Kinetic

Fuck, man, I never realized that the guy spelled his first name with two t's until snuffbox brought it to my attention. What kind of fan am I?

I'd say either "Roadrunner" or "I'm Straight" is my fave song on that album. I, too, was first introduced to "Pablo Picasso" by the shitty John Cale cover, so the Modern Lovers original was something of a revelation when I heard it. I revisited some of my Elliot Smith albums recently, and definitely prefer either/or to anything else he did. Roman Candle is pretty awesome, too.

Should go as Adam and Steve instead. It's funny and it's a bold political statement.

The whole conversation about haunted ACLs was, uh...what's the word I'm looking for? Innate?

What's weird is that, beyond the physical resemblance, Plagiarism actually has a coke and booze habit that dwarfs that of Jim Belushi. IM conversations with him are amusing and alarming in equal measures. You want to reach out to him but you don't know how.

"Roadrunner" is very good song Modern Lovers. Whole album exceptional Modern Lovers. Where were you when you heard that Elliot Smith had finally offed himself? I was on a porch at one of the crusty punk houses in Asheville, NC. I couldn't believe it. He was one of my faves back when I was a sullen message board addict.

Tampa Bay at Dallas Washington at Detroit Buffalo at Miami St. Louis at New England San Diego at New Orleans @ Wembley Stadium Kansas City at NY Jets Atlanta at Philadelphia Oakland at Baltimore Arizona at Carolina Cleveland at Jacksonville Cincinnati at Houston NY Giants at Pittsburgh Seattle at San Francisco Indianapolis at Tennessee

Awesome. Run with it.

The same thing happened to Boo! Weekley and Vernon Ghoulston, as I recall.

He got a cadaver ACL, meaning that it was taken from a dead person who donated his or her body to science. It turned out, however, that the ACL was haunted, which is a fairly common problem with this sort of procedure.

No shit. Word has it that he's been in for a second ACL replacement surgery b/c the first cadaver ACL was haunted. It's a potentially bad situation for the guy b/c having to restart the recuperation process would mean missing whatever major NFL offseason milestone. I hated Tom Brady last season as much as I've ever hated any pro athlete, but I certainly never wanted his career to come to an end like this. Here's to hoping that science comes up with some sort of undetectable steroid that they can shoot into him so he can play again.

I've got a big game this weekend, but I'm unfortunately having to start Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB due to Denver's bye. Probably should have hung on to Flacco. My HBs--Marion Barber and Dominic Rhodes--are both playing against fairly stout run defenses in Tampa and Tennessee. So I'm not at all optimistic that this isn't going to turn into a bloodbath.

Candy corn is great. It's one of the few things that I still enjoy about Halloween.

On a barely related note, I listened to Berlin today for the first time in years. It's a bit of a downer, huh? That's really the only characteristic the album has. It isn't good or bad. Just depressing.

Oh, yes. Our two games before the bye will be against teams quarterbacked by Brad Johnson and Tyler Thigpen (or Quinn Grey or Bubby Brister or whoever the fuck) respectively. This whole season couldn't be coming together any better.

Gwar's This Toilet Earth.

You don't like "The Fairest of the Seasons," Czech? I think that one's a little better than "These Days." The guitar part is gorgeous. The only thing I'm not crazy about on that record is "It Was a Pleasure Then," which is sort of a precursor to the stuff she would subsequently do with John Cale on the The Marble Index. No tune, nine minutes of off-key wailing. No thanks.

My old posts have aged well, like a fine wine. It's my recent posts that I sometimes take issue with.

Happy 103rd birthday, El Satanico! May you reign forever, O Dark Lord.

1. It's tough to say, as we're now halfway through the season and that team isn't exactly bubbling over with talented players just waiting for an opportunity. I would imagine that there would be more of an emphasis on "fundamentals," but probably not a marked uptick in wins. 2. They're in mildly deep shit, because they're in the one AFC division where a team is clearly running away with it. A loss to Tennessee would put them squarely behind the 8-ball for the rest of the year, and I don't get the sense that this team is good enough or consistent enough to deal with that sort of pressure. That said, I think they'll beat Tennessee to keep their AFC South hopes alive. 3. When Dallas loses this week, they'll be in deep shit. This team is imploding. People will point to the decreased productivity of the offense because that's where all of the stars are, but this whole debacle really goes on their defense. They've been awful all year. I firmly believe that Dallas will finish somewhere in the .500 area and miss the playoffs. 4. I understand and accept Goodell's desire to "expand the brand" and all that. It's done wonders for the NBA, and the NFL is significantly more popular domestically than is the NBA. So it follows that if these dirty foreigners with their greasy money and boiled foods were to be exposed to NFL football in all its glory, they'd take to it. Whether or not this will actually happen remains to be seen, but I understand the idea behind it. And last year's Miami-New York game was a barnburner, too, wasn't it? 5. They need for Steven Jackson to continue playing well and they need to keep forcing turnovers. New England needs to come to terms with the fact that this is a lost season and just stop winning games already. Sheesh.

I'm probably going to be saying this all year, but this is a really huge game for the Bucs. The Carolina game was certainly more crucial in terms of standings, but this one is more important as far as perception is concerned. I think a lot of people still don't buy Tampa as a contender this year, and beating a really hyped Dallas team (even one that just got shellacked by St. Louis) at home will go a long way towards changing that. Nothing I've seen over the last few weeks suggests to me that Garcia is going to have any trouble picking Dallas's secondary apart, and I don't think they'll be able to move the ball on us with any sort of consistency. Bucs by 14.

Dallas Cowboys @ St. Louis Rams L San Diego Chargers @ Buffalo Bills W New Orleans Saints @ Carolina Panthers W Minnesota Vikings @ Chicago Bears W Pittsburgh Steelers @ Cincinnati Bengals W Tennessee Titans @ Kansas City Chiefs W Baltimore Ravens @ Miami Dolphins L San Francisco 49ers @ New York Giants W Detroit Lions @ Houston Texans W New York Jets @ Oakland Raiders L Cleveland Browns @ Washington Redskins W Indianapolis Colts @ Green Bay Packers L Seattle Seahawks @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers W Denver Broncos @ New England Patriots L Week: 9-5 Overall: 65-37

You're blowin' my mind, man.

Well, there's just a lot fewer people watching wrestling now. Have you seen WWE's ratings recently? They're terrible. So it's not just the jaded intellectuals here at TSM. There are some genuinely stupid people who have decided to look elsewhere for their weekly fix of 'roided-up dudes rubbing on one another.

So. Sammy Morris has a monster game and Matt Cassel plays with Brady-like efficiency as the Pats crush Denver to keep their season afloat. New England is like that thing from the movie The Thing That Wouldn't Die. They won't die.