorsed him for President, he responded that he never misses an episode of the show.

So it looks like I share a common interest with John McCain - we both enjoy uber-crappy MTV / VH1 reality tv shows. Come on! you know you love Rock of Love II

The Final Verdict: I KNOW COLLEGE BASKETBALL

So another March Madness has come and gone and for a second year in a row, I'm in the money. I was able to finish in the Top 3 in both pools that I was in giving me a winnings grand total of $150!! And the key to success in both pools was picking Kansas to win it all...

In my Dad's work pool, I miracuously rode the Kansas wave to a 3rd place finish and $75... I took a hit in all of my pools by not having Memphis is the Final, let alone the Final Four, but my best guess as to how I was able surpass six people going from 9th place to 3rd would be that everyone had UNC winning it all. HAHA SUCKERS...

And in my Aunt's work pool, I had to relinquish my first place status to a guy who had picked the Kansas-Memphis final and Kansas as the winner. So Memphis definitely bit me in the butt. But with a Second place finish in this pool, I doubled my winnings from my Dad's pool with another $75.

Finally, in my for amusement only pool (Bri's), I finished a respectable second behind Bri's friend Steve Laird. Obviously finishing in first for a second year in a row would have been better, but I still beat Bri, Marty, and slew of other people so I've got some bragging rights to exercise...

All in all, another successful year in picking my college basketball brackets... maybe I've got a future in bracketology...

The kid can pick 'em...

This year, I was only able to participate in 3 NCAA pools (2 for money, 1 for fun; all for entertainment purposes...) and I'm sitting mighty pretty for the second year in a row. I was 3 for 4 on my Final Four picks (I had UNC, Kansas, & UCLA) and my other picks up until then were pretty solid.

In my Aunt's work pool, I am tied for first out of a hundred people with one of my cousins. There's also about 10 people within striking distance of us so it's no done deal. If Kansas and UCLA make the final and Kansas wins it all, I win the pool... simple as that.

In my Dad's work pool, I am tied for ninth out of 100+ people. I'm satisfied to finish in the Top 10 any time there's a lot of people involved and who knows maybe I can make a late run at finishing in the money.

And in Bri's bracket league that he set up on Yahoo, I'm in second place and can very easily finish in first depending on the outcome of the games... It'd be nice to win this league for a second year in a row... it's not like it'll pad my evergrowing ego or anything...

SAY ANYTHING @ The TLA

On Wednesday night, Maureen and myself took in the Say Anything show at the TLA and it was quite amazing. The night began at the South Street Diner for a lackluster meal and an apparent stench that permeated throughout the diner that Maureen was picking up on, but with my less than stellar sense of smell, I was unable to smell anything. Maybe I'm immune to the inevitable aroma that most diners give off from too many night spent at Tom Jones Restaurant...

I didn't really care much about seeing the opening bands so by the time we got to the TLA, we had already missed the opening band, Weatherbox, but we were just in time to see Biffy Clyro, the second band. Apparently they're from Scotland so already they've earned some bonus points and their music was pretty diverse going between being soft and serene and loud and chaotic. It was a nice mix and they even did some harmonizing between the three band members so that was pretty cool.

After their set, Maureen mentioned that she wanted to get a drink. For the first time in forever, I didn't associate drink with alcoholic beverage so I walked her over to the snack stand and that's when she laughingly said she wanted a drink drink not a soda or water. I guess you'd have to be there to find it funny. But just a heads up, if you're looking to get ripped at a show at the TLA, you should order a rum and coke at the bar. Maureen got one and it was as if they filled the cup with rum and just put a spritz of coke.

Manchester Orchestra came on while we were in the bar area and I have to say I was a little disappointed in their performance. They seemed to have sped up all of their songs and the mellowness of the songs was replaced by an almost chaotic stage pressence which was cool but still disappointing for some reason. Either way, their set was pretty good but they didn't live up to the hype that I had built up in my head.

Quick little side note: In between Manchester Orchestra and Say Anything, they played Beatles songs on the house PA system which was extremely enjoyable. It was nice hearing songs you could sing along to / enjoy instead of random songs you've never heard of / don't want to hear. But The Beatles songs just added to the giddyness I had in anticipation of seeing Say Anything.

Say Anything entered the stage to the intro from their latest record, In Defense of the Genre and broke into the first song off the record, "Skinny, Mean Man" and the energy in the building just exploded. Max Bemis, the lead singer writes amazing lyrics and he definitely backed them up throughout the show with his stage pressence. And musically, the rest of the band was dead on with what they were playing. The music sounded as if you were listening to the actual record. With the variety that Say Anything employs in their songs, each song evoked different responses from the crowd. One minute everyone was rocking out to a straight up rock song and the next minute everyone's dancing along to the beats of a song like "Baby Girl, I'm a Blur". Max even played an acoustic song to which he had everyone in the crowd hold up their cell phones and lighters. It was a pretty amazing show that kept everyone on their feet because you never knew what kind of song was coming up next... I'll definitely be seeing them again the next time they're around.

MARCH MADNESS - The Picks...

Let me first start off by saying that this was the first year in a while that I didn't have a clear cut favorite in mind to win it all. In my mind, there are 3 teams that have a very good chance to win it all: Kansas, UNC, and UCLA. After alot of deliberating, I came to the conclusion that Kansas will be the team that takes it this year. Injuries are what it came down to for me. UNC's talented point guard, Ty Lawson, still isn't 100% healed from a serious ankle sprain which affects his ability to drive to the basket and score. And I wouldn't be able to handle seeing Tyler Hansborough raising the trophy at the end of the tournament. He's the next Eric Montross... And while I think UCLA and Kansas are evenly matched, UCLA's Kevin Love is suffering from back spasms and there's talk that Luc Mbah a Moute, the glue that holds this team together, won't be back until the Elite 8. So what I foresee happening is that Luc-what's his name is going to come back early and try to play through the pain helping to lead the Bruins to the NCAA championship game...where they will fall to the Kansas Jayhawks. BAM!

As for Cinderella teams and major upsets, I really struggled in trying to pick the upsets. A lot of the teams who had been predicted to be upset specials like South Alabama and St. Mary's got bad draws so I don't foresee them going very far. My biggest upsets in my brackets reside in the West bracket. This is based soley on when you're comparing Mid-Majors to Major conferences and not their actual rankings in the brackets. West Virginia will upset Duke to get into the Sweet 16. I've also got the Drake Bulldogs going to the Sweet 16 and falling to UCLA and the closest thing I have to a Cinderella team is....(drum roll)... the Xavier Musketeers making it all the way to the Elite 8 falling once again to UCLA.

Keeping in mind that I will be in three different pools this year with three different entries, here are what I consider to be my best picks starting in the Round of 32:


ROUND OF 32
East
UNC over Arkansas; Notre Dame over Winthrop; Louisville over St. Joe's; Tennessee over Butler
Midwest
Kansas over UNLV; Clemson over Siena; Wisconsin over USC; Georgetown over Davidson
South
Memphis over Mississippi State; Pittsburgh over Temple; Stanford over Marquette; Texas over St. Mary's
West
UCLA over Texas A&M; Drake over San Diego; Xavier over Baylor; West Virginia over Duke

SWEET 16
East
UNC over Notre Dame; Tennessee over Louisville
Midwest
Kansas over Clemson; Wisconsin over Georgetown
South
Memphis over Pittsburgh; Texas over Stanford
West
UCLA over Drake; Xavier over West Virginia

ELITE 8
East
UNC over Tennessee
Midwest
Kansas over Wisconsin
South
Texas over Memphis
West
UCLA over Xavier

FINAL FOUR
Kansas over UNC; UCLA over Texas

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Kansas 75, UCLA 68

MARCH MADNESS baby!!...

Anyone that has known for me a long time knows that this is probably my favorite time of year: MARCH MADNESS. Specifically, I love filling out brackets and the pools that accompany these brackets. I can actually remember when I first became interested in filling out brackets for the NCAA's. I had to be in 2nd or 3rd grade, during the productive years of the Fab 5 at Michigan and Eric Montross' dominance at North Carolina. My uncle and his friends were running a pool where you picked the name of a team out and if they won the tournament, you won the pool. I ended up pulling Arkansas, the year before the won the National Championship - what luck.

My recreational gambling progressed in middle school, when I began running a brackets pool among my friends in 7th grade. That continued on through all the way to my first year of college. We only came close to getting caught once, in 7th or 8th grade when the principal came across one of our brackets. Luckily, we were in the head of the class so we got a simple, "Don't do it again" and we were back on our way to gambling on school property. The most successful year of the pool had to be Senior year of high school, when we even managed to get some of the teachers involved in the pool. Pretty clutch.

In addition to running my own pool, I've always been involved in pools at both of my parents' work places and also in a huge pool run at my Aunt's work. My picks tend to be pretty good so I've won pools here and there. Last year was actually my most successful year when I finished in first place at my Dad's work and in second place at Mom's.

This year, I've been a little more subdued in regards to March Madness because I've been logging too many hours at the credit union and I wasn't able to watch that many college basketball games during the regular season. In the past, I would enjoy taking either Thursday, Friday, or both days off when the tournament begins to take in the games and enjoy the excitement. This year, I'm working 11 hours on Thursday and 8 hours on Friday so I'm going to be missing most of the action.... BEAT.

Finally, I'd like congratulate / celebrate the Temple Owls, my alma mater, for making it to the Big Dance after winning the A-10 tournament. In my four years at Temple, they never made it to the tournament so I was never able to bask in the glory. But, as a Temple Alumnus, I've taken great pride in the team, and although I wasn't able to really see any of their games, I'm extremely excited they're going to be playing and they got an excellent draw in Michigan State who I think they're going to beat. GO OWLS!!

One final F-U to CBS for putting the Temple - MSU game on at 12:30 in the afternoon on Thursday. You couldn't have put it on in the prime time so I could actually see the game... could you?!

Thursday morning before the game starts, I'll be revealing some of my expert picks for upsets, cinderella teams, and who's going to be winning it all...

EWE TOO ROCKS ME - Bad Acoustics...

This past Friday, EWE TOO ROCKS ME made a return to Marty Magee's to a festive crowd that had been hyped up by a Hometown Broadcast at Magee's that same day and it was a disaster...womp womp. Unfortunately for the band, our drummer Gooch had contracted some kind of respiratory infection where he was coughing up blood and was left weakened like a frail boy. So at the last minute, the rest of ETRM decided to go about playing the set acoustically, unplugged while still trying to keep the excitement of our regular show... BAD IDEA. We were only able to practice the night before show acoustically, so we already had that going against us. Throw in the fact that I've been fighting off a cold for the past two weeks and that just spells disaster...

I ended up losing my voice one song into our set...yes one song into the set. And because it was an acoustic show, we had added some songs I had previously done on my own at open mic nights so I was going to be doing even more singing then I usually do which is pretty tough to do when you don't have a voice. So I was singing off key all night, apparently the sound from the guitars never was right, and we learned a valuable lesson about using acoustic guitars as opposed to electric: electric guitars can hide any mistakes you make while playing; acoustics can't...

The crowd for the most part seemed to be having as good of a time as they possibly could. But as musicians, we were pretty disappointed in our performance so we'll chalk this one up as a bad show. As a band, ETRM seems to be folowing this trend of playing a good show, and then following it up with a bad show. Which can only be good news for our show that we're supposedly doing as the opening band for A Certain Tragedy at the Wharf Tavern in Aston... Hopefully we can redeem ourselves...

The Starting Line are Breaking up?!

They had been publicizing on AP.net for the past week about The Starting Line having a big announcement to make and they had chosen AP.net as a place to have an "online press conference". Sure enough, the band announced that they wouldn't be breaking up or taking a hiatus, but instead they would simply be taking some time off which could be a few months... or even a few years. In laymen's terms, they are basically breaking up. All of the members of the band have different side projects going on so that'll be taking up their time and keeping them from reuniting.

The Starting Line is one of those bands that I started listening to in high school, when I was most impressionable musically. They've never put out an album that I didn't love and I'm extremely disappointed they're breaking up, but at the same time I've heard good things about the side projects that they're producing.

They're going to be playing one last show in Philadelphia at the Electric Factory on Friday, April 18th with Bayside and Four Year Strong so I am strongly considering going. Anyone who wants to come is welcome to join me. I'll be purchasing tickets in the very near future because there is a good chance it's going to sell out.

Eagles in pursuit of Asante Samuel??

According to Peter King's "Monday Morning Quarterback", Asante Samuel, formerly a cornerback for the New England Patriots will be headed to the Philadelphia Eagles when they offer him a five year deal in the neighborhood of $55 million. In my opinion, they'd be grossly overpaying for a cornerback who isn't as good as his stats may say. This signing would be totally uncharacteristic of the Andy Reid regime so I think these rumors might be poppycock... That's right I said it... poppycock!

What Have I been watching lately...

With my chaotic schedule as of late with work, band practices, and such, I haven't been catching a lot of television lately, but with the new DVR on my cable box, I at least have some shows ready to be watched. But here are some shows I've been watching lately, both on television, and on DVD:

ROCK OF LOVE II: Brett Michaels is at it again, making out with all those slutty girls trying to get their 15 minutes of fame, and hiding his male pattern baldness with a strategically placed bandana... It's pure entertainment to see what lengths these girls will go to, to get with a washed up rock star...

WEEDS SEASON 2 & 3: Only recently have I been getting into this show so I've been playing catch-up on Netflix. I just finished up Season 2, which ended on a cliff hanger and apparently Season 3 isn't out on DVD yet so I'm watching it on On Demand instead... I plan on moving on to CALIFORNICATION SEASON 1 after I'm done with WEEDS

CELEBRITY REHAB: For some odd reason, I'm drawn towards celebrities and their problems. You can tell that a celebrity is trying to keep hold of the final seconds of their fifteen minutes of fame when they decide to do a show that puts them under a microscope and exposes who they really are to millions of viewers. But, I salute them for providing me with something entertaining to watch on TV. I'm also gearing up for the next season of Celebrity Fit Club... why did they let Dustin Diamond back for another season??

THE SIMPSONS SEASON 5: Only recently have I begun collecting the seasons of The Simpsons in an attempt to relive my childhood and the show that had the most influence on my sense of humor. Our Fox affiliate around here has decided to only show new episodes of The Simpsons, which are not funny, so I'm relegated to watching the old seasons on DVD.

FLYERS GAMES: Ever since, I've gotten the new HDtv, I'm automatically drawn to any and all sporting events in HD and hockey is one of the best. The Ice is so white that it starts to burn images into my retina. I'll notice that my eyes take a little time to adjust to dimmer lighting after watching a Flyers game. Also, since purchasing the TV, it's now basically required that my Dad watches Flyers games on my TV so there's no getting around watching these games even though I enjoy them nonetheless...

And soon I'll be watching Phillies games on a nightly basis... can't wait

A night on the town... The Red Sky Restaurant and Lounge...

So I took Maureen out for a post-Valentine's Day night on the town since I wasn't able to do anything on the actual Valentine's Day and we had a really good time.

The night started with some ice skating at the Blue Cross River Rink right as it was getting dark. With the Ben Franklin Bridge in the background, it was quite the place to be. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about some key accessories to ice skating on an outdoor rink. I had ankle socks on so I was getting some skin-to-skate contact which wasn't that bad and I had also forgotten to bring a pair of gloves. Maureen insisted on trying to give me her gloves but I couldn't have her hands going cold to make up for my stupidity. And it probably would have been a good idea to stretch before hand... But, other than those snafus, the ice skating was a lot of fun... and I didn't even make an ass out of myself and fall or anything like that. Also on a side note, the music selections for the skating were pretty out there. Apparently the guy programming the music was a fan of Jimmy Eat World and Duran Duran... he even went as far as to play what seemed like a 15 minute Jimmy Eat World song that just wouldn't end...haha

So after ice skating, we had worked up an appetite and I had made reservations at The Red Sky Restaurant & Lounge up on Market St in Olde City, which came highly recommended by Dusty who apparently had flirted with his waitress there and secured himself some free cocktails...typical Dusty. We had a little time to kill before the reservation, so we set up shop at the bar, which happened to have the Flyers game on TV, unluckily for Maureen. While, I'm not much of an adventurous drinker (I stuck to beer, although I did class it up with some Stella Artois's), Maureen enjoyed the specialty drinks the Red Sky had to offer, including the aptly named "Red Sky". She gave the specialty drinks rave reviews and I had a sip of each one she had and I'd second those reviews.

Once we were seated for dinner, I had my mind set on getting a steak, so I ordered the NY Strip Steak, which I must say, was probably one of the best steaks I've ever had. It was a nice cut of meat, and all the seasonings and dressing really brought out the taste... Maureen was a little more adventurous and ordered the Lamb (I don't remember specifically what it was called, possibly, Rack of Lamb) and she enjoyed that as well. I managed to have a bite of it and it was pretty interesting. For dessert, we shared a creme brulee which was simply amazing. Believe it or not, I had never had creme brulee before, so it was pretty eye opening.

So to sum up the Red Sky Lounge, it's your typical trendy Olde City restaurant atmosphere, but with excellent food and a pretty creative selection of mixed drinks. I'd highly recommend it.

I'll probably have more postings of my different food and dining experiences now that Maureen has been able expose me to foods and restaurants outside of Denny's and Tom Jones Restaurant...HAHA.

An Anniversary of Sorts...

Today marks 3 years of me having owned my car, aptly named Tony. Yes I name my cars because I feel like it gives them personality. God knows my previous car, Reggie had a lot of personality and spunk and anyone who was a passenger in that car can verify it. Alright let me get off my car-naming soap box now and get a little sentimental now to tell the story of Tony...

It was three years ago today, a President's Day Weekend when it had snowed a little bit. At the time, I was a rambuctious tyke, a junior in college and interning at a popular classic rock station in Philadelphia. The sky was the limit for my potential. And I had a car with a lot of personality, an old Hyundai Sonata, who had seen better days, but still had a lot to him. But, lurking in the shadows, was a teenaged sister who had recently gotten her license and was becoming a strain on the family car situation. So it was decided by the parents, that it was time for me to get a new car, and for Reggie to passed on to someone who would never full appreciate everything he had to offer. Eventually she ran Reggie's transmission into the ground, to the point that he wouldn't shift into drive, and we were forced to give Reggie to Purple Heart... a sad day.

But enough about Reggie, this is supposed to be about Tony, the '05 Nissan Sentra. I accompanied the parents out to the dealerships along the Auto Mall with our main priorities being to check out Chevy, Honda, and Nissan as a wild card. Now keep in mind, that my Dad has made a sport out of haggling prices at car dealerships so this was going to be an interesting ideal. He gave me the speech before we started about how you've always gotta be prepared to walk at any time and you can't make it look like that you have to have a specific car. Apparently in past dealings, he may have had my Mom and Aunt on the verge of tears with his approach.

So we started off at the Chevy dealership and I ended up test driving a Chevy Cobalt, which was in its first year of production so it already had a knock against it. It felt like driving a box so we exited the dealership shortly after the test drive. Next came the Honda dealership. My mom has a Honda Accord that I had driven periodically so I was already a fan of Hondas and they were on the top of my list. Unfortunately, they were a bit out of my projected price range and they were not in the mood to haggle with my Dad so it didn't work out too well. At one point, the Sales Manager actually came out to shake my Dad's hand and congratulate his persistence, but there would be no budging with the price. So we were walking once again.

Finally, we ended up at the Nissan dealership and as we were walking up to the door, Randy, a smooth-talking Salesman was getting out of what would eventually be my car. He took one look at me, looked at the car, and then proclaimed, "You definitely want this car." And so the process began. I took the car for a test drive, it was a smooth drive, and an added bonus was that this model had an extravagent sound system - six CD changer, amp, and subwoofer already in the back. I was in love already. So now we had to begin the price haggling courtship. Randy the Salesman was a smooth talker who wanted to iron out all the details with the novice who didn't know any better (me), but he had my Dad standing in the way of that. So for about two hours, there were threats of walking out, Randy having to go back to his Sales Manager to see if he could lower the price, and a lot of my Mom complaining about how my Dad was acting. I was enjoying the whole scene, but at the same time, I was set on buying the car so I was somewhat reluctant to walk if we had to. The highlight of the night had to be when Randy came out of his Manager's office and came over to me to shake my hand, saying "I think we've got ourselves a deal" and my Dad stepping right in front of me and blocking the handshake. CLASSIC.

In the end, we were finally able to iron out all the details, we got the price we were looking for, and I got the car that I wanted. 3 years later, Tony is still running strong and the sound system is still fully intact. Everything I could ask for from a car...

Recently purchased albums that I can't get enough of...

SET YOUR GOALS - MUTINY! ... I'm a little late getting into them considering the album came out in 2006 but they're a pretty good hardcore punk band that combine different genres. They should have a new album coming out later this year.

JUST SURRENDER - WE'RE IN LIKE SIN... another band I was late getting into. I first saw them with All Time Low and they were a pretty good pop-punk band.

SAVES THE DAY - UNDER THE BOARDS
SAVES THE DAY - SOUND THE ALARM... I had thrown in the towel on Saves the Day originally after In Reverie, but Marty recommended Under the Boards and I immediately got back into them after hearing that album and and I went back and bought Sound the Alarm, its predecessor as well.

There will probably be more ablums added as I continue to make new purchases during this slow "new music" season...

18 & 1!!!... 18 & 1!!!

I can't remember the last time I've taken so much joy in seeing a team lose. Super Bowl 42 was very kind to me this year in allowing the New York Giants to defeat the New England Patriots and ruin their bid for a perfect season (regular season and playoffs). Being that I'm an Eagles fan, I really didn't want to have to root for the Giants, but I started to take to them with their almost unstoppable front seven on defense and Eli Manning, the good ol' boy. But I've got multiple reasons to hate the Patriots so I had no problem rooting against them. New England had previously beaten the Eagles in the Super Bowl, and they blew out the Dolphins twice in the regular season. Throw in the fact that I have a real disdain for anything Boston and you've got the most hated team in professional sports in my world.

I also took great joy this morning in reading The Sports Guy's reaction to the whole game and how his most lasting memory will be of the chants of "18 & 1" by Giants fans in the parking lot outside the Super Bowl after the game. I LOVE IT.

I'd also like to say that the "Super Bowl Party" at Marty's house for the game was a great success. I ate and drank way too much and was in a bit of a food coma by half time. I resorted to sitting on the couch and belittling Clavin, who for some odd reason decided to root for the Patriots. Apparently, if Tom Brady was your QB in fantasy football, then you tend to root for his team the rest of the year (I'm looking at you Dusty) even after the fantasy football season is over. And my food preparations went over pretty well. I was able to successfully make the "Ditka Special" kielbasa that always goes over well. I also introduced everyone to a taco meat and cheese dip that I stole from Melissa. I gorged myself on that for most of the night and I paid the price for that this morning... Also mad props to Brian for making everyone t-shirts with some memorable lyrics from some classic hip hop songs.

OUR NAME UP IN LIGHTS...

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY BITCHES...

I'm celebrating by working an 11 hour shift at work...BEAT

On a more positive note, I also get to pick up my new 37" HDtv tonight...

TUMBLEDOWN - MXPX side project

Everything that MXPX's lead singer, Mike Herrera touches turns to gold musically and he seems to have done it again with his new alternative / country side project, Tumbledown. I highly recommend everyone check out their myspace and take in the music. I'm not normally a fan of country, but there's just something about these songs...

Cloverfield....the movie

So on Saturday night, I went to see Cloverfield with Maureen and as everyone had been saying, it was a pretty good movie. It was shot using handheld cameras, ala Blair Witch Project, and apparently there are some people out there who get sick with the jerky movements of the camera but I didn't really have a problem. You just had to look off screen every once in a while to balance your equilibrium. Other than that, the movie was pretty entertaining and action packed. Contrary to the rumors that you don't really get a good look at the monster, it was shown on camera multiple times at different angles so you get a general idea of the make up of the beast.

Because the movie was done by JJ Abrams, the man who brought the world LOST, Maureen is convinced that she can convert me to the "dark side" as a viewer of LOST, but I've never seen an episode of LOST and I never have up until now, mainly because I was spiting my Mom. Keep in mind that I do things in spite of people because I enjoy it, not necessarily because I don't like the person. So we'll see where that goes...

ALL TIME LOW in Allentown...

On Friday night, myself, Dusty, and Pattitude embarked on a road trip of sorts up to Allentown, to see All Time Low at the Crocodile Rock. This was my first time in the fair city of Allentown (excluding trips to Dorney Park) and it was an interesting experience. It took a little getting used to during the show when each band kept saying things like, "What's going on ALLENTOWN?" and "Hello ALLENTOWN". It's tough hearing anything other than "What's going on PHILADELPHIA". But anyway, the Crocodile Rock had two different bar areas, one right outside the concert venue with an adjacent pizza place, and a little bar area in the back of the venue, where those under 21 were not allowed. You have to keep in mind that the average age of ALL TIME LOW's fans is in the teens so that can be a little trying for people our age. So A+ on the setup and atmosphere of the Crocodile Rock.

For the three opening bands, we spent our time at the bar, going round for round, and even buying a shot from the shot girl walking around, who seemed a little intimidated by us (and no Dusty it was not because of you). The opening bands that we did see were alright. I thoroughly enjoyed Just Surrender, who according to Dusty and Pattitude have been around for a little while and have released 3 albums so far. I'm a little perplexed that I had never heard of them previously, but I picked up their latest CD and it is currently a mainstay in my car. May Day Parade was the final opening band and I didn't really think much of them. The only thing that really stood out in my mind was that one of their guitarist kept doing a stabbing motion with his guitar every 10 seconds even when it didn't correspond with the music at all. And their other guitarist was morbidly skinny and he may have also permed his hair.

While hanging at the bar, the three of us also furthered our plans to start a pop-punk band. Dusty apparently wants to be the singer which works in the sense that he dresses effeminately (he'll admit to it) and he could have a pretty good stage presence. Downside would be that Dusty really can't sing, although he claims he'll be taking vocal lessons from his sister. Pattitude is going to play the bass and handle the duties of screamer as needed. And I'm going to be playing guitar and handling the harmonizing duties. I'm thinking we're going to need another guitarist because by no means am I good lead guitarist, but Dusty and Pattitude think we'll be alright with one guitar so we'll see. We've got someone in mind to drum, but if he's not interested, we'll be heading to Craigs List. So hopefully by the spring things should start to get in motion.

Back to the ALL TIME LOW show... right after May Day Parade's set, Dusty and Pattitude decided to head to the front by the stage to sweat among all the 14 year old girls, but I decided to hang back and enjoy the concert by the supposed pit area. I generally enjoy hanging by the pit area and seeing what the kids are up to these days. Keeping in mind that ALL TIME LOW is a pop-punk band, there really shouldn't have been much of a pit - maybe some people could have done some skanking but instead there were just a couple of morons who kept making space and then doing nothing with the space mainly because there was nothing you could do to the music. Yet another reason why I hate the direction that our youth is taking the scene / concert experience in.

In general, ALL TIME LOW's show was pretty awesome. They've got a ton of songs that you just love to sing along to so that made the concert experience even better. The music selection was on par and they even managed to do two covers: "Under my Umbrella" by Rihanna and "Dammit" by Blink 182. They claimed that it was the first time they had played "Under my Umbrella" but I had read about it weeks ago on Absolute Punk so that was a crock of shit. But, they closed with "Dammit" and that was pretty awesome. It was the perfect opportunity for people to skank in the so-called pit, but nobody knew what to do. HORRIBLE. Other than that, the show was pretty awesome. I found ATL's sense of humor to be a little vulgar considering the majority of kids there had to be 14, but I guess that comes with being influenced by Blink 182. It was on par with my sense of humor, but I wouldn't feel comfortable saying things like to 14 year old girls. Oh man, I feel old for having found something to be too vulgar. GREAT.

Dusty and Pattitude emerged from the front of the stage soaking wet with sweat and Pattitude had managed to get a hold of one of the set lists. Having enjoyed a pretty awesome show, we embarked on our ride back home and even managed to go to the "good" Denny's for a late night dinner. And I was able to discover that my new favorite dish at Denny's, the country fried steak, isn't just a breakfast food; it's also on the Dinner menu. So that was pretty clutch. I always feel like shit after eating something that's as unhealthy as the country fried steak, but man does it taste so good going down.

Oh and a final shout out to Pattitude for making it to and from Allentown without any printed directions. He just took a look at the directions real quick and then we just winged it any time he forgot where we had to go next. Apparently this is something he and Dusty do all time so I guess it's some sort of gift...

Dave & Buster's Debauchery

So last night, we had a post-Christmas party at Dave & Buster's for the ground crew that works at WMGK... We had free food (mini-pizzas, chicken tenders, taco bar, etc.), pool tables, and $10 game cards for each person. Drinks weren't free, but since I ended up carpooling with some people, I decided to make up for the money I saved by spending it on booze. Needless to say, I ended up drinking a fair amount, even managing to save some money by getting a free soda and filling it with bourbon, courtesy of Gill's flask...haha. To add to the enjoyment of the game room, Gill had managed to get two $25 gift certificates, one we put towards a game card, the other to pay off part of our bar bill. Now, I'm not usually much of a video game guy, but I enjoy some of the shooter games every once in a while. And then decided to parlay the game card into winning tickets to put towards meaningless prizes. And we hit the jackpot... We found a machine that had to be malfunctioning because every time you'd swipe the card the max amount of times allowed, you'd win 500 tickets just for shooting a ball into a hole. So we racked up some tickets and went on a shopping spree. Unfortunately, someone had decided to buy extra large pixie sticks with their tickets and someone decided to dump a good amount of that sugar shit into one of my beers which was extremely disgusting. But since the beer was so expensive, I had no choice but to finish it... horrible. But one of the highlights of the night had to be Joe C doing lines of pixie stick sugar off of the back of Gill's next as Gill was trying to concentrate while playing one of the games... I guess you had to be there to find it as funny as we did.

So you ask what did I end up buying with my plethora of tickets? Well I decided to get everyone some candy, a Homer Simpson doll, Al Lee ended up getting himself a Bartman doll with some of my tickets (not sure how he pulled that off), and then I ended up getting a pink Care Bear for my lady of interest... a pink Care Bear?... yeah I was definitely into my drinks that night...haha

HORSE THE BAND - Earth Tour...

So it looks like HORSE THE BAND, one of my favorites, is booking their own world tour of 40 different countries, without the help of booking agencies and other corporate entities of the likes. And they plan on taping the whole excursion and turning it into a video or TV show and they're looking for help. Maybe I should try to get on their production crew... Some of the countries they plan on touring include, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, and Israel... pretty extreme!

Things are Starting to Look up for the Dolphins...

Bill Parcells continued the revamping of the Miami Dolphins organization today with the hiring of Dallas Cowboys assistant coach, Tony Sparano (not to be mistaken with Tony Soprano, FOHGET ABOUT IT) as the head coach. If you couple that with the hiring of Jeff Ireland, another former Dallas employee, as the General Manager, there's a lot of upside there. Could we be looking at the Dallas Cowboys 2.0, two or three years down the line?... I certainly hope so. Sparano had been the Offensive Line coach for the Cowboys this season, but last season he was calling plays for the offense. And Jeff Ireland was Vice President of college and pro scouting for the Cowboys, so he was pretty integral in the formation of that team. The Dolphins also hired David Lee as their QB coach. You might know one of Lee's best protege's... one Tony Romo, who went from undrafted free agent to starting QB of America's team.

Obviously, I realize that football games are won on the field and not necessarily in the front office, but the Dolphins do own the number one pick in the draft which would best be utilized on a lineman, either offensive or defensive. The two names that stand out in my mind would be: Offensive Tackle Jake Long out of Michigan and Defensive Tackle Glenn Dorsey out of LSU. Dorsey was completely dominant in the BCS championship game against Ohio State and is a definite game changer while Long is a franchise Offensive Tackle that could protect your QB for years to come. Out of the two, I'd rather the Dolphins take Long because I think he could make an immediate impact (see Joe Thomas rookie offensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns) and make life easier for John Beck or whoever else could be their quarterback of the future. Speaking of QBs, with their second or third round picks, the Dolphins need to draft a possible franchise QB and have a competition for the starting job. I'm not entirely sure that John Beck is the quarterback of the future, especially since he's now 26, so bringing in young guy would probably be a good idea.

Optimism is pretty high right now for Dolphins fans like myself...

The Demise of Eminem...HAHA

Anyone that knows me, knows that I've always hated Eminem and every thing that he does. So it brought me great joy to find out that he is a "depressed recluse, eating his way to obesity". This British tabloid even went as far as to compare his situation to the demise of Elvis... gotta love it

Athletes & Presidential Candidate contributions...

So I stole this link from Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy, but I found it to be pretty interesting. It's a list of professional athletes and franchise owners and executives who have contributed money to Presidential Candidates' campaigns. Apparently the max contribution that they could make was $2300. Barrack Obama is the leader getting numerous donations from NBA and NFL players and I found it pretty interesting / disappointing that John Edwards' only contributor was Martina Navratilova... And if you take a look at Mitt Romney's contributors, there's Andy Reid making the max contribution to his campaign...

TOP TEN HST QUOTES

Thanks to Clavin for directing me to this site that supposedly ranks Hunter S. Thompson's Top Ten Quotes over the years from his books, speeches, interviews, etc. While I will admit that these are all awesome quotes from HST, I disagree with the quotes that were included and how they were ranked. But you be the judge...

Maybe Jessica was at the game after all...

Apparently, The NY Post bought a ticket for a Jessica Simpson impersonator to go down to the Dallas - NY Giants game this past weekend to distract Tony Romo. She had a pretty good seat, 3 rows off of the 50-yard line, so maybe Tony did end up seeing her...HILARIOUS

We're talking about practice... I mean PLAYOFFS

Here are my thoughts / ramblings about this past weekend's NFL playoff action:

-We're hopelessly screwed now that the San Diego Charger's depleted team defeated the Colts who were our greatest hope to ruin New England's perfect season. The Chargers are going to be entering their game with the Patriots with Phillip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Antonio Gates all nursing injuries. It's going to be a cake walk for the Pats. I've never hated a team more, except maybe the New Jersey Devils of the late 90's, early 00's.

-After riding Brett Favre to prominent status in fantasy football the last two seasons, the Green Bay Packers are now my default favorite team in the NFL (sorrys go out to the Dolphins and Eagles). The Packers looked pretty unstoppable on Saturday and with the Cowboys losing, the Pack have the home field advantage for the NFC championship. With an invigorated Brett Favre, we have a potential "GOOD VS EVIL" matchup in the Super Bowl: Packers vs Patriots... or even a potentially "entertaining for one half" rematch between the Pats and the Giants

-THERE'S NO CRYING IN FOOTBALL!! I'm pretty sure I saw Tony Romo rubbing his eyes after throwing that interception to seal the Cowboys' fate. Romo is now the NFL's new poster boy for Quarterbacks who can't win the big game and I love it. And T.O.'s cry baby act at his post-game press conference was appalling. STOP TRYING TO ACT LIKE A TEAM PLAYER AND TRYING TO DEFEND ROMO!! You'd have no problem stabbing him in the back the second that you stop getting the ball thrown to you... Hopefully the Cowboys will continue to implode next year and slowly become the horrible team that they really are.

-The one bad thing that will come out of the Cowboys' loss is that we will never hear the end of Tony Romo's Cabo vacation with Jessica Simpson. The coach told his team to take some time off and relax, there were no rules against taking a vacation in Mexico, so he didn't really do any harm. But everybody will want to point the finger at that and we'll never hear the end of it.

-Sunday will be the only time I ever openly root for the Giants. Generally I hate everything about them, but to have them ruin Romo and T.O.'s seasons really made my day. Now hopefully they pop a squat against the Packers so we can enjoy Brett Favre back in the Super Bowl...

American Gladiators: The Next Generation

Growing up, I was a HUGE fan of American Gladiators - I even remember the names of the main hosts: Mike Adamle and Larry Csonka. And I love watching re-runs of American Gladiators which currently run on ESPN Classic. So when I found out they were remaking American Gladiators, I was skeptical and intrigued all at the same time. After having watched parts of the first three episodes here are my thoughts on American Gladiators 2.0.:

- Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali are horrible hosts... Hulk needs to take some time off and let his divorce sink in and Laila needs to go back to boxing.

- I found out that at any one time, there are 23 different cameras taping any one scene. So instead of NBC just using the best angle out of all 23, they've decided to switch back and forth from all of the angles, affecting the frame of time, and giving me somewhat of a headache.

- The new crop of gladiators aren't as dominate as the gladiators in the original version. Too many of the competitors were scoring high in the events.

- I enjoy the introduction of fire and water to the proceedings. It's added incentive to win the event. Instead of landing on the pillow soft mats, you're gonna get soaked.

- In the Eliminator, they should have the inclined treadmill and the hand bike at the beginning of the event, not towards the end when the competitors are exhausted. Those are the two toughest obstacles of the Eliminator and with the competitors being exhausted when they get to them, they don't really put up too much of a fight. Basically everyone was falling off the hand bike and everyone struggled on the treadmill... AND where are the penalties for falling off the hand bike or rolling log?? AND why do the Gladiators have no involvement in the Eliminator?? That's bullshit.

- And finally, I've found the female gladiators to be extremely hott this time around. I'll leave you with some pictures of the Gladiators and my thoughts on each of them.

CRUSH

I've got a "CRUSH" on her...HAHAHAHA
She's a MMA fighter which is awesome and she's the hottest Gladiator on there. I'd let her kick my ass any day...

SIREN

She looks like a bad ass but I bet she's got a heart of gold

VENOM

She might be a little too muscular for me but there's still something about her...

STEALTH

That outfit doesn't leave much to the imagination

FURY

That pony tail was left over from the 90's verson of American Gladiators

HELLGA
(Picture not included)
She's the size of a linebacker and her name is Hellga so that scares me...

DAN'S TOP TEN ALBUMS OF '07

If I were a good blogger I would have had this posted before 2007 ended but alas you had to wait until now for my favorite albums of 2007, in no particular order:

Say Anything - In Defense of the Genre
Four Year Strong - Rise or Die Trying
Via Audio - Say Something
The Starting Line - Direction
Circa Survive - On Letting Go
All Time Low - So Wrong, It's Right
HORSE THE BAND - A Natural Death
Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer - Schemantics
Kanye West - Graduation
Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

HONORABLE MENTION: MXPX - Secret Weapon, The Bled - Silent Treatment, The Color Fred - Bend to Break, Tegan & Sara - The Con

NEW TV son...

So after being fed up with continually being kicked off of the family HDtv in the living room by my sisters and mom, I decided to take it upon myself to buy an HDtv for my room as an early birthday present. Considering that my TV room is the size of a closet and space was limited, I settled on a 37" SAMSUNG 720p HDtv. Of course it was on sale at Best Buy when I tried to purchase it so there were none in store. So I had to settle on having it shipped to the store at a later date. Ironically, the tv is not going to be delivered until January 29th, which also happens to be my birthday...

Politics Update...

It was an exciting Saturday night in the McHenry household... Myself and Bri grabbed some beers courtesy of Marty (the Saranac Holiday Variety 12-Pack was pretty clutch), and some bags of chips and hunkered down to watch the Pittsburgh - Jacksonville. Well it just so happened that on this exciting Saturday night, there were also going to be some Presidential Debates on ABC, both the Democrats and Republicans. Here are my thoughts on the current Political atmosphere having watching a good part of those debates and having followed the Iowa caucuses... CAUCUS!! (I've gotta yell it after I say it in regular context)

On the Republican side, it seems that Rudy Guiliani is dead in the water and if Mitt Romney doesn't turn things around in New Hampshire, he might be following him shortly. I found Ron Paul to be somewhat intriguing. I had seen all of his "Ron Paul: Revolution" signs hanging up all over I-76 and thought he was just some underground Green Party candidate or something like that but evidently, he's a Republican -- but different from the rest. It was kind of funny seeing the candidates overreact after each innovative idea that Ron Paul introduced. His ideas might not all be realistic, but it's a breath of fresh air. Obviously, I'm a little intrigued by John McCain because he tends to lean towards the middle and is not above bipartisan politics, but I don't think he has enough support from the right wing of the Republican party, which is the majority. Fred Thompson was there because he used to be on television... And finally Mike Huckabee, the current front runner courtesy of the Iowa caucuses...CAUCUS!! He's a Pastor, so he's got the religious right in his corner and apparently he's also got CHUCK NORRIS in his corner as well so that is pretty clutch and smart on his part. Chuck Norris is popular amongst young people and viewers of Walker Texas Ranger so the smart thing for Huckabee to do would be to make Chuck Norris his Vice Presidential candidate. AUTOMATIC PRESIDENTIAL WIN!!! Done and Done.

On the Democratic side, Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico was there just for filler... He seemed to be pretty loose and comical up on stage at the debate. He was trying to push the fact that he was the only one with Executive experience, having been a Governor compared to his opponents who have all been Senators, but that seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Hillary has a bullseye on her back both from Republicans and Democrats. Obama and Edwards were teaming up against her at times, resulting in Bri commenting that they're "Hulk and Animal of the Legion of Doom"... Bri then insisted that if either Edwards or Obama is able to win the Presidential nomination, they'll be each other's Vice Presidents. Which I disagree on, considering they've been aligning themselves with each other, and more than likely the Democratic party would want a VP nominee who would be from the opposite end of the spectrum than the Presidential nominee... but who knows... Barack Obama is the "Candidate of Change" but Charlie Gibson, the moderator of the debate made a good point in saying that Washington generally likes to keep the "status quo" so a candidate of change might not be feasible... As Obama continued to make his points throughout the debate, Edwards kept aligning himself up with Obama reiterating some of the things that he was saying which I found odd... Before the debate, I had been leaning a little towards Edwards just because I think the whole "Candidate of Change" thing is a crock of shit... but now it looks like I might be back on the fence...

FANTASY FOOTBALL RESULTS...

Alright I was a bit of a liar... I had said that I was going to be continually updating my blog but it's been extremely busy around here lately so I dropped the ball... Nonetheless, I am back yet again and this time for good.

So in case anyone was curious I'm going to run down the results of the two fantasy football leagues that I was in.

In Bri's "Pardon the Interception IV" league, I finished in dead last...DEAD LAST. I was doomed from the start, having drafted Matt Leinart and JP Losman as my quarterbacks and for having the gusto to draft Shaun Alexander as my number one RB. I was almost able to redeem myself with my gutsy drafting of Ronnie Brown, who almost singlehandedly kept my team afloat early on in the season... but alas he blew out his knee and that was the last straw for my team. Of course it didn't help that everyone in Bri's league were fantasy hawks, picking up backup players seconds after the starting player was injured. The majority of the time, I wasn't near a computer when something like this would happen, so I was out of luck. Highlight of the season would have to be when one of my starting RBs, Priest Holmes, decided to go into retirement while he was still in my starting lineup. That sums up my year right there.

In TJ's "Definately Ditka" league, I almost shot myself in the foot in the draft forgetting that QBs get a point per completion and not drafting a QB until the middle rounds - Matt Leinart once again (drafting him in both leagues was supposed to make me look like a genius). But luckily, I made sure to draft Brett Favre as my backup, who just so happened to have a renaissance this year and blew up BIG time... definitely saved my season. I also got a little bold in drafting some unproven rookie RBs (Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch) to accent Joseph Addai and Willis McGahee so I was definitely a genius in that sense. The rest of my team was pretty decent and steady for the whole year and I ended up finishing second in the regular season. Of course in first place was Dusty's Evil Empire of a team, riding Tom Brady and Randy Moss for everything they were worth.

In the semifinal round of the playoffs, I lucked out big time going against Team Loges when Adrian Peterson broke out of his slump to have a decent game leading me to a one point win over Loges. Unfortunately, the team that Dusty was playing, Mooseknuckle, was a moron and apparently didn't pay attention to his team. He played Dusty's team in a week when both Tom Brady and Randy Moss played poor games and all Mooseknuckle had to do was play Philly's Defense (against Dallas) instead of Detroit's Defense (against San Diego). He played Detroit's D, he lost by only a couple of points, and I was forced to play Dusty's team which consisted of Brady and Moss, who both were hungry to break single-season TD records. So in addition to both of them having good games during the championship week, the majority of players on my team decided to take a dive as a whole, and I was blown out by the Evil Empire. Dusty won and continues to gloat about it. For the second year in a row, I finished 2nd in TJ's league, but I still did win some money so you can't beat that...I guess...

Don't worry I'll be even more ready for next season... I'm already starting to devise some plans