The AL Two Months In

Before we get to our baseball Memorial Day Review, we’ve got to give our token WORD UP to tennis. We enjoy tennis here at VFLOAB, and while we don’t really watch it outside of the majors, we follow those majors and could name most winners from each over the past few years. And with the French Open in full swing… well it’s time to give that WORD UP to tennis. So today’s WORD UP goes to Marina Hingis, the saucy Swiss via Bohemia who’s back and tearing things up on clay. Our WORD UP to Brad Gilbert, a VFLOAB favorite, will come later when we watch Brad Baby more on the Telly.

With Memorial Day passing, it’s finally time to start looking at what’s going on in baseball. Who’s got it, who doesn’t, and who needs a tune up. Let’s take the American League first…

Best Team: Chicago White Sox
While they don’t have the best record and aren’t even in first place in their own division, they haven’t done anything to make anyone feel that they aren’t the best team in the majors. The Tigers great start has more to do with the Sox being in second than anything else… and don’t forget the Sox are still the second best team in the majors. Their pitching has been as good as advertised (4.05 team ERA). Their bats have been even better (285 runs (fifth most in the majors) and 78 home runs (top in the majors)), and the only thing Sox fans need to worry about (besides Uribe’s bat going south and Anderson not looking like a major league player) is a some what shaky bullpen. But if the Sox landed one quality arm, they wouldn’t need to worry any more. Still the team to beat if you ask us, oh and by the way, they’re on pace to win 106 games. That’s more likely to happen than…

Most Surprising Team: Detroit Tigers
The most obvious call of them all since they’re on pace to win something like 110 games… the Tigers key to success has been their pitching which has been out of this world. Their team ERA is an eye opening 3.51, which in the American League is something to brag about (past three years the best team ERA in the AL was 3.61, 4.04, 3.63). The Tigers plus 74 run differential is the best in the majors and just about everything has gone right for this team so far (their only ‘bum’ was when the Sox came into Detroit in April and swept them). The Tigers are for real because their pitching has been so fantastic. And while we highly doubt they’ll finish with an ERA under 3.60 and 100 wins, let alone 110; they’ve gotten off to such a great start that it will be hard for them not to be in this race come September. And their hot start just means that not only do the Indians have to be really worried, but also the Jays, Yankees, and Red Sox.

We Told You So: Cleveland Indians
We didn’t expect the Tribe to be as good as they were last year. But we didn’t expect them to be under .500 right now either. They’ve scored a lot of runs (288), but they’re pitching has failed them big time. Sabathia has been good, but was hurt to start the year. And someone tell Cliff Lee the season started. The Paul Byrd experiment hasn’t been too pleasant, and not surprisingly, Jake Westbrook came back to Earth. But Lee’s the guy that really hurts. After pitching okay in 2004, Lee took what looked like that ‘jump’ last year. But now at 27, one has to wonder what’s going on. His 5.46 ERA is pretty bad and he’s not even giving the Tribe that many innings. But he’s only part of the problem; Lee’s the difference between where they are and being three games over .500. They’re lack of starting pitching is the reason they’re not in this race with the White Sox and Tigers. Yes folks, the Indians are 9.5 games out of first place and 8 behind the White Sox (if you’re thinking about the Wild Card). This team might be in big trouble.

Biggest Train Wreck: Minnesota Twins vs California Angels
Yuck… what happened here? Did these two trains collide or did they derail themselves in separate accidents? Let’s look at the Twins first:

What happened? Last year they averaged 4.2 runs again… this year they’re averaging 4.72… so while their O was never great to begin with, it’s a tad better so far this year. So why are they five games under .500? Oh yeah, pitching. They’re pitching imploded over the winter, last year their team ERA was 3.71. This year? A brutal 5.24. So while they’re scoring a half run more, they’re allowing 1.5 more runs. Ummm, not good. Brad Radke doesn’t look bad, he looks washed up. Amazing since last year his ERA was 4.04, this year it’s 7.08… what the Hell happened? He is walking people a lot more (well for Brad Radke (he’s almost matched last year’s total) and he’s turning opponents into a line up of Ted Williams’. Unfortunately, ESPN won’t talk about this because they’re too busy discussing Randy Johnson’s ‘mechanics’ (we like to point out that HE’S 43 YEARS OLD, BRISTOL!). Meanwhile Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse were some how WORSE than Radke and we’re mercifully pulled from the rotation. Santana got off to a bit of a slow start but he’s righted the ship, this Liriano kid looks like he’ll be a hundred times better than Silva, and your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the fantastically named Boof Bonser. Hope isn’t completely lost on the Twins, this team still has talent and if they can get good pitching from Bonser and figure out what the Hell’s going on with Radke… well they’ll need to beat up on the Tigers from here on out which has been hard for them to do (remember that weekend the Tigers beat them something like 33-1 over three games?), but you never know. Odds are the Twins season was over the moment they let the Sox come back and beat them on Sunday Night Baseball after the Sox spotted them a 7 run lead. But I’m not at the point where I’m declaring them dead.

Meanwhile the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orange County from California are probably a bigger disappointment than the Twins considering that they were in the ALCS last year and were what was probably a bad call away from taking a 2 game to none lead over the White Sox. Right now they sit six games under .500 in a very average AL West. The Angels problems start with their bats… or rather the fact they don’t get on base. Their .310 on base percentage (OBP) is 28th in the majors behind only the Cubs and Rays. Their OPS sits a disgusting .702 (on base plus slugging) and is second worse in the majors after only the truly terrible Cubs. It comes down to the Angels desperately needing someone to help Vlad Guerrero. Guerrero’s performing at the level you expect, but other than Vlad, only Tim Salmon has an OPS over .800. That’s just not going to get it done. Anderson’s never been much of a power hitter, but since Kotchman, Erstad, and others have been so bad, his limitations are being exposed even though he’s doing about what you’d figure he’d be doing. I know that Kotchman has been ill, but he was killing this team when healthy and Erstad looks to be at the end of the road.

The Angels pitching has been just okay, their middle of the pack in ERA, their WHIP places them 7th in the majors, and teams don’t hit them all that well. But Colon’s been hurt much of the year and Jeff Weaver has been pretty bad, not Brad Radke bad, but 6.64 ERA bad.

So who’s the bigger Train Wreck? The Angels, things look pretty bleak there. They need to do something to shake things up.

Watch Out, Bullpen may Explode!: Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees
Buster Baby pointed this out, but these two pens are being over worked big time.
Red Sox
Jonathan Papelbon: 25 games, 26 inningsOn pace for: 81 games, 84 innings
Keith Foulke: 26 games, 28 inningsOn pace for: 84 games, 91 inningsCareer highs: 72 games, 105.1 innings
Mike Timlin: 21 games, 19.1 inningsOn pace for: He just landed on the disabled list.

There is no way that Papelbon is going to hold up at this rate. The guy is young and he’s on pace for a lot of innings (in contrast to the White Sox and Tigers were there isn’t one guy projected for more than 75 innings). Foulke has proven to have a rubber arm from his days with the White Sox when he threw 105 innings in 1999, then 88, 81, 78, and 87 in the four seasons following that. I wouldn’t be as worried about him. But with Timlin on the DL… well the Red Sox better start scoring more runs, pray that Schilling doesn’t start sucking, and that they find a #4 and #5 starter.

Yankees
Mariano Rivera: 21 games, 27.1 inningsOn track for: 71 games, 89 innings
Scott Proctor: 25 games, 34 inningsOn track for: 81 games, 110 innings
Kyle Farnsworth: 25 games, 24 inningsOn track for: 81 games, 78 innings

Rivera can give the Yanks some where around 70 innings, but they don’t want to use him much more than that especially if they want him to have something in the tank in October. Torre has to start cutting back on his innings… and Scott Proctor too. Proctor’s career high in innings pitched? 45, he’s going to match that by Flag Day at this rate. Torre has to start using Myers for more than just to face lefties (righties are hitting worse off him than lefties, fyi) and he can’t be afraid to use Villone in tight games either. There’s no way Proctor is going to hold up at the rate he’s being used. Luckily for the Yankees, their pen seems to be in better shape than the Red Sox. But this is something to watch as the season continues.

Oh My Gawd They Suck: Kansas City Royals
Let’s put it this way, they’ve already had two ten game losing streaks this year, they have a negative 124 run differential, and their team ERA is 6.24… they may just lose 120 games and allow 1,000 runs as we predicted.

Final thoughts…
I know the A’s are playing really bad right now, but I still expect them to win the AL West. I just thought they’d be better. Bean will swing a few deals and they’ll be fine I’m sure… I have nothing to say about Seattle, sorry… Texas, doesn’t this happen every year? They get off to an okay start and then fade?... The fact that Tampa isn’t hitting or scoring as many runs as they are is sort of surprising, maybe it has more to do with Jorge Cantu’s injury? Who knows. But Scott Kazmir looks like he’s not going to be good, but make a run for the Cy Young this year. We’ll see what Jose Contreras has to say about that though… The O’s are the O’s aren’t they? They’re like the Texas Rangers of the East. Still can’t pitch at all even with Kris Benson having a nice year… Finally the Jays. Lot to like here. They hit the crap out of the ball. They’re going to be there and unlike the Yanks and BoSox their pen situation is in a much better shape.

Playoff Predictions:
AL East – New York Yankees
AL Central – Chicago White Sox
AL West – Oakland A’s
Wild Card – Detroit Tigers

Un. Able. To. Govern

Looks like the Left woke to find a new darling...

Congress Gets Tough

Hey look! Congress is standing up to the President!! And for the first time in six years too!

Of course they’ve only standing up to him because W is starting to step on their toes. You know, searching and seizing documents of lawmakers documents (William Jefferson to be factual).

Of course the real reason Congress is POed at Bush isn’t because he’s taking documents, it’s because he’s taking their money.

Huh you say?

Well it’s quite simple. First there was Abramoff. And then Duke Cunningham got busted for taking money (corruption). And now they found $90,000 in Jefferson’s freezer. And the FBI wanted some documents. So they took them.

And Congress is pissed. Because if two guys have been busted for taking money, you’ve got to wonder how many more on the Hill are doing the same. Fifty? One hundred? More? No one knows. But apparently Bush wants to find out.

Of course Congress doesn’t want W to find out. It’s their money after all.

So it’s quite simple. Congress is standing up to Bush finally. Why it took this long… who knows… well actually we do know. Because Bush is coming after them. Who gives a shit about Abu Ghraib or Guanatamo, going to war in Iraq, cutting taxes for the rich, or spending money like it’s going out of style… who cares about that. Bush is messin’ with actually Congressmen. And he can’t do that. That’s where they put their foot down.

Those egotistical, selfish, jag bags. All of ‘em. Lookin’ out for themselves but telling you that they’re looking out for you when the red light goes on.

They call all go to Hell. All of ‘em. (well besides the ten we like).

Match the Latin American President with the Baseball Team!

Before we get to our little ‘game’, some wonderful articles on Germany from the Guardian. (btw, my favorite subplot of the up coming World Cup? Reading the English press discuss and report on and in Germany. Totally bizarre start just judging from some of the articles here in the ‘Guardian Special Section’).

We’ll start with this first one about the lack of German sense of humor. We here at VFLOAB find this a bit odd, we know it’s a stereotype and we’ve all heard of it, but we don’t actually believe it. When we were in high school, three German exchange students were in our class our sophomore year… we remember them laughing and even telling jokes. But apparently the Brits see things a bit differently. (This also reminds of an Economist article from a few years back asking the question: “The French have jokes, but do they have a sense of humour?”) Anyway, interesting article and gives us this actually sort of humorous joke:
An English couple have a child. After the birth, medical tests reveal that the child is normal, apart from the fact that it is German. This, however, should not be a problem. There is nothing to worry about. As the child grows older, it dresses in lederhosen and has a pudding bowl haircut, but all its basic functions develop normally. It can walk, eat, sleep, read and so on, but for some reason the German child never speaks. The concerned parents take it to the doctor, who reassures them that as the German child is perfectly developed in all other areas, there is nothing to worry about and that he is sure the speech faculty will eventually blossom. Years pass. The German child enters its teens, and still it is not speaking, though in all other respects it is fully functional. The German child's mother is especially distressed by this, but attempts to conceal her sadness. One day she makes the German child, who is now 17 years old and still silent, a bowl of tomato soup, and takes it through to him in the parlour where he is listening to a wind-up gramophone record player. Soon, the German child appears in the kitchen and suddenly declares, "Mother. This soup is a little tepid." The German child's mother is astonished. "All these years," she exclaims, "we assumed you could not speak. And yet all along it appears you could. Why? Why did you never say anything before?" "Because, mother," answers the German child, "up until now, everything has been satisfactory."

On baseball note… great win for the Sox and I’m happy Frank Thomas got a standing ovation prior to his first at bat last night.

Now it’s time for what you’ve all been waiting for… Match the Latin American President’s Last Name with his/her Country and Baseball Team!
I’ll give you the leaders last name, country, and team. You have to match the rest up.
For example:

Leaders:
Bush
Harper

Country:
USA
Canada


Team:
Devil Rays
Brewers

And you would match them up as so:
Bush – USA – Brewers
Harper – Canada – Devil Rays (true fact, Travis Harper – TB; Stephen Harper – PMC (Love the family photo Steve)

NOTE: There are an unequal amount of Presidents and teams; in other words there are more leaders than there are players with the same last name. BUT there are some with more than one right answer, so I’m giving ALL those teams. Teams that have more than one player with the same name as a Latin American Leader will be listed twice. Answers on Friday

Latin American Leader:
Bachelet
Bolaños
Castro
Chavez
Fernández
Fox
Palacio
Uribe
Vázquez

Countries:
Cuba
Mexico
Ecuador
Chile
Uruguay
Nicaragua
Venezuela
Columbia
Dominican Republic

Teams:
Texas Rangers
Minnesota Twins
Baltimore Orioles
Cleveland Indians
New York Mets
Milwaukee Brewers
Hasn’t played this year
Chicago White Sox
Oakland A’s
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago White Sox

Watford is Movin on Up

Cue the Jefferson’s Theme because our favorite footie team outside of Chicago, Watford, is going to be playing in the English Premiership this fall. Watford defeated Leeds 3-0 on Sunday in Wales (Cardiff) to take the Championship playoff and a promotion to play with the Big Boys. Watford will see the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea on the pitch next year. And you know what that means? A lot of money… in fact the victory netted Watford 35 million pounds (that’s like 65.6 million dollars!)

So Watford’s going to be in the big time, and we here at VFLOAB are pumped. We actually saw Watford play when we were living in London, so we aren’t some Johnny-come-lately. We’ve been following the Hornets for a few years and it will be exciting to read about them on the Guardian’s website come this fall. And we’re pumped to hear that Watford’s manager, Adrian Boothroyd, realizes that “oh sky’s not the limit and your never gonna guess what is...” That’s right, European glory baby.

We can’t find any good quotes from Watford’s most famous fan, Elton John, but that’s your fast fact of the night. Elton John is a huge Watford fan, he was once the chairman of the team in fact. So while Elton is the most famous Watford fan, we here at VFLOAB are declaring ourselves the biggest American fans. Though I guess American Jay DeMerit who plays for Watford might disagree with us, we do need to point out to Mr. DeMerit that 1) we are here in the US and 2) Since he’s from Green Bay, he’s probably a Packer fan and WE DON’T LIKE PACKER FANS HERE AT VFLOAB. But yeah, we love the Badgers. And Hornets. So let’s just move on.

Yugoslavia, we hardly knew ya. Montenegro voted to split with Serbia and with it pretty much whatever you remember of your father’s Yugoslavia is now gone. So add new state to that European map we know you keep in the back of your closest and prepare yourself for the finals days. When the Serbia/Montenegro football team takes the pitch in the up coming World Cup, it will be the swan song for the country.

(And just for fun… can anyone name the six countries that resulted in the break up of Yugoslavia? We’ll put the answer at the end).

Someone please, please, shoot David Wells. And please, please, let’s all admit he’s a bigger moron and jerk than Barry Bonds. David Wells is the worst thing in baseball right now. And btw, congrats to Barry on tying Ruth. It’s a hell of an achievement no matter what he may or may not have used to get there.

And speaking of stupid baseball players… Rich Hill is beyond dumb. In case you missed the best brawl of the year thus far here’s the clip:


Anyway, so what did Hill have to say about AJ’s hard, but clean, slide into home? Hill called it gutless and pathetic. Thankfully everyone’s favorite manager lit into Hill:
"Who is Hill?'' said Ozzie Guillen. "That piece of [bleep] who pitched? Michael realized he was wrong [in punching Pierzynski]. Michael realized he overreacted.

"But that little [bleep] Hill, he should be in Triple-A. He is going to make Dusty Baker get fired. Shut up, you just got here in the big leagues. When you make a comment like that, it was a cheap shot. You don't know the game.''

And as a reward for being a moron, and sucking at the same time, Hill was sent back to AAA Iowa. And Cubs brass ripped him a bit as they sent him packing.
Other than that, we don’t have much to add about the Cubs/Sox series. Sox gave one away yesterday, but other than that they pretty much dominated the Cubs. The Cubs stink, but we all knew that.

Okay Eastern European majors… here are the six countries that resulted of the break up of Yugoslavia:
Slovenia – The only country of this group in the European Union
Macedonia – Under EU consideration
Croatia – Under EU consideration (and btw, this is the new ‘hot spot’ for German beach goers… you know how you hear about Greek or Italian beaches? Croatian beaches are just as nice)
Bosnia
Serbia
Montenegro

CUA "Hazing"

UPDATE: I couldn't agree more with this guy over at Nandovia... Bob Reno sucks at life.

As a Catholic University of America alum, I was actually sort of happy to see CUA make the front page of ESPN.com today. Of course it was over hazing and an investigation that the University will now ‘undertake’ but I figured this might be the one time we ever see CUA make ESPN.com so I didn’t care too much.

And then I saw the pictures.

WHO CARES?!?!?! These are the lamest, most boring, dumbest photos ever. How is a male stripper hazing? Okay some of the girls are under 21… but considering that pretty much everyone I know started drinking before they were 21 (way to go MADD!) I could careless. And I’m sorry, but some girl wearing a shirt that says “I do anal” doesn’t offend me.

What offends me is stuff like Notre Dame MBA tailgates. Girls taking pictures with a stripper does not offend me. It’s not even hazing. Let’s calm down here people. This is called making something out of nothing.

This ‘hazing’ stuff is out of control. Drinking beer and ordering a stripper is not hazing. Hazing is making people do things that are ‘unsafe’. Strippers are not unsafe. It’s sort of like those Major League Rookies who have to wear a skirt and carry a Strawberry Shortcake Lunch Pail. So please world, stop calling anything involving drinking hazing. Stop pretending that you’re ‘holier-than-thou’. And start to realize that this crap goes on every day, every where, and it’s not stopping any time soon. The world is not full of innocence, lollipops, and candy canes. It’s filled with lame boring pictures of male strippers and beer and probably sex too. Let’s stop pretending its other wise.

Maybe the Internet will help the five people who are shocked by this to realize this isn’t all that shocking. In fact what’s shocking is that people find it shocking. I don’t care any more… let’s blast CUA for something worth while like its anti-intellectual, unjust, counter productive, and negative speaker policy. But there aren’t pictures of 19 year old girls being 19 year old girls so no one cares. Oh well.

SportsCenter Images of Our Century

There I was a kid, home for Winter Break my senior year of high school doing what I always did... watching SportsCenter (when it was still good). We were about to turn our calanders from 1999 to 2000 and ESPN pulled this out for us. It was awesome then. It's awesome now. You don't even have to enjoy sports to enjoy this... just a fantastic piece of work. And thanks to youtube it still exists. The Internets is great. Enjoy.

Champions League Final

The Champions League Final is this afternoon and we couldn’t be more excited. The match up between Spanish League winners Barcelona and North London’s Arsenal should be a dandy. Barcelona has to be favored, but don’t take the Gunners lightly, they haven’t allowed a goal in what seems like forever.

The game also features the best player in the world: Ronaldinho. The man is simply amazing and there is very little he can’t do. Just check this out (and love the music):



And those aren’t even his Barca highlights. And in this profile in the Guardian, his inspiration and hero? Magic Johnson… I’m not making this up:
Sometimes, indeed, he sees you even when he isn't looking. One of the things he has brought to football is the blind pass, something he imported to the game after spending hours watching NBA videos and footage of Magic Johnson, his personal hero, in particular.
Oh and before we move on to Henry… you’ve got to see this goal too:



While Ronaldinho is great, Arsenal has their own man of greatness in the Frenchman, Thierry Henry. Henry isn’t as flamboyant as the Brazilian and near soft spoken, we can’t remember him making headlines in anything other than scoring while in London three years ago. Henry just goes about his business and that’s putting the ball in the net. He’s been fantastic over the last five years at Arsenal and his highlight reel is just as impressive as Ronaldinho. He may not be able to dribble like Ronaldinho, but he can fly and he rarely seems to miss the net.



We love Thierry Henry just because his name is so great and he just looks so cool out there on the pitch. And since we knew a Gunner supporter quite well during our days in London, we’re pulling for the Gunners today in the final in Paris. We’ll be a big of a homer and say that Henry plays out of his mind, nets two goals and sets up another in a thrilling 3-2 Arsenal victory. But don’t ask us, we don’t watch these games, we just read about them. Only so much that you can learn from reading.

But if you want more info on both Arsenal and Barcelona, hit up those links. If you get the chance, enjoy the game. And go Gunners!

Madison, Wisconsin

VFLOAB was busy over the weekend away on what we’re calling our “Liberal Retreat” in Madison, Wisconsin. We were actually up there to attend the Sister’s graduation from the fine university in the Wisconsin state capital. The graduation itself was nice, they did the best they could with the number of people graduating, moving the ceremony along quickly and giving out some good advise in the process: “Be Yourself”. We here at VFLOAB liked that advise. We also learned things like... UW-Madison is the best research school in the nation and has just as many Fortune 500 CEOs as Harvard. It also sends more alums to the Peace Corps and is up there in the number of grads it sends to Teach for America. So lets hear it for the Badgers.

(Our favorite part of the graduation? When the UW band started playing “Varsity”, “On Wisconsin”, “You’ve Said It All” (‘When you say WISCONSIN!, you’ve said it all’, set to the old Budweiser jingle), and other various ‘football’ songs and watching the kids in their cap and gowns dancing and enjoying it all. Very cool. Unfortunately they didn’t stop the ceremony three quarters though and play “Jump Around” but next year… and no Bucky but we aren’t talking about that.)

But back to our “Liberal Retreat” basically we spent our nights on State Street, killing babies, smoking dope, helping the poor, drinking our faces off, talking to girls, cleaning the environment, reading the works of Chavez and Gore, brats, organizing Unions, providing free quality education and health care, promoting individual liberties, and marrying gays. I’ve never had so much fun. Liberal Retreats are AWESOME.

Okay so we didn’t do much of that. But you get the point. Madison really does rock and we’re going to miss our annual treks up there to catch a Badger game, throw down a few brats with a Leinenkugel or Miller Lite, and check out the progressive pamphlets they’re handing out on State Street. And maybe if we’re lucky, we met and end up talking to some bizarre intellectual at a café or bar about the problems with conservative thinking.

Which reminds me, what would one do on a conservative retreat? Make one guy the 'leader', give three guys all the money, and then help the 'leader' spy on other on the retreat? So everyone is spying on everyone in the name of the 'retreat' for the 'leader' while they praise the rich guys for working 'hard'?

Just kidding.

ANYWAY, to top it off there we am sitting at ORD on Monday and what do we see next to us... that day’s full Guardian! Talk about Liberal Density... I guess some awesome Brit left it for someone like us to pick up and read like it was the Bible. And read it we did, we got full coverage of the FA Cup and Steven Gerrard’s amazing performance. We also read about Hugo Chavez’s trip to London and a few Op-Eds The Guardian’s physical format has changed a bit since we read it in London three years ago… it’s smaller now, just a little smaller than say the New York Times and it makes a world of a difference, just a very pleasant read with it being that little bit smaller. It isn’t a gawky and demanding to read… pretty sweet. And yes we’re THIS CLOSE to saying the Guardian is the best newspaper in the world.

All in all, another wonderful weekend in Madison. It is, with out a doubt, the number one city on our list of places we’d live that doesn’t have a professional sports team… what’s this a list? Of course. Here are the rules… top five midsized cities or towns that VFLOAB would live:

5) Bellingham, WA – We’ve never been to Bellingham, but it seems like the kind of place we’d like. It’s between Seattle and Vancouver, it’s in the Northwest, and it gets high rankings in all those ‘great places’ to live things. So we’ll take a flyer and guess that we’d really like Bellingham. Though I’m sure there is probably some kick as city on the Califorina cost that we’d like more… but whatever.
4) Newport, RI – It’s just an awesome town with some awesome houses. It’s been years since we’ve been there, but we loved it then and I’m sure we’d love it now.
3) Savanna, GA – We’ve got a thing for picturesque Southern towns, and Savanna is defiantly that. From the sheer amout of green, the beautiful houses, and weaping trees there’s lots to love in Savanna.
2) New Haven, CT – We had heard that New Haven was a rough town when we were making our way up there for the first time back in September. And sure it has a rough side of town… but most of the town is great. Nice shops, great pizza, good restaurants, a colional feel, the huge green/common, and of course Yale University. Great town.
1) Madison, WI – We pretty much summed it up above, but what’s not to love? Cheap beer, great brats, nice shops, the state capitol, those two lakes… it doesn’t have the ‘beautiful’ houses that the other towns on this list has, but it’s got a lot more… Madison is just awesome.

And yes we love the coverage that ESPN is giving the Champions League Final… we aren’t taking the day off like we did last year, but if we did, we’d give you a minute by minute report. You’ll just have to wait for the World Cup (that’s right circle the US vs Italy match up on Saturday the 17 of June right now).

Listening To You

Well as it turns out we’re blogging hard core today. Awesome.

First things first… we really enjoyed this article from Fortune from a few weeks back which puts the facts before the BS that comes out of DC. For instance, “Whose Medicare prescription drug plan was bigger? (a) the one proposed by Al Gore in the 2000 campaign or (b) George W. Bush's, enacted in 2003 and now being rolled out.” The answer? B… W’s plan. And this fact, “What's more, two-thirds of stock market wealth is held by 5% of the population.” That’s right… if you owe stock, in all likelihood you’re at the mercy of those 5%. We call that “The Flaws of Capitalism”.

Awesome. Just awesome. Seriously, can we all just stop supporting the White House at this point (and basically I’m looking at the state of Texas and the rich CEOs right now)? I mean at what point to people just get so fed up with them that they demand they leave? NSA has probably been collecting information on your phone calls. And Mr. President… how is a program like this enhance our freedom? How does this increase my liberty? Why don’t you just go back to Crawford, accept the fact that not only are you one of the three worst Presidents of all time (and I know history could move him into the ten worst) and been a complete disaster. Go home… stop ruining this country and the freedoms we have. And stop putting Supreme Court Justices that want to take our individual liberties away and give them to the executive.

Basically this is the deal… they aren’t listening to what your saying (or at least that’s what they say) but they are collecting information on your calls just because you MAY be a terrorists. Of course this is a load of bullshit. But hey, whatever. Maybe we can just wipe the first amendment off the book and just move on with it all. Just give everyone what they want… a bizarre dictatorship that is more Stalin Russia than anything else yet we have ‘free’ elections between two parties that are more interested in money and their egos than your well being. And oh yeah, American Idol voting. Gots to have your American Idol voting.

When will the paranoia end? Will someone try to answer this question? Seriously, when will it end? When are we going to stop being afraid of everything? When will we start to realize that the terrorists aren’t an excuse to take away our civil liberties? Will it be when we have nothing? When we really are living under a full blown police state? Don’t be fooled by the terrorism talk, programs like this may catch a terrorist or two, though that is unlikely. And more importantly, it won’t stop terrorism. Programs like this won’t stop terrorism from being a threat, it’s sort of like using toothpaste to fix a leek in the Hoover Dam.

And why does the President that prides himself on freedom and liberty allow this to go on? And why is it when he’s asked this he’ll make some stupid comment that makes no sense and nothing will change. He love liberty so much, he’s will to take your liberty away. Go figure. Sort of like the dude that loved John Lennon so much, he killed him. That’s George Bush, he’s the Mark David Chapman of politics.

For all the love that the Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, the Killers, Bloc Party, and others have gotten in the last two years or so… I’m still really, really impressed with the Walkmen and probably would take ‘em over those four above.



This may be a rhetorical question, but… Why do people care if Barry Bonds is a jackass? Even the 'roids factor doesn't bother me considering that he was playing against a lot of guys who were juicing too. In a bizarre way it levels the playing field.Why do people care so much that Bonds is passing Ruth? No one in the media saw Ruth play. No one on this list saw Ruth play. I'm sure most people in the media weren't even alive when Ruth died. So why do they care so much? Ruth is more myth/legend than baseball player at this point. Babe Ruth the person has nothing to do with this. This is bigger than that. This is about a dislike of Bonds, but that still doesn’t answer everything. If this was A-Rod would the hate from the print media be like this? I'm sure if McGwire was the one about to pass Ruth everyone would be falling all over themselves to praise McGwire. If it was about Ruth, wouldn't we be going back and taking away the honor and praise we all bestowed on McGwire? In a way, if it was about the cheating, McGwire would be public enemy #2, maybe even #1, right now. It isn't about the cheating... that's the excuse everyone uses.

The cheating doesn't piss people off and if it does they're all hypocrites. I'm sure most were like me and cheering the beauty and power of that 600 foot home run that Bonds hiton Sunday. Just look at this.Instead we've got everyone saying that Bonds is a jackass... who cares? The guys a fantastic ball player and juiced like most major league players in the 90s and early 2000s. We shouldn’t turn our back on him just because he was doing what everyone else was doing. For instance, who are we to root for when he faces Derrick Turnbow? No one has ever answered this question when I and others have asked it. The problem is the Bonds isn’t the only guy who used steroids. He was one of hundreds of major league baseball players. Yet we make it out like he is the only guy who did steroids. That just isn’t the case.No, the problem isn’t that Bonds passing Ruth or that he used steroids, it is that the numbers don't matter any more. Or at least, that's what should be bothering people. The numbers mean nothing now. Either that or racism or nationalism or whatever ism you want to throw out there is the fuel behind this dislike of Bonds. Personally we could careless. He’s a good baseball player, really good.

If Neko Case’s Margaret vs Pauline and Jenny Lewis’ The Big Guns aren’t in the top five of our top songs of 2006 list, we’ll be shocked.

Words cannot express how excited we are about the World Cup. Seriously… less than a month until things kick off in Germany. The Guardian is helping us out with a World Cup Show that launched today… yay is us. Excitement all around. Expect near wall to wall coverage here at VFLOAB. That’s our silver lining right now… the White Sox and World Cup.

Watford's One Win From the Big Time

Watford and Crystal Palace tied 0-0 yesterday at Vicarage Road sending Watford on to the playoff final in Cardiff in a few weeks. And there was a brawl during the game started by the Watford coach... wouldn't this be head line news here in the States for about three weeks? Anyway, we're happy here at VFLOAB because we're Watford fans (don't ask) and seeing that our 'team' is one win away from going up to the top flight in English football... well we're pround sport fans today. No, it ain't like when the White Sox won, but it's still fun and gives us an excuses to link to photos of crazy Brits dressed in yellow.

Baseball Thoughts

We haven’t discussed much baseball yet this year here at VFLOAB, and seeing that it’s a rainy Monday in the second week of May… we figure today might be just the day to get our thoughts down on paper. Or the Internet. Or whatever you want to call it…

I don’t think I’m going to shock anyone when I make these two claims:
1) The Chicago White Sox are the best team in baseball
2) Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball

The White Sox are really, really good. If they played in the National League they’d win 110 games. That’s how good they are and how bad the NL is. But since they’re in the AL they’ll find it hard to win 100 games (though they ‘only’ have to play .595 baseball from here on out to win 100). The Sox offense has been greatly improved and part of the reason why they’re off to such a great start (yes Thome’s off to a hot start, but don’t forget about Crede and Konerko). But no other team in baseball has the depth and quality that the Sox starting rotation has. Only the Yankees, Reds, and Indians have scored more runs this year; and only the Yankees, Tigers, and Cardinals have allowed less runs. The Sox are already plus 51 in the runs scored/runs allowed category, again only the Yankees are better there (+65). The Sox need one more arm in the pen, but other than that, this team is just flat out awesome.

But all that ‘number’ crunching leads us to the most interesting ‘stat’ so far… the Yankees and Tigers are getting pitching which has been much better than anyone would have thought. The Tigers actually lead the majors in team ERA and the Yankees have allowed the least amount of runs in the majors. Don’t expect either team to keep this up though. The Yankees bullpen has been fantastic thus far. Their top five guys in the pen have only allowed 15 runs so far. The chances of that continuing are slim. And while Mussina is off to a great start, Randy Johnson has struggled a bit, Wang is about where you’d expect, and Chancon has had a nice start… but we still don’t know who the fifth start is. We find it hard to believe they’ll stick with Jaret Wright much longer. Expect the Yankees pitching to fade as the season goes along. And if Randy Johnson continues to struggle they’re in big trouble. Meanwhile the Tigers some how lead the majors in ERA and while their bullpen has been good, it hasn’t been as good as the Yanks. Their starters are off to a great start. Mike Maroth’s numbers jump out at you, but just looking at his WHIP and K rate, the guy’s been lucky. The guy that really jumps out is Bonderman who continues to improve. Tigers look good and are going to be in this race. I can’t see their pitching leading the league in anything come September, but with the bats they have and the good start they got off too, I expect them to be around all year this year.

Taking a quick look at the National League… every team pretty much in is in this race (well the Nats, Marlins, and Pirates are all finished and it looks like the Cubs will be joining them soon). Some thoughts…
New York Mets – I’m sure they’d do just about anything to get Kris Benson back right now. But just watch, people are going to get a little too excited about this team as the year goes along because the NL is not good.

Philadelphia Phillies – They’ve won 8 in a row to get back in the NL East race. They can hit and their D isn’t that bad. They just don’t have enough depth in their rotation, let alone a #1 starter. But they should be around all year.

Atlanta Braves – This team is better than they’re playing right now. But they have to start winning soon or else they’ll be in too big of a hole.

Washington Nationals – They’re a bit more like the Knicks that you’d think. They’ve got a few names on this team. But they stink.

Florida Marlins – Speaking of sucking…

Cincinnati Reds – In a bad NL they put up a lot of runs… they’ll get Junior back at some point, and it’s not like they’re pitching is going to be any worse than the Phillies.

St. Louis Cardinals – Not as good as we all thought though.

Houston Astros – I’m torn on this team. I didn’t think they were very good last year and I don’t think they’re that good this year. But they do have pitching, and in the NL that might be enough. If they get Clemens back, do they become the favorites? They need another bat.

Milwaukee Brewers – The Reds hot start has hurt them… this team will be around, just not sure if they’ll be around the Wild Card race in September.

Chicago Cubs – If Derrek Lee didn’t get hurt… thought who doesn’t love a good Kerry Wood dominates the minors story? And why do we read two every year?

Pittsburgh Pirates – Apparently their pitching isn’t as good as everyone thought and only Jason Bay is sort of ‘scary’ in that line up. Bad team.

Colorado Rockies – They were the best team in the NL West the last two months of the year remember. I’m rooting for them.

Arizona Diamonbacks – Apparently their pitching is better than everyone thought… I haven’t seen them play a game this year.

California teams – Padres are aiight, Dodgers have turned into the Mets from 2001-2005, and half the Giant team is on social security. And this Bonds stuff doesn’t help them either.

Random Footie notes, since we’ll do the leg work in getting you ready for the 2006 World Cup next month (nice guide here):
With Wayne Rooney out for the English and Michael Owen not fully fit, they English are in deep shit. Both Rooney and Owen are the first choice for Ericksson and without Ronney things will be tough enough. Adding Owen to that list will make the slim English chances slimmer. Thought, rumor is that Ericksson is thinking about adding Theo Wolcott (the Greg Odom to Ronney’s LeBron) WHO HASN’T EVEN PLAYED FOR ARSENEL, let alone been capped. Theo looks lovely to the right doesn't he? For more on England, check this out.

Only in soccer… the police were called to investigate a food poisoning incident that left ten players on Tottenham Hotspur were left with food poisoning. Why does this matter? Spurs lost 2-1 and it ended up costing them a spot in the Champions League to arch rivals Arsenal who passed them in the standings. Let the conspiracy rumors hit these fair American shores. And why hasn’t this happened in the NFL yet? Anyway, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal qualified for the Champions League, Tottenham and Blackburn will be left to play in the UEFA Cup.

Good news for Catholics, Celtic destroyed field in the Scottish Premier League and Rangers didn’t even qualify for the Champions League… Hearts did though, so not all was lost for the Protestants.

Juventus hasn’t quite rapped up Serie A in Italy, but all they need is a win or tie next week to win it all (or a Milan loss or tie). Roma and Fiorentina will fight for the final Champions League spot… we fantasy Fiorentina chances.

Finally our favorite team, Watford, took a huge stop in moving up to the Premiership next year by winning 3-0 at Crystal Palace. They look likely to move on to the playoff final against either Preston or Leeds. Go Watford!

Dead Man Walking

VFLOAB wouldn’t blame the President if he was counting down the days until he leaves office because things just continue to get worse for him.  In fact he sort of reminds us of Brad Lidge in October of 2005 after Albert Pujols hit that 900 foot home run off him.  

Earl Hickey would call it karma.  We call it justice.  The lesson learned?  Don’t steal.

But that is beside the point.  Since Bush’s “grand” reelection and then second inauguration in January of 2005, I’m not sure if anything good has happened to Bush and the White House unless you’re one of those people who smokes the “Roberts and Alito!” stuff.

Even that isn’t working now since majority of ‘conservatives’ don’t like Bush any more.  People don’t like Congress either, and we can’t blame them.  Right now our federal government is not only in shit up to its ears with poor planning and over spending, but it’s also divided, stagnated, in bed with special interest groups, and reactionary (never a good thing for governments).  In other words, if Americans weren’t so friggin’ rich, we’d have some of the ingredients for civil unrest.  But as it stands, the garbage is still being picked up, most people are still making enough money, and the streets aren’t out of control.  But people are more than disappointed with the government, and there is an opening for a ‘new’ party.  That won’t happen though because a third party would lack the necessary funding to make an impact.  

So we wait.  Bush might as well just put a Lame Duck sign up on the South Lawn, and if people could they’d get rid of pretty much everyone in Congress they would, but seeing that they get to decide between a prostate exam and a colonoscopy come November, people will shrugged and take the ‘lesser of two evils’… which is never a good thing for a democracy.  (Unless you’re a cynic and view every election as the decision of the lesser evil).

Anyway, in the almost 16 months since Bush but his hand on the Bible and said he’d protect the Constitution again, nothing has gone right.  I’m not kidding just check out this laundry list:
-- Social Security reform falls flat on its face
-- Tax reform never got off the ground
-- Things in Iraq haven’t gotten better, that’s for sure.  We can debate how much ‘worse’ things are another time, but like most other people, I’m waiting for that grand square to be named after Bush to be built.
-- Katrina, the perfect chance to gain some creditability back, and what does Bush do?  He waits FOUR DAYS to send any federal help.  No, it wasn’t his entire fault (though he did put Brown in charge of FEMA remember), but this was just a complete and utter disaster in every way possible.  From the ‘cane itself to the response of government at almost every level it was a disaster.
-- Iran's continued nuclear defiance.
-- Gas prices continue to climb and oil is at an all time high
-- Even though we agree with Bush’s stance on immigration, he’s getting raked over the coals by many Americans, especially those that make up his base
-- The US government continues to spend irresponsibly as if there is no tomorrow and with little to no regard for the future.  
-- The gap between the rich and middle class, let alone poor, continues to become wider.
-- Health care… millions more Americans are now uninsured.
-- The Scooter Libby Leak, and Rove’s involvement in the affair.
-- Donald Rumsfeld
-- The Jack Abramoff Stuff and the general negativity that brings to the White House
-- Those secret prisons, remember them?
-- The wiretaps and the legality of them
-- And of course his Vice President SHOT A MAN IN THE FACE.

All in all… not good times for Bush and he’s pretty much a lame duck at this point too because his numbers are so low.  I hope it was a nice ride for him.  And let the countdown begin.

YouTube Love

One of our new favorite things is YouTube which allows you to watch videos on the Internet with ease.  We’ll let the Economist do the rest:
CHAD HURLEY and Steve Chen, two modest twenty-something software geeks in Silicon Valley, were at a dinner party last year where several people brought their camcorders and then complained how difficult it was to share home videos online. So they did what one does in their circles. They founded a company, called YouTube; got a few million dollars from Sequoia Capital, an eminent venture-capital firm; wrote some code in Mr Hurley's garage; and then moved into a San Mateo loft that resembles an office. Their simple idea was to make uploading home videos to the internet easy.

So with that, we post some of our favorites:

HOT HOT HOT – Seriously why wouldn’t you go to Appalachian State after watching this?  Not only are the pictures awesome (love the sax player during the sax solo btw) but did you hear that one dude at the very end give some kick ass back ground vocals?

Dancing at Baseball Games – Just remember, this man has most likely pro-created.

New York Jets Drafts – In case you’re not sick of the Draft yet.

Reggie Bush – I’m not sure what I enjoy more, when he runs faster than everyone or when he makes cuts that would probably cause our knees to explode.

Notre Dame Tailgate – We realize that there is a HUGE difference between undergrad and grad students.  But this is just unacceptable.  I mean seriously… just a disgrace to white people every where.  And what’s more disgusting is that since they’re MBA students, they’ve probably all graduated and are getting six figures as we speak.  Where is the justice?  BTW, easily the worst tailgate in the history of the world.  I’m sure a German tailgate would be 100 times more interesting and fun that this.

Plane Crashes at a baseball game – Thanks to Deadspin on this one… pretty amazing.  Everyone was fine.  BTW, a plane crashed during a baseball game during this video.  A plane crash at a baseball game.  Yep.

Ten German Bombers in the Air – Unfortunately the English fans won’t be allowed to sing this during the World Cup next month… though we have a feeling they will.  BTW, I love the dude in Star of David scarf.  “Two World Wars and One World Cup” and yes we laugh during this entire video.

Reviews...

Might as well review some of the ‘media’ we’ve checked out, read, digested, watched, and otherwise tried to some what avoid half heartily…

TV
“24” – We watch because it’s so outrageous… we watch because it’s so much fun to watch… We watch because there’s nothing more fun than saying “Jack Bauer vs the US Government” in our best SuperFan voice.  Good season… better than last year just because we have no clue where it’s going or what’s going to happen.

“SportsCenter” – It’s at the point where it’s unwatchable.  Brutal anchors.  Brutal ‘segments’ and the same five stories over and over again.  We may be the only person not sick of Barry Bonds, but they’ve beat that into the ground.  Just a horrible show that doesn’t even show highlights at this point… just talking heads with nothing to say but stroking their egos and telling us that throwing bats at umpires is a bat thing.  No freakin’ way!  And I can’t wait for these heads to mouth off about how they hate soccer next month when the World Cup starts up… completely missing the point that THE WORLD CUP IS ONE OF THE THREE GREAT SPORTING EVENTS OUT THERE.  So this should be a fun summer of me even watching less ESPN, which is unbelievable when you think about it.  ESPN, go back to what you were good at or else someone (NBC?) will start another 24 hour news station.

(Random thoughts on the NFL Draft this weekend…. if the Texans had passed on Bush for say, A.J. Hawk, would someone have written a column playing the race card and the decision by the Houston team may have been driven by racism by now?... The Texans passing on Bush is one of the dumbest moves in the history of sport; if you’re not going to take him… then trade the #1 pick because someone will take him #1!  Then you get more draft picks; pick up a guy like D’Brickashaw or Hawk or even Williams at #2 or #4, and go from there… just beyond stupid… I sort of like the Bears draft in the “I can’t wait to watch 10-6 games!” sort of way).

“Gilmore Girls” – We know, we shouldn’t like this show and it’s hurting our street cred, but we’ve admitted our enjoyment of the Gilmore Girls before.  We’ve watched so much of it over the last year (thanks to DVDs and being unemployed) that we fell in love with how well written, acted, and funny the show is.  This season (season six) leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s been ‘good enough’ despite some piss poor story lines that have gone no where (Luke’s kid) and Lorelei acting like anyone but Lorelei (nothing annoys VFLOAB more than characters suddenly not acting like themselves because THIS NEVER HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE unless the person in real life starts doing lots of drugs or starts dating someone out of their league).  What is more concerning to us is the fact that Rory (Alexis Bledel; who apparently is really named Kim according to ex-GF#2); has mailed in this season.  It’s at the point where she’s not even acting; just collecting pay cheques (we love the UK at the moment because we were hit up by the Guardian last week).

NHL Playoff Hockey – Just a fantastic sport and brings amazing games to the table day in and day out.  You can never go wrong with playoff hockey.  We love it here at VFLOAB even when the Hawks and Caps don’t make it… that’s right we root for the Canadian teams and we don’t feel guilty about it since most of the players on the US based teams are Canadian.  And its hockey, you have to root for the Canadian teams (well maybe not the Leafs).  Hockey goes with Canada, Minnesota, New England, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia... that’s it.  But a great game this playoff hockey.

NBA Playoffs – Once again… it’s been a bunch of duds so far.  And we’ve seen at least a half of every series BUT the Jersey/Indiana and Dallas/Memphis series.  We’ve seen most of three of the four Bulls/Heat series (best series so far btw, two teams that know how to play basketball) and too much of the very overrated Wiz/Cavs series… they don’t even try to play defense in this series.  Very disappointing playoffs thus far if you ask us.  The Bulls and Heat is the only series that’s interesting and well played (though the Kings/Spurs series isn’t that bad) and the rest of the playoffs has been plagued with what’s wrong with the NBA… isolation, isolation, and more isolation to go along with letting players not playing basketball (seriously we’re about two years away from dribbling being optional… it’s disgusting).  But we have hope.  The Mavs and Clippers moved on yesterday and odds are the Lakers will too (Phil Jackson just took over Greatest Coach in the History of the NBA with his complete 180 on the Suns).  Let’s figure the Spurs finish off the Kings… the West has two great teams and Kobe.  That should be fun. Out East… the Bulls/Heat winner will learn a lot about themselves by the time it’s all said and done.  Figuring the winner plays the Nets… don’t be surprised to see the Bulls (if they can beat the Heat) in the Eastern Conference Finals.  Meanwhile the Pistons should roll all over either the Wiz and Cavs… but of course watch the Cavs and Wiz just because Arenas and LeBron are two of the eight best players in the game.  BTW LeBRON IS ONLY 21 IN CASE YOU FORGOT.  Amazing.

Movies
We haven’t seen anything in the theater… but just so you know, “Top Gun”, “Good Will Hunting” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” are all really good on DVD.

Music
“Be Here Now” – Mason Jennings single – If Dave Matthews did this song, it’d be a top five hit and on the radio every waking moment.  GRADE: B

“Rabbit Fur Coat” – Jenny Lewis & the Waston Twins – Don’t be fooled for a second… this is all about Jenny Lewis.  The Twins give nice back up vocals from time to time, but this is all about the Jen-nay.  The album gets off to a kick ass start “Run Devil Run” perfectly leads into “The Big Guns”, it’s just one of those great musical transitions.  Speaking of “The Big Guns”, it gets our vote as the best song of 2006 thus far.  Just a great song.  Midway though it all the album does fade a bit, but not to the point where you want to turn it off.  “Handel with Care” is a quality cover that has staying power.  And we love Jenny Lewis, her legs, and her voice… therefore we here at VFLOAB recommend you get your hands on this album. GRADE: B+

“Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” – Neko Case – Ms. Case has the best rock voice out there at the moment.  From her work with the New Pornographers to this stellar solo effort, she’s just got the goods.  If you’re a fan of female vocalists do yourself a favor and pick this up.  The album has a whole sentimental, nostalgic, and wise feel to it… maybe its Ms. Case’s vocals, maybe it’s the song writing… few songs jump out at you to the point where you’re waking up with them in your head… but as an album it’s a dame fine effort.  We like the opening track “Margaret vs Pauline” but you can’t go wrong with most of the songs off this fine effort.  BTW, read this fantastic interview with Neko Case here. GRADE: A-

LIVE at the DAR Wed, 4/26/06 AND “First Impressions of Earth” – The Strokes – First the album… not sure if we reviewed it, but here it goes… look the first song totally blows.  But after that?  We like “Juicebox”… we know we know… we shouldn’t, but it’s fun.  What’s wrong with fun?  “Heart in a Cage” (Quicktime) is an instant classic, and “Electricityscape” may even be better.  “On the other side” and “Ize of the World” stink as much as you’d think they would.  But the rest of the album… it gets an aiight. We like “Red Light” despite it’s some time cheesy lyrics… and by the way… people don’t listen to the Strokes for ‘great’ lyrics… but Julian does toss us a few good ones, but more importantly he’s able to capture moments in time fantastically; no he isn’t the dude from the Artic Monkey’s, but he’s pretty darn good at capturing these moments and feelings… “Last Nite” opens and shuts that case.  You can’t say that about most musicians.  We’re apologists when it comes to the Strokes, so take this with some sort of note, but we feel we’ve been fair.  At the very least get your hands on “Heart in a Cage”.  GRADE: B

As for their show last Wednesday at the DAR Constitutional Hall or whatever they call it… it was fun.  It’s the second time we’ve seen the Strokes and they put on a good show.  We enjoyed the Nation show a bit more because Nation is a much better venue, but it’s sort of funny to think about the Strokes playing within a half mile of the White House.  So we had that going for us.  We were somewhat disappointed that they didn’t play more off of “Room on Fire” but considering they played pretty much off of “Is This It?” besides “The Modern Age” we can’t complain too much.  Another good show from the Strokes, highlighted by Julian going out into the crowd and performing “Reptilia” and of course our main man Fabrizio.  GRADE: B+

“Everything All the Time” - Band of Horses – Pitchfork loved this album, so much so that we thought maybe we’d have another Arcade Fire situation on our hands.  So we went out and picked it up and… it’s okay.  It’s not bad, but it’s not knock your socks off great. It’s probably the album that officially marks the “indie music now has a sound” and it sounds like bands like Band of Horses.  “The Great Salt Lake” is the highlight of the album, but the rest is unspectacular and some what uninspiring.  In a way this album encompasses everything that the growing “indie sound” is… some what inoffensive, some where between emo and rock, something sort of blah blah and suburban… not bad but rarely amazing.  I guess what I’m saying is that this indie sound, that seemingly came out of no where, is like the lounge music of rock.

Blogs
Just a few of our ‘favorite’ blogs that we’ve been hitting up consistently.

Everythinglori – Yes it’s Lori from the Real World: Back to New York!  Yes, we’re not sure why we like this blog half as much as we do… but we like it.  She’s moving back to Boston if anyone cares.

The Company Bitch – If you want to hear what a 24 year old female living in Manhattan has to say about life… here’s the place.  For a girl, very funny.

That’s On Point – For those who want to be some what entertained while brushing up on the World Cup participants.  Personally, we enjoy the veiled references to Connecticut, our third favorite state.

Black Betsy – For those who want to a game by game stathead look at the White Sox.

Johnny Mostil’s Razor – Best White Sox Blog out there.

The Becker-Posner Blog – We should start reading this again… anyway, always a great topic and lively discussion on the events and trends of the moment… written by two University of Chicago professors.

ListGod – Always quality.

Otter’s 43 x 365 – We hit it up every day.  Always well written and we love the mystery and subtleness of almost every post.

Well save the books and magazines we’ve been reading for another day… this is long enough.  Have good ones.