Bruiser Chong

People STILL aren't respecting Soriano's cannon. Michael Bourne just got thrown out at the plate trying to tag from third; it wasn't even close. He should've respected Soriano's gangster.

You're lucky then, Edwin. I've come close to buying SC several times over the years because it's the only Ghost album I don't have. But I've yet to see it in stores around here for less than $15. I was ready to buy it one day at Best Buy because I needed to get cash back for something unrelated. I backed off when I saw it was $15.99. P.S. I later found out that, contrary to my earlier belief, Best Buy doesn't even offer cash back, so it wasn't a very good visit, to say the least.

Good point, Mik. For whatever reason, there are people who respond to being extremely loved in this context that they think they've found the one. I mentioned my thoughts on "the one" theory earlier, but I was like that a couple years back. Not that I'd found the one, but that I'd found someone who was more into me than I thought was humanly possible. My brother's going through that right now, I think. The chick he's getting hitched to is my age and already excelling in law school. But I don't think they gel all that well and their relationship seems to be built more on infatuation than genuine compatibility.

I'm not sure I talked with anyone who didn't think the Tigers' pitching was suspect, but I talked to plenty who seemed to think the offense would mask it. I think it'll even out a bit, since the Tigers are definitely not a bad or even mediocre team. I just don't think they should be pegged to win 100 games or anything. The Yankees of the early and mid-2000s proved you can hit all you'd like and it won't make a big difference if your pitching is the drizzles.

As a non-Tigers fan living an hour or so away from Detroit, I don't really care to see Dontrelle succeed. But his pure love for the game makes it difficult to watch him struggle so mightily. Thankfully for him, the White Sox can't take advantage of his lack of command.

I don't keep very close tabs on most of the BOARD DRAWMUH~ that goes on, so instead of wading through all the threads and dozens and dozens of pages regarding the changes that have gone down the last two weeks or so, someone should provide a quick 'n' dirty list. From my minimal amounts of skimming, I see that: - Czech now has the powa. - Marney's back and talking about Mole's deceased mama. - A handful of posters want every PBP this side of The Brain brought back. - Inc is missing and presumed dead.

Maybe Facebook's to blame in part, too. Not in the sense that more people are settling down because of Facebook, but because its existence makes me more privy to engagements, marriages, and the like. Once upon a time (read: three or four years ago), you found that stuff out second- or third-hand months later if you weren't close to the person. Now I've got a continuous news feed to let me know that the broad I kind of new sophomore year of high school is getting hitched.

I don't understand the logic in buying complete albums on iTunes. New albums aren't usually cheap, but the difference in cost between the tangible album and the iTunes version is minimal. Why not just shell out an extra couple of bucks and own the real deal, complete with artwork and linear note goodness?

The season's six days old, you fucking rube.

The Melmac Shack.

I'm on such an OutKast kick the last week that it sounds weird if I listen to anything else.

They incorporated the red X on later replays. What an angle, though. I'd say the idea of unleashing a possibly venomous cobra on another human being is contrived, but that goes out the window when you consider some of the nonsense we were asked to believe later in the decade.

Corey might be on to something with the burnt out partying. I know a lot of girls who went through this hardcore partying phase in high school and most of college and now, a laid-back relationship seems ideal. I just can't fathom settling down with someone theoretically for the rest of my life at the age of 23. Maybe that's because I haven't found "the one" (though I don't buy into that whole theory at all), but I tend to get irritated after that "new car smell" has worn off of the relationship. I look at divorce rates and the general despair that seems to define a lot of the not-yet-terminated marriages I see and wonder how so many people can still find the concept of marriage so appealing. There's also the factor that at this relatively young age, most people don't know what they want. I look at what I wanted at 21 and wonder what in the world was wrong with me. I'm of the mind that discovering what you truly want out of your career, romantic life, and life in general takes a lot of trial and error; trial and error most people in their early 20s haven't experienced.

- The Gang Warz(z?) angle was awful. Not just because of the strained racial overtones of the whole thing, but because there isn't a single good wrestler involved in the stupid thing. Yeah, we get The Rock in the mix eventually, but the lack of any competent wrestlers made all of the matches bred from this angle tough to watch. - I'll admit it: I'm not at all into the Hart Foundation angle. I was watching in 1997 and wasn't too keen on it then. I've seen all these rosy recollections of it in recent years, so I figured time and perhaps maturity would leave a different impression on me when I saw these again. Nope. I feel like I'm seeing the same thing every week. I'll be the first to say the climax of this thing (Canadian Stampede) makes the laborious nature of the storyline to this point tolerable. - The Kane thing is really...bad. I'm not sure how it could've been introduced better, but I was almost embarrassed listening to Paul Bearer's retelling of what happened and The Undertaker's response.

Allow me to blacken things up: OutKast or Wu-Tang Clan? Although Ghostface is my favorite rapper and RZA is one of my favorite producers, I give the nod to the two dope boys in a Cadillac. Their catalog has the stronger, more consistent content (mind you, I'm not taking the solo Wu efforts into consideration). For as entertaining as they were, the boys from Shaolin only had one great album and a couple pretty good outings. Very little outside of 36 Chambers, though, is really essential. Most of their follow-up albums are too bloated and bogged down with filler. OutKast, meanwhile, have only one real misstep to their credit (Idlewild). Stankonia and Aquemini are classics, ATLiens is damn near close to that status (as an aside, that's probably my favorite OutKast album), the double-disc effort for all its faults is one of the better double rap albums, and their debut is overlooked, likely because of the superb follow-ups.

And it's not even a knock on Marvin, either. It's just who cares about the O's besides him? They aren't just bad, they're a model of how not to run a baseball organization. I have no interest in hearing/reading about them. And from the looks of these threads, no one else does, either. And that's all Marvin posts about in these threads. Which just has me scrolling anytime I see Andy Kaufman's mug.

Does anyone on the board but Marvin give a shit about anything O's-related? For serious question.

Why? Since when are writers not entitled to be compensated for their work?

I can actually answer the origin of bonzo gonzo question. There's a match on a video he reviewed (Coliseum Video's special on the history of the tag team champions, I believe) where the commentator declares that it's "bonzo gonzo" when all four participants of a tag match begin to brawl in the ring. SK noted his intention to incorporate the phrase into further reviews. I really hope the only reason I remember that is because of its ties to a Coliseum Video. SK reviewed a ton several years back and at the time, few others bothered to dabble into the CV archives, so I became pretty familiar with SK's collection of CV reviews.

Disagreed. I don't even mind his phony persona. I'm not the type of listener that demands complete authenticity. If you've got a flow and can structure a song, I'll listen to you. I don't care if you've been shot, slanged narcotics or killed anyone. It's that he's only occasionally impressive lyrically. That he employs the biggest producers in rap today, subsequently masking his lyrical shortcomings, is what I don't like about the guy. Not to mention the aforementioned name-dropping habit and Dre fixation.

I've partaken in threads of this kind over the years and I'm always disappointed to see those two- or three-year-old posts where I'm complaining about prices in the mid-$2 range. Around $3.40 here. Stations around here have been following the same pattern of hitting a new, previously unfathomable price, dropping it a few cents over the course of a week two before shooting up another 20 cents.

The Sox/Tigers game was notched at two. I took a shower, came back and it's tied up at five. Quality pitching, folks. I love afternoon baseball, but I fear this Cubs game is going to cancel out anything productive from me for the day.

Oh, and hey, Big Boi's solo album slated for a 2008 release has me interested. I like what I heard with "Royal Flush." Dre's sure making an ass groove in the jaded emcee chair.

These two entries should be on a list called "Albums That Will Probably Never Come Out." Papoose's debut album has been "coming soon" since my freshman year of college. Game has a knack for snatching up all the big-time producers for his albums and he's capable of a sporadic good verse, but his constant name-dropping and homo love for Dre cool me on the dude. I'll be the first to tell you Meth is one of the highlights for both Ghostface's last abum and the latest Wu release, but he's a good example of guys better used in moderation. He hasn't shown an ability to carry an entire solo joint on his back. And yes, I'm including Tical. Mos disappoints me. He dropped one of the modern rap classics almost a decade back, but his last two albums weren't at all fulfilling. Plus, he seems more interested in crooning than rapping these days. I can't believe this cat's still around. He's another one who's just fine if utilized correctly (see: Clipse's "Wamp, Wamp"). But he's too flimsy lyrically to warrant a solo album. Is this confirmed? He should catch a nice amount of flack if he proceeds with a solo album less than a year after losing his little retirement contest.

I had the snippet that starts at the looping through my head damn near the entire afternoon earlier this week. I feared for my sanity after a while.