Wolfmother: A Fine Line Between Bad and Good
I assume pretty much everyone has heard Wolfmother at this point whether they know it or not. The songs have been everywhere for about six months now. More than occasionally, I end up with one of the band’s infectious riffs in my head. Usually, it is their most played song “Mother.” This morning was no exception. I was bobbing my head to the invisible beats in my head when all of a sudden I stopped.
“What in the world is this song about?” I wondered.
“I know all the words, but is this song about anything at all?”
The conclusion?
This song is one half step short of wearing a helmet on the short bus. It is a really good thing that these guys can play guitar riffs the way they do.
The lyrics for “Woman” by Wolfmother
Woman,
You know you,
Woman,
You gotta be,
Woman,
I’ve got the feeling of love,
When you’re talking to me, see right through me,
I’ve got the feeling of loveShe’s a woman, you know what i mean,
You better listen, listen to me yeah
She’s gonna set you free yeah yeah yeahYou’ve come looking at me, like i’ve got to set you free,
I can’t free nobody,
You’ve come looking at me, like i’ve got to set you free,
I can’t be nobody.She’s a woman, you know what i mean,
You better listen, listen to me yeah
She’s gonna set you free yeah yeah yeahWoman,
You know you,
Woman,
You gotta be,
Woman,
I’ve got the feeling of love,
When you’re talking to me, see right through me,
I’ve got the feeling of loveShe’s a woman, you know what i mean,
You better listen, listen to me yeah
She’s gonna set you free yeah yeah yeah
I Will Watch Monday Night Football With My Television Muted
I decided to throw on Monday Night Football last night while I was doing other things and after the first half, I just couldn’t listen anymore.
Did you know that Carson Palmer got hurt last year? Did you know that it was his knee? Did you know that it was in a playoff game against the Steelers? Did you know that he is now wearing a knee brace? Did you know that last night was his debut game of the season? Did you know that it is hard to come back from knee injuries? Did you know that because Carson Palmer hurt his left knee that it would be difficult for him to plant on his follow-through? Did you know that he might be nervous in the traffic of an NFL pocket? Did you know that Carson’s knee injury is mostly just in his head now? Did you know that coach Marvin Lewis was happy to see Palmer carve up the Green Bay defense? Did you know that Palmer wanted to take a hit? Did you know that Palmer was treating last night’s game as nothing more than a practice, and/or training?
ALRIGHT THEISMAN, WE FUCKING GET IT. SHUT UP!
Who are the Monday Night Football fans that need this level of redundancy? Is that all you can do when Brett Farve fails to play well?
Yes, Carson Palmer is an important story in the NFL this year, but seriously it isn’t an entertaining broadcast when you harp on the same point for three hours. It is the exact same crap that we put up with on Sunday Night Football. A bunch of guys sitting around watching Ray Lewis saying “How good is this guy?” and “Do you understand how much ground he covers?” all game long.
You guys stink at broadcasting. Your producers are overly dramatic asses, who allow this to go on. Theisman is the worst of the bunch and I wish LT had crushed his larynx instead of his leg in 1985.
It makes me wonder who the people were who couldn’t deal with Dennis Miller?
Megadeth – Groundbreaking Political Visionaries
I was reading an article about Megadeth’s upcoming album and I saw this quote.
“I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve got to run with this. I got it — United Abominations, ’cause it’s an abomination what they’re doing!’ “
Wow. Dave, you are a super genius and I don’t find any of what you just said trite, boring, or particularly dull and toothless.
While we are at it, Dave, I have some more tips for you to help you on your quest to become a completely OUTRAGEOUS purveyor of groundbreaking thought, opinion, and commentary.
Why not start doing standup comedy and talk about how “weird” it is that they call that building that the passengers leave from a “terminal.” That’s interesting, right? You ought to run with that.
Or maybe you can do a hip hop song that celebrates a “bling” lifestyle. It isn’t like everyone on earth including Kevin Federline is doing that, right? Run with it Dave, and tell us about rims, champaigne and chains.
Or maybe you can go to Hollywood and be one half of a buddy relationship while working on a police force! That’s not all, it gets even better, Dave. We will make your partner black because you are white and there can be a lot of commentary that gets at the heart of not only what makes the races different, but in the end strikingly the same. Because we haven’t seen that done 2,347 times before. Seriously, that is groundbreaking stuff. You ought to run with it.
If those ideas don’t work for you, maybe you can join professional baseball and talk about how it isn’t a sprint, but a marathon. And if you really want to blow the roof off the world you can tell everyone you are just taking it “one game at a time” and you aren’t worried about “individual achievements” because you are all about the team!
Seriously dude. You need to run with it. These are just groundbreakingly awesomely unbelievable ideas that are just waiting to be taken and carried forward by some kind of cultural visionary. And you, Dave, just might be that person. You totally blew us away with your last batch of thoughts. To think that the United (Abomi)Nations are “inneffective” and more importantly “uncool.”
WHOA!
Hopefully you take my ideas and do something really neat with them, Dave. It sure would be nice to see.
Paramount Ends Deal with Tom Cruise
It is amazing to see just how far Tom Cruise has fallen in recent times. In the past he had his divorce from Nicole Kidman in the papers, but that never seemed quite as intense and destructive to his career. Since the media tour for War of the Worlds everything has seemingly gone down hill. He went crazy talking about Scientology which led to a very public argument with Brook Shields and a now-famous soundclip of him calling Matt Lauer “glib.” Then, he seemingly lost his mind with the whole Katie Holmes relationship, subsequent pregnancy, and now the big wait to see if this baby exists.
I don’t really care all that much about this story. I think Scientology is kind of funny. I thought the “glib” comment was kind of funny. I couldn’t possibly care less about the Tom Cruise baby thing. The business side of things, on the other hand, is quite interesting to me.
Viacom chairman, Sumner Redstone, had this to say.
Basically, what Redstone seems to be saying is that Cruise has lost his heat as a box office draw, and it is largely his own fault for getting himself into precarious public situations. Now I know that War of the Worlds wasn’t the highest grossing movie ever, but the IMDB has it making just under $234 million at the box office on a budget of around $132 million. I believe that those budget numbers don’t include marketing and advertising totals, but even if you add $100 million to the budget for marketing and advertising, the movie would have had to have been profitable with international receipts as well as cable and DVD.
And did you see that movie? The effects were great. The story was, eh. I wonder what kind of profit they were expecting? Do you really think that a less volatile Tom Cruise makes that movie make that much more money?
Mission Impossible 3 did worse than War of the Worlds but it wasn’t a complete bomb. The estimated budget for that one was estimated at $150 million and to date it has grossed just under $134 million domestically. I know they were expecting big things from that movie, but it probably will at least break even, right?
While the studio expects serious profitability from its relationships with supposed superstars, there has to be something else going on. These last two movies wouldn’t seem to be enough to sever ties with a guy with a track record. That leads me to believe that there might be some other stuff going on. Do you think maybe Cruise is difficult to work with? Or is it really this quick and easy for the studio to decide that Cruise isn’t worth the trouble?
Regardless, I think I have the best idea for Cruise’s career. I hope that the slide continues for a couple of more years and then we get a blockbuster movie from Quentin Tarantino with Tom Cruise as a vehicle to revive his career.
Ohio State’s Anthony Gonzalez Sleeps in Altitude Tent
This is a very weird story, and an even weirder picture.
“Anthony Gonzalez sleeps in a tent. The Ohio State junior wide receiver also studies in his tent, plays Xbox in his tent and writes e-mails from his laptop in his tent.
“It’s very difficult to explain to people that you sleep in a tent,” said Gonzalez, 21. But the St. Ignatius High School grad be lieves his sleeping ar rangement will give the No. 1-ranked Buck eyes a minuscule edge in their pursuit of an other national championship.”
I hope it makes a difference for him in week two when the Buckeyes take on Texas.
K-Fed is the Worst Ever…
When I was watching this video on YouTube from the Teen Choice Awards I didn’t know if I was watching a serious act or whether it was a skit written by MTV’s Jamie Kennedy.
Mr. Britney Spears does the most laughable, silly hip hop impression that I have ever seen. If you watch the video, watch him do that rapper dance where he picks his legs up one after the other almost like a weird hip-hop march or something. His legs couldn’t be more off beat, I don’t think. High comedy.
The End of Free Internet Guitar Tab?
For those of you who don’t know what “Guitar Tab(lature)” is, it is a less formal approach to reading music. Instead of notes on a staff, the tab shows a figure of the six guitar strings and shows you where to press your fingers on a string to achieve notes. The other intricacies of playing the song like tempo, volume, etc are up to the individual player and their interpretation.
Well, for as long as I can remember, tabs have been available free on websites because they were created by people who listened to songs and did what they could to try to emulate what they heard on albums. Now, this user-created content, might be illegal.
This is kind of a catch 22 type of case for me. I understand why the music publishing industry feels the way they do, and I also understand that they seemingly miss out on revenue due to the free tab trade. But, at the same time, I am an avid user of free guitar tab. Because of the way that Internet music fans are, you can find tablature for more obscure artists that would never be the subject of a songbook available for purchase in a store.
Hopefully the two sides will be able to reach a compromise so that tab sites pay a royalty to the publishers, and basically nothing else changes. This way the tab sites stay open, keeping the music popular for guitar players, but at the same time, the industry gets paid when these derivative works are created.
Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover
Unless the book looks like it is most certainly about the beating and murder of a little blonde dress-up cowboy chick.
I would know that that is what this book is about just by looking at the cover. (Oh and the fact that the book was in Thailand being held on other sex crimes already, helps too.)
The Cleveland Indians Plan for 2007
Now that the fire sale has been completed, the Cleveland Indians are using the rest of this 2006 baseball season to evaluate the players in their system to come up with a strategy for being competitive in the AL Central. Terry Pluto of the Akron Beacon Journal got a chance to talk to owner Paul Dolan this week.
Here were the key quotes from Dolan.
While it is refreshing to know that Dolan is going to spend more than this season in order to try and compete with the teams that have consistently added solid players by adding payroll, I am not sure that he is in the right ballpark.
Why?
The Cleveland Indians have a $51 million payroll on paper after all the trades used to blow up this year’s team. So, what does this mean for next year’s team? Well getting “north of $60 million” in today’s game means two to four players. Does that mean two bullpen guys at $4-5 million a piece?
While the bullpen has been a big part of the problem this year, I really don’t think this team is two players away. Unless they mix in a trade for some bonafide elite talent to infuse at key spots on this team, they are destined to finish behind at least two teams in the Central division for the immediate future.
What would I do?
First, Peralta must move to 2nd base or be traded. He is a liability at short and while he is young, it is my experience that players don’t learn to play defense at the major league level. If they didn’t have it coming out of the minors, then they won’t have it in the majors.
Solve the problems at third base. Maybe it is Andy Marte. Maybe it is Kevin Kouzmanoff. Maybe it is a free agent. It is not Aaron Boone. As much as I like Boone for being such a good guy and a great teammate and citizen, he isn’t effective enough to play third base on a team that is trying to contend. Those are harsh words for a nice guy, but they need to be said.
The bullpen is officially in shambles. The Indians have no closer in sight. Closers are one of the hardest things to get in free agency. As a result, the Indians should just work on getting the best possible reliever(s) available and try to figure the rest out later. They need quality arms first before they can figure out who fits in to what role in the bullpen. I know it is hindsight, but how much do they wish they would have paid the $4 million that Bob Howry got in free agency this past off-season?
Finally, they need to at least reduce Eric Wedge’s comfortability as Cleveland Indians Manager. I like Eric Wedge and I think he can be a good manager, but it seems to me that he shouldn’t get quite as much unconditional support from the front office as he seems to get all the time. I don’t want his job threatened every five minutes, but I do want him in a position where he will instill a sense of urgency in his team. This year’s Cleveland Indians team has played poorly this season and a lot of it seems to be a lack of focus. You can’t always blame the manager, but by the same token, you can’t always let him off scott free, either.
And while we are talking about Eric Wedge, I am a little suspect of his talent management. I don’t blame him for losing patience with a firecracker like Milton Bradley, but what about Brandon Phillips? He made Wedge’s dog house and subsequently was traded and has been pretty impressive as in Cincy. In 109 games he has a .291 batting average with 11 homers, 57 RBI, and a .342 on-base percentage. Are you telling me there was no place in the lineup for this guy, especially with the difficult year that Jhonny Peralta has had at short?
But don’t read this wrong. It isn’t all doom and gloom for the Indians’ future. They still have some solid young players in key positions. They aren’t nearly as far off as their record this season would indicate. They just aren’t as close as their record last year indicated.
Pixie Is Hungry (Too Damn Early)
I didn’t get up early enough on Saturday morning for Pixie, apparently. She was hungry, so she jumped up on the TV stand and just started crying. LOUDLY. Until I got up and put some food in her bowl.
Note to self. Remember to feed the cat the night before I want to sleep in. Either that, or I need to put a squirt bottle on my nightstand so that I can “quench Pixie’s thirst.”
