Straight Fire Music... Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

I feel like I will be a relic telling my grand kids how I was that guy still buying CDs in 2013,  but this one is worth it. A couple Seattle boys who worked long and hard before their first LP. From top to bottom, I do not think you can find a better album in recent memory. A funky beat with "Thrift Shop" that is garnering serious radio play, but album has too many great tracks to count. I recommend a look on ITunes.. hell I would be happy to burn a CD for you and try to keep US Mail and CDs around as long as we can.

Tracks you need to hear:

-Ten Thousand Hours
-Can't Hold Us
-Same Love
-Neon Catherdal
-White Walls
-A Wake
-Gold
-Starting Over

My favorite

Soccer Va Jay Jays

Soccer is for Va Jay Jays. They are prima donnas. I get it. As an American, who fervently defends soccer.. its hard to defend the crap that happened in Wales this week. Chelsea, the New York Yankees of the English Premier League, was playing Swansea City in an League Cup (League Cup is a competition between the top 92 teams in England and Wales.... would be the equivalent of all of the Major League Baseball, Triple A and Double A teams having a knockout style competition).

Chelsea was down 2-0 on aggregate with little more than 10 minutes left.... meaning Chelsea needed to score 3 times to advance to the final... a hard task. With the clock running, time is of the essence. Often when the ball going out of bounds, players of the team losing will often rush to get the play going. With the game being played in Swansea City's stadium a 17 year old ball boy, Charlie Morgan fell on the ball as if he was an EOD specialist taking one for his comrades. As Eden Hazard, a Belgian midfielder for Chelsea, tried to retrieve the ball while little Charlie continued to lay on the ball. Hazard a bit frustrated gave him a quick right kick to the ribs. Charlie started to rive in pain looking for a call from the referee. It is mind numbing to think that a kid not involved in the game could effect the game. It happened. After several minutes of referees talking, Hazard was given a Red Card and Chelsea played the rest of the game a man down.

Just try to picture this happening in an American sport such as basketball. Imagine Spike Lee sitting court side at Madison Square Garden and holding onto the ball as Lebron James tried to throw an inbound pass. Not only would Spike Lee get lambasted... it would not happen. Spike has too much respect for the game to do something like this.

Unfortunately, this became a story of how a professional soccer player kicked a punk kid in the ribs. The way it was presented in the U.S. media it appeared as just another story of soccer players being soccer players. It is hard to defend a sport when the integrity of the game can be effected by some acting not even on the pitch. It is bad enough players flop and fake injuries...now we have ball boys doing it?! Shame on the referee. I do think Eden Hazard was wrong for kicking him in the ribs... he should have kicked him in the nuts.

Are you reading this shit?

Why are you reading this blog? I can barely write in it.  How bored are you that you've decided to read what other people have to say.  I find blogs amazing.....on a typical day no one wants to listen to a word I say.  Seriously, I call my B-list friend Shamus and if he picks up I'm more surprised than a teen mom.  But if I post a blog about deploying I get friends texting me about it the next day.  Let's be honest though....every word you read I'm keeping you from doing something you don't want to do......so really you should thank me.  Your welcome.

If you're still reading you're this you either started on the second paragraph or you're wondering if I'm going to say something interesting.   Sorry to disappoint you but this post is about as interesting as a Pass the Salt Shambles blog.....even my big ending let you down (insert sex joke here).

God, Tebow, & Lewis Pre-Season Meeting

I would have been a fly on the wall for God, Tim Tebow & Ray Lewis pre-season meeting this year. God sitting at the head of the table informing Tim Tebow he will continue his Christian poster boy routine in an area that really needs it... "Yes, Tim you are headed to New York." Tim clearly frustrated, but understood his image as a Jesus loving virgin would be a great image for a city notorious for casual sex and drugs. God was not done.. he continued to pile on and inform Tim that he would not have a whiff under center even though the starter would take the meaning a little too literal. Tim fuming tried to remain calm while fin nicking with his WWJD bracelet on his wrist.

God turned to Ray Lewis and informed him of his plans of  an injury late in the season that will appear to keep him out for the rest of the season/career, only to magically return in the Wild Card round. God stressed the need for a different story line and an a more resurgent role in Ray was a better fit.

There is no denying that Ray Lewis is a great athlete and a linebacker of a generation. To continue what he is doing at 37 years old is really amazing. How he dropped 20 pounds over the off season to regain some speed is a testament to his work ethic, but please Ray stay away from quoting the New Testament and in how God's intent to end your career in a Super Bowl win.

Ray it is a great story that you have found God and ferociously thank him for all he has done for you. I commend you for finding God, but save the God's intention spiel. I do not need a man who partook witnessed the brutal stabbing of two men to death outside a nigh club in Atlanta to tell me about God's intent. There has been zero people found of that murder and zero white suits (worn by Ray) found that night. Hopefully, God does not intend to end your career on a cold, January night in Foxborough.

Give Russell His Due

After the highly touted and gifted Robert Griffin the third jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the 1st quarter of last week's Wild Card game at home, the nation's capital was booking it's trip to New Orleans. RG3 landed awkwardly late in the 1st quarter and preceded to gut it out and reducing his mobility to on par with Drew Bledsoe. The Redskins would lose the game 24-14 and the buzz around the game was whether Redskins coach Mike Shanahan should have pulled RG3 for the very capable Kirk Cousins, who has recently lead the Redskins to a victory a few weeks prior. Not how Russell Wilson calmly chipped the lead away and managed the Seahawks on the road to its first road playoff win in 29 years.
Growing up in the Northeast, I grew accustomed to the East Coast Bias from the media and understand why the rest of the country hates the Red Sox/Yankees hype. So with much of the talk all year around RG3 and Andrew Luck in Indianapolis, Seattle has relatively quietly pieced together a top 10 defense (6th against the pass and 10th against the run) and a viable offense. Maybe Seattlonians rather discuss their team's success in a quiet coffee shop rather than over every AM sports radio show that covers everything from shirtless Tim Tebow to Tom Brady's sleeping patterns with a new born.  3rd Round Draft pick Russell Wilson supplanted the highest paid backup QB, Matt Flynn for the  starting QB job in the summer. The Seahawks relied on beast running back Marshawn Lynch from the early weeks in the season. After Wilson demonstrated his ability to succeed on the play action and pass to his 2nd and 3rd option, few have been better than Wilson. Since the beginning of November, he has lead his team to 8 wins in 9 outings in throwing for 17 TDS and 2 INTs and smartly accumulating 428 rushing yards & 4 TDs. Seattle comes back to the East Coast this weekend to face the San Jose Sharks of the NFL, Atlanta Falcons. A team that is allergic to winning in the postseason.
This team reminds me alot of the Patriots in the early oughts. Great defense with nobodies and QB that quietly manages his team to wins. To be frank, I do not know how Bill Simmons does not stop gloating about his Seahawks to the super bowl prediction in the preseason. I do not think the Seahawks mind all the focus on the 49ers/Packers game in the other divisional round. They will continue to quietly sip their coffee all the way to New Orleans. Hell.... I traded my cup of Dunkin in for Starbucks a long time ago.

Bridal Show

I'm engaged to my lovely fiance Brooke.  We went to a bridal show this weekend, and since I know she'll never read this, I can say if you want to meet women.......go to a bridal show.  Now.....granted you have competition from the husbands to be, but this place was crawling with chicks.  But for every future bride there was easily one or two single depressed friends with her.

Now let's take a look at these "friends".  They are walking around a bridal show on a Sunday afternoon....this of course after another unsuccessful Saturday night out at the bar.  Then they must give all of their attention and compliments to their "best friend" in the world.  And we all know, no one wants someone to be miserable more than a girls best friend.  To make things worse they see thousands of ridiculously happy couples like myself holding hands and acting happy.

Anyways, this would be the perfect place for a guy to meet a girl.  I mean if I was single on paper I might even set up a booth as a vendor. I would just wait for the lonely best friends to walk by and then introduce myself.   It would be like a strip club for women, same concept really........everyone wanting something they can't have.  Whether it is a hot girl or a husband.  Regardless, I wanted to make a post and share my experience with all the single men in the world.   Go to a bridal show.........it will be the best decision of your weekend....and if all goes well the worst of hers.

A Waning Loyalty

VS.

As a little boy my dad would trudge my older brother and I to the classic barbershop on Saturday mornings. There was always a dozen men and boy's with their father's shuffling in and out. To me it seemed as if it was a tradition my father was passing onto to me without uttering a word. It was here I would learn a new swear word or a sexual reference I would not normally hear at the family abode. It was the classic chauvinistic banter you would only hear at barber shops or on a bar stool. To me it did not matter that we spent nearly 2 1/2 hours at the barber, it was more of soaking in the important culture of the barber shop. Drinking coffee, eating doughnuts, and talking about how the local high school football team was going to the Super Bowl. This tradition carried on till I was about 15 and realized the 88 year old barber was a much better story teller than a barber.

I went out on my own and decided to go a barber around the street. Steve, my new barber, gave a great haircut and provided a fairly good conversation. Still a male barbershop, but a little more metro and better haircut. Over the years of being away, I would always stop in for a cut to catch up. Still a great haircut and one of the few loyalties I maintained as an fleeting 20 something, but that was about to change.

During one drunken vaunt through Boston in the fall, my friend and I preceded to a girl's apartment where his flavor of the week and her friend waited. After a few more glasses and wine, I figured out my prospect for the night was a hair stylist. Next thing I know the clippers are out and she is delicately trimming my hair and massaging my head. It was a euphoria... a pretty girl cutting and massaging my head... how have I not had this happen before?! We proceeded to the bed... yatta yatta yatta... woke up the next morning with her remembering very little. I took this as an opportunity to ask her if I was the first Bartholomew she had hooked up with.

This all spurred me to cheat on my beloved barber, Steve and head to the local Super Cuts for a new cut. Waiting patiently, I was appointed a very cute girl to cut my hair. As I fumbled through telling her how I wanted my haircut,  we chuckled and I told her, "I trust your judgement." She eloquently scissor cut the top of my head for 25 minutes and opted for the shampoo for an additional $2 dollars. After the gentle head rub shampoo and flirty exchange, my 40 minutes of euphoria was up. For a minimal $18 dollars plus a hefty tip, it was all worth it to me(Although there is a good chance the flirtation was to spawn the hefty tip.. a minute detail in my mind). I walked out glowing with a new hair cut and pep in my step.

It was with a heavy heart to realize no matter how good of a haircut Steve could give me, the idea of him shampooing my head was never an option. It was not a fair fight. All those countless hours of barber shop loyalty and a father's hard work had been demolished by a girl with a warm smile and gentle hands.