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Thursday, November 27, 2008
The Post with some NFL Picks
No point in really picking against the favorites for the first two games
Tennessee
Dallas
The third game is tougher but I think Donovan McNabb has a good bounce bakc game and the Birds win a shootout.
Philadelphia
Happy Thanksgiving people
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Post with me Remembering The Shield
I know this post will only appeal to a small number of people but it's my hope that with a passionate entry that it might get one person to check out the series. So I will break this post inot 2 parts. Non spoilers, and spoilers. First the non-spoiler part.
Last night marked the end of what to me is the second best, and most underappreciated drama on television- The Shield. (For those wondering I would have it after Lost in my rankings). From the beginning it was clear that this was not your ordinary cop show. Shows like Law & Order, CSI, and the like are about clear lines between good and bad, and are one off episodes for the most part self contained. The Shield is an over-arcing story that blurs the line between good and bad similar to the way shows like The Sopranos did. The line gets so blurry that you find yourself rooting for Vic at times, and rooting vehemently against him at others. Over the course of the series 88 episode run I alternated between these emotions as did many. That in and of itself is a huge testament to the show.
Outside of the main Strike Team storyline there is some really good acting from some really good actors. CCH Pounder as Claudette Wyms and Jay Karnes as Detective Wagenbach suffered through their own character faults and represented what the Strike Team could have been had they chosen to be a little more noble in their efforts. Wagenbach especially goes through a major character change during the course of the show.
The Shield is told with a breakneck pace. It's not like other crime shows where we see every step from point A to Z. In the Shield we get things thrown at us fast and furiously to the point that we get from A to Z but without those boring stops in the middle. We get maybe A-E and then skip to O-Z. It means we don't get a lot of long expository scenes or anything that feels there merely to fill time. What we get is a police drama that is turned up to 11. Even with that pace though we get a lot of deep moments that resonate. The pace of the show helps those moments resonate and stand out even more.
On top of all that, there is some really great storytelling involved in all of this. As the whirlpool of bad deeds spirals more and more get pulled into the fray and you are left with people intersecting and needing each other as much as they need to push them away. I can also guarantee you this- there are moments throughout that will leave you chilled as to how far someone will go to protect their interests or gain a greater understanding of what they are and who they are dealing with.
Look, this show is worth your time. Even if you only have an hour a day or a week to watch TV this show is worth that time.
SPOILER SECTION
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Last's night finale was about as note perfect as it could be. In fact I will go so far as to say this puts away every drama series finale ever- including The Sopranos. I defy anyone who was a fan of both shows to watch the two finales back to back and then try to defend The Sopranos finale as anything but a massive disappointment.
What will stick with me about this episode are the following things:
- I guess start with Shane's ending. I didn't expect what we got. To see Shane kill himself after killing his wife, son, and unborn daughter was shocking. I had the same reaction the cops did in the scene- just stunned silence. In Shane's mind he was going to take his family with him so they could be together rather than torn apart in the world of the living. It was a last ditch move by Shane when every angle he tried was covered. Vic teasing him about visiting his son every year for the rest of his life was the final straw with Shane. The scene was a massive gut punch.
- That scene also led to the very poignant scene where Claudette sat with Vic in the barn and stripped him of the only thing left she could- his dignity. She made him sit on the perp side of the table. She presented him the crime scene photos all the while stripping the legacy Vic left behind to nothing.
"All those busts. All those confessions you got in this room, illegal or otherwise. All the drugs you got off the street tonight for ICE. You must be very proud of yourself. This is what the hero left on his way out the door."
One of the three pillars of how Vic defined himself was that he got results. Wyms presented him with what those results amounted to in the end. A dead former cop who killed people on his way out.
That scene was then punctuated with how Michael Chiklis played it. He didn't just look at the pictures. He rolled his head down to look at them as if it were an accident. He knew that if he looked and those pictures were real that everything she said was true. He was essentially invalidated. The glazed eyes, the facial tics- the moment of showing remorse as Claudette silently watched him from another room was perfect.
Then when Vic tried again to keep his stiff upper lip and walk away she hit him with the counterpunch. She had a 1-2 punch lined up and wasn't going to let him off the hook. In the end she didn't get to arrest Vic but she got something possibly even better. She minimized him. She reduced everything he worked for, to virtually nothing. The fact that Dutch got to be a part of the big bust too was perfect because he was the victim of a lot of abuse from The Strike Team. "The past three years," was as good a response as I've ever heard.
- At the end we have Vic Mackey stripped of everything that defined him. Many wanted him to die or be put in jail, but the fate he got was far worse.
The tripod of things Mackey prided himself on were these. His family- despite the mistrust between him and Corinne and the kids he still tried to do right by them. His team- he tried to keep things together and bail them out at all times. His job- despite his questionable methods he truly believed he left the streets in better shape. By the end of the episode last night, his family had entered themselves in witness protection to be rid of him. His team has been completely dismantled. His protege is dead, another one is killed by the protege, and the 4th one is going to spend life in jail because of Vic setting him up for a fall. Most importantly as covered above. His job and legacy have been diminshed.
Not only that, he is confined to a desk for 3 years writing reports which he need to do or he breaks the terms of his immunity deal. He's not in a literal jail but rather a figurative one. The final insult was hearing the police sirens outside and knowing there was nothing anymore he could do about it. He stewed in that for a minute until the lights shutting off shook him from his stupor.
- The silence did a lot of speaking in this episode. Claudette, Vic, Shane- all got moments where there were no words but just looks and thought wrangling.
Nothing about this finale disappointed me. Maybe the fact that Dani didn't get a lot to do but I felt like her story wrapped pretty heavily throughout the season.
What was nice to see was Claudette's last vestiage of the Barn celebrating Tina's one year anniversary before being sent out on a call by Dani. Claudette saw in that moment that the Barn was going to be fine with Dani, Tina, and Julien- along with Dutch- as the main line of defense in the area.
Shawn Ryan did a great job with this finale and with the series as a whole. I will miss looking forward to this show every week.
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Post with my weekend
Another weekend down as we move closer and closer to the holiday season. Or as I like to call it- the time where Brian gets more bummed than normal. The whole holidays and people celebrating with their loved ones kind of bums me out because of the single status. Then the New Year comes though and it back burners for a while. So anyway...
Friday night I headed back for my bi-weekly visit to Quakertown and popped into Target for a little bit. I was going to get some things but I decided not to because this coming weekend will have me spending a bunch of money so I figured I'd give my wallet a breather. So I just putted around for a while looking at prices on some things.
Then I headed to the movies to catch my double shot. First up was Role Models which was really funny. Probably the funniest movie I saw all year, I'd have to double check my list on that but it was pretty close. Some really good lines and some really good acting performances. After that I checked into Madagascar 2 which was really good too. It was better than the first one as well which is a nice change of pace.
Going into Madagascar I had to navigate through the line to see Twilight. Holy crap was there a ton of people there to see that movie. For those who don't know Twilight is about teen vampires or some shit. The movie in the clips I saw looked awful, and just really cheesy. However, I understand I'm not the demographic for that necessarily. The line inside at the theater itself went up the one hallway and turned about a quarter of the way through the back hallway. It was insane. I've never seen that kind of hysteria.
After wards I headed home and watched some of Conan before I crashed for the night.
Saturday I woke up and played some games on the Wii before heading to the gym. I got in a normal routine. Normally I'd go a little longer on the weekend but since I got a late jump I kept it simple. Probably will do the longer workout tonight. I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and did my shopping for the week. I also grabbed sweet potatoes for my dish I'm making for Thanksgiving (Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Pecans and a marshmallow topping)
Headed home then and watched some football before heading out for dinner.
Mom and I went to Smokey Bones for dinner and it was pretty good. We had to wait like 10 minutes for a table which wasn't bad for 5 pm. With the Penn State game I think the place was a little fuller than normal at that time on a Saturday. Place is pretty good. I'm not a big fan of chain restaurants but it is definitely on the higher end of the ones I've eaten in. I got the pick your own combo meal and got the flipping fingers and smoked beef brisket with baked beans and corn. They gave us some kind of mustard BBQ sauce which was great and now I really need to find that. By the time we left the place was really getting full. What I like about them is that they actually have a niche in the market and aren't just trying to be a corporate version of a neighborhood restaurant. But they are still evil. Just evil with really good food.
Afterwards we headed to Sam's Club so I could pick up a few things. Of course too I had to pay my membership which cost me some cash. It cost me more to re-up then it did for the groceries I bought. Craziness. Then I headed home and watched Oklahoma kick the doors in on Texas Tech. The win wasn't surprising but I wasn't expecting them to blow Tech out the way they did. Just insane.
Sunday morning I got up and went to do my Sunday School teaching. The class is huge this year and they are always looking to get off topic. Good kids though.
After church we played football. I haven't been able to get to it too many weeks this year but I got out for the first time in a long time. I was on fire too. Caught like 4 touchdown passes and picked off two passes. Also the running I do I can definitely feel the benefits of. I really was never breathing hard at any point during the playing. My heart rate was up but I was never really sucking wind as badly as I did say last year. So I just need to keep on the 3-4 miles 4 times a week plan. I'm seeing some results in my weight and waistline as well, but there is a lot of work there before the results are overly noticeable. I long to be able to dress like a thin guy (or as close as I will ever get to it).
Came home and watched some football. The Eagles are terrible and comical at the same time. The Denver Broncos are a bad team leading a bad division, and the Giants are the best team in football by a wide margin. I then watched the Chargers play with some fire only to ultimately lose to the Colts.
Disappointing because it probably costs them the playoffs unless Denver falls apart a little more down the stretch. Plus Oakland and Kansas City don't look like gimmes anymore. That Week 17 game with Denver could be huge (hopefully). Part of me though hopes they don't get into the playoffs so they get some of their edge back.
Today I kind of have a headache and I have a viewing to go to tonight which is very low on my list of things I look forward too.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Post with my weekend
Another weekend is in the books. This one was more interesting than most have been as of late. Well more interesting in that I actually had plans for a majority of the weekend so I was busy the whole time.
First the weekend started a little later than normal because I had to work the late shift Friday night. At my job we have an 11-8 shift which is horrible. Whoever designed that shift should be drug out into the street and shot. It is a horrible shift to work. On top of that, it is even worse to work on a Friday because most normal people zoom out of work that day so they aren't looking to get information or orders taken care of. Basically I sat here from 6-8 and handled 4 issues. The rest of the time was spent watching episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu.com. Even better is I get paid extra for working the shift and watching television. What sucks is- this is the second straight time I've had to work it on a Friday night. I can't wait until I have another job and don't have to worry about this ridiculously stupid scheduling. Also, if anyone has a good lead for me please offer it up so I can get the hell out of here, before I lose my very loose grip on sanity.
Afterwards I went home and got showered to head out to 80's night at Red Hills. Place was freaking packed. It was the most full I'd seen it since I went the first time back in February. At one time there was exactly no place to move too and it was getting like sweat inducing hot. The only remedy at that point was to move out to the dance floor and start moving a little bit. Now normally I wouldn't dance at this 80's night party. Mostly because I'm not usually there with a group of people, but I'm trying to get myself into the habit of doing things there instead of just standing and doing nothing besides silently gripe to myself. However, when I learn the Footloose dance again- all bets are off.
Around midnight it thinned out some so it wasn't as jam packed. Around this time my buddy's sister and I got the wheels rolling for him and eventually scored him a phone number. So I'm declaring a victory for the little people.
On a selfish note about the whole thing I'd just like to say I'm glad my wingman skills have not really diminished because I had a huge hand in bridging the gap for him. Ask him- he'll tell you.
If nothing else- it's a confidence builder which everyone needs once and a while.
But that's a story that's not for me to go in-depth too so let's focus on the little verbal war that happened as we were leaving.
There was some guy and some girl having an argument as I passed them at the dartboard. Not sure what the argument was all about but it seemed like they had some kind of history together and the girl was mad about him being in there with another chick. This girl's friend grabbed her and tried to make her leave. The guy tried to help by telling her to, "get her stanky ass out of there." So she did. (Not because of him but more because her friend actually moved her towards the door.)
They storm into the parking lot behind us, and are walking to their car. The girl is bitching the whole way about something. The guy than comes out the door and starts screaming at her. Some of it was audible, some was not. What was audible though was him yelling, "You're the one finger-banging yourself at the trailer park."
Apparently the guy thought this line was so good he repeated it like 4 times. Now I know I may have some weird sensibilities but "finger-bang" is one of my favorite words in the world. Seriously just writing it now makes me crack up laughing. So of course I giggled about this for a while. I also felt the need to yell, "finger-bang" out the window as we left.
Honestly though- why would you argue with a chick in the parking lot of a bar. Nothing about it makes you look good. There is no gain from it all. If people hear you and she keeps zinging you, you look dumb. If you are too strong- you look like an ass. No win.
Before I went home I decided to run into Wal-Mart so I could get my groceries for the week and wouldn't have to get up Saturday to do it.
Saturday I got up and then in the afternoon I headed down to a friend's house to watch some horror movies. We watched the movie Dance of the Dead which was actually really funny and quite good for a low budget horror film. It's pretty funny at spots and the scene with corpses coming back from the dead and springing from the grave kung-fu style was amazingly awesome. I think I'm in love with the red head in the movie too. Way cute.
We grabbed some dinner and I was introduced to The Venture Brothers. After that I headed home to catch some football before bed. Had a good time on Saturday with them and it's good they are fairly close.
Sunday I went into Sunday School and did my duty before coming home and watching some football to close out the day. I unloaded a skid of pellets at home in the afternoon which sucked because of how freaking' cold it was outside. Seriously it felt like it was 50 mile per hour wind gusts and it was bone chilling cold.
So anyway that was my weekend and here I am again. These weeks seem to go by quicker and quicker.
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Post with this week's NFL picks
Last week was a good week as I finally gained some decent ground above .500. I thought about going with a big lead this week since I didn't come into work until 11 this morning. However, I got stuck in a 4 OT game on my NCAA video game system which ate up a ton of time. (For those wondering, I won). So we will stick with a "just the picks ma'am approach)
SUNDAY'S GAMES
Baltimore at N.Y. Giants- N.Y. Giants
Chicago at Green Bay- Green Bay
Denver at Atlanta- Atlanta
Detroit at Carolina- Carolina
Houston at Indianapolis- Indianapolis
Minnesota at Tampa Bay- Tampa Bay
New Orleans at Kansas City- New Orleans
Oakland at Miami- Miami
Philadelphia at Cincinnati- Philadelphia
Arizona at Seattle- Arizona
San Diego at Pittsburgh- Pittsburgh
St. Louis at San Francisco- San Francisco
Tennessee at Jacksonville- Tennessee
Dallas at Washington- Dallas
MONDAY'S GAME
Cleveland at Buffalo- Cleveland
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Post with me Live Blogging the CMA Awards
Keep refreshing the page or just checking back all night to get my thoughts. Or collect everything in the morning in one big mess of thoughts.
We open with Brad Paisley and Keith Urban singing their duet, "Start A Band." It is a song in the loosest term but more a backdrop for them to duet on the guitar. Both are awesome on it so it works out fine and is actually a lot of fun. Good start to the show and the most obvious place to kick it off.
Brad Paisley and Carrie UNderwood are out as your hosts tonight. In an understatement I must say- Carrie Underwood is gorgeous. Moving on.
Brad Paisley gets off some really good jokes and they should really lock him down as host for the next 10 years.
We are now handing out Single of the Year presented by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
Don't Blink
Gunpowder & Lead
I Saw God Today
Stay
You're Gonna Miss This
And the winner is......George Strait and "I Saw God Today." Can't really argue with that. In a world of country music where they try to do everything they can to get away from the traditional sound it's refreshing that he still gets as much play as he does. I thought Miranda would get this but maybe it was just a little too fiery for the Academy.
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Kellie Pickler is up next to sing a song she wrote with Taylor Swift entitled, "Best Days Of Your Life."
With the short dress I'm not hearing much of the lyrics. From what I am hearing I'm not missing much. I'll try to be positive tonight about a bunch of things though. Pickler's voice is much better than it ever was when she was on American Idol. She's pretty pleasant to listen to.
Also the sound system sounds much better for this song.
Alan Jackson is up to sing "Good Time" on the left side of the stage which is again wrestched with sound. Like a pro though he realizes this and shortens phrases and plays with his voice to make it sound better. Then they bring out a whole mess of 20 somethings to line dance in the crowd in front of bewildered country artists. Seriously, Jake Owen looked lost.
Song of the Year presented by Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus
Good Time
I Saw God Today
Letter to Me
Stay
You're Gonna Miss This
Winner is------Stay by Sugarland. No surprise there. It's a poignant, brillantly done piece of music. I put the over/under at 2 years before Jennifer Nettles goes out on her own.
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Miranda Lambert is up next to sing her ballad, "More Like Her." At least some dude isn't dying in her song this year. I like rambunctious Miranda but more songs like this would be welcome becasue she has a great classic country voice.
In pre show awards- Brad Paisley takes Video of the Year for "Waiting on a Woman." Robert PLant and Allison Krauss take Vocal Event of the Year for , "Gone, gone, gone"
Great stuff from Miranda. They were trying to milk a standing ovation for her but it didn't quite take.
Lady Antebellum is up next with their debut hit, "Love Don't Live Here Anymore." I kind of liked the original version before they made it more rocky for country radio but still very good, and they could have a very long career.
For those scoring at home- In the HD battle I have Carrie in first place with Kellie Pickler in second but it's close. Hillary from Lady Antebellum in third and Miranda in 4th.
That is what really matters.
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Martina McBride with her typical great performance. Girl has the best voice in country music and much like Alan or George is a straight professional on the stage.
Rodney Atkins is up now and is singing the same type of song he always sings. Oh man. He's reminding us what America is all about. Sweet! I need to make a list.
This song would actually be ok if he hadn't already sang a much better song in the same vein called, "These Are My People." This is like a poor man's version of that song. Sort of, it's more sped up but lacks the fiddle of the original. America is a man on the moon, a high school prom, Springsteen song, and one nation under God- among other things. HMMMMMM!!!
Vocal Group of the Year presented by Heidi Newfield and John Rich
Eagles
Emerson Drive
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts
Winner is------------- RAscal Flatts. Just horrible. They had their worst year as far as singles go and have developed quite a backlash in the country world. They also tried to sneak a road head song past country radio. I think Little Big Town deserved this much more. And I'm not like a huge fan of theres.
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Time for Taylor Swift...Urge to be positive fading, fading, fad......
Look- I know people like Ms. Swift. She seems like a nice enough girl and she is a pretty good songwriter. However, she is not a very good singer. Just isn't. She has no lower register and she misses a lot of notes everytime I've heard her live. If she were 40 and not cute she would not get played on country radio. If she were a bad songwriter she would irritate me a lot more. I'm not crazy about this song. I still think her best performance by a wide margain is "Our Song," where he childlike, shallow voice is best used.
Kid Rock is up next with "All Summer Long." I don't mind the song although after a few listens it gets old real quick. I generally like Kid Rock too but he has no buiness singing on the CMA's. Rumor is Lil' Wayne is with him.
Rumor is true.
Also his guitarist has a "Joe the Strummer" shirt on which is the first political statement of the night.
Good for what it was. Kid Rock sounded good on the bad side of the stage which probably says more about the sound system than anything.
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King George is out to sing "River of Love." It's an ok song. It's more of an exercise in how a great singer can elevate not so great material.
It's now time for Jason Aldean singing his new song, "She's Country." I guess that was ok. Nothing special. He does do the country rock thing better than Kid Rock though
Horizon Award presented by Taylor Swift
Jason Aldean
Rodney Atkins
Lady Antebellum
James Otto
Kellie Pickler
Winner is-----------Lasy Antebellum. No surprise there again. they deserved this over the rest of the nominees.
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Brad Paisley pays tribute to Jerry Reed (how dare you give props to a country artist) before Carrie kicks it to Brooks & Dunn with Reba McEntire performing, "Cowgirls Don't Cry."
This is kind of sad if Reba's only contribution is singing harmonies on the chorus. Ok maybe not. Brings back good memories of their duet from like 98.
Vocal Duo of the Year presented by Jimmy Wayne, Julianne Hough, and Jake Owen
Big & Rich
Brooks & Dunn
Montgomery Gentry
Sugarland
The Wreckers
Winner is------------ Sugarland. Again, no real surprise there.
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Darius Rucker is up next to sing "Don't Think I Don't Think About It."
This song has really grown on me. His album was better than I expected it to be. I think what I love the best about him is that country music has no excuse for not playing a black artist on their airwaves. Usually black singers have little to no luck on country radio anymore. Rucker was popular and very successful in another genre so they can't blow him off. On top of it, the song is very good so they have literally no excuse.
Good performance as well.
Now that we know where 90's rockers go where do 90's country singers go? Is Ty Herndon readying a rap album?
Brad Paisley is back to sing again with his last hit, "Waiting on a Woman." Love this song. The video is even better and elevates the song to a different level. Another great performance
Album of the Year
Carnival Ride
Cowboy Town
Good Time
Just Who I Am (Poets & Pirates)
Troubadour
Winner is--------George Strait with Troubadour...Kinda surprising becasue I thoguht they would give it to Alan Jackson for writing all 17 songs on his record.
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Keith Urban's new song is up next. It's about time he get a new album out on the market.
Not a blow-a-way performance but with most of his stuff it's a great singer and player elevating less than great material
Now we get a woman whose husband died in the war introducing Carrie Underwood singing, "Just A Dream."
I feel a little scuzzy about thatIt's a big time introduction for a poweful song though. I'm kind of torn.
Carrie might be the best all around package in country right now on the women side. Maybe overall.
Really Good performance. Also she has pulled way ahead of Ms. Pickler in the HD battle now.
Holy shit. They are actually recognizing the nominees into the Country Music Hall of Fame
Female Vocalist of the Year presented by Vince Gill
Allison Krauss
Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Winner is--------------- Carrie Underwood. No great surprise I suppose
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Sugarland is out to sing next. I really like this song. I guess I kind of hear the U2 influence they proclaimed but it's very faint.
Good stuff from them. They are becoming very consistent.
James Otto is up next to sing after losing the New Artist award. He is singing his song, "Just Got Started Lovin' You."
Kind of an odd first line as it seemed like him and his band weren't on the same page.
Also kind of amateur that they had Otto sing his song and then announce the radio station winners in the end coda.
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Kenny Chesney is out to sing "Everbody Wants to go to Heaven," with The Wailers right now. This song has gotten better but it still needs a different arrangement. I hope Kenny gives the island rhythms a rest after this song. At least for an album so he can spread it out.
Ok, now that this has turned into a duet on a Bob Marley song I'm less enthused about it. I don't really know who the guy singing with Kenny was. Kenny kind of aped Strait's version of that song there.
Up now to sing is Trace Adkins with "You're Gonna Miss This," My god, another guy who actually sounds country.
Good round of applause for him and for a very good performance.
Carrie introduces Reese Witherspoon to hand out Male Vocalist of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Alan Jackson
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Keith Urban
Winner is-------------Brad Paisley. Maybe a minor surprise but Paisley gets a lot of love because he is traditional and reaches across to fans outside the genre. Plus he shows great reverence for the tradionalists.
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The Eagles are here to sing now. This is one of the better songs off their pretty good double album from last year. However, they almost never get played on country radio so it's odd to have them perform again. Even odder they were up for an award tonight.
Still- Don Henley is always good to hear sing.
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Time for the big surprise guest
SHANIA TWAIN is out to present Entertainer of the Year. And she gets the big standing ovation. I never thought I'd say this but, thank god we see a huge country star finally tonight.
Nominees are:
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Sugarland
Keith Urban
Winner is------------- Kenny Chesney. No shock I guess although the other nominees are probably more deserving. There has never been any real criteria established for the award. He does get huge crowds but single wise he has been up and down over the year.
At least they gave the guy last a chance to make a real speech. Shame it was someone who is very old hat at this like Kenny.
Odd edning as the show just ended.
Overall a decent show. Not anything big but I don't expect great country music from country music anymore.
The Post with my CMA picks
Entertainer
* Kenny Chesney- Kevin, Leeann, Blake
* Brad Paisley - Dan
* George Strait
* Sugarland
* Keith Urban
Male Vocalist
* Kenny Chesney
* Alan Jackson
* Brad Paisley - Kevin, Leeann, Blake, Dan
* George Strait
* Keith Urban
_
Female Vocalist
* Alison Krauss
* Miranda Lambert
* Martina McBride
* Taylor Swift
* Carrie Underwood - Kevin, Leeann, Blake, Dan
_
Vocal Duo
* Big & Rich
* Brooks & Dunn
* Montgomery Gentry
* Sugarland - Kevin, Leeann, Blake, Dan
* The Wreckers
_
Vocal Group
* Eagles
* Emerson Drive
* Lady Antebellum - Kevin
* Little Big Town
* Rascal Flatts - Leeann, Blake, Dan
_
New Artist
* Jason Aldean
* Rodney Atkins - Leeann, Blake, Dan
* Lady Antebellum
* James Otto
* Kellie Pickler - Kevin
Album
* Brooks & Dunn, Cowboy Town
* Kenny Chesney, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
* Alan Jackson, Good Time - Leeann, Blake, Dan
* George Strait, Troubadour - Kevin
* Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride
_
Single
* “Don’t Blink” - Kenny Chesney
* “Gunpowder & Lead” - Miranda Lambert
* “I Saw God Today” - George Strait
* “Stay” - Sugarland - Kevin, Leeann, Blake, Dan
* “You’re Gonna Miss This” - Trace Adkins
_
Song
* “Good Time” - Alan Jackson
* “I Saw God Today” - Rodney Clawson/Monty Criswell/Wade Kirby
* “Letter to Me” - Brad Paisley - Leeann
* “Stay” - Jennifer Nettles - Kevin, Blake, Dan
* “You’re Gonna Miss This” - Ashley Gorley/Lee Thomas Miller
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Musical Event
* “Another Try” - Josh Turner featuring Trisha Yearwood
* “Every Other Weekend” - Reba McEntire & Kenny Chesney
* “Gone Gone Gone” - Alison Krauss & Robert Plant - Kevin, Dan
* “Life In A Northern Town” - Sugarland featuring Little Big Town & Jake Owen -
* “Shiftwork” - Kenny Chesney (duet with George Strait) -
_
Music Video
* “Don’t Blink” - Kenny Chesney
* “Good Time” - Alan Jackson
* “Stay” - Sugarland -
* “Waitin’ on a Woman” - Brad Paisley -
* “You’re Gonna Miss This” - Trace Adkins
_
Monday, November 10, 2008
The Post with my weekend story
Before we start just know that on Wednesday night I will be live blogging the CMA Awards so I will be constantly updating at night and you cna pop in from time to time to see what is going on. So maybe an update or maybe not that day.
Another weekend done and once again I sit at work on a boring Monday morning. The weekend was fine but ultimatley unfulfilling since it went so damn quick.
I went to the cabin this weekend with dad and our friends Steve and Ryan. Friday night we left around 6:45 to get up there and rolled in a little after 8. We got everything out of the truck and then started the fireplaces to take some of the moisture out. We got one of those digital converter boxes for analog tv's and it works pretty good. The only issue is with a cabin in the woods it doesn't get a full strong signal a lot of the time and it pixelates like crazy. Also depending on how you move in the cabin it knocks out the signal. At night it seemed pretty good though for certain channels. Also it's better than watching completely snowy channels the few times you actually try to watch a tv.
Since the ABC line-up is usually bullshit on a Friday night, we had on the CBS schedule. That meant the last like 15 minutes of Ghost Whisperer (and man Jennifer Love Hewitt is still as good looking as she ever was), NCIS (just horrible), and Numbers (less horrible but still very corny). My question for CBS would be this- exactly how many crime procedural shows are you trying to put on TV? Flicking through their schedule on a whim I found this:
CSI: Miami,
The Mentalist
Without A Trace
CSI: New York
CSI
Eleventh Hour
NCIS
Numbers
48 Hours Mysteries
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
crime show repeat
crime show repeat- yes they spend 2 hours on Saturday nights repeating crime shows from the week
So out of 22 hours of national programming you are looking at a whopping 13 hours of crime shows. That leaves 9 hours for other shows
That is just crazy. I would have to think that average is untouched by any other network with NBC maybe being the closest based off the Law & Order franchise but even that is spread out a little more over a season these days. The worst part is- all the shows are basically structured the same with the main character having some quirk. It's crazy. Where have the family sitcoms gone?
So anyway that pretty much killed Friday night as I was in bed around 11 hoping I could get some work done on Saturday.
Saturday I woke up and we ate breakfast. The other three went out turkey hunting and I got dressed to go do some work outside. I thought about going out into the woods and seeing if I could kick some things up to them but it's been so long since I've hunted that I just don't feel any urge to do it anymore. I never saw anything when I hunted and just got frustrated. I can stay at home and see nothing and not be frustrated. I'll always take the latter. I started cleaning up some trees and cleared a few spaces out. I wanted to blow the leaves off the front lawn but it was dreary and it was misting and drizzling all day which made them way too wet to do anything with. That kind of closed the day down around 10:30.
We sat inside and played pool for a little while before we went to get lunch. Pizza was ok that I had. Have had worse, have had better. We then drove around for a little and then headed over to the new dam they just rebuilt. The thing is huge and impressive although there are a few cracks already.
We came back then and watched the Penn State debacle. We also ate dinner which was chili. After dinner we went out spotting and saw a bunch of deer along with a bear. The thing was a pretty decent size but wasn't huge. Then we got back to the cabin and decided to play some card games. Hauzee (not sure of the spelling) was what they decided to play but I've never played it before. I think I did ok but still am a little unclear on some things. The description I got for the game was really long and confusing. Had they just said it was sort of like Hearts I would've had a much better grasp of what I was trying to do from the start.
After that I finished up watching the Texas Tech game and then we headed to bed.
Sunday we packed up and headed home around 10:30 on Sunday morning. It was still kind of too wet to do anything although we did clean the leaves off the pavillon or else you are asking for a crash in. Got home and watched the pre-game shows to set up all my teams. Then I ran down to Wal-Mart to get my groceries for the week.
Came back and read some magazines and checked out the games for the week. I picked up my Phillies 2008 World Series Champs magazine which is still just totally awesome for me to read.
I played a few games in my NCAA football season and then played around with the American Idol Karaoke game for the Wii. I had talked about it earlier in the day and I had a hankering to play it. I kept doing the medley thing and it kept giving me Bohemian Rhapsody which is really hard to sing on that game- well in real life in general.
Watched some of the Eagles game but went to bed before it ended. The mustiness of the cabin gets to me after a while and I sneezed like crazy because I had forgotten my allergy pills. Form all the sneezing and stuff I had intense sinus pressure- still do. So I needed a nap badly.
Woke up this morning and now am sitting here at work. This feels like it took longer to write than my weekend in real time took
Friday, November 07, 2008
The Post with this week's NFL picks
No deep analysis again this week as I'm already 0-1 for the week and afraid this season is going the same way the patriots one did when Brady went down 8 minutes in. That might mean I need some little known picks person to step in and do this for me. Ugh! Anyway
SUNDAY'S GAMES
Baltimore at Houston-----Baltimore
Buffalo at New England-----New England
Green Bay at Minnesota----- Green Bay
Jacksonville at Detroit-----Jacksonville
New Orleans at Atlanta------- Atlanta
Seattle at Miami----- Miami
St. Louis at N.Y. Jets---- N.Y. Jets
Tennessee at Chicago---- Tennessee
Carolina at Oakland---- Carolina
Indianapolis at Pittsburgh----- Pittsburgh
Kansas City at San Diego---- San Diego
N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia---- Philadelphia
MONDAY'S GAME
San Francisco at Arizona--- Arizona
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Post with me talking about country music
Last night after leaving the gym I was going through what my Sirius recorded on the new Country channel. The one song was by one of the fairly newer artists that I like, Jason Michael Carroll (Alyssa Lies, Livin' Our Love Song). It was a Buzz Cut of his new song "Where I'm From." It was during this song, right after the first chorus that I reached this conclusion- Country Music needs a renaissance.
It's nothing against the JMC song, although it is far from his best work. It's just another in a long line of things that irritate me about country music these days. "Where I'm From," is roughly the 937th song of the past two years that decides the best way to determine you are country is by listing a bunch of things that would stereotypically define a "country person." It's just lazy songwriting, and with every new song that comes out it gets lazier and lazier. List songs in general aren't generally good but constantly listing goofy things like this song does are much worse. On top of that, the premise for the song is completely stupid. "Country boy," gets an upgraded first class plane ticket and is sat next to a man in an Armani suit. The "city boy" asks him where he is from and the "country boy" responds with a whole bunch of silly sentences instead of just saying an actual place.
But let's not harp on JMC.
I think what country music needs most is two things (and I'm going to hammer these points without attacking the normal object of my scorn John Rich)
- They need that voice/(s) that can lead such a revolution. Country was good but very geared towards one set of people back in the 60's and early 70's. Then the Outlaw movement hit and we had Waylon, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson opening up country music to a whole new set of ears. People thought it was cool and they weren't really giving up anything that made country music fun. All the traditional messages were there just wrapped in different still country rooted packages.
In the 90's you had Garth Brooks who made country music cool for people to listen to and again, it was country themes and sound mixed in with some rock sensibility.
Now we have the crossover with artists but for the most part it's not country themes and more often than not it's not designed with country music mentality in mind. It is way too homogenized and geared far more towards the middle. Instead of drawing fans to the sound, they are drawing the sound towards the fans. It's really kind of sad.
- They need more distinctive voices and better production. This ties heavily with the first one. I invite anyone with a satellite radio (it's easier like that) to put on a current country station and listen to it for like an hour. You'll hear a bunch of songs but what you'll also hear is that the production mixes are normally the same and vocally artists have no distinction between them.
If you heard new songs from like Jason Aldean, Jimmy Wayne, Rodney Atkins, etc in a row you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. (Jimmy Wayne is a big offender of this. The guy writes good songs but is one of the most bland vocalists ever. To make up for that then they screw around with his productions. His last hit song, "Do You Believe Me Now," is just horribly put together. A person said to me it's like that to make hi stand out. You shouldn't need tricks to stand out.)
That's not a knock on those guys (some are good), it's a knock on the landscape of the genre. The guys who I think are better- Dierks Bentley, Gary Allan, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban- stand out vocally. Women aren't immune either as they pretty much tie them all the same. Although the two better voices- Carrie Underwood, and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland- stand out completely from the pack.
After listening to the new country then switch to an older country station and you would hear that there are very distinguishing qualities from artist to artist. Charlie Pride doesn't sound like Buck Ownes who doesn't sound like Johnny Cash who doesn't sound like Charlie Daniels. Everyone stands out and the music doesn't sound overly produced and homogenized.
Next week is the CMA awards and I will live blog it in here but the awards which I usually look forward to I'm kinda dreading. Country music is just kind of blah right now and it doesn't sound like there is a lot of help on the way. Not to mention the most fun song on country radio in the past few months has been that Kid Rock song that gets old real quick. Hopefully we get some good performances (last year's were terrible), and maybe a controversial moment or else I'll be entirely bored next Wednesday night. Maybe we'll get some idea of a person who might be able to lead the change we need.
---ANother note. NFL Week 10 brings us Thursday games and tonight Denver goes to Cleveland to start the Brady Quinn era. I think this favors the Broncos but their defense has been terrible. I think the Bronws will rely on the running game and steal an upset win....Cleveland wins
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
The Post with some other's thoughts on last night
Last night was a historic event. It will do wonders for the US both nationally and internationally. I was going to put together some thoughts but didn't have enough time or the proper words. So I'll turn to two of my favorite analysts from CNN for their thoughts
David Gergen, senior political analyst:
I went back to look at the last speech Martin Luther King made in 1968...And he said, "I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up the mountain, and I've looked over and seen the Promised Land.I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land..."
Barack Obama said he's part of the Joshua generation, and "Martin Luther King was our Moses." We're much closer to that now. We haven't ended our prejudice, but there's somethign about this evening and this election that, I think, has made an awful lot of people feel: "You know, this is the Joshua generation. We can reach something we never thought we could reach 50 years ago."
Roland Martin, CNN contributor:
African American parents, when their child said, " I want to be a doctor, I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a politican, an astronaut," they could always point to an African American who achieved it. But whenever a kid said, " I want to be president," I literally saw black parents say, " Son, or daughter, you might think of being something else." I have nine nieces and four nephews, and I can actually say, (you can be president), and mean it.
Monday, November 03, 2008
The Post with my last twoo weekends
I hope everyone enjoyed the list last week. I hope also you at least check out one of the films on that list- they are all worth at least one view. I'll have to talk about my past two weekends because I got way behind with composing that list. But first we need to cover something else.
THE PHILLIES ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS.
That was something I wasn't sure I'd ever see and Wednesday night I did. I'm the biggest baseball fan and have been with this team through some really bad years. As I watched the guys get interviewed on Wednesday night I actually got a little teary eyed- tears of joy though. I don't think the actual championship sank in though until about Sunday morning after seeing the parade and seeing World Series champs merchandise on Saturday night. With this team's core of players they could win another one soon. At the very least they should be contenders for a few more years. Hopefully they make a few good moves to enhance what they already have. Ruben Amaro Jr. as the new GM doesn't really instill confidence with me but who cares- they are defending champs and that buys a lot of rope with me. I would say more but there is no way I could verbalize what I think and fell about it all, other than quoting my boy Chase Utley, "World Champions! World FUCKING Champions."
Ok, onto my weekends
Two weekends ago after work I headed to Robin Hill campground where our camping group was spending Halloween weekend. It's a fun time that basically involves eating candy and drinking alcohol.
Friday night I got there and ate dinner than talked with some people including Billy who I hadn't seen in a few years. It was good to catch up with him. Went to bed fairly early Friday night after standing around the campfire with some people becasue I knew Saturday would be a late night.
Saturday morning I got up and ate breakfast. I was going to go and watch my friend's son play football but we drove all the way back to Oley and then found out the game was canceled which stank because I wanted to watch a bunch of little guys play flag football. So we headed back to the campground and hung out a little bit before the rain pounded down on us.
Actually before that they had the costume competiton where everyone with costumes goes down and they get judged and win prizes. It was cool becasue all the little kids in our camping group went down and a bunch of them won prizes. My cousin had his little girls dressed up as rodeo queens in costumes his wife made- they looked really cute.
After that we came up to the sites because kids were going to start trick or treating around the campground. This was basically a long time of eating candy. Everyone also had wigs that we wore to get in the spirit of Halloween. I was wearing a white Afro for a while with the comb in it and everything. There may or may not be a picture of me wearing a Wendy's girl wig- I will neither confirm nor deny those wild allegations.
Around this time the rain let loose and it pretty much rained all day until about 7 pm which really sucked. We ate dinner that we got from Moyer's but the rain spoiled the night as a lot of people just went into their campers for the evening and that was that. I stayed out for a while though and a few of us watched the Phillies game which eventually started around 10:30 pm, and we drank. By the end of the night it was pretty much just me and my aunt Missy outside watching. However, you could see TV's on around the campground and there were pockets of people cheering as things happened- that was cool.
Sunday morning I got up and my stomach felt queasy from all the food and drinking so all day I was kind of lethargic. I took a nap in the afternoon and watched football and then Game 4 of the World Series.
That brings us to this weekend. But first,
Thursday night we went to trivia for the first time in a long time. Joel and I combined our forces on the last game becasue I had the one dialogue from Ghostbusters on as my name. We won and the DJ had to read the name and then said the winners are, "One of those assholes over there."
The funny part was it almost led to a fight with another group. There is a group that was there using an iPhone to look up answers online which is really silly considering you don't really win anything of importance. There is another group that goes that calls themselves Crew B. They were on that tables case about the phone which led to the kid saying, "Maybe if you had an iPhone you could use it also." As if that was supposed to impress us. When I won I went up and said really loudly, "We didn't even need to use an iPhone to win." The one girl at that table then did the girl start trouble move where she goes, "Oh my god, did you hear what he just said?" It was funny because that group was clearly upset they didn't win the big prize.
Friday night I had a Halloween party to go to which was a lot of fun. I was the only one who went for scary with my costume, but every party needs someone who does that. I think I looked funny dressed up like a doll. For those wondering I went as Chucky- with a really creepy looking mask. At the party we had a bunch of food that was all really good. Angie amde some little hot dogs wrapped in bacon which were great.
That night too we played some beer pong and Travis and I ran the table all night long never losing which was good. Some of the costumes were really cool. People dressed like a 50's family, then there were the old people who flashed people, Popeye & Olive Oyl, and Sarah Palin among others. Good times had by all. I really had fun and I'm glad I was invited.
Saturday I got up a little later than normal and then went outside to help dad and my brother start enclosing the porch for our pellets and everything. Stuff seemed to go ok until we ran out of wood late in the day. Saturday was actually a pretty beautiful day as well.
After dinner I quick went to the movies so I could catch Zack and Miri Make A Porno which was pretty funny and had a nice little storyline. I really like Kevin Smith films though which influences my opinion greatly. Elizabeth Banks was great in the film and I've always loved Katie Morgan. Seth Rogen kind of pissed me off in it but it was more becasue I've reached a saturation point with him. Then I came home and watched The Twilight Zone movie before going to bed and getting my extra hour of sleep which was much appreciated.
Sunday we worked some more at the porch and pretty much have it finished except for the doors becasue we didn't have hinges for the doors. Hopefully we can finish that next weekend.
Then I watched some football games and The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror special along with some other things before settling into bed.
The bad part about Daylight Savings Time is I forgot to change the clock on my TV so that popped on at about 5:30 this morning. Luckily I didn't hear it until about 6:15 which was good or I would've been tired and grumpy.
That is two weekends worth of stuff
