Edwin MacPhisto

Screwed and chopped, yo. Since everyone decided (rightly) that listening to whole songs and albums of screwed and chopped music was retarded, lots of people just throw in a couple bars now. The only time I can think of this actually being kind of enjoyable is in "International Players' Anthem," when Three 6 does it for Big Boi's "ask ask Paul McCartney" bit.

That's probably because they're completely bland and forgettable. In fact, I'd completely forgotten they existed until this post. Weird band to "finally" get into 10-12 years after the fact.

NOW YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU! I have zero problem with Soulja Boy. And I haven't figured out a worst song of the year yet, but I'm amused by the fact that Feist charted higher than "I Get Money."

Normally I don't advocate cross-board gossipy "can you believe this" posting, but that's fucking hilarious.

It appears that what I thought would be the only way Blackwater would get kicked out of the country--that all of their knucklehead employees would just get hired by Dyncorp or Triple Canopy to do the same jobs--is what's going down. Blackwater will be gone from Iraq in 6 months, but the problem of unregulated mercenaries will be gone in name only.

You want an operating system for Christmas?

I'm not sure I care about it not being local, since I've never been to Chicago or Illinois. I don't really look at Stevens' albums-about-states thing as more than a pretty thin concept holding together a bunch of really good songs. And I rather liked 2005. 2005: 1. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary 2. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday 3. M.I.A. - Arular 4. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema 5. Love is All - Nine Times That Same Song 6. Animal Collective - Feels 7. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois 8. Kanye West - Late Registration 9. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm 10. Hilary Duff - Most Wanted

The smart ones tend to get out at Captain. This is a really great, brief summary of everything wrong over there. Doesn't gloss over anything, but is short enough that dumb people might actually read it.

There's good balance between the computers and human polls in theory, but the human polls are still way too frequently predicated on "#5 lost? I guess 6-10 are moving up" and similar foibles. I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with the BCS computers not factoring in margin of victory because that's one of the things human polls seem to care about most. Of course, that all assumes that the human voters are making reasonable decisions. I'm still impressed by how pitifully the Harris Poll voters fall into the same traps as the coaches' poll. I'd like to see a season or two with a small committee doing the rankings a la NCAA tournament selection.

It's pretty close to being a peniscoaster.

I know you're a big zombie connoisseur and all, but "they were STUPID" and "they were DUMB" is kind of missing the point of why they all made those decisions. Great movie, more chaotic and maybe even better than the first. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

I really want to find out what absurd algorithms are ranking Virginia #13 in the computers, and then I want to go make out with those algorithms. Great weekend of games, and I'm getting fired up for BC/USF for the title. Destiny!

Wow. That's pretty amazing that King and I both picked the same points for Tiebreak 1. Wild.

yea you probably would have to buy XBLG more then likely Or you could just play on his account. My roommate just got one too, and that's what I do. You can play together on Live as well, but you'll just be a guest of his when you're on simultaneously.

Dogfish Head just opened up an alehouse about 10 minutes from where I live. I'm excited beyond words. They've got 90 Minute IPA on tap, and should also have Fort, the 18 abv fruit beer, pretty soon.

THURSDAY Florida State FRIDAY Hawaii SATURDAY Miami Michigan Tennessee LSU Wisconsin Texas Tech Virginia TCU Oklahoma Michigan State Auburn Kansas State Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Missouri/Oklahoma game? 56 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Kentucky's Andre Woodson have against LSU? 220

That splash page makes me want to take out my eyes.

I'd seen albums by the band Tilly and the Wall in record stores, but never heard anything by them. One of my friends said "listen to this track!" last night, and I listened, and thought it sounded weird and not particularly good. I looked them up, and instead of using drums, the women in their band tapdance for percussion. There's video on youtube of them doing this shit on Letterman, standing on little tap boards and making like Riverdance. It's terrible. Terrible! They should go on tour with the Decemberists and call it the Ultimate Cute Gimmicky Terrible High School Drama Club Bullshit Tour. And I like the Decemberists!

See, I don't think you're going to end up with that many 9 and 10-win teams. The addition of a 12th game has it made much easier to get to those figures annually, but there's still usually some degree of separation taking place as teams get into the meat of their conference schedules. I'll be very surprised if the Pac-10 yields more than two 10-win teams. Do you really expect Arizona State to lose to all four of those teams, or for those four teams to go undefeated against the rest of the conference from here on out?

Zuh? The same UCLA team that got annihilated at Utah and doesn't have a QB? Ben Olson's out for 3-4 weeks based on most projections, and his backup's hurt too. They're giving a former QB turned receiver practice snaps now because Bethel-Thompson was so insanely awful. I think you're giving an inconsistent, and injury-laden team way too much credit. Also, the Florida/LSU thing is cute, but not going to happen, even with your layout of records. Three BCS conference 1-loss teams aren't going to get jumped by a 2-loss Florida; the computers certainly aren't going to give them that opportunity, and the human voters aren't either. EDIT: Iggy sure got this week's thread a-hoppin'! 5 posts since I started typing mine!

Pick up a pair of Sennheisers when those give out. My dad and I have both had big sets like that from them for 5 years and they're still sturdy as ever.

I haven't followed these songs during their various permutations (with the exception of "Nude," which I think I had on my computer as far back as 2001 when it was called "Big Ideas"), so I can't be angry about "Videotape," the album version of which blew me away. This live one's pretty fantastic too, though I'll argue on behalf of the slow build that never explodes on album, too. Going calming instead of bombastic is a riskier choice, but I think it works really well nonetheless. I think I can show love in both capacities. Also, this album is considerably better when listened to on sound-isolating earbuds than on a VOIP headset (which is all I had available to me at work yesterday).

I also was on the phone with someone in a contracting office for 30 minutes trying to explain the nature of a time and materials contract! Other than that, yeah.

First impressions: sounds more like The Eraser than Radiohead, which isn't a good thing. Extremely minimal, pretty unmemorable. A stone cold dud I'll like more later on, once the general sameishness of the tracks dissipates and then coheres again. The one exception is "Videotape," which is stunning. I love it. If I do end up loving the whole album, it'll probably be because I ultimately see it as some sort of unassuming minimalist epic all leading up to that track.

I haven't gotten my activation code yet. Color me rankled. Also, glad I only paid a couple bucks for it, considering it's not CD-quality.