Car Mix - June '05

Here is a list of the songs I'm listening to right now that fit on a single CD:

1. American Baby Intro – Dave Matthews Band
2. American Baby – Dave Matthews Band
3. Speed of Sound – Coldplay
4. Ashes – Embrace (Even though this is the best song from their album, you may want to check out the song Gravity which is free on iTunes this week.)
5. Since You Been Gone (Jason Nevins Remix) – Kelly Clarkson (I have already chronicled my love of this song a few times – I’m Soooooooooooooooooooo Moving On.)
6. Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) – Pet Shop Boys (The theme to my favorite new show of the summer, Beauty and the Geek. Stayed tune for a full review of the show coming soon.)
7. One Word – Kelly Osborne (I never though I’d like a song from her, but she did make a smart move going away from rock and into techno where it can hide poor singing ability. Ashlee Simpson, take note.)
8. Till I Get to You – Nikka Costa
9. 1 Thing (Remix) – Amerie & Jay-Z
10. Diamonds (From Sierra Leone) – Kanye West (A full review of this song and the accompanying video should be up in the next few days.)
11. Dreams – The Game (I don’t care too much for the Game, but the Kanye West production makes up for the lackluster rhyme skill.)
12. The Corner – Common, Kanye West, & Last Poets (The best rapper than no one listens to gets a little help from the best producer of the moment.)
13. You’re Gonna Luv Me – Da Backwudz (This song really sounds like it was produced by West with the sped up chorus.)
14. (Expletive deleted) Ain’t (expletive deleted) – Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg (My love of the Ben Fold version made me dust off my Dre album just to hear the original.)
15. (Expletive deleted) Ain’t (expletive deleted) – Ben Folds
16. The Right Time – Joss Stone (yes this is the one from the Gap commercial. Get it for yourself, it free from the gap link. Or if you like paying, click the other link.)
17. Chariot (Stripped) – Gavin DeGraw
18. Breathe (2 AM) (Live - Hotel Café) – Anne Nalick

Musings From the Back 9 vol. VI

Found this over on Moxiegrrrl's website and can’t wait to get my hands on it. Although I can’t seem to find it for pre-order over at the Microsoft Store.

- I have tried to avoid commenting or even watching/reading about the Michael Jackson trial because I find no humor in a child molestation trail. Well that was until Triumph the Insult Comic Dog went to the trial. Check it out for yourself.

- I received my latest Rolling Stone magazine yesterday. Well the problem is actually I didn’t, what I did receive was the cover, and just the cover, in a plastic bag with a note from the United States Postal Service for damaging my mail. Umm, you didn’t damage my mail; you didn’t send me my mail. Damage would be ripping a page (which they have done before), you didn’t sent and entire issue. And to make things worse, they lost a double issue. So if anyone wants the Rolling Stone with Jessica Alba on the cover, shout me a holla dogg.

- Today is a sad day here on the 9^th Green as the pin has been lowered at half mast as one of my favorite whipping boys has reportedly decided to retire. Yes I’m referring to the great white hope from BYU, Shawn Bradley. Bradley must hold the record for appearing on the most number of posters in NBA history and he did it without ever being the focus of the poster. In honor of Bradley’s retirement, I must break out NBA Jam Extreme one more time for a classic Big Head Bradley vs. Big Head Muresan one more time.

- Weird Search(es) of the week:
rachael mcgavin from the notebook (Google)
hat does ryan gosling think about rachel mcadams kiss? (Google)

When did I become the authority on all things The Notebook? And these are just the tip of the iceberg as I picked out the most interesting ones, and no, I didn’t copy them wrong, that’s the searchers’ mistakes. Sadly, putting these her will most like only increase The Notebook volume to the 9^th Green.

The Price Is Wrong Bob

Last night, the American Film Institute ran down the top 100 Movie Quotes of All Time. No, I didn’t watch it because I found it easier to take five minutes to read the list (check it out here) rather than watch the three hour broadcast, not to mention the premier of Rescue Me was on. Granted, had AFI brought in the I Love the 80’s commentators, then maybe I’d watch it. Beside the lame commentary, the biggest problem is whenever I see an AFI list, I immediately have to slap the phrase “According to Old People” at the end. So this was the Top 100 Movie Quotes According to Old People. They even said this list was judged by 1,500 film artists, critics and historians. Historians? OK if they were creating a list of the greatest Pharaoh, than yeah, bring in some historians, but not for films. So what we get is a list full of movies even older than my parents. I think there were a few that were even older than my grandparents.

So since the list was made up by people who were born between the two World Wars, there were many good quotes that were left off the list, here are a few omissions:

Where all the white women at? Or basically anything from Mel Brooks repertoire.

I sneeze in your general direction. Or anything involving Monty Python.

The price is wrong (Bob). Or anything that has come out of Adam Sandler’s mouth.

Honey, you got a whole lot uglier. Or anything involving Bruce Campbell.

Indiana was the dog’s name. Or anything from the greatest trilogy ever.

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.


And those are just the ones that are coming off the top of my head. I’m sure if I thought about it more, I could come up with my own 100. But the biggest omissions was that they put, “May the force be with you” at number eight yet, “Luke (dramatic pause) I am your father” was no where to be found. The father quote could easily top the best quote list. Seriously, I really hate old people. Next time you do a list, please send me ballot so the average age can drop a little bit.

Another absurd list that graced my TV recently was the top 100 Child Stars list on VH1. At the bottom of the list there was Christina Ricci at 97. She was the go to kids of the 90’s and was in such kids movies as the Addams Family movies and Casper the Friendly Ghost. But the biggest “huh” moment was they actually had Gary Colman at number one. Just because he has look like a child the longest doesn’t make him the greatest child star ever. If you look at 2-5 you have Macaulay Culkin, the Olsen Twins, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore all of who should have been higher than Colman. But come to think of it, this from the same people who named Oprah as the number one Pop Icon in American history, so that just taints any list they ever make. Well until they let me cast a ballot. (Note to VH1 – call me.)

Don't Keep Pacing, Make These Dudes Blow Their Pistons

It looks as if the NBA will be avoiding a lockout next season as if it was even a possibility as David Stern has more power in the league than Castro has in Cuba. The changes made in the Collective Bargaining Agreement will help make the game better but not by much as there was very little change at all. First, the maximum number of years a free agent can sign for was reduced from seven to six. Long guaranteed contracts have long been a curse in the NBA as once players sign that first contract; they just go out and play at half speed until they are up for another contract. Let’s call this the Shawn Kemp Rule. Another change is now, veterans are tested four times a year for enhancement and recreational drugs. Sorry Damon Stoudamire (and reportedly 70% of the league).

But f course the big news is the raising of the age limit to 19 (or wait one year after graduating high school for American players). This is something I’ve been whining about ever since I stopped watching basketball on a regular occasion about five years ago. That is when the players started to forget how to play and concentrated more on how to make a good poster pose (*cough Vince Carter cough*). This could all be traced back to a lack of fundamentals that are not being taught by NBA coaches who expect that their players already know them.

One pro-high schoolers argument that bugs me is the “Look at KG, Kobe, Jermaine O’Neal” argument. If we take a trip in the Scooter Time machine at each of the player’s first couple years – when we get there, we will see all of them as bench warmers and waterboys, with emphasis on boys. None of them contributed anything until garbage time and O’Neal did do anything until he jumped to Indiana. Of course then come the Amare and LeBron mentions. Yes, they both had monster rookie years, but in a stars’ league, where were they come playoff time? Watching on TV. Amare need a MVP to get into the playoffs and LeBron is still watching on TV. In fact how many of the high schoolsers have contributed to a championship team? Kobe, the white girl slayer, is the only one that I can think of, and we all know that Shaq was the reason they got the rings.

So hopefully these minor changes do improve the game next year. But the only reason anyone will be watching the NBA at all next year will be because it will mark the return of a star off his one year sabbatical. No, not Phil Jackson, I mean the Malice at the Palace himself, Ron Artest. He is now the new Mike Tyson, you never know when he will snap, charge into the stand and bite some one’s ear off. NBA – I love this game. And hopefully Jim Grey will be there when Artest snaps too because there nothing funnier than Grey’s face last year after the riot happened. I have never seen a grown man that scared before. Maybe next time he will start sobbing.

In more NBA news, Andrew Bogut brought an actual paper résumé to his workout for the Bucks the other day. I hears the Bucks were leaning towards taking Marvin Williams with the number one pick in the draft until they saw Bogut’s impeccable work he put in a Bob’s Big Boy in high school.

In other sports news, the Chicago Black Hawks (to refresh your memory, it’s an NHL team), just fired their coach. This beggs the question, what is worse right now, being fired from the NHL, or still having a job with the NHL?

Oh, and one more NBA note, supposedly there is a finals game on tonight. Isn’t July yet?

Record (and Movie) Executives Are Shady III

I was recently perusing the upcoming releases when I noticed that Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (Unrated Version) is being released on July 12th. Great, now I get to see one of my favorite comedies of recent memory the way is was supposed to be seen. The only problem is that I bought the rated version a couple months ago when it came out. I even got a complementary Dodgeball head band with my purchase. Granted, the headband fits better as a wristband, but anyways. This is a problem that has really irked me for a long time as I buy a DVD only for them to release a better version latter. So now I get to add Dodgeball to the list that already includes Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Army of Darkness, Spaceballs, and The Billy Madison/Happy Gilmore Collection (Special Edition). So at $10-$25 the cost will start racking up to repurchase each of the items, none of which I’ve done yet.

And as you can tell by the title, I’m not letting my least favorite industry off the hook either. They too have been known to re-release special albums. On my list of CD I already own but would like to get include Weezer’s The Blue Album, Bob Marley’s Legend, and The Clash’s London Calling. Again I have yet the desire to purchase these items again, but unlike the DVD’s, I do have the options to download the songs in questions. But my main problem with that is when I want a whole album, I want it on CD and they do not sell just the special CD anywhere. And the movie and music companies wonder why people steal their products. I can’t speak for the pirates and Robin Hoods of the world but this might have something to do with it.

The Best of Billy Joel

Every once in a while I like to create a CD that brings together my favorite songs of artists where I have a lot of their albums and songs. So periodically I will post the CD’s I made in case anyone was interested in making their own. First up is one of my childhood favorites, Billy Joel. I have all of his Greatest Hits albums and most of his other albums, granted most of those are on cassettes. Feel free to comment on what I’ve left off, and what you would trade it with, as there were a few great songs left off due to time restraints. My compilation comes in at 76:00.

1. She's Got a Way - Cold Spring Harbor (1971) 3:00
2. Piano Man - Piano Man (1973) 5:36
3. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) - The Stranger (1977) 3.28
4. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant - The Stranger (1977) 7:33
5. Just the Way You Are - The Stranger (1977) 3:36
6. She's Always a Woman - The Stranger (1977) 3:17
7. Only the Good Die Young - The Stranger (1977) 3:53
8. Big Shot - 52^nd Street (1978) 3:43
9. My Life - 52^nd Street (1978) 3:51
10. You May Be Right - Glass Houses (1980) 4:09
11. It's Still Rock & Roll to Me - Glass Houses (1980) 2:54
12. Allentown - The Nylon Curtain (1982) 3:48
13. Uptown Girl - An Innocent Man (1983) 3:15
14. The Longest Time - An Innocent Man (1983) 3:36
15. Tell Her About It - An Innocent Man (1983) 3:35
16. A Matter of Trust - The Bridge (1986) 4:12
17. We Didn't Start the Fire - Storm Front (1990) 4:49
18. Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) - River of Dreams (1993) 3:34
19. The River of Dreams - River of Dreams (1993) 4:11