16 Horsepower

Server issue should be sorted out within an hour

2006-01-16T11:23:00.000-05:00

Just got off the phone with my host. There are some problems with the server my site is being hosted on. It's got some bug in it off of an upgrade they're doing though they say the rest of their servers are running fine.

Hopefully the Southern Gent will be up and running shortly.

Argghh

2006-01-15T01:08:00.000-05:00

Frustration. I spring for my own domain and now my site has crashed out.

Hmmm, hopefully Eccentric Southern Gentleman will be back online soon.

Just wanted to let y'all know it still exists, we're just having problems at the moment.

Nico

A new home....

2005-11-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to spring for my own domain, so 16 Horsepower the blogspot blog is giving way to Eccentric Southern Gentleman. I just wanted some more features and little more flexibility.

For those of you that link to me, PLEASE update the links on your site so the occasional reader via your site will know where to find me! Thanks a million!

Ushpizin

2005-11-28T16:12:00.000-05:00

Went to my favorite movie theater on earth yesterday, The Enzian, to watch Ushpizin, an Israeli film about a poor Orthodox Jewish couple (Moshe and Mali) preparing for Succoth and all of the difficulties they face once the holiday begins. "Ushpizin" means "holy guests" and the couple's holiday is turned upside down by two unexpected visitors from Moshe's wild, secular past. It won the "Best Picture" and "Best Actor" awards from the 2004 Israeli Film Academy awards. Truly a fantastic movie. One of the best I've seen in quite a while.

A Tribute to George Best

2005-11-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

Soccer legend George Best died on Friday. He was 59 years old. Best, who gained fame playing for Manchester United was one of the sport's most entertaining stars both on and off the field.

Here's a clip of George in action from late in his career playing for the San Jose Earthquakes in the NASL. Truly one of the most amazing individual efforts I've ever seen.

Thanks to Michael K. for the video.

Book roundup

2005-11-26T01:10:00.000-05:00

I finished several books in the last few weeks and most of them are worth mentioning.

Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams by Paul Hemphill
Excellent biography of one of Alabama's most famous sons. Hemphill is a native Alabamian and he skillfully weaves personal recollections of growing up during Williams' meteoric rise into the biography. An interesting and riveting way to chronicle someone's life. Highly recommended

Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Nonfiction account of life in Savannah that centers around a famous murder trial for a 1981 shooting that gripped the small Georgia city. Berendt, a writer working in New York had made Savannah his second home and came to know many of its eccentric citizens personally, including those involved in the shooting. The book has been described as "lyrical nonfiction" and that's about the best way to describe it because it reads like a novel eventhough it's nonfiction. Highly recommended.

Spiritual Florida by Mauricio Herreros
Guide book to spiritual places in Florida and a few more scattered in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. About 80% of the entries are in Florida. Includes everything from Greek Orthodox monasteries to Thai Buddhist monastaries to a 12th century Spanish monastery that was disassembled in Spain and shipped to Miami to be reassembled. Some of it isn't particularly interesting because it just tells about retreat centers that are available. The monastery listings and historic cathedrals are quite interesting and I've found about 10-15 places in the book I'd like to visit. One of them, the St. Photios Shrine in St. Augustine, I've already been to.

Time and Man by Georgios I. Mantzaridis
Complex philosophical/theological book dealing with time and man's relationship to it. Only about 100 pages, but it's a real mind-melter. Good stuff though.

A Quiet Room by Jakushitsu
The poetry of a 14th Century Japanese Zen Buddhist monk. Some of it was totally lost on me due to my not having a great knowledge of Zen theology/cosmology, but a decent portion of it was stuff that anyone could latch onto and understand. It was okay, I wouldn't recommend it though.

Made/Remade vol. 9 - "Toxic"

2005-11-25T07:01:00.000-05:00

Volume 9 of Made/Remade features Britney Spears vs. Bluegrass.

Mrs. Spears released a truly good song (I cringe to type that) last year with "Toxic." There, I said it. Yes, I really like the song. It's catchy as can be and is a nice little guilty pleasure song.

Imagine my delight last week when Nickel Creek broke the song out at the concert in Charleston, but arranged for mandolin, acoustic guitar, fiddle and upright bass. Interestingly, Chris Thile takes vocal duties instead of Sara Watkins. This particular version is from the Cleveland House of Blues. Just Google "Nickel Creek Toxic MP3" and you'll find a few sites that have it for download.)

Britney Spears - "Toxic" (purchase here)

Nickel Creek - "Toxic" (not commercially available)

The Flaming Lips - The Fearless Freaks

2005-11-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

The Flaming Lips' popularity is one of those things about music that just totally baffles me. There's truly no accounting for taste.

Now that we've firmly established the fact that I don't like their music, I do have to say they seem like really interesting people and it seems like they'd be a lot of fun to see in concert...and probably pretty fun to hang out with (most of the time.)

The Fearless Freaks isn't a concert movie, it is a documentary and follows them around from their humble Oklahoma beginnings to their international tours with bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tool. All the while, they've truly "kept it real" and continue to live in the same rundown Oklahoma City neighborhood they were born into.

As is the problem with most movies these days, it's too long. Not that I have a short attention span (the three and a half hour Andrei Rublev is one of my favorite movies), it's just that too much is thrown in. There seems to be little ability to self-edit. They should've totally done away with the half hour or so following the movie making ambitions of the Flaming Lips. That was terribly boring.

The whole reason I'm even making an entire lengthy post about having watched this is that one of the band members got hooked on heroin for about five or six years. They actually film the guy cooking up a hit of smack and explaining how he's shot all of his money and possessions into his veins and that he literally owns nothing. He even sold his musical equipment to the band and didn't own his own gear. We're (thankfully) spared the visual of him actually sticking himself, but they do show his long search for a vein to stick. Immediately after he'd shot up, they start filming again. The guy is so twitchy, freaky and creepy. This is what they need to show in drug prevention advertisements, not the corny things they show now. Everybody in the room was completely revulsed and I think it would produce that reaction in 99.9% of the populace. I can't believe they let that in there, but I guess they were going for the brutal truth.

AOTW: Nickel Creek: Why Should the Fire Die?

2005-11-22T23:51:00.000-05:00

Nickel Creek have finally found their own voice on record with Why Should the Fire Die? Their two previous records were produced by Alison Krauss and the sound of her band more than rubbed off.

Why Should the Fire Die? is lyrically and musically more mature than their previous efforts and focuses primarily on themes of love and relationships gone sour. Mandolin player and bandleader Chris Thile handles the majority of the songwriting duties and that's a good thing because his abilities as a writer far surpass that of his bandmates, Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins (brother & sister.) I also like how the songs sometimes sound more innocent than their lyrical content. The contrast is interesting.

I've included four tracks off of the fourteen track disc. If you don't listen to them all, at least check out "Helena" and "Why Should the Fire Die?" Two very different tracks that'll give you a feel for the variety they bring to the table.

"Helena": A song about being in multiple relationships when not everyone involved is aware of all of the circumstances. It's a pretty bitter, angst ridden song that grows from placid to furious both lyrically and musically as the song progresses (well as furious as a mandolin, fiddle, upright bass and an acoustic guitar can be.)

"When in Rome": A song about the status quo, fear thinking, keeping up with the Joneses and living under the expectations of others.

"Can't Complain": A song that's brutal in its assesment of some relationships gone wrong. I love the line "I guess we just kidnapped each others minds."

"Why Should the Fire Die?": The title track and the song that closes the disc asks the question why should (or does) the spark in a relationship die? It's a sparse, longing number that really sews the album up nicely. It's one of my favorite tracks off of the disc.

"Helena"

"When in Rome"

"Can't Complain"

"Why Should The Fire Die?"

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted.

Made/Remade vol. 8 - "The Mercy Seat"

2005-11-21T17:42:00.000-05:00

Volume 8 of Made/Unmade switches things around a bit and finds an older, more established artist covering the music of someone a generation younger than him.

In Johnny Cash's later career, he gained a whole new audience by covering a lot of songs by younger artists, one of these was Australia's Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

The versions are vastly different, but both excellent.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "The Mercy Seat" (1988) (purchase here)

Johnny Cash - "The Mercy Seat" (2000) (purchase here)

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted. Additionally, I've posted links where you can purchase the work.

The day after...and a look ahead to '06

2005-11-20T15:06:00.000-05:00

A new bumper sticker being sold in Auburn

There aren't even words to convey the disappointment I feel over this football season. Alabama is 9-2 for the regular season, but it's a bitter pill to swallow.

Yes, it's hard to describe 9-2 as "bitter" when coming off of 6-6 and 4-7 seasons, but it's true. With my hindsight finely tuned to 20/20, the accomplishments this season were actually quite few. Beating the snot out of South Carolina and Florida was nice, but the million close calls really tell the tale, especially since the two big wins came early.

After the Prothro injury, I figured the Ole Miss and Tennessee games to be abberrations in terms of offensive production. In fact, they were the first signs of the rule that we would experience for the rest of the season. After putting up only 3 offensive points on Mississippi State (combined with the injury to center J.B. Closner), the results of the LSU and Auburn games were foregone conclusions. Amazingly we forced LSU to overtime, and incredibly pulled to within 10 of Auburn so those perusing the history books one day will think it was much closer than the reality that those of us watching it live saw.

Let's look back to some of the other wins and and you'll see there's not much to smile about. 6-3 over Tennessee? Sure, we finally broke their painfully long streak, but it was a pathetic performance. The Mississippi State game was a clinic in inept offense (even Murray State scored an offensive touchdown against them.) Utah State was the ugliest, most frustrating 32 point victory in the history of the sport. Even pre-hurt Prothro, we had a way too close game with Arkansas. Heck, the three western division teams we beat only had nine wins combined, which is as many as Auburn and LSU individually.

The game against Auburn yesterday was one of only two times that I can think of in 29 years of fandom that I was ashamed to call myself a fan of the team (the other being the gutless and pathetic 2004 performance against South Carolina.) If you can't get up for Auburn and a probable trip to the BCS, how dare you put on that crimson jersey. Why did Shula and Rader keep throwing on third and long after it was painfully obvious to everyone on earth that we couldn't combat their pash rush? It would've been better to just down it that to lose 8-10 yards. Actually, after the fourth sack in three sets of downs, I wanted Shula to punt on the next first down to embarrass the offense and to flip the field.

The positive note about those close games is that we won most of them, unlike the last few years where you could guarantee blowing a close lead. That's something I guess, but we still can't seal the deal in overtime. However, there is still a long way to go until "Bama Is Back" as Sports Illustrated so boldly proclaimed on the cover after the trouncing of Florida.

Hopefully John Parker Wilson can step up and give us what we haven't had in a long time, true offensive firepower. However, if the last few games are any indication, JPW's going to be getting his school paid for by getting knocked on his his ass all day for 12 Saturdays in the fall. Will a new great defense emerge with all of these guys graduating? What solutions will there be to the seemingly insurmountable offensive problems?

In the end, our 9-2 is likely one of the weakest 9-2 records to ever go down in the SEC. We only beat two teams with winning records (Florida & South Carolina), it'll be three if Southern Miss beats Tulane next week. So, we won 7 games we were supposed to win, and the two more "contestable" games we won were against coaches in their first year at the program. What about next year with trips to Knoxville, Gainesville and Baton Rouge? Do we have a response to Bradon Cox and Jamarcus Russell next year (speaking of which, how did we let that Alabamian go to the bayou?)

Perhaps I'm just frustrated by the fact that one can go 9-2 in the SEC and still finish third in the division, but that's the reality. Perhaps I'm just frustrated because Bama fans are raised to expect 10 win season every year with victories over Auburn, Tennessee and LSU.

Coach Shula, can you find the answers in the off season? Was the 2005 season a fluke? I support you and don't want to be a fan that's trigger happy to fire coaches, but we need proof that this wasn't a one time thing. We need to beat Auburn, we need to beat LSU, we need to beat Tennessee. We need an SEC Championship...and that can't happen unless we beat LSU and Auburn. There's 7 or 8 games on next year's schedule that we should win. Show us that you can win the ones you should and some of the ones you shouldn't. We thank you for turning our ship around out of nearly impossible circumstances. I don't even count your first season. I don't even factor that season into your win-loss total as a head coach. The 6-6 season was a good start. 9-2 is a vast improvement, but it looks kind of rickety in the end. Take us where we want to be.

Charleston, SC: Part 3 of 3

2005-11-19T07:33:00.000-05:00

The trip to Charleston was a short one. Tuesday would be our last full day there. We heard on Monday about them blowing up the Pearman Bridge over the Cooper River and we rearranged our day so we could see that. I've always wanted to see some large scale destruction, but haven't been lucky enough to do so. I remember they were going to blow up a building in Birmingham once but couldn't because of the asbestos in it.

We heard the best vantage point would be on the flight deck of the USS Yorktown at Patriot's Point so that's where we went. They reduced admission to the warship to $5 for the demolition, so it seemed like a pretty good deal.

Closeup of the USS Yorktown

Once on the flight deck, we met a nice fellow from Pine Apple, Alabama that now lives in Charleston. He approached me because of the BAMA t-shirt I was wearing. It was nice to be able to chat about Alabama football with fellow Alabamian. Anyway, he showed us the best place to watch from, and sure enough, a few TV crews set up their cameras right by us. There's a great website about the demolition of the old bridges and the construction of the new bridge here.

Here are some amazing shots of the blast we witnessed. My dinky digital camera has this shot to offer:

We ended up being interviewed by one of the local channels and wound up on the five o'clock news Live 5 News (which we saw in our hotel as we were getting ready to go out later that evening.) Here's a streaming video of the bridge blowing up.

After the bridge demolition, we headed over to Boone Hall Plantation to view a slice of Civil War era living. There was a certain jarring dissonance about the place. While the grounds were magnificent, I just couldn't seperate them from their slaveholding past. They were magnificent and splendid precisely because of involuntary servitude. Touring the grounds was no big deal, but touring the slave cabins filled me with a whirlwind of emotions: sadness, anger, shock, ancestral guilt (though there's no evidence my ancestors ever had enough money to own slaves.)

Amazingly, 95% of the people there that day walked through the cabins in stark silence and when they did speak it was in the quietest of whispers. It was encouraging that there was no flippancy towards our nation's darkest days. Charging $14.50 admission and then another $5 to tour the entire grounds (it's several hundred acres) was a bit steep in my opinion. Eventhough the family that owns the plantation today (it is still a working farm) were never slave owners, the only reason people pay $15-$20 to tour their plantation is because of the Civil War and slavery. I seriously think they ought to be kicking in at least 10% of the admission fee to something like the United Negro College Fund.

Exterior of one of the nine original brick slave cabins remaining on the grounds. The roof, doors and shutters are not original though. The originals were destroyed in Hurricane Hugo in 1989. According to the guide, these cabins are vastly superior to the dorm quarters or the wooden cabins most slaves on Boone Hall Plantation had to live in.

Slave cabin interior. Two families (typically 8-16 people) usually lived in one of these tiny cabins.

We had lunch at the restaurant on the plantatioin, Serena's Kitchen (which is housed in the old cotton gin building) and I must say, it is some of the best food I've had in ages. Maybe it was because Central Florida is devoid of good Southern food, but everything we had was awesome: barbecued pork, fried chicken, slaw, squash, hush puppies, watermelon, pecan pie, cornbread.

Later that night, we went to go see Nickel Creek at the Charleston Music Hall. Great show. Much better than I expected. I was only familiar with one Nickel Creek album and liked it, but it was overproduced. I didn't figure their live show would have so much fire. Mandolin player Chris Thile is an absolute ninja and undoubtedly the driving force behind the band both musically and lyrically. They played the majority of their new album Why Should the Fire Die? and it is vastly superior to their previous records. They touched on their earlier material as well, but also played two of the most memorable covers I've heard in a while: "Nice Dream" by Radiohead and "Toxic" by Britney Spears. Amazingly, the mandolin and fiddle (and Thile's genius) elevate Mrs. Spears' tune into the realm of something I'd recommend to people. Her original is a case of good tune, poor arrangement. Fantastic show, they're still out on tour. Catch them if you can. Unfortunately, we were a mile up in the balcony, so the shots aren't too good. That, and flash photography was banned for the concert and my shutter speed is too slow in the dark to get a decent photo because it's hard to hold still for that long without a tripod.

Sara Watkins singing "Anthony."

Chris Thile rocking the mandolin full force.

After the show, we headed back to hotel to get some sleep for the drive the next day. We also wanted to hit the road early because we planned on spending a few hours in Savannah, GA on the way back.

Charleston, SC: Part 2 of 3

2005-11-18T16:34:00.000-05:00

Got up Monday morning and went for a walk around The Battery to look at houses we'll almost certainly never be able to afford. Some of them were built as early as 1670 and we came across a few that were owned at one point by people that signed the Declaration of Independence. The houses of many former governors were there as well.

I'm sure the waterfront view only makes it even more ridiculously expensive.

They love their porches in Charleston.

Had lunch at The Southend Brewery & Smokehouse. The food was okay, the microbrew I had was quite good.

After lunch, we headed out to Fort Sumter to see the starting point of the Civil War. Unfortunately, we went on the last tour of the day and had to hurry through the museum and didn't quite get to see it all. A tip for those who are planning to visit it: wear insect repellant. I got eaten alive out there as did everyone else. It was a good learning experience and I plan on another full post to recount some of the things I was thinking about out there. We also got to see a lot of dolphins swimming around the fort.

Inside Fort Sumter.

The gunners point of view.

For dinner that evening, we were in the mood for pizza and went to Andolini's, which was voted "Best New York Style Pizzeria" in several local publications. It was good and it was cheap. Oddly enough, it is owned by the same people as Juanita Greenberg's Nacho Royale. We unknowingly chose restaurants owned by the same people two nights in a row.

After dinner, we hit a bar on Bay Street and then called it a night.

Charleston, SC: Part 1 of 3

2005-11-17T20:15:00.000-05:00

The wife & I drove to Charleston, SC on Sunday. My mom flew down from Birmingham to stay with the little one so we could go. It took us forever to get there. It's supposed to be about a five and a half hour drive from Orlando, but took us over seven hours due to a multi-car wreck we encountered in Georgia. We almost got tagged ourselves. When we came upon the accident, it was around a curve with the view blocked by trees. We were sitting there, last in the line of backed up cars when we saw a tourbus speeding around the corner at us and we knew it wasn't going to be able to stop. I was sitting there bracing myself for a severe crash and what was likely going to result in a trip to the hospital for us when the bus swerved onto the shoulder to avoid hitting us. I'm very thankful to be able to typing this post today.

We pulled into Charleston about 7:30 p.m. and after checking into the hotel set out into downtown to hopefully find a bite to eat and a drink. We wound up on King Street, a street that made me feel undoubtedly back in the South. I liked Charleston immediately.

After walking a few blocks, we were immediately drawn into a certain establishment by its name. There was absolutely, positively, no way I could stumble upon a placed called Juanita Greenberg's Nacho Royale and not eat there. Destiny decided for us.

(photo courtesy of juanitagreenbergs.com)

The food was gringo-ized Mexican food, but pretty good. My wife had a burrito (which weighed 1 pound) and I had some quesadillas. Both accompanied our beers quite nicely. The decor of the place was really cool. They had some really neat furniture and light fixtures in the indoor part, and they also had a back patio that was kind of funky and rundown (but in a good way.) Orlando doesn't have places like this, and we were glad to find it.

By the time we cleared out of Juanita Greenberg's it was after 10:00 p.m. and things were definately winding down in Charleston on a Sunday night. That's just as well, we were tired from the drive, so we went back to the hotel and ordered up March of the Penguins on the in-room pay-per-view and then went to sleep.

Made/Remade vol. 7 - "Brokedown Palace"

2005-11-17T14:35:00.000-05:00

In 1970, the Grateful Dead shocked critics and fans alike by releasing an album of (mostly) acoustic, folksy music that was a far cry from the psychedelia they'd become known for. 35 years later, American Beauty is likely the only Grateful Dead album most people have heard.

"Brokedown Palace" is one of the underrated gems from that record, and in 2005, bluegrass-y/country-ish/folk artist Adrienne Young has breathed new life into this old classic on her new album The Art of Virtue. Her version melds with her style and the flow of the album and is strong enough that one could believe she wrote it. I think she's put a smile on Jerry Garcia's face with this one.

Grateful Dead - "Brokedown Palace" (1970) (purchase here)

Adrienne Young (2005) (purchase here)

I'm back

2005-11-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

I'm back from my three nights in Charleston, SC. I LOVE that town. LOVE it. Had a fantastic time. Stopped in Savannah, GA for about two hours on the way back. I also LOVE that town.

There is a lot to report from the trip and will post a full update tomorrow.

VACATION

2005-11-13T07:14:00.000-05:00

Just to let y'all know, I will be on vacation in Charleston, South Carolina from Sunday through Thursday.

See y'all in a few days...

The SEC Scenario Machine + some random soccer stuff

2005-11-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

Today is THE day as far as SEC football is concerned. There are still five teams that can win the SEC. In the west: Alabama, Auburn, LSU. In the East: Florida, Georgia.

I've cooked up all of the scenarios on what it would take for each of those teams to play in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta:

ALABAMA: Alabama needs to beat LSU. If they beat LSU and Georgia beats Auburn today, Alabama will clinch the west. If Alabama beats LSU and Auburn beats Georgia, next week's Alabama vs. Auburn game will determine the Western Division champion. If Alabama were to lose to LSU, they could still win the west if they beat Auburn and LSU lost to either Ole Miss or Arkansas.
AUBURN: Auburn must beat Georgia this week and needs Alabama to beat LSU. Then they need to beat Alabama next week.
FLORIDA: Has to beat South Carolina today and needs Auburn to beat Georgia today.
GEORGIA: Has to beat Auburn today.
LSU: Has to beat Alabama and then win out against Arkansas and Ole Miss.

...and people say the SEC is down this year? A 9-0 team ranked #3 in the BCS could conceivably finish third in its division with two games left. With three weekends left (though LSU is the only team with three games left), five teams could still win the conference, and that's making for a gut-wrenching finish. You know scenarios are weird when Auburn is having to pull for Alabama and Georgia fans are pulling for Spurrier.

The Crimson Tide offense needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps today and sort LSU out. LSU has won 3 of the last five meetings at Bryant-Denny and we need to reclaim our house.

Roll Tide.

Two interesting soccer items on the menu today:

United States at Scotland. Live on the Fox Soccer Channel (11 a.m. Eastern) - I Always enjoy watching the Red, White & Blue play. This game is a friendly (exhibition), but it will test our ability to win in Europe, something we've had a hard time doing.
Bahrain at Trinidad & Tobago. Fox Soccer Channel (5:30 p.m. Eastern) - This is an odd game to draw attention to, but it's a playoff for a World Cup spot between an Asian team and CONCACAF team. Since Trinidad is a fellow CONCACAF member, I really want them to succeed. Their success could help CONCACAF's 3.5 World Cup berths transform into four berths. Anything that's good for the USA. Not only that, I've met a decent bit of folks from Trinidad while living in Orlando and they've been cool across the board. Go Soca Warriors!

Cheering the Soca Warriors on to victory!

Made/Remade vol. 6 - "Tainted Love"

2005-11-11T14:58:00.000-05:00

I decided to pick another song that there are multiple covers of for this Made/Remade.

This one probably wouldn't have come about as it wasn't one I was planning on doing. However, a few weeks ago, a friend and I were in a late night dive eating about 2 a.m. and heard the original Gloria Jones version. I had no idea that Soft Cell's version wasn't the original.

Oddly enough, that was appropriate as last week's Out of 5 was titled They Got It Right The First Time, and was basically about songs that are known through later (and in their opinion, inferior) cover versions. They seem to have exceeded their bandwidth for the month, but False 45th has a commentary on it worth reading and that's where I actually rememberd to check the Out of 5 site.

I definately agree with this one, as Soft Cell's version is pretty lame. I thought that was the original though and was glad to know that there's an earlier, better version available.

The third version is quite different from the other two and its Marilyn Manson's version which was recorded for the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack. It's not as good as the original, but is much better than Soft Cell's.

Lastly, we have The Pussycat Dolls, a current dance music act. There were several more versions that I read about, but these four were the only ones distinct enough to merit inclusion (of the ones I could actually find.)

17 years seperate the first two versions, 20 years seperate the second and third versions and four years between the third and fourth versions. I was surprised so many different people had tackled this song. So, without any further buildup....

Gloria Jones - "Tainted Love" (1964) (purchase here)

Soft Cell - "Tainted Love" (1981) (purchase here)

Marilyn Manson - "Tainted Love" (2001) (purchase here)

The Pussycat Dolls - "Tainted Love" (2005) (purchase here)

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted. Additionally, I've posted links where you can purchase the work.

...and it came from Botswana

2005-11-11T00:31:00.000-05:00

Ever since I signed up for a variety of web traffic stat counters, I've taken great interest in where the hits were coming from more than any other provided statistic. I've gotten hits from a ton of different countries and from five of the six inhabited continents. I've been monitoring now for several months, but had still not received a hit from Africa.

This bothered me for two reasons: 1) Because I'm nerdy and selfish and want to be able to claim a fully global audience and 2) It makes me realize even more how Africa is completely screwed when it comes to global technologies.

However, I got my first hit from Africa today, from the country of Botswana. The search string revealed they were searching for info about Dipsy Selowane, the Botswanan soccer player that plays for their national team, but plays his club ball in Major League Soccer (and has played for Real Salt Lake and the Chicago Fire.)

A picture I took of Dipsy at a spring training game against DC United in Bradenton, Florida

I figured the first African hit would've come from South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt or Kenya. Botswana would've been way down on the prediction list. I'm also glad it came via someone searching for something that was actually there instead of getting a bad hit. Glad I could provide something they were possibly looking for. Hopefully they enjoyed the anecdote I recounted about me telling Dipsy he was missed by Chicago fans.

The list has grown considerably from the first time I posted it about 3 weeks ago. 31 countries had logged a visit at that time. There've been 14 new countries added bringing the total to 45.

Here's a list by continent (new additions are bolded):

Africa (1): Botswana

Asia (9): China, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Philippines, South Korea, United Arab Emirates

Australia/Oceania (1): Australia

Europe (25): Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey

North America/Central America/Caribbean (5): Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico (not a country, but not a state either), Trinidad & Tobago, United States

South America (4): Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia

AOTW: Trey Anstasio: Shine

2005-11-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

Shine is Trey Anastasio's first post-Phish solo album. He has released four solo discs prior to this one (One Man's Trash, Trey Anastasio, Seis De Mayo and the live album Plasma), but this one is in a direction away from Phish and his previous solo material.

Shine seems like a statement from an artist known for one thing saying, "No no no. There's more to me than that."

The last few Phish albums occasionally hinted at songwriting this simple, but never was there an entire album like this. These songs are intentionally not weird, not quirky, not complex and not long (only one song over five minutes, the majority are under four minutes.) The cover of Shine is deceptive with its guitar god pose. Anastasio never once goes off like he was known to do in Phish. Only the occasional bit of Phish pops up in a song like "Come As Melody," otherwise, we're into new turf.

As a long time Phish fan, this disc was a bit jarring for me at first, which is peculiar considering it's his least musically adventurous. However, simplifying things for him is adventurous. It's taken several listens to grow on me because it plays against all expectations. However, he does pop well and this just shows another side of his versatile musical personality. I might add that I'm not one of these people that likes something just because someone from Phish plays on it. Members of Phish have released some dreadful side projects.

Here's four tunes off of the new disc. I don't think they're necessarily the best four, but four that showcase how different his approach is on this disc. The last song, "Shine" is the first single off of the disc and they even made a video for it (which is an oddity for Phish related things.) I look forward to hearing more of what Trey has up his sleeve.

"Love That Breaks All Lines"

"Invisible"

"Black"

"Shine"

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted. I'm just trying to pimp some records and artists that I dig and hopefully you'll realize that since I posted links where you can purchase the work.

Nobody Knows

2005-11-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

Nobody Knows - A mother abandons her four children (all by different fathers) in a Tokyo apartment. She'd left them alone for days at a time before so the oldest, 12 year-old Akira knew how to take care of them. The mom would periodically send money, but otherwise, they were left to fend for themselves.

Needless to say, it's a pretty somber affair and gets downright horrifically sad at times. Even worse, it's based on a true story, one that shocked Japan. It's particulary jarring for me, a new parent. I just can't imagine doing this to children. Unbelievable. The movie picked up a ton of accolades on the film festival circuit, including Cannes.

The United States and Cultural Imperialsim: External & Internal

2005-11-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

Over the past few years, I've noticed an ever increasing trend in other countries wanting to put a ban on American holidays.

Valentine's Day has drawn the ire of the Saudi government and of Hindu nationalists in India. The day also have very outspoken opponents in Pakistan as well.

Recently, there were anti-Halloween protests across Central Europe and some parts of Eastern Europe about the influx of this "American" holiday (which actually has Irish/British origins.) I'm sure the protests are levelled at the commercial aspect of it, which is undoubtedly American. These protests weren't religiously oriented like a lot of anti-Halloween stuff, they were anti-American.

On the one hand, I say to myself, "let people do what they want to do, who are these governments to determine what people do or don't celebrate?" On the other hand though, I see where some of these protestors are coming from. The widespread consummerism of American holidays is something I'd like to see brought to a halt within our own borders, so I understand the motive behind others not wanting it unleashed on their countries.

Seeing these Halloween and Valentine's stories every year from other countries made me think about the cultural imperialism within our own border. Christmas is the primary holiday that this internal imperialism occurs with. Now that Christmas decorations go up the day after Halloween (I remember when they'd wait at least until after Thanksgiving or until Dec. 1) it has become even more apparent to me why these other countries don't want this type of thing invading their cultures.

First, the whole consummerism side of the coin just cheapens whatever's being celebrated. Secondly, and more important, a lot of times, it's just ridiculous that it's being imported at all, because there's little to no cultural context for them.

The second point is my main argument about "internal cultural imperialsim." I live in Florida and saw displays in the grocery store a few days ago for Christmas candies that had snowmen, snowflakes, sleds, etc. on them. That's downright riduculous. It's 84 degrees today. Much of the the United States will never have a "white Christmas" we'll never go "dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh" nor are we roasting any chestnuts on open fires given that it's pushing 90 degrees. It just seems absurd to me that portions of the country where snow and cold winter weather aren't a part of the lifestyle would embrace these notions of Christmas. These songs came from the northeast, where that is a part of their cultural reality and that's fine, it just doesn't make sense down here and I feel even more the target of holiday marketing seeing snowy advertisements in Florida.

Is it bad to sing these songs or to have snowflake displays in the grocery? No, it isn't, but it doesn't make any sense either. Around that time of year, I will likely attend the The Capital One Bowl and The Champs Sports Bowl and will be in shorts and a t-shirt like I was last year.

I don't think any of this cultural importation/exportation is malicious (except from those that are making money off of it), but most of it just doesn't make sense. It's awkward and ill-fitting.

If the profit aspect was removed I'm sure those in Saudi Arabia and India wouldn't have a problem (or would have less of a problem) with people expressing their love for one another, because Valentine's Day is also a day to express love between parent and child, love between siblings, etc. I'm sure their issue is more the cards, candy, balloons, Victoria's Secret aspect of things. The same holds true for me with the "winter wonderland" type of songs and stuff. If people from the north want to celebrate and rememeber their old homes that way, that's fine, just don't market snowmen to me when I could comfortably be in the pool or at the beach.

It's not so much the cultural imperialism that's the problem, it's the economic imperialism. The holidays aren't cheapened just for those they're being exported to, they're also cheapened for those whom they originated with. Shame on those companies for exploiting the holidays, and shame on us for buying into it.

Made/Remade vol. 5 - "Ain't No Sunshine"

2005-11-07T00:15:00.000-05:00

This edition of Made/Remade is the first to feature multiple covers. I'll be presenting Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" as well as cover versions by reggae singer Horace Andy and a dark version of the tune by Woven Hand (which is basically the solo project of David Eugene Edwards, formerly of Sixteen Horsepower.)

I'm not going to ramble on about them this time, I'll just let the music do the talking:

Bill Withers - "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971) (purchase here)

Horace Andy - "Ain't No Sunshine" (1973) (purchase here)

Woven Hand - "Ain't No Sunshine" (2003) (purchase here)

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted. I'm just trying to pimp some records and artists that I dig and hopefully you'll realize that since I posted links where you can purchase the works.

Evil Evil Evil

2005-11-06T13:48:00.000-05:00

The new AP poll is out. Only the Top 4 interests me:

1 Southern California
2 Texas
3 Miami (Fla.)
4 Alabama

So, Miami jumps Alabama from #5 to #3 because Miami beat the #3 team?

Apparently being undefeated in the SEC is completely irrelevant these days in the hunt for the National Championship (just ask Auburn!) Miami, who has a loss to Florida State (who has losses to unranked Virginia and unranked North Carolina State) should go ahead? It certainly isn't because of their out of conference schedule (Temple, South Florida, Colorado) eventhough Alabama's is weaker. Miami goes ahead because of beating the always overrated Virginia Tech.

Thanks for nothing guys.

11/03/05: Matisyahu at The Social

2005-11-04T12:21:00.000-05:00

For those that haven't caught the buzz yet, Matisyahu is a truly unique artist that combines his love of reggae music with his faith. No, he's not a Rastafarian like most reggae singers, he's a Hasidic Jew. I can feel the burning skepticism in you all because I too was leery of the idea. And then I heard the music. The man can sing, and his band throws down.
I loved the Orlando Weekly's commentary on the show:

If Chris Rock thinks the world's gone crazy because the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black and the tallest dude in the NBA is Chinese, his head will pop off when he finds out that one of the best new voices in reggae music is an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn.

As I've become a bigger fan over the last several months, I've thought a lot about his music. Why are Judaism and reggae considered an odd fit? As far as their histories go, the Jewish people and those that are African (or of African descent) have been down a lot of the same roads: enslaved, persecuted, made to be second class citizens, discriminated against, etc.

Matisyahu and his three piece backing band played The Social last night in Orlando (the best venue the city has by a mile) and set the sold out crowd on fire. Unfortunately, they were suffering some sound problems for about 20-30 minutes and it took them a while to get that sorted out, but when they did they really got going. Even then, the sound was still off, but it was passable. It's odd considering The Social is a club where the mix is consistently good and the PA is great.

Matisyahu spun around the stage like a top delivering his reggae rhymes. He came out in black coat and hat, but quickly had to shed both in the stifling heat of the club. He went through most of the material on the fantastic Live at Stubbs CD as well as stuff from his first album (which I haven't heard) and some new tunes from the forthcoming disc.

I want to see him again when the sound isn't an issue because it was quite distracting until they got it sorted. I imagine he'll be back to this area frequently though given the large Jewish population of Central and South Florida.

Here's a remix of "Warrior" by Bill Laswell.

AOTW: Neko Case: Blacklisted

2005-11-03T14:51:00.000-05:00

I discovered Neko Case's music about a year and a half ago when she was playing the 2004 Bonnaroo Festival. I wanted to study up on all of the acts that were playing since I was attending the festival. I scrounged around, found a few online clips of her music, and immediately put her on the "MUST SEE" list for the weekend.

We barely got there in time. As a matter of fact, we missed the first song or two since we were caught in the legendary, grinding traffic Bonnaroo offers its patrons. I thought it'd be 2-3 hours worst case scenario. Wrong. We left our hotel 6 hours before Calexico was supposed to play (who was preceding Neko Case) and missed their entire set (we were in a hotel nine miles away from the festival site.) I purchased Blacklisted before the festival to further aqaint myself with her music, and I was simply blown away.

I've seen her music described as "folk-rock," but that just doesn't quite cut it. I'm actually at a bit of a loss how to describe it as well, but I wouldn't peg it as folk-rock. To me, it a mixture of country and southwestern music filtered through a dark rock sensibility. She's a native of Virginia (though she identifies herself with her adopted residence of Washington state. She also lived in Canada for a bit) and that Southern side shows itself. I often see her name thrown in the ring along with Calexico, 16 Horsepower and others who make a kind of "dark traditional" music. Her voice is strong and has been compared to that of Patsy Cline.

Her music has been one of the great discoveries for me of the past few years. Her website is unbelievably out of date, but still has some valuable info. Enough of the talk, onto the music....

"Things That Scare Me"

"Pretty Girls"

"Ghost Wiring"

Benevento-Russo Duo at The Social

2005-11-03T10:33:00.000-05:00

Joe Russo's back blocking Marco Benevento's face. The batteries in my camera gave out after this one photo, which I didn't even mean to take. I was fiddling with the controls and accidentally took it.

Late last night (after the Akathist service and lecture about Orthodox Alaska), I continued my evening at The Social to go see the Benevento-Russo Duo, comprised of Marco Benevento on organ/keys and Joe Russo on drums.

There's a temptation to call their sound "minimalist," because of the bare instrumentation, but it is only their instrumentation that is minimal. Their sound is full and loud and often boisterous. They were a perfect fit for The Social, a venue that is so gloriously and unnecessarily loud (it does drown the talkers out though.) Several older people in front of me there to see the much quieter, acoustic opening act couldn't take it and either enlisted the help of earplugs or just left.

The Duo (as they're popularly known) are often just bombastic, particularly drummer Russo. The man is a machine and can pound the mess out of the drums (but can play with finesse too.) Benevento is capable of wrestling sounds of an organ I didn't think possible. It's definately not for everyone, but for those that can take a healthy dose of experimentation and non-traditionalism in their rock (as if there's rock "traditions") are likely to enjoy the Duo. What's not to love about a band that covers Radiohead, Elliot Smith and Phish? Speaking of Phish, The Duo said they would be back in Florida "around New Year's" for a tour with former Phish bassist Mike Gordon, when they become the obnoxiously long monikered "Benevento-Russo Duo with Mike Gordon" (that's how it's actually billed.)

It was an excellent outing. You know it's good when you're by yourself and you have the time of your life. I look forward to hearing more from these guys in the future.

I'd also like to say, bless Park Avenue CDs for selling tickets to shows at The Social with no Ticketmaster service charge.

Sitka Icon of the Mother of God...on tour

2005-11-03T09:01:00.000-05:00

Last night, the Sitka Icon of the Mother of God from Sitka, Alaska was brought to Orlando as part of a 60+ city tour to showcase this treasure of Eastern Christian art. It's a nearly 200 year old icon that was a gift from the people of Russia to the St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Cathedral in Sitka, Alaska. The icon amazingly survived a fire in 1966 that destroyed the original church.

The icon was physically brought to Alaska in the early 1800s by Saint Innocent Veniaminov, a fascinating man whose talents encompassed much more than his clerical life: he invented the Aleut, Tlingit, and Yakut alphabets, making those cultures literate, he compiled the first Aleut and Tlingit dictionaries, as well as designing and constructing churches.

After a short Akathist (Thanksgiving) service, Fr. Michael Oleksa (also a linguist and historian) who is custodian of the icon on its journey, gave a short speech about the history of Alaska. He talked about Russian involvement, Orthodox involvement, the native cultures and the sale of Alaska to America. He particularly talked about Orthodox mission and how it is something that has always respected other cultures, not seeking to impose another culture. This has been true from the earliest times. When the church spread from Jerusalem into Arabia, Georgia, Greece, India, etc., the local culture was never overturned for that of the missionaries. This has held true through today in the Orthodox churches of China, Japan, Kenya, Tanzania, Mexico, Indonesia, etc.

The church where it was held was filled with Americans, Russians, Serbs, Greeks, Arabs, Indians, etc from across Central Florida. It was good that so many were on hand to learn the little known history of Orthodoxy in the United States (which began in the late 1700s) and this history of the various native cultures of Alaska. Fr. Michael is author of Orthodox Alaska, a history of Orthodox mission in Alaska.

Movies watched in October

2005-11-01T14:42:00.000-05:00

This is the last time I'm going to post a month's worth of watching at a time. In an attempt to provide ideas for the homestretch of Todd's 1,000 Movies in One Year project, I'm going to post them as I watch them. I usually watch more than this in a month (much more actually) but I've been kind of lazy lately in my movie watching.

The Deer Hunter
Classic film starring Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken which shows the effects of war on the human psyche (the Vietnam War in this case). Some can deal their experiences, some can't. It's powerful and raw today, I can't imagine what audiences must've thought in 1978 so close to the time of the war. I found this old movie poster for it. Not surprisingly, they've taken the powerful original poster of yesterday away and replaced it with the lame silhouette of a deer.

edit to add: What's up with the whole Russian Orthodox angle of the movie? I know any religion would've fit the story, but I was surprised they chose something so unknown to most Americans. Also, points for accuracy as Pennsylvania has one of the largest Orthodox populations of any state in the US.

Fidel
Enthralling documentary about the Cuban leader who has frustrated and confounded the US for decades. Since I now live in an area with a large Cuban population, I've become quite interested in Fidel. Some demonize him, others beatify him. As usual, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The filmmaker shows him sharing audience with Nelson Mandela (who obviously adores Castro) and revealed a lot of facts that I didn't know about (Cuba is in the Top 10 of all time Olympic medal winners and Cuba was instrumental in armed struggles in Angola.)

From Beijing With Love
Todd over at 1,000 Movies in One Year recommended this to me seeing as I dug the other two Stephen Chow movies I've seen (Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle) and the recommendation paid off. It had one of the funniest opening credit sequences I've ever seen. It's a Chinese spoof of Bond films and is very enjoyable.

The Sea Inside
A lighthearted film about euthanasia (sarcasm). True story of a Spanish quadriplegic that wanted help committing suicide but didn't want those assisting him tried for murder. Shows his battles with the Spanish legal system and the Roman Catholic church as well as his relationships with his family, lawyers, and friends. It's pretty good, but not exactly first date material.

Seven Beauties
Read nothing but good reviews of this movie and I'm sorry to report that all of those reviews were wrong. The opening sequence showed such promise: a bizarre, quirky soliloquy set to actual film images of World War II bombings. Eventhough it's in Italian, every thought of the long opening sequence was punctuated with the English phrase Oh yeah! It was nominated for several Academy Awards (for reasons beyond my comprehension) and also was the first film ever directed by a woman to be nominated for Best Director. It had its moments and it wasn't terrible, I just don't see what the stir is all about.

Charleston, SC - Tell Me About It

2005-10-31T18:30:00.000-05:00

The wife & I will be venturing to Charleston, SC in a few weeks. It's one of the few major southern cities I haven't been to.

I'm looking into things myself, but I'm interested to hear what 16HP readers recommend to do there.

Either tell me in the comments section or email me.

Thanks.

Chicago Fire 4 - DC United 0

2005-10-30T17:56:00.000-05:00

Jesse Marsch swarmed by his teammates after a beautiful goal that put the Fire ahead 4-0.

Being down 3-0 at the half, D.C. answers back early in the 2nd half with Christian Gomez spitting in the face of Fire defender C.J. Brown. Gomez was ejected and D.C. found themselves down 10 men to 11.

Fire capped off the decimation with a beautiful second half goal.

4-0. Story here.

Who's the best?

CHI-CA-GO!

Made/Remade vol. 4 - "Exit Music (For A Film)"

2005-10-30T16:11:00.000-05:00

This edition of Made/Remade features Radiohead's "Exit Music (For A Film)" and a vastly different reinterpretation by jazz group, the Brad Mehldau Trio. Time wise though, they're only one second apart.

"Exit Music" appeared on Radiohead's 1996 album, OK Computer, which has been hailed by many as one of, if not the definitive album of the 1990s.

Brad Mehldau is among the younger generation of jazz musicians that's made quite a name for himself amongst critics and fans alike. Mehldau's take on "Exit Music" is decidely more subdued given that it's arranged for piano, acoustic bass and drums only. No vocals, no electronics.

I've been lucky enough to see both groups in concert and they both performed "Exit Music" when I saw them.

Radiohead - "Exit Music (For A Film)" (buy here)

Brad Mehldau Trio - "Exit Music (For A Film)" (buy here)

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted. I'm just trying to pimp some records and artists that I dig and hopefully you'll realize that since I posted links where you can purchase the works.

Rusted Root at the House of Blues

2005-10-30T13:23:00.000-05:00

It's always a toss up as to what you're going to get when you go see a band that is clearly in the autumn of its career, which Rusted Root is by their own admission (their website says they're unsure about whether or not they'll record any more studio albums.) A band in this situation will often mail it in with a pedestrian performance knowing that fans will be happy to hear the old hits one more time no matter how lackluster they're presented.

Or a band can take the path Rusted Root chose: to absolutely play their asses off like their lives depended on it. Rarely have I seen a band in their position take to the stage with such vigor. They were playing like it was their first major tour. The near sellout crowd was lapping it up too.

Admittedly, they concentrated on the older material from When I Woke, the 1994 album that made them somewhat popular. They barely acknowledged that they've released other albums in that they didn't play as many songs from all of their albums combined as they did from When I Woke. (I think they played all but two songs off of When I Woke.) That's a shame because they had some other really solid material (particularly off of Cruel Sun and Remember.) Regardless, it was quite an enjoyable show and I was amazed I dug it as much as I did. Particularly cool was their rendition of "The Cat Turned Blue," where they not only wove in the lyrics to "All Along the Watchtower" as I'd seen them do many times, but worked in a few verses of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" as well.

Even if they don't put any more records out, they still put on a fantastic live show and should be able to tour for several more years. Thankfully, they've finally released a live album (they put out a double live CD in November of 2004 simply called Live.) Hopefully they'll keep touring for a while, because as good as their records are, their studio recordings have never captured the primal, more aggressive nature of their live shows.

Alabama vs. Utah State live blogging

2005-10-29T13:28:00.000-04:00

I will be providing live updates during the Alabama vs. Utah State game today since it's only on PPV/Gameplan.

Tune in for what will hopefully be an afternoon of expletive free football.

Roll Tide.

Kickoff is 3:00 P.M. Eastern

2:53 p.m. - 7 minutes until kickoff. The Oklahoma vs. Nebraska game that is preceding the Alabama game still has 30 seconds left in the third quarter. They better move this to a channel where a game's been blacked out, otherwise I'll miss the entire first quarter of the game. I'm going to be super-pissed if that's the case. The OK-NE game kicked off at noon, so that means each quarter has taken about an hour. Ugghhhh.

3:05 p.m. - So much for the afternoon being expletive free. Those fucktards just flashed a message across the screen that the Alabama game would be shown in progress after the other is over. There's about 13:35 left. Super pissed. There are channels with nothing on them right now. Asshats.

3:18 p.m. - Alabama went 80 yards in 5 plays. (update via the telephone from my mom.)

3:20 p.m. - To add insult to injury, Alabama's live statistics matchtracker isn't working either.

3:22 p.m. - Another touchdown from Alabama. Long pass to the five yard line. 5 yard rush. TD. 14-0. ESPN has gotten their hatemail already, and may be due for some more.

3:25 p.m. - My parents have the phone up next to the TV, so I'm listening to the game in Orlando via the telephone, through PPV TV in Birmingham. I am hardcore.

3:40 p.m. - Croyle sacked and then a rush stuffed in the backfield. 3rd & 20. WTF guys?

3:44 p.m. - Bama & Utah State trade 3 and outs. 2:37 left in the Oklahoma-Nebraska game with OK up by a TD. If this game goes into OT, I'm on the next plane to Connecticut and am kicking some ESPN programming flunkie's ass.

3:47 p.m. - RollTide.com's live stats have finally kicked in. Bama with another 3 & out. I'm beginning to boil as Nebraska is driving.

3:50 p.m. - END OF THE FIRST QUARTER:
Good Guys 14
Cupcakes 00

3:52 p.m. - Nebraska sacked on 4th & 27 with just over a minute left. Down that junk Oklahoma and get it over with so I can watch the Tide.

3:54 p.m. - OK-NE over. Hurry up and switch it already.

3:58 p.m. - Knight drops one on third and five (what a shocker). Bama to punt.

4:07 p.m. - Bama's gone limp. We need some gridiron viagra.

4:10 p.m. - Pathetic. Utah State is now in the redzone.

4:13 p.m. - Utah State misses FG. Still 14-0.

4:19 p.m. - TD pass to Hall. 21-0. That's more like it.

4:38 p.m. - One must question the wisdom going for the TD strike on 2nd & 1 to Ezekial Knight. Coffee stumbles on 3rd down. Christensen shanks the FG.

END OF THE HALF

Bama 21
Aggies 00

5:01 p.m. - We apparently forgot how to pass cover during halftime.

5:06 p.m. - ...and Utah State snaps Alabama's record of keeping opponents scoreless in the third quarter.

21 Alabama
03 Utah State

5:09 p.m. - D.J. Hall snags a pass on third and long to avoid a 3 and out. Hall now has back to back 10 reception games. Our running game is looking sleepy and sad.

5:12 p.m. - Hall pulls down a long pass, it is being reviewed to see if it was a TD as he was pushed out at the one. The review is showing that he lost the ball and that it'll probably be a touchback for the Aggies. Hades may be about to be unleashed in T-Town.

5:15 p.m. - It's ruled a touchback. Fuck. Ridiculous.

5:18 p.m. - Alabama's defense is looking like butt. Someone might want to tell them we're only winning by 18.

5:21 p.m. - They are running through us like a knife through hot butter. This is sadder than sad.

5:25 p.m. - Utah State shanks another FG. 21-3. At least our cheerleaders are hot (great shot from the camera crew.)

5:33 p.m. - Long rush from Darby. Touchdown. 28-3 Alabama.

5:40 p.m. - We're up by 25. There's less than 5 minutes left in the 3rd. I'm thinking it's John Parker Wilson time...or if he's still suspended, let's see the Marc Guillon retirement tour in action.

5:43 p.m. - I called that junk. JPW handoff to Jimmy Johns for a 24 yard pickup on 1st down.

5:46 p.m. - Schatz with a good punt, Castille downs it on the 4. We've flipped the field on 'em.

5:51 p.m. - Castille returns the punt to the Utah State 23. If we don't get a TD out of this, it'll be pathetic, even if we do have the newbies in.

5:53 p.m. - Brodie's out of his pads.

5:56 p.m. - JPW to Glen Coffee for a 12 yard TD pass. 35-3. Still haven't covered the spread though.

6:04 p.m. - Roman Harper with the interception and a long return. 25 games in a row Alabama's forced a turnover.

6:07 p.m. - Guillon got a few snaps, and we have to punt away.

FINAL SCORE
35 ALABAMA
03 UTAH STATE

We win by 32, but didn't look too good doing it.

Friday Junk

2005-10-28T14:39:00.000-04:00

My friends Plate Six have a new CD out. Here's some MP3s from it: As the Pinson Turns and The Unblinking Eye. They're touring throughout the south in November and early December, so go see them if they're in your town.
Alabama takes on out of conference opponent Utah State tomorrow in their bid to stay undefeated and be 8-0 for the first time since 1994. The game is on PPV in the state of Alabama and on ESPN Gameplan for the rest of the country. Kickoff is at 3 PM Eastren. I will do some live blogging for this game since our friend over at Journalism is for Rockstars isn't going to be able to watch it live (he usually handles live blogging duties for Crimson Tide games.)
The second leg of the first round of MLS playoffs is this weekend with DC hosting Chicago on Sunday (4:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2). Winner advances to the second round because of the 0-0 draw last week in Chicago (I still think Chad Barrett was robbed of a goal last weekend by sorry ref Brian Hall.) There are three playoff games on tomorrow as well, schedule can be found here.
Rosa Parks will lie in honor in the capital rotunda on Sunday and Monday. That's a pretty awesome.
Woman hangs herself from a tree, it goes unreported for hours because people thought the body was a Halloween decoration.

Made/Remade vol. 3 - "The Drugs Don't Work"

2005-10-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

This edition of "Made/Remade" features two artists that are contemporaries of one another.

Unfortunately, many artists today don't often cover songs of their contemporaries, probably fearing they'll be branded as "unoriginal" or that it's simply "uncool" to do so. This used to not be the case. The 50s and 60s saw artists frequently covering each others material and often done in vastly different styles (Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett both covered Hank Williams Sr. for instance.) Within similar genres though Jimi Hendrix covered the Beatles, the Grateful Dead covered Bob Dylan, etc.

The Verve's 1997 album Urban Hymns spawned the huge hit "Bittersweet Symphony" and made the band quite popular on this side of the Atlantic. I was lucky to catch them at The Roxy in Atlanta, an intimate venue that is a great place to see a show. Urban Hymns is a fantastic record with several songs that could've been huge hits had they been released as singles. One of those is "The Drugs Don't Work."

Ben Harper, an American musician from Claremont, California is proficient in a variety of styles including rock, folk, gospel, reggae, country, etc. While he records and tours with a full backing band (The Innocent Criminals), his version of "The Drugs Don't Work" is a solo acoustic performance. It is from the album Live From Mars, a 2CD set that features the full band on one disc and Harper doing solo acoustic work on disc two.

The two versions aren't incredibly different despite the obvious of one being performed by a full band and the other version being performed by one person. Harper stays faithful to the original, but puts his personal stamp on it at the same time.

Here's hoping we see more of this type of stuff from current performers.

The Verve - "The Drugs Don't Work" (purchase here)

Ben Harper - "The Drugs Don't Work" (purchase here )

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed seven days after they're posted. I'm just trying to pimp some records and artists that I dig and hopefully you'll realize that since I posted links where you can purchase the works.

Concert going in Florida

2005-10-27T09:35:00.000-04:00

Now that I've been in Florida over a year and I'm approaching my second "winter" here, I've found that fall and winter are the peak concert going times. It makes sense, it's mind meltingly hot in the summer time and we have no amphitheatre (how a town with a population this big can not have an amphitheatre is still beyond me.)

The winters here are incredibly mild and except for a few weeks, shorts and other summer attire can be pretty much be worn year round. So, bands flock here for dates in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Orlando, Miami, West Palm Beach and whatever else they can pick up. A week in the sun is surely a welcome break from the likes of Vermont which had it's first snow on October 23rd.

Now that November is almost upon us, things are starting to get going around here. Here's the show's I'm intersted in taking in:

Not bad for the next five weeks or so. There's about 4-5 others I'd like to go to, but there's no way given the night of the week they're on. These listed are just the ones I want to go to. I'll probably make it to around half or so.

Tyrone Prothro Tribute Video

2005-10-26T00:56:00.000-04:00

Found this video tribute to Tyrone Prothro over at the fansite TyroneProthro.com. It was compiled by Jim Williams of Albertville, AL.

For those of you that don't know, Prothro is a receiver for Alabama that broke his leg a few weeks ago and was having an incredible season. Amazing catches, superb blocks, juke moves, the guy has it all. The guy has such skill that he truly can be called an artist. He's one of those special players that does things others not only can't do, but wouldn't think to do. We wish Tyrone a speedy recovery.

AOTW: Benevento Russo Duo: Best Reason to Buy the Sun

2005-10-25T18:34:00.000-04:00

Like most good music, the Brooklyn based Benevento Russo Duo are hard to peg. While that line has been used and abused in many a music review, how exactly does one describe a group comprised only of organ and drums? There's certainly not a lot to compare them to as far as the lineup goes.

They remind me most of Medeski, Martin & Wood. That's not to say they sound like them, but the energy and the ability to sound like a whole lot more people than are actually playing is where I draw the comparison from.

Sometimes the vibe is indie rock, sometimes jazz, sometimes it's quite chaotic and sometimes it's everything and the kitchen sink (in a good way.) It's instrumental, they improvise, but they don't want to be labled a jamband, and they really shouldn't be as this transcends the noodly trippy dippy-ness associated with jamband music.

They are currently on tour, and thankfully coming to venue near me.

There's a bunch of free, live MP3s on their website. I've provided some excerpts from Best Reason to Buy the Sun below. There is some extra instrumentation on the first excerpt, "Scratchitti," but the other two are purely the Duo.

"Scratchitti" (excerpt)

"Becky" (excerpt)

"Welcome Red" (excerpt)

Excerpts are removed 7 days after original posting.

A day of fall

2005-10-24T23:49:00.000-04:00

Wilma was a non-event locally. Power flickered a time or two (just long enough to have to reset clocks) and it rained a ton, but that's it.

It did, however, bring cool air with it. It felt so good to walk outside today and for it to not be 85 degrees. It's the first cool weather I've felt since February. I'm sure it'll only be around a day or two, but it is welcom.

Sorry for the lame update today, I was pretty much in bed all day feeling sick. I forced myself out of the house for that brief walk to enjoy the weather while it's still around.

Album of the week will be reviewed tomorrow along with audio clips.

WILMA!

2005-10-23T23:21:00.001-04:00

They aren't expecting anything massive here in Orlando, but they have closed schools tomorrow and Disney is closing (a rarity.)

If I don't post for a few days, it's because my power and/or internet have gone out. My power seems to be fairly resilient to inclement weather. My internet, however, can be thrown into a tailspin by a goat sneezing in Bhutan.

Stay safe fellow Floridians......

Made/Remade vol. 2 - "Iron Man"

2005-10-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

This edition of Made/Remade features the song "Iron Man," the Black Sabbath classic that is one of the foundations of heavy metal. Paranoid, the album it is from is one of the classics of the genre. Songs off that disc have been covered by everyone under the sun including Faith No More, Pantera, and others.

The cover version we offer today though is very different. We're providing the version by The Cardigans. Yes, the same Cardigans that sang that infectious pop song "Lovefool." Unfortunately The Cardigans have kind of been written off by mainstream America as a one-hit wonder of European bubblegum pop, but nothing could be further from the truth. They've made some incredibly substantial albums. Gran Turismo for instance is simply amazing and it's far removed from the boppy pop of "Lovefool."

The two versions are quite different. Black Sabbath is doing their trademark heaviness with Ozzy Osbourne in full force on vocals. The Cardigans version is swirly and dreamy and Nina Perrson's voice is in its typically sultry and uber-sexy form. The Sabbath version is nearly two minutes longer. So, the original from 1970s Birmingham, England and the remake from 1990s Sweden. Very different, but both versions are excellent.

Black Sabbath - "Iron Man" (purchase here)

The Cardigans - "Iron Man" (purchase here)

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed 10 days after they're posted. I'm just trying to pimp some records and artists that I dig and hopefully you'll realize that since I posted links where you can purchase the works.

Buckethead at The Social

2005-10-23T01:37:00.000-04:00

Friday night, a friend and I went to see Buckethead at The Social. It was part of the six day Antipop Festival.

I didn't know too much about the guy other than the fact that he wears a mask and a KFC bucket on his head, played with Guns n' Roses for a while and did some tours with Les Claypool of Primus. Eventhough I'm a big Primus fan, none of those things were enough to entice me to go and it seemed a bit gimmicky. The friend that I went with swore up and down that I'd love it, and since it was only $10, I figued I'd give it a go.

This guy has insano skills on guitar. Truly crazy, ninja type stuff. The guys hands are like elastic, they're just all over the guitar. He tends to (unfairly) get lumped in with the "guitar guy" genre of music. You know, those big hair type guys that go on gigantic wank-a-thon type solos and are incredibly boring despite their obvious talent. There was a time or two Buckethead could've reigned it in a little, but for me, the big difference between him and the "guitar hero" types is that the guy's music is interesting and it isn't just about technique and showing off. There's actually music happening instead of just a technique resume on display.

First of all, he can lay down some monstrously heavy hooks. Stuff that'll really get you grooving. Much more rhythmic and heavy than most people that improvise a lot. Additionally, the guy has tremendous stage presence. He's very tall and is wearing a blank mask and chicken bucket. It's impossible to not look at him. There's also a good deal of theatrics involved. The guy dances quite well and even got out some nunchuks and put on an impressive display. There were also several times where he'd be playing guitar with one hand and would be holding a fake rooster, some kind of giant spaceman action figure or other oddities. I was a big fan of his elastic guitar strap because he'd do these weird mechanical movements with his guitar while playing that were fun to watch. There were also a lot of cool samples of horror film dialogue. Definately quite the showman. At times, when it got really heavy and the horror dialogue would kick in, it reminded me somewhat of Rob Zombie.

I don't know any of his material, so I have no idea what he played except for two covers. He did one Tenacious D cover (which was hilarious) and then he encored with Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun." I've seen others attempt that song and it comes off pretty lame. Hendrix would put everything he had into it and it was just mindblowingly powerful. Buckethead rocked the mess out of it. It was, dare I say, a truly Hendrix-esque rendition. Not that he played it like Hendrix would've played it, but the guy just took it up a notch or ten when doing it. He did things with the guitar I've never seen another human do. In all honesty, I think Jimi Hendrix was smiling Friday night. It was honestly that good. The only other person I can think of off the top of my head that could do that tune justice would be Robert Randolph.

I don't know if the infectious energy and dynamic nature of his performances can be captured on CD, but I certainly plan on finding out. I didn't think I'd come out of the show totally blown away, but I did. I will definately catch him again if he comes around.

(Unfortunately, the batteries in my digital camera went dead before I could take any pictures at the show.)

7-0

2005-10-22T19:39:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've gotten over my sentimental phase!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

7-0!

Alabama 6, Tennessee 3

2005-10-22T19:02:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to gloat. I'm really not. Tennessee, you played your guts out and gave us a hell of a fight. I congratulate you on your grit and fight in a football game that will be talked about for ages. You were truly a worthy opponent. See you next year in Knoxville.

Jamie Christensen, you make Alabama proud.

Tears of joy. Literally.

Roll Tide Roll.

Tennessee Fans Float Into Tuscaloosa - Area Residents Outraged

2005-10-21T16:17:00.000-04:00

Emmitt Vandiver on his floating turdship

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. - The Tuscaloosa County Sherriff's Department is being inundated with calls from area residents upset by the scores of Tennessee fans floating into Tuscaloosa on the Black Warrior River for this weekend's football game.

"Of course I called the police on them. Look at these people. Floating down the river in a contraption that a Haitian or Cuban refugee would be ashamed of. They should be locked away, to protect the local children," said area resident Diane Watson.

Despite their primitive minds, many Volunteer fans that live along the Tennessee River (called 'river rats' by Tuscaloosa residents) managed to navigate their way through the waterway systems of Tennessee and West Alabama into Tuscaloosa.

This knowledge is passed down orally through song since Tennesseans have an illiterate culture. As a matter of fact, the song telling how to navigate a river raft from the Tennessee River into Tuscaloosa is the only other song besides "Rocky Top" that these primitive people know.

"Whatchya need to learn a buncha songs fer?," says Volunteer fan Emmitt Vandiver. "We likes Rocky Top plenty fine all by its lonesome. Only reason we need another song's to remembry how ta git to Tuscaloosy."

The last few days Alabama fans have stared in disbelief at what's floated into T-Town. "I'm a proponent of mining the Tennessee River at this point. I'd mine that river heavier than the Gulf of Tonkin at the border if it were up to me," said Alabama fan and Tuscaloosa native William Croyle (no relation to the Tide's QB.)

The pathetic sight has caused feelings of remorse in others. "Seeing all of this has made me feel really sad. Not about these people. No way. Screw them. I feel bad for all the things I've ever said about Auburn fans. They look like fine, upstanding people compared to this ragtag bunch. At least they have the good sense to live in Alabama," said Amy Walton of Northport.

Area resident James McKinney had this to say, "I don't know why people are shocked by this. These people are just sorry. What do they expect from a team who has a player named Jim Bob Cooter?"

Dr. Zhou Lee of the University of Alabama's engineering deparment was also distraught by the sight of the unkempt hillbillies. "I left a land with the Great Wall of China. That wall was built to keep out barbarians from the north. It was a good idea then, and it's a good idea now...but here. What's now only a tourist attraction in China would have a utilitarian function for the good people of Alabama. I intend to put forth great effort until this wall is a reality," said Lee.

No. 5 Alabama is expected to win the game, and they will send the Vols packing with a Rammer Jammer so loud it'll echo through the hills and hollers of east Tennessee for weeks.

Made/Remade vol. 1 - "Alone & Forsaken"

2005-10-20T23:21:00.000-04:00

Time to introduce a new feature here on the blog. Made/Remade comes to you to showcase both the orignal version of a great song and then another version of a different artist covering it.

I've been on a huge Hank Williams Sr. kick lately, so I figured I'd start with one of his songs and decided to choose one covered by the band this blog takes its name from, 16 Horsepower. The Hank Sr. version comes in at exactly 2 minutes and the 16HP version clocks in at 2:49, so there's obviously some substantial differences. Hope y'all enjoy the new feature.

Hank Williams Sr. - "Alone & Forsaken" (purchase here)

16 Horsepower - "Alone & Forsaken" (purchase here)

Disclaimer to the big, bad label types that may stumble across this: These tracks aren't downloadable and they will be removed 10 days after they're posted. I'm just trying to pimp some records and artists that I dig and hopefully you'll realize that since I posted links where you can purchase the works.

Birmingham, soccer, and (a lack of) progress & vision

2005-10-20T11:57:00.000-04:00

A view of Five Points South

I'm sure regular readers of this site will have figured out by now that I'm originally from Birmingham, Alabama. All of my family still lives there as well as many of my closest friends.

Even if all of my family and friends moved away, I'd still visit as there's plenty of things to do there and the fact that it's only about 50-60 miles up the road from my beloved Crimson Tide.

Everyone across planet earth knows about Birmingham's troubled past because of people like Bull Connor and the people that bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church.

In the eyes of the world, it might as well still be 1960 in Birmingham despite the progress it's made over the last few decades. The city created a very deep hole for itself to crawl out of, but we're seeing progress (no thanks to the "leadership" of the city, more due to the regular folks.)

Birmingham has had very few opportunities to shine on the national and international stage and to bring large numbers of visitors to the city, and one of those opportunities is about to be gone.

The Birmingham Park Board has voted to install artificial turf at Legion Field. Yes, believe it or not, a patch of grass in a football stadium is helping clean up Birmingham's image.

In 1996, Birmingham hosted 10 or so soccer games as a part of the Atlanta Olympics even being awarded two games featuring the United States' team because of the community's enthusiasm for the event. I attended everyone of those games and it brought in a flood of visitors from the US and around the world. A sold out crowd of 83,810 people watched the US play Argentina at Legion Field and it was a magnificent opportunity for the city. The United States, Tunisia, South Korea, Nigeria, Argentina and others all played in Birmingham and brought thousands upon thousands of visitors with them.

Shortly after, Birmingham hosted an event featuring some of the youth national teams of the US, Mexico, Jamaica and Morocco. The event was tied to a citywide festival honoring Morocco. While it didn't draw tons of visitors, it showed that Birmingham was "on the map" as far as soccer in the US was concerned. The Football Capital of the South was now also The Futbol Capital of the South.

In 2000, the US men's national team played Tunisia and drew in a crowd of about 20,000 on a chilly Sunday afternoon. In 2002, Ecuador came to town on a cool Sunday afternoon with a crowd of around 25,000 in a match that helped the US prepare for their World Cup 2002 campaign. Women's national team matches against Brazil and England have also been played in Birmingham.

In March of 2005, Birmingham hosted the most important single game it had yet, a World Cup qualifying match against Guatemala. The game drew over 30,000 on a Wednesday night, which is good anywhere in the US for that timeslot.

The United States beats Guatemala 2-0 in March 2005

Besides some of the Olympic matches, all of the games were televised. People all across the US and in other countries could turn on their television sets and see live, international sporting events being played in Birmingham, Alabama...that conservative city with the bad image. Not only could the world see Birmingham hosting games of the world's sport, but they could see that we were doing it well.

Having attended all of those games, I met people from all over the US and from other countries as well that never would've traveled to Birmingham had it not been for soccer. Many of them confided in me that they dreaded visiting the city and were only following their team, but once they arrived they found out they enjoyed it and that the city was quite different from the preconceived notions that are batted about.

A photo from our tailgate before the game against Guatemala finds people from the following cities: Birmingham, AL; Auburn, AL; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Dover, DE; Portland, OR; New York, NY; Orlando, FL; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH and Tuscson, AZ. All non-Birmingham people came specifically for this game.

Me and some of my family members with a group of Guatemala fans from Nashville, TN. I don't know why they were so happy, they just lost 2-0!

Having tens of thousands of people visit your city, have a good time and go back to where they live and tell people "I had fun in Birmingham" is something that city desperately needs. The Birmingham Park Board, the City Council and the Mayor are too dumb to see this. Because they've had to turn down a few high school football games (none of which would be attended in numbers anywhere near the lowest drawing of those events) because of a "maximum date" policy (meaning they can only have so many events on natural grass in a given timeframe), they want to put in the turf.

While it is within the rules to play soccer on turf, they aren't going to do it. There's too many cities trying to attract these games to play on crappy, injury-prone turf, where the ball bounces oddly.

So, Birmingham is willing to trade in international events that attract tens of thousands of people, get the city's name out in the international media (in a good way for a change) and probably make a handsome chunk of change off of the tourism and they're willing to trade that in for some high school football games. High school football teams that might draw 1,500-2,000 at an absolute maximum.

Park Board member Calvin Haynes had this to say:

"We can't just keep having a few events just because some want the grass," Haynes said. "Lots of stadiums have artificial turf, and even play soccer on it."

If by "lots of stadiums" he means two (Giants Stadium in New York and Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City), I guess he's right. Someone also might want to point out that both of those teams are eagerly looking forward to exiting those stadiums ASAP to play in facilities with natural grass (New York is already building such a facility and SLC has one in the works.) The soccer team in Dallas was playing on artificial turf and everyone hated it so badly, they switched facilities mid-season (and now have their own natural grass stadium.) Haynes is clearly talking out of his ass.

Birmingham (and Alabama as a whole) have repeatedly been beaten to the punch by its neighbors either through laziness or ineptitude and this appears no different. Atlanta took a risk in building an international airport first offered to Birmingham. Nashville, Atlanta and New Orleans have NFL teams while Birmingham, the most football crazed place I've ever set foot in doesn't have one. Mississippi has casinos. Georgia, Florida and Tennessee have lotteries. Alabama has none. Entertainment, gambling and international business dollars are all being lapped up by our neighbors and we sit there on our hands.

Vulcan, the Roman god of fire that stands atop Red Mountain is not happy about this decision

Here's a quote displaying Mayor Bernard Kincaid's brilliant vision and nose for great opportunity:

"One venue (event) with maybe 40,000 people does not negate the possibility of our high-schoolers having a place to play," Kincaid has said. "The park board made that decision so I am very content to go along with the park board."

That's great small town thinking there Bernard. For a second there, I thought Birmingham had a metro-area population of nearly one million, not one thousand.

Soccer highlights video

2005-10-20T01:24:00.000-04:00

There's some ridiculous skill on this video. Assembled by two guys whose names I'm virtually certain I'd mispronounce if I had to say them aloud. Blur's "Song 2" is the soundtrack.

W. on the Bama bandwagon?

2005-10-19T18:42:00.000-04:00

It appears as if President Bush is the latest public figure to hop on the Alabama football bandwagon. He just sent injured Alabama receiver Tyrone Prothro a get well letter.

This news comes on the heels of the announcement of Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw doing the coin toss and attending this weekend's game against Tennessee.

...and then there's the recently circulated pictures of Mötley Crüe with an Alabama flag.

Perhaps not as glamourous a group as the USC bandwagoneers, but most of them have access to nuclear weapons.

Old football video and a history lesson about "Rammer Jammer"

2005-10-19T16:12:00.000-04:00

Found this old football clip on my computer this afternoon and figured I'd upload it for all to enjoy. Best defensive play I've ever seen. George Teague of Alabama deflating Miami's hopes in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 1993.

Also, for those of you that didn't stumble upon video anywhere else of the glorious RAMMER JAMMER we laid on Florida a few weeks back, you can watch it here:

For those of you that don't know the cheer already, it's:

"Hey Gators! Hey Gators! Hey Gators! We just beat the hell outta you! Rammer jammer yellow hammer give 'em hell Alabama!"

Of course, whatever the mascot of the team we just beat would be substituted for Gators at other games.

The "Rammer Jammer" was a student humor magazine from the 1920s and the "yellow hammer" is the state bird of Alabama. Still doesn't make much sense I suppose, but it a whole lot of fun to sing.

Of course, some uptight people don't like the cheer and every few years some nimrod wants it banned. Here's the latest debate about it. They used to play it before the games with the change "We're gonna beat the hell outta you!" but the NCAA begged schools to stop the taunting of opposing players and fans in stadiums in '96, and now it's only played after victories. That's cool too, but it was great unleashing that cheer on visitors.

A Little Help From My Friends?

2005-10-19T12:39:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've been toying with finding a way to upload audio to my blog. I've found a program that is easy to operate and seems to work well. However, could some of you go to this post and tell me if these excerpts are working for them? Do they load quickly? How's the sound quality?

It works fine on my computer but I want to see how it works for folks with a variety of connection speeds, etc.

Shut Up You Australian Babies

2005-10-18T22:19:00.000-04:00

Now that I have your attention, you should know that Australia are threatening to walk off the field if they are maltreated during next month's World Cup qualifying match in Montevideo, Uruguay. The threat comes as a protest to the behavior they endured during a qualifier there four years ago for the 2002 World Cup. They complained of being "jostled and spat upon."

Football Federation Australia chief executive John O'Neil had this to say:

"They have to ensure that the spirit of fair play, and that's the banner under which FIFA runs itself, is absolutely adhered to. We need to make sure that FIFA, under whose auspices this game is being run, have taken all the measures to ensure there is no repetition of what happened four years ago."

That's all well and good John, but it is unrealistic. If you were the only team in the world having to put up with this, I might be more sympathetic, but that's far from the case. How do you think European teams feel having to go into Turkey, who have some of the craziest fans on earth, or for the Asian teams travelling to the massive and intimidating Azadi Stadium in Tehran?

Merely being "jostled and spat upon" would be a dream for the United States team that has had to endure many hardships in Central America. Costa Rican fans at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa are notorious for throwing ice, coins, batteries and bags of urine at foreign players. US players had to endure chants of "Osama! Osama! Osama!" at a game in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City recently.

Now, if Australia's soccer federation is truly taking a high ground and trying to eradicate this sort of thing from sport, I suppose they're to be commended. However, Australia aren't exactly soccer giants. Right now, they're a big fish in a small pond (Oceania Confederation) and the majority of the soccer world considers them a fringe team, albeit one on the rise.

The fact of the matter though is that this isn't going away anytime soon, and there's virtually nothing FIFA can do to stop it. Fans know their rowdy behavior can almost ensure a victory for their team, so it's going to be hard to stop. Especially since it largely has to be enforced locally. The US has an incredibly poor win/loss record in qualifiers in Central America. On the other hand, we haven't lost a home qualifier since the early 1980s. Our fans don't engage in the behavior that often occurs in Central and South America and parts of Europe, but the absence of the insanity they encounter on the road allows them to focus and get the job done.

Australia play so few road qualifiers that they have no perspective on what the rest of the world deals with. They might play one away qualifier per cycle in their region, in Wellington, New Zealand, which isn't exactly Istanbul or Mexico City. Most of the teams in their region don't have adequate facilities, so Australia plays 99% of their qualifying matches at home where they drub teams like American Samoa 31-0 and Tonga 22-0. To be fair, those scores are from last cycle, but things weren't much better this time around with Australia beating up on the likes of Tahiti (9-0), Fiji (6-1) and the Solomon Islands (7-0). The fact is, Australia faces everyone else's reality once per cycle, and they're whining about it.

So, Australia, your motives seem pure, but you might as well be arguing with a rock. Insanity at soccer matches isn't going away anytime soon. It's up to you to suck it up and deal with the pressure like the majority of teams in the world have to do on the road, especially since you'll be competing in the Asian cycle next time around. You're guaranteed to meet more hostilities on the road in Asia than Oceania, so get used to it and treat your upcoming trip to Uruguay as a prep-course.

Good luck Australia, I sincerely hope you guys make it to the World Cup in 2006.

Condi Rice & Jack Straw to attend Alabama v. Tennessee game

2005-10-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

The Bush administration is undertaking a new policy to show visiting foreign ministers more of America than just the customary stops in DC and New York. This weekend Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is taking British foreign secretary Jack Straw to Tuscaloosa to attend the Alabama v. Tennessee football game, one of the sport's greatest rivalries (a password to the site can be obtained via BugMeNot.Com.) This rivalry was born in hatred with fans brawling on the field after their first meeting. This will be the 88th meeting between the two schools. They've played every year since the first meeting except the war year 1943.

They'll also be doing the pre-game coin toss. I hope some quotes from Secretary Straw pop up about the experience of seeing 83,000 people unleash an astonishingly pure hate on the vileness that is the Tennessee Volunteers. If Secretary Rice has any sense, the arrangements have already been made for Dreamland BBQ to be delivered to their skybox. (Thanks to Todd Jones at 1000 Movies in 1 Year for the link.)

Since we're on the topic of this weekend's game, make sure and stop by Journalism is for Rockstars, who has been dropping some righteous hate on UThug for the past 3-4 days.

From whence do they come?

2005-10-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

Ever since I installed this map counter a few weeks ago, I've been fascinated with what countries I'm getting hits from, and have been wondering what random searches brought them my way (I wish I knew.) I got my first hits from the Middle East yesterday. I've yet to get a hit from an African country, but all of the other (inhabited) continents have all paid a visit.

My counter simply identifies the country the hit comes from and puts it on the map. I have no idea about what the IPs or ISPs are, that info isn't provided for me (for those of you that get all privacy concious about these types of things.)

So far, here's the list of the 31 countries I've gotten visits from:

Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Chile
England
Estonia
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Lithuania
Malaysia
The Netherlands
Norway
Oman
The Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Scotland
Serbia & Montenegro
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United States

Monday Junk

2005-10-17T17:45:00.000-04:00

The US Soccer team will play a friendly (exhibition/warm-up) match against Japan in February in San Francisco to begin tuning up for the World Cup next June.
The Anti Pop Music Festival kicks off in Orlando tomorrow. It showcases rock, country, jazz, etc. A nice oasis of undeground in a town so painfully mainstream. I think I'm only going to be able to take in one show during the six day festival. I'm aiming to see The Detroit Cobras. It is killing me to miss Hank Williams III on Wednesday, but I'm a dad first and a music fan second. Other acts include John Vanderslice, Buckethead, Ambulance LTD, etc.
I've been living at my new address long enough to start getting the free return address labels that charities try to entice you to make donations with. I've been needing some new ones and was actually considering buying them until they started arriving two days ago. So, thank you World Wildlife Fund and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for the hookup and for saving me a few bucks. I'm strapped for cash right now, so I'll pay you with a link to my roughly 100-hit-a-day blog in the meantime.

album of the week: GRATEFUL DEAD - American Beauty

2005-10-17T14:11:00.000-04:00

I decided to go way back for this week's Album of the Week(AOTW.) So far back as a matter of fact, I was still over half a decade away from being born when it was originally released in 1970.

People's major criticism of the Grateful Dead is that they play too long, write weird songs, take too many guitar solos, etc. None of these accusations can be levelled at American Beauty, an album that surprised critics in 1970 and surprises naysayers ignorant of their complete body of work even to this day.

This album finds them in full songwriting mode. Most songs on the disc are 3 or 4 minutes in length (one being sub-3 minutes!) Only "Candyman" (clocking in at 6:13) was too long for radio. Not only are the songs short, but Jerry Garcia doesn't have a single solo on the record.

"Box of Rain" opens the album and it is a somber tune bassist Phil Lesh wrote in dealing with the death of his father. "Ripple" finds them collaborating with mandolin player David Grisman, who plays a magnificently restrained solo on the song. "Brokedown Palace" is an achingly beautiful composition that no one would probably believe the Grateful Dead capable of writing.

The two songs off of this album that have likely been heard by the casual listener ("Sugar Magnolia" & "Truckin'") are quite different from the rest of the record and shouldn't be the basis for judging the work as a whole. The disc is largely an acoustic work that is a highlight of folk/Americana songwriting of the last 50 years.

"Brokedown Palace" (excerpt)

"Box of Rain" (excerpt)

"Ripple" (excerpt)

End of MLS Regular Season

2005-10-16T18:50:00.000-04:00

Major League Soccer's regular season ended today with the MetroStars getting an incredibly ugly 2-0 victory over Chivas USA. The Metros needed a win on the last day to qualify for the playoffs (knocking out Kansas City in the process.)

The road to the MLS Cup begins on Friday (thanks to Jim for the correction) with Chicago vs. DC on Direct Kick (PPV) and HDNet.

I'm sure my Chicago Fire will get bounced in round one by DC United, but I will still tune into all the matches.

WHO'S THE BEST? CHI-CA-GO!

Alabama 13, Ole Miss 10 / UAB 19, Marshall 20

2005-10-15T21:49:00.000-04:00

That Alabama game was brutal. It's what I call an "abortion game." It was ugly, painful, messy, physically exhausting and emotionally traumatic. (Yes, I know that's tacky, but it's the best way to describe it.)

That being said, we got enough done to win it, and that has to count for something. Even bottom-dwelling SEC football teams can put up a fight at times, and Ole Miss showed that they have some fight in them.

Today was the day of the close game for Top 25 teams . With 14 games involving Top 25 teams completed so far (with 4 still in progress) 8 of them were decided by 10 points or less and 3 of those had the ranked team on the wrong end of the scoreline. I guess it was something in the alignment of the planets or something.

Jamie Christensen was an unlikely hero hitting the winning field goal with 3 seconds left. Seeing some of the field goal attempts he's shanked this year, I was about to vomit from nervousness as he was lining up to kick. Thankfully, he sorted it out. I love you forever Jamie, I really do. Tide wins 13-10 and improves to 6-0 (4-0 SEC).

I don't want to think about this game anymore, hence the short entry (read what the pros have to say here.) Time to get ready for the Vols.

One more thing. UAB blew another lead in the last few seconds, this week to Marshall. Shame on you UAB. That's terrible. You could be 5-1, instead you're 3-3. Watson Brown needs to learn how to seal the deal. Actually, UAB just needs a new coach.

SEC Week 7

2005-10-13T16:33:00.000-04:00

Alabama at Ole Miss
For the love of all things good and holy, Alabama better win this football game. The way I see it there are three potential stumbling blocks for the Tide, all mental, all self-imposed:

Tyrone Prothro was not miraculously healed in the last two weeks. Obviously he's been a vitally important part of Alabama's success as a receiver, returner, running back and decoy...but he's not irreplaceable...they can win without him. One of the sophs has got to step up as secondaries will be bolder with the lack of Prothro as an option. As bad as the injury is, it's still primarily a mental stumbling block to lose a player like this.
They may have started believing some of the things written about them since the Florida win. Confidence is good, a little bit of swagger is fine. Cocky frequently gets burned.
Tennessee and Fulmer the Hutt draweth nigh and they've had our number for the better part of the last decade. There's always a danger in looking ahead and especially when your archrival is looking beatable. We saw Alabama come off of a big win at SC and then struggle against Arkansas, some of which might've been looking ahead to Florida. Hopefully there won't be more of the same, especially since this is a road game.

Alabama 27, Ole Miss 10

Florida at LSU
Definately the tough pick of the week.

LSU has shown the ability to completely meltdown and implode at home. Florida is starting to get bitten by the injury bug. Florida's yet to win outside of the Swamp (to be fair, they've only played outside of it once under Meyer, but Meyer looked overwhelmed) and has only faced real competition twice and didn't look good either time.

As badly as Urban Meyer needs this win, I think Les Miles needs it more and will find a way to do it. LSU fans will not tolerate getting slapped around in Death Valley twice in the first half of the season and it won't get much better with Auburn in town next weekend. Home field advantage and Florida's injuries help LSU win.

LSU 28, Florida 17

Auburn at Arkansas
Two teams I haven't seen much of on TV this year because they haven't been on TV much or the matchups were kind of boring. I saw Arkansas play Alabama and Auburn play Georgia Tech, but that's it. Auburn's only picked to win by seven, but I think they'll manage to cover it in a game where the score will look closer than it really is.

Auburn 24, Arkansas 16

Georgia at Vanderbilt
The 'Dores will begin to feel more like the perennial SEC punching bags that they are after this one. After a slip up against Middle Tennesse State and getting absolutely raped by LSU, this third loss in a row should go down a bit easier than the previous two. The dawgs continue their march towards the eastern title

Georgia 31, Vanderbilt 13

USA 2, Panama 0 / Trinidad & Tobago 2, Mexico 1

2005-10-13T16:04:00.000-04:00

Taylor Twellman (pictured above) finally got the 800 pound gorilla off of his back and scored for the US national team last night in their 2-0 victory over Panama. Twellman's first international goal came in the 2nd half after he'd had a few near misses earlier in the contest. His goal was insurance six minutes after Kyle Martino's game winning strike in the 51st minute.

The game meant nothing as the US had already qualified for the World Cup on September 3 after a 2-0 defeat of archrival Mexico.

Trinidad & Tobago managed a come from behind 2-1 victory over Mexico in Port of Spain to earn a playoff spot against Bahrain for the World Cup.

They would've been facing Uzbekistan, but the Uzbek soccer federation did the unthinkable and asked for rematch against Bahrain after a 1-0 win because they were robbed of a penalty kick. They felt they should've had a 2-0 victory against Bahrain and challenged the result. FIFA granted them a rematch, which was a 1-1 tie. The next match against Bahrain was a 0-0 draw, but Bahrain advanced on the "away goal" tiebreaker. Totally confusing situation to the non-soccer fan and a truly heartbreaking result for the Uzbeks who would be in the playoff if it weren't for their protest. Read about that odd situation here.

Here's wishing success to the Soca Warriors (Trinidad's nickname) against Bahrain. Success by fellow confederation members makes the USA's path to the World Cup easier in the future because the confederation could be awarded more automatic berths.

Last month's Netflix rentals

2005-10-12T19:00:00.000-04:00

Once again, I'm really late in posting what I watched last month, and once again I didn't watch much last month. I did go to the theatre a decent bit since the son was out of town, and watch a few borrowed DVDs, but here's what I got from my subscription last month:

The Jacket
I really like Adrien Brody and I really like Keira Knightly, but this was only so-so. It had a really cool storyline and it kind of messed with your head a bit at times, which is cool, but it isn't anything I'd tell someone they have to see. Worth watching if its there, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it.

Kung Fu Hustle
This movie is everything one could want in a movie: kung-fu action, gangster action, romance, comedy, musical numbers, etc. Silly as all get out, but a real good time. Plot doesn't matter, this is just a whole lot of fun. The opening dance scene makes it worth the rental.

Layer Cake
British gangster movie. I've seen this described as a comedy, and that is misleading. It's about a guy that's been involved in organized crime, but wants to get out of the business once he's made his millions. His bosses have other ideas. It's a good movie, but it isn't really comedic (nor does it try to be.) I think they're trying to draw in the Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch crowd. I think that crowd would dig it, but don't expect Guy Ritchie or Tarantino-esque dialogue. It's more story than flash.

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior
This, however, is way more flash than story. As a matter of fact, there's so little story here that it's almost painful to watch. The action scenese are incredible though. If they can get this guy in some decent movies and teach him English, he may find himself a worthy successor to Jet Lit and Jackie Chan.

Seven Up / 7 Plus Seven
Really cool documentary series by an English director. The guy documents the lives of a bunch of seven year old kids living across England from various backgrounds and plans to follow up with them every seven years. Disc one contains the 7 year-old and 14 year-old episodes. Really amazing stuff. I can't wait to rent the rest.

John Howard Griffin: Black Like Me

2005-10-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

Black Like Me chronicles John Howard Griffin's journey across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Through medication, Griffin - a white man, became a black man. In 1959. Needless to say, it was a mind-bogglingly dangerous experiment. The trip was to take six weeks, and it deeply tested his resolve to see the project through to the end.

Griffin was immediately affected by the insults, hate, discrimination and difficulties encountered on a daily basis by black Americans of the time. He met resistance in every sphere of life: looking for employment, trying to find a public restroom to use, trying to find lodging or simply a bite to eat. These everyday necessesities became huge struggles, but they were mere inconveniences when compared to the looks of hate (what he calls "the hate stare") and verbal abuses he frequently received. Basically, every minute of everyday turns into a struggle for him as an outsider in a white man's world.

This particular edition of the book includes Griffin's 1977 epilogue, titled What's Happened Since Black Like Me. At the time of this edition's publication, it is the only version of the book to include the epilogue. For me, this was the best part of the book and it's a shame that it isn't available in other editions. Griffin discusses his work in civil rights in the roughly 20 years since the book was written and he makes some astute observations.

Of particular interest is the following excerpt:

"Also, it was generally believed, though the belief was fading, that most "good whites" lived in the North and most "bad whites" lived in the South. Certainly many Northern cities deplored what was going on in the South. But when Martin Luther King, who had been praised in the North for the work he did in the South, came to work in the cities of the North, the very officials who praised him sometimes led opposition to his work locally. This revealed to black people that there was no basic difference between attitudes in the North and South. A white-imposed separation had always existed in both areas. Dr. King's trips into the North showed that even in the friendliest cities there would always rise up out of the local community sufficient opposition to prevent bridging this separation. It became bitterly apparent that this separation was going to go on existing into the foreseeable future." - (p. 189)

Griffin further speaks of encountering such problems when working in St. Louis, Rochester, Detroit, Kansas City, L.A. and other non-Southern cities.

This is a powerful book and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, the back of the book touts it as "The history making classic about crossing the color line in the segregated South," which is not what it's really about. In the preface, Griffin states,

"The Negro. The South. These are details. The real story is the universal one of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men (and in the process destroy themselves) for reasons neither really understands."

Sadly many people across the United States and all over the world will miss the point of Griffin's book. Instead of looking inside themselves or looking at problems in their own communities, they'll likely view the book as a snapshot in time or relegate its greater meaning to only applying to one place or time instead of using it to analyze the present and shape the future. The book certainly has historical value, but it'll likely be read as a document of the past. I don't think that's what Griffin had in mind at all.

Videos: "Voodoo People" & "Glosoli"

2005-10-11T14:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to a recently filmed video for the song "Voodoo People" by The Prodigy.

Shows a bunch of blindfolded people running a race in a mockery of reality TV. I'm not a big fan or anything (it is a good song though), it's just a well done video.

While I'm at it, I'll toss in a link to a band that I am a huge fan of. Here's the Sigur Ros video for "Glosoli."

Bad Month for Mississippi Blues

2005-10-10T19:27:00.000-04:00

Paul "Wine" Jones died Sunday, October 9, 2005 in Jackson, Mississippi.

Paul Jones was the last concert I saw in Birmingham before I moved. It was a Tuesday or Wednesday night and he didn't come on stage until 1 a.m. Amazingly, there were 40-50 people in the tiny club that late on a weeknight. At that point, I'd only heard a few MP3s of his music and was impressed by them, but not at all familiar with him as an artist. I ran into an old friend at the show that I hadn't seen in a while, and he said there was a small buzz going around that this guy was just going to slay the place with his energy.

The buzz was right. Jones absolutely blew the doors off of the place. It was one of the loudest shows I've ever been to and the guy just wailed hardcore Mississippi roadhouse blues on an audience that had no idea what hit them. He was 58 years old at the time and he rocked harder than men half his age.

That show was responsible for awakening in me a strong desire to explore southern music at a much deeper level than I previously had considered. Since then, I've delved deep into the blues, bluegrass, jazz, gospel and old school country.

Thank you Mr. Jones, for awakening in me a desire to explore the culture of the region I grew up in at a level I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't seen you play live.

Here's some Paul Jones MP3s.

MP3s
My Baby Got Drunk
Goin' Back Home
Rob & Steal

This bad news comes roughly one month after the death of then reigning patriarch of Mississippi Hill Country blues R.L. Burnside on September 1.

Unfortunately, I discovered R.L. too late to see him in concert by himself. He'd already retired from touring by the time his name was familiar to me. I did, fortunately, get to see him perform with the North Mississippi All Star Hill Country Revue. Lucky for me (and you), they released that one show on CD.

Here's some MP3s of R.L. Some acoustic, some electric, some live.

MP3s
Little Babe
Skinny Woman
I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down
Shake 'Em On Down
Goin' Down South

Henry Rollins at the House of Blues

2005-10-10T15:01:00.000-04:00

Went to see Henry Rollins do a spoken word performance at the House of Blues last night (preceded by a great meal at Little Saigon.)

Rollins is one of the few people famous or otherwise that can keep me completely engaged while talking non-stop for three hours. He can be hilarious one second, and super serious the next. I'd heard his spoken word stuff on CD, but this was my first time seeing him live. I think any intellectually honest person would enjoy one of these whether or not they agree with his views on things or not due to his well thought out arguments, his passionate delivery and sharp wit.

Now, a brief word about the venue. HOB Orlando is one of the worst venues on planet earth and I can't imagine a worse place to have something like this. The majority of the audience had to stand because the place is designed so poorly hardly anyone could see if all were sitting down. Secondly, both upstairs and downstairs, there are pillars obstructing the view almost everywhere you go unless you are right in front of the stage. We had some guy next to us that insisted on providing a running commentary throughout the show. That's beyond obnoxious because I didn't care what what he had to say about what the guy I paid $20 to hear said. Thankfully, the guy moved away from us about halfway through.

I was glad to get to see him this time around, because I found out he was at UCF in the spring about three days after it happened.

Save your template!

2005-10-09T16:20:00.000-04:00

I know I know. Backing up your stuff is rule #1 of keeping electronic files. Well, Blogger just fritzed out and ate my template. I was afraid I'd lost the whole blog (which I thankfully didn't), but I did have to totally rewrite the template, which was a pain in the behind.

I've now saved it and will resave in the future after editing it.

I'm thinking about getting my own URL and doing my own thing since Blogger seems to like to crash a lot.

Any recommendations from the web savvy amongst you about hosting services?

UCF vs. Memphis and a smack talking UCF fan

2005-10-09T15:37:00.000-04:00

Went to see UCF play Memphis last night. I figured since Alabama had a bye weekend, I'd take in some live football. While low level CUSA play doesn't exactly satiate the jones one has for high level SEC football, it's always nice to be in a stadium. Got the hookup on a pair of free tickets and even managed to luck out finding a parking spot on the street right in front of the stadium. What should've cost $52.50 we managed to do for free.

I was wearing my Alabama jersey and hat. Some UCF numbskull high fived me for "handing Florida a severe beatdown," but then reminded me that Alabama lost to UCF the one and only time they met. I couldn't help but be amazed at a guy whose team just came off of a 17 game skid shit talking a fan of the #7 ranked team in the country about a complete aberration of a game that happened 5 years ago during the grim DuBose swan song season.

I just looked at him and said, "...and UCF has won how many national championships? Zero? Oh, because we've won 12. By the way, has UCF ever won a conference championship? Yeah, get back to me when you've won something worth talking about or anything for that matter."

He walked off in an irritated huff. I hate having to do that to fans of these little teams, but if you want to engage in smack talking, be able to bring it. Poor fellow. It was like Montserrat trying to invade Russia.

Anyway, UCF is one of those mid-major programs that has only had a team for a short while and is trying to stir enthusiasm. They have some diehards there that saw them through the 17 game losing streak, but gone are the days when Daunte Culpepper could fill the Citrus Bowl up with spectators.

I figured I would scan in this sheet of cheers they were passing out. My wife & I couldn't help but snicker a little bit at the silliness of it when compared to the grand traditions and cheers of the SEC. Here's one side of it for your viewing pleasure.

(sorry about the dark patches, I had the sheet folded up in my pocket all night and didn't really care enough to try to get the creases out of the scan)

UCF jumped out to a 14-0 early lead in the first quarter. Memphis hung in there shutting UCF out in the 2nd quarter and managed to pull even before going into the half.

The third quarter remained tight with UCF having the edge 21-17. The floodgates opened in the fourth quarter though and UCF scored 17 unanswered points. Once UCF was up 28-17, it was a done deal as Memphis looked tired and incapable of stemming the flow of UCF's attack.

Oh yeah, Everyone looked at me like I was insane when the UGA-Tennessee score was announced and I cheered like a madman.

Final score: UCF 38, Memphis 17

Saké , Scrabble, Backstreet Boys, Antique Electroshock Therapy

2005-10-08T03:17:00.000-04:00

Hung out with my friend Brad and a bunch of his friends tonight. We had plans to go out to a saké bar later in the evening, but were going to get things started at his place with a cookout. We grilled up some food and had a few beers. I was ready to hit the town early, but Brad wanted to wait until later, because the place we were going turned 21 & up after 10pm. He's a teacher and didn't want to run into any of his students, so we sat around watching That 70s Show, listening to My Morning Jacket and The Eels and playing Scrabble until the clock struck 10.

I was kind of afraid the night was going to be much more low key than I was hoping for, and then Brendan broke out the antique electroshock therapy device. He and his brother found this bizarre contraption in their grandparents' attic. It was supposed to be some home remedy for some kind of mental stress or something, but I severely doubt it worked.

It was basically some handcranked thing that worked up a ton of static electricity that went into your body by holding two metal handles. At first it felt tingly, but then it started to hurt and your muscles would react enough to where you couldn't let go and you were at the mercy of others to pry it out of your hands. One guy was brave enough to put it in water and hold it (as the box recommended "for maximum effect") and it nearly knocked him out of his chair. We were even able to pass the current through all of us when holding hands. Needless to say, this was a great source of amusement. After experimenting with late 19th/early 20th century home torture devices, we headed to the saké bar. (Brad is sending a photo of this contraption soon for your amusement.)

Our destination was Tatame, a newish saké bar & tea house in Winter Park. I have to say, I really dug that place. The saké was pretty dang good and the chicken was really awesome. I was expecting bar food, but it was really quality.

The single men in our party were enamored of our waitress...and with good reason. She was quite cute and seemed genuinely nice (not just "I'm trying to get a bigger tip" nice.)

After we were there for a while. One of the Backstreet Boys came in. I don't know which one. I recognized him though after someone pointed him out.

Random Friday Junk

2005-10-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

I've started a list of my CDs at CD Tracker. I own well over a thousand, so it's going to take a while to get them all in the system.
Added back the link to Last.fm where you can see stats on what I'm listening to.
Went to the Orlando Museum of Art for the first time yesterday. It's free for area residents from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursdays, and I'm glad we went during that time. I would've been none too happy to pay $8 for it. It's a tiny museum when compared to that of similar sized cities (or even smaller ones for that matter.) There was an M.C. Escher exhibit that was pretty cool, though it isn't part of the permanent collection. It's funny, Escher's work doesn't require seeing the originals to appreciate them. After seeing the stuff though, I left with a much greater appeciation for him as an artist seeing that he did other things besides "mathmatical art." His graphic art was even better in my opinion.

There were 4 or 5 remarkable works in the permanent collection, none of which are online, so I can't show them to you because they have a no photography policy. One of them was by Elihu Vedder, and it was really striking. It's worth going to the museum if you can go for free, but otherwise, I'd pass.
Went to the Enzian earlier this week to see Broken Flowers, the new Bill Murray flick. Pretty good movie, though not earth shattering or anything. Birmingham could really use a place like the Enzian. Gotta love being able to get a pizza and a beer while watching a movie on a couch or an easy chair. Their hummus is good too.

I ate some kangaroo

2005-10-07T01:51:00.000-04:00

Yep, I ate kangaroo for the first time tonight...szechuan style...and it was quite good. I didn't even know that was something you could order in the USA.

I also drank $16 worth of bottled water (two bottles.)

The restaurant was a bit overpriced, but it was cool, we had a $120 gift certificate and therefore didn't feel ridiculous going overboard with dumb stuff like that.

After dinner, we went and watched The 40 Year Old Virgin, and that was some funny junk. I hate Downtown Disney with a passion, but those are some comfy movie theatre seats.

This is a message from Brodie Croyle

2005-10-07T01:21:00.000-04:00

(Thanks to Sebring98 at Big Football for sending it to me.)

Danny Wallace - Yes Man

2005-10-06T00:38:00.000-04:00

Professional oddball Danny Wallace has a new book out called Yes Man in which he spends a year acting as if the word "no" did not exist. He wouldn't lie about things, but would always answer "yes" to propositions whether they were from people or advertisements.

Only one of his friends knew about his experiment and it was something he undertook after meeting a man on a bus that changed his life. He felt he was in a rut and needed to be more open to things. Wallace winds up in all sorts of odd situations because of his inability to say no: taking drugs in Amsterdam, crashing a first date of his ex-girlfriend, going to Singapore, becoming a TV show host, nearly getting beaten up after someone asks "Are you looking at my girlfriend?", not to mention the insane amount of money he blows giving in to advertiser's clever wording.

It's a bit long at almost 400 pages. It really could've been boiled down in places, but it's light reading, so you still get through the slow bits quickly. I read it in a few sittings and I'm not a terribly fast reader. While I didn't enjoy it as much as his earlier book Join Me, it was still a good bit of nonsense.

The book is being adapted to film and the "Yes Man" will be played by Jack Black.

Update on the screw up

2005-10-05T23:41:00.000-04:00

Photobucket's either gone belly up, or they're just really crappy at fixing their problems.

Anyway, I've switched all the photos on page1 of my blog to blogger hosting just so the site will load.

Archival pages are still out of whack.

Hopefully they'll straighten out at some point.

In the meantime...enjoy.

Photobucket.com is screwed up

2005-10-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

My photo host, Photobucket.com isn't loading right now, so my blog looks totally screwed. This is the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened. I'm thinking I need to get a new host. My blog is still active, just a bit out of whack at present. Hang in there.

An Open Letter to the People of Alabama

2005-10-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

My fellow Alabamians,

Eventhough I live in Florida, I consider myself first and foremost an Alabamian. I'm a native son. I love the state of Alabama and its people as much or more than anyone. All of my family still resides there as do many of my friends. The white sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast and the glory of the Little River Canyon are a part of my soul. The Birmingham I grew up in was not the Birmingham of Bull Connor, nor was the state I grew up in the state of George Wallace.

I went to school with white kids, black kids, Asian kids, Arab kids, Hispanic kids, etc. I did not grow up in the environment of hate that my forefathers grew up in (or perpetuated.) Though many still heap scorn on our state, I know social progress has been made. I've experienced that positive social change first hand since I'm in an interracial marriage and never had a cross word said to me about it while living there. That would not have happened 30-40 years ago.

The reason I write this is letter is because former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore announced his intention to run for governor yesterday. Alabama does not need to further make itself the laughing stock of the United States by willfully electing a man that had to be removed from his office by a federal mandate. Defying the federal government wasn't a good idea in 1861 and it isn't a good idea today.

I am a Christian and I do not support Roy Moore. His fiery rhetoric foreshadows a draconian style of rule I don't think most people want, even if they think they do. If the incumbent, Governor Bob Riley elects to run again, please vote for him in the primary. If Moore wins the primary please for the Democrat's candidate.

I can't bear the thought of seeing Roy Moore run my beloved home state into the ground. Please put a stop to him before he gets started.

My son the musician

2005-10-04T02:00:00.000-04:00

We're about half-way through my son's vacation with his grandparents, and I have to admit, I'm missing the little guy like crazy. I know the vacation is good for us, him and the grandparents, but it doesn't mean I don't want to see him again real soon.

Anyway, here's a picture of him with a new toy that I'm sure will drive us up the wall when he returns. I love the fact that he looks like he really knows what he's doing.

An encounter at Border's

2005-10-04T00:47:00.000-04:00

I saw Carrot Top at Border's today, had my digital camera in my pocket and didn't try to snap a photo of him perusing the country music section. I didn't figure he'd be a country music kind of guy. I held off because I didn't want to get punched in the nose for photographing someone without asking, not that he seems like a "punch a guy with a digital camera in the nose" type of guy. I didn't want a posed photo though because I'm not a celebrity hound or anything, I just thought it'd be an amusing thing to do. He must work out all the time, because that guy's huge now. I wouldn't mess with him.

Despite my previous statement of not being a celebrity hound, hopefully some day I'll run into my favorite famous Orlando native, Mandy Moore (though I'm sure she doesn't spend much time here these days.) Then there will definately be some pictures to post. I wouldn't know her music if I heard it, but she's too cute to not go amateur paparazzi over.

iTunes 10 week of 10/02/05

2005-10-02T21:17:00.000-04:00

iTunes 10: Set your iTunes (or iPod or whatever device you listen to music on) and hit random/shuffle and tell us about the first 10 tracks that pop up.

1. Orchestra Baobab: “Hommage À Tonton Ferrer” – A super chill combo of West African and Afro-Cuban music. Baobab groove like few others can. Guitarist Barthelemy Attisso lays down one of the most spacious solos I’ve ever heard.
2. Son Volt: “Ten Second News” – Slow and spacious again, but this time with a distinctly country/rock twang. I still think Son Volt is more musically significant than Wilco.
3. Buddhadev Das Gupta: “Raga Sindura” – A lively raga performed by the sarod maestro.
4. Morphine: “Thursday” – Classic Morphine. Fast, frentic, dangerous and dealing with adultery.
5. Calexico: “Glowing Heart of the World” – I’m surprised this song hasn’t been picked up by Quentin Tarantino for use in one of his movies. Instrumental. Western rock swagger. Great tune.
6. Bill Mallonee: “Shirts & Skins” – Spectacular singer/songwriter from Athens, GA turns in an uncharacteristically weak song.
7. Anthrax: “In My World” – Song from the last album of Joey Belladonna-era Anthrax. Back from the days when there was good metal in abundence.
8. Medeski, Martin & Wood: “Midnight Poppies/Crooked Birds” – Tripped out soundscape from MMW’s lastest CD. Great disc, but this is one of the weaker cuts.
9. Phish: “Ya Mar” – Cover of an old calypso tune. Fun summer song.
10. Hank Williams III: “Cocaine Blues” Grandson of the original country outlaw covers a Johnny Cash tune. It doesn’t get much more country than this these days.

Gainesville: Old Crow Medicine Show

2005-10-02T17:28:00.000-04:00

On Friday, we headed up to Gainesville to see Old Crow Medicine Show perform at Common Grounds.

Gainesville is a typical southern college town. Charming and a whole lot of fun. Their downtown area is actually a little better than a lot of college towns I've been to (from what was only a brief look around.) There looked to be a lot going on Friday night. Might have to go back up there someday when I'm not rushing around so much.

Anyway, for those that don't know, OCMS plays old-timey music mixed with their own originals in that style but they do it with punk attitude. They're one of the best things going in the acoustic/twang/southern music/old time music scene at present (eventhough there's some northerners in the band!) I was suprised to see that string band music (music with no percussion or keyboards) could get a crowd so fired up, but the sold out crowd was boisterous and rowdy and having a ton of fun since the overwhelming majority of those present seemed to know the music well. There's a great article about them that describes them and their music much better than I ever could here.

It was insanely hot inside the venue eventhough all of the doors were open. Everyone was singing, dancing, jumping around and basically having the time of their lives. It was a fun, rowdy, beer-drenched, hot, sweaty southern night. It definately helped quell some of the homesickness I've been feeling lately.

Common Grounds is a great venue and I'd like to see more shows there. I also definately want to see OCMS again. One of the better shows I've seen since moving to Florida. Three songs in particular brought a rowdier than normal response: "Wagon Wheel," "Tear It Down," and "Big Time In The Jungle."

See videos for "Tell It To Me" and "Wagon Wheel" here.

MP3s:
Tear It Down
Fall On My Knees (live)

Alabama 31, Florida 3

2005-10-02T12:29:00.000-04:00

There's nothing to say about this game that hasn't been said already. Needless to say, I'm feeling really happy about it today. I'm especially joyous since I live in Florida, the state that is home to three of the most insufferable teams in college football.

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

"Wow. The SEC is tougher than the Mountain West."

Raise your hand if you exposed the Swiss cheese that is Florida's secondary

Raise your hand if you outcoached college football's golden child to an embarrassing degree

Raise your hand if made the spread option look useless

According to the pundits, Chris Leak would have his way with Alabama

The Crimson Tide faithful had an immensely enjoyable afternoon

Bama 31 - Gators 3: Welcome to Alabama Urban!

St. Augustine: 09/29/05

2005-10-01T10:38:00.000-04:00

Went to St. Augustine on Thursday. It was my second time visiting and it's one of my favorite places in Florida. For those that don't know, it's the oldest city in the United States at 440 years (founded in 1565.) Parts of it almost don't even feel like the United States, because there's so few places in the US with such amazing architecture and that have still existing streets that can only be walked down because cars didn't exist when they were designed.

This is going to be a long post with a ton of photos, click on any of the to enlarge them.

The oldness of the place hits you immediately. We parked near Castillo De San Marcos which was built in 1672 when St. Augustine was still a Spanish city. I went there on my last trip (but forgot my camera) so there's only going to be photos from the outside.

I was a little skeptical that it might be lame, but we started the day with a boat tour of St. Augustine with Scenic Cruise. It was a 90-minute tour along the coast of St. Augustine proper and Anastasia Island. I'm glad we did it because we got to see the city from a different point of view.

This is the Bridge of Lions, a drawbridge which is undergoing a massive restoration project that was thankfully saved from the wreckingball. They said it was going to cost $75 million to repair. My photos don't convey what a cool looking bridge it is. You either need to be there or have a high tech camera with panoramic ability to get the full feeling for it. The bridge is amazing at night during Christmas as it's covered with lights.

detail of one of the towers

A temporary bridge is being built alongside the Bridge of Lions until the BoL can be repaired

The fort from the water. The fort was never taken in its history no matter what flag flied over it.

A cross erected on the waterfront in 1965 to commemorate 400 years of Christianity in St. Augustine.

Just before we got to the lighthouse, we started seeing a lot of dolphins hopping out of the water. Seeing dolphins in the wild is a pretty amazing site. They were too fast to capture on my dinky camera though.

St. Augustine lighthouse from the water.

The view coming back into the marina is spectacular:

A super nice old man from New Jersey took our photo on the boat:

After the boat tour, we set about the city on foot.

Many of the streets in St. Augustine are narrow and barely wide enough to drive a car down. Many of the streets are pedestrian only because they're just too narrow. Almost every house or business in the old town has a balcony, either wrought iron or wooden.

The old water wheel still exists:

We stopped in to visit The Saint Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, which is not only an Orthodox Christian chapel, but also houses a small museum that shows the history of Greeks in Florida, particularly around St. Augustine and New Smyrna Beach.

The chapel is tiny, but houses some beautiful iconography:

Christ Pantokrater icon (pantokrater means "ruler of all" in Greek) from the small dome of the chapel

Icon of the Theophany (Epiphany in western usage) on one of the walls. Theophany is a major Orthodox holiday, but particularly amongst Greeks.

Just about every inch of space in the chapel is covered with iconography, whether painted or mosaic

After walking around the old town for a bit, we headed over to Flagler College, which easily has the coolest campus I've ever set foot on. It is housed in what used to the Ponce de Leon Hotel that was built by business tycoon Henry Flagler. I would imagine the students get annoyed at times by all of the tourists traipsing around their campus, but most colleges aren't on The National Register of Historic Places.

view from the street

fountain in the courtyard

Lobby of Flagler College (photo from Wikipedia)

Decorative spire

St. Augustine is full of neat architectural details

The wife & I in a courtyard

After walking around Flagler a bit, we just walked around the city to see what kind of stuff we could find.

Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1890 and modelled on St. Mark's in Venice

Detail above the church doors

Grace United Methodist Church has some majestic archways and doors. Follow the link to see more of the building. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the tower details from the street.

I'm mad at myself for not remembering the name of this place, but it was a house built in the Moorish style and based on the wing of a palace in Spain. It was built by a Boston business man as his winter home.

More building details

Another self-portrait with the wife in front of another part of the building

We finished the day by going to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. We had to cram it in as there was only 45 minutes left before closing when we arrived. My camera's batteries unfortunately gave out and so I didn't get to take a picture of the lighthouse from the bottom (something I was going to do once we'd gone up due to time restrictions.) I was at least able to get a few from inside the lighthouse.

The view of what we had to climb: 219 steps = 14 stories high

A long way up. A big leap of faith to trust something built 125+ years ago

Us on the lighthouse deck. Thanks to the girl who works up top of the lighthouse for taking our picture. Can't have a fear of heights with that job.

Great day. We crammed in a lot. I'd love to spend several days in a row in St. Augustine sometime to be able to explore it even further.

Roll Crue Roll!

2005-09-30T09:55:00.000-04:00

I'm not a Motley Crue fan, but just figured I'd show the latest celebrities to hop on the Tide bandwagon. (Got the photo at Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer who picked it up from someone else.)

09/29/05 - St. Augustine

2005-09-30T09:32:00.000-04:00

Spent all day yesterday out in the boiling hot sun of St. Augustine. Florida is hotter on the next to last day of September than most places are in the middle of July. It was brutal out there yesterday.

I'm going to Cape Canaveral and Gainesville today, so the update won't come 'til later tonight or tomorrow.

For now, I will leave you with a photo of St. Augustine that I took from a boat. I will post dozens of St. Augustine photos and tell all about the trip soon.

700 year old Japanese poetry comin' at you!

2005-09-28T17:10:00.000-04:00

I was reading A Quiet Room by Jakushitsu today and ran across this bit and liked it:

The jewel under the black dragon's jaw
is not easily obtained

More difficult yet
to find a like-minded friend

CD of the week: Mike Doughty: Haughty Melodic

2005-09-28T00:06:00.000-04:00

For the repeat visitors out there (and I know there are some considering I've racked up 2000+ hits over the past month or so...which you wouldn't know from the new counter I adopted today), you may have noticed the addition of the ALBUM OF THE WEEK feature in the bar on the right.

I'll pick an album once a week I've really been into (new or old) and pimp it a little bit.

Mike Doughty's Haughty Melodic came out on May 3 of this year. I got it the day it came out and have been digging on it more and more ever since.

Most people will know him as M. Doughty, the frontman of the now defunct Soul Coughing. His solo stuff is pretty different from his Soul Coughing days, but honestly, it's an improvement (and I'm a big Soul Coughing fan.) His trademark wit is still there and his clever, rhythmic delivery still shines through, but it's a more mature, less in your face sound, but not one that is in any way weak.

Doughty uses a wide array of sounds on his new collection. "Unsingable Name" uses tasteful strings in a non-crappy way (unlike most strings used on rock music), some gorgeous pedal steel on "White Lexus," a vocal duet with Dave Matthews on "Tremendous Brunettes," and he even takes the hymn/spirtual "His Truth is Marching On" up several notches from its original incarnation. None of these things are gimmicky though, they sound natural and organic with his vocals and guitar playing. This is his first full band album since the Soul Coughing days. Skittish and Rockity Roll (his other solo albums) were pretty much that...solo. He's great just him and his guitar, but a full band complements his songwriting quite well.

Eventhough there's still a few months in the year, Haughty Melodic is a lock for my 2005 Top 10 list, and it'll likely crack the Top 5.

Baaaaahhhhh

2005-09-27T23:30:00.000-04:00

Not too much happening over the last few days. Honestly, I'm kind of pissed at myself for wasting the day today. Well, I was going to go to the park and spend some much needed time outside, but as you can tell from the photo, the sky was about to open up (and it did.)

I did do some "research" though for other things to do the rest of the week, so I guess it wasn't a total loss. I'm pondering this indoor skydiving thing or doing that hang-glider type thing that has the big fan looking thing on the back.

I have to admit that while I've given Orlando a chance in some ways, I've kind of dismissed it prematurely. There are a lot of things here I like, but there's also a lot here that's lacking (as far as I'm concerned.) However, there are a great many natural wonders here, and I'm going to do my best to explore and enjoy those to the fullest.

Alabama 24, Arkansas 13

2005-09-26T16:55:00.000-04:00

I would have come unglued had I watched this game live. The Tide nearly blew it.

I'm hoping three main factors influenced the scoreline:

Alabama was coming off a big win
Arkansas was coming off a big loss
Conference games are often inexplicably close

Frustrated once again by the number of dropped passes. I hope they got it all out of their systems the last two weeks, because we'll need to hang onto those against Florida. Freddie Roach, you have got to catch the passes the opposing quarterbacks throw right to you. I'm sure Chris Leak won't throw three passes right at you like Arkansas' QB did, but if he does, we need you to snag those. I'm at a loss for words over Roman Harper getting stiff armed and shaken off like a rookie. I consider it an aberration because I know it won't happen again. I was ready to praise the punt team and then we got one blocked. More stupid motion penalties. Despite the frustration that game caused (and it caused me grief watching it two days later knowing the final score...I can't imagine how you that watched it live must've suffered), we got the job done. Sometimes that's what matters. You've got to be able to win ugly as well as win pretty.

Florida's coming fellas, and it's going to be a whole new level from what you've faced thus far. You can do it.

Roll Tide.

Linkage: Fatal shooting / nuditea / anyone? / U17s

2005-09-26T13:17:00.000-04:00

(photo courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel)

University of Central Florida in Orlando snapped their 17 game losing streak on Saturday (the current longest in the NCAA) with a 23-13 win over Marshall. The joy of the win was overshadowed by a fatal shooting during pregame tailgating. We're going to be tailgating at a UCF game in two weeks.
An American in Belgrade posts about a brand of tea that won't be on US grocery store shelves any time soon.
False 45th discusses the unfortunate times bands play to near empty houses.
The United States faces Holland today at the U17 World Championship in Peru. Game is on the Fox Soccer Channel at 5PM Eastern. Go USA!

Soup For You!?

2005-09-26T12:11:00.000-04:00

I decided to keep yesterday low key after the long day on Saturday. Wife was working so my friend Cale & I tried to grab some Vietnamese food. However, we didn't realize it was 9:30 PM until we were almost there. We went to the Little Vietnam section of town on Colonial seeing as there's about a dozen or so restaurants in 2 or 3 blocks.

Little Saigon had been closed for an hour, so we went to Phó 88, but they were just closing up shop as we got there. The only one open we saw at this point was Viet Garden, so to Viet Garden we went. They too looked like they were trying to wrap things up for the evening though there were a few patrons there. We asked if they were still serving. The lady checked her watch, looked at us and said, "You can have soup!" We politely declined.

(Gift shop on the corner of Colonial & Mills Ave)

Now it's 10:30 on a Sunday night and dining options are running out quickly. We went to an old Orlando latenight standby, Gino's for some pizza (btw, I have no idea what the restaurant reviewer in the link is rattling on about "performance art," it's just a regular pizza place like any other.) There was some late night skeeziness and shadiness in effect up there so we left soon after finishing and headed back to Cale's to drink and hang out. Our wives soon arrived and the four of us stayed up 'til 4AM talking. Not having to take care of child is bringing out the night owl in me.

9/24/05 - Tampa & St. Petersburg

2005-09-25T18:27:00.000-04:00

The wife & I went to St. Petersburg & Tampa yesterday. The day started off in St. Petersburg with a trip to the Salvador Dali Museum.

(museum ticket)

It is a small museum (maybe four or five rooms), but worth a visit. While the museum lacks Dali's most famous work Persistence of Memory (which is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York), there are still works Dali enthusiasts and art history students would recognize such as:

The Disintegration of the Persistance of Memory

It's an incredibly small painting too. I was suprised to see that it wasn't much bigger than a sheet of notebook paper. After studying these paintings for years in art history classes and seeing them projected onto big screens for study, it's always suprising to go into museums and see one that's really small.

The Hallucinogenic Toreador

This painting, on the other hand, is massive in scale (over 10 feet tall) and was described by Dali himself as "All of Dali in one painting."

The museum is right on the water and there's a nice view right outside the front door:

I would imagine the museum staff is sweating bullets every time a hurricane threatens St. Petersburg.

After a couple of hours at the Dali Museum, we needed to find some food and perused The Weekly Planet looking for ideas. We eventually settled on the Athenian Garden (22nd Ave location) based on the praise of the local rag and it didn't disappoint. While the crown of the best Greek food I've ever eaten goes to a place in St. Augustine, this was still pretty good (and cheap.) We had appetizers, two chicken souvlaki pitas and dessert and got out of there for $20.00.

It was now about 4:30, so we decided to grab some beer and head over to Tampa for the Louisville vs. South Florida football game. It was about half an hour's drive from the restaurant and we arrived at the stadium about 90 minutes before kickoff.

There was a lot more tailgating going on than I thought there would be. I figured these new programs wouldn't have yet won enough hardcore fans to spend an entire day at the stadium, but there was a good many people there well in advance of the kickoff enjoying themselves. Of course, it was nothing on the scale of an SEC tailgate, but it was still much more than I expected. The USF band marched through the parking lots playing fight songs to get the crowd pumped.

USF playes their home games at Raymond James Stadium, which is also home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The stadium is really nice. Built in 1998, the only other stadiums I've been to that are as nice, new and clean are Reliant Stadium in Houston and The Coliseum in Nashville. RJS is a great facility, but it's a little too "perfect" for my tastes. It's a great place to see a game, but it just lacks the soul of a lot of older stadiums.

Entrance to the stadium

Just a bit cleaner than Legion Field

The pirate ship in the endzone is cheesy

Once the game got going, it was an absolute bloodbath. USF just destroyed Louisville and no one saw it coming. Louisville was a 22 point favorite and ended up losing by 31. I would imagine a few people lost some serious money on that one. USF got out to a 21 point lead in the first half and never looked back. Louisville looked so outclassed, which is suprising given that they were ranked #9 in the country. The 33,000 fans on hand for the game were loving every minute of it and were rubbing it in the Louisville fans' faces. Final score: South Florida 45, Louisville 14. Even if people thought USF could pull out the win, NOBODY thought it would be such a Grade A asswhipping.

USF working their magic

Self-portrait with the wife

Got home around 1AM. Great start to the vacation.

Long, fun day

2005-09-25T01:56:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a long, but fun day in Tampa/St. Petersburg. Too tired to write about it at present. Will update after I get some sleep.

I'm watching Sports Center and I have to say two things about it:

Lee Corso is an absolute dipshit.
I'm so tired of hearing the commentators fellate USC (especially Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.) Yes, they're the greatest team in the land. We all know it. Stop trying to create stories where there isn't one. We all knew they were going to pound Oregon no matter how slowly they started. How many highlights can one show of them destroying vastly inferior teams?

Also, how come everyone acts like LSU didn't win the BCS in '03. They're so up USC's butt that they act like the AP is the only thing that exists.

Not exactly what I had planned...

2005-09-24T00:15:00.000-04:00

I'd hoped for a little more exciting kickoff (no pun intended) to the two weeks my son is away at his grandparent's house. Wife had to work, so I ended up watching the Iowa State vs. Army game on ESPN2. Oh well, I'm going to Tampa tomorrow, so I imagine that'll be a good time.

Trey Anastasio on New Orleans and music in America

2005-09-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

I just got an email with Trey Anastasio's fall tour dates (no love for Florida Trey?) and went to check out his site, which I hadn't looked at in a while. Saw this message from him about music and New Orleans and thought it should be viewed by as wide an audience as possible:

"When I woke up this morning and saw what has happened to New Orleans, I don't really have words to describe the sadness. My first thought, of course, was concern for the families of all of my friends...Tony Hall's wife and children, The Superfly family, the Dumpstaphunk guys and their families, Cyril, the Dirty Dozen guys, Sunpie, Ivan and everyone from the SuperJam…Nicholas Payton-who I met in NY when he played on my CD…Russell Batiste and all of his family, the Nevilles, and all the good people I met at Jazzfest. I could just go on and on and on…and this led to my second thought - there probably isn't a musician alive who isn't thinking the same thing right now....because every musician has musical connections to New Orleans; because it's not just the birthplace of American music, but over the years it's maintained its place as The Source of American music. You want to learn how to groove? Go to New Orleans. I saw Bootsy at Tips once…it was the slowest, loudest music I've ever experienced...or Rebirth at The Maple Leaf in the Eighties....once I was at a party at my friend Rob's house and Doc Cheatam showed up. This is New Orleans...the center of American music. We used to talk in Phish about "the Hose"...well New Orleans is where it was plugged In. New Orleans is in trouble, so music itself is in trouble...anything we can all do now to help is crucial...if you love music, please do whatever you can." - Trey Anastasio

David Eugene Edwards photo

2005-09-23T20:58:00.000-04:00

(click photo for bigger version)

My wife took this picture of David Eugene Edwards of Sixteen Horsepower back around '97 or '98 with an old, beat up Pentax from the 60s. Something inside the camera was scratching the film, and it made the photos look old and battered (and kind of cool.) It was taken at UAB's Springfest.

I promoted the show and felt horrible that a band so great would have to play a show so out of their element (it's a daytime carnival type thing.) We were trying to land Son Volt instead, but they couldn't work it into their schedule. They shared a booking agent with 16HP and the agent asked me if I knew 16HP's music. I told him I was a huge fan. He said they were playing a late show in Tuscaloosa that night and that they'd be passing through Birmingham and could do a quick set. As big a fan as I was, I tried to talk the guy out of it because the event was kind of lame and I didn't want one of my all time favorite bands to have to play a lame-ish event. The agent said they really needed the money, so I booked the gig. I still feel bad about it. If anyone from the band 16 Horsepower ever reads this, I'm sorry about that show. I was only trying to help. Unforunately 16HP are no more, but Edwards' current project, Woven Hand, is just as potent.

Alabama vs. Arkansas

2005-09-23T19:30:00.000-04:00

I'm doing the unthinkable and missing my first Alabama game in a long time tomorrow as I'm going to Tampa for the day. I will have the DVR fired up though for what will hopefully be a Bama victory. On paper, the Crimson Tide should be a runaway victor, but football is weird and the unthinkable often happens. Hopefully, this is one Nutt we can crack.

Bat Boy Days

2005-09-23T16:43:00.000-04:00

My dad is pretty cool. Every week he mails me stuff from the newspaper back home that he knows I'd be interested in. Yeah, I know I could read it online, but I'm lazy like that, plus it's cool to have the physical paper. In the fall, he always sends the Sunday sports section of the Birmingham News so I can read the Alabama game reports (much of which isn't published online.)

This week he sent me a (month old) article about batboys for the local AA club, the Birmingham Barons. When I was 12 years old, I was a batboy for the Barons. It was the team's inaugural year at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium after leaving the (then) decrepit, but infinitely cooler and more charming Rickwood Field (which just happens to be America's oldest ballpark.)

It was a fun time for a 12 year old and an amazing way to spend a summer (I learned to cuss like a sailor in both English & Spanish!) However, my school teachers hated it during the weeks school was in session the same time as baseball and one or two of them made my school life difficult because they thought sports were a waste of time. I often stayed up ridiculously late to finish my homework after games and was tired at school the next day.

During that '88 season, I made my first long trip away from home without my parents (to Charlotte & Knoxville) and was basically allowed to run wild in those cities. My parents would have had a heart attack if they'd known how little we were supervised. As a matter of fact, I got dehydrated in Knoxville and had to go to the hospital for a day. I think I was so excited to be "out on the town" that I didn't eat and drink enough in that hot southern sun. Some of the players tried to cheer me up by bringing me a copy of Penthouse. Like I said, my parents would've freaked. Some of the more responsible players put the nix on that though as they realized that might not be the best thing for a 12 year old.

The team was awful the year I was a batboy. I saw many grown man tantrums over losing. Scary stuff too (scary for a little kid anyway)...beating things with bats, throwing trash cans (the big oil drum kind), kicking stuff over, etc. They finished dead last in the Southern League. For whatever reason, the Spanish speaking players befriended me and some of those guys are the ones I remember best. Guys like Carlos Martinez (who eventually played for the White Sox) & Will Magallanes were really cool to me and would give me cash for running errands for them. I even got to know Juan Guzman (who was pitching for Knoxville) pretty well.

The league is so different now, only a handful of teams still exist (the Barons, the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Huntsville Stars are the only teams still in the Southern League from that '88 season.) That's a shame too. The ballpark in Knoxville was incredible and the one in Charlotte was fairly cool even if a bit rinky-dink. I know they want decent facilities, but it sucks to see all of these minor league teams being housed in boring, sterile stadiums. I feel lucky to have gotten to experience gritty, grimy, funky minor league stadiums as a kid.

Anyway, here's the article from the paper. I can't believe they get paid now (eventhough it's a paltry amount), we did it for free. They also mention "girls" as being an added benefit of the job. I think one guy on our crew met a girl from the stands, and she was nothing to write home about. Guess things have gotten better in that regard.

(click to read article full size)

...and...he's...outta here...

2005-09-23T11:59:00.000-04:00

The little one set sail on his maiden voyage to Birmingham about an hour ago. He'll have a stopover in Macon, GA tonight to break up the trip seeing as 600 mile roadtrips are a little tough on people only four months old.

As much as I was looking forward to being able to go and do stuff, I have to admit it was pretty dang tough to see him go knowing I'm not going to see him for over two weeks. It kind of felt like getting kicked in the stomach, punched in the throat and stabbed in the heart all at once. Definately not a feeling I've ever felt before and honestly I was a little surprised it was there. I knew I would miss him, but I didn't know that I would feel it physically. I know I can relax and have a good time though, because I know he's in good hands with all four grandparents and his aunts and uncles.

Unfortunately, the wife has to work tonight, so my friend Brad (not the one below that went to L.A.) and I will be hitting the bars of Orlando in celebration of my ability to stay out way too late without having to worry about taking care of someone the next day.

The next few weeks of the blog will be a chronicle of my trying to explore Orlando and the Central Florida area as much as possible. Updates coming daily.

(Probably) no posting until Friday

2005-09-20T23:14:00.000-04:00

The inlaws are coming to town tomorrow and they demand full undivided attention. Check back anyway though, I may get some time.

They're out of here on Friday though, so everything will return to normal.