Is the Bar Closed Will Run Friday Night at 7:45 at Emerald Downs

Click on the pics for larger view.

M's Sweep Red Sox!!!

Jose (with a little help from Manny Ramirez) knocked in the game winner off the left field wall. He was promptly mobbed and tackled by his teammates.
Click here for an audio clip of Lopez describing the celebration.

Early IPhone reviews are here.

A Led Zeppelin Reunion?

Been a long time since they rock-and-rolled

by Gary Susman

Okay, this comes from the British entertainment press, so you should take it with a few million grains of salt, but still, what if it were really true that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin, along with drummer Jason Bonham (son of late Zep drummer John B.) plan to reunite? The notice at Gigwise says the pretext that would bring Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones together for only the third time in the 27 years since Bonham's death is a London tribute concert to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the legendary Atlantic Records founder who launched the band's career by signing them to his label in 1968. Plausible enough, though Stereogum (where we first spotted the news) is skeptical that this one-shot gig, much less a 2008 reunion tour, will ever come to pass. PopWatch is similarly wary of the rumor, but still... what if? Yes, yes, they're all older, and everything about Zep's music that seemed bloated and grandiose 30 years ago would seem even more so now. But still — it's LED FREAKIN' ZEPPELIN. Wouldn't you want to see 'em, just in case? Or is it better to let sleeping dinosaurs lie and just remember the band in its "I am a golden god" heyday?

Kylee visits Grandma Mitchell and goes to her 8th Mariner game.

Jeff and Rhiannon joined us in our season ticket seats and took some amazing pics with Jeff's big lens. He took the great shot of JJ in the 8th inning.
On a side note, Felix started the game once again throwing fastball after fastball, and once again was lit up. When he went to his breaking ball he was fine. Here is a great piece of written analysis. I can only hope the Mariner coaches read it and take the suggestions to heart.

Apple IRack

Top 100 Movies of all time

Download The Black Keys "Live EP" here.

Click download under each song.

Study Says Eldest Children Have Higher I.Q.s

This explains so much!
:)

Kylee has something important to tell you!

Kylee Meets Griffey at Safeco

Now that's acting, Gary!

1408 with John Cusack looks really good and has been receiving excellent reviews.

LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire to tour

From Rolling Stone:

Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem will be touring together this fall in what has to be the ultimate dream bill of the contemporary hipster. A few dates have already been announced — including the requisite no-band-is-big-until-they’ve-played-here stop at Red Rocks in Denver on September 17th. Stay tuned for more date announcements as they come in.

Sopranos Finale Parodies

This one rips on the Sopranos and the OC at the same time.

Hilary and Bill give us their version.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have their version.

The Bob Barker Version.

Say what you want about the Sopranos finale, but at the very least it was memorable.

Update: Just found this one. You can insert your own music into the finale. The theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm works perfectly!

Zombies as man's best friend? Check out the trailer for Fido.

The New White Stripes album is out now!

Anyone who knows me or knows what kind of music I enjoy already knows that I think the White Stripes are one of the best American bands of all time. But now I would like to qualify that statement a bit. They are the best band currently playing today. In the world. Everyone of their albums runs the gamut musically, from country to folk to punk to classic Led Zep rock to gospel and soul. Icky Thump is no exception. And yet these songs don't feel contrived at all as if Jack is saying "ok now we do the blues and now we do the folk music". The songs seem pure as if they were written by someone with a genuine love of the music as opposed to someone hell bent on imitation. Do I mind if the riff in Icky Thump sounds a bit like Bring it On Home? Not at all, because the song that surrounds the riff is unlike anything in traditional blues or traditional blues rock. I would say the album is most similar to Zeppelin III, but even that doesn't do justice to the acoustic/electric territory covered here which also includes mariachi style horns, mandolin, bag pipes, and violin. And yet somehow it all still makes you want to bang your head. This album is much more aggressive than Get Behind Me Satan, but it still has some mellow touches too.

De Stijl is still my favorite Stripes record followed quickly by White Blood Cells, however, they have now made five (yes five!) records that are all very easy on the ears. (Their first album, while good, is a basic dose of Sabbath and Cream style blues riffs) What other BANDS in the rock and roll era have made five great records? The only other ones I can think of are the greats: The Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, U2, Radiohead, and Queen. Pink Floyd probably belongs in here too. Maybe the Police too. The Doors only released four solid records and the Grateful Dead only two exceptional studio albums. Nrivana only released three good studio records and Pearl Jam, god bless em for their live shows, have only made three really great full albums (Ten, Yield, and Pearl Jam). Please don't talk to me about Aerosmith, Journey, Foreigner, Loverboy, or Rush because I am a)not interested in bands whose goals were simply catchy sing alongs and b) not a big fan of prog rock, regardless of the musicianship. I know I may be missing a quality band or two, but my point is the White Stripes belong with the greats.

Some people have issues with the White Stripes because of their color scheme and wardrobe, the fact that Meg is not Keith Moon or John Bonham, and the fact that their music is so vast in character that they are hard to define as band. That's the point. It's about the music. Although they don't sound like Queen, I compare the bands to one another because Queen had huge hits with operatic, heavy metal, hard rock, rockabilly, and disco songs. Only talented musicians can pull that off and still retain credibility. The White Stripes pull it of on all of their records.

If you are already into the White Stripes this album will change nothing. However, if you have resisted digging in on their tunes in the past, now would be a good time to start listening. I'll post a greatest hits playlist selection soon.

Here is the link to the Best of the White Stripes mix on ITunes. You must open Itunes to make the playlist show up. For some reason tracks from Get Behind Me Satan are not available. These include Blue Orchid, The Denial Twist, and My Doorbell.

Update: The reviews are in and Icky Thump is receiving universal critical acclaim. This site tabulates all major reviews of the new album.

Flaming Lips coming to Seattle September 19th

Listen to the new Spoon record here!

Crush on Obama

The Cabin is coming along just nicely

Here is a picture I took yesterday when Kylee and I went up to help Bob work on the cabin. You should notice a big difference in the roof because dormers were added that give us a ton of extra usable space. Six windows were added as well.

There are 12 more pictures here if you would like to see a 360 degree view, which includes the new deck. There are also a couple of shots of the framing for the bathroom on the second level.
The cabin is still overdue for a paint job obviously as well as few more minor fixes in Phase One of the Cabin Reconstruction Project. (Phase Four includes a hot tub and a beach concert reuniting the surviving members of Led Zeppelin). Bob and Gary (the builder) are working very hard this month and the rest of the family will hopefully help out to get most of the other jobs done by mid-July.

The Simpsons video my students created has been viewed almost 44,000 times on Youtube.

This means my cameo makes me famous, right?

Flight of the Conchords interview.

Best misunderstood lyrics video of all time. Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter. A must watch.

Lollapalooza Day 3

Fantasy Schedule:
12:15-1:15 The View
Lunch
2:15-3:00 Black Angels
4:15-5:15 Kings of Leon
5:15-6:15 !!!
6:15-7:15 My Morning Jacket
8:00: to 11:00 Pearl Jam

The Sopranos Finale

Many will be disappointed by the Sopranos finale. I for one am not at all troubled by the ambiguous ending.
Did Tony get whacked from the guy going into the bathroom to retrieve a gun a la Godfather I? Or maybe he was just a regular guy who had a staring problem.
Did the gangstas get the whole family or were they just patrons?
Did something terrible happen as Meadow entered the door of the restaurant?

You can decide.

Update: Or maybe not? David Chase has hinted there are clues in the finale. Read here.

Another blogger's view: http://www.petersanchez.com/2007/06/11/sopranos-jip-or-genius/

A contest to write a better ending is here.

A debate on the final scene is here.

Interview with Steve Perry of Journey here.

Weird cameras are fun!

The M's are on Fire!

I am due for a long M's post and I will get to it soon.
I just thought I would throw up a picture of the best closer in baseball.
JJ Putz is a beast.

MySpace and Spin Smashing Pumpkins Tribute Album

This link lists all of the bands with the link to their Pumpkins song.

The Academy Is has a decent version of Mayonnaise, Gliss has a pretty good Rhinocerous cover, and Ben Kweller can't do anything wrong as far as I am concerned.

Colin Powell speaks up (finally).

Better late than never?

Hansa the elephant has passed away.

How bad is Vidro? Worse than Carl Everett.

From USS Mariner:

The really interesting thing, of course, is what happens if Hargrove, who seems somewhat bent on shoving Vidro, the team’s third-worst regular hitter (Sexson, Ibanez)(and it’s more like tied-for-second-worst, really), into the lineup, he may well do it at the expense of a lot of hitting and defense at third, less hitting and defense at second, or more or less a wash at first.

Which brings us to another point sometimes brought up in comments. Vidro’s 54 games into the year, he’s got 224 at-bats, 19 walks (11 GIDPs, 9 extra-base hits). At this point last year, Carl Everett had played in 54 games of 57, had 219 at-bats, 22 walks (5 GIDPs, 14 XBH).

Turbo: .290/.344/.357
Jurassic: .257/.338/.403

Carl Everett was, at this point in the season last year, having a better year than Jose Vidro is. You give up six points of OBP to get 43 points of SLG. At least Turbo isn’t quite as expens– ooooooh, right.

Dane's First Birthday with music by Sufjan Stevens.

Cold War Kids opening for the White Stripes in September

What is Ichiro worth?

Best alarm ever!!!

An insane wheelchair meets semi tuck story. You won't believe it.

Talk about bad luck, right?

Bush rejects plan to cut greenhouse emissions

Just when you thought he couldn't do anything to make us look worse.

Watch Black Rebel Motorcycle Club live in Portland.

The video and sound quality is excellent.

Will the Sonics end up in Auburn?

Is the Bar Closed finished 2nd yesterday and pulled in a cool two grand!

Coolest "Spoiler" T-Shirt Ever

The Red-Band trailer for Superbad.

This is an R-Rated trailer for the new comedy that arrives in theatres in a couple of months. It's for adults only. It's very funny.
Jonah Hill from Knocked Up and Michael Cera from Arrested Development star.

Knocked Up is best reviewed wide release of the year.

Seargent Pepper Turns 40