Check it out. Sparklehorse/Danger Mouse free CD online, in collaboration with David Lynch. http://onethirtybpm.com/2009/06/11/danger-mouse-and-sparklehorse-dark-night-of-the-soul/

Arizona here we come

Now here's a blog, dealing with a serious issue. Via Woot, enjoy. I clicked around on the blog itself, not bad and kind of funny but I've seen funnier.

Monday pick me up

Because Monday can be hard and sometimes a boost can help... I present awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Thanks to Sarah for the link there, and here's this... my favorite picture, and one that will make your family seem more normal...Two things here that are priceless, and may not be noticed at first glance: first the sisters are holding hands too. As if there isn't enough awkwardness in this photo. Also the studio was Glamour Shots. I think that says it all.

Listen Up

Back when they existed I was a pretty big Grandaddy fan. Come to think of it, even though they're gone I still like them, which is why I'm posting this. The link is to an NPR first listen of Jason Lytle's (lead singer of Grandaddy) new album.
Listen to the whole thing for free, I've given it one listen through and give it a definite thumbs up. I'll also be posting a Grandaddy track to the SPs and one of Jason's if I can find any.

Sounds about right...

A car crash and a new Nic Cage movie... yeah about the same amount of fun. Allow me to state the obvious... Nic Cage and Nic Cage movies by association suck. So this is just a sign... don't wast your money seeing this next year (you can thank me later). Apparently, I'm not the only one who has doubts about this picture. Speaking of pictures, isn't one worth about a thousand words? To conclude my argument (against this movie) I present my coup-de-grace. I'm going to go ahead and give that a minute to sink in for you...

Anyway, read this (I especially like the last part of the scenario generator) and then this (watch out for some swears in that second link, also they're by the same guy so a little repetitive but funny). Just remember, the next time you see a Nic Cage movie you're going to roll your eyes and wish you'd not bothered; you've been warned.

End of an era

This is a nice write up for all the Piston fans who read this blog. It might not be easy to read, but I think it sums things up nicely. I also put that title because the Snobs may have reached its end too. Most of you know that in the fall I'll doing grad school in the fall so for that and other reasons I might shut down the Snobs. (If you want details about my future program, including links to it click here) Anyway, I've enjoyed writing some posts and hopefully giving people some funny/informative time killers over the last year or so. So, I'm sure you've all noticed the lack of posts lately as I decide whether or not to keep posting at all... and if this is the end of this blog do I just shut it down, or leave it around so others can continue to post? Feel free to comment.

I also wanted to let you all know the family is headed back to MI for a visit in a few weeks. I'll be driving up as we are making a vehicle exchange with my parents, and Sarah and the kids will fly up and drive back with me. We'll be arriving May 16th and will be leaving the morning of the 23rd. We are tentatively planning some kind of bbq/get together... I think Sarah will contact most people and give details via facebook so be on the lookout for that.

Check out this gut-buster!

Ever wonder how Michigan ended up as one of the fattest states in country (top ten)? Here's a hint.

For KVB and Tim

Time for you guys to start a joint venture. Legal services and financial planning for athletes, you guys! After reading this, I see a real opportunity. KVB, you use your JD to write the pre-nups and wills and then Tim uses his MBA to make invests the money in something NOT stupid, and suddenly you guys are better than just about everyone else an athlete trusts his affairs to. The bar is set pretty low here guys, and the players are pretty gullible so you can do then a real service just by being honest (and charging an honest fee, naturally). Seems you two could make a pretty good living with milking the cow dry. I can see you guys now, putting famous athletes onto an "allowance" and making them ask your permission to make purchases above a certain dollar amount. Anyway, it's sad to see so much money wasted when a little common sense could do so much.

The World is Not Coming to An End

Yes that's right. I am making an actual post. I dont' know if any of you know about this site, but I find it hilarious. Some things are a little "R" rated, but mostly just very funny. It is called failblog.org People post pics or videos each day (usually just a few additions each day) that are ranked as WIN or FAIL. Sometimes they are funny enough to make me want to pee my pants.

Oh yeah and GO GREEN.

check it out http://failblog.org/

The apocalypse is near!

Or at least I might hope it is. This is not good, American Idol trading cards.I didn't make this up, you can read about it here. It's probably no secret to any of you who know me, but I hate American Idol. I refuse to apologize if some of you out there are fans, that show is terrible and I have never, nor will I ever watch an episode. When the singing is "bad" (by Idol standards) I cringe and feel embarrassment for the people. When the singing is "good" I'm embarrassed for all mankind... I die a little inside. Remember when we were kids, and trading cards were classy?(for the record, I never bought Garbage Pail Kids)

In today's least surprising news...

This is no surprise, but it still made me laugh. Would you expect anything less from these guys? I guess the real question is... was anyone actually enjoying the concert after they had their stash confiscated? I do actually like some Phish songs but I think the live show might get a little tedious with long solo after long solo.

Congrats Spartans

Wanted to let you all know, (if you didn't already) MSU captured at least a part of the Big Ten Title Sunday afternoon. The game was also called by my favorite official... that's right Ed Hightower. Turns out I'm not the only one who gets "not fired up" for Big Ten officiating. And people do like to take shots at Ed (this is a forum and some parts are pg-13, but you have to click on this... it's hilarious)

Some funny links and a sad story

First, a sad story. Look at this map... and yes I realize that the date is from 1996. The point is that the map is about fire ants... and the county I live in is red. Aka, infested.
So, the other night it was misting/light raining and I needed to add a little oil to the car. Since I tend to be in a hurry in the mornings and the rain was light I figured I'd take care of it then even though it was dark. This was a bad idea. The grass I was standing in at the end of the car might have looked something like this.There are a few more things you should know... first that it has warmed up quite a bit here recently, so these hills are newer. And I was wearing sandals with jeans at the time. I'm sure you can see where this is headed.
Now I want to be clear here... (so I'm using caps) THIS IS NOT MY LEG (if you know me well you can tell... it's not hairy enough to be me). I got bit on the tops of my feet, and nowhere near as many times as this poor fool I found off google images.

The other night it itched so bad that it woke me up at 2am and took me an hour to fall back asleep. They are so aggressive they were all over my sandals when I came inside. Even in the legs of my jeans so I put them straight into the washing machine. I hope many ants died a painful soapy death that night for the suffering they've caused me.

But enough about me.

Here's some funny stuff to cheer you up after my tale of woe.

First of all today' s Dinosaur Comic. You might be sick of me always bring this up, but guess what... I started this blog and I think it's funny! So here, read this.



Next a link. This one to another staple of funny internet stuff. Woot. They are in NYC for a big toy show and have been having lots of write-ups about it. I thought this was one of the funnier ones. And I can't seemed to make a post unless it at least casually mentions zombies in it (mentions zombies in Woot's write-up, if didn't you read it). Hope you like it.

It's your window to weight gain!

Well, I read this story today. Seems like the folks at KFC take the "original recipe" pretty seriously. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is... I prefer Popeye's. So anyway, it reminded me of this scene from "So I married an Axe Murderer" that's pretty funny (taken from IMDb) See the picture below to get a look at the beady eyes for yourself.

Stuart Mackenzie: Well, it's a well known fact, Sonny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as The Pentavirate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.
Tony Giardino: So who's in this Pentavirate?
Stuart Mackenzie: The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds, *and* Colonel Sanders before he went tits up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee *beady* eyes, and that smug look on his face. "Oh, you're gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!"
Charlie Mackenzie: Dad, how can you hate "The Colonel"?
Stuart Mackenzie: Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartass!

The zombies are everywhere

This weekend I heard mention of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on NPR's quiz show "Wait, Wait, don't tell me" (which is actually a pretty funny show) and now today in Dinosaur Comics. Click here to hear the "Wait, Wait" bit about zombies. Click the link and then click "Bluff the listener" it's pretty funny.

"So ya thought ya might like to go to the show"

Yesterday, I was talking with Sarah about "The Wall". I had a song from the album in my head and couldn't remember which one it was. It turned out to be the first track of the album In the Flesh? The ablum was released before I was born so I don't really remember the first time I listened to the whole album, and learned it more by hearing the songs as singles. So my question is... when "The Wall" came out did people listening know how good the songs were? Did they hear them and think... "this song will be played on rock radio stations for years to come", or "someday my kids will know the words to these songs"? This is just one example of an influential album that I was thinking about. What about the the first time people "Sgt. Pepper's" or the "White Album" did they know?

So the question for you dear readers is, what album have you had this experience with or have you ever had it? A time when you remember where you were the first time you heard a CD and knew during that first listen that you were listening to something that would transcend generations and genres. I can remember getting a sense of that feeling with "Nevermind." I can think of a few other times too, but I'd like to hear your comments on the matter, even if you've never really had that sense or felt an initial listen to an album was going to be huge. Also when I say huge, that doesn't have to mean commercially successful. I'm more interested in the influence of the album either on other artists or even just on you as a person.

Don't get me started... oh, wait this time it's ok

It's easy to get me started on something... and sometimes that's a good thing. So I got an email from Grant about Sun Kil Moon, the guy with an album that has a lot of tracks about dead boxers. Anyway, I guess he wanted to hear some more of the tracks... and how could I deny him when he emailed me on his birthday? So today I'll tell you about Tiny Cities. So this album consists entirely of Modest Mouse covers. Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon) does a nice job of putting his own spin on the tracks, so the covers have a completely different type of music and feel. To show you what I mean, I put the first track I heard from this album (heard it playing on the impact back in 2005) onto the SPs. First, I put the Modest Mouse version with Sun Kil Moon version right after. I'm also putting up a poll to see which one people like better, so vote on that too.

"Local" NBA teams

I thought this was pretty interesting. I found it through the True Hoop blog on ESPN. I guess someone had a little spare time on their hands. Looks like the Detroit area team is not too bad.

great northern

great band from cal i saw recently in boulder. have 2 talented singers, a guy and a girl.
http://www.myspace.com/greatnorthern

Jane Austen is rolling in her grave...

or about to climb out of it to look for brains. Woot likes to have photoshop contests from time to time (they're usually pretty funny). So that's why they mention specifically that this is not a contest... but in fact a real book. Here's the link to the book, if you're too lazy to click my link to the woot article. Just had to throw the cover picture up too, in case you can't be bothered to click either of the two links above.

Halo 3

Okay, so I am not sure how many of you play, or have played Halo 3. I recently got an Xbox and Halo 3, and I give it very good reviews. I like it as much as the next guy, but not as much as this kid!

I told you Austin traffic was rough...

And here's the proof.

Poll Closed

Well the poll closed and humor seems to be king. Not many comments though for me to go from... so I'll try to keep up the humorous posts.

Unwatchable (a rant)

Yes, I know today is Wednesday and the game I'm talking about happened on Sunday but better to rant late than never. Is it just me, or is Big Ten basketball just about unwatchable? I've been able to watch a fair amount of MSU basketball this year, which has been nice. Sort of. My biggest complaint is the officiating. So Sunday, I was watching MSU and Ohio State. The game itself was frustrating at first. When I tuned in MSU was losing to an OSU team it should have been working over. The Spartans couldn't catch a break so I thought, man the refs are not helping us here.

In the second half MSU controlled the ball better and started to look like they might actually want to win after all... and a funny thing happened. The calls worked in the Spartan's favor. I understand that games are sometimes called to "favor" a more aggressive team and I think this works to MSU's favor often enough. I can understand that part but my problem is with the number of calls. Sunday's box score shows 33 personal fouls called (split evenly betweent the teams) during the game... the 40 minute game. That's right nearly a foul every minute... every 72.7 seconds (of game time) to be exact. Why? Why is this necessary?

I know MSU has a reputation as being an aggressive team, but doesn't this seem excessive? I've heard the story how a few years ago Izzo had the team do a rebounding drill with football shoulder pads on... it seems to be brought up at least once in every game (I personally don't believe this happened, or if it did it was a publicity stunt. Would and Division I coach really put his players at that much of a risk for injury in a rebounding drill?) I'm sure the officials have intentions of "keeping games clean" and blah, blah, blah what ever cliche you want to use here... but I think they could maybe let a little more slide to help the flow of the game without anybody getting hurt or into a fistfight. I don't know the officials by names or follow this, but I will say one name that seems to come up a lot during the most frustrating games I watch (and the only ref I can name, I promise) including Sunday's gem* is Ed Hightower. Here it shows he calls the most fouls per game this year so far. But my point is not to pick on him, look at the list and nobody on it is below 30 fouls a game.

I guess I think it's too much, and they should back of for fan (at least this fan's) enjoyment. A novel idea, I know... call a game that makes it easier to watch and that fans enjoy by staying out of the way and letting players decide the outcome. After watching several MSU games I guess the Big Ten and its officials think I must be crazy.

*not really a gem

Sounds like black magic alright...

Here it is, the perfect crime. No one ever suspects the goat, except I guess the reporters... and even then they aren't likely to incarcerate the goat.

Woot

In case you didn't notice I put a little gizmo on here to show you the woot item for sale everyday. I put woot into my google reader because I like cheap electronics, and because the writers are funny. Here's a funny post from today. It's actually from a contest they held, so people put this stuff together and send it in. I liked the Pfizer one and the GM one was gross but made me laugh too.

Best Metal Band Ever

Am I the only one that listens to metal anymore? I am? Oh well...If anyone else wants to hear some awesome stuff that's not just screaming, goto my new favorite band's myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/mastodon
click on top pic for borat appearance

Comment for Previous Post

Okay, so they totally PLAGIARIZED the idea from Bond (quick Dino comic referrence (not that this needs to be noted for Aaron)). Uh anyone seen The Man with the Golden Gun??

Back to the Future 2 here we come

After years feeling like I've been lied to the future is now. That's right everybody, all you need is $194,000 and you're on your way. Start saving now, who needs to retire anyway.

Congrats to everyone...

but especially me! This is the 100th post of The Music Snobs. Everyone gets congratulations for reading the blog, commenting, and writing the occasional post. Well, I hope people enjoys the blog and here's to another hundred posts to come.

Don't worry I'm not dead...

Faithful readers, I'm sorry for the lack of posts. Turns out applying for graduate schools is not fun, and takes a long time. I've also been busier now that the holidays are behind us. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things with more regular posts, and thought...
now would be a good time for a poll question to help me get some new ideas for posts. Please vote, and provide details why you chose what you did, and ideas for posts in the comments.