Follow The Lights

When the four of us talked about starting this blog we had the idea of giving our opinions about movies and music. Well so far that hasn't happened, until now. I am offering up my first CD review.

I have been a big fan of Ryan Adams for a while now. I always enjoyed his music but didn't really get into until I started listening to Whiskeytown, which he was the lead singer of. I really became a fan with his mix of rock and country influences. After Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams made 5 albums each with different influences and styles. When he joined up with The Cardinals on the album Cold Roses he really went back to the music that he had with Whiskeytown.

His most recent effort with The Cardinals, Follow The Lights, is an EP with only seven songs. Three of them are new while the other three are live studio versions of other previously released songs and one cover. They are seven great songs. The overall feel of the album is very mellow with just good easy music. "My Love For You Is Real" has already become one of my favorite songs that he has ever done, great guitar work and the two minutes at the end of just music with no singing is a perfect finish to the song. On "Follow The Lights", Ryan Adams and The Cardinals redo their song "If I am a Stranger" by stripping it down, playing it much simpler and slower. It gives the song an almost eerie feel. This version brings a whole new meaning to the lyrics. The one cover on the EP is a very interesting. Ryan Adams has already done a cover of Oasis, "Wonderwall". Noel Gallagher once said, "I never got my head round this song until I went to see and hear Ryan Adams play, and he did an amazing cover of it." This time around Ryan Adams does a cover of Alice in Chains, "Down In A Hole". I am pretty sceptical of people doing covers of bands that have such a unique sound as they did. I was quite surprised though with how it was done. Ryan Adams avoided the pitfall of trying to imitate Layne Stanley's voice, which is a great thing, as no one will ever sound like him again. This cover sounds in between the way Alice In Chains played it on their album and how they played it for their MTV unplugged show. A very cool cover. I wonder what Layne Stanley would have thought of this version. I have only talked about 3 of the songs but the other 4 are also very good. This truly is a great CD.

For this CD review I will use the scale of snow conditions as it is the beginning of the ski season here in Steamboat.

No snow...Bare Spots...Groomer Day...Champagne Powder

I give this CD...Champagne Powder

The Stefan

Two of the greatest pictures ever...

I was looking up the new Punisher movie and I saw that some guy named T.J. Storm is going to be in it. He has been inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame, I think that he got voted in for doing kick*ss poses like this with birds. Maybe he got voted in though for taking sweet pictures like this half naked one, oh wait he is half naked in both of them.

Josh Brown hit...

This is a hilarious video. I don't know if it really is a hit, but Josh Brown at least brought Hester down. It does have to be one of the funniest reactions/celebration ever.

This is it!

More NFL Players I Hate

Good on you Danny! You wrote something, amazing.

So I decided to expand my writings about players I dislike (hate). This time I decided to write about Neil Rackers. I really should like him since he is a kicker. Unfortunately there is something about him that I just can't stand. Everytime I see him I get angry. Everytime he makes another one of his damn kicks, I get angry. I also should like him because I like the Cardinals. I know, I know, I shouldn't like them because they are in the same division as the Hawks but I can't help it. The Cardinals are fun to watch, I like Fitzgerald, Boldin, The Edge, and even Leinart. If they weren't in the NFC West I would root for them. One thing that really brings down the Cardinals for me though, is Rackers. He just sucks b*lls, and yes, that is a technical term.

Bloggin on our blog

So, I haven't been very good about blogging lately. And by lately, I mean always. And by always, I mean the last few months since this blog started. Anyhoo, I going to make a concerted effort to post at least once a month. Since Stefan and Tanner seem have the football picks thing covered and Nate has the numbers as writing thing locked down, I need to come up with something else I can contribute. Maybe I should blog about politics. Nobody seems to be doing that.

No, on second thought, that sounds like a lot of work. If anyone wants to know what semi-qualified people who write blogs think about politics, they should check out The Blog Report. Or, if you prefer your political dialog aural and visual at the same time, take a look at Bloggingheads.tv.

I think I'll just write about television commercials. So here's a start: I really like those Messin' with Sasquatch commercials for Jack Links Beef Jerky. Those commercials, much like Nick Cannon, are hilarious.

Last post missing...

So I wrote a post about 4 days ago that somehow got deleted or maybe I didn't post it...either way it got lost. Here is a part of what I wrote. The post was about different NFL players that I hate.

I will just list one of them here.

Jerramy Stevens: I hate him for many different reasons. Besides that fact that he sucks, I hate that he talked so much sh*t before the Super Bowl, only to not ever catch the ball (one of those catches would have been a touchdown). Here is a list of some other reasons I hate him.

On June 2, 1998, Stevens was arrested on charges of second-degree assault armed with a deadly weapon and fourth-degree assault. According to a police report, Stevens and a friend engaged in a fight with a 17-year-old and witnesses said Stevens stomped on the man's face. Stevens agreed to a plea deal of a charge of misdemeanor assault.
On July 10, 1998, Stevens tested positive for marijuana and served a day in jail.
on July 27, 2000, Stevens arrested for investigation of sexual assault but was never charged and released from jail after prosecutors determined they wouldn't be able to charge Stevens in the required 72-hours after his arrest.
On May 4, 2001, Stevens was cited for reckless driving and hit and run after crashing into a nursing home Northgate, Washington. Stevens pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and causing property damage and was sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
On April 3, 2003, Stevens was stopped by Medina, Washington police and was charged with reckless driving and driving while intoxicated. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving and was fined $1,000 and was sentenced to two days in jail because the judge ruled Stevens violated his probation from the hit-and-run case.
On March 13, 2007, Stevens was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is facing DUI and marijuana possession charges.
On March 20, 2007 the Seattle Times report that multiple complaints were raised against Stevens by other residents in his condominium complex. The complaints include, vomit on their doors, used condoms on the back porch, loud parties at all hours of the night, and various noise complaints.

Two Months into the Blog

So the blog has now been up for 2 months. Amazing! I think that I have definitely written the most. I'm not sure how much my writing really counts since almost all of my posts have been football picks, but it is still the most. Tanner has written the second most amount, which isn't very much. Danny I would say is in third place, he has only written one post but at least it used words unlike Nate who has only made one post that was in the binary system (hmmm). Quite a start. Hopefully things will pick up. Maybe not.

On a side note, I am taking part in an even called Movember. It is a fundraiser to raise awareness of prostate cancer. Movember is where you grow a mustache for the month of November. So far it is coming in really gross like. It has a title. It is called "Yeah I've Nude on Film, So What?" Gross. Sponsor me.