For whatever reason, there is plenty of talk centering around whether or not Washington Redskins quarterback and Campbell's Chunky soup spokesman Donovan McNabb will land the starting QB spot with the floundering Minnesota Vikings football team.
While it would be great for the Minnesota Vikings to land a journeyman player of Donovan McNabb's caliber, it is typical. Think about the recent history regarding the Minnesota Vikings quarterback position: Brett Favre, Warren Moon, Rich Gannon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham...
These are all names who were in the final throes of their NFL careers. Sure, Brett Favre thinks he can return to the National Football League but that concussion on the cement-like turf at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium last December was probably the final on-filed action that Mr. Penis Photo Texter will see.
Donovan McNabb might have two or three years left in him but the big problem with bringing in a veteran quarterback is that the up-and-comer (in this case Christian Ponder and to a lesser extent Joe Webb) isn't going to see much in the way of playing time. The entire purpose of the NFL season is to win games and if Donovan McNabb puts the Minnesota Vikings within reach of a win during any game he will stay in the game because he's a proven player and a proven player always wins out over an unproven prospect.
That the way of the Minnesota Vikings. They are 100% unable to groom a rookie quarterback because they are always chasing some old-timer graybush quarterback in hopes of making yet another failed Superbowl run.
To make this arrangement work, Christian Ponder needs to play approximately 75% of the time during the pre-season and play at least 15 minutes of each regular season game. Let's face it, the Minnesota Vikings are not a Superbowl caliber football team and have absolutely nothing to lose.
Oh, and everybody can shut the fuck up about the Minnesota Vikings stadium debate because someway, somehow, yet another stadium will get built. It will fuck over taxpayers somewhere and the state legislature will be dumb enough to fuck over their constituents yet again but it will happen because the drunken mouthbreathers among us think that football is the be-all, end-all and supporting millionaires and billionaires is totally acceptable.
So bring on the Campbell's Chunky soup and get ready for the Minnesota Vikings to run up a 9-7 record and miss the playoffs again this year.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Amy Winehouse: the ticking time bomb
When I heard via a friend's smart phone late Saturday evening that Amy Winehouse had been found dead, I made some off-color remark about her death. You'd have to be an idiot if you didn't see her death coming from a mile away. Hell, I'm surprised that she held on this long. I had her in my death pool as far back as 2008.
But nobody at 27 years old deserves to die. It's sad to think that she peaked years earlier after winning a couple of Grammys for "Rehab" which was both catchy and an ode to her defiant, booze- and drug-fueled lifestyle. She had a ton of potential as an artist. Unfortunately she was surrounded with enablers.
To see that former druggie Russell Brand referred to Amy Winehouse as a "Fucking genius" may very well be true. It's just that, outside of her Grammy-winning "Rehab", we never saw that genius. Instead, we were treated to photos of her looking like death's sick cousin. Winehouse was often photographed wearing lingerie in public -- looking like she had no idea where she even was. She sported a tattoo in script that read "Blake" which was like a love note for her on-again off-again boyfriend Blake Fielder Civil. Sadly, their love of drugs was far stronger than their love for each other but when you're both fucked out of your minds on heroin you only care about your next fix and surpassing the high of the last one. Hell, it was pretty obvious that drugs were what kept them together and tore them apart and it is a decent guess that she died of a heroin overdose. I'll be shocked if the cause of death is something else.
It seems to me that, at least in part, Amy Winehouse didn't want to be helped. Maybe she was one of those types that felt that the heroin brought her creativity. Maybe Winehouse felt that the world would be better without her -- a sort of inferiority complex. Maybe she simply liked to tempt fate as reckless rock stars sometimes do. Whatever the case, she joined the 27 club this weekend along with the likes of Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
As one writer put it this weekend, "Why couldn't it have been Pete Doherty who died instead?"
But nobody at 27 years old deserves to die. It's sad to think that she peaked years earlier after winning a couple of Grammys for "Rehab" which was both catchy and an ode to her defiant, booze- and drug-fueled lifestyle. She had a ton of potential as an artist. Unfortunately she was surrounded with enablers.
To see that former druggie Russell Brand referred to Amy Winehouse as a "Fucking genius" may very well be true. It's just that, outside of her Grammy-winning "Rehab", we never saw that genius. Instead, we were treated to photos of her looking like death's sick cousin. Winehouse was often photographed wearing lingerie in public -- looking like she had no idea where she even was. She sported a tattoo in script that read "Blake" which was like a love note for her on-again off-again boyfriend Blake Fielder Civil. Sadly, their love of drugs was far stronger than their love for each other but when you're both fucked out of your minds on heroin you only care about your next fix and surpassing the high of the last one. Hell, it was pretty obvious that drugs were what kept them together and tore them apart and it is a decent guess that she died of a heroin overdose. I'll be shocked if the cause of death is something else.
It seems to me that, at least in part, Amy Winehouse didn't want to be helped. Maybe she was one of those types that felt that the heroin brought her creativity. Maybe Winehouse felt that the world would be better without her -- a sort of inferiority complex. Maybe she simply liked to tempt fate as reckless rock stars sometimes do. Whatever the case, she joined the 27 club this weekend along with the likes of Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
As one writer put it this weekend, "Why couldn't it have been Pete Doherty who died instead?"
Friday, July 15, 2011
Alison Brie of Community rocks some cleavage-bearing lingerie for GQ
I'm a huge fan of the NBC comedy Community. Sure, Joel McHale's Jeff Winger character is the definitive star of the series which enters its third season in September but the ensemble cast has others of star quality.
Take, for example, Donald Glover who plays Troy and his counterpart and weird friend Abed, played by Danny Pudi. Their running gag of a fictional show entitled Troy and Abed in the Morning is pure genius but the real underrated players in the ensemble cast are the neurotic Annie played by the sexy Alison Brie and the too-cool-for-the-room hipster Brita played by Gillian Jacobs.
Those two are so outstanding in their second fiddle roles that they landed a photo shoot for GQ magazine in which the dripping with sexuality duo dressed up in some seductive lingerie for a pin-up style photo. No, there were no nipples peeking through in the photos and there was no visible Alison Brie camel toe that I noticed but you have to appreciate pin-up photography. It's seductive but classy
I say that if you like good comedy check out Community Thursdays at 7 PM C/T on NBC and if you like good looking ladies who are funny as hell, still check out Community because it's definitely better than its comedy competition of The Big Bang Theory.
Take, for example, Donald Glover who plays Troy and his counterpart and weird friend Abed, played by Danny Pudi. Their running gag of a fictional show entitled Troy and Abed in the Morning is pure genius but the real underrated players in the ensemble cast are the neurotic Annie played by the sexy Alison Brie and the too-cool-for-the-room hipster Brita played by Gillian Jacobs.
Those two are so outstanding in their second fiddle roles that they landed a photo shoot for GQ magazine in which the dripping with sexuality duo dressed up in some seductive lingerie for a pin-up style photo. No, there were no nipples peeking through in the photos and there was no visible Alison Brie camel toe that I noticed but you have to appreciate pin-up photography. It's seductive but classy
I say that if you like good comedy check out Community Thursdays at 7 PM C/T on NBC and if you like good looking ladies who are funny as hell, still check out Community because it's definitely better than its comedy competition of The Big Bang Theory.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
The Office adds James Spader
What does that mean for the upcoming 8th season of the Steve Carell-less Office? My best guess is that James Spader's Ricky California will have more of a hands-on role in the goings-ons of the Scranton branch of Sabre/Dunder-Mifflin. Spader's character would definitely add a new twist in the strange dynamic that is The Office. It would be heartbreaking for Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute character to have a maniacal boss like Ricky California who would probably spend plenty of time womanizing and in general being a creeper.
While I don't expect The Office to last beyond an additional two seasons, maybe the addition of James Spader will add a new type of viewers to the NBC workplace sitcom. After all, The Practice and Boston Legal were successful on ABC during their run and if James Spader can create a kind of darkly comedic character on The Office then the series may have more life than I give it credit for. If the core cast members, mainly Ed Helms, Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski, stick it out on the small screen this workplace comedy could go on for another half decade.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The music of the 1990s is making a comeback
It's hard to believe that we are a whole ten years removed from the last No Doubt album (Rock Steady) which some people say is a normal evolution for what was once a ska-based band but I felt that Rock Steady was the final step in the band changing their sound to appeal to a far wider swath of the population. Sure, that move led to huge sales numbers and radio play (not to mention launching Gwen Stefani's short-lived pop career) but the typical fans of pop music consume that music in heavy doses but do so for only a short time before quickly moving on to the next new thing.
Hopefully No Doubt will return to the pop/ska roots with their sixth album due out in mere weeks. Maybe the sounds of the 90s which I came of age during are bound for a comeback.
I keep hoping that's true as one of my favorite bands, Blink 182, are supposedly releasing a new album this year. I'm not holding my breath on it. They originally announced their reformation during the 2009 Grammy Awards and had already been writing at that point in time. Two-plus years to produce a new album is an insanely long time but I truly loved their final album, the self-titled effort which yielded their most mature songwriting to date and possibly my favorite Blink 182 song, Always.
Blink is on tour this summer and the album's first single is due to be released sometime this month. I'll believe it when I hear it (because I'm forever a skeptic) but this is one of t hose rare songs I am eager to hear.
Then there's The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They began as a band in the early 1980s but didn't become widely popular in the wide world of rock music until the late 1980s with the release of Mother's Milk and achieved what many call "superstardom" in the early 1990s with the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. From that point -- even with members leaving and rejoining -- RHCP were hugely popular. I really latched on to them as a band with 1999's Californication and 2002's By The Way.
I'm throwing The Red Hot Chili Peppers in, even though they have spanned three decades already, because the band reached their pinnacle of popularity and refined their sound in the 1990s. They are one of those bands who I also can't wait to hear what they come up with next. 2006's Stadium Arcadium was a decent effort but, due to the demise of many alternative-rock radio stations and the further fragmentation of musical genres, the album never reached a wide audience and it's a shame because it did spawn three or four spectacular tracks which live on my iPod.
Their new album, I'm With You, is supposed to be released on August 30th.
Maybe the 1990s are making a comeback. Oh, sure, three bands whose popularity peaked in the 1990s releasing new work ten-plus years later doesn't make a trend but to me it does. If you were to look at my CD collection you'd notice that the bulk of the 500 or so CDs were released in the 90s. I padded my collection into the early 2000s but a couple years in to the decade I had made the move to digital tracks and had slowed my spending on music. That's probably fairly typical as people's priorities change but I am welcoming the return of some of the band which I sort of grew up with.
Welcome back 90s, welcome back.
Hopefully No Doubt will return to the pop/ska roots with their sixth album due out in mere weeks. Maybe the sounds of the 90s which I came of age during are bound for a comeback.
I keep hoping that's true as one of my favorite bands, Blink 182, are supposedly releasing a new album this year. I'm not holding my breath on it. They originally announced their reformation during the 2009 Grammy Awards and had already been writing at that point in time. Two-plus years to produce a new album is an insanely long time but I truly loved their final album, the self-titled effort which yielded their most mature songwriting to date and possibly my favorite Blink 182 song, Always.
Blink is on tour this summer and the album's first single is due to be released sometime this month. I'll believe it when I hear it (because I'm forever a skeptic) but this is one of t hose rare songs I am eager to hear.
Then there's The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They began as a band in the early 1980s but didn't become widely popular in the wide world of rock music until the late 1980s with the release of Mother's Milk and achieved what many call "superstardom" in the early 1990s with the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. From that point -- even with members leaving and rejoining -- RHCP were hugely popular. I really latched on to them as a band with 1999's Californication and 2002's By The Way.
I'm throwing The Red Hot Chili Peppers in, even though they have spanned three decades already, because the band reached their pinnacle of popularity and refined their sound in the 1990s. They are one of those bands who I also can't wait to hear what they come up with next. 2006's Stadium Arcadium was a decent effort but, due to the demise of many alternative-rock radio stations and the further fragmentation of musical genres, the album never reached a wide audience and it's a shame because it did spawn three or four spectacular tracks which live on my iPod.
Their new album, I'm With You, is supposed to be released on August 30th.
Maybe the 1990s are making a comeback. Oh, sure, three bands whose popularity peaked in the 1990s releasing new work ten-plus years later doesn't make a trend but to me it does. If you were to look at my CD collection you'd notice that the bulk of the 500 or so CDs were released in the 90s. I padded my collection into the early 2000s but a couple years in to the decade I had made the move to digital tracks and had slowed my spending on music. That's probably fairly typical as people's priorities change but I am welcoming the return of some of the band which I sort of grew up with.
Welcome back 90s, welcome back.
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