T.G.I.F.S. or Odds & Sods Extended Version

Greetings, one and all!

What a long and busy week. Today, is the first day I checked my email or visited my own blog.

So why don't we do some catching up, shall we?

MOVIES
Last weekend I saw The Departed with Matt Damon, etc. etc. Great cast and very well-acted. However, it is very violent and graphic, with a lot of cursing, and also if you are easily offended, I would suggest not going because they offend basically every ethnic group around. Overall, a good movie!

MUSIC
I also got to see Brooks Williams perform recently. He is very similar to James Taylor. I got to chat with him for a few minutes and found him to be a pretty good guy. He gave out, yep for free, a bunch of his CDs, so I grabbed two of them. You have to be in the mood for his music as it is very laid back, but he is a very talented guitarist. Basically, he is blues, jazz, and folk mixed together.

To be quite honest I am not a huge James Taylor fan so I wouldn't normally listen to a performer like Williams or someone of that ilk. But I liked his music, plus he is a good guy so it becomes more of a sell for me when someone is cool. Plus, I am always looking to hear something new. "Hey Chuck, remember that new sound you were looking for? Well, listen to this." Know what movie that was from? OK, times up, Back to the Future. Anyway, I would recommend giving Brooks a listen.

Here is the link to his website:
http://www.brookswilliams.com/

Only hours remain until the new Who CD Endless Wire is released. I have heard mostly good reviews so far. By the way, Pete Townshend walked out before being interviewed with Howard Stern on Wednesday. But Roger Daltrey stayed. Stern to me is and always has been a bozo. Having said that, PT should have known what to expect when he agreed to go on with Stern. For his part, Howard Stern did apologize on-air and said he wished Pete would come on with him. Stay tuned...

I was in Barnes & Noble recently and I saw this gigantic book about the top 500 albums ever with an intro by "Little"Steven Van Zandt. I think likes and dislikes are very subjective when it comes to music and any form of art, so I don't really put much stock into these sort of things, but a few items to mention.

I am glad that rap got its due. Especially, greats such as Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. It is kind of a given that most critics recognize Reasonable Doubt as Jay's best album, but so little credit is given to The Dynasty compact disc. Funny they liked many of the standard Who albums, such as Tommy and Quadrophenia, but did not list maybe my favorite, By Numbers. Which some say is a dark album. Pete wrote it when he was in one of his downer moods and questioning the whole disco thing. It was also written at a time where Pete's relationship with Roger had deteriorated to almost the point of no return. Sure Pete's depression is shown in songs like However Much I Booze, but a few of the songs are quite light-hearted such as Squeeze Box and Dreamin' From The Waist.

I was surprised they did not list this album, but it just goes to show we all have our own personal likes and dislikes.

SPORTS
I am not sure if it is me or not, however, I am really not very charged up about sports right now. The NHL season is young and I won't really be more into it until mid-November. I am not worried about the Rangers mediocre start, because the NHL right now is littered with mediocrity. Yeah, the Bruins stink, that's no surprise. Ditto the Flyers, but that is a surprise to me. But what you have on ice is mostly 3-4, 4-4, or 5-4 teams. Of course, Buffalo is off to an incredible start. I like the Sabres but did not expect them to be this dominant. Atlanta is also off to a great start, but injuries have plagued them the last few years. Let's see if they can stay healthy.

Incidentally, the Rangers make little sense sometimes. There is talk of them waving or trading Darius Kasparaitis who is a good leader and pretty fierce on the blueline. But are going to keep
Sandis Ozolinsh who has proven nothing with the Blueshirts and makes a lot of money. There is even talk about trying to send Thomas Pock back to Hartford, which would mean they would have to put him on waivers and risk losing him. Pock is a young blueliner and in my book, young d-men are like left handed pitchers. If you get a good one, or one with promise, you do everything you can to hold on to him.

The Yankees and Mets obviously ended in a disappointing fashion and I found the World Series to be lackluster. The Jets are nothing to write home about. The Giants will let me down at some point, probably in the playoffs. The Knicks, Nets and Islanders....insert joke here. Oh yeah, the Devils. The Devils are a great organization that should have been moved a long time ago in order to get some worthwhile attention. Add to the mix I am not a big college football fan. So where is the juice coming from in pro sports?

Incidentally, just wondering if the radio phone slammers are ready to make more excuses as to why they make bad pro picks?

Also, how is that Subway Series they guaranteed going? You know, the one that they would not allow anyone to question them about.

So that leads me to sports talk. I remember the good old days of WFAN in New York. Where I couldn't wait to put on the radio to see what Mike and Chris had to say about a certain topic or The Sweater and The Schmoozer. But now the only time I listen to WFAN is to hear Mike and The Dog, and that's basically when I am tired of listening to Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly or have played out my compact discs.

Don't get me wrong Mike and The Dog are still great. They are at their best when they are being funny. But there is just no juice right now and hasn't been for quite a while. The A-Rod talk got old very quick, as did the Tiki Barber talk. I am not sure what it is. Maybe I am just not as big a sports fan as I once was. Or perhaps, and I think this is really the answer, there is just an over saturation of sports.

The problem with sports talk is many of the hosts spend too much time on one subject. This makes me long for the days of Scott Ferrell. A bit cartoonish in his approach but he was at least able to talk about multiple topics and was mostly respectful to the folks that called in to his program, "Ferrell On The Bench." I know he got in trouble off-mic a few times and I am really not sure where he is currently. But radio misses a guy like that to get things charged up.

NEWS
Sex, overindulgence in booze, scandals, lies. Sure looks like an election is coming up. I am really interested to see not only who wins, but also how many people come out to vote. I sense that the folks of this country are really ticked off at both parties and may not come out to vote. Once again democracy loses to the power-hungry whores in Washington.

Not all politicians are bad, but there is definitely enough of 'em right now!

RASSLIN'
RVD beat Big Show in a ladder match on Tuesday night in a non-title bout. So now RVD will face Show for the ECW Championship on pay-per-view at "December to Dismember." That is if Show gets through his "Champion of Champions" match at Cyber Sunday.

Say what you want about Vince McMahon but the guy is one sharp cookie. This upcoming pay-per-view next Sunday has the fans deciding via internet, the types of matches and opponents. Ingenious. McMahon also showed great brilliance when he purchased the video libraries of all the other now-defunct wrestling promotions. This led to a 24/7 wrestling channel. McMahon not only beat all the competition but outsmarted them right to the bitter end. So why is this so brilliant one might ask? Here is a perfect example: The WWE recently released an anthology DVD on Hulk Hogan which has footage of Hogan in the AWA and Mid-South where he got his start. So since McMahon and the WWE own the video libraries of those two dead promotions they don't have to get into any legal battles and can put out a more complete product.

McMahon is definitely not a saint, but he is unquestionably a great businessman.

GHOSTS, GHOULS, AND TALKING HEADS
I love this time of year and am a big fan of Halloween. I like all the scary movies that are on television as well. But wonder why I never see The Black Cat or Interview With The Vampire on cable. The Black Cat is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen and is a classic. It stars two masters in Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The story is by Edgar Allan Poe so you know you can't go wrong. It's not a slasher film, but that doesn't diminish its frightfulness in any way. It's a shame they don't put it on.

Interview With The Vampire stars Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and is based on the book by Anne Rice. As always, the book is better, but the movie is pretty good. It also stars Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, and a very young Kirsten Dunst.

Here are some folks who I hope get no candy for Halloween:

The very smug David Gregory, the very, very attractive but loves to play the game of gotcha Norah O'Donnell, the very fake Katie Couric, and the man-hating Maureen Dowd.

Yeah sorry, I guess not everyone loves Katie!

Just to show that there are a few good liberals, I have sent candy to the following:

WABC's Ron Kuby, Fox News' Alan Colmes, and author and The New York Times' Tom Friedman.

Cheers!