Torts being Torts: "What, are you being a wise ass?"

This guy can be such a bastard.  I love him...

  Seriously...fucking LOVE this guy.

Nail Yakupov

Kid appears to be pretty good...




What I think the Pens should do:

Trade their best 2-way player and best playoff performer of 2012 for another star player who sulks during crunch time, takes stupid penalties, and drops passes into empty spaces that lead to odd man rushes the other way. NOT that I'm stereo-typing, or anything.

As the video info states, Yakupov draws comparisons to Pavel Bure, Alexander Ovechkin, and Ilya Kovulchuk.  And those 3 guys have a ton of Stanley Cups between them, so I say go ahead and pull the trigger.

LET'S GO BABY PENS!!!!!!!  Bring us Calder Cup glory!

For all good kids, it's ANOTHER Guided by Voices record!!

The 2nd of 3 (THREE!) GBV records coming out in 2012.  Pre-order the new and awesome Class Clown Spots a UFO LP from Rockathon HERE.  Also available is a 7" of the title track with 2 non-LP tunes available.  It's gonna be a good year.

warning...this tune will rock you right in the face...

  video by navalorama

FCKYA!!!!!

Sharon Van Etten - tonight!

part of the Warhol Sound Series. Tonight at the Carnegie Lecture Hall pretty pretty pretty music.

The Cabin In the Woods: good times

Kinda felt like The Osterman Weekend meets The Evil Dead, and then the real fun begins.

All in all, The Cabin In the Woods is a fun ride.  It's pretty ridiculous, but that's where its awesomeness lies.  I was a little apprehensive at first, and it probably didn't help that some zit faced kid who served me my popcorn tried his best to spoil it for me.

Some of the horror scenes thru the first half of the film are meh, imho.  They are shot much like the genre of today's new horror: Creativity is often sacrificed for dimly lit sets, shaky cams, and quick cuts to the point where you're left wondering what the fuck just happened.  There seems to be a lot of CG utilized in the latter part of the film, but nothing too cringe worthy.

The best part of Cabin is its humor. It's probably not going to scare you as much you will get a chuckle from it.  The best and most hilarious character is played by Bradley Whitford, who plays Hadley...your prototypical jag off antagonist.  We fell in love with Whitford way back in Revenge of the Nerds 2 when he launched his little, "What'ya gonna do about it Skolnick, you gonna make a little speech?" tirade to the Nerds poolside in Paradise.

Also to Cabin's credit, there is an obvious homage to the genre of past horror.  I'll stop there before I spoil anything.  But our advise is to not read or look too far into Cabin...just go and enjoy.

TRAILER HERE.

Cabin In the Woods

I'm doing it.

GEEEE BEEEE VEEEE!!!!!!

So glad to be part of the luckiest fan base ever. This is gonna be the time of our lives with some of the bestest pals on the planet...giving hugs, drinking brews, and losing our voices. The next day...

Best weekend EVER!!!! The last time Guided by Voices played Canal Street Tavern...



btw...what's wrong with this picture below?

If you said any of these 3 bands headlining over the Mighty GBV...ding ding ding. Ah well.  Sons a bitches Death Cab fans will never know what hit them.

Progression of a Stunned: The Special One

With my Beloved Barcelona losing yesterday, this felt nice. No more Champions League for you, Jose!!! Funny hearing Fox Soccer Channel anoint Christiano Ronaldo "The Greatest Player on the Planet" after the 1st half with Real Madrid up 2-1 and Fishy Lips scoring both goals. Then he steps up to the spot in PKs and fails. Despite Messi missing yesterday, does that title revert back to him again? Whatever.

Maybe the best STUNNED moment of the night, after Sergio Ramos sailed one 30 feet over the cross bar, which handed Bayern Munich the victory.

DOH!!!

DEER TICK was pretty awesome last night

Great show.  Great live act that John McCauley and crew.  Here was the capper...


good times.

Hockey Objectivity

Hockey fans have a weird way of looking at things. Depending on which side of the fence you're on, the same player or incident may entice two exactly opposite opinions. Admittedly, as much as we try to be objective, we often look at things through the Black & Gold glasses. Our enemies do the same.

Flyers fans, for instance, can be very creative and clever by calling our best player Cindy Crysbaby. Their chants of "Crosby Sucks" is even more proof that they're some of the most intelligent and witty fans in the NHL. Pens fans, on the other hand, may point out how Peter Laviolette is a smug turd who throws hissy fits when things don't go his way.

It's funny how one side sees something as passion, while the other side sees someone as "losing their cool." For instance... Daniel Alfredsson showed a lot "passion" last night according to what we heard...

 

Claude Giroux, after losing Game 5 in Pittsburgh...

Such "passion" from the newest "Greatest Player in the World." Curious what the reaction would have been if that were Sidney...I mean Cindy Crosby.

Home town announcers usually have a bias, as well. Perhaps not as hard core as the fans and the bloggers, but they still view things from a home town perspective. Doesn't really bother me...I just label it as "passion." However, this douche nozzle from Phoenix took home town bias to an INSANELY NEW LEVEL...

 

Phoenix moron / commentator Tyson Nash describes the Torres on Hossa assault: “as clean of a hit as you are going to get.” He follows that up after watching the slo-mo, defending his stance as "left shoulder right into the jaw" and "EXPLODES thru the hit" before saying "I don't have a problem (with that hit)."

WOW.  FUCKING WOW.

Deer Tick - Rex Theatre - Tonight!

I'm sort of a late comer to the Deer Tick thingy. Must admit, I'm not into the whole "alt-country" (Uncle Tupelo) genre, and that's a phrase I'd always heard associated with John C. McCauley and his band mates. From what I understand, their latest stuff is a slight turn away from that. I listened to their album Divine Providence late last year, really dug it, then saw a video of them over on Daytrotter doing a Replacements cover of "Bastards of Young."  Sold me.  Deer Tick is playing tonight at the Rex Theatre, along with Turbo Fruits. Tix still available, and it's a 21+ show, so the booze can flow freely.

Deer Tick covering "Bastards of Young"...

 

Word on the streets is that they also do a nice cover of Nirvana's "Lithium."

Deer Tick - "Let's all go to the bar"...



Speaking of the Replacements, now's a good excuse to play the original, and a video I've always loved...

 

FCKYA!

From what I've heard from Turbo Fruits, also pretty jacked to check these dudes out.  They're from Nashville.  Listen to some Turbo Fruits over on the MySpace HERE. Visual..

ps: anyone tuning in here to read the Pens post mortem, it'll be up later this week. I'm taking a vacation...a vacation from my PROBLEMS!

One game at a time.

Absolutely god damn right.

Another strong performance from Fleury is needed. If so...PUCKER PUCKER PUCKER back to the Burgh for Game 7.

DO IT.

Leo Messi scores goals

in honour of today's El Classico. All 234 goals Lionel Messi has scored for the Beloved Barca MAGIC!!!

 

Thanks to TB for the fwd.

I'm crazy enough to think we can win this thing.

There's TEAM.  Then there's TALENT.  Flyers were undoubtedly the better team thru Game 3.  They've been better than the Pens for a majority of the year when matched up together.  But you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would say the Flyers are more talented.

Wednesday night, the Pens TALENT played as a TEAM.  YAY!!!!!  It was fun.  I want more of that.

Keys moving forward tonight:

1. JUMP EARLY.  Yeah...it'd be easy to point out "the team who scored first lost every game so far."  True.  But Mojo is a tricky prick.  Once you've got it, you've got to strangle it.  Step on Mojo's throat while you wrap both hands around it's neck.  Don't let him up.  STRANGLE HOLD THE MOJO!  Our "great" crowd at the CEC will disappear if we get down early.  Gotta keep them involved.  The longer we keep the momentum, the harder those Flyer sphincters will clinch.  If we get back to Philly for a Game 6...they'll be squeezing real good.  Bryzgalov is on the brink, and the trump card of Bobrossi has already been played.  Remember that dude in Training Day who asks Ethan Hawke if he's ever had his shit pushed in?  You get the picture...
2. SKATE AWAY.  Keep the same discipline you had in Game 4.  There are no extra points for acting tough.  Stanley Cups > Tough Guy Persona.  At least everywhere else outside of Philly.  Play the game, not games.  You finally started to see the true Flyer colors Wednesday.  It's ugly head will continue to rear...just SKATE THE FUCK AWAY.
3. Beware the SCUBA SUITS.  Refs will continue to call it close, I presume.  That's to our skilled players advantage, as long as they recognize.  No stupid penalties.  Guys and Danny Brieres will go down with the slightest of touches.  Find that line, and don't cross it.
4. North - South > East - West.  The cross ice passes feed the Flyer transition game, which absolutely killed us in Games 1 - 3.  When in doubt, get the puck deep.  For all the blame everyone wants to place on Fleury, I can't recall too many goals that have been a result of Philly having prolonged possession in the zone.  Most of the goals they're scoring are either on the PP or in transition, usually on odd man breaks.  Protect the puck...get it deep.  FANCY SHMANCY!!!

DO IT!

Final thought: Props to Peter Laviolette for out coaching Disco Dan for the most part of this series.  But what a douche...

Record Store Day - TOMORROW

We normally check out Dave's Music Mine on the South Side, but tomorrow we're heading to the newly opened Sound Cat Records (formerly Paul's CDs, now owned by Karl Hendricks) in Bloomfield.  One of these years, we'll get outta bed early enough to get in line for the exclusive RSD releases, but with a Pens / Flyers game tonight...it ain't gonna be tomorrow.

Not sure if Karl is getting in any of the RSD releases or not. Been meaning to e-mail the store, but I kinda dropped the ball.  Plus...I'm not that ambitious.  Been following Sound Cat's Facebook updates, and I'm really digging Karl's "records of the day" listings, like this one...

FCKYA!!!!! I already got my Rockathon shipment of the 7" above....but FCKYA!!!!!!

Sound Cat will be opening at 9:00 am.  At 5:00pm, they're having an in-store performance by Hidden Twin (featuring Phil of the Modey Lemon)...



If we have enough time before the big El Classico kickoff on GOLTV at 2:00, maybe we'll get over to Dave's as well.  Speaking of Dave's, they did finally get their list of RSD releases (with quantities) that they've rec'd, and you can CHECK THAT OUT HERE.  Some records of our interest, which we'll have no chance of getting:

• DEVO - LIVE IN SEATTLE 1981. Only 1 copy...good luck!
• Pete Townshend - Quadrophenia Demos 2.  2 copies.
• 2 Luna records - 1st time ever on vinyl - Romantica and Rendezvous.  1 copy each.
• Joey Ramone - Rock 'N Roll Is the Answer. 1 copy.
• White Stripes - Hand Springs / Red Death at 6:14 7" - 5 copies.

Also...while they don't do the RSD releases, we also highly recommend a stop at Jerry's on Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill.  Do it.

GOOD LUCK!