Idiots Abound

Chef Eric - Part 2

2011-04-07T13:11:00.001-04:00

Check out the rest of the interview with Chef Eric Chiappetta. And for god sakes, people, lets get him his own show!!!

http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2011/04/eric_chiappetta_pizza_republic.php

Anyone there? Anyone care?

2007-11-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

Any reason to keep this going?

Plain English please

2007-11-05T21:28:00.000-05:00

It's probably not apparent since I don't provide a lot of commentary when I post the podcasts, but I definitely have a serious love/hate relationship with music bloggers. The love comes from how they make so much new music readily available to the rest of us idiots on the interwebs. But the hate comes from having to somehow figure out how to sift thru the god-awful prose they sometimes come up with to describe the music. Take the following:

[Redacted] sounds like the golden sun peeking out from behind a darkly clouded sky for a moment. It sounds like standing on the doorstep of greatness only to turn around and walk away without looking back. The music is not sad; it is not joyful. The music is contentedly smiling a half smile like things aren't really as bad as they may seem.

I'm not including the name of the album or the name of the blog where I found it because I like the blog a lot and have gotten a lot of new music from them. But I'm amazed at the large number of music bloggers who write the same way. All kinds of mixed metaphors, agonizing attempts at provoking mental imagery, etc. Just tell me whether or not you like it, what genre it fits into, and give me the names of a couple other bands that they sound like. That'll do.

Whole lotta nuthin'

2007-10-23T20:28:00.000-04:00

First - videos...

This is what you get when you're a Favre fan (from Kissing Suzy Kolber):

And this apparently is what this man from Jacksonville has to offer to the city's women (from Mr. Irrelevant):

Now for the important stuff...if you don't already, you should be checking out Every Day Should Be Saturday on a regular basis. It's college football fandom at its finest. Plus they post videos of us too:

And lastly - this is probably the best paragraph about the current state of ACC football that I've read so far this year. From the aforementioned EDSBS...

"College football should not be argued out on bumper stickers on the back of Range Rovers. Yet that is precisely what the ACC is, because your number one and number two teams are Boston College and Virginia, and the drink of choice is a Geyser Peak 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley Block Collection Walking Tree Vineyard. Hopefully we can see the joint classed down a bit when BC walks into the dive bar that is Blacksburg Thursday night, orders a Charles Krug, and gets blank stares while someone loads a sock with a jar of washers and pennies. Lessee if preppie boy can fight, y’all!"

Go Hokies Go!!

2007-10-22T02:19:00.000-04:00

Add another National Championship to Virginia Tech's mantle (there were some individual Track & Field NC's in the past).

Yet another new podcast

2007-10-19T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hard on the heels of yesterday's podcast - here's the next one...Ocho!

The Veils - Lions after Slumber
Siouxsie - Here Comes That Day
Windmill - Tokyo Moon
The Roots - Here I Come
The Blakes - Two Times
British Sea Power - Atom
MGMT - Time to Pretend
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
Radiohead - Bodysnatchers
Aceyalone feat. Chali 2na & Bionik - Eazy
Candie Payne - By Tomorrow
Dappled Cities - Holy Chord
Alberta Cross - The Thief & The Heartbreaker

New podcast on deck

2007-10-18T15:39:00.000-04:00

Remember how I said I had something like 53 songs all lined up? Well I cut that shit down to 26 or so because 53 is just way too damn many. I split the songs into two lists, one is more pop-oriented and the other is a bit more, I don't know, upbeat. Not that the first one is downbeat or anything. Anyway. I recorded the former today and I'll get it posted tonight (UPDATE - it's now posted). Here's the lineup:

Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails
The Early Tapes - Betty & Thomas
Deer Tick - Dirty Dishes
Golden Dogs - Nineteen Hundred & Eighty-Five
Windmill - Plastic Pre-Flight Seats
St. Vincent - Jesus Saves, I Spend
Mobius Band - Hallie
Bishop Allen - The History of Excuses
Kevin Drew - Fucked Up Kid
Two Hours Traffic - Stuck for the Summer
Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining
Alberta Cross - Lucy Rider
Meiko - Piano Song
The 1900s - Two Ways

Just a couple weeks ago I actually got out of the house to go see a band in a club and it was just like I remembered. There was the hot and humid air, the smell of bear, the sweaty bodies, the drunk girl throwing up on the bar right next to me...good times all around (except for the puking girl, she sucked). The band was Okkervil River and the club was the Rock & Roll Hotel in NE DC. I hadn't been to this place before but I'm definitely going to go back. The band was fantastic and if you want, you can download the concert that I saw by subscribing to NPR's All Songs Considered podcast. They've got a bunch of other concerts available at that link as well.

Damn CNN, you feeling like scaring some people today?

2007-10-17T12:46:00.000-04:00

I guess CNN decided they hadn't scared anyone with their headlines yet today...so they go and put this up:

Scary headline aside, the issue is causing enough confusion to put me off of giving my kids any over the counter cold and flu medicine for the foreseeable future.

UFC Pay Disparity

2007-10-16T15:22:00.000-04:00

Good lord, I remember reading somewhere once that the pay that UFC fighters get is pretty strange but I had no idea it was this bad:

The purses from UFC 76:

Keith Jardine ($14,000) def. Chuck Liddell ($500,000)
Forrest Griffin ($44,000) def. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua ($150,000)
Jon Fitch ($44,000) def. Diego Sanchez ($22,000)
Lyoto Machida ($50,000) def. Kazuhiro Nakamura ($20,000)
Tyson Griffin ($24,000) def. Thiago Tavares ($9,000)
Rich Clementi ($24,000) def. Anthony Johnson ($5,000)
Jeremy Stephens ($6,000) def. Diego Saraiva ($3,000)
Christian Wellisch ($14,000) def. Scott Junk ($4,000)
Matt Wiman ($16,000) def. Michihiro Omigawa ($5,000)

Keith Jardine got paid less than 3% of what Chuck Liddell did - no wonder he came out looking mad at the beginning of that fight.

Greatest Goal Ever?

2007-10-16T10:37:00.000-04:00

Not sure if this beats Maradona's run but I have to admit, this is pretty damn good. Via The Beautiful Game.

Let's restart this thing

2007-10-15T22:23:00.000-04:00

I think it's about time we got rid of that picture of Glennon from the front of this here blog, don't you think? Need more posts to push him down the page. I do think he redeemed himself a bit this past weekend though. Granted, it was against Duke, but still. And let's just get a preliminary fuck B.C. comment out here early as well.

I know I've been slacking on the podcast but I'm going to make up for it. I've got a whole bunch of new stuff that Ginipro won't like all lined up. In fact, the playlist where I maintain the songs I want to use for the podcast now has, let's see, 53 songs that total three and a half hours. Holy shit. Might not be able to actually organize those into a playlist, might just have to randomly select them. Yeah, that's what's going to happen.

In the meantime, since you all probably don't see all of these, here are some links that caught my eye recently:

Yay white running backs! And of course, a bunch of people don't get the joke.
What is was like in for that LSU / FLA game in Baton Rouge. From the perspective of a FLA fan no less.
Being married, I'm guessing that this will never happen to me.
You can get Radiohead's new album for free if you want. Or you can be ethical and pay for it. It's up to you (I took the free route, surprise). And apparently, Jesus loves it. You know what, I was ethical, they gave me the choice and I took it.
Left or right? No, not a question about your cock.

And don't forget to send best wishes to Ed and Carol-Beth, she was scheduled to be induced today for their first born. Anyone heard from them?

Oh, and here’s me getting pummeled in the fantasy football league that I really care about…fuck Purple Jesus and Braylon Edwards, and Maurice Jones-Drew, and Tony Gonzales, might as well throw Elijah in there as well. Fuck him too.

Booo Football!! (not really)

2007-09-10T16:12:00.000-04:00

Well, that cornholing by LSU sure didn't feel too good did it? But now at least our long Sean Glennon nightmare is officially over. And poor Sean can go back to helping out the ladies when they need him the most. sorry, did I say helping out? I meant make fun of (via EDSBS).

Yay Football #2!!

2007-09-04T10:36:00.000-04:00

Don't get me wrong, I'll never downplay a Hokie win EVER. However, on Saturday I may have been associated with the biggest win of a football program I'm connected to. Maybe if Tech had won the NC in 1999, it would be different.

Campus was INSANE when we got back from Knoxville. Check out the post-game celebration video on the App State Athletics site.

And here's our radio guys' version of the final play. David Jackson, our AD of Media Relations still doesn't have a voice. Even better, our Chancellor (who got reprimanded for unsportsmanlike conduct last year at a big game) was one of the first people off the bus celebrating with the students in Boone.

Yay Football!

2007-09-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

If you haven't been to a Tech football game for a while, then you haven't seen the team run out through the tunnel to "Enter Sandman." Get thee to Blacksburg...

Fuck me gently with a baseball bat...

2007-08-23T09:36:00.000-04:00

Hey - at least the Orioles made history! Which means that absolutely no one is talking about it...

AOL Fanhouse
Awful Announcing
Can't Stop the Bleeding
Deadspin
Epic Carnival
Girls Gone Sports
Mr. Irrelevant
The Big Lead
With Leather

Podcast No. 6

2007-08-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

Blood Red shoes - It's Getting Boring by the Sea
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Isis
Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone
Aesop Rock - The Next Best Thing
Camp Lo - Posse From the Bronx
Travis Morrison - As We Proceed
Okkervil River - Hand to Take Hold Of
Spoon - Don't You Evah
Rhymefest - These Days
Common Market - Doors
Common & Lily Allen - Driving Me Wild
The New Pornographers - All the Old Showstoppers
Wild Sweet Orange - House of Regret
St. James Inc. - Busy
Cat Power - He War
Moonbabies - Take Me to the Ballroom

I'll get the links for the songs up in the next day or two.

Almost time for football

2007-08-10T12:00:00.001-04:00

Skate boarding wipeout

2007-08-03T11:02:00.000-04:00

I'm Back!!

2007-08-02T12:40:00.001-04:00

OK, I'm kinda sorta settled in the office in Boone. Great mountain town which reminds me a lot of Blacksburg. Speaking of which, I'll be heading to the Burg this weekend for Steppin' Out.

Life as a head coach is very stressful and I can't wait to finally get in the gym on the 8th. I've already had two kids quit, which is perfectly fine with me. Thankfully, I have two good assistants who will keep me sane throughout the year. As you can see, I brought another Hokie with me.

Once I can breathe, I'm going to catch up on the past posts and maybe even delve into Fleming's music to see if there's anything I like.

Here's what I'm listening to now: Hayseed Dixie

New Podcast

2007-07-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

Five

McLusky - To Hell With Good Intentions (via I Rock Cleveland)
Brother Reade - Like Duh (via Berkeley Place)
NASA - NASA Mega Mix 2 (via Gorilla vs. Bear)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy (via FoeWeel!!!??)
Spoon - Black Like Me (via Fluxblog)
The National - Black Slate (via I Guess I'm Floating)
Q Tip - Work It Out (via So Much Silence)
Modest Mouse - Missed the Boat (via Music Is Art)
The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour (via Gorilla vs. Bear)
Bishop Allen - Rain (via Can You See the Sunset...)
Jason Anderson - July 4, 2004 (via I Rock Cleveland)
Nees and Vos - (I Ain't) Going Back to Georgia (via Can You See the Sunset...)
Bear Hands - Golden (via My Old Kentucky Blog)
Cloud Cult - A Good God (via The Yellow Stereo)
Art in Manila - Our Addictions (via The Yellow Stereo)
Stars - Elevator Love Letter (via Heartache with Hard Work)

The interwebs I've seen...

2007-07-26T14:10:00.000-04:00

An ACC Football preview, written by a Hokie lady!
You mean Fishbone isn't dead?
The hottest rookie cheerleaders.
The new French President is having a blast.
The ESPN Fantasy Football Hall of Fame
The 100 Greatest Simpsons quotes
Hokies judged by ESPN to have the 12th best football program over the past 10 years. Maryland is at 30-something. Suck it, turtles.
Oh, and fuck the Wall Street Journal (everything they say might be true but you do NOT besmirch the accomplishments of Cal Ripken! Especially on the weekend that he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. But perhaps I'm just bitter about seeing so many goddamn Yankee fans wandering around the Inner Harbor today, I hate when the Yankees come to town).

And finally - it's summertime! Enjoy your trip to the pool.

Daily Musings

2007-07-25T12:17:00.000-04:00

Play Wired Magazine's Greatest Gadget bracket and maybe win an iPhone (which, if I won, would immediately get put up on Ebay)

Harry Potter stuff - if you haven't read the last book yet, then stay away:

Slate's Book Club
The AV Club live blogs their reading of the book

Choosing your fantasy football team name

So last night I'm watching the new F/X show "Damages" (which you might have seen a commercial or 10,000 for) and a Cadillac commercial comes on. And the song playing in the background is the Teddybears' song "Pink Rocker." You know it, the hook goes, "'cause I'm a punk rocker yes I am." Anyway, I don't know that there's another company out there that is less punk rock than Cadillac. This is not new territory of course, just made me screw my face up when I heard it.

And in the "this is really eerie and frightening department" comes an old quote from your friend and mine, Herman Goering, from the Nuremberg Trials (verified via Snopes):

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

Since that quote has now sufficiently freaked me out, here's a picture of a kitten...

Now I feel better.

Links...again!

2007-07-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

This is setting up to be one of the most boring days ever. Boss? Gone. Other boss? Also gone. And I've quite literally finished any projects that have been going on. How many hours until I can go home?

That god this never happened to me when I worked in a restaurant.
This week's SchruteBucks winners and losers.
Vick's reaction to getting indicted.
A preview of Tech's football team (scroll down to # 9).
Professional Cheerleader tryouts.
Why does my head hurt?
An NFL pre-season preparation guide.
I knew there was a reason I liked this girl.
Another cab dispatcher story. One more.
Is it possible to fly a plane with one wing? Yes.
A review of the new Common disc. In one word? Disappointing.
Like it's written in the post - if this doesn't fire you up then nothing will.

Links!

2007-07-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

An iPhone review
Vote for the best Simpsons character
Best headline ever
A new advice column, where Jesus answers your questions.

Links!

2007-07-13T12:22:00.000-04:00

A lineup of great Simpson's quotes
That dog on the right will beat up your dog.
Bush makes a little girl cry.
The story behind Drew's favorite shoe s

Today's Lessons

2007-07-12T11:21:00.000-04:00

Rickey Henderson is back! I don't know how he's supposed to be taken seriously as a coach when he's got a history like this.
Preseason intros are already up and running. First up are the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens
Lonny Baxter, good lord man, what the hell is wrong with you?
Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature
and finally, How to Start Your Own Religion

Back into it

2007-06-29T13:13:00.001-04:00

Well, Ginipro is out scouting a new terrain for underage girls and the rest of us have been busy with the golf trip! So who took home the crocospider trophy this year (Ed, get a real crocospider trophy made up for next year will you?)?

Since we were playing King of the Course then I guess it would have to be Adam. A 2-0-1 record will get you that I suppose. Everyone else went 1-1-1 except for poor old Morris, who got the goose egg on wins (0-2-1). And really, the only reason Adam got the 2nd win is because he was too dumb to realize he didn't play his ball and the rest of us thought he shouldn't take a penalty for it. So congratulations on being stupid. Way to use it to your advantage.

Somehow over the last couple weeks of vacationing I was able to finally cobble together a new podcast. So here's the lineup for that...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 10x10 (via Blogs are for Dogs)
The Heartless Bastards - Searching For The Ghost (via My Old Kentucky Blog)
Bark Bark Bark - Haunts (via Obscure Sound)
Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver (via Rewriteable Content)
Super Furry Animals - Lazer Beam (via You Ain't No Picasso)
The Coral - Dreaming of You (via I Guess I'm Floating)
Office - Ordinary Offices, Extraordinary Proposals (via The Yellow Stereo)
Blue States - Season Song (via somewhere that I can't seem to find again, this happened with that Shhh song a couple podcasts ago too, and why isn't the Hype Machine any help here?)
The Grey Race - On The Chin (via Each Note Secure)
Low Line Caller - On The Counter Kids (via Gorilla vs. Bear)
Pela - Drop Me Off (via I Guess I'm Floating)
The Heartless Bastards - All This Time (via My Old Kentucky Blog)
The Boggs - Arm in Arm (via I Rock Cleveland)
Witchdoctor Wise - S.I.T.C. (via Analog Giant)
The Blakes - Lintwalk (via My Old Kentucky Blog)
Windmill - Asthmatic (via Nothing But Green Lights)
The Twilight Sad - Cold Days From The Birdhouse (via Can You See The Sunset...?)
Black Before Red - Goddess in Trauma (via Minneapolis Fucking Rocks)
Stereophonics - Have a Nice Day (via Rewriteable Content)
The White Stripes - Effect & Cause (via Bedford Rockers)
Spoon - Bring it on Home to Me (Sam Cooke Cover) (via I Guess I'm Floating)

And before I leave for the weekend, some links...

the only NBA first round draft recap you'll need (and just so you'll make sure to go to the post, here's what the author leads off with..."What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't live blog the NBA draft? With all of the valuable analysis available throughout the net, I'll be answering the only question that really matters: What model/actress does each pick remind me of?") - Insomniac's Lounge
an analysis of the girl sports fan - Why don't we get drunk and blog?
a pretty cool Dilbert story - The Dilbert Blog
heckling Stephen A. Smith at the NBA draft - Deadspin
please god don't let this happen to me in the morning - Hobocamp

I Will Be Incognito For A While

2007-06-12T20:37:00.000-04:00

Not that I post every day, but I will not be doing anything besides figuring out how to be a head coach for quite a while.

I hope you don't miss me too much and I hope to be back in blogging mode as soon as possible (just don't hold your breath). In the mean time, put your democratic muscles to the test:

Hometown Hotties Semifinalists

Knocked Up deleted scenes

2007-06-12T10:56:00.000-04:00

As if I didn't already have a burning desire to see this movie, here are a couple deleted scenes. Now back to work...

Nothing wrong with this picture.

2007-06-05T12:52:00.001-04:00

New podcast - No. 3

2007-05-31T12:39:00.000-04:00

Well it didn't take me as long as I thought it would to get a few more songs together to round out the new podcast. Turns out that Memorial Day weekend was better for the tunes than I would have thought...

The Flies - Walking on the Sand (via Speed of Dark)
Eastern Conference Champions - The Box (via Rock Insider)
Land of Talk - Magnetic Hill (via Speed of Dark)
Common - The Game (feat. DJ Premier) (via Analog Giant)
Florence & The Machine -- My Boy Builds Coffins (via I Rock Cleveland)
The Hold Steady - You Can Make Him Like You (via Minneapolis Fucking Rocks)
DJ Jazzy Jeff - Jeff n' Fess (feat. Rhymefest) (via Feed Me Good Tunes)
Jaylib (J Dilla & Madlib) - Raw Shit (feat. Talib Kweli) (via Los Amigos de Durutti)
The Kissaway Trail - La La Song (via Open Your Eyes)
Matt Pond PA - If You Want Blood (via Neile's Life)
Rick Whispers - Humming in the Sun (via Culture Bully)
Cut Chemist - Storm (feat. Edan & Mr. Lif) (via The Passion of the Weiss)
Rhymefest - Devil's Pie (via Indietastic)
Okkervil River - Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe (via The Music Slut)
Four Year Bender - New Orleans Lament (via Hear Ya)
Moonbabies - War on Sound (via My Old Kentucky Blog)

And yes, you did read correctly, the seventh song belongs to DJ Jazzy Jeff.

This cannot be true...

2007-05-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

Hopefully a new podcast soon

2007-05-29T15:52:00.000-04:00

I've got a few new songs ready to go but I had to scale back on some of the others. At first listen I liked about 5 additional ones but now I'm not so sure. So I'll just wait a couple days and poke around the interwebs a bit more first. Until then...

Here's one hilarious tattoo, good luck explaining this one when you've gone senile...

Looks like Mike might have been fighting dogs back when he was still a student at Tech.

New Podcast is up - No. 2

2007-05-18T13:57:00.001-04:00

Normandy - Sweatshop (via Can You See The Sunset From the Southside?)
The Whigs - Technology (via Open Your Eyes)
Two Cow Garage - No Shame (via I Rock Cleveland)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Berlin (via Mars Needs Guitars)
El-P - EMG (via The Passion of the Weiss)
LCD Soundsystem - Jump Into the Fire (via The Rich Girls Are Weeping)
Mr. Lif - Mo' Mega (via My Old Kentucky Blo g)
Danger Doom - Old School (via CubikMusik)
Muggabears - The Goth Tarts (via 3hive)
Saturna - Pop Rocks (via Berkeley Place)
The Race - Feathers (via Can You See The Sunset From the Southside?)
Shhh - Fools in Love (for the life of me I can't remember where I got this, when I figure it out I'll give credit where it's due)
Handsome Furs - What We Had (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

And don't forget that there's a new feed (over at the right).

In case you missed these...

2007-05-17T12:05:00.000-04:00

The Blank Top Chronicles. The lesson? Don't fuck with taxi cab dispatchers.
Tinky Winky says bye bye to Jerry Falwell
In case you've been wondering what Va. Tech franchise QB Michael Vick has been up to this offseason.

Recently a number of bloggers posted about what they felt were their favorite hip hop discs of all time. Straight Bangin' crunched the numbers to come up with a comprehensive top 25 list. Bangin' also put together a follow up post commenting on the list and so did Passion of the Weiss (who co-started the whole top 25 thing) about the top 10 rappers not to make the top 25. Adam & I already had a bunch of emails back and forth about this list and we both feel it's pretty bad. There's an obvious heavy weighting assigned to Outkast and the various Wu-Tang guys, both of which I don't understand.

What's Going On In The World?!?

2007-05-10T10:36:00.000-04:00

Brawls during Beethoven?

Mickey Mouse's Middle Eastern cousin?

The "5 Second Rule" really isn't true?

Terminator without Ah-Nold?

Podcast news, and a new episode too.

2007-05-04T12:45:00.000-04:00

Had to make some changes with the ol' podcast this time around. I was using the free plan offered by Switchpod but the last podcast took me over the storage limit alloted to free users like myself. And so, since I'm cheap, I had to look around for another option. And lo and behold I came across OurMedia, which is affiliated with the Internet Archive. If you're not familiar with the Archive, go check it out, there's a ton of stuff there, including concerts that you can download. I know that Ginipro already knows about it.

So anyway, OurMedia allows you unlimited space and no time constraints, so that's where I'm heading. The new feed for the podcast is on the right. I'll get all the old ones up on the new site eventually but I'm obviously not there yet.

And in case you're wondering, the episode number is right. Up to now I've been posting the podcast in two places, here on this page and also on The Hollydog Blog, which is another blog site I started just for the podcast. I'm actually going to try and promote the podcast in the world by shamelessly emailing music blogs and I wanted dedicated site for that. I'm the worst self-promoter in the world so I'll probably get nowhere, but what the hell, I need a hobby. Anyway, the episode numbers between the two sites are different because I didn't carry one of the early ones over to Hollydog. I probably wasted a paragraph explaining all of this, but oh well.

This one I had a lot of fun putting together. The week of the Tech shooting I didn't get much done professionally or personally so when I went back through the various music blogs I've got bookmarked (see the list on the right) I realized that I missed a lot. I know I'm probably breaking some kind of rule by including two songs from one band (Chikita Violenta) but I didn't feel like holding out. I love both of the songs.

New No. 1

Apostle of Hustle - My Sword Hand's Anger
Chikita Violenta - Undecided
Pela - Lost to the Lonesome
The Veils - Not Yet
El-P - Flyentology (Cassettes Won't Listen remix)
Athletic Mic League - Let's Go
Cloud Cult - Take Your Medicine
White Rabbits - The Plot
Tokyo Police Club - Be Good
Chikita Violenta - Laydown
J Dilla - Make 'em NV
Red Cloud - 405
Brakes - Hold Me in the River
She's Your Sister - Let it Go
Da Beatminerz - It's Not Enough (feat. Wordsworth & The Last Emporer)
St. Vincent - Now Now
Elk City - Los Cruzados

"I wanna piss on you..."

2007-05-03T16:07:00.000-04:00

Oh. Hell. No.

Wizznutz Dancing Skills

2007-05-03T15:27:00.000-04:00

If you've ever taken a look at the excellent Wizznutz site you've no doubt come across their Finnish intern Jaarko. Well Jaarko had himself a bit of fun at one of the recent Wizards playoff games. (and no, I haven't watched the whole thing yet, go to Mr. Irrelevant to see the shortened version)

But can they play a whole tournament like this?

2007-05-03T15:24:00.000-04:00

Saw this picture this morning on Deadspin and just had to pass it on. So if Roger can't beat Rafa on clay and Rafa can't beat Roger on grass, then what the hell do we do?!

ACC Title for Hokie Golf

2007-05-02T10:37:00.000-04:00

Guess who came back from 5 shots down to tie for the ACC golf title?

There Are Idiots Abound

2007-05-01T13:41:00.000-04:00

Tis the story of a woman who brandished snakes to keep the police away.

In what could be the Understatement Of The Year, she's quoted in saying: "I just wasn't in the right frame of mind that night." Gee Sparky, ya think?

Even better was that she "received several bites" from the poisonous snakes and yet the police still zapped her with a stun gun! Guess someone just wanted to fire the Taser that night.

Why Women Are Working Out More

2007-04-30T12:42:00.000-04:00

Clearly, I need to get to the gym more.

Back to the idiocy

2007-04-24T15:17:00.000-04:00

Being a bit preoccupied last week you might have missed some things, like:

When a Boston Red Sox fan drops a foul ball, just throw pizza (it's best with sound since the announcers have a ball with this)...

The new Harry Potter trailer and it looks awesome...

Some Wu-Tang downloads

Badder Things

2007-04-24T14:38:00.000-04:00

Here are some things that I've experienced, that just aren't fun:

1. Root Planing/Scaling

2. Larry The Cable Guy promoting "Delta Farce" while I peed!

3. The annoying woman next to me on the plane home who felt she should tell me her entire life story because I somehow looked interested. I said "Hmm..." then broke out my iPod for the rest of the flight.

Is this actually available to buy somewhere?

2007-04-20T14:43:00.000-04:00

Yup - sure is.

Memories of our time at Tech

2007-04-20T11:25:00.000-04:00

This is a blatant rip off of what Ginipro started over at Tech Sideline (here's the specific thread) but I thought it might be fun to do here too. Ginipro's idea was to try and put aside all of this week's events and focus on the good times we all had. So I'll start by posting what he & I contributed to what he started. Have at it in the comment section...

From Matt Ginipro, setter extraordinaire and corrupter of all of us:

Meeting the girl who would become my wife of 14 years at a party in Terrace View.
The Mattress Wars of '89: what started off with the housekeeping staff giving O'Shag & Pritchard residents new mattresses while leaving the old ones out on the quad turned into an all out fun civil war between the dorms. It was a contest to see who could get all the mattresses on their side and it could be heard over by Schultz Dining Hall.
VT 38 UVA 13 in 1990
The Stonegate & University Terrace block parties. Just mark it down on the calendar that you weren't getting anything done that weekend.
The sunset seen from Lane Stadium in 1999's BC game (and the resulting pic). My head is visible in that pic, just a few rows down.
Ace Custis nailing a last second shot vs. GWU
Paying less than $10 to golf....ALL DAY LONG!!!
My teammates on the men's VB team & drinking from all the trophies we won.
Seeing Dave Matthews, Hootie & The Blowfish, Living Colour, Dennis Leary, Egypt, and many other bands in little venues in B'burg.
Being at the Mountain Lake Observatory the night after a supernova was discovered in another galaxy. Dr. Simonetti gave us a project to do, but didn't tell us what it was until after we had taken pictures of the star. It was pretty cool to find out that the bright star we were looking at was actually one that had exploded in a galaxy millions of light years away.
Days spent playing doubles on the Eggleston Court (and I mean days!, whole days)
Visiting Tech with two of my best friends in HS (and still) and immediately saying "Yup, we're going here!" (we're New Yorkers)

From Matt Fleming, benchwarmer and corrupter of eardrums ("what do you mean my taste in music is weird?")

Ginipro getting me drunk for the first time in my life ("Are you drunk when you turn your head and it takes the room a little while to catch up?" The quote that will never leave me)
spending three years dating the woman that would become my best friend's wife, yes we're all still friends, in fact, I was in their wedding and they were in mine, but you all know that
starting a near riot on the Prairie my freshman year when I and a couple friends sat on the ledge above the entrance to O'Shag and started yelling around 3 AM
going stage diving for the first time at Buddy's while watching the band Egypt play
the level of excitement (horrifying in retrospect) when we would get a keg of Killian's (it's not Beast!!)
living in the only apartment complex (seemingly) that still had heat when the blizzard of 93 came around, which meant a lot of stinky and drunk friends hanging around
stick the chicken (anyone else out there going to remember that one?)
burgers and calzones at Mike's
darts at Ton 80
the midnight food fight at Dietrich the night before exams started
hiding the underage people in the closet when cops would come by the apartment to tell us to keep it down
fully encasing my brother in saran wrap at one of our parties
Drew turning on the stereo by snapping a bottlecap
Me hitting Karla between the eyes by snapping a bottlecap
Karla hitting Adam in the eye by snapping a bottlecap
Radke coming within 2 points of shooting the moon with two decks of cards (and Radke, if you're out there, I think I still have the scoresheet from that, drop me a note and I'll frame it and send it to you)

Was Cho's past behavior grounds for expulsion?

2007-04-19T12:39:00.000-04:00

One argument that's been making the rounds after the flood of information regarding Cho's past problems is that Tech should have done more to keep this man contained, maybe even expel him. Today I came across two emails that were posted to the The Corner (the online blog of The National Review) by Va. Tech professors. Well worth reading.

Hokie Hope

2007-04-19T11:25:00.000-04:00

More Tech related/inspired links

2007-04-18T10:39:00.000-04:00

More from The Dugout and AOL Fanhouse's Nick D, a Tech student who was at the Convocation yesterday.
The Washington Nationals wear Tech hats during their game last night.
A take on all the second guessing, especially worthwhile to read the section that was written by a cop (scroll down a bit).
More from the Andrew Sullivan team.

The problem with hindsight.
The guns and crime correlation. It seems to me that something is missing here, however. Maybe I'm missing it but it appears they're talking about crime in general and not crimes where someone gets killed. And that seems to me to be a major point (admittedly I haven't read all the studies and articles linked to in the piece). What I'd like to know is how deaths that came as a result of a crime could be affected by the lack of a gun. Someone getting mugged for a wallet or purse by someone holding a gun is more likely to get killed than if the mugger was holding a knife.

Yay Tim Kaine!
Whoops... Sorry China!
Richard Cohen
Eugene Robinson
a Slate blogger summary

Put your left leg in...

Put your right leg in...

An argument for the allowance of guns on campus. But where's the part where he talks about how cops are supposed to distinguish between the good students carrying guns and the bad students carrying guns?
From the Wall Street Journal. My favorite line? When talking about how Tech is a gun-free zone the WSJ says this allows "mass murderers [to] know where they can commit their crimes." That makes sense, I'm sure that Cho considered this as one of the many factors that went into his decision to enroll at Tech. "Let's see, one day my craziness may reach a breaking point and I'll want to shoot a bunch of people, Tech doesn't allow students to carry guns on campus, so...easy pickings!!"
Some general thoughts.

Put your foot in your mouth...

What the hell? This editorial from an official Iranian Daily

Site News

2007-04-18T10:26:00.001-04:00

Nothing earth shaking, just thought that an updated color scheme was called for...

Va. Tech Professor Nikki Giovanni's Closing Comments at Yesterday's Convocation

2007-04-18T10:16:00.001-04:00

Today's Lesson

2007-04-17T16:52:00.000-04:00

We are Virginia Tech!

I, like Matt, have gotten nothing done today but want to commend the organizers and speakers at the convocation today in Cassell Coliseum. I watched it at work and lost it on two occasions.

I'm not a supporter, but credit to Bush for appearing and speaking.

Gov. Kaine's speech was fantastic and even more so when you see that he's not looking down at notes at any point. He's either a great memorizer or it came completely from the heart.

Having speakers from many different religious sects was an excellent idea, especially starting off with a Muslim.

As I expected, Nikki Giovanni was the perfect closer. I had seen her speak as a student and have read her poems. This was also the time when I lost it at my desk for the 2nd time. I had to turn off the TV when the "Let's Go Hokies!" chant started up.

Click on Fox News and you'll see her closing speech as a video on the front page. I'd put it here, but YouTube didn't have it yet.

Tech shooting roundup

2007-04-17T16:13:00.000-04:00

I need to stop torturing myself here at my desk. Not much work done today (no surprise there) since I've been spending most of the day trolling through the Internet looking for articles on yesterday's events at Tech. And wow do a lot of people have a lot to say about this. Amazing how easy it is for people to latch onto something horrible and spin it. Anyway, you guys know me so you can probably guess what's going through my mind:

media = bad and sensationalist
guns = really bad (how people can argue that more guns equal more peace is beyond me, I understand their rationale, but it's still beyond me)

Some links I found interesting (in both bad and good ways)

A Tech student who is also a blogger at The Dugout and AOL Fanhouse writes about his experiences on campus yesterday. First entry & second entry.
This guy calls the students who didn't fight back pussies.
Someone at The Corner makes sense!
How sports can be cathartic.
The lobbyists are coming, the lobbyists are coming!
The British people got it right.
The Andrew Sullivan bloggers.
A pretty complete roundup.
I wish.

That's enough.

Poem By A UVA Student

2007-04-17T13:41:00.000-04:00

This was written yesterday and referenced by John Casteen III, the UVA President, in his email to all faculty today.

Tech Wind

Whistle wind! Embrace the lost.
Send spirits with loud moans.
Silence radiant flowers.
Break still order like our rage.

Hum hair before low faces,
Liquid tangles blown below.
Hide eyes from icy sunlight,
Bright bullets slice the soul.

Cut power cut exposing lights
There's nothing to be seen.
Crumple trees' blanketing leaves
And dismiss whatever's green.

Drown smiling drown laughter
With the honesty of loss.
Take, wind, our silent prayers
And the torrent wave of thoughts.

Pound windows, fling the darkness down
Let each feel each's chill.
Make haughty grass bow down its stalk
And mourn for all those killed.

My Thoughts

2007-04-17T11:31:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, at least for me, I've heard from everyone that I still know down at Tech including Joe & Beth Tront who work in the Engineering Department. Rox's parents aren't associated with VT, so they weren't around campus when the insanity was going on. Bucky's parents were locked down in the Cook Counseling Center and will be busy with students this week. The husband of Rox's sister was also locked down on campus yesterday.

So, while I was in a complete fog yesterday watching this unfold on CNN in the office, I am not affected directly by the shootings in Blacksburg.

How I am affected is my growing anger towards the fucking media in this country and their sensationalizing of any story they can get their hands on. I flipped between the news channels last night and kept finding reporters who wanted to assign the blame to Virginia Tech. There wasn't one of them who criticized the actual shooter who did this heinous act. Since they didn't have any information on him at the time, they had to be critical of something. So, they chose to lay the blame of the 2nd shooting on President Steger and VT's Chief of Police.

Basically, they were saying that the random killings in Norris Hall may have been prevented if the campus was locked down. At least from what I have heard, nothing in West AJ gave the police reason to believe that a shooting spree would occur on the other side of campus. Evidence showed a "domestic shooting" and they were investigating that, as well they should've. West AJ was shut down, witnesses were interviews and leads were followed. The events at Norris Hall happened in the middle of that investigation. To say that the entire campus should have been locked down after the shooting in West AJ in fear of a mass shooting in Norris Hall is the same as saying you should shut down an entire downtown area of a city after a bar fight for fear of a mass riot across town.

Don't even get me started on the moron "criminal profiler" I saw on FoxNews last night. She basically said that if we all carried guns this could have been prevented because someone could have shot the shooter. Excellent logic in this NRA-controlled gun purchasing country of ours.

I do commend the former homicide detective I saw on MSNBC this morning who said that any reporter who thinks you can gather every bit of information about a homicide and come to a correct conclusion within two hours has no idea what they are talking about.

Students here at UVA are thinking about their "rivals" in Blacksburg. This picture is of Beta Bridge which gets painted on a near-daily basis with messages of all kinds. I have a feeling this will stay up for a while.

Not a good day

2007-04-16T15:05:00.000-04:00

I'm sure that all 3 or 4 of you who check in on our little social networking site have been following the day's activities as closely as I have so there's really no need to go into details. Suffice to say, I hope to never again see the following words or phrases associated with Virginia Tech (unless it's because we're really beating up on someone in football):

rampage
massacre
deadliest in history

Just Cuz I Haven't Done Anything Lately

2007-04-13T22:17:00.000-04:00

Clearly, Fleming has way too much time on his hands. Actually, I wonder if he and I are the only ones looking at this blog of ours.

Anyway, I decided to pass along some music since our local indy paper did an article on "The next band to hit it big from C'ville". I checked a few out on MySpace and will probably try to see them live at some point.

Six Chasing Seven: Funky style, Boyd Tinsley from DMB has been working with these guys.

Sparky's Flaw: more pop-ish, supposedly the next band to sign a big deal from C'ville

Acoustic Groove Trio: probably the first band I'm going to try to go see, soul music with an acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and bongos

Eli Cook: kinda Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots

Egypt: yup, they have a page too!

Andy Waldeck: former bassist for Egypt, now playing more acoustic, personal music. If you can, link to his friend "Joe" who is Joe Lawlor the guitarist from Egypt. I've caught Joe joining Blues Traveler, Robert Randolph & The Family Band and Bruce Hornsby on stage when they were in town. He's got a cool clip of him making the big time when he was on stage with DMB the night I saw them this fall.

Pig Pit Installment No 15

2007-04-13T16:25:00.000-04:00

Without a doubt this has been a good week for music (at least as far as I'm concerned). This mix is a little mellower...

The Annuals - Brother
Elk City - Cherries in the Snow
Blonde Redhead - Spring and By Summer Fall
Andrew Bird - Heretics
Backyard Tire Fire - Undecided
Pela - Trouble with River Cities
Land of Talk - Summer Special
Cat Power - The Moon

Today's Lessons

2007-04-13T10:23:00.000-04:00

Just one lesson today, and it's for the ladies. If you have to have your breasts groped by a celebrity, choose Will Ferrell. At least that's according to Jenna Fischer (from an interview on CHUD.com)...

We get to see a bit of a different side of you in this film-

The naked side of me.

Yeah. Are you thinking Maxim spread anytime soon?

I don't think you'll see me in Maxim or Stuff or anything like that. I feel like it always looks so desperate. Its so 'like me like me'. If I'm gonna take my clothes off, it's going to be for comedic effect.

Was it nerve-racking to take your clothes off for this movie?

No. On screen its two minutes but on set it was twelve hours and twelve hours of constant boob play, I mean it was great for the first three, four or five hours but then, I mean seriously, give a girl a break. But Will was a nice guy about it.

So Will was nice when it came to touching your breasts?

Definitely. If you have an opportunity for Will to play with your boobs, he's a master.

Pig Pit Installment No. 14

2007-04-12T22:20:00.000-04:00

No more of this 3 weeks between podcasts crap. When I find new stuff I like I'm putting it out there pronto. I know you kids rely on me like that.

The Arcade Fire - Broken Window
Busdriver - Casting Agents & Cowgirls
!!! - Heart of Hearts
The Early Years - All Ones & Zeroes
The Appleseed Cast - Fishing the Sky
The National - Apartment Story
Marco Polo ft. Masta Ace - Nostalgia
Placebo - Special Needs

And with this podcast we break the 100 song barrier! It's a milestone...I'm taking a moment...

And here we go again...

2007-04-12T22:15:00.000-04:00

While I'm working on the new podcast I've got the Orioles game on and it's now moved into extra innings for the second night in a row. Hopefully tonight's outcome will be a better one than last night's.

Last night the O's and Tigers took a scoreless game into the 12th and, with what had to have been the O's last pitcher, the O's gave up 4 runs on a grand slam to lose the game. Just heartbreaking. But if there's a silver lining to last night's game it's the fact that all I'm really hoping from the O's this year is a winning record, and they lost last night's game to a team that was in the World Series last year. Tonight? It's the freaking Royals. No way the O's should lose this.

UPDATE - Brian Roberts just led off the bottom of the 10th with a double...now Melvin moves him over with a bunt...now they're walking Nick Markakis to get to Miguel Tejada (what?!?!?!)...oops, now they're walking Tejada also to load the bases and get to Aubrey Huff (Aubrey must be mad as a mother fucker right now)...Huff grounds to 1st, throw to the plate, now two outs and bases loaded...Jay Gibbons (his new hockey-hair will not save him here)...YES IT WILL!! O's win!! Whoo hoo!

And you know who is the play by play guy for the O's games now? Gary Thorne. Only the best hockey play by play guy ever. So Angelos will obviously pay top dollar for an announcer but not a player...awesome.

Today's Lessons

2007-04-12T14:28:00.000-04:00

Dan Snyder is not nice to Joe Gibbs
Never move to Avon Park, FL
Knock knock - come on in and take everything!
Not really a lesson but, wow, our administration has some idiots working for it.
Sanction them! No wait, buy from them!
The last word on Imus.
Directions from NYC to Paris (pay attention to #23)

Pig Pit Installment No. 13

2007-04-10T16:20:00.000-04:00

Too long in coming but here's some new things...

Chin Up Chin Up - We Should Never Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers
Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea
The Electric Soft Parade - If That's the Case, Then I Don't Know
The Ponys - Double Vision
Birdmonster - 'Cause You Can
Amy Winehouse - Rehab
Junk Science - Do It Easy
Catfish Haven - Crazy For Leaving
Bon Savants - Between the Moon and the Ocean
Sea Wolf - You're a Wolf

I may have broken some kind of podcasting etiquette by starting two straight podcasts by the same band but I don't really care. I feel like I'm all over the board on this podcast but I hope that I at least arranged the songs into some kind of cohesive mix. This was the first time I found myself wishing that I could add some of my own voice to the podcast since it might have made the transition between songs better. But then I remember that no one wants to hear my voice. It's better that way.

Today's Lessons

2007-04-10T13:06:00.000-04:00

Some parenting advice
It doesn't pay to make it rain.
Sharks are cool.

Would you ignore beauty even if it stared you in the face?

2007-04-09T22:24:00.000-04:00

This past weekend The Washington Post Magazine published an article that was based on an outstanding idea for a social experiment. I think it's safe to assume that anyone reading this has been in a situation whereby you have come across someone playing an instrument in a public place. The musician invariably has his/her instrument case in front of them with a few scattered dollars and coins. If you're like me you probably never pay them any mind, much less put any money in the case. But what if the musician was really good, would you stop? Would you pay?

So what the Post did was get Joshua Bell, one of the top violinists in the world (he's the one who played all the music in "The Red Violin"), to play for 45 minutes during rush hour one morning in the L'Enfant Plaza Metro stop. When I started reading the article I had an inkling of who Bell is but I didn't really grasp the magnitude of his playing a Metro stop until I mentioned the premise to my wife (who knows much more classical music than I ever will). She basically snatched the article from my hands (actually we both read it online so I guess I should say that she kicked me out of the office).

I'll just post the links to the article and the subsequent online chat (oh, and the entire 45 minute performance is online as well) with the article's author for now. Another post on it will come later...during any free moments in thought the last couple days I keep coming back to this article and wondering what I would have done. Plowed straight ahead with my iPod in my ears (probably)? Or stopped and listened (hopefully)?

Today's Lessons

2007-04-05T09:44:00.000-04:00

Home school is looking better and better.
Someone took MIRV to another level. And of course it would be done by Milwaukee people.
The importance of retaining records.
Pot smokers aren't as lazy as you'd believe.
Free hip hop is always welcome. A review.
An excellent music blog that's heavy on hip hop.

Can't say "throws like a girl anymore"

2007-04-04T21:22:00.000-04:00

Now we have to say, "throws like the mayor of Cincinnati."

Time for a new feature

2007-04-04T11:04:00.000-04:00

It's been almost a month since the last post and that's just ridiculous. So here's a new feature:

What I've Learned Today

Keith Richards is seriously fucked up. Or is he?
The Orioles are not going to be good this year. (neither of these first two items are a surprise, so they really shouldn't count as lessons)
Cheerleader tryouts are cool. Especially if there are pictures.
A new place to find music!
I've never been completely sold on Alanis Morissette but I always wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, especially after she played god in "Dogma." But now, after this (watch the video)? I love her.

How high can you count?

2007-03-15T13:12:00.000-04:00

Not like you need an extra excuse to avoid work today (yay NCAA basketball!) but here's something really funny...

Finally it's definitive.

2007-03-14T12:58:00.000-04:00

How much can I cram into a post?

2007-03-14T11:25:00.000-04:00

Yes Ginipro, the basketball arena at UVa was very nice. The only drawback being the prevalence of men in bow ties and seersucker-type outfits. I think half of the fans there looked like the guy at the right.

And while we're on the subject of basketball, how is it that Tech gets a 5 seed and MD gets a 4? MD loses in the first round of the ACC tourney, Tech gets a win, Tech beats MD head to head, and is higher in the ACC standings than MD. This annoys me, now Tech gets the goddam 5-12 matchup. Rrrrgghh.

On to better things...got a couple new podcasts up with more goodness for your earhole! Here are the track listings:

Eleven:

Camu Tau - Plot for a Little
BRMC - 666 Conducer
Rob Sonic - Brand New Vandals
The Coup - My Favorite Mutiny
Earl Greyhound - SOS
Middle Distance Runner - Man of the People
The Saturday Knights - 45
Red Snapper - The Sleepless

And Twelve:

Chin Up Chin Up - This Harness Can't Ride Anything
Careless Hearts - Chattering Teeth
Jets Overhead - Killing Time
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Opportunity
The Blow - Parentheses
The Broken West - Brass Ring
Vampire Weekend - Walcott
Earl Greyhound - It's Over
To Live and Die in LA - What We Have is Now

I hereby predict that Droopy's new favorite band will be Earl Greyhound, and here's a Hype Machine link to the group so you can go get the songs I played.

And I found a couple Adult Swim mixtapes via My Old Kentucky Blog that are pretty damn cool. Both of them are free downloads, which is always nice for your conscience (not that any of you have one), here's the first one and here's the second one. I used a couple songs from the first on podcast # 11. For the first one you can download the whole thing or just individual songs, the second is just one file. For the first one I highly recommend track #1 & #3, and to a lesser extent #8 & #10. I don't know how often these things come out but I'm paying attention now.

As long as the music link sign is on, here's this year's SXSW MP3 torrent orgy of songs (look at the top right for the download link). I haven't started listening to the songs yet but I did hear one that I liked on another podcast (Pregnant w/o Intercourse) I listen to this morning. The band is called Junk Science and the link is to their page on the SXSW site, you can download the song from there.

No Post?

2007-03-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

What, no post after the game last night Fleming?

At least you can say how cool the new arena is.

dunkdunkdunkdunk

2007-02-22T15:33:00.000-05:00

I Love Parents

2007-02-15T09:46:00.000-05:00

I'm one of the first people to say that today's parents are just insane in the ways they get involved in the lives of their children. Today's parents are so worried about upsetting their children that they either (1) stop parenting or (2) defend/spoil their children to extremes.

Some of the best examples exist in sports, which is where I get to see it.

Example #1: I get an email yesterday from a player, who happens to play for a club run by a certain blonde Hokie that we all know. I'll also add that she lists herself as a 5'7" MIDDLE. After a quick call to Bucky, I send my very nice "Thanks, but..." email and wish her luck with her recruiting process. Later on, I get an email which basically says "Screw you and the horse you rode in on" and that she wishes me luck finding players "I think we need". Exciting stuff.

Of course, I make another call to Bucky to let her know of the email which she then mentions to the player last night at practice. The kid's reaction? "I didn't send any email, I haven't even seen a reply from that coach....OH MY GOD! I BET IT WAS MY MOM!" Sure enough, it was mom. The player was completely embarrassed and it seems that she and mom were going to have a fun conversation when she got back.

Example #2: The rant of Colorado's football coach after getting a letter from a parent about (sniff) not having an extra week of free time before summer conditioning. The parent who chose to write the letter chose to be brave and sign it anonymously.

How Not To Get A Date In College

2007-02-13T12:42:00.000-05:00

OK, so you're a 23 year old editor for your college's student paper. You decide that it's time for a satirical opinion piece, just to spice things up and make people think. The topic John Petroski of Central Connecticut State University picked?

Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It

I will add what seems to be my catch phrase of late: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?

This guy, granted he's clearly got full membership in the Society of Moron, thought it would be a good idea to point out how rape has BENEFITS! Even better, he didn't think about any possible reaction to this article. I mean, hell, it's only satire.

I love this quote though: "When I hear about girls crying or feeling suicidal over something I wrote, it doesn't make me feel so good." Well shit John, we're all very sorry that you don't "feel so good" after having basically the entire student body at CCSU react negatively to your well thought out article. What can we do to make you feel better?

I bet he's gonna have some weekends free for quite a while.

I Think This Is Scarier

2007-02-12T17:24:00.000-05:00

I'm not so scared about the Iran/Iraq link since I feel it was a given. Oh, you mean a Middle Eastern country who hates us is helping out another one who's at war with us? Yeah, not a shock.

However, I do find this a bit frightening. I mean, holy crap, I work for the state of Virginia and Dog forbid I don't turn in my boarding pass stubs along with my travel reimbursements.

You know what I'm talking about, the part of the airline ticket they tear off and give to you which you quickly stuff in a pocket just to find it in your washing machine later. I've got to keep those and turn them in in order to get reimbursed. Because the hotel bill, in my name, of a hotel in California doesn't prove that I actually made the trip.

This is our fucking governmental investigation agency losing laptops, with classified information on them. Perhaps maybe we shouldn't put the classified information on computers you can stick in a bag. Perhaps that information should go on a more permanent computer.

Anyone else scared yet?

2007-02-12T11:31:00.000-05:00

This headline and subsequent article in this morning's Washington Post has scared me. Shades of Tenet's "slam dunk" comment and Powell's presentation to the UN. How long after that presentation was it before we invaded Iraq? Should we officially start the clock on Iran now?

Really, America?!? Are You Kidding Me?

2007-02-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Over 3,000 American troops have been killed in our stupid Oil War, however this is what is on the front page of CNN.com and what has been on CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, and whatever "all news" channel you want to add.

Are you fucking kidding me?!?

Then I have to listen to one reporter this morning who actually had the audacity to say "When we return, we'll look at the life of Anna Nicole Smith. One of triumph and certainly it's share of tragedy." TRIUMPH?!?!? Are we considering losing 100 pounds of fat because of TrimSpa (baby) a friggin' triumph?!? Because I think Mother Theresa may have something that trumps that.

I'm just baffled at our media, but I guess they just cater to our society of morons and report the news the morons want to hear about.

**DISCLAIMER, If you don't like reading cruel statements, please stop now.**

There's a newborn that's involved in this and it is sad when any child loses his/her mother. However, at least this kid won't have to go through life being known as "Anna Nicole's" son. The world will have long forgotten her (actually the world will have long forgotten her by March) and he may actually have a normal life.

Pig Pit Installment No. 10

2007-02-08T11:06:00.000-05:00

Double digits bitches!!

Busdriver - Sun Shower
The Sunshine Underground - I Ain't Losing Any Sleep
Modest Mouse - Dashboard
The Arcade Fire - Antichrist Television Blues
The April Skies - Here Comes the Rush
Apostle of Hustle - The Naked and Alone
The Good The Bad and The Queen - History Song

Feed

Rant #2 (It's A Good Day)

2007-02-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

OK, so Fleming wanted to play Devil's Advocate on the "Get Out Of Jail" Military Card in my last post. Let me just say that there's not a court in the country that would allow you to skip out of a jail sentence so you can go back to your job at McDonalds.

Our country is fucked.

On another note, besides stupid governmental things, I like to rant on morons. Mostly because there are a lot of them running around (especially in our fucked country). Case in point, this article I just read on CNN.com.

There are three things at play here.

One, the actual fact that there are politicians who are going to spend their time writing, re-writing, fighting for and voting on legislation to keep people from listening to iPods WHILE CROSSING THE FRIGGIN' STREET!!!! Follow me here, these politicians are going to be spending time (time that could be focused on, oh I don't know, maybe making the country a better place) talking back and forth on whether the earplugs would have to be completely out of the ear before crossing, or if just turning off the iPod would be good enough. Then, they'd have to talk about how would the police officer know if the iPod was actually turned off if they allowed the earplugs to remain in.

ACTUAL TIME THINKING ABOUT THIS SHIT! And for anyone who grew up in NY, or has spent time in NYC, I'm sorry but there isn't a NY cop who's going to worry about you having your iPod on while you're crossing the street. They kinda have better things to do.

Second, if you live in NYC, or any of the surrounding boroughs, you should know that it's one of the most crowded areas in the country and that the city streets aren't exactly the safest. These people should know that at every intersection, you may just well be putting your life at stake. The three people who got plowed fell victim to Darwin's Natural Selection. It's cruel to say, but if they'd rather concentrate on their music then looking both ways on a city street, well.....

Third, and here is where the ACLU will step in, in no way should anyone else tell me whether I can listen to my iPod. Especially since the decision to attempt to legislate this is because of morons. I, myself, am not a moron and shouldn't be reduced to their standards.

Avoid Jail, Go To War!

2007-02-07T12:55:00.000-05:00

Our fucking country is ridiculous. I believe everyone knows this, but finding proof of it always makes your day just wonderful. I came across this in Anderson Cooper's CNN blog:

Would you give a gun to a guy who admitted to dousing another man's car with gasoline and setting it on fire? That's what the military did in the case of Army Reservist Bob Gidding.

Gidding is a convicted felon who pleaded guilty to a charge of felony arson. He was sentenced to five months in prison and three years probation. He was also barred from owning or possessing a handgun.

But the judge allowed Gidding to ship out for active duty before serving his prison sentence. He wound up serving in Iraq. The Army Reserve went along with it, even though Gidding had told his commanding officer he had been convicted of a felony after joining the reserve.

So, a convicted & sentenced felon, gets to bypass prison, gets to carry a rifle (though he was barred from possessing a handgun), and even got a friggin' promotion to, get this, THE MILITARY POLICE!!!!

Reading on, you find that our military hasn't done criminal checks for 12 years!

Now, I don't mind released felons getting on with their lives. I think they deserve that chance and if they want to join the miliary, so be it. However, how in the fuck does our so-called Justice System allow a convicted felon to skip his prison term so he can serve our country?

Sigh....

Some items of note...

2007-02-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

The iConcertCal, which will scan your iTunes library and then scan for concerts in your area (it figures out where you live by grabbing your IP address) that coincide with your library.
The new Harry Potter book comes out in July. Pre-order from Amazon right here.

Pig Pit Installment No. 9

2007-02-01T11:01:00.000-05:00

Happy music time over here!

Gomez - How We Operate
Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up to Dry
Cadence Weapon - Black Hand
Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
The Voom Blooms - Thoughts of Rena
The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
The Broken West - Down in the Valley

Feed

Pig Pit Installment No. 8

2007-01-31T16:15:00.000-05:00

Midlake - Young Bride
Flunk - Paul Simon
The Rosebuds - Leaves Do Fall
The Decembrists - Yankee Bayonet (I Will be Home Soon)
The Veils - Lavinia
Una - Fading in C Minor

You'll need this.

Update - in case you were wondering what that little "ping" sound was around the 8:30 and 20:00 marks, that's the sound you get from Excel when it asks you if you want to save a file before closing it. Does that mean I recorded the show from my office? Yes. Yes it does.

Too Bad Your Life Isn't This Exciting

2007-01-26T15:33:00.000-05:00

Matt Fleming, The Wrestler

Matt Fleming, The Big Fat Geek

Matt Fleming, The Ad Guy

Matt Fleming, The World Traveler

Matt Fleming, The Actor

Matt Fleming, Skater Dude

Matt Fleming, Eagle Scout

Too bad I couldn't find Matt Fleming, Guy With A History Degree Doing Absolutely Nothing With It.

BOO!

2007-01-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't want to be Steven in Chicago right now

2007-01-26T14:04:00.000-05:00

I'm always suspicious of these things as they make their way around the internets but I think this one is for real. Apparently this picture was taken by the friend of one of my wife's coworkers who lives in Chicago. If I was Steven and I saw this I think I'd just keep on driving up to Canada. Or head first into Lake Michigan.

Ouch!

2007-01-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

Last night I was actually watching this fight but then I turned the channel at the end of the first round when they went to commercial. So of course I miss the big knockout. I particularly like how the winner takes another couple shots after the kick had already knocked his opponent unconscious. Reminds me yet again why I never took up fighting (aside from being a pansy of course).

Hokies Now In Commercials

2007-01-26T11:32:00.000-05:00

Just gotta love it!

Pig Pit Installment No. 7

2007-01-23T22:53:00.000-05:00

Now more wife friendly! As those who know me well can probably guess, my music tastes are not in line with those of my wife. Something I have fun with is finding new stuff that she wouldn't come across on her own and seeing if she'll like it. It's my attempt to limit the addition of any more Rob Thomas-style music to our household. I will not lose this particular battle for the soul of my children. So here's a sample of some of the songs that she likes...feed

Bishop Allen - Little Black Ache
Billy Bragg - A New England
Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Paul Westerburg - As Far As I Know
The New Pornographers - These Are the Fables
Okkervil River - Black
Mike Doughty - Unsingable Name

A Sensitive Society? How About A Stupid Society?!?

2007-01-22T17:28:00.000-05:00

Matt asked if our society was so sensitive that a simple word would throw us out of whack. Well, I think there's only a few words that could, but our society definitely has a quick trigger to cry foul. Why is this? Well, it's because we're a society of IDIOTS!

Am I being harsh? No. Am I over exaggerating? No. Could I be over generalizing? Hell no! American society is chock full of morons and, unfortunately, those very same morons have loud voices.

Prove it, you say? OK, how about this. I'm watching television today and a car commercial comes on. Here's the scene: a SUV is driving on a building's rooftop. Clearly, we're not operating in reality so far. To bend the real world even more, the SUV then drives around the edge of the building, only on two wheels with the rest of the car dangling over the edge. Then what get's written across the bottom of the screen? A DISCLAIMER! "This is a fantasy vehicle. The car cannot actually drive along the edge of a building."

People, I'm not kidding. This company felt that it had to put a disclaimer at the bottom of the commercial because (and I completely agree with them) they felt some moron would actually attempt to drive their car, on two wheels, along the edge of a building's rooftop. This is the same society that needs "Caution. Contents are hot." printed on the sides of coffee cups. The same society who's top website is YouTube which is mostly made up of morons videotaping themselves doing moronic things for other morons to watch. It just sold to Yahoo! (I believe) (Bricktop's note - it actually sold to Google) for a bazillion dollars. So, the biggest website in our country isn't an educational site. It's a site where the most watched video this week features chicks (not girls, actual chicks) and a real mouse fucking a computer mouse. Yup, that's it and that's what over 1 million people are logging in to watch this week.

As you know, I work with today's young adults and that's where the Moron Problem lies (and I'll blame the parents too). They can tell me, in detail, what the current drama is on Laguna Beach or The Hills, but are in complete shock when I finish the Delta Magazine crossword puzzle before we even take off and they can only get four words. They're the reason why we have shows like Flava of Love, I Love New York, the aforementioned (which they don't know the definition of) Laguna Beach/The Hills, and The Real World on the TV.

It's why some of them look at me when I'm reading a book on our trips and ask what the sticker is on the binding. "Um, its the catalog numbers from the library." "You go to the library?" Sigh.....

Matthew, we're not a sensitive society. We're a stupid one.

Language Issues

2007-01-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

Making the rounds in the news (main stream and interwebs) is the story of one of the cast members of Grey's Anatomy calling another cast member a faggot. I first heard of this dustup a couple months ago when it originally happened and was surprised when it popped back up in the news.

A quick re-cap: During the filming of an episode of the show Isaiah Washington, while talking to another cast member on the set, apparently referred to TR Knight as a faggot. The expected levels of confusion and apologies were subsequently evident and it seemed that the cast and public interest moved on. However, a questioner at the Golden Globes asked about the issue and Washington grabbed the microphone and answered that he had never called Knight a faggot. And the whole thing blew up again.

What caused the second blow up? It wasn't the fact that Washington lied about never insulting Knight that's gotten people riled up, it was the fact that Washington used the word faggot. Calling Knight a fag in the first instance a couple months ago is certainly a cause for scorn. But why this time around? He stepped to the mic and used the word, not as an insult, but as a descriptor.

Are we as a society so sensitive that an adult isn't allowed to use a word, even an inflammatory one, in a non-inflammatory way without being scorned? What really confuses me about this whole thing (and maybe I'm getting the wrong impression from the quotes I've read) is that the GLAAD President who's spoken out about this seems more focused on Washington's recent utterance of the word faggot rather than his mindset that caused him to use it in the first place.

What I want is someone to explain to me why rational adults, when discussing societal issues that are complex and potentially dicey, feel the need to censor themselves. This has been dissected by people smarter than I (especially as it relates to "nigger") but it seems to me that if you're going to say that you didn't call someone a particular word, you should be able to use that particular word. At that point it's not an insult, it's a reference.

Besides, what should he have said (other than nothing at all) when trying to explain himself? "I never called TR the f-word, never. No, not that f-word, the other one, no, not fucker, faggot...Jesus..." See the problem? We've already got one "f-word" and there's no room for another.

Washington's mindset and attitude are the problem and should be the focus. If we're going to be discussing the attitude of someone who would use the word faggot in an insulting manner, the focus should be on correcting the attitude. Changing the vocabulary won't change the attitude, but changing the attitude will change the vocabulary.

Blades of Glory

2007-01-18T16:33:00.000-05:00

Another "Night at the Roxbury" or "Anchorman"? I'm hoping for "Anchorman."

Cold War Kids

2007-01-16T23:31:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to a performance these guys did on Letterman recently. Like they said over at The Underrated Blog, I really like how these guys went all out on their first shot at national TV. Methinks I'm going to have to head on down to the 930 Club to check them out on 3/28.

And in case this inspires the rest of you Idiots...
- The Casbah in San Diego on 2/20
- The Hi-Dive in Denver on 3/2

The Greatest Week in Hokie Basketball

2007-01-14T21:23:00.000-05:00

I think that I can get used to this...Hokies 94, Tarheels 88

And since this will never get old either...Hokies 69, Blue Devils 67

Homework Assignment

2007-01-12T10:50:00.000-05:00

OK, I posted this on a volleyball message board that I secretly frequent. Figured this crowd might appreciate it too:

What are your favorite songs which use the following literary devices:

Alliteration

Mary Mac by Carbon Leaf:

"Mary Mac's mother's makin' Mary Mac marry me! My mother's makin' me marry Mary mac!"

Palindrome

Bob by Weird Al Yankovic: (this is awesome and I seemed to be the only one to get it when I heard it in a group of people, one person said "None of this makes sense", moron)

I, man, am regal - a German am I
Never odd or even
If I had a hi-fi
Madam, I'm Adam
Too hot to hoot
No lemons, no melon
Too bad I hid a boot
Lisa Bonet ate no basil
Warsaw was raw
Was it a car or a cat I saw?

Rise to vote, sir
Do geese see god?
"Do nine men interpret?" "Nine men," I nod
Rats live on no evil star
Won't lovers revolt now?
Race fast, safe car
Pa's a sap
Ma is as selfless as I am
May a moody baby doom a yam?

Ah, Satan sees Natasha
No devil lived on
Lonely Tylenol
Not a banana baton
No "x" in "Nixon"
O, stone, be not so
O Geronimo, no minor ego
"Naomi," I moan
"A Toyota's a Toyota"
A dog, a panic in a pagoda

Oh no! Don Ho!
Nurse, I spy gypsies - run!
Senile felines
Now I see bees I won
UFO tofu
We panic in a pew
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
God! A red nugget! A fat egg under a dog!
Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog

Onomatopoeia

Pop! Goes The Weasel by 3rd Bass:

Pop! Pop! Goes the weasel, the weasel.
Pop! Pop! Goes the weasel, the weasel.
Pop! Goes the weasel, cuz the weasel goes Pop!

Oxymoron

Television, The Drug Of A Nation by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy:

Where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless" "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
have become standard

T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own Army
is now called "friendly fire"

Double Negative

Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones:

"I can't get no satisfaction"

And, the kicker......

Innuendo (when really just not trying too hard to be):

Cherry Pie by Warrant:

Swingin' on the front porch
Swingin' on the lawn
Swingin' where we want
'Cause there ain't nobody home
Swingin' to the left
And swingin' to the right
If I think about baseball
I'll swing all night yea
Swingin' in the living room
Swingin' in the kitchen
Most folks don't 'cause
They're too busy bitchin'
Swingin' in there 'cause
She wanted me to feed her
So I mixed up the batter
And she licked the beater

Spiders

2007-01-11T12:09:00.000-05:00

God is definitely not a Colts fan

2007-01-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

Peyton Manning, after living a full life, died. When he got to heaven, God was showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Colts flag in the window. "This house is yours for eternity, Peyton," said
God. "This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here."

Peyton felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house. On his way up the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner. It was a 3-story mansion with a purple and black sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an
enormous Ravens logo flag, and in every window, a Baltimore Ravens towel.

Peyton looked at God and said "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a ! question. I was an all-pro QB, I hold many NFL records, and I even went to the Hall of Fame."

God said "So what's your point Peyton?"

"Well, why does Ray Lewis get a better house than me?"

God chuckled, and said "Peyton, that's not Ray's house, it's mine."

GO RAVENS !

Idiots Abound

Chef Eric - Part 2

Anyone there? Anyone care?

Plain English please

Whole lotta nuthin'

Go Hokies Go!!

Yet another new podcast

New podcast on deck

Damn CNN, you feeling like scaring some people today?

UFC Pay Disparity

Greatest Goal Ever?

Let's restart this thing

Booo Football!! (not really)

Yay Football #2!!

Yay Football!

Fuck me gently with a baseball bat...

Podcast No. 6

Almost time for football

Skate boarding wipeout

I'm Back!!

New Podcast

The interwebs I've seen...

Daily Musings

Links...again!

Links!

Links!

Today's Lessons

Back into it

I Will Be Incognito For A While

Knocked Up deleted scenes

Nothing wrong with this picture.

New podcast - No. 3

This cannot be true...

Hopefully a new podcast soon

New Podcast is up - No. 2

In case you missed these...

What's Going On In The World?!?

Podcast news, and a new episode too.

"I wanna piss on you..."

Wizznutz Dancing Skills

But can they play a whole tournament like this?

ACC Title for Hokie Golf

There Are Idiots Abound

Why Women Are Working Out More

Back to the idiocy

Badder Things

Is this actually available to buy somewhere?

Memories of our time at Tech

More links

Was Cho's past behavior grounds for expulsion?

Hokie Hope

More Tech related/inspired links

Site News

Va. Tech Professor Nikki Giovanni's Closing Comments at Yesterday's Convocation

Today's Lesson

Tech shooting roundup

Poem By A UVA Student

My Thoughts

Not a good day

Just Cuz I Haven't Done Anything Lately

Pig Pit Installment No 15

Today's Lessons

Pig Pit Installment No. 14

And here we go again...

Today's Lessons

Pig Pit Installment No. 13

Today's Lessons

Would you ignore beauty even if it stared you in the face?

Today's Lessons

Can't say "throws like a girl anymore"

Time for a new feature

How high can you count?

Finally it's definitive.

How much can I cram into a post?

No Post?

dunkdunkdunkdunk

I Love Parents

How Not To Get A Date In College

I Think This Is Scarier

Anyone else scared yet?