Congratulations, Music Choice.

If you've been trying to give me nightmares, I think you may have finally succeeded.

So I'm sitting here, getting my nighty Adventure Quest dose, and listening to the MC's Smooth Jazz station...when all of a sudden, I glance up at the TV to see what song is playing, and THIS embraces my eyes and mind. o_O

Between that, and "Thelonious Moog's" interesting rendition of Focus' "Hocus Pocus" somehow passing for Smooth Jazz*, AND Talking Book being considered Smooth Jazz**, it's a freakin' miracle that I have not totally quit on Music Choice, period. ESPECIALLY ever since I've made Stanley, my Gigabeat digital music player, a practical radio station on my stereo, thanks to my discovery of RockBox a couple of months ago.

But alas, I have to have a source for discovering new tunes to like...especially since I'm not enamoured with XM/Sirius' fees currently, AND VH1 Classic has become VH1 Crap. I mean, seriously, where have all the videos gone? If I wanted lists, artist/band bios, etcetera, I'd watch the "normal" VH1 instead...that is, whenever they're not showing "Celeb-Reality" and/or "I Love New York". *sighs and rolls her eyes*

Current Music: "Feeling Good" by Randy Crawford and Joe Sample

* - It's not necessarily Thelonious Moog themselves and their material I have a problem with...just the fact that Music Choice has the damned gall to consider said material "Smooth Jazz". Heck, it's not even regular Jazz for that matter. BUT overall, other than that, it's really hard to complain about two guys who have an obvious delightful sense of humor, as demonstrated by their American Standard album's cover sporting the two drawn as cartoons holding toilet implements. Just like why Dave Barry excluded The Rivingtons (makers of such fine, classic, booty-shakin' tunes like "Papa Oom Mow Mow" and "The Bird Is The Word") from his infamous Bad Song Survey: Thelonious Moog's concept is so bad, it's good.

** - I do like two songs by Talking Book..."Your Soul Baby" and "Now (Instrumental)". The latter is easily the only thing by them that passes for Smooth Jazz. The former is a *very good* song, but is definitely more of a 70's Pop/Soul throwback than Smooth Jazz.

Not to mention that "Story of Life" seriously needs to go...did the world *really* need another bad O-Jays soundalike song? Ugh. Come to think of it, the only O-Jays songs I like are "Love Train", "Back Stabbers", and "For The Love of Money" (a.k.a. the 'Money, Money, Money' song), and those are guilty pleasures at best. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I think I like "FtLoM" because I think I could plink out the first few notes of that song the next time I happen upon a Casio/Yamaha keyboard set up for people to goof around on at a Sam's Warehouse or Wal-Mart. Hey, if I could/can plink out the legendary keyboard sequence backing up Greg Lake's vocals in the first couple of verses of ELP's "Knife Edge", then why not the opening to "$,$,$"?

The Only Reason I *Might* Be Watching the All-Star Game...

...is because I want to see AND hear the following being played after every goal scored.

"grr...oo oooh oo ohhhhhooo oohhh oo oooh oooohhhhhoo oooh oo ohhhhh..."

I know I'm much more than likely the only one AND at the risk of sounding like I have a dirty mind, the thought of a "song" like that being played whenever someone scores strikes me as an arena control room in-joke sort of thing. In addition to how funny it must sound (for at least the first two or three goals, anyway), the thought of the A/V nerds sounding strangely like Beavis and Butthead as that "song" rings throughout the arena makes me cannot help but snicker on and off myself.

Of course, I could be taking such a thing way out of context, and the "song" could turn out to be a "today's version" of "Papa Oom Mow Mow"...which would be more annoying than funny.

Speaking of annoying, I think the only other real noteworthy thing about the All-Star Game/Event (besides the fact that Williams, Staal, AND the East overall did quite well in the Skillz Competition) is that Gary Bettman seems to constantly prove that he is very much the most easy to make fun of guy in the universe. And for those of you who actually care, here is my part of the mayhem...

And now for something completely different...a very cool tidbit posted at The Score Boards Canes MB this morn: When you live in Raleigh AND know the (former) coach of your absolute favorite NFL team*, life is pretty danged good OR (to take a cue from Rocky and Bullwrinkle's show) Reason #31 Why Raleigh Rocks. Roll over Cleveland, rock on Pittsburgh! Starbucks...wait-a-minute, they don't have a slogan, do they? Rats. But, at least they have damn good coffee...which probably means that the Starbucks in Twin Peakes is probably the most damn good coffee in all of the world.

Yes, I'm bored...and insane. But, in all honesty, that's really nothing new and has been for sometime. ;P

Current Music: "You Get What You Give" by The New Radicals

* - GO STEELERS!! That is, whenever they're not facing my homestate AND NFC favorite Panthers. As for right now, GO BEARS!! We must not let the Peyton Manning reign of terror begin...Tom Brady's was/is bad enough.

January 11th, 2007 - Canes vs. Panthers: Random Musings and Observations

- Games like this one can be tricky to write about...on one hand, I could lambast this Canes team on the gawdawful first two thirds they played last night. But on the other hand, I could practically worship this team over the FANTASTIC third period they somehow managed last night. That would have been a bet I would have lost big time.

That said, one could argue that with that last sentence, I was breaking my cardinal hockey fandom rule of a game ain't over until it's over. Bet'cha a lot of people who left the RBC during the second intermission wish they followed that rule...even with all of my complaining, (cat-calls) I wouldn't have left! I wouldn't have left! :P

And trust me people, with all of the Canes games I got to attend when I was a Raleigh native, I had ample opportunity to leave early, but I never did. And I never will, cross my heart and hope to die.

- After reading the game thread at The Score Boards, I guess I'm the only one...I just don't find the Florider* Puddytat announcers to be that bad. Yes, that includes Denis Potvin. Who I *did* find annoying during the First Round of the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But, I think a lot of that was because John Forslund was Potvin's play-by-play partner, and I somehow missed Tripp Tracy's inanity.

- Dennis Seidenberg has proven to be a lot better than I thought he'd be...and I was/am one of the rare few who thought he would be not too bad AND an overall slight improvement over Kevyn Adams.

- 'Cause Jes Golbez ranted about it regarding the Wild/Canucks game last night, I cannot help but bring up the aspect of stupid "anthems" being played at NHL games. AND, you know one of these had to have been played at last night's rumble with the Cats. So it shouldn't be completely off-topic...if it is, well, it's my blog, tough noogies. ;P

What he said: "Anyone who partakes in the “Day-O” chant. Yeah, there are people who actually dig that crap. Do us all a favour and commit suicide, would you please."

What she said: "How the absolute hell did "Day-O" become one of those "anthems" that you almost always hear at NHL games? I can understand "Who Let the Dogs Out", as stupid as it is. But "Day-O", "Thank God I'm A Country Boy", AND in *very rare* instances, the Spongebob Squarepants theme?!

Obviously, we've got bigger fish to fry than the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. o_O"

Really AND truly, the Spongebob Squarepants theme has gotten quite a bit of leverage in sportsdom the last few years. The first time I ever heard it at a sporting event was at the only Durham Bulls game I've ever attended, in June of 2004. And boy, it was hot crap then...everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY joined in the sing-along to it. I'll admit that I joined in because...

1. I did not want to come across as a fuddy-duddy.

and

2. I don't know if it was the vapors from the beer and Red Man, or what, but I did not realize that I was contributing to the rise of a phenomenon that wasn't for the better.

Seriously, at the time, I didn't think that I would hear a cartoon theme, that makes the presence of Tripp Tracy seem intellectual, be played at NHL games. But, thanks to the Wonderful World of Center Ice, I have heard about "who lives in a pineapple under the sea" during at least two or three, if not four NHL games this season. And probably a few times last season too. I never thought I'd say this, but such stuff makes me practically clamour for "Cotton-Eyed Joe", "Thank God I'm A Country Boy", "Day-O", and even the Vengaboys!!

Well, so much for not coming across as a fuddy-duddy... :P

Current Music: "What I Am Is What I Am" by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

* - There's more to speaking Southern than saying "y'all" and "Git R Done"...to really master such an art, replace the "a" with "er" in words and names ending with "a". Examples: "Florider" (as you may have heard in the Florida's Natural orange juice TV ads), "Caroliner", "Atlanter", "Ottawer", "Bates Battaglier", etceterer.