A Mash-Up

I hate mash ups.

This is the only one I feel like adding. It’s Radiohead, okay….and  DAVE BRUBECK !

Cool Enough.

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All-time Winningest College Football Programs. Is Your School On the List? 2009 UPDATED.

I live in Texas, and they love them some football down here.  But you know what? I grew up in Michigan, and we sure-as-shit love some football too! We’re the Big Ten, we don’t mess about when it comes to the gridiron.  So I ask you, which team has the best all-time winning record?  Basically, you could argue that the winningest program is the best college program of all time – the number one winner when it comes to football?

I asked some folks I work with, and the answers were pretty consistent:

· Texas

· Oklahoma

· USC

· Florida State

· Alabama

· UCLA

· Florida

· Miami (Florida, not Ohio)

These are all great football schools, no doubt.  Very funny to me, not a single Big Ten school listed.  Should I be upset?  No, I’m sure folks in the Midwest would have all 11 Big Ten schools on the list.  (Well, not Northwestern).

So, not to leaving you hanging, here is the definitive list.  Going back 140 years (through 2009), and using the NCAA as the source, here are the top 10 schools and the percentage of winning games:

1. Michigan  73.982%

2. Notre Dame  73.639%

3. Texas  71.785%

4. Oklahoma  71.648%

5. Ohio State  71.508%

6. Alabama  70.855%

7. Southern Cal  70.614%

8. Nebraska  70.101%

9. Tennessee  69.420%

10. Penn State  68.934%

Three of the top 10 are Big Ten schools.  I like that.

The University of Michigan is number one.  I hate that.

I’m a Michigan State University grad, and always hated Michigan football growing up.  For the record, my MSU Spartans came in 31 at 58.993%.

If you want to see the big list, click here.

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Who was first? Who cares. (Nirvana vs. Weezer)

Just re-visited Nivana’s video for “In Bloom” where it is all retro, Beatles-on-Ed-Sullivan looking. 

 Great song and fun video.  But there is also the Weezer Buddy Holly video where they are rocking for the kids at Arnold’s ala Happy Days.  Which came first?  Which is better?  Who cares, they are both fun and great.

Although, Nirvana does deconstruct the stage a little which is more in keeping.

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James Spader: Now Complete with Power Ballad!

You know how, like, when you were little and you really desperately wanted a pony? And how it was like probably the only thing in the whole world that would make you really, really, really happy? And, maybe you didn’t even have to own it outright, but you would just feed it and groom it and ride it? Spend some QT together, whispering your pre-adolescent secrets into its nice sturdy and ever-astute ears. And then, twenty years later you realized that right next door to your house was a large stable and paddock with a huge sign that said, “Free ponies for particularly precocious girls who have already mastered the hoppy.”

You just can’t believe it was right under your nose all along.

It’s just the way the world works sometimes, no? I had that feeling upon discovering the trailer for a little movie called “Tuff Turf.” Everything about this movie looks like it was designed for me.

Some thoughts:

• It’s Tuff. The title tells you straight up.
• It stars James Spader and Robert Downey, jr (which every single movie made in 1985 should have – they would have killed it in The Color Purple)
• Formerly preppy Spader is caught up with street gangs…
• And those street gangs might enjoy a good “dance battle!” 
• They’ve only got a third rate voice over artist for the trailer – not a good sign.
• No one in my high school actually wore the head to toe skin tight outfits.
• No one in my high school actually did gymnastic flip/kicks across the cafeteria ending in a  stage lift.
• How Tuff can one really be on a ten speed. Not rad.
• I think it is positioning itself as a ‘Grease’ meets ‘Footloose’ movie.
• Guarentee: Someone is getting “iced” by movie’s end. (That’s a threat AND a promise).

I’m not sure how I missed it. I’m not sure how it didn’t at least make it on re-runs on basic cable. But I am sure that Mr. Netflix will let me borrow it and it may just make it onto the queue.

What is not to love about this trailer? Don’t lie to me. You starting humming along to the “Tuff Turf” groove by the end, right? Right? And, YES, Spader does “sing” a power ballad in the middle of the movie.

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The Sheeps

 

I would say “Come see my band” but with most of ya’ll in North Carolina, that’s just not happening.  But you can enjoy the flyer anyway.  I always like checking out band flyers.  Our first gig is Wednesday.  I’m hoping Gator will take some snaps that we can post, she’s a good picture-takerer.

But anyway, my band The Sheeps is finally up and running and doing something other than rocking Wes’ RockLodge (the garage where we rehearse).  I’m playing drums in this one, and it’s a new kind of drumming for me.  A little slower.  Less Rock, more roll.  Maybe even less roll too.  It’s a kick-back vibe with Wes playing rhythm and singing in his signature warble, Brian on twangy tele or lapsteel, Michael on Rhodes piano, organ or vintage Roland Juno, and Zach on Jazz Bass.  Good guys all around.

We did some recording at The Brain Machine Studios on Sunday which went very well.  We tracked six songs and got everything down except backups on four of the songs.  We’ll finish that up next week and mix it down to be a nice six song demo.

Check out our myspace page to sample the songs and see what Wes comes up with content-wise. 

More on The Sheeps at it develops.

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Test Your Brain – And Give Rice!

Check out freerice.com. It’s a multiple choice vocab quiz and it’s challenging. Maybe you’ll learn a new word. For each question you answer correctly, 2o grains of rice are donated through the UN.

Cleverly, this idea came from a dad helping prep a kid for the SAT. He spent all this time building up a database of words and answers and now they’re available for us to play too! The ads build up revenue to pay for the rice. New words are added by professional lexicographers.

It’s fun (if you’re nerdy like me) and it doesn’t take a minute to speed through a dozen questions. You’re graded on a scale of 1-50 although, it’s next to impossible to get more than 48.

How well did you do?

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Worst Band Names of 2007

Throughout the year, the AV Club keeps track of some of the dumbest band names they come across and at the end of the year they let us in on what made the rather puerile list.

Some of my favorites include:

Garrison Killer. - It’s a play on a name that mostly your grandparents will recognize. Not the way to go.

Malice in Wonderland. - I’m pretty sure I came up with that one. In first grade.

Penguins with Shotguns. – Well, last year was the year of the penguin, I guess they thought they would capitalize on that.

I Sank Molly Brown. -  The girl is unsinkable, but this name is not.

ButtStomach. – I’m sure it refers to a trick they perform on stage. Otherwise, their combined age best not be over 45.

The House that Gloria Vanderbilt. - We all get it. You’re cute. But no one in your target market knows who Gloria Vanderbilt is, not even that she is Anderson Cooper’s mom. No one. (Hint: The house is made of snugly fitting denim).

Wookie Hangover. – Alright, I see your thinking…you love Star wars and you just discovered drinking. Okay.  Keep trying.

The Cornish Gay Men- You’re really punny. But, I bet you’re not really gay.  (Note: This may have an entirely different meaning in Cockney).

BiFurious - I wish it ended with, “:The Reckoning.” Regardless, they’re probably twice as furious.

General Patton and his Privates. – Too quickly rejected was the original: “Old Blood and Guts and His Nuts”

The Pussy Pirates. - (First line of their bio: “First off, we’re an ideas band. I think we proved that with Fuck Mountain.”)  Wow.  Only an ideas band would “concept” such a lame name.  It’s got a little Pirates of the Carribean, plus a bit of “down-there” humor from the playground set.  I hope the first song is called Fart Police.  Nope.

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