So……..as I may have mentioned previously, I’ve…

So……..as I may have mentioned previously, I’ve been playing the hell out of my new computer game, High Heat Baseball 2003. It’s a keeper for sure. I’m not sure how much you can improve a game from year-to-year, but somehow 3DO does it. It’s simply incredible, and I can’t even begin to tell you how realistic it plays. Most of the other games are 15-14 games with nothing but home runs. This is real. As real as it gets. I am a nerd. Take a look at a game I played this morning – a true nail biter.

I had the afternoon to myself so I went over to the FleetCenter today and took in a Bruins-Carolina Hurricanes game. The game started at 1:05, and it was sold out, so I waited until about 1:10 when the scalpers get desperate and I ended up 9 rows from the ice in a tremendous seat – for $30 less than the face value of the ticket. Snaps and props to ol’ Jeffo. Too bad it was a boring game. Carolina 2, Boston 0.

The senses are something the human race generally …

The senses are something the human race generally takes for granted. One sense I enjoy a little more than others is the sense of smell. Most people who know me well enough know that I like to smell just about everything that might smell good. And you don’t even want to be with me at the Yankee Candle Factory, because I transform into a completely different person in a store like that. Kind of like the Incredible Hulk, except I don’t get angry, my clothes do not rip from my body, and I do not get mean (that only happens if I am forced to watch basketball or tap dancing). Anyway, at the Yankee Candle Factory, some higher-power just takes over and I get that far-off, glazed look in my eyes, then at that point I proceed with my attempt to sniff every last flavor of candle the store has to offer. After 20 minutes, I leave, candle-ly hungover and with a terrific headache. I’m not kidding.

Anyway, my whole point is this – of all the senses, which one do you think you could most live without? I have given this very question a lot of thought for quite a long time (probably since high school). And I still don’t know. Losing my sight would be horrible. Losing my hearing, well, that’s just unthinkable because then I couldn’t hear music, or the voices of the people I love, or the crack of a bat at Fenway Park. Losing my sense of touch – no way. So I guess, despite everything I’ve just said, my sense of smell would have to be the first thing to go. But ask me again tomorrow.

To that end, I have just purchased this, and it’s pretty awesome. I don’t think it’s very fair that scented soaps are marketed towards women only. I think scented soaps and lotions rule. During one of our card games, in fact, my friends and I determined how hilarious it would be if there were things like “Mesquite Bar-B-Que Deodorant” and stuff like that. Ridiculous, I know.

I absolutly loved this story. I can totally see it…

I absolutly loved this story. I can totally see it now:

1st Dumb-Ass: “Uh, let’s open this door. I wonder what’s in there?”
2nd Dumb-Ass: “I dunno. Duh.”
1st Dumb-Ass: “Whoa. Holy shit. There must be 70 to 90 million of these things! I forgot they were there!”
1st Dumb-Ass: “Yep, I forgot about those! How crazy! How about that?”

Another story for your un-intentional comedy files: not only is he the funniest-looking dude in show business, he was also married to Julia Roberts once. And yesterday, he……..well, just click here.

Go ahead, and find your Star Wars twin.

Some music musings: – Was driving to work this mo…

Some music musings:

– Was driving to work this morning and sports radio went to a commercial, so I dialed up FM radio and just started zipping around. Came across the Nelly Furtado song “Turn Out The Light,” which I kind of enjoy. (“she acts so rough….rough….rough”). My point, you ask? Well, I think she’s weird looking. She looks like she was in all the smarty-pants classes in high school or something, then by luck stumbled across stardom. Good for her, I suppose. She has a nice voice. I won’t be buying the album.

– Also came across the Peter Frampton song “Show Me The Way.” You know that one, of course. From the 1970s. Well, I actually went through a very short period of time when I thought Frampton Comes Alive was a tremendous album. Especially that “Do You Feel Like I Do” song when it gets all odd with the voice manipulation, etc. This was back when I was a senior in high school, so I get a break. I did buy this album back then, but sold it back to the used CD store years ago.

– Speaking of the ’70s, Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever” is one of the best rock songs of that decade. Even better, though, was the marathon “Stranglehold,” also by the Nuge. I have fond memories of my friend Jen and I on her living room floor, during SxSW (big music conference) in ’97, rather intoxicated, just laying there and agreeing that “Stranglehold” was the best song ever made. It was like 3am and I think the volume was as high as it could go. This opinion, of course, was heavily influenced by the intoxication and I don’t know about her, but I know I feel like it’s not the best song ever made. I still love it, though. Don’t have the album.

– My favorite artist of the 1970s, though, just might be Neil Diamond (I’m SO glad my parents had a few of his records laying around…..and the Bill Cosby records……..not the Barry Manilow records. That’s where I draw the line!) I’m not sure anyone made a more impressive string of hits than Neil Diamond. “I am…I said” is just an incredible song.

– If you’re reading this and think that the 1970s were terrible for music, all I can do is gently encourage you to buy “#1 Record/Radio City” by Big Star. A sprawling epic, just full of tremendous both emotional/dark and light/fun rock songs. I’m in the process of putting together my 10 desert island discs, and this will most certainly be one of them.

– I love the fact that Ryan Adams is getting all pissed off because people are yelling “Summer Of ’69” at his gigs now. This just delights me. The music business has gotten so bad that critics are just so desperate to simply find something to connect with. And so, with lack of a better artist out there, a lot of those critics have hitched onto Ryan Adams, whose talent admittedly is decent, but most certainly not deserving of the praise he gets. Unfortunatly for the real music fans, the robots out there who just listen to radio and buy whatever is served up to them by those radio idiots/shareholders will make him popular. How sad. How sad that the bands who HAVE talent (Sloan, Clem Snide, The Jayhawks) will never get the attention they deserve because ingrates like Adams are getting it. Makes me want to puke!