vivalaultra

I'm not a horsey kinda guy, but I do love animals. RIP, Barbaro. You were the most famous horse since Seabiscuit who was the most famous horse sense Secretariat who was the most famous horse since Mr. Ed.

Holy handgrenades! 2006 is almost over and since we've had a "Best Shows" topic, I think "Best Albums" should naturally fall in line next: 10. Girl Talk-"Night Ripper" 9. Grizzly Bear-"Yellow House" 8. My Brightest Diamond-"Bring Me the Workhorse" 7. Isis-"In the Absence of Truth" 6. Bonnie "Prince" Billy-"The Letting Go" 5. Destroyer-"Destroyer's Rubies" 4. Sunset Rubdown-"Shut Up I Am Dreaming" 3. Band of Horses-"Everything All the Time" 2. TV on the Radio-"Return to Cookie Mountain" 1. Califone-"Roots and Crowns" This whole year until I heard the Califone CD, TV on the Radio was #1, but...man, I just fell in love with that Califone record. Still, it was close. Everything after Band of Horses is pretty fluid, but the top three are pretty concrete in terms of my favorite releases this year.

Roy O was gonna go to Boston? I had heard the Orioles and the Mets, but I hadn't heard Boston. Oh, the Bonds deal is done. 1 yr./$14.8 million with an additional $5.2 million in incentives.

And while I'm thinking about it, this past Fall, the trailer for Rocky VI about gave me an orgasm.

Yeah, it was used on The Shield, and, according to Wikipedia, it was used in the episode entitled "Pay in Pain" from 2002. Edit: Since my thunder was stolen, I shall instead quote a line from Syrus: "Bis dat qui cito dat." (He who gives quickly gives twice.)

In the midst of horse mourning, I took four semesters of Latin in college. I haven't taken a Latin class in a little over a year and, since I so rarely get the chance to use it, I'm not as sharp as I could be. My last semester in Latin, I translated Seneca's entire Epistulae Morales and I enjoy doing crosswords and playing Scrabble in Latin, but that's neither here nor there. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my silent candlelit vigil in honor of Barbaro...no horsing around.

I got duped with that one, too. Me and my lady were watching "Children of Men" and during the previews, Devendra Banhart comes on and they have all this stark desert-y footage and I'm like "Holy shit! We gotta go see that movie!" and then it was "The Hills Have Eyes 2". Yeesh... As for recent movies that had good trailers, the trailer for "Apocalypto" had me really interested to see it.

Well, I was on the phone when the fight was on originally and not 100% watching intently (Yeah, like anybody was expecting Rashad to finish in the 2nd round by KO...), and the only footage of the fight that I've seen since was the youtube video, which isn't of the best quality, so just judging from that it didn't look like he was really throwing fists or anything, but, if you say he was, I'll agree with you because you probably saw it more closely than I did. Still, even if he did connect, I don't think he was fighting dirty. How did he know Salmon wasn't gonna pop back up? I guess that even Rashad underestimates his ability to finish.

Rashad wasn't dirty fighting. He didn't even contact with substantially with the two, maybe three jabs he threw after Salmon was down. As said before, it's just a fighter's instinct to keep going at it till the ref steps in. As soon as the ref got between them, Rashad backed off immediately. Now, if after he knocked Salmon out, he woulda jumped on him and started ground and pounding, that mighta been a different story, but I don't see that he did anything that I haven't seen countless other fighters do.

Gee...I was aware of the actual deaths and Archie Bunker's Place wasn't so much a spin-off as it was the same show but slightly changed for various reasons. I wasn't meaning that the various deaths pissed me off, I was going with being upset because of them, not like...angry upset, but melancholy. I wanted Coach and Mr. Hooper to live forever.

...Poodles? ...

Yeah...it just seems like all the bombast and fervor and drama on this album is kinda forced whereas on the last one it was...effortless. I would chalk this CD up to a sophmore slump (even though I don't think it's really a slump; it's definitely better than good, I think), but I dunno...the whole circumstances around the recording of Funeral seemed to fill that record with just...something more...important?...heavy?...dangerous?...weighted?....something like that, and after hearing this, I don't know if they'll be capable of repeating that energy without all the extraneous circumstances.

Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street. Edith on All in the Family. Coach on Cheers. Yeah...I'm tearing up now.

Since I've done a fair share of grandstanding for Arcade Fire in the past, I'll share a few brief thoughts I'm having while listening to the leaked album. -I have a feeling this is a 'concept album' or at least a 'theme album', but I'm not 100% sure if it is or what the concept of it is, mostly because the lyrics are sorta hard to decipher. The title, Neon Bible is, I'm sure, an intentional reference to the John Kennedy Toole novel about a young boy growing up in Louisiana and learning about the horrors of racism, bigotry, sexism, and religious intolerance. Now that I think about it, it seemed like alot of the material on Funeral had a sense of childlike innocence and optimism behind the gravitas, whereas most of the lyric content on this album is pretty bleak, starting in with "Black Mirror", so, perhaps the theme of this album is a continuation of the theme of the last one, where the youthful, exuberant, excited kids that see wonder and magic in life before now realize how shitty and hopeless everything is. Depressing, kinda. -I hope that the shitty mixing is just a product of the shitty rips, otherwise the sound quality is muddled at best and murky at worst, the worst being on "Black Waves/Bad Vibrations". -The drums on the first few songs have this weird 'swaggering' quality to them. I'm not sure how to describe it, but they just kinda...swagger...Duran Duran like, I think. -"Intervention" is a great fuckin' song. Really great. -I think the major difference between this album and the last is that, on Funeral, pretty much every song was anthemic. Like...every song had this manic energy building in it and it actually built to something. On this album, there's still some anthemic qualities, but they're not as cathartic and "Fuck Yeah! Ima pump my fuckin' fist!" type qualities as on the first. The only two songs that really have that going for em are "Intervention" and the remake of "No Cars Go". -This album kinda sounds like the best album The Killers will ever make. -I like it less than Funeral after the first few listens, but I still enjoy it. I bet Pitchfork gives it a 12...or a 0. I'll split the difference and give it a 6, heading to 7.

The Astros do a Caravan and a Fan Fest. The 'Stros Fan Fest is excellent. Not only is there the usual autograph sessions, Q&A sessions, but, the entire three days of Fan Fest at Minute Maid Park, there's also a buncha college baseball games going on. Every year there's 6 teams that play each of the other teams over the course of the weekend. This year, there's Unversity of Houston, Texas A&M, Arizona State, Rice, Baylor, and Vandebilt. Some of the games are really, really good. A couple years ago, when Huston Street was still at UT, they had a really good game against A&M.

It's a fact that Eastman's gonna get stomped, but I think he'll put up a good fight. I don't think it'll be a 1st round KO. Eastman's a pretty capable wrestler and not horrible on his feet. He has a better shot at beating Rampage than Eddie Sanchez does of lasting 2 rounds with Cro Cop. And the more that I think about it, the more I convince myself a little bit that Travis Lutter can beat Anderson Silva...and not just by decision. Lutter's a mutafucka on the ground, so if he can take Silva down, I think there's a really good chance that he'll be able to submit him, which isn't to say that he'll be able to get Silva off his feet, but still...

At least his sig doesn't have Mike Golic in it...

I don't know if I'd consider the Cubs a 'darkhorse'. They spent like...800 brazillian dollars this offseason and when ya spend that kinda money, even just getting a WildCard is somewhat of a dissapointment. I think that the Brewers are in the best position to make a surprise move in the NLC; they have the best rotation, presuming Ben Sheets stays healthy. And with Chicago throwing all this cash around for Ted Lilly and Mark DeRosa, when are they gonna break out the checkbook and give Big Z a little somethin' somethin'? It would be absolutely terrible for them if he walked in 08 after they spent so much money...not that I would find that anything other than hilarious.

The Mariners signed Jeff Weaver. 1 yr./$8 milion + $1.4 million in incentives. Instead of focusing on how this will improve the Seattle rotation (incrementally), I'll, instead, mention how this not pretty much leaves the St. Louis rotation in shambles. It's gonna be a weak NL Central.

The Nuge is on the list? He's like...one of the manliest mans in the history of manhood. Wango Tango, anyone?

I knew something was amiss with that Waugh fellow when he was giving instructions to Rashad and Salmon and he said, "Go back to your corners and come out a-rockin'!!!!!" Looking at the results of the other fights that weren't broadcast- Marquardt over Lister by UD Burkman over Reiner by UD Din over Guida by UD Clementi over Pointon by submission, RNC; 4:53 Rd. 2. Well, the card ended up being...not half bad. The only real clunker of the nite was the Herring/Irish fight, and even that was fun to see if even for the...unpredictableness of it all. The Franca fight was good, and his BJ Penn imitation will hopefully get him a title fight...if Sherk ever comes back. It was good to see Ed Herman get his first UFC win, and that armbar was pretty sweet. And I'm glad that it looks like Rashad is learning how to finish. That kick was Cro Cop-esque almost.

That...was unexpected. If Rashad keeps knocking people out, I might like him more.

Yeah, if Irish woulda had any submission skills, that fight woulda been over in the first or second round. He kept passing Herring's guard and just taking him down at will but couldn't do a damn thing with it.

Quoth the Rogan: "Right now, O'Brien's just beating his ass." "That's amatuerish!" "That's blue belt jiu-jitsu, right there!" Main event for UFC 75, Cro Cop vs. Irish for the UFC Heavyweight Title.

I apologize for besmirching the name of 'Irish' Jake O'Brien. Geez...even Joe Rogan's turned on Heath Herring.