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Showing posts from August, 2010

Way-Too-Early College Football Predictions

Just to give you an idea of what a complete nerd I am and how much free time I have on my hands, I went through every single game this year involving a top 25 team and attempted to predict who would win each one. It wasn't easy (some games were nearly impossible to decide, such as Texas/Oklahoma, Miami/Ohio State, and Georgia/Florida) and with that many games to pick, I didn't exactly examine each one closely...but dammit, I'm just so excited that college football season begins THIS WEEK that I had to do something fun (yes, this is FUN for me) in anticipation. It may be a little biased (yeah, I have Miami running the table and playing for a national title, but I'm also not the only one ) ACC Miami (undefeated) def. Florida State Big 12 Oklahoma (undefeated) def. Nebraska Big East Pitt Big Ten Ohio State (1-loss) Pac 10 Oregon (undefeated) SEC Alabama (undefeated) def. Georgia Final BCS Standinds 1. Alabama 13-0 2. Miami 13-0 3. Oklahoma 13-0 4. Oregon 12-0 5. Georgia

2010 Rose Bowl Running Diary

I was just looking through past tweets on my twitter and I noticed that I did something of a "running diary" for the Rose Bowl and I thought it would be fun to collect those tweets into a blog entry: -gonna be doing some semblance of a running diary for the Rose Bowl...let's see if anyone pays attention :) - my prediction about Terrell Pryor having a Vince Young moment took a hit when they mentioned his knee was tweaked...but we'll see... -the only two times I've seen Oregon (this game and v. USC) the defense has come FLYING out of the gate but could be burned in over-pursuit -as I say that Pryor busts a 24 yarder... -a couple very good short throws pick up another first down...here comes Pryor -Ohio State putting the ball all over the place to take advantage of this over-pursuing over-energetic Oregon D -absolutely BEAUTIFUL throw by Pryor goes RIGHT through the receiver's hands -Pryor is getting ALL DAY to throw and Brandon Sane makes an absolutel

If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise

Bayou Pollution British Parasites Blood Petroleum Bad People Burying People Blowout Purgatory Beach Pissing Breaking Point Blind Power Broken Promises Beyond Poison Bandit Policy Better Pay Better Pray Bring Pain Be Patient Bottom-feeding Pimps Blow Pop Billionaire Pirates Backroom Payoffs Belligerent Plunderers Big Problem Bleak Picture Breed Poverty Butt Plugs Biological Perverts Bubonic Plague Brokered Pillaging Blooper Prison Bungee Pumping Beyond Principles Bullshit Propaganda Bush People Bitch Please

The Good Fight

"I know you might roll your eyes at this but I'm so glad that you exist" -The Weakerthans - The Reasons Jon Stewart Stephen Colbert Keith Olbermann Rachel Maddow Dylan Ratigan Brian Williams David Gregory Anderson Cooper Anthony Weiner Dennis Kucinich Russ Feingold Matt Stone and Trey Parker Seth MacFarlane Lewis Black Patton Oswalt Radiohead Michael Moore AlterNet Thrice System of a Down Strike Anywhere Propagandhi Harvest of Hope Billy Bragg In a world where everyone seems to be solely out for themselves, it's comforting to know there are people like them. Out there fighting the good fight and standing up for what's right. Calling out greedy, deceitful scumbags and shining a bright light of comedy or music or just plain outrage on the dark corners of shameless exploitation--the shameful, unspeakable places whose perpetrators bend over backwards to hide from the narrow, lazy, out-of-focus gaze of the general public. A world domina

Candidates for the Top 10 of 2010 (and, for good measure, 2009)

The National - High Violet Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty Beach House - Teen Dream The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs The Tallest Man On Earth - Wild Hunt The Black Keys - Brothers Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma Blind Guardian - At the Edge of Time The Fall - Your Future, Our Clutter The White Stripes - Under the Great White Northern Lights Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here The Roots - How I Got Over Laurie Anderson - Homeland Deftones - Diamond Eyes Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave Gorillaz - Plastic Beach Nas & Damian Marley - Distant Relatives Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do She & Him - Volume Two Kayo Dot - Coyote The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever Matt Skiba - Demos Torche - Songs for Singles Jimmy Eat World - Invented Envy - Recitation Kylesa - Spiral Shadow and since I never made a top 10 of 2009: Mastodon - Crack the Skye Animal Collective - Merriweather Post P

Unitarian Universalism

A little over a month ago my mom coerced me into going to a service at my grandfather's church because the theme of the service was "poetry" and my grandpa was planning to read a couple poems to the congregation--also because it was the day after his birthday and they were gonna do a cake for him. I had not been raised without a certain degree of familiarity with this congregation up to this point in my life. Indeed, I've been dragged there many a Christmas Eve for one of a very small handful of family traditions--the attending of the special Christmas Eve service at the Unitarian Universalist church followed by the yearly family picture on the steps of the stage. As I grew older, my mom had to try desperately to keep this tradition alive as my dad and I grew restless with the idea of having to sit through this thing every year. A couple years we even got our wish but eventually my mom lassoed us back in, saying "it's one of the only traditions we have as

greetings

Well I guess I'll start by saying I don't really know what to expect from this blog or what it's actually going to be. It might be kind of counterproductive to start a new blog without any real purpose or focus but then again maybe it's better that way; maybe it will free me to open up in a way that the constraints of focus and purpose don't allow. I've always done this sort of thing on my typewriter as more of an exercise in writing simply to write (and also because I love the feeling of writing on my typewriter and the sound and motion of it) but it occurs to me that that's kind of a waste of paper (although there aren't very many uses I have for my typewriter that aren't a waste of paper) so I decided to start a blog to serve as sort of a mental, spiritual, and emotional trash compactor--although not so much a compactor considering the aim is to feed it every day, sort of like a house pet, so more of a house pet meets trash compactor; although p

Derrick's Top Albums of All Time (#20-11)

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I know, I know, it's been over three months since the last installment in this series. I'm really slacking on this thing lately. But I FINALLY have gotten back on track and have prepared the next in this wonderful series for all two of you that read this blog (and that's being generous). I swear, honest to god, I'm gonna really try to start making a habit of updating this blog every week. Seriously. Anyway, on with the show... 20. Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye I'd like to think that the small handful of people who actually read this would know enough to take me seriously when I say that Choirs of the Eye is the most musically diverse, eclectic, dynamic mindfuck of an album I've ever heard. There is no possible genre I could assign to this and describing it would be almost as impossible. The songs rollercoaster from classical music to folk to sludge, almost black metal to spacey post-rock, often within the same "song" (I use the term loosely beca