Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Poll for Aug. 30th and second week predicts...

Here's the new poll plus the predictions for this coming weekend...

1. Georgia vs. Central Michigan. The experts picked the Chippewas to repeat as MAC champs this year. Of course, UGA won't give them any help, unless they're looking ahead to next week's game with South Carolina.
2. Florida vs. Miami (Fl). Too bad this won't be the Canes' team from the first half of this decade, instead of the descendants of the mess of the last two years. Oh, yeah, USA Today. Hard to imagine that some football nut from Alabama would remember recent sports history better than one of your writers (or editors), but the last time the Gators and Canes met up in the regular season was 2003, not 1987. Florida rules.
3. USC off. I guess with all the man-love for Pete Carroll that TV (especially ESPN) and radio has, USC could have beaten Virginia UNION 52-7 and would awarded the #1 ranking this week in the AP and UPI (sorry, USA Today/ESPN/Poulon Weedeater Coaches) Polls. Until someone beats UGA, they remain no. 1 in the Jimbo Poll. Until someone beats Florida, they remain #2. Until someone beats SoCal (hopefully soon), they're #3. Deal with it.
4. Oklahoma vs. 23. Cincinnati. Could be a tough game, one that Stoops usually overlooks. Not this year.
5. Ohio State vs. Ohio. A bevy of instate fights begins here. Guess who wins.
6. LSU vs. Troy St. Whup Troy.
7. Mizzou vs. SE Mizzou. Another directional school.
8. West Virginia at ECU. OUCH! After the Pirates' upset of Va Tech last week, this is a trap game if ever I saw one. Mounties should win, but don't be surprised...
9. Wisconsin vs. Marshall. Where's Randy Moss when the Herd needs 'im?
10. Texas vs. UTEP. Big Brother pays Little Brother so Big Brother can beat them up.
10. (tie) Auburn vs. Southern Miss. Trap game, perhaps. War Eagles haven't played Golden Eagles since '92. Two losses at Homecoming in '90 and '91 might caused Auburn to shy away. Auburn probably wins, unless a revenge game at Starkville is on their minds more.
12. Arizona State vs. Stanford. After the Cardinal upset Oregon State last week, the Sun Devils won't overlook the league's doormat.
13. Bama vs. Tulane. Roll Tide! Don't let it get to your heads, boys.
14. BYU at Washington. Cougs try to build on BSC-buster creds. Jake Locker is dangerous, but the Y could be looking ahead to UCLA.
15. Texas Tech AT Nevada. Hasn't Tech got ahead in the world enough not to have to do a home-and-home with a WAC team. No difference, though. Tech wins.
16. Kansas vs. La Tech. Jayhawks won't let Tech do to them what Tech did to Miss St.
17. South Florida at UCF. Should be a great game, since this is the battle of Florida Upstarts. Bulls too strong.
18. Fresno St off.
19. Penn St vs. Oregon St. Dangerous game for PSU; Beavers might be mad from loss to the Trees last week. JoePa keeps them going, though.
20. Clemson vs. The Citadel. Let's see if what I considered the best tailbacks this side of Knowshon Moreno can gather any rushing yardage. Bama ate 'em up last week.
21. Oregon vs. Utah St. Ducks win.
22. Wake vs. Ole Miss. Interesting game, but Deacons are much better than the Rebs right now.
24. UCLA off. Enjoy that gift from the Vols while you can, Rick.
25. Illinois vs. Eastern Illinois. Another instate pounding. Illini stayed in the top 25 due to not giving up to Mizzou. Still a good team.

Other Games of Interest:
Jax State vs. Ala. A&M. Thanx to UNA and Livingston St staying in D-II, Troy St and UAB going to D-IA, and Samford trading butt-whuppin's from us and EKU for butt-whuppin's from App. St and Furman, A&M is the only in-state rival we have left that'll play us (until South Alabama kicks in). Easy to predict that Paul Snow will sell out, if the crowd's still what it was when I went to JSU. Jax State should win.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

First week's predictions...

Yahoo! Football's finally here. If you use any of this as a guide for your calls to the bookie, you're a bigger idiot than I am.

1. Georgia vs. Ga. Southern. Once upon a time, Ga Southern was App. State. Not any more.
2. Florida vs. Hawai'i. A year ago, this woulda been a great match-up, with Tebow vs. Colt Brennan. Too bad it's this year. Gators chomp.
3. USC at UVA. The Cavs were a much better team last year. Who knows how they'll be this year. USC romps.
4. Oklahoma vs. UT-Chattanooga. Where's TO when the Mocs need 'im? Not here.
5. Ohio State vs. Youngstown State. How nice of Sweater-vest to pay for YS's fb budget, since he coached there for years, leading them to several D I-AA national titles. 'Eyes ain't taking no chances before Sep. 13th.
6. LSU vs. App. St. Could the Mounties do to the Bengals what they did to Michigan last year? Nuh-uh, unless Gustave distracts LSU.
7. Mizzou vs. 13. Illinois. Best game of the week, outside of the Georgia Dome. Mizzou should win, with Illinois having to replace Mendenhall and some choice defensive players.
8. Clemson vs. Bama. Being a Bama fan, I'd like to see them win this game, just to shut up a few War Eagle fans who'd squawk about the fact that THEY beat Clemson in the Peach Bowl last year. Davis and Spiller are too strong, however, I'm afraid. Character builder for the Tide.
9. WV vs. Villanova. Where's Rudy Gay when 'Nova needs 'im?
10. Wisconsin vs. Akron. MAC game. Used to be dangerous but not now. Badgers for real.
11. Texas vs. Florida Atlantic. Good ol' Schnellenberger. Leave to the guy who invented Cane football to think that a Sun Belt team could come in and beat the 'Horns on their home field. But, FAU is about where Miami was when Schnellenberger came aboard. Horns still win.
12. Auburn vs. La. Monroe. Great. Something else for the War Eagles to crow about; Monroe beat Bama last year.
14. Virginia Tech at East Carolina. This was an emotional game last year, thanx to the VT massacre. It could be a trap game this year, since the Pirates aren't pushovers.
15. Arizona State vs. Northern Arizona. Sun Devils throws a bone to a state school.
16. BYU vs. Northern Iowa. Where's Kurt Warner when NI needs 'im?
17. Tennessee at UCLA. Ouch. With injuries aplenty, UCLA doesn't look good on paper, but the Bruins have surprised UT before, back in '94. UT should win, though.
18. Kansas vs. Florida International. Jayhawks begins with their usual juggernaut schedule.
19. South Florida vs. Tenn-Martin. Yeah, Bulls! Beat them Skyhawks (or whatever they are); UT-Martin is an old rival of JSU's.
20. Texas Tech vs. Eastern Washington. This is the school that Jimmy Klingler of Houston's run-n-shoot fame popped for 11 TD's . Think Harrell couldn't do the same?
21. Penn State vs. Coastal Carolina. Except for Clemson-Bama, UT-UCLA, and Mizzou-Illini, this ain't a stellar weekend. But it don't need to be; it's opening week. It's FOOTBALL. FOR THE 1ST TIME IN 7 MONTHS.
22. Oregon vs. U-Dub. Wow, how'd this sneak up on me? Ducks vs. Jake Locker, the third best option-QB in the U.S. Could be a close game. Ducks win, though.
23. Fresno St at Rutgers. Another decent game. The Knights will miss Ray Rice and the 'Dawgs are the best of the non-BCSers. Fresno could win.
24. Cincinnati vs. Eastern Kentucky. Another JSU rival. Go Bearcats.
25. Michigan vs. Utah. Upset special? Could be. Won't be, though.

Other games of Interest:
Jax State at Ga Tech. App. St, part 2? With the new QB from LSU, we might could pull off an upset, although it wouldn't be on a Mich-App St. level. Would be big for Jax State, though.
Michigan State at Cal. One team going up, one team going down. Crossroads intersectional game.

Friday, August 22, 2008

"I'm a star, I'm a star, I'm a big bright shining star..."

After finding the second part of the Dazed and Confused soundtrack online (I had owned a "hard copy" before; my ex-wife apparently confiscated it), I got to thinking about the songs they left off both the soundtracks to Dazed and Boogie Nights. Then I thought about the fact that they took the songs out of chronological order from the movie. Which led to IMDB. Which led to watching movies to pick out, then make a list of the order of the songs. Which led to what you have before you now: what I call the "Master Editions" of both Dazed and Confused and Boogie Nights; every song played in the movie in the order in which it was played. I consider these to be anybody's basic Introduction to Rock (Dazed) and Disco/funk/wotaveyou (BN) in The 70's. Both contain over 30 songs (Dazed has some choice quotes from the film alongside the music), so go to IMDB to find the track listings.





Dazed and Confused (Master Edition) Part 1

Dazed and Confused (Master Edition) Part 2

Boogie Nights (Master Edition) part 1

Boogie Nights (Master Edition) part 2

Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Kiki re-upped

Here's a re-up of the "Kiki's Delivery Service" with the missing song from the english version, "Soaring" by Sydney Forest (the song that plays during the opening credits).








"Kiki updated"

Enjoy!

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Song Remains the Same

I came to Led Zeppelin relativelly late in life, at the old age of 16 (old for a guy who was already becoming a (temporary) metalhead), due mainly to the conservative nature of my mother, who bought into the Christian propaganda that LZ was satanic, especially "Stairway to Heaven". Zoso, of course, was the first LZ album I bought, but when I found the '73 concert film from MSG buried behind a bunch of Duran Duran and Michael Jackson concert tapes in Video Depot in 1987, my life changed.

Funny, to think that many felt that this was not their best live work at all (Richard Cole even said so in his book, Hammer of the Gods) but until the creation of the internet and bootlegs that didn't cost $25 a freakin' CD but rather free thanx to filesharing and Torrents, this was the ONLY LZ concert I had access to, until Live at the BBC and How the West was Won was released. I still think the versions of "Since I've been Loving U", "No Quarter", and "The Rain Song" are the best I've heard so far. The funky visuals from the film, especially "Dazed and Confused", lend a lot as well.

This was grabbed from Utorrents as a FLAC file, which I converted to 320 kbps.








..."This is a song that takes in a manner our forefathers were very used to... The cosmic energy - everyone goes 'YEAH' - BASH!"

"I think this is a song of hope..."

Enjoy!

"...where were you when we were gettin' high?"

This didn't stick with me until later on, although, as everyone else in the U.S., I first heard of them with "Wonderwall". Like Rumours, I had to have something to be depressed about before songs such as "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" meant much to me. In 1996, I simply felt that they were a pretty decent Beatles homage (right down to the Lennon glasses Liam wears in the video). In the past few years, I enjoy them much more, at least the first 2 albums and their concerts from 95-96.








"...don't look back in anger, I heard ya say..."

Enjoy!

Friday, August 15, 2008

"Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?"

Pink Floyd The Wall meant a lot more to me when I was younger and more angst-ridden (rather than just plain ol' depressed). The album was better than the movie, although I've never seen the movie high like so many people have advised me to (I did listen to the album on a walkman whilst stoned to the gills on good weed in '92. Once was fucking enough. Trauma such as that only needs to happen once in a lifetime. I won't even listen to The Wall whilst drinking, much less under the influence of anything stronger).

This is the Official Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Ultradisc™ 24 KT Gold version. Although it claims to have superior sound, I guess I would have to have bought one of those $10,000 Technics or Harmon Kardon to really appreciate it, not a $90 Sony boombox from Wal-mart. But, hey, I could get what I could afford. At the time, this set cost about $40 at Slip Disc (our local independant record store at the time); now it runs up to $87 on Ebay. I got it for 4 bucks in 1991 from a friend who obviousily valued cigarettes more than music. Lucky me. Lucky you if this might be what you're looking for.

ripped at 320 kbps. If I knew how to rip in FLAC, I would, since this would probably sound better in lossless...





Disc 1





Disc 2

Enjoy!