Tha Painter Shood B Sude

I was driving around west Birmingham the other day for work, when I came across this building. At first glance, it appears to be like any other building in the ghetto, but if you give it a second look, a couple gems will mystically appear like a Magic Eye photo or a Highlights magazine game. I posted this on facebook the other day, but I figure it's worth sharing here too.

Brian Wilson...Bad Ass

The warm sun on your back, the smell of freshly cut grass, the emergence of short skirts(specifically those polo shirt/skirt, goddamn I wish those would come back in style) hotdogs, sunflower seeds…BASEBALL. That’s right spring training is getting started and before you know it baseball season will be here. I don’t really give a shit about major league baseball, that’s mainly because I fucking worked my ass off at it until I was 13 and they told me I was too little to play catcher…fuck them. I probably wouldn’t watch the sport at all if it were not for Alan Johnson, who I hope will get called up at least once.

Anyway I have found one more reason to pay attention to baseball these days….Brian Wilson, and not the hermit/Beach Boy Brian Wilson, but “Fear the Beard, badass motherfucking Brian Wilson, closer for the San Francisco Giants.”

A friend told me about this guy a few months ago before the world series so I looked him up and watched a couple interviews and I've attached some of the better ones that he's taken part of.

I Received This In the Mail Today...

...courtesy of Mr. O. He owed me some money from the trip to Glendale. Well done, sir.

I didnt even know they watched Weekend at Bernies

Auburn University v. University of Iraiq Baghdad

Something is wrong with the location address. Here is the link. This guy is why eugenics still has some support.

Free Friday Ear Food - The Great Book of John

Wasn't going to do one today since I did one earlier in the week but damn it, it's Friday! So here's a small one. The Great Book of John is a local band here in the Ham, founded by the guitarist of Wild Sweet Orange. Their first album, Yves' Blues, was an acoustic/harmonica heavy modern day take on Dylan, which is showcased masterfully on the opening track Political Song, which is also the first song on this playlist.

The band has been on a bit of hiatus since their first album released, playing various shows around the southeast but remaining mostly quiet, until now. Two new songs have been recorded that will be on their up coming album, and the band is playing at the Bottletree here in town next Friday (I guess that would have been the best day to do their FFEF, oh well). The songs mark a new direction the band is going in, getting away from the modern Dylan, toward a more original sound. Those two songs can be found here as part of a local project that has local bands writing new songs for vinyl called the 7" Series. You can also check out the two songs of the other two bands featured in the first series. I have yet to listen to them, so no comment on that.

The Hangout Blows Its...

According to this post on the Hangout Music Festival's website, the festival was planning on releasing the lineup today. However, due to an "amazing addition" to The Hangout, they have pushed the lineup announcement back to Tuesday. Hopefully, the festival has something that is actually worth delaying the announcement for five days. This could turn out to be a pretty good lineup.

ALIAS'S

Is calling people by thier real names in "comments" and effectively "unmasking" them, frowned up??? Just curious....I noticed Billy say "The Wolf" in a comment and it made me wonder if that was preferred?

Shit...almost forgot to label...

Just to Stir Up Some Shit

I haven't read all of this and don't really intend to. I just thought I would share it in case any of you were interested. Cam Newton's Juicy Black C*ck

First Listen: Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

Iron and Wine teamed up with none other than TeamCoco to promote their new album Kiss Each Other Clean. The album came out today, the band played on Conan last night (a good performance, IMO), and they are streaming the new album on teamcoco.com, and even better, they let us stream the album right here.

The album starts off with a rather modern interpretation of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, with lyrics about seeing white dogs and oceans and moutains, children in rivers, birds in the sky, etc. This song along with the single Tree by the River are very similar to Sam Beam's previous work, but other than that the album takes a new turn. Beam said “It’s more of a focused pop record. It sounds like the music people heard in their parent’s car growing up… that early-to-mid-’70s FM, radio-friendly music."

The album features a jazz horn section very heavily, and also a lot more keyboard than previous albums. He finishes it off with the 7:00 minute long, Your Fake Name is Good Enough, which I believe to be the highlight of the album.

I was going to save this for Free Friday, but I'm not sure how long the stream will be up since the album came out today, so get your ears on.

His Dark Lord Has Gone Pro in e-Sports!

As some of you may or may not know, I have recenlty become a huge fan of the real-time strategy game Starcraft II. Since entering the sci-fi world where one gathers minerals and gas in order to build up an army to pulverize an opposing player, I have dreamed of going pro in the ever growing world of e-sports, and moving to Korea where I could make a living playing computer games and marry this Asian chick:

Well citizenz, it looks like I am one step closer.

Watch live streaming video from ascweekly at livestream.com

Now, don't let those e-sportscasters lead you to believe I suck. They are just jealous of my master plan.

And don't worry, when I become a millionaire, you can all be part of my entourage who carries my mouse and keyboard and headphones when I go to matches, and you can have all the sushi and hot Asian phu-tang you can stand once the computers are shut down.

Greatest of All Time

And I don't have to worry about this one being taken down.

"Shut up, bitch!"

Hopefully, most of you remember Otis Mounds. Otis played strong safety for Auburn from 1990 - 1993 and, as you will most definitely see, played a prominent role in Auburn's 1993 undefeated season. But first, it is worthwhile to briefly tell the Otis Mounds story.

Otis is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and played high school football at the famed Dillard High School. While a young lad at Dillard Otis was arrested for selling crack cocaine and served 10 months in prison. However, that did not deter Pay Dye from recruiting him anyway. And for that alone we should be grateful to Coach Dye. Sticking with Otis opened up a recruiting pipeline that remains strong to this day. Here is a list of some of the other players Auburn has recruited from Dillard:

Frank Sanders, Brian Robinson, James Bostic, Calvin Jackson, Pat Sims, Stanley McGlover, Junior Rosegreen, Antoine Carter, and I'm sure I'm missing a few.

When he got to Auburn Otis was initially redshirted. But during the opening game against Fullerton State, while sitting in the stands eating popcorn, a player went down and Otis was paged over the loudspeaker to get to the locker room and get ready to go in.

Otis would have a successful career at Auburn but no moment was more crucial than on a frigid October day in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1993. Auburn was the homecoming fodder for Arkansas and was in a tough battle to remain undefeated. The legend has become that Terry Bowden ignited the team with a firey and passionate halftime speech, after which the game firmly turned in Auburn's favor. The truth, though, is something far different and far more awesome. It is best recounted by former Auburn defensive end Ace Atkins. Take it away, Ace:

“Someone told me… that it’s a famous story of how Terry Bowden came to the locker room at the Arkansas game and said you guys can be 8-1 or 9-0, or something like that,” Atkins said. “Anyway, it’s told as that being the turning point of that game.”

“Not true.”

“The turning point came when we had been berated the entire first half by the Arkansas homecoming queen — yep, we were so bad in ’92, we were picked as homecoming — and finally… Otis Mounds had had enough,” Atkins said.

The Homecoming Queen’s name?

Kym Polite.

She was a varsity cheerleader. She cost her team the game. Because Otis Mounds had had enough.

“He turned around to the young lady – decked out in a fur coat and tiara – and yelled at her in the third quarter ‘Shut up, bitch.’”

“Now, that is what made the whole sideline pickup and we won the game,” Atkins said. “The girl was trying to get down to the field to slap Otis but she was held back by her court, her tiara falling off her head.”

“True tale.”

That day, Otis became an Auburn legend. You can find the entire article here. He then went on to play some arena league football, was the stunt-double for LL Cool J in Any Given Sunday, and is now the cornerbacks coach at Texas Tech University under Tommy Tuberville.

Canoe

As part of my drive to get out and experience life a little more, I am thinking about getting a canoe. There are a few that I have looked at and researched on the internet. I wanted to get some opinions, since I know little to nothing about canoes. This is a picture of one of the canoes I am interested in. It is made by Old Town, which is one of the more respected canoe companies. This model is the Guide. It is one of the most popular models. I am also looking at another model called the Saranac. It is a little narrower (36" VS 38" for the Guide). The Guide will be a little more stable, but my understanding is that narrower caneos are a little faster. I'm not sure about the length yet. I've been looking at somewhere between 14' and 16'. Do any of you guys canoe or kayak? What are your opinions? Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Label Your Posts

Guys I'm not trying to be a dbag or the blog mom, but could we label all our posts from now on? It makes it easier to find old posts, and I like how some of these posts have been labeled in the past.

Peach Carolina BBQ for champs

I recently was in the market for a new grill. I went back and forth on deciding if I was going to get a Green Egg or not. I have heard nothing but awesome things about them but the price tag of around $1200 dollars is steep. Really the biggest thing about grilling is getting that charcoal and smoke flavor that you cant get from an oven and from what I can tell most of what your paying for when you get an egg is the fact that it is basically an outdoor oven on top of being a bad ass grill and smoker. On their website they advertise that you can bake a fucking cake in a Green Egg. But I dont need the oven type capabilities that an Egg has......thats why I am married. Dont get me wrong, it would be nice to have.......but when you talking about a price difference of about 10x thats where they lose me.
Ultimately I decided I would get a cheap smoker/grill first and see how it went. If it didnt pan out I would go get an egg and if it did pan out I would keep the smoker and maybe consider upgrading to a nicer model. Well I'm hear to tell you it has panned out...and to also drop some serious Carolina bbq knowledge all over your face. I did some research on the type of smoker I wanted to get and ultimately sided with the "bullet grill" type. I bought this one on Amazon for 70 bucks: "Brinkmann 810-5301-6 Smoke'N Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill" and it is the shit. The big difference between a bullet type grill and other charcoal grills and smokers is that it has a door at the bottom of the grill that allows you to replace charcoal and wood chips while grilling without taking the top off the grill and having to remove the food and grate. Which is crucial if like me you enjoy doing all day grill fests where you are cooking large pieces of meat. It also has a drip pan spot above the charcoal pan that creates good indirect heat to grill on and also by filling it up with water and juice during grilling it keeps the food moist. Heres what I grilled today. Best Carolina BBQ recipe there is.

Get a 7 or 8 pound pork shoulder or butt with bone in as pictured. Then make the injection in a bowl by mixing up the juice from one can of peaches, salt, sugar and worstechere. After injecting, rub down the shoulder with your favorite rub. The one I made is a bunch of brown sugar, salt, celery salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, and some other shit. Now in a seperate bowl or pitcher start making your vinegar sauce. All it is is a bunch of apple cider vinegar mixed with tons of cayenne pepper and lemon. Ur gonna want to let that sit overnight. Then fire up the grill to 250 and fill your water pan up with half apple juice half water. Smoke that shit with a bunch of hickory chips for about 8 or 9 hours........or when the internal temp is 195. Actually, best way to tell its done is when you can pull out the exposed shoulder blade bone with a firm tug. During the last 3 hours or so open up the grill and baste the shouder with the vinegar sauce every hour. For your red sauce mix up diced peaches in the sauce and ur set for some fire ass bbq sammies. Youll have tons of food left over no matter how many people eat. Best way to mix it up with the left overs is to make some cuban beans and cole slaw and have pork tacos.

Gene Chizik in his prime...

Look at how badass our coach is. He went home and absolutely slayed both of these women.

Free Friday Ear Food - The Magic Numbers

It's that wonderful day again.Today I bring you the music of The Magic Numbers. They consist of two brothers and two sisters who went to high school together in the UK. The band formed in 2002 and have 3 albums to date: the self entitled The Magic Numbers, Those the Brokes, and their latest 2010 release The Runaway which premiered the bands "new" sound. Their myspace collection has a good mix of their sound, and  I think most of our listeners will enjoy it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, The Magic Numbers.

EDIT: Nevermind.

Music Festival Season is Right Around the Corner...

And I am pumped! While most have not released their lineups, two major festivals have, and I will comment on both. Mr. O and I have talked about going to one this year. Feel free to add your thoughts about going. Speaking from my one experience at Bonnaroo with Mr. O and Billy, it is something you will always remember. It may seem hard to think about when snow it still on the ground in some places two weeks after it fell in Georgia, but soon enough, April will be here and bands will be putting on some of their best shows...EVER.

More after the jump...

The Life and Times of Willie Williams

Heath's post about the life and times of Will Hill reminded me of a similar comedy of errors starring Willie Williams from Miami, Florida. Some of you may not remember Willie since his fifteen minutes occurred back before the emergence of Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. Willie was one of the top recruits in the nation back in 2004 and the Miami Herald convinced him to keep a blog of his recruiting trail experiences. Boy, are we glad they did. What resulted was a tale of parties, dinners, and lavishments so extreme that the NCAA eventually stepped in. Unfortunately, the diary is no longer available in its original format but luckily Deadspin has given us a sample.

Willie eventually signed with The University of Miami and the rest of the story is best told by Yahoo! Sports. First you should read the story about Willie's long road to redemption and then you should read the story about how he unsurprisingly fucked it all up one last time.

So worth the 40 second wait time.

The Happy Football Life of Will Hill

If there was any doubt that Urban Meyer was a disciplinarian, I think this seals the deal. Oh, to live the life of a college football player.

How one knows if one has told a shitty joke.

Everyone on the blog stops by to comment that it makes no fucking sense. That's how...

Get Rowdy!!!!

Set a new standard on how to roll toomers corner.

Sunday Morning Brunch Music

Make your self a bloody mary before watching this. Seriously. Dont click the button until you have a bloody mary in hand. Awesome little song to chill too on a Sunday morning. Lead singer sounds like a throwback to the 50's.

Free Friday Ear Food - Radiohead

Today's free music is brought to you by Radiohead. This is their Haiti Benefit concert at The Fonda on Jan 24, 2010. Radiohead have given their blessing to an “official bootleg” of the show.

A group of fans have spent the last year creating a DVD of the gig by piecing together footage shot by 14 audience members. The band allowed it to be released on the condition that proceeds went to Oxfam’s Haiti emergency fund.  For more go to the BBC website.



Oh and a cool thing about this youtube video, I started playing it a couple days ago, and yesterday went back to finish watching and it had saved where I stopped. Not sure if that will carry over to here or not, but cool nonetheless.

BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blog Setting Changes

Just to let you all know I've changed the settings on the blog so that anyone can comment on a posts. I don't know if you guys have paid attention to the site meter but we actually have a few semi-regular readers. So if any of them want to comment anonymously they can do so. If this isn't kosher with anyone feel free to change it.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The Good.

The Bad.

The Ugly.

Oh, shit! Darren Sharper!

If BET ever gets into sports they need to hire this dude as an analyst.

Free Friday Ear Food/First Listen - The Decemberist - The King is Dead

What's up bitches, FFEF is back in full force in the new year, bringing you some new music from The Decemberist. Our good friends over at NPR are kind enough to stream the new album up till its Jan. 18th release date.

The new album is a step back (in a good way) from there previous go w/ The Hazards of Love, with what seems to be a simpler, lighter sound, which I find welcoming after the heavy, album long story of Hazards. Also, the band seems to have focused in on a folky, blue grass sound which I really enjoy. It even landed them a gig playing along with the likes of Sam Bush and Robert Plant at this year's Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which I would love to go to.

So head on over to NPR and read the review while you listen to the new album.

Enjoy!

National Championship Tickets

I'm sure you have all heard the hullabaloo that demand for tickets to the game has caused. Brought on by the loyalty of the Auburn family, demand for tickets have surpassed previous Superbowl and World Series tickets. It has been projected that of the 72,200 seats, close to 40,000 would be filled with Orange and Blue. Even Bill Newton (linebacker that blocked the two punts in the 'Punt, Bama, Punt' game) can't find tickets to the game.

Here are some links to interesting articles:

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/01/tickets_to_the_bcs_national_ch.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40943011

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/01/05/20110105bcs-national-championship-game-tickets-prices.html

And some quotes:

"Right now, it's unprecedented," StubHub founder Dan Rubendall told the Portland Oregonian. "It's absolutely the craziest scene we've ever seen. I mean, this is bigger than any Super Bowl we've seen in 20 years."

“There’s been such a rabid following, that it has driven prices sky-high,” Lehrman said. “So for the first time in a very long time, you’re seeing demand outpace supply.”

2011 Movie Preview

There is no good way to format this on the blog, so simple link will have to suffice. If you are crazy like and me and want to know about movies coming out long before the first trailer airs, then head on over to IGN for their preview of Movies That Will Kick Ass in 2011.

Some of the ones I'm excited about: Harry Potter, Battle: Los Angeles, Source Code, Hangover 2, Sherlock Holmes 2, and Fight Club/S7VEN director David Fincher's take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

What films/books/music/games are you excited about coming out this year?

Dora Throws a Function

Unstoppable

Drop everything and checkout this video before the powers that be put the kibosh on it. This might be his best production to date.

Foreigners

People, after months of searching I have finally found it. One of the funniest pieces of satire ever written. I first found out about this writer from my intermediate microeconomics professor and quickly read everything he had ever written up to that point. Unfortunately, his writing took a serious dip in both quantity and quality around the turn of the millennium. It could be a result of his age but I think it is attributable to his decreased consumption of cocaine and gin. Be warned, though, that this is likely to be one of the most racist things you've ever laid eyes on. But it's satire so, like Quentin Tarrantino yelling the word "nigger" in Samuel L. Jackson's face, it is socially acceptable. So without further ado I give you P.J. O'Rourke's "Foreigners Around the World: A Brief Survey of the various Foreign Types, Their Chief Characteristics, Customs, and Manners."

If you like this and want to read some of his earlier stuff I highly recommend Parliament of Whores, Republican Party Reptile, and Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism. If you want a brief bio of the man he started life as a dirty hippie doing a bunch of dirty hippy drugs and writing for the National Lampoon. Around the 80's he became a Republican took to freelance writing and traded the weed and acid for cocaine, gin, and whiskey. For most of the last twenty years he's been a right-leaning libertarian writing for The Atlantic, publishing many books, and serving as a fellow for The Cato Institute. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

EDIT: NOT SAFE FOR WORK!