Album Reviews and This Year in Music…Pending

30 Dec

I figured I might write a disclaimer for those of you who may or may not be waiting for a “This Year in…” article from me.  Every god damn blog has their year end articles.  I will be releasing the Top 11 Albums of 2011 before the end of this year.  I promise.  If I don’t, nightly self-flagellation (with a whip, that is) and turkey bacon for a whole year.

I’m very meticulous when it comes to rating albums.  I have a formula; seriously (please see my article on spreadsheeting).  If I’m reviewing an album by itself, I listen to it no less than 10 times in it’s entirety.  For this article, because of the volume of music that I’m attempting to speak intelligently about, I have made at least 5 (usually more like 7) listens in an album’s entirety obligatory.

Let’s do some math.  Supposing that your average LP Continue reading →

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2011 in MMA

29 Dec

Fighter of the Year: Jon Jones

Whether you love him for his in-cage brilliance, or hate him for his incessant arrogance, Jones is the definitive choice for the award. He finished his four fights in 2011, three of them against legends (“Rampage” Jackson, “Lyoto” Machida, and “Shogun” Rua), and the other against the then undefeated Ryan Bader.  Like his freakish reach, Jones’ Continue reading →

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Beard of the Week: December 29

29 Dec

This week’s beard was a long time coming. He’s The Dude, he’s that bad guy in Iron Man, he’s got True Grit, he stares at goats, he’s…I forget what other movies he’s in, but do you know what I’ll never forget?

HIS BEARD!

Look at this hunk when he Continue reading →

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Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale

29 Dec

Some breweries just get it.  Every distributed brewery has a marketing department of some kind.  Judging by the amount of beer available at any given beverage center (back in Buffalo, they call them party stores) it’s no easy task to make sure you stand out from the crowd.  I mean, I’ll occasionally buy a beer because its label looks cool.  I’m no more oblivious to bright colors and fancy scripts as the next guy.  I’ll buy based on style of beer more than anything, but breweries have to know I’m spending upwards of a half hour looking up and down at the same shelves hoping I’ll notice their brand.  There’s always a different school of thought in how they get you to look their way.   There is the big-swinging-dick approach, where places like Stone Brewery more or less question your manhood by daring you to try one of their beers.  There’s the fancy swirling art motif employed by Continue reading →

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Baseball’s Free Agency

27 Dec

Baseball free-agent classes are determined to be strong or weak based on the quality of the players available in a given off-season. What is sometimes lost in this assessment is that there is not a direct correlation between the quality of players available and the marginal return that player provides. For example Albert Pujols is sure prove a more productive signing this off-season than Casey Kotchman, but at 26 million a season versus an estimated 5 million, not more valuable.

To relate this to a different market, stock-brokers have proven no more effective at picking stocks than random selection; what this proves is Continue reading →

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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

27 Dec

In short, this movie was much better than I expected.  My family decided to do the Christmas Day movie thing this year since we celebrated heavier on Christmas Eve (at least I did).  There wasn’t really anything in theaters that I was excited about.  My mother suggested the new Mission Impossible.  I thought the first one was decent.  The second one sucked.  So bad, in fact, that I completely skipped the third one.  I decided to suck it up because family time is important.  Oh, and it was free.

The new one is directed by Brad Bird…who confuses me.  His repertoire consists of a handful of episodes of The Simpsons, Disney and Pixar’s Ratatoullie and The Incredibles and now Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.   I’m thinking an animated film about the Holocaust is his next best bet.  IMDb tells me that Continue reading →

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Joe Saunders

24 Dec

Baseball Prospectus may rescind my membership for this statement, but I’m going to say it anyways: I don’t think Joe Saunders is a bad pitcher. In fact, I think his career 69-52 record, and 4.16 ERA prove he’s a pretty good pitcher. Sure Saunders doesn’t have swing and miss stuff, and his career FIP is half a run higher than his ERA; however, did he deserve to be derided as worthless when he was traded to the Diamondbacks or non-tendered by the same team after a season with an ERA of 3.69 in 2011?
As much as I love statistical analysis, I’m not in love with Continue reading →

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Christmas Ornaments: The X-Mas Whack Pack

23 Dec

To usher in the Christmas spirit (not to alienate non-Christians, but I’ve been saying “Happy Holidays” all goddam week to avoid stepping on anyone’s toes) I decided it might be fun to do an article on Christmas ornaments.

Each and every year, at least since I’ve been able to stand up, decorating the Christmas tree has been a family affair.  Once the tree sets, the lights go up.  Then my little sister and I would set all the ornaments out on the floor and have an informal draft.  These drafts could get heated because my sister and I both love really stupid looking things.  Over the years, the draft became a keeper league, and I have built up quite a roster: The X-Mas Whack Pack.

We’ll go one by one… Continue reading →

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Beard of the Week: December 21

21 Dec

Last week was finals week so I gave myself permission to take a break, but I’m back and ready to share the wonderful beards of the world with…the world…

Anyway, Sunday is Christmas, and for all of you who are either Christian or just slaves to our consumer-driven culture, we all know that Santa is kind of this weeks honoree by default. But! I decided since he’s not real, I’m not going to make him the sole honoree this week. Hell, I’m not even gonna put his picture up!

This post is 100% created by my friend Justin, he both gave me a dude to honor and told me what to include. I’m just giving credit where credit is due.

So this week let’s take a look at sports. Basketball, anyone?

James Harden apparently Continue reading →

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The Descendants

20 Dec

At first, all I heard about this movie was that it was directed by Alexander Payne.  I had seen Election, Sideways, and About Schmidt and thought they were all above average.  I didn’t realize that time had flown since Sideways and Payne hadn’t directed a movie in seven years.  I became intrigued.

Then I heard about Clooney and a possible “Oscar” performance.  My first thought was “shit?”  To be clear, I’m not a Clooney hater; I’m a Clooney skeptic.

I showed up to the theater with some expectations and two heterosexual male friends of mine: fellow contributor, Andy, and my buddy, Brad.  We realized immediately that Continue reading →

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