After some much needed design tweaks and 3 unsuccessful tries at moving over my archives, I finally got everything up and running at my new site, including the archives. I still have some links to move over and some other small tweaks but for now all new posts will be made there and not here.

Thanks for visiting.

Radiohead @ MSG tonight!

information leafblower is contemplating a move to typepad. I have a "beta" site up using their service right now but am not thrilled with the design. Feel free to check it out and drop me some comments on design, etc.

And I'm not talking about the one they found in that apartment in Harlem. Apple today announced that OSX 10.3, aka Panther, will be released on October 24th at 8 PM. Like it's predeccesor, it will be priced at $129. To celebrate the release, Apple will be holiding some special events at their retail stores as well as at other authroized resellers.
Personally, information leafblower is waiting for Xmas when he hopes to pick up a new eMac and will most likely upgrade my OS then.
Apple also today released updates for it's iCal and iSync programs. I'll be downloading those when i get home tonight.

Apparently Supergrass will be unable to open for Radiohead this Thursday and Friday at MSG. Thom Yorke and Co. have asked Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks to open instead. Crap. I have already heard the less than stellar "Pavement-lite" of the Jicks and was looking forward to some Richard III buzz from Gaz and Co.

Classic column up today. I love the Sox being the the second season if only for the increased output of one of my favorite writers (and fellow Boston sports fan) out there.

Highlights:
Did Grady Little even watch Trot Nixon during the regular season?(Important note: This was also the inning when my buddy J-Bug -- sitting in the first row behind the Sox bullpen -- was kicked out of Fenway Park for heckling Ricardo Rincon in Spanish. The J-Bug is 100-percent Irish. You couldn't make this stuff up.)

That brings us to Game 5: Pedro against Zito, winner takes all. Vegas listed the Sox as a minus-170 favorite, strictly on the fact that Zito was A.) pitching on three days rest; B.) was out partying Friday night; and C.) looks enough like Eric Roberts that it makes everyone uncomfortable.

The game starts. Pedro and Zito start matching zeroes. Tensions rise, especially as we wonder if Gabe Kapler is available to pinch-run on Yom Kippur.

Grady decides to bring in a defensive replacement for his No. 3 hitter -- Damian Jackson for Todd Walker, which (as I mentioned last Friday) constitutes about a 15-percent upgrade at best. It's like watching "The Handler" instead of "Hack" on CBS ... you're not really making or breaking your Friday night either way

Also, here is this week's TMQB column. Great stuff as always. I'm about at the point where I skip all the games and just watch Primetime and read TMQB to stay up on the NFL.

This is what Googlism thinks of me:

information leafblower is jealous of those in attendance
information leafblower is on vacation through the weekend
information leafblower is dead tired right now
information leafblower is a tennis freak with great pics you won't see anywhere else

Wow. Last night when Scott Williamson walked the first two batters he faced in the 9th inning, I was all set to write about how the Baseball Gods were angry at the Red Sox because of Manny Ramirez walking the first eight steps to first base after his 6th inning home run, and were exacting revenge by causing them to lose the game via their shaky bullpen. But current starter and former closer Derek Lowe pulled it out and the Red Sox won, advancing to the ALCS to face the hated Evil Empire beginning tomorrow night. There was some noise about the A's being mad at Lowe for some supposedly obscene gestures he made right after striking out the last batter, but they should have been more pissed off at Ramirez and that stunt he pulled. Hell, I'm a Red Sizzle fan and I was fuming. That crap was just like school in the summer. No class.
There are 500 different story lines being written about today so I'll just give you the link to all of them. Looking ahead, it seems like it will be Mike Mussina v. Tim Wakefield facing off in the Bronx for Game 1. Oh, and did you hear the one about Tim Hudson getting into a fight in a Boston bar? He was unable to pitch more than 1 inning in Game 4 because he hurt himself in the brawl. The club denies that kept Hudson from pitching, but what else are they supposed to say? The A's are now an incredible 0-9 in series clinching games when they can advance with a win.

PS - Peter Vescey agreed with my Alonzo Mourning rant yesterday.

PPs - Sorry for all the sports concentrated posts lately but it's the best I can muster here at work. They have some 'Surf Control" program here and I can't access many of the sites I go to for other info (like Whatevs dot org for example) so I am stuck with what I can work with.

Check it

This is rich (pun intended). The Eastern Conference Champion Nets have decided to buy out Dikembe Mutombo's contract for $20 million dollars, thereby saving the team $7 million and making themselves more attractive to prospective buyers as the impending sale of their team nears. But this personnel move does not sit well with new free agent signing Alonzo Mourning. He says:

"I'm extremely disappointed," Mourning said after practice yesterday. "The purpose of this whole thing is to win and to get yourself in position to win."
"It goes to show you, the main objective, of whether you win a championship, that's our concern, the players," Mourning said. "The people in the front office are about making dollars."

This, after the club re-signed Jason Kidd for over $100 million for 7 years as well as signing Mourning, who has not played much in the last 2 years due to health problems, to a 4 years deal worth $22 million. The club also has a situation on it's hands with former #1 pick Kenyon Martin whose rookie contract runs out after this year and will need a new contract should the club decide to keep him. He's already gone on record stating he wants a max contract(which will cost the team around $90 million over 6 years) even though he has yet to even make the All Star team in the power forward deprived Eastern Conference. The team offered him a $66 million extension but he turned it down.
Mourning, it should be noted, bolted the Charlotte Hornets back in the day because they would not bow to his outrageous contract demands. Perhaps it's not just the people in the front office worried about making dollars.
More than ever, the NBA is all about the money.

Personally, information leafblower can't believe that the Nets would pay someone $20 million to NOT play for them. I certainly didn't get that kind of compensation when i was fired from my job.

Oi. Super Furry Weekend has come and gone and left everyone involved with the usual glowing fuzziness that accompanies a few days of hard partying with good friends you don't get to see often enough. It kicked off Wednesday with the Carson Daly taping and dinner and drinks, provided a brief respite on Thursday as the band played DC and then picked up full steam on Friday night.
I left work around 6 and jetted uptown to meet Bill The Rhino to score his extra ticket for Saturday's gig as the guest list was tight and hard tickets are always good to have. I met up with Molly Wizzle in Midtown and we went to Union Square to scarf down some food at our fave "fast food" restaurant, Zen Palate. Service was unusually slow but we still managed to make it to the predetermined pre-gig meeting spot, Shades of Green Pub, in time. There we saw Karen(the SFA internet list moderator) and met up with Dizzy G and his brother Brendan. They drove in from Boston and other points North to catch the show. Pints were consumed, some catching up was done and off we went to the show.
Things got a bit hairy here as Molly Wizzle was not on the list as we were told she was (Irving Plaza had apparently cut the list unbeknownst to the band) so she was left out in the cold, literally, for the nights festivities. She insisted I soldier on and we agreed to focus on getting her a ducat for the next night's show. The mood was a bit somber when I finally went inside to meet Dizzy and bro, understandably, but we tried to make the best of it. And that was hard with the $6 Buds we were drinking ($5 per can plus tip), but we managed. Finally, at 9:30 PM the band came on and slammed into Phantom Power closer, Slow Life. Gruff put on his Power Ranger helmet for the last bit of the song, which was LOUD and groovy. The band seemed in great spirits and in good form as the dished out hit after hit after hit from their last 2 records. The stand out was, hands down, Piccolo Snare, with it's soaring harmonies and lush guitars. The accompanying visuals, made by Pete Fowler, of bombs being released from planes and then turning into white crosses during their free fall onto the ground were very powerful.
The second half of the set picked up the pace with Beach Boys ditty/death metal durge Recepticle For The Respectable and also Out Of Control. About the latter, Gruff described it as a "song written about the previous song". After a raucous version of Radiator-era b-side and fan favorite Calimero (a song I have told each of the members of the band, they can never, ever, ever take out of the set under penalty of death), they broke into show stopper and show closer The Man Don't Give A Fuck, complete with it's Bill Hicks sample of "All Governments Are Liars And Murderers" being played over and over again on the sound system and footage of both Dubya and Tony Blair being played on the video screens. Challenging stuff.
The band, save for keyboardist Cian, left the stage during the end of the song to ravenous applause while the crowd got their groove on for Cian's, patented techno breakdown that closes the song. Finally, Cian, got up to leave the stage and the music seemed to die down. Everyone though the set was over but then, the music gradually got louder until it was booming again. And then, the band comes back out on stage in their Yeti costumes and finished the song. I almost spit out the mouthful of beer I was trying to swallow. It was awesome! And more than anything, a complete surprise to yours truly and that's very hard to do to me at a Furries show.
About midway through Grandaddy's set, the Furries all came out to chat with everyone right outside the VIP lounge upstairs. I finally got to see Dav and chat with him a while. Before we knew it, the gig was over and they were kicking everyone out of the venue. The band retreated backstage to gather their things and those with VIP passes ran to the VIP lounge to hang out a bit more. During this time, I met quite a few Welsh people that had come over just to see the gig and chatted with them. They were all charming people and nice as could be. I met a woman that had gone to grade school with Guto back in the day, so I asked her to tell me something embarrassing about Guto from his school days that I could get him with and she told me a quick little story. When the band came out of the dressing room, I went up to Guto and was like "So I hear…" He turned to his old schoolmate and said, "Shit, why did you tell him that? Now it's gonna be all over the internet!" Well, almost….
After we all left Irving around 12:30, we went back to Shades of Green and settled in for some serious drinking. It was great! The pub was practically empty when we all got there but it soon filled up with friends and family from both bands. We all just chilled and drank our faces off. I was talking to Bunf about the Yeti costumes and asked him(with a straight face), "You guys are gonna do that again tomorrow right? I have to bring my camera and take pictures!" He replied, "Shit, we did it in fucking Louisville, hell yeah we're gonna do it again tomorrow!" Maybe you had to be there but it was the funniest thing I heard all night.
The next thing I knew, the lights came on and the barkeep said "It's 4 AM, go the fuck home!" Wow. Ever have one of those nights when you can just drink and talk and drink for hours and you totally lose track of time because of the great time you're having? This was one of those nights. Outside, good-byes were exchanged, and I went home to get some sleep even though I felt that I could have gone on for another couple of hours. I got home at 4:50 AM, and any of my friends could tell you that was the latest I've stayed out in a loooooong time.
Saturday, I scored tickets via Craigslist for Molly Wizzle and Coolfer, so we went to do it all over again. We took it easy that night and never hooked up with the band. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing as I had to get up at 9 AM to drive Ms. Wizzle to Queens and never managed to get back to sleep, so I was crashing hard after the gig.
I had to skip the in store on Sunday due to the Red Sizzle and some other commitments but I heard it was a blast. Today I'm back at work, a little worse for the wear but better because of it.

Red Sizzle Nation is all abuzz right now following their dramatic 5-4 win over the A's in Game 4, sending the series back to Oakland for tomorrow's Game 5. What did information leafblower say on Friday was the key to the series for the Sox? Production from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Manny singled in the bottom of the 8th, sending Nomar to third and then Ortiz broke out of his 0-for-the-ALDS slump with a double that scored them both. It definitely didn't hurt that Oakland starter Tim Hudson left after the first inning with an injury.
The A's now own a major league record 7 game losing streak when trying to close out a series. They lost a wacky Game 3 to the Red Sizzle on Saturday night after Trot Nixon's walk off home run in the 11th inning. Trot is representing the North Cackalack if you didn't know. Pedro is starting in Game 5 so Boston has to be confident coming into the game.
The Sports Guy has to be feeling pretty good right now even if he wasn't very happy with Beantown manager Grady Little after Game 1.

Tonight it's on to the break of dawn! (I really need to get some new lingo) SFA and Grandaddy at Irving Plaza. This will be tonight's premier rock/pop event in the city, just ask the NY Times and the Daily News.
If that's not good enough for you, check out The Guardian's list of the 40 best Bands In Britain. The Furries come in a very respectable 12, although how Dizzee Rascal is ahead of them I have no idea. Can't say I agree with their #1 choice, but numbers 2 and 3 are right on the money. And FYI, Oasis and u2 don't make the list. Interesting.

Although it's hard right now, Red Sox Nation is hoping and praying that the Red Fizzle's can turn around their sub par play in the playoffs so far. They lost again last night after getting dominated by Barry Zito, a pitcher that had been struggling coming into the contest. Game 3 is Saturday night in Beantown. The Fizzle's are confident they can win at home and send it back to Oakland. To do it they need a little luck and most importantly to forget about game 1. Personally, I think Manny needs to become a presence as does David Ortiz.


This picture got me more excited than anything. Wow, Vin Baker looks good standing beside the franchise. The C's are really looking forward to the upcoming season. Antoine Walker went on record saying the C's could win the East. I think they'll need a little help to do that but I think Celtic Nation is in for a great season. Especially if Vin Baker returns to his form of 3 or 4 years ago. I'm not exactly holding my breath about that but he looks good and is in shape. I'm pulling for him.
What does resident genius Danny Ainge think about this year? Forsooth:
According to Ainge, the key questions facing the Celtics season are: What can Marcus Banks and Mike James bring to the point guard position? What does Jumaine Jones bring? What does Baker add? Can Walker and Pierce have strong, injury-free seasons? Ainge added that the Celtics need big seasons from Banks, Jones, Baker, Walker, and Pierce to be Eastern Conference champions, a goal he believes is possible.

information leafblower is dead tired right now due to the events that transpired last night and MLB's decision to make the Red Sox play at 10 PM. Therefor, he is not going out tonight. HOWEVER, if information leafblower was going out tonight, he would definitely be at the following:

BLING KONG's foray into world domination begins Thursday at Pianos.
Be there or you will end up weeping bitterly for your loss. .

EVENT DETAILS:
Thursday, October 2
Pianos
158 Ludlow Street (at Stanton)
New York, NY
(212) 505-3733

doors open at 7:30
8:00 Cephalopod
9:00 Kid Lucky w/ Action Daddy
10:00 BLING KONG

all for a mere $6

Visit the Bling Kong web site.

Good Morning, lethargy, Drink Pepsi, It’s good for energy.

Before I get to the good stuff, memo to baseball commisioner Bud Selig:
What are you thinking by starting Game 1 of the ALDS between The Red Sox and the A's at 10 PM East Coast time? I got home from the bar (more on that later) at 1:25 AM and the game was just getting into the ninth inning. Of course the crappy BoSox bull pen gave the game away and they lost in the 12th inning, but that's not the point here. The point is the game ended at just before midnight west coast time. Too bad for you, as the game sounded like a certifiable classic. And you wonder why baseball is losing fans every year. How are Beantown fans supposed to stay up for the end of that game? There is nothing worse than going to bed without knowing if your team won or lost. In the Playoffs.
Oh, and they play the first game today at 1 PM west coast time. I'm sure both teams got plenty of sleep last night. But I digress

So….by some unforeseen stroke of luck, everyone knocked off from work around 5:30 yesterday which left me just enough time to get uptown to Rockefeller Plaza and NBC studios the see the Super Furry Animals tape an episode of Last Call With Carson Daly. I made it with literally two minutes to spare. There were 4 people in line behind me and they were the last ones to gain admission to the studio.
The show itself was very strange. They were taping the show to run next Friday (Oct. 10th) and those episodes are one hour long as opposed to the normal 30 minutes. Also on Fridays they bring in a "house band" which turned out to be a group of 14 year olds that called themselves the Billionaire Boys Club after some 80's movie starring Judd Nelson. Let's just say they don't warrant any further mention in the space and leave it at that. The guests were Rena Sofer from Coupling (oh, the irony), Vivica A. Fox who was promoting Kill Bill, and some animal guy. Finally the Super Furries were called to the stage. I snagged a spot in the front row and watched the band rock out on Golden Retriever. At the very end, the camera guy turned around to get some audience shots and it could practically hear the director telling the camera guy:
Director: Ok turn around and get a close up of some of the audience…
Camera Guy turns and puts the camera directly on me and start focusing.
Director: No you idiot, not the guy with the bad haircut, the hot girl standing beside him!
Camera Guy turns to my right and focuses in on the hot girl from out of town who is not sure what she just witnessed and seems somewhat confused by all the long haired Welsh men standing in front of her with instruments.
So maybe I'll get some face time when the episode airs, we'll see. For the record, I was wearing black and standing right in front of Bunf.
A brief aside…at the office where I temp, they have someone come around every day and ask if you want your shoes shined. Weird.
After the taping, the band and the usual suspects(myself, Wacky Jen, K Diddy, G-Spot and H to the Izzo) met in the lobby to plan the rest of the night. My famous last words were, "I'll come out for a beer but need to get home as I am broke as a joke". Ummmm…that didn't happen. After a quick stop at Max Fish, we all went to a restaurant, ate some great Spanish tapas and consumed some cervezas and sangria. The guys said the tour was going well and they were having a great time with Grandaddy. "I watch them every night," said Guto. They were all stoked about the recent New Orleans show because on the last tour they played to 30 people. On the current tour with Grandaddy, they played to 800. Sweet. Guto and I got to rappin' about the Welsh National team and the baseball playoffs. Then we all tried to figure out the best solo Wu-Tang record. Most of the SFA votes were for the GZA's Liquid Swords, but I had to vote for Raekwon's Only Built for Cuban Linx.
After dinner we went to yet another bar, and the band bought all the drinks for everyone(not unusual). It was definitely appreciated by yours truly for reasons stated above. Gruff and I talked about his new John McEnroe circa 1978 look which he is totally rockin' and I tried to get in a few requests for the acoustic In-Store on Sunday. He was excited about the upcoming UK tour and also said that the Furries would be back in the States in Feb. or March for their own headlining tour. By then they should know a few more songs from Phantom Power. He said they just got Piccolo Snare down (and that replaced information leafblower favorite Herman Loves Pauline in the set! Argh!) and that a rockin version of Sex, War and Robots was next on the list. Blah, blah, blah, more drinks, a peek or two at the Red Sizzle game, etc. We all stayed until 1 AM when the band had to get back to the tour bus and drive down to Washington DC for their gig at the 9:30 club tonight. Damn this well paying temp job! I so want to go.
So I am at work today, slightly hungover and definitely tired but better for the experience.
Sorry for the lack of updates this week but between the Welsh invasion and work, time has been short.

Cheers all,
Remember, this is the thrilling conversation you've been waiting for.