Titanic. Listen to the words.

Magnificent.

Life Changing

The third season of Deadwood is all about class warfare, and people coming together for their mutual survival in the face of being devoured in toto for the financial gain of their alleged betters. Hot! HOT!

A Torrent of Profanity (Watch Yer Volume!!!!)

Oh I hope nobody watches this at work, in the presence of small children, or on a laptop in a church or other sacred place.

That said, it is hilarious. You've been warned.

The Joys of Slow Motion

OK, so this another version of The W.A.N.D., but as you can see it's one worth sharing.

The lyric also seems appropriate given the current global geopolitical situation. Now is indeed not the time for fanatics.

Burnt Out

Burnt Out


Folks, I am plumb burned out and I need to refocus my mojo and reallign my karma.

Forgive me if I just sock you with music commercials from You Tube, and thoroughly ridiculous ones at that.

Stay cool.

Genius

Genius.

UK Calling?!?

According to aintitcool and The New York Post some cast members of the BBC's The Office will be washing up on NBC's The Office. Will it be Tim? The Skinny Fascist? Pam?

The surround sound on the new Pink Floyd Pulse DVD is mind boggling, a wall of sound. Kudos to Gilmour and James Guthrie.

But how am I blogging during the "show?" Relax, it's the lamentable Roger-less section and I've already gone to the men's room and the fridge (this would've also been when I'd hit the souvenir stand). But soon it will be Dark Side Of The Moon (I've only waited years to hear it in surround sound) and it will be another story all together.

Play Like The Stars

Skills Endorsed By FIFA World Cup Player Of The Tournement


It's an international sensation, just like inquiring how one could get red carded out of the Final and into infamy and STILL get the Man of the Tournement award...

For Syd

R.I.P. Syd Barrett. I was never in the Cult of Syd ( I'm more of a Cult of Roger sort), but Syd was the father of the feast and you can't discount the importance of that.

Wherever you've gone to Syd I hope you've found some true peace.

Goddamn!!!!

Goddamn!!!!!!


You Tube is the shit. How many times can I say it? Check this shit out, a magnificent live rendition of "Let Down," my all time favorite Radiohead ditty.

It's a celebration bitches!!! Enjoy.

Wow

Italy over France on penalty kicks in the World Cup Final. It was the world against Italy (just the way they like it) and Italy prevailed (just the way they like it). A great game.

And once again this blog shows how little I know about soccer. Oh well.

Yikes

ABC just recreated a videogame graphic type shot of the Olympic Stadium leading up to the epic penalty kick canto!! Cool!

Zidane might have just profaned his legendary career with that red card that removed him from the game right before the PENALTY KICK phase. Whoops.

Inspiring

To hell with Beckham puking all over his shoes- Zidane coming back in after getting the magic spray on his shoulder was something else. And now extra time. In the World Cup Final. Nice.

Yes, Not Only Is It Another Commercial- But It's A Sequel Commercial!!

Jose +10 Part 2


More shameless corporate love.

Jose +10 Part 1


In honor of the World Cup- one of my all time favorite commercials. Behold- the WORLD of football.

Dag!

Clearly the World Cup has saved it's best match for last, with Zidane writing more of his fairy tale finish and the Italians digging deep and responding with a classic set piece. Any... ANY American who says there's no strategy or tactics in soccer after watching this classic will only be revealing their utter lack of sports knowledge and appreciation.

Unfortunately ABC's coverage is woeful, almost painful. I have never heard such blathering on by on air commentators. Any why bother showing the WHO'S WHO of European anything if you're not going to tell us who it is you're showing us. Bloody painful.

One Little Thing

Comparing Zidane's final game in today's World Cup Final to Elway's or DiMaggio's retirements isn't fare to Joltin' Joe or Elway- they retired after a league championship. Zidane is leaving the game after playing in the World Cup Final, the world's championship, a final game that will be viewed by over a BILLION people and remembered by millions all over the world.

The Shit

You Tube is the bomb. Almost enough to restore my faith in this damned medium.

More Virtual Pop Music

More Virtual Pop Music


Ordinarily one would assume I would object to this sort of thing out of hand. The problem however is that much like Gorillaz, this stuff appears to be actually good...

It's also right out of a William Gibson novel.

Because I Love You Guys

Because I Love You


I love those groovy George Salisbury video collage thingies. Play it for your born again Christian friends.

HUH?

Who The Hell Is Platinum Weird?


OK, it looks like another post modern rock and roll shuck and jive but for some reason this song is the shit...

World Cup Final Prediction

Today: France 2 Italy 1.

Yes, I am picking the Team of Destiny over the Hard Luck Case.

The Impossible Dream

Finally... today... mere hours before the actual World Cup Final takes place in Berlin... the roommate and I finally won the PS2 2006 FIFA World Cup in cooperative mode with France over Argentina. The impossible dream. I've had this game for a few months now and the best I could do was the consolation match. Over and over. It was getting depressing... until today.

Oh glorious day.

Correct-o-mundo

USA Today's been asking why soccer isn't big in the United States and among some of the blogged responses is my favorite, and sadly probably the most correct:

Think about Golf, US beaten by Europe in the Rider Cup...

Tennis, James Blake is your number 1, that says it all.

Americans are not about sports, they are about entertainment, hot dogs
and beers.

Posted by: Mark July 8, 2006 11:23:49

And when you factor in our recent lousiness in other international competitive endeavours (not to mention not one American in the Wimbledon quarterfinals!!) one has to suspect that Mark is absolutely right.

And that breaks my heart.

Big Kudos!!!

Hella kudos to Katie Burd and her co-conspirators for planning and executing a fine surprise birthday shindig for her husband Kevin, the radio Han Solo to my gnarly radio Chewbacca. Nice pizza by the way from Romeo's.

Preposterous

The Hard Luck Case (Italy) versus The Team of Destiny (France) in the World Cup. Who woulda thunk it?

Dazed and Infused

The Dazed and Infused on draught at the Allen St. Hardware is delicious. The sweet potato fries at the Allen St. Hardware are delicious. The dixieland jazz at the Hardware was chaotic and sleazy, the perfect soundtrack for the Allentown speakeasy experience. I love that place.

2 Out of Four

And yes, I was only 2 out of 4 for my World Cup semi final predictions, BUT, Thierry Henry DID show up so my prediction re: Brazil v. France was sort of correct. The only match I totally blew was my Argentina call, and frankly that was out of partisan love for Argentina.


Does that count as 3 out of 4?



OK OK, no it does not. And what the fuck happened in Germany to Germany? Losing to an Italian side in the heart of a biblical soccer scandal? We're talking about a side that had guys who's club teams are about to be literally banished from the premiere league of Italian soccer. Whoa. That one came out of nowhere. What goals. The first one by Fabio Del Grosso at the death of extra time was profound. The pass back and that bending ball that just caught inside the post- a fucking vision to be sure. I won't even hazard any half assed assessments about Italian national character, but I will say that to almost back into the World Cup semi finals and then win like that... damn. Wow.

The Point Abino International Croquet Tournement

PROPOSED:

An annual tournement of croquet featuring both singles and team play. In the both the singles and team tournement there will be 3 or 4 games varying on the number of entrants, with the top finishers competing in the tournement championship, with the winners recieving a commemorative white straw hats or engraved gin and tonic glasses and the losers The (dreaded) Stickey Wicket.


Stay tuned for more information. Coming in 2007.

Weird

Can somebody explain to my why exactly my farts smell like a bonfire even though I was barely near the ole bonfire, and only a short time ago? YIKES. This has been a beach conundrum for me for some time and if there any scientists or biologists out there with a credible answer I'd love to hear it. Seriously.

The Chimes of Freedom

What the hell happened to the Fourth of July? Usually you've got works of fire (shot off by professionals) shooting off all over the place once it gets dark enough and tonight I saw nothing exciting in my drive back from Canada where we enjoyed dangerous pagan bonfires and all sorts of fireworks fun. Actually Crescent Beach was dead today too- the deadest I have ever seen it. The roads were empty in Fort Erie and Buffalo, and that was hands down the fastest Fourth of July trip over the Peace Bridge back from Canada ever. What's going on? What has happened to our local / national mojo?

At least the Space Shuttle went up (up and away) without incident. That was key.


In any case fuck it. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY. It's a celebration!! Enjoy your freedoms while you can.



UPDATE!!!

Reports are coming in that it fell to ordinary citizens to have their own firework fun all over WNY without official sanction, and that in some parts of WNY we did damn good. Good for us.

Remember folks, the tag line for this here things is: "One man's obessions about life in the United States of America, in Buffalo, and beyond." One man. His loves, his hates, his frustrations, exultations, and small joys. And a lot of talk about inane ass stuff.

Attempts at reading more into anything posted here, or to ascribe ulterior motives are misguided, and if any offense has been given or taken in the course of this experiment I apologize for the discourtesy and any pain I might have caused you. It's a cold world and we've got to stick together.

Impartiality

With all of my teams out of the World Cup I can now offer strictly gut instinct picks based solely an impartial appraisals, and here they are:

GERMANY V. ITALY - Germany all the way. It was a good run for Italy.

PORTUGAL V. FRANCE - France. It's about destiny now. And they did beat Brazil.

A Blow For Truth And Justice

I am an international backyard croquet master... avoiding all the sticky wickets in the tall grass and laying it down in a Red State / Blue State Challenge and YES YES the Blue States won. Cliff and Mimi Donius represtented, sending only our Red State oppponent's roquets and never each others and working our way to victory. That was the key. Cooperation.

"Go Fuck Yourself!"

I really like the customer service techniques on display at the Deadwood Bank as practiced by Trixie and Mr. Ellsworth. I love the voices of these marvelous actors (in particular William Sanderson's poetry spouting Farnum) spouting this wonderful American Shakespeare at each other while depicting our American story always in progress. I really loved the Hostetler "motherfucking" Steve the Jackass Loser, Dan Dougherty (Swearingen's chief thug) talking smack to Hearst's thug, and Al Swearingen's coaching to the electorate. While some might call it derivative I prefer to think that Milch is creating a proto Barney Miller / NYPD Blue as western.

Yikes... transatlantic national grief via satellite TV. Am I a jackal? Probably. But now I'm starting to feel bad... Maybe catching a few minutes of live Sky Sports (that just happened to be on as I was leaving for Canada) was a bad idea. But now the controversy starts. Bloody fantastic.

Ha! Eric Wynalda said Rinaldo cannot return to Man United for his club career! Ha! I said the same thing!

I must be going insane.

Oops, Wayne Rooney will also get some deserved shit for stepping on Christian Rinaldo's nuts and getting sent off. Ah... to be English right now. Wheew.

England's dream is over. The shame of a nation, if such a thing exists and I'm sure it does in England, will hang on the shoulders of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Jamie Carragher for their gaffes in penalty kicks. The roommate is going nuts, and I think TiVO-ing Sky Sports tonight will make for hilarious viewing later on...

I will not pull my hair. That would be crazy. The roommate will however be applying the FULL whammy (both hands, all fingers) at the TV screen everytime Portugal comes near the ball.

Holy smokes... penalty kicks in the England v. Portugal quarterfinal. Right now as we speak any traffic on the roads, streets and lanes in that nation is grinding to an absolute halt, air is being gulped like fish on a dock, and hair is being tussled with love and care in preparation to be pulled sharply by it's owners.

ABC's World Cup coverage makes me wish I was more fluent in Spanish. Where's Tommy Smyth when you truly need him?

There is going to be some SHIT in the Manchester United clubhouse when this World Cup is over between Rooney and Rinaldo, and Sir Ferguson is going to have his hands full. Oh well. To Hell with Man United.

This extra time has been amazing. High drama. The dreams of a nation (not ours) hanging by a thread.

Scrubs Need Not Apply

WNY area soccer / football fans: WANTED, 2 or 3 fellow travellers for a roundtrip balls to the wall roadtrip to East Rutherford NJ to see Barcelona FC trounce Red Bull NY on August 12. All the big names should be playing... our chance to see one of the all time great European teams.

Why are fellow travellers needed? Because the cost of gas is gonna suck ass in August. $40/50 a body for gas won't be too bad at all... We'll drink beer and talk about football.

Scrubs, gun nuts and weirdos need not apply.

Doctor Who: The Three Doctors is the bomb, a lot of fun. The English are the best: their cars, the stiff upper lip, their taste in women's boots, and their capacity for the clever nudge and wink as art. I also like the rock music and science fiction.

Yes... I raided the used Doctor Who bin at the new FYE on Transit.