The Man in Blak

Hey, chuckle away. When I made my defense for Peyton, the Colts were still riding high and Tomlinson had only had a couple of ridiculous weeks under his belt. Never in my wildest imagination did I think LT would continue on such a sick run of games but, lo and behold, he did. I'd vote him to be the MVP now, without question.

He bid $200 in an eBay auction for a temporary moderator position, intentionally trolled to get himself suspended from that power, so that he could lose said temporary moderator position and ruin the auction, and then bragged about it proudly at another board. Instead of moronically spending an absurd amount of money to be a moderator, the dude screws Mike or whoever out of an eBay auction with a negative feedback. Okay, sure. What exactly is the point of all that?

And yet Hawk52, of all people, pretty much nails it. The fact that the auction was a moronic idea doesn't really change that Paul really went to a lot of trouble to "work a message board." Um, congratulations?

It isn't that $200 is a lot of money; it's a lot of money in comparison to the actual value of what is being purchased here. Paul's dropped two benjamins to be a hall monitor for a week. Why?

Of course, both of those tracks are my favorite songs from Before and After Science and, really, the only ones that call out for a repeat listen from me. "Julie with..." and "By The River" are decent little interludes, but the rest of the second half doesn't do much for me and the album as a whole tends to pale in comparison with his earlier stuff. I guess I just tend to like "louder" Eno more than the quieter, more ambient Eno that dominates the second half of B&AS. The exception to that opinion, of course, is Another Green World, which I feel so very foolish for not really "getting" until now. I actually bought AGW years ago, in a concurrent purchase with Electric Ladyland and hours... right before I started my freshman year in college. hours... was my first Bowie album and, as you can imagine if you've ever actually listened to the album, it did a swell job of convincing me that Bowie was incredibly overrated (an opinion I'd hold for years). Electric Ladyland was an absolute trip, my initial favorite of the three albums that I got, and something that I almost never listen to nowadays, outside of an occasional jonesing for "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)." But then there was AGW, which was a real puzzlement at the time. All of the tracks seemed really weird and I remember thinking, at the time, that it was like "nintendo music", for whatever reason. I liked "Sky Saw", but the rest of the tracks really didn't strike me and, being obsessed with Hendrix at the time, I pretty much left it behind in preference of Electric Ladyland. Long story short, I didn't get it and really didn't give it much of a second chance, even when I explored Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" later on and kept hearing Brian Eno's name pop up, over and over again, as an influence. So listening to it now is a bit of a revelation. "Sky Saw" is still a favorite, but the rest of the album has finally opened up for me, for lack of a better description. The only real turd is "I'll Come Running", which sticks out like "Rocky Raccoon" on the White Album for me, but virtually every other track is fantastic. I think Czech's "art gallery" comment regarding the album is very apt: the sequencing and timing on everything is perfect. Despite pushing it aside for "Crosstown Traffic" years ago, I think Another Green World is one of my favorite albums now, thanks to this thread. I'm still in the process of giving the ambient albums a more attentive listen but, ultimately, I'm just happy to have caught up to the rest of the pack with AGW. The first round of really good music I've had to listen to in months. Oh, and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a real snore, in my opinion. The first couple of tracks are decent, but the concept really tends to drag as the album goes along - I can't imagine that the reissue (and the bonus tracks that came as a result) really helped out matters very much.

Yeah, that is a good point. Bearing that in mind, Another Green World probably deserves another spin when I get home.

Here Come The Warm Jets is a nice album, but I think I prefer the songs on Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) by a smidge. The middle sequence in TTM of "Mother Whale Eyeless", "The Great Pretender", and "Third Uncle" is probably the best run of tracks from his solo work that I've heard, in my opinion. I'm also not as sold on the more ambient albums from Eno; I wouldn't dismiss them outright, since I've only really taken a cursory listen through some of them, but I wasn't blown away by my first impression.

If skiffle was around today, it wouldn't even be called skiffle. It'd be Emo-Compliant Banjocore, or something equally as obnoxious.

So, when does Bizarre Genre Discussion Week end around here? I keep trying to find it on the TSM Calendar, but all I see is birthdays and shit.

And people wonder why I hate Paul McCartney.

So, only positive feedback in the feedback folder?

So who, exactly, is allowed to win this auction again? Assuming that there is such a number of people willing to take this seriously.

Dead wrong.

Well, you're wrong.

I always think of Magical Mystery Tour as a compilation, rather than a full-blown studio release. The only songs that appear in the movie are the first five, while the rest are just tacked on from other singles and this "filler" is, agreed, some of the best stuff that they've ever done. I could easily slot "I Am The Walrus" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" in my favorite songs of all time. As for the songs from the actual movie, I can live without all of them, really. The Residents' take on "Flying" is the only thing related to music from the movie itself that I would actually go out of my way to enjoy...and that's only because it's so gloriously fucked up.

Besides, he already made that claim last year, during the playoffs. Punishing him now would be double jeopardy.

Maybe I'm oblivious, but I think Mik has actually toned it down in recent years. Perhaps I was more accepting of his insane fanboyism when the Marlins won the 2003 World Series because it irritated Anglesault so much.

Viva, but Marvin is gaining fast with every post in the weekly NFL threads.

They've "upgraded" the "software." The "star ratings" are meant to signify that a "remarkable change" has occurred. Why can't you see that?

Same here. I assume those are the same issues that others are having with the quick edit, but I just wanted to reiterate, since reinstalling the arcade was somehow a higher priority.

Rothschild might teach Marquis to give up that trademark hanging curveball he's been developing over the last two years, but he might have better odds teaching a rock to sing the alphabet song. An absolutely disastrous signing by the Cubs. The Royals at least have an excuse that they're trying to show free agents that they are willing to spend; the Cubs have no such excuse for giving out a three-year deal to a guy that probably enters the clubs as the thirteenth best pitcher that they have.

I tend to believe that they're thinking along the same lines as the 2005 Tigers, who hilariously overpaid to sign Magglio Ordonez to prove to free agents (and their fans) that they were a desirable destination after enduring one of the most embarrassing seasons in history. Detroit was willing to pay a premium to draw a free agent of Magglio's status to their town and the Royals, apparently, were willing to outbid the Blue Jays and the Cubs and pay Gil Meche a premium to be their No. 1 starter. The problem with the Royals' implementation is that Gil Meche is no Magglio; even though Ordonez's perceived price was low due to high injury risk, he still had a track record of excellent performance and, more importantly, name recognition as one of the better players in the game. Gil Meche strikes guys out at a league average rate...and that's about it. Though I'm not sure I would consider him to be fodder for a non-roster-invitee like cheech, he's also a guy with a career ERA over 5.00 outside of Safeco and no apparent peripheral trends that would portend a great improvement upon that below average performance; a long-term deal, especially one with so much money, is a terrible value. (Consider that Gil Meche has a comparable track record to Kip Wells, the guy that the Cardinals inked for 1/4 a couple of weeks ago.) It's not quite the disastrous signing that the Sarge Junior contract could be, but its probably the worst deal for a pitcher since Darren Dreifort scored a five year deal years ago. The Octavio Dotel one year is a better deal, though still remarkably expensive. Dotel is still on the recovery from TJ surgery, but he could potentially be a major upgrade to the Royals bullpen - don't forget, minor league journeyman Joe Nelson was their "closer" last year and, sadly, one of their better relievers.

Dirt cheap coffee, loaded up with an absurd amount of sugar on the days when I'm so tired that I can't even remember my first name in the morning. (Virtually every day, really.)