Blargh

Just got home from some minor league hockey action. I was planning to write tonight about Ring of Honor's debut show on HDNet but I don't think I'll be watching it before I sleep.

So, here's a little teaser of what I'll be seeing when I get to watch it [tomorrow night?]

Fraaaaaaaaak

Well, it's over.

Granted, it's not as a crazy of a conclusion to me as it is to others since I've really only been watching Battlestar Galactica for somewhere South of a year. We sprinted through the DVDs and got through the first half of season 4 thanks to a Sci-Fi HD marathon before the 4.5 premiere. But we watched along with everyone else for the final episodes and as disappointed as I was with a handful of them, I was greatly nervous about tonight's show.

The Series Finale is a difficult one. It's much easier to remember really bad/weird Series Finales than it is to remember good ones. Things like that bizarre final Cheers or the lackluster Seinfeld closer are a lot more likely to stick in the craw than the awesome Newhart finale or maybe something like Friends or the like.

But BSG, as they often did during their run, has re-set the bar for the standard of awesomeness in a Series Finale. And of course, you have to now turn your attention to Lost to see if they can top it. Prison Break, Scrubs, and a couple of others may end between now and then but after tonight, all eyes turn to Lost to see if they can actually manage to wrap up all those loose ends they've created thusfar.

I don't want to spoil BSG's finale for the masses who may not have seen it yet but let's just say there's the near-perfect blend of action, suspense, heartbreak, jubilation, and just about any other emotional heartstring they can tug on. There was some glorious shots and some images that'll stick for a long, long while. And there was just a touch - okay, maybe more than a touch - of cynicism about the world we live in.

I may write more in a few days when I've had a chance to absorb it a little more but for now, I say it was a glorious farewell to one of the best shows that television has ever had the honor of airing and things just won't be the same without it.

At this point, I can barely even remember Lost from this week after sitting through tonight's two hours so BSG obviously wins the final round and it was soooooo damn good, I'm tempted to give 'em bonus points so they win the Final Showdown!

Ahhh, Texas

You know, Texas and the inhabiting Texans take a lot of shit from a lot of people including yours truly. A lot of it is probably uncalled for and just playing off some bad stereotypes.

But...

Dallas school accused of staging fights

The Dallas school system was rocked by allegations Thursday that staff members at an inner-city high school made students settle their differences by fighting bare-knuckle brawls inside a steel cage. The principal and other employees at South Oak Cliff High knew about the cage fights and allowed the practice to continue, according to a 2008 report by school system investigators.

...

The report, first obtained by The Dallas Morning News, describes two instances of fighting in an equipment cage in a boys' locker room between 2003 and 2005. It was not clear from the report whether there were other fights. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the newspaper that there were "some things that happened inside of a cage" and called the fights "unacceptable."

...

The allegations came to light during a grade-fixing investigation that eventually cost the high school its 2005 and 2006 state basketball titles. School officials were suspected of altering students' grades so that they could remain eligible to play for South Oak Cliff, a perennial basketball powerhouse in one of the poorer sections of the city.

The newspaper reported Thursday that Angela Williamson, a parent, said she was ignored when she attempted to bring the matter to the attention of district administrators after her son, Cortland, told her that students stood around clapping and screaming while watching a fight he participated in. He and another student fought for five to ten minutes in the cage in 2004. She said the students acted as if they were in an arena.

Wow. Just... wow.

Now, granted... from the description of the school as being in one of the poorer sections of the city, I'm going to use some blatant profiling to say... "They could have been settling their issues in a far worse manner."

But this is the kind of thing that makes Dana White wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because there's no chance in Hell that any TV report of this story doesn't mention "ultimate fighting," "cage fighting," or something of the like. It's the same kind of thing that gives people like John McCain ammunition to call MMA "human cockfighting." All they would've needed was one of these kids to drop dead and you could have had a big time rollback on states allowing MMA inside their borders as irrational as that would be.

Oh, and the fact that this came to light during a grade-fixing investigation is just the icing on the cake. It's not bad enough that "institutions of higher learning" pull this kind of shit so that they can get their names in the headlines for going to a Bowl game or a tournament but now high schools think it's a good idea too.

So, grade-fixing and students beating the crap out of one another for the amusement of the masses?

It's gotta be Texas. Hook 'em Horns.

I was about to post this but one more thing just came to mind. When I was in high school, I always thought it would be awesome for a school to invest in building an American Gladiators course for gym class...

...but this, as Balki Bartokomous would say, is ridiculous.

THROUGH HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE!

For a few hours today, the most exciting piece of news I'd seen all day - and yes, this does come on a day when the President was about three miles from my workplace - was the following...

March 17, 2009
DETROIT, MI - Former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Tim Sylvia was involved in a fight at a bar in downtown Detroit Michigan with 7 foot, 320 pound WWE Superstar, Glen 'Kane' Jacobs.

No details are currently being released on how the fight started. A witness says the two were arguing and Tim Sylvia instigated the fight. Jacobs quickly took Sylvia to the ground and repeatedly punched him in the face. The bartender along with a bystander helped pull Jacobs off Sylvia. Sylvia was said to have suffered a broken nose and a black eye.

The police were notified but since the fight was not prolonged and neither men wanted to press any charges, no arrests were made. Sylvia was driven by a friend who was with him to the hospital to treat the broken nose. Glen Jacobs left the scene with his wife shortly after.

More details to be released as they come in.

In the end, this story seems to have been debunked as a total falsehood but for a few fleeting hours, I enjoyed the hell out of the thought of the Big Red Machine wrapping that gloved hand around Tim Sylvia's throat and chokeslamming him through a couple bar stools.

So, before you go to bed tonight, if you can slip in a little prayer that this story turns out to be completely and totally true, it would be a tremendous help.

Thanks! TTFN!

Woooo! EDDIE!

It's weird. While I'm not the world's most knowledgeable Pearl Jam fan, I thought I would know a story like this one. Yesterday while digging through my favorite mp3 blogs, I ran across a post on the awe-inspiring I Am Fuel, You Are Friends about Pearl Jam working on a new album with a tour to follow.

And no, that's not the story.

There was a link in the post that led to the Rolling Stone website for an article about the same topic.

And no, that's not the story.

There was a link in THAT article that led to an AMAZING piece by Cameron Crowe from many, many moons ago - right back before the self-titled Pearl Jam album came out. It's a really good, lengthy piece on the band. It actually kinda reminds me of the line from Almost Famous...

"It's a think piece about a mid-level band struggling with their own limitations in the harsh face of stardom."

Hrmm.

Anyways... the point of all this is that in the middle of that article from 1993, I stumbled upon this revelation...

"Alive" set the tone for everything that would follow. The first song on Ten was also the first song to bring attention to the band. It was clearly Vedder's creative breakthrough, and the band's initial video celebrated a cathartic live performance of the song. In an early Los Angeles Times review, writer Chris William had even compared the song to the Who's "My Generation." Today, "Alive" is a Gen X rallying cry, but tonight, sitting in the Nightlite, Vedder reveals the true meaning of the song.

"Everybody writes about it like it's a life-affirmation thing — I'm really glad about that,' he says with a rueful laugh. "It's a great interpretation. But 'Alive' is ... it's torture. Which is why it's fucked up for me. Why I should probably learn how to sing another way. It would be easier. It's...it's too much."

Vedder continues: "The story of the song is that a mother is with a father, and the father dies. It's an intense thing because the son looks just like the father. The son grows up to be the father, the person that she lost. His father's dead, and now this confusion, his mother, his love, how does he love her, how does she love him? In fact, the mother, even though she marries somebody else, there's no one she's ever loved more than the father. You know how it is, first loves and stuff. And the guy dies. How could you ever get him back? But the son. He looks exactly like him. It's uncanny. So she wants him. The son is oblivious to it all. He doesn't know. what the fuck is going on. He's still dealing, he's still growing up. He's still dealing with love, he's still dealing with the death of his father. All he knows is 'I'm still alive' — those three words, that's totally out of burden."

Elvis' "Suspicious Minds" blasts on the jukebox as Vedder continues. "Now the second verse is 'Oh, she walks slowly into a young man's room...I can remember to this very day...the look...the look.' And I don't say anything else. And because I'm saying, 'The look, the look,' everyone thinks it goes with 'on her face.' It's not on her face. The look is between her legs. Where do you go with that? That's where you came from.

But 'I'm still alive. 'I'm the lover that's still alive. And the whole conversation about 'You're still alive, she said.' And his doubts: 'Do I deserve to be? Is that the question?' Because he's fucked up forever! So now he doesn't know how to deal with it, so what does he do, he goes out killing people — that was [the song] 'Once.' He becomes a serial killer. And 'Footsteps,' the final song of the trilogy [it was released as a U.K. B side to 'Jeremy'], that's when he gets executed. That's what happens. The Green River killer...and in San Diego, there was another prostitute killer down there. Somehow I related to that. I think that happens more than we know. It's a modern way of dealing with a bad life."

Then he smiles as he says, "I'm just glad I became a songwriter."

Wait. What?

Alive, Once, &Footsteps were a trilogy of the same story? How the fuck did I never know that before?

That revelation stunned me so much, I knew I had no choice but to make a post about it.

And yes, I brought the music.

Enjoy!


SeeqPod - Playable Search

It's A Potpourri Of Awesomeness!

It's been a long day and I really feel like I'm going to be incredibly burned out all week long thanks to two very busy "off days." As a result, you get this...

Random Thoughts

** I'm watching Planet Earth on Discovery HD right now and the Oceans episode really makes me want to stay out of the water. Between the sharks they showed earlier and the scary looking fucking Manta Rays they just showed, I likely could have nightmares.

** Super-excited to find out what will be a part of iPhone 3.0 software on Tuesday. It still amazes me how much buzz a company can create for a relatively minor event - well, some companies anyways.

** Manny's got a sore hammy? Color me nervous as fuck.

** TNA's PPV sucked? Color me unsurprised as fuck.

** I listened to the /filmcast episode this week where they talked about movie scores. It was some damn good stuff and made me want to do an all-score version of the Mixtape Of The Month. Maybe not this month but soon. Oh, and it also made me realize how much I love the score for Karate Kid. Go listen. Tell me I'm wrong.

** WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!? THE VAMPIRE SQUID FROM HELL?!?! Jesus christ.

** ROH has their debut show on HDNet next weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing how they manage to package their DVD-driven business model on television. It's a show I'll certainly want to see more than TNA Impact at least.

** Got a Vegas trip coming up next month. The Missus and I are taking my mom so that should be... interesting. It could also be quite disastrous. How fitting for Vegas that it'll be quite the gamble.

** Still haven't seen Watchmen. I'm a pretty pathetic comic book guy these days. I still have a bag of comics sitting on my end table that I haven't read yet - bought them at least two weeks ago.

** Coolest Internet application I've seen in ages? Two words. Simplify Media.

And that should do it for tonight.