vivalaultra

Ughh. KA-POWii!!

According to this thread...they stopped being cool on January 27th, when the new album was leaked.

That's the kinda concert I'd like to go to, especially with someone like B.B. King. I imagine listening to him tell stories will be nearly as entertaining as hearing him play. I always enjoy when I go to see singer/songwriter types like Willie Nelson or Jeff Tweedy, etc. and they spend half the show playing and th other half talking and stuff.

Yeah, I also went to the comic book store for the first time in like...12 years to get it. The nerds scattered like roaches when the sunlight hit them as I opened the door, interrupting their WoW tournament. I think right now, they're doing 7 issues, but I heard that, in all, there's gonna be 30, possibly more. It's supposed to go all the way up to Jericho Hill. I just hope that like...Spiderman doesn't make an unexpected appearance in Mejis or something.

I don't know who wrote that, but whomever did DAMN SURE did not graduate magna cum laude with a BA in English for the fine University of Houston. And apparently, whomever wrote that is also deaf; Funeral was anxiety tempered with visceral catharsis. Neon Bible is half-baked mope rock with underachieving grandeur and kinda dumb lyrics, but, boy "Intervention" is still one of the best songs I've heard in a couple years.

Fuckin' Czech scooped me on the TVZ. Bastard. Get some Conway Twitty and some DJ Scott Project.

I hear BK Kim's available again. Maybe the Sawx should trade for him and let him close. That wouldn't suck as much as some of their internal options. Hunter Pence has looked great so far this spring, both in stats and in all other aspects of the game. As good as he looks though, he still should start at AAA. The 'Stros can keep his rights for a year and he'll be able to come up when Jason Lane bombs. The fans won't like it much, owing to his sexy numbers, but it's the sensible move.

Hiss! Boo!

In addition to pissing on his hands, Moises will also piss on his Nikes to make sure he has enough grip so he doesn't do THAT again...

Heeeey....an old topic on my favorite book series of all-time. Seriously, my favorite book series ever. It's just beautiful, flaws and all. About the ending, the true ending, I think, is meant to be the appendix of "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" after King's bitter rant on readers and everything. Also, has anybody, since this is the comic book forum, read any of the DT comic books? They're on the 2nd issue this month. They're basically the story of Roland's life before he went on the quest for the Tower. It's animated by Jae Lee. I don't read comics regularly, so I have no idea how to judge it, but, as a Dark Tower fan and a Stephen King fan, it's friggin' awesome. Yeah, but the DT series is my favorite work of literature ever. It's actually responsible for getting me into serious adult reading. The first SK book I read was Pet Semetary when I was like..7. I started reading the DT series in like 89 or 90. I did a book report in 5th grade on Stephen King's The Waste Lands. The wait between the 4th book and the 5th book, that long 7 years wait, was almost enough to make me jump off a fuckin' bridge.

Damn straight it's on, naught-six Twinkies! Moises Alou is comin' for you!

I, unfortunately, read the whole thing and it's asinine. Then I viewed his profile, thinking that maybe he's like...16 or something and just, like a good percentage of teenagers, dislikes school for any number of reasons, but then I saw that he's 23 or so. I froze when I saw that C-Bacon is 23.

Since I can't get excited over ST statistics, does that mean that I shouldn't be excited that Hunter Pence is batting 14 for 19 with 3 HRs, 5 2Bs, and only 1 K?

Geez, I'm glad that I'm hangin' and bangin' in sunny Florida and not wasting away my days arguing on an internet wrestling messageboard (ha! ha!). Some of the opinions presented, I feel, are so off the mark and idyllistic and wrong that I just don't know how to respond. I agree with The Jerk for the most part (and seeing how he has experience in a teaching setting, and, by the way, that remark about there being no such thing as 'teaching' was absolutely ludicrous, I think he has good insight. I also have some experience in this setting, so maybe it's different for different people). On the topic of iPods and cellphones at school, I would like to raise these two points on the 'con' side of the discussion: 1. As far as saying that there's no harm in allowing students to use music devices on their own time, I agree with that. However, like it or not, there's a large minority of students that, if iPods were allowed in school, would use them during classtime causing disruptions. Unfortunately, in a school-where students are minors and have rights, yes, but limited rights, the good students have to suffer for the bad. I don't think it's a case of students being punished for having new technology; I think it's a case of the administration seeing these devices as deterrents to teaching and, thus, choose to disallow them in their schools. As far as cellphones, why do kids need phones at school? Who the Hell do they need to talk to during school hours that they aren't either in school with or related to? If their parents need to get in touch with them, there are very simple procedures to follow that will allow them to talk to their children. Call the school, say you need to talk to your child for whatever reason. Not that hard. As far as the ludicrous statement that kids need phones to take video of mean teachers...when you look at something like that and automatically assume the student's POV, you're using circular logic to support your own agenda. What about what the student may have done five minutes before the video that caused the teacher to become distempered? When you see videos of that, most times, you're only seeing what the student wants you to see. 2. If you allow students to bring iPods and cellphones to school, what about the kids that don't have/can't afford iPods or cellphones? Of course they'd be teased mercilessly or feel bad about themselves and their families for not being ablt to afford these things. School is not supposed to be a social function. It's supposed to be about teaching and learning. There are enough distractions in schools without allowing iPods and cellphones. I feel that an education is something worse sacrificing things for, and, if it means that I can't listen to my iPod or call my friends or play the demo of 'Lemonade Tycoon' on my phone, I think that's worth it. The further I get from my High School years, the more I look back at my beliefs from that time period and go "What the Hell was I thinking?" I don't know if my perspectives just changed so much, but I just sometimes have a really hard time wrapping my head around these High School kids that bitch and moan and decry their lack of freedom because they can't bring a phone to school. Oh well, that's my two cents. I'm going back to hangin' and/or bangin'.

Oh my...that's great.

Goddamn I hate you You don't hate me, you just hate my doggystyle.

No home training. I see where you're going, but I disagree with you. I assume that you're saying that students feel the need to be disruptive because of overbearing teachers or asshole teachers or something about how teachers are being mean to students for no apparent reason so students are being reactionary, but I really, really don't think that's correct at all.

That would never work. It's a hippie-ish idea, and it would never, ever work. Teenagers, by and large, aren't mature enough to act in such a way, as evidenced by them posting derogatory messages about others on internet websites. The student teacher relationship shouldn't be 'equal' any more than the police officer/civilian relationship should be equal. If students were put in a position to feel equal with their teachers, how would that suddenly wipe out behavorial problems of students? If Johnny Student walks into class and starts being disruptive, how is the teacher (who is on an equal level of J. Student in this scenario) supposed to rectify the situation? The teacher says, "Johnny, stop being disruptive, please." and the student says, "Fuck you! You can't tell me what to do! We're equal in this facilitation of student-directed learning, biatch!" Not only are teachers needed to be in a position of authority of students in order to control their sometimes disruptive behavior, they also need to be seen as more than equal partners in order to adequately facilitate the information and learning process necessary to shape young minds. You try telling 800 15 and 16 year olds that they're 'equal' with the guy standing in front of their class teaching them Algebra and see how many of them learn how to solve inequalities using the slope/intercept formula. Ultimately, teachers should act as more than a facilitator of student-directed learning; they should also serve as moral compasses on the path to becoming sucessful, responsible adults (although that doesn't always happen, depending on the quality of the teacher). If educators were merely facilitators of information, schools could save money by firing all the teachers and using computer programs to teach students their lessons.

Yeah, buddy...you wish...you could pull it off...and make it look...as effortless...as I...do. I like Regina Spektor when's she not being too overly-weird, which comes across as gimmicky a bit. I like her new album more than her last three. I find the new affectations fit her quirkiness. Also, they help to draw attention away from the moments when she's too quirky, which helps. She's kinda like a Russian Norah Jones with more innate weirdness.

Speaking of pitchers that injured themselves today, I heard that Mike Hampton tore or broke something or other during BP with the Braves, which means that they might be looking to trade for a Jon Leiber-type, but probably not Leiber himself since the two teams occupy the same division. I'm still surprised that with some of the crap deals this season, Mark Redman hasn't even gotten a NRI from somebody. I mean, he's not great, but he's left-handed and would at least be a cheap league average #5 guy for alot of teams. And Astros' super-prospect Hunter Pence hit a 2-run homerun today off of Ray King, meaning that he's now 10-13 this spring with like...19 total bases and only 1 strikeout or something ridiculous like that. He has no shot of making the team out of ST, but, still...he should be first in line to take over for Jason Lane in May or when Lane's average dips below his bodyweight, whichever comes first.

The '04 offense wasn't bad. It wasn't great, either. Bagwell, Kent, Berkman, and Beltran all had good years. They scored 803 runs. The real question will be who's going to be in the simmed rotation. Pettitte and Wade Miller both got hurt a few months into the season and by August, the rotation was Clemens, and then Oswalt, and then hope for rain.

I've had the new Arcade Fire CD since it was leaked. I thought it was good to above average. There's some great stuff on there, but some mediocre things, too. My girlfriend really likes it, but she's not a critical asshole, so meh. To shift gears slightly, I recommend that everyone that enjoys sad acoustic melancholia (think Josh Ritter, or Rufus Wainwright) procures a copy of the debut album by Elvis Perkins "Ash Wednesday". He's the son of Anthony Perkins and his mom died in the 9/11 crash. He started writing the album before his Mom died and halfway through, there's a noticeable shift in mood and tempo to the songs he wrote after her death. For a sample, download either "Ash Wednesday", "Emilies Vietnam in the Sky" or "While You Were Sleeping". There's not really any bad songs on the CD; a couple of the songs are kinda forgettable, but still, a remarkable album.

That's gotta be a joke list..even though it didn't include anything by Ben Folds.

Yeah, GGM's my homeboy. I celebrated by reading "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" earlier this afternoon. Great stuff. I hope he lives to be 160. When it comes to magical realism, anything's possible.

Personally, I didn't dislike 'Rock N' Roll' either. I prefer his more country-ish stuff. 'Heartbreaker' is great. 'Gold' is ok. His last couple albums have been hit or miss, I think. There's some good stuff on them, but they're a little bloated and indulgent, but still, when he's on, he's really on. I read today on Pitchfork that he's playing at Stonehenge over the summer.