I’ve been an R.E.M fan for almost 20 years now. The last 10 off those have been less exciting than the first 10. Since the departure of Bill Berry after 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi the output from the Tri-pedal Athensites has been hit and miss. There have been some good moments and some painfully mediocre moments, but I just heard the new single from their upcoming album. The song, Supernatural Superserious has a title that doesn’t necessarily pop, but the song itself is FANTASTIC. It has a strong, pulsing beat a great guitar rif, forceful and passionate vocals and more energy than anything since Green. Give it a listen if you are even remotely an R.E.M. fan. You won’t be disappointed.
Blog Posts
A short of list of awesome
Here’s a short list of reasons the outcome of Superbowl XLII was awesome
1.) That was the most retarded catch in the history of football. (Don’t ask which catch, you know the one I’m talking about.)
2.) Good for Eli.
3.) Belichick is a giant douche bag and he walked off the field with one play still to play. Douche bag.
4.) Jeremy Shockey had nothing to do with this victory.
5.) I have nothing against Tom Brady, except for spite. And that’s enough.
Who am I? Who am I? I’m Steve Sanders with a cap on. Giddueup!
If I had been in this situation, with a microphone and a camera, this conversation would have likely gone exactly like this. I would like to pretend that I would be cooler than this, but I would geek out exactly this bad. Please pay special attention to Ben Lyons’ reaction when Ian is talking about his unforgivable wardrobe in the episode under discussion.
That’s me in the corner.
I found him
He was in parts unknown.
Some people should just stay out of strip clubs
There are places where you just know you are going to get into trouble, depending on who you are. Some people can embrace these challenges and overcome then (often in hilarious fashion) case in point, recovering alcoholic baseball player, Sam Malone who bought and worked in a bar.
But it seems that PacMan Jones does not have the wherewithal to go into a strip club and not do something criminally stupid, or to be more accurate, criminal.
If you need proof of this assertion, check this out.
The Mega Powers Explode!!
Knowing full well that the analogy blows up if you follow it all the way to it’s conclusion*, but after watching DJ White Hulk up enough to body slam the 500 pound giant into the center of the ring against Michigan last night while EJ climbed to the top rope, raised both hands high above his head and dropped the flying elbow right on the Wolverines (OOH YEAH!), I’m convinced of just one thing. If there’s a better inside out combination in college basketball that EJ and DJ, I’ll eat my hat.
These guys just destroyed Michigan the other night, and if this kind of play continues, we’re going to run through most of the Big Ten with only a few hiccups. If this team could ever get healthy it would truly be a sight to see.
* To follow it all the way through the conclusion of this story would have to be EJ thinking that DJ made a move on his girl. EJ would get so pissed about the whole thing that during a key game EJ would be hurt and tired, and DJ would be calling hard for the ball, but EJ wouldn’t give it to him. This slight would cost us the game and eventually lead to the two of them playing 1 on 1 for a live and PPV audience.
The Strange Case of Damon Bailey
About a month ago I was watching the IU v. UK game from 1990 on the Big Ten Network and Damon Bailey’s position in the hierarchy of Indiana Basketball greats came up in conversation. It’s a strange thing, Damon Bailey, because when I think of him the first thought that comes to mind is that he was a middle of the road player. He wasn’t bad, but he was not one of the greats.
Upon further review and investigation, it must be said that I am wrong about that. While it is true that he was never the best player on his team, those honors go to Calbert Chaeney and Alan Henderson, he was a GREAT basketball player. My gut reaction to his place in history is largely colored by two factors. 1.) No national championship, though that is not his fault. Those teams were great and should have won two titles, but shit happens. 2.) He was supposed to be the second coming of, if not Christ, then Alford. Anything less than being the best player on the planet and his career would have been a disappointment. Fair? No. But true nonetheless. Our perception of people and events is largely based on what we expected.
As another example of this I will tell this tale. When I was an undergrad, I was an RA. Every week we had meetings in our supervisors living room. On here desk, every week, was a jar of peanut M&M’s. It was common practice to reach in, grab a handful, pop them in your mouth and enjoy chocolate and candy covered nuts goodness. One week, right around Christmas the jar was filled with Red and Green Peanut M&M’s. I reached in grabbed my standard handful and popped them in my mouth expecting the reward salty-sweet crunchy joy of Peanut M&M’s.
They were mints.
My shock and revulsion knew no equal. They could have been the best mints in the world, but since i expected M&M’s they were disgusting. Expectations color reactions.
Which brings me to last night in New Hampshire. One week ago no one would have been surpised by the outcome of the Democratic Primary. It was a close race between Clinton and Obama that could have gone either way. But on Monday every "news" outlet in America was reporting Obama with a 9-11 point advantage over Clinton.
Well, now the Clinton campaign is in HUGE trouble. She goes on TV and almost cried about her campaign. Obama wisely tells his supporters to chillax a bit and remember to vote because the worst reaction to this news for him would be for his supporters to say, "Oh, cool, we got this on lock down. I guess it’s no big deal if I skip the primary tomorrow."
In the end Clinton pulled it out by some 8,000 votes and roughly 4 percentage points. The reaction this was shock. No one could believe that Clinton was winning. They were willing to predict her win at any point during the evening. This is going to be seen as a huge win for her and a disappointing loss for him. All because of the polls results from Monday setting up our expectations for this event.
In reality, this has been and continues to be a close race. One that I’m sure won’t even have much separation until February 5th. In fact I expect it to get more muddled before it clears up. Edwards will do very well in South Carolina and it may result in 3 primaries, three different winners. All it means is that "THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!" No more, no less. Let’s ride this thing out and see where we end up before we attach too much significance to any one outcome.
if I had to call it anything, uh, I would say it’s his knee.
This is truly, truly disturbing. A few thoughts come to mind with this.
1.) Who is eating her face and hair. That just gives me the willies.
2.) How do you keep people from going right for the parts that men tend to go for.
3.) How you-centric does your world view have to be to have a life sized wedding cake shaped like you? I’m guessing about 11 sir.
Let me tell you somethin’ Mean Gene
Part two of writing about TV in the writer’s strike era. Now that the holidays are over the lack on new programming will start to become apparent. I’m here to request that we all exercise some discipline here. The networks are preparing to heap upon us a gigantic helping of reality crap.
I’m sending out a personal plea to everyone, everywhere. Please don’t watch this shit. If the networks can continue to draw in viewers for this crap, they will be much less likely to end this thing. I would like to suggest the following rules.
1.) If you are regular viewer of a particular reality show, please continue your loyal viewership. For some crazy reason most of this country likes to watch American Idol. Knock yourselves out. I will not be joining you, but that will also be consistent with pre-strike behavior. I will continue to watch survivor.
2.) If you were interested in a reality show and would have watched it regardless of other scripted programming, go on and watch. I will be tuning into American Gladiators. That’s just TV gold no matter time nor place.
3.) Tune into the good shit that is on. This probably should have been #1 on the list. The Wire starts it’s last season tonight. This is probably the best show to ever be on television and it’s fixin’ to close up shop. Same can be said of Battlestar Gallactica. It’s lined up to start it’s last season come April.
4.) Read a book or something. Just stay away from contrived reality bullshit. Do us all a tremendous solid.
What to do when there’s no new TV
"Sometimes, there’s a man, I won’t say a hero, cause what’s a hero, but sometimes there’s a man, and I’m talkin’ about the Dude here, sometimes there’s a man who, well, he’s the man, for his particular time and place, he fits right in there."
That’s pretty much how I felt about this weekend’s assignment. Sometimes, there’s an assignment that just fits right in there.
As an avid television watcher, go ahead ask around, I watch more TV than anyone who’s not being paid to do so, the WGA strike is hitting me pretty hard, or I should say will hit me pretty hard, once I finally catch up on the almost 30 hours of shows on my Tivo. So, short term the strike has been a blessing, as now I have the chance to get caught up on everything. I still have 3 episodes of Heros, 3 of Reaper, 2 of Gossip Girls, 3 of the Unit, 4 of 30 Rock, 3 of My Name is Earl, Battlestar Gallactica Razor, 1 of Chuck, 2 of Boston Legal, 3 or 4 Robot Chickens, 5 of Journeyman, 2 of the Simpsons, and 3 of Pushing Daisies. All this after working very hard to clear the Family Guys that were there and getting that Chuck number down to 1.
So, clearly, in the short term, I am not yet suffering through the dearth of scripted programming that will soon land upon me, forcing me to send my two children out into the cold woods looking for new programming with only a pocket full of bread crumbs to get the home. Right now, I’m doing just fine, say thankyou.
What I will miss most, or what will likely be the biggest pain in my ass, will be the unintended clifhangers. Not having gotten to the end of my shows yet, I can’t say which those will be, but being left in the middle of a story will likely irk me something considerable.
To fill the time, I’m watching much more college basketball, which is great (ask my wife and the word great may be replaced with less flattering word, or colorful phrase). It also gives us the time to continue working on series of seasons past. We’ve been working through Buffy, Angel, and The West Wing, so we’ve got those lined up. I’m also going to try to hook her on Battlestar Gallactica. I’ve also had an itch to go back and revisit Sipowic, so NYPD Blue may make an appearance in my Netflix cue.
I’m also going to be avoiding most of the filler reality programming the networks will be putting out there, with two notable exceptions. First, I will continue to watch Survivor, and second, I will be enjoying the hell out of the new Hulk Hogan hosted American Gladiators, because strike or no strike, I’ve been calling for a return of the gladiators for a while now. Plus, getting to watch the Hulkster cut a promo on some poor civilian should be worth the price of admission.
So many social engagement, so little time.
Jeff Taylor Writes 