Bill Simmons

If you know who Bill Simmons is, then consider yourself lucky. If you don't, then I advise you to go look him up of ESPN's Page 2 (everyone but Cory, although, if you can get past the topic of every article being sports, you would like it too). This guy is one of the funniest writers I know of...maybe it just has something to do with him making all of the older references that I so appreciate. Here is a part of an article on his NFL picks, with reference to one of his fantasy teams.

"Three things you need to know about our team. First, we have Daunte Culpepper, who has pretty much given us fantasy SARS at this point. Watching him on the Vikings every week is slowly killing my soul. I'm not even kidding. I am going to rob a liquor store or something soon. I'm filled with hate"

Fantasy SARS, now that is funny stuff. I went into a Tim Cotton silent laugh on that for about 10 minutes.

So, read his stuff, he is funny beyond reason. He makes me laugh like the Kevin James special "Sweat the Small Stuff".

Music II

Well, here we go again, self-indulgence at its finest. My time to point out the music I am currently enjoying. If you have ever seen "High Fidelity", the backdrop is a record store, staffed by three music snobs. They, especially Jack Black's character, take pleasure in reminding people of their musical superiority. They make the patrons, at least the one's that they don't like, seem foolish to not know what is cool or not cool. I give you this exchange:

Customer: "Hi, do you have the song "I Just Called To Say I Love You?" It's for my daughter's birthday."
Jack Black: "Yea we have it."
Customer: "Well, can I have it?"
Barry: "No, actually, you can't."
Customer: "Why not?"
Barry: "Do you even know your daughter? There's no way she likes that song. Oops, is she in a coma?"

"High Fidelity" is one of my favorite movies of all time, and that kind of dialouge is what makes it. Music inspires that kind of talk, discussions on which is better, what is the top 5 of this or that. I can remember driving in a field on a late Friday night, and getting into inebriated, hours-long arguments over whether Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page or David Gilmour was the best guitarist. Important stuff back then.

Anyway, back to the original idea...my musical selections of late. Again, I have no intention of trying to show off about how cool I am, just making a list. Besides, who reads this blog anyway?

1. Embrace - Just one of those groups who are a bit Coldplay-ish. I think Coldplay started a cottage industry for this style of music. However, this is good. Props to my man, Glen Imlay, for introducing me to this band. I have successfully shared it with two others who dig it as well.

2. Sloan - Canadian band. In 1991, I caught a video for one of their songs on "Post-modern MTV" (yeah, they played videos back then). Killer song, so I went to this record store downtown, Davidson's. This was one of those great, hole-in-the-wall places that smelled of incense and had a lot of tie-dye around. My church-raised conservative self really envied this place and its people. I so wanted to be like them, and tried a bit for a while back in the day. It never took, but I have some good memories. Part of the problem was that the culture was changing. This latter-day hippy thing was winding down just as the hip hop culture was winding up. Even though I enjoyed MC Hammer, Rob Base, Kool Moe Dee and the like when we were at the...umm...establishments built for dancing and the like, I still wanted the alternative stuff more. Anyway, after seeing a reference for this band, I busted out my CD and remembered how much of a raucous, noisy, great band that they were.

3. Anathallo - I really dig this stuff sometimes. This is very much and indie style Christian band that utilizes horns as well as the regular geetars, etc. A lot of dynamics, textures, etc. Just really good stuff.

4. Kaiser Chiefs - Sort of in line with the Bravery, Bloc Party...British new wave type stuff. Hard to explain, I sometimes think of the Romantics when I hear this stuff.

5. DJ Shadow - Just a great DJ who mixes in mainly the percussion side of things, drums, pianos, xylophones, etc. Good is all I can say, smooth, mellow...good stuff.

That is a good list for now.