Pin the Tail on the Jackass: Would you Support This Mystery Baseball Team?

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


There is an MLB team that is the following:

3rd in team payroll with $146 mil. (see below, win %age inserted next to team name)
1st in ticket average ticket price ($52.56, SPOILER ALERT IF YOU CLICK THE LINK)
2nd in total cost to take a family of 4 to a game ($329.74, $5 shy of first place)
tied f0r 23rd best record in baseball (out of 30 teams) with a winning %age of .424.

1. Could you make a case for any team's general manager being worse?
2. Would you support this team?
3. (Spoiler alert if you click here) By the way, they have about 2 players worth watching.
4. They haven't won a world series in over 100 years.
5. The sizes of hot dogs at their stadium should be small, medium, large, Prince Fielder's Choice.
6. #5 was just something I threw in that wasn't totally related.

2010 Team Payrolls
No.	Team Current Win %	Payroll	Average
1.	New York Yankees .677	$206,333,389	$8,253,336
2.	Boston Red Sox .515	$162,747,333	$5,611,977
3.	XXXXXX .424	$146,859,000	$5,439,222
4.	Philadelphia Phillies .625	$141,927,381	$5,068,835
5.	New York Mets .531	$132,701,445	$5,103,902
6.	Detroit Tigers .563	$122,864,929	$4,550,553
7.	Chicago White Sox .406	$108,273,197	$4,164,354
8.	Los Angeles Angels .441	$105,013,667	$3,621,161
9.	Seattle Mariners .387	$98,376,667	$3,513,452
10.	San Francisco Giants .600	$97,828,833	$3,493,887
11.	Minnesota Twins .656	$97,559,167	$3,484,256
12.	Los Angeles Dodgers .469	$94,945,517	$3,651,751
13.	St. Louis Cardinals .625	$93,540,753	$3,741,630
14.	Houston Astros .323	$92,355,500	$3,298,411
15.	Atlanta Braves .438	$84,423,667	$3,126,802
16.	Colorado Rockies .469	$84,227,000	$2,904,379
17.	Baltimore Orioles .281	$81,612,500	$3,138,942
18.	Milwaukee Brewers .469	$81,108,279	$2,796,837
19.	Cincinnati Reds .531	$72,386,544	$2,784,098
20.	Kansas City Royals .344	$72,267,710	$2,491,990
21.	Tampa Bay Rays .688	$71,923,471	$2,663,832
22.	Toronto Blue Jays .559	$62,689,357	$2,089,645
23.	Washington Nationals .563	$61,425,000	$2,047,500
24.	Cleveland Indians .379	$61,203,967	$2,110,482
25.	Arizona Diamondbacks .424	$60,718,167	$2,335,314
26.	Florida Marlins .469	$55,641,500	$2,060,796
27.	Texas Rangers .563	$55,250,545	$1,905,191
28.	Oakland Athletics .531	$51,654,900	$1,666,287
29.	San Diego Padres .613	$37,799,300	$1,453,819
30.	Pittsburgh Pirates .438	$34,943,000	$1,294,185

That's how I roll.

2 new Banksy pieces

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


courtesey of Maxwell Colette's Flickr page


And this just days after finding a Blagojevich bomb was put up in Lakeview, presumably done by CRO.














That's how I roll.

I'm Gonna Beat WhereAwesome Happens Investigation: "I'm Gonna Beat the Fu&%$ing Mexican Piss Out of you, Homey. You Feel me?" Edition

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


Click Here and at the 1:13 mark you will hear a Seattle cop tell a hispanic man, "I'm gonna beat the f&%#ing mexican piss outta you, homey. You feel me?". (sadly, I cannot embed the video here in the article, you'll have to open it in a new tab and watch it).

But it gets better, and this is where the investigation comes in. At the 1:21 our whitey news reporter is saying, "....watch what happens when our officer threatens to, quote, beat the effing mexican piss out of you, homey". Let's face it, its awkward/hilarious to hear a reporter say that. Aafter he says that, the reporter pauses for a beat or two before beginning with, "as the uncuffed detainee". It REALLY REALLY REALLY sounds like the reporter is smiling. That might sound weird at first, but you know how you can 'hear' someone smiling- their mouth shape changes the tonal quality of their voice slightly enough that you can detect a difference. when he says, "as the uncuffed" he makes as a 3 syllable word, "a-a-as" almost like it has a "ha ha ha" kinda tone.

Well, I think the reporter has it. To me it sounds like he before the camera started rolling he called his buddies at the bar and said, "Swear to God I am not making this up: I convinced my boss to let me say ON AIR, 'I'm going to beat the effing mexican piss out of you homey'. SWEAR. TO. GOD. Tune in at 11. Make sure everyone at the bar sees it. I gotta go."

Then after he said it on air he thought to himself, "My God I have done it!"







That's how I roll.

Blagojevich Tag Now in Lincoln Park (well Lakeview, technically)!

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


I was walking west on Diversey today (a block west of Clark) and what do I see in an alley but the work of my favorite Chicago graffiti artist?





Here was my view from Diversey




























And upon closer inspection:

A little Jailhouse Rock motif for our Elvis-loving-soon-to-be-jailed, ex-governor.


Job well done, Ray. Thanks for bombing where I live! It looks great.




That's how I roll.

Where Are They Now?: Baby from Nirvana's Nevermind Album Cover Edition

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


According to Shephard Fairey- the baby from the cover is now 19 years old and works for him doing street art:

Now I have a crew of about four art assistants who help me do the murals on the street and everything. One of them was actually the baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind [1991]. He’s 19, and he’s really into drawing and street art and all that stuff.

That's how I roll.

Vote for the Best Tecmo Bowl Players

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


Lawrence Taylor being in the news got me thinking about something: Tecmo Bowl. I was surprised that I couldn't find any lists of the best Tecmo Bowl players except for this respectable video.




I decided to vote for best offensive player and best defensive player. If I leave any players out, let me know in the comments or via email or twitter and I will add them if they belong on the list.

The list is:

Offensive:

Bo Jackson
Jerry Rice
Walter Payton
Herschel Walker
Kevin Mack
Anthony Carter
Webster Slaughter

Defensive:

Lawrence Taylor
Ronnie Lott
Mike Singletary
Hanford Dixon/Frank Minniefield
Darrell Green
Dexter Manley




That's how I roll.

when news isn't news

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

I think I've posted this before but it bears repeating.

When the world's oldest person dies it is NOT news.

Huffington Post, this is news I cannot use. How are they not the most likely person in the world to die? And it isn't like I knew anything about the old person, either. What the headline really says is, "The most predictible thing imaginable happened on the other side of the world to someone you have never heard of."

It's almost as non-newsy as the headline, "middle east peace talks fail". You know what media? We EXPECT that.

However, there is one circumstance I would find the death of the world's most likely person to die newsworthy: If it was foretold by the death cat!!! Dun Dun dunnnnn!!!!!!






That's how I roll.

Recapping my Abject Derby Humiliation

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

Yesterday was the KY Derby and had a Floyd Mayweather fight. It reminded me of the article where I said my dream is for Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao in the infield of the track while Zenyatta races against Rachel Alexandra.

Yesterday's derby and Mayweather's fight shared two common links yesterday: both were favored and both significantly changed their usual game plans en route to victory. Money Mayweather actually initiated a lot of the action in the later rounds- which is rare for him, and Super Saver sat off the lead, which many horse players had little reason to assume would happen.

After looking at Super Saver's previous races, it would be safe to assume that the horse would again go right to the lead. But when Calvin Borel had Super Saver pinned to the rail about 4 lengths off of a suicidal pace, I had a very bad feeling about the future of the Super Saver-less bets I made. Betting all exactas that excluded SS, I couldn't win if SS finished any better than third. So I decided to watch Borel and SS navigate the rail and not look away until I saw two horses pass him, because I knew he was a good horse who was getting by far the shortest trip around the track. When the horses who set the suicidal pace started to fade, it was SS who reached them first and passed them like they were standing still.

No one passed Super Saver and Borel and I watched him hit the wire first. He ran a race I didn't think he would, or frankly could, and won. Great game plans by trainers Roger Mayweather and Todd Pletcher. And that's probably the first time those guys have been in the same sentence together.






That's how I roll.

Review of Exit Through the Gift Shop

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter
(photos courtesy of the author)

First of all, I didn't know that the dude that was doing the filming was Mr. Brainwash.

Exit Through the Gift Shop came out at my local theater today and I couldn't wait to check it out. What I knew going into it was that it was a documentary of one French guy trying to film my favorite artist Banksy (whose identity is known to only a handful of people in the world and no one in the media) but Banksy turns the tables on him and films him. That didn't seem wildly intriguing, but I was going to see it anyway since it was about Banksy and by Banksy.

It turns out that the turning of the tables catches the infancy of a meteoric rise to art stardom by Thierry, the film maker, who becomes Mr. Brainwash essentially overnight. Banksy is the undisputed king of graffiti art and Shepard Fairey is honorable runner up. They are like the Tony Hawk of graffiti art- unquestionably put it on the map, and by doing so can be construed by the most arduent pursits[read: poor] as selling out.


So what makes this film so interesting is that a decade ago this french dude meets Shephard Fairey and films Fairey putting up his nearly ubiquitous in L.A. Obey Giant posters, and even helps out in the graffiti/street art process. Being that street art is so ephemeral Fairey and his street art cronies become fast friends with this passionate film making guy who could eternalize their slaved-over art with his video camera. They spend so much time, money and effort, not to mention the risk of it being illegal, on their art that it's a shame that they have to put it up at night then run away as fast as they can without having time to stop and admire it. Sometimes their work gets covered up before they get a chance to come back to see it, so having it all documented was awesome for them.

So Thierry, the film maker (who will become Mr. Brainwash) becomes fascinated with this culture and grows to be wildly passionate about capturing important street art being created and installed. He films all the best street artists except the best, Banksy. He tries everywhere to get any info on him he can.

Long (but amusing and fun to watch in the movie) story short, he eventually meets Banksy and Banksy allows him to film him on a few conditions- it's never of Banksy's face (at first) and Banksy will be the owner of all recordings of him (or at least have access to his personal archives). So their mutualistic symbiotic relationship flowers and they become friends. Eventually for some reason Thierry gets the itch to start doing his own art. So he does and it's pretty decent, and his addictive and passionate personality kicks in again and he becomes entranced in his own work, tirelessly tagging buildings and putting up his stickers. The art that Thierry created wasn't blowing away any graffiti purists- it's a bit trite and looks like a guy trying to copy Banksy.

Eventually Banksy suggests that he put on his own show of his art work because if Thierry wasn't around to bug Banksy, Banksy could finally rifle through all the taped footage on his own to make a documentary in peace and quiet. Thierry and Mr. Brainwash, now one and the same, take the advice. To the Nth degree. If N = a lot.

Mr. Brainwash isn't all that adept at creating his own visual art, but his creative mind can churn out ideas with German-like efficiency. It's kinda like a composer composing a Symphony- they may not be able to play all the instruments, but the music essentially comes from them. Another way to think of it would be like a fashion house- Dior or Chanel or Tom Ford. Well, this is an art house called Mr. Brainwash. In order for the artist to combat not being actually artistic, he hires a team of creative kids, maybe art school grads, to execute his plans. They make a freaking crap ton of art in a short while and rent out a huge, huge, huge, huge (15k feet maybe? I forget) abandoned office BUILDING for the show. It's total pop overkill, the likes of which maybe haven't been seen since Warhol was running the show, just pumping out enough artsy widgets to stay famous.

So Mr. Brainwash has the show and it was a huge success, if sorta gaudy to some critics . Huge. He had close to a $1m in sales for a show that lasted three weeks, after being scheduled for only one (or one weekend maybe, I forgot). Now he's sold all over the world, and his prices command a high price point. So he is now one of the very few members of the fraternity of street artists who have officially cashed in from graffiti. However, he hasn't spent a decade illegally honing his craft. He doesn't even make his own art. He just copied his friends' style and now has a ton of notoriety for some reason.

This film would be like if the kid from Almost Famous grew up to be the founding member of Spinal Tap, even though he was still friends with Led Zeppelin and all the guys in Sweetwater (was that their name?). Another analogy I thought of was that maybe that's why Banksy made the documentary about Mr. Brainwash. Originally Banksy was gonna make it about himself, and while he was getting the footage ready (when he told Thierry to just make himself busy by planning a crapass art show) that's when Mr. Brainwash started to blow up. So Banksy made his documentary essentially, then turned it over to being about Mr. Brainwash and the last part is about him, complete with some ribbing about him cashing in already. So the analogy was that maybe this film is Banksy's film version of Tupac's Hit 'em Up, which was the loudest Fuck You to a group of people ever sold on record. I don't think Banksy made this film mean spiritedly, but I'm sure he didn't mind taking a few deserved, and in good fun, jabs at THE Mr. Brainwash.


This film was fast-paced, fucking hilarious, visually arresting with all the awesome art, and a glimpse inside a world I have been DYING to see since learning about Banksy a couple of years ago. I didn't cover every detail of the movie (even though with the length of this posting, I am sure you are surprised) and the stuff I omitted was as dope as the stuff I included (again, that may surprise you if it didn't sound very dope in the first place).

If you like art, this movie will be to you, what Scarface is to black people.







That's how I roll.

My 2010 Ky Derby Analysis

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

update: check out how crazy the odds will be tomorrow when betting opens on derby day


I expect a pace meltdown and the winner to be passing horses later than in most KY Derbys. I am basically taking the horses I feel are, 1. Not speed horses, 2. capable of running a 98-105 Beyer, 3. Have won from off the lead before, 4. Can reasonably assume he/she will like the distance and the possibility of a wet track, and finally, 5. Have done #s 1-4 on a dirt track at some point.

Additionally, as with most KY Derbys, I am not conceding in a 20 horse field a LOT can go wrong for ANY horse and the best horse does not always win. With that in mind, I wanted to use a few different horses to increase my coverage. When you are positive where the fish are, you use a fishing pole, and when you think you have an idea where a few might be you use a net. I am using a net and saying, "I'm not positive who will do what, but my guess is that two of these 6 horses will do something good.".

Is my net of 6 of 20 horses bordering on embarrassingly large? Yeah, kinda.

Handicapping:

That narrowing down left me with 6 horses:

1 Lookin at Lucky
10 Paddy O'Prado (admittedly violates rule #5, but I liked his work over a sloppy Churchill)
13 Jackson Bend
14. Mission Impazible
16. Awesome Act
20. Sidney's Candy

After that I rank them in the Steve Crist-ian way of assigning the horses I think are most likely to win with a category of A, then for horses I find slightly less likely to a win a B, and so on with C.

My A horses were- 1, 14, 16
B 10, 20
C 13

Betting:

27 Straight Exactas using the aforementioned horses.

1 with 10, 13, 14, 16, 20- 5 bets total (AA AA AB AB AC)
10 with 1, 13, 14, 16, 20- 5 bets total (BA BC BA BA BB)
13 with 1, 14, 16 - 3 bets total (CA CA CA)
14 with 1, 10, 13, 16, 20 - 5 bets total (AA AA AB AB AC)
16 with 1, 10, 16, 14, 20 - 5 bets total (AA AA AB AB AC)
20 with 1, 10, 14, 16- 4 bets total (BA BB BA BA)

Horses that I wanted to use but didn't because you can't bet every horse, but omitting them from my bet still frightens me a bit:

Ice Box- loves the distance, and I like his local work on the slop on 4/23 an awful lot, but I think may be a one hit wonder with his FL Derby win. It doesn't take Derby winners four tries to break their maiden.

Stately Victor- seems to be the wiseguy horse as of late. Loved his dad but I also think he may be a one hit wonder. If he were destined to win the KY Derby I wonder why 0 of his last 3 starts were over a dirt surface and two were Allowance races. Most Derby winners have a more impressive resume heading into the derby.

Devil May Care- plenty to like, but there are too many question marks for me: going against boys for the first time- 19 of them, to be precise; she gets blinkers for the first time since she wore them in the Breeder's Cup and got humiliated by a field of 12 females.

Undercard:

I don't think I will wind up playing the undercard any, but I had entertained the idea of playing a few pick 3s. I handicapped the undercard a bit and for the following races I'd use the following:

Race 6: 2
Race 7: 5
Race 8: 2, 3, 6, 10
Race : 7, 12
Race 10: 6,2






That's how I roll.

A Brief MultimediaTreatise on Pharmicaology and Women With Large Buttockses

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


It's pronounced like "Ass Effects". Call me awesome fashioned, but when I think of ass effects I think of this:









After I peept dat donk ah was all "ohhh maaa gaaa"




That's how I roll.

Hilarious list from chicago tribune- 50 worst restaurants in america

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

Posted by The Stew blog at Chicago Tribune.

San Pellegrino recently announced their list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants. Noma out of Denmark received the top spot, while Chicago's Alinea came in at number seven.

Not to be outdone, Mountain Dew announced their list of the World's 50 Worst Restaurants. The Stew is the only food blog to receive this list.
50. Hacker Barrel
49. Taco Belch
48. Just Tongue
47. Ed Hedgewards’ Possums ‘n Such
46. Long John Slivers
45. International House of Broth
44. Larry David’s Kvetch of the Day
43. Peter Loogie
42. Kenny Loggins Roasters
41. St. Bernardin

40. Mrs. Field's Dookie
39. Momof***
38. K-Paul’s Louisiana Panic Room
37. Detlef Shrimp
36. Brown Chicken
35. Chicken N Waffles N Bulgur
34. Five-Second Rule Taco
33. Signature Room at the 97th
32. Joe’s Crabs Shack
31. WD~40

30. Bobby DeNiro’s “You Talkin’ to Me?” Drive-Thru
29. KF?
28. Montezuma’s
27. Dunkin Diuretics
26. Senor Bayless’ House O’ Chalupas
25. In-N-Out-N-Out-Again Burger
24. Haggis Hut
23. The Dump Room
22. Pizzeria Uni
21. Actual Panda Express

20. Fraulein Sauerkraut’s Thwap and Serve
19. Bollocks
18. Bennigan’s
17. Trattoria No. 3.1416
16. El Bully
15. Sal y Carvao’s Brazilian Steak and Wax
14. Robinson’s #6
13. Barf Louie
12. Le Groin Poule
11. Grant Achatz Presents: Flavored Sound

10. Café Activia
9. Le Jirque
8. Bob’s Chin
7. The French Don’t Do Laundry
6. Cinnabone
5. Graham Elliot Bowels
4. Tru-ish
3. Friday's based on the novel Push by Sapphire
2. Heaven on Sven
1. Topolobimbo








That's how I roll.

Lookalikes 34.0: Chicago's AT&T Center and a Stun Gun

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

Don't tase/Toews me, AT&T Center!





























Special thanks to Emily Roth for her architectural assistance in this edition of lookalikes.







That's how I roll.

Better Protest. You Decide.

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


After being fed up with Chicago's new parking meters, a Chicago man smeared human excrement on his parking ticket before paying it.


Meanwhile, in Arizona, an equally dignified person(s) decided to voice their dissent of illegal aliens by smearing refried beans in the shape of a swastika on a window of the Arizona State Capitol building.

How bad must your skills for vocabulary, discretion, decency, empathy, eluding detection (at least for the Chicago man for now) and dignity be before you think, "How can I finally get taken seriously around here? I know, I'll smear plop/refried beans on the parking ticket/State Capitol. THAT oughta earn me some respect!"?









That's how I roll.

A Brief Profile of Racial Profiling: Arizona's Immigrant Law is a lot Like Cincinnati law That Cause Race Riots in 2001

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Is Arizona the new Cincinnati? I think so.

I don't consider myself a political writer but after reading about Arizona's new immigrant legislation it reminded me of the legislation that caused Cincinnati's race riots. Hoping to find an article equating the two, I was disappointed to see that none existed (to my knowledge). So I wrote my own.

You may recall the Cincinnati race riots of 2001 where the city had a curfew for a few nights around Easter and was damn near under martial law. Most of the coverage about the riots cite the cause of the riot as frequent white cops killing black youth, but really, that was just the straw that broke the camel's b(l)ack. It would be like saying that the American Revolution started because Crispus Attucks got murdered.

A few years before the riots, legislation was passed in Cincinnati that gave cops free reign to racially profile people by, effectively, checking their papers, much like the AZ legislation proposes.

In 1996 the City Council passed a law making Over-the-Rhine a Drug Exclusion Zone (further reading can be had here and here). While misguided, the law attempted to ban anyone with a drug conviction from entering the low-income, mostly-black neighborhood called Over-the-Rhine. Theoretically, the law had a basis of logic- if you want to decrease the amount of drugs in that neighborhood, forbid anyone with a history of drug use to set foot there. Sadly, and predictably, practice was different than theory in the case.

So what happened if you lived in Over-the-Rhine and got caught with drugs? You had to move. Even if you were married with children and they were all in schools in Over-the-Rhine? Yes. So if you got arrested with a joint, then moved away from your family and you came back to visit them, you could be re-arrested for trespassing basically? Yes. And what if you were in Over-the-Rhine and a rogue, a-hole cop wanted to harass you? He'd just say, "Didn't I bust you with a bag of pot one time? You look familiar, and that's probable cause. I'm going to run your drivers license and search you." Take one part of that, mix it with 8 parts white cops shooting innocent black kids, and you have a recipe for race problems.

That sounds a lot like Arizona's new legislation. I am all for securing our national borders, but if this legislation results in racial unrest, it will be another example of the past serving as a prologue and being damned to repeat unpleasant history. Keep in mind that black Cincinnati youth and white Cincinnati cops both spoke English yet and several fatal misunderstandings occurred still. Let's hope all legals and illegals in Arizona know what the English phrases "freeze", and "Get your hands in the air. NOW!" mean.








That's how I roll.

Giving Credit Where Credit is due: Carlos Zambrano Edition

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Zambrano got sent to the bullpen and by all accounts went willingly and wanted to help the team whichever way the coach thought he could. Nice to see the playground coming out of a player in a good way.

Since Zambrano looks like a bigger version of Webster now, maybe he should get a mini version of Ma'am for good luck. It could be his good luck person like Pedro's little homey in Boston. It couldn't hurt.






That's how I roll.

Update: I didnt see this coming: Chan Ho Park Edition

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Some Yankee reporters asked Chan Ho Park why his performance lacked luster. His answer may not be what you are expecting. Unless you are one of my friends, then you would probably expect this.

Out of respect for you, I won't spoil the ending. Just trust me that it IS HILARIOUS and you will be glad you clicked on it. I just think you'll find it 55X funnier if you don't know what to expect.

Note: Mariano Rivera's face lighting up like a kid's on Christmas at the :42 second mark. Coincidentally, his jersey number is 42. That divine coincidence is kinda like finding an image of Jesus in your grilled cheese.



It's Korean custom borrowed from the Japanese Bushido which espouses a "death before dishonor" code, one should admit 'rhea after dishonor.

update: at the :29 second mark he reminds me of Piston Honda sorta.




I know Park is Korean and Piston Honda is Japanese, but he still reminded me of him.







That's how I roll.

Big Love for my 420 Crew

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

You may not be onto this cat yet, but you will be. Some of the best smoking music in a long time. It reminds me a bit of Outkast's slow songs from Aquemini and Stanokia. But don't make my word for it. Download it here for free.

His name is Wiz Khalifa. Here are some youtube audio versions of songs from Kush and Orange Juice.









The below skit is good and gets awesome at the 3:00 mark.
















That's how I roll.

Gene Keady, How Could You?

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Growing up in Indiana in the 80's and 90's, I became a fan of (then) Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady.

But then I read this headline and it REALLY pissed me off: Gene makes People fat, Raises Alzheimer's Risk(!!!!!!).

What a dick. So does he hide in people's houses and slip bacon and aluminum and mercury in people's diets? He really could use some gene therapy. total a-hole. But I will say this; the man does good work, especially in Chicago. My hat is off to him for his job making Chicagoans obese. All I have heard about you is true, Gene: you're one hell of a competitor.






That's how I roll.

Lookalikes v. 33.0: Trace Adkins and Kerry Wood

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter




































That's how I roll.

I Love/Hate When This Happens

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Do you ever listen to a song from a few years ago and think about how you haven't heard this song in a while but you used to love it and it still sounds great, etc. Then toward the end of the song you randomly think, "oh man, I really want to hear XXX right now!" and it's a totally unrelated song, and maybe one you haven't heard in a while then you realize the reason you randomly want to hear that old song. On a mixed tape you had in high school, you had both of the songs on it in succession and you realize that you've been operantly conditioned to expect one song after the other?

The cool thing of it is that you don't even know it. For instance, it happened to me today with Please by U2 followed by 33 by the Smashing Pumpkins. If you would have asked, "do you remember what song came after this one on your high school tape?" I wouldn't have had a clue. But toward the end of Please, I was totally getting randy to hear 33. It's weird.

Long December by Counting Crows was also on that tape, I think.








Lastly, I would like to go on record saying that Pop is my favorite U2 album by a mile. Lyrically underrated and I think it's their best album sonically. If you didn't understand English, would you rather listen to the Joshua Tree or Pop? Oh, and while I am saying the first good things I have said about U2 in about 8 years, here's their most underrated song by far and their best song to sing in the shower by 85 miles. Another Bonus is that in the video, Bono looks like Ursula from Little Mermaid.



































That's how I roll.

Great Sun-Times Article by Mark Potash

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


I hear what you're barkin, dog.

Soriano is talented and isn't a has-been just yet, but he needs to realize that at this point any arrogance is unjustified arrogance. Results, not excuses, 'phonsie.







That's how I roll.

Something You DEFINITELY Did Not KNow About Mastodons

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


While reading the new copy of Smitsonian Magazine I was checking out their article on Mastodons.

The article talks about how Mastodons first came to be known because in 1705 an upstate NY man found a Mastodon's tooth. Eventually the tooth found its way to Europe where speculation about what kind of titanic beast could possibly have teeth that large ran unbridled. This theoretical oversized creature was given the name Incognitum, because surely no one could fathom its enormity (I thought enormity meant 'evil' and not 'huge' before reading this. So I went with 'enormity'). Did they actually italicize the name back then? Probably.

But that isn't the part you definitely didn't know about Mastodons.

Anyway, keep in mind that dinosaurs were not yet discovered and wouldn't be for another 100 years, so this tooth represented something completely otherworldly and no one had a clue what it could possibly go to. A bit later on, similar teeth turned up in South Carolina where slaves noticed that it resembled the teeth of African Elephants. Scientists then began to assume that the teeth were that of a "mammoth" like the ones recently found in siberia. Eventually the teeth of elephants, mammoths and the incognitum were all studied side by side and found to be different. As the magazine puts it....

"European anatomists started to figure out the distinction by making side-by-side comparisons. The teeth of mammoths and modern elephants both have relatively flat running-shoe corrugations on the biting surface. But the teeth of the incognitum are studded with fierce-looking rows of large conical cusps. That difference not only indicated that Siberian mammoths and the incognitum were separate species, it also led some anatomists to regard the latter as a flesh-eating monster."

That is awesome, but it still isn't the part you definitely did not know. This is....

"Those teeth also eventually gave the incognitum a name. To the young French anatomist Georges Cuvier, the conical cusps looked like breasts. So in 1806, he named the incognitum “mastodon,” from the Greek mastos (for “breast”) and odont (for “tooth”). But laymen went on applying the name “mammoth” to either species—and to just about anything else really big."

That's how I roll.