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.

Is it my imagination
Or have I finally found something worth living for?
I was looking for some action
But all I found was cigarettes and alcohol

You could wait for a lifetime
To spend your days in the sunshine
You might as well do the white line
Cos when it comes on top . . .
You gotta make it happen!

Nice to know Liam's still alive and madferit. I wish the boys would get off their asses and release some new material. As always, nice fucking haircut.

Cheers to Whatevs Dot Org for the pic and also for this link. Hubba Hubba.

Super Furry Week is upon us!! Good thing I have a temp job so I can pay for all the drinks that I'm bound to consume in the next five days.

The schedule:
Wednesday - Carson Daly Taping
Friday - Gig @ Irving Plaza supporting Grandaddy
Saturday - Gig @ Irving Plaza supporting Grandaddy
Sunday - In-Store at Mondo Kims

It's on like Chaka Khan!

75 or Less never ran my review so I'm posting it here instead:


The 80’s are back! Or at least the Dandy Warhols would have you think so. Their latest hella good LP delivers more of their trademark noisy-drone-pop music for the masses, but this time the keyboards, synths and some of their idols (Nick Rhodes, Nile Rodgers and Tony Visconti) add a sexy, slinky, “couples skate” feel to the festivities. They said it best themselves: The Dandy’s rule OK. And they are still cooler than you.

Baseball:
Congrats to the Detrizzle Tizzle's and their seemingly impossible late season surge. By winning 5 of their last 6 games, including their last game of the season yesterday, they keep the Mets in the record books and don't have to hear about it all summer. Congrats boys. By the way, the Oakland A's have a similar payroll and have made the playoffs for the last three seasons.
You have to feel for Todd Helton. All he needed was one more hit to win the NL batting title, but Rob Beck walked him after going 3-0 on him and he loses to Albert Pujols by .00022 percentage points. Damn.
Jim Caple has some good ideas about who to root for in the playoffs. If you need to get excited about October, check out the 10 best playoff games to jog your memory.
Fitba
North Korea? No problem. An easy 3-0 win and Mia Hamm didn't even play. Some of the other starters were rested as well so the US should be ready for Norway on Wednesday.
Football
MMQB says the Iggles are for real. Whatever. They're certainly not the Carolina Panthers.
Tennis
Seems like we've been doing too many of these stories lately, but tennis' female Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, died yesterday.
Basketball
Somewhere, Coolfer is laughing. The Celtics invite waste of space Mateen Cleaves to camp. If he freakin' makes the team and Rusty doesn't, I'm gonna persecute them.
Ha! Want to know what's wrong with UNC basketball? Check it: UNC - now and then.
Apple
Apple's stock is upgraded due to back to school shopping. People love their iBooks! The Beatles lawsuit v. Apple could go on for years, according to Steve Jobs.
Oh, and that Music Match Store...not feeling it at all. All these Windoze based solutions get it wrong on the base level. See, the files you buy from Music Match are Windows Media files encoded at 160 kbz. Lame!
Shits & Giggles
Jack Black is the shiznit.

Wow…I was just getting ready to begin a typical post about the Women's World Cup and the upcoming baseball playoffs when I got confirmation on something I was researching yesterday. It took a while for me to find out for sure but I found it. There is no reason to beat around the bush so I will just come out and tell everyone.



Chuck Palahniuk is gay.

Again…wow. Leave it fucking Chucky P to have something up his sleeve to make everyone step back and gather their thoughts. So typical for him. I kinda feel like Jack at the end of Fight Club when he realizes that HE is Tyler Durden. Talk about a complete surprise.
For those of you not in the know, this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly has a four page article on Chuck written by Karen Velby and it apparently contains some heavy handed hints about Chuck's sexuality. I have neither seen the article nor read it. From what I have read on his website, Chuck did tell Ms. Velby that he had been living with a male partner for the last 11 years but that the info was off the record and not to be used in the article. Obviously, if this were info that Chuck didn't want to get out he wouldn't have brought it up to her so maybe it is a relief to him in some ways for everyone to know.
Chuck certainly didn't see it that way at first as he left a nasty audio blog on his website in regards to Ms. Velby and the article in question (which I did not hear) but it has since been removed. Since then he has left another audio blog apologizing to Velby and also asking his fans to lay off of the EW scribe. He has apparently decided to roll with whatever punches come his way. Respect.
I will be the first to say that this is somewhat of a surprise to me but in no way, shape or form does it make me respect the man or his work any less. Hell, I respect him more if anything, and anyone that reads this site on a semi-regular basis knows what a big Palahniuk fan I am.
And please, everyone, don't go back through all of his work and look for homoerotic undertones or any of that bullshit. I love Chuck's work because it's always fresh and it hits you in the face and makes you THINK. There's not enough of this type of stuff around today. Lets give him some space, let him deal with this and, most importantly, let him do his thing. The next time I see him at a reading or reread any of his books, I won't think any different about him. And neither should you.

What's the best thing about watching the Women's World Cup on TV?

Is it Julie Foudy or Shannon MacMillan (pictured above) or any of the other lovely ladies of the USA? The answer, faithful readers, is none of the above (although I would not fault you for picking the lovely Mrs. Foudy). The answer is studio commentator Heather Mitts:

Heather, how you doin'?
She should have plenty to talk about today as the US squad faces a tough test in North Korea. The North Korean women are fighting for their tournament lives, along with some respect, while the US needs a win or tie to ensure their spot in the quarters. A good deal of the US team's success can be placed on their ability to capitalize on set plays off of dead balls. The way things are heading now, the US could face Germany in the semi's which would be a tough road to the Finals. Still, if Mia Hamm continues her stellar play and Aly Wagner continues to come up big, The US should be OK.
In a related item, did the WUSA fail because it focused it's marketing approach on the wrong demographics?
NOTES OF INTEREST FROM THE INTERWEB:
> Cubs Win! Cubs Win! The playoffs beckon....And their pitching rotation is looking good.
> Speaking of winning, the Tigers won their own personal World Series last night as they came back from an 8 run deficit to beat the Twins and stave off loss #120. Their last game of the season is this afternoon. Go Tizzle's!
> Baby faced GM Theo Epstein deserves alot of credit for his personnel moves with the Red Sizzle's this year. The no-closer approach back fired on him but Ortiz, Millar and Mueller came up aces.
> Talent or no talent, the Lakers will face a long road in the media this year thanks to Kobe's shoplifting of the pooty.
> Pat Riley is banking mad loot on pot-head Lamar Odom.
> Peter May's Top 10 Storylines for the upcoming NBA season. Guess what's #1? By the way, rookies report for camp tomorrow!!!!.
> Yo!! How you been dawg? Bobby Hurley (the only man on the planet that has had more bad haircuts than me) is named as a scout for the Philly 76ers. Hot.
> How about my Carolina Panthers and second year coach John Fox?
> Pitchfork compiles a list of the 50 most common used CD's of the last 10 or so years. For the record, I own or have owned 21 of them.
> Apple is updating their logo. Not changing, updating.
> FOIL Scott follows up on my WKRP spot from yesterday:
I read your little mention of WKRP in Cincinnati and thought I'd weigh in. The episodes are pretty much butchered, music-wise, as you've said. The royalties are ridiculous. That's why we still have yet to see WKRP DVDs. Just to license the music for the DVD release is well over the million dollar mark. Ludicrous, if you ask me. The same problem apparently came up when they were releasing FELICITY season 2, hence the reason that those episodes have been butchered on the DVD release. They've been substituted with cheesy elevator music.
Thanks for reading and weighing in!! By the way, Scott's site is actually more on top of a Chuck Palahniuk story than I am. Apparantly there is a 4 page article in the Sept. 26th issue of Entertainment Weekly that takes potshots at Chuck (and his fans) and also claims he is NOT married although he stated he was everytime I have gone to a reading and have read this very fact elsewhere numerous times. Still, with Chucky P, you never know. I'm still trying to find out all of the facts, but I hope to have more info later.

That's all for now. It's rainy outside which probably means more house cleaning and some football and fitba TV action for later today.
Remember, I don't have an attitude, rebellion is a platitude. I only hope the verse is good, I hate verisimilitude.