Music & Lyrics...

So today while looking for a good cd to sing along to in my car I realized that there aren't a lot of songs these days that are instant sing-alongs. Aside from country, there really isn't a whole lot of music to sing along to on the radio. Granted I never listen to the radio but this might be one of the reasons. Transport yourself back to the early to mid 90s for a second. Remember how every song that was on the radio was really easy to sing along to. Hootie and the Blowfish, Mariah Carey (the good years), Boyz II Men, R.E.M, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and the list goes on and on. It was like songs were made for people to sing along to whether with people or alone in your car. Then it evolved into singing and dancing with the likes of N' Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney and Jordan Knight.

But for some reason it doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of contemporary songs that are fun to sing along to. Kelly Clarkston doesn't even have a jam of the moment. I mean there are the old faithfuls like JT, R Kelly, Usher, Ashlee Simpson, Beyonce and what not. But there is a serious lack of new songs by new artists that are just fun to sing along to. I realize that there are certain songs on the radio that you might know the chorus to, but it's not the same and it's also not lasting. If you play any top 40 hit from 88-00 I can almost guarantee that most of my peers around the age of 25 would know the lyrics. But in 10 years I'm not going to remember the hook from a Chingy song (does he still make music?)




















(I do know all of Taylor Swift's lyrics though)

I bring this up because on a cd that I recently purchased, Danity Kane, there isn't a single song that I can sing along to. There are some really fun pop dance songs that make me wanna drink, go to Rick's* and dance, but there is nothing there that I can memorize and store in the annals of lyrics in my mind.

* For those who don't know, Rick's is a bar in East Lansing & Ann Arbor that is home to many drunken dance offs, cheap pitchers, short skirts and general skanky-ness. It's a lot of fun.

Anyways, I just wanted to sing. As always, go big or go home...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - I'm sure I am forgetting a lot of current fun music to sing but I can't think of any and that's kind of my point. So don't comment saying, "You're crazy! What about songs like "Love Song," by Sara Bareilles?" To which I will reply, "That song doesn't count because I don't think anyone knows any lyrics besides "I'm not gonna write you a love song...cause you something something something..."

March Not So-Madness...

Historically, I have always been very into March Madness. It seems like if you love basketball it's a pretty great thing. 12 hours straight for 2 days in a row followed by some really close games as the field gets smaller. But for some reason this year I haven't been that into it. I love MSU and I love watching State and I'm super pumped we made it to the sweet 16, but as far as other teams go, I couldn't care less. I am actually still alive and doing pretty well in my pools so that's not the problem. I think I just don't really care anymore. I don't care that Davidson beat Georgetown. I didn't even watch the game. I didn't care about either team all season and while this would usually be an occasion for me to root for one of them, this year I chose not to watch.



I'm glad Davidson won. I love upsets. I'm glad U-Conn lost. I had both of them and Duke in the final four in at least one of my brackets but I still don't care. I love when the underdog wins. That's what the Madness is all about. Rooting for the underdog. I have always taken the first day of the tournament off from whatever I'm doing and sit and watch all day. This year the only reason I did was because State played at 12:30 and I had to watch that. I am pretty sure though that if we ever lose it'll not only be the end of their tournament but mine as well. If it's not State then I could care less who wins.

Anyways, just rambling but I'm not sure if this means that I'm just over March Madness or this is a stage of growing up when you stop caring about things that really don't matter at all. Maybe a little of both. As always, go big or go home...

Go Green!

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - Anyone have any tips on working out lower abs? I've tried many things but can't seem to do anything that works them out really well.

Confessions...

I've had this problem in my life with loving bad music. It doesn't just extend to the depths of loving all that is R-Kelly but it also embraces terrible artists like Ashlee Simpson, Kellie Pickler, Juelz Santana and even Lil John. I used to get teased a lot in high school and middle school for loving people like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and N Sync. All of whom are great but when you are a 16 year old boy, not so much. Never one to want to be 'cool' I would not only like them but listen to them while at school.

So in keeping with that tone, I must admit one of my darkest loves.




















Danity Kane. Better known as MTV's Making the Band 3. You know the all girl group. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's the stranglehold Diddy has on me. But whatever the reason, after purchasing the new album Tuesday, I realized not only did I own both albums but I bought them both on opening day. As if my world revolved around the release of those albums.

The worst part is the first one sucked, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear their new and improved sound. It's wayyy better than the last one.

I'm pretty terrible I know but I justify it with the amount of completely awesome semi-obscure music I listen to/purchase. For example the reason I was at the record store in the first place yesterday was to buy the highly anticipated She & Him album which is in the running for best album of the year already (and I've only listened to it once so far).

Anyways, live and love is my motto. Among others I guess. Go big or go home...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - as it's now past noon, I can divulge my secret to winning my NCAA pools, MSU is going to the final four. Count it.

oh pps - If you like the new making the band all boy band as much as I do, they're called Day 26 and their album drops next tuesday.

Net-F(l)ixed...

So after many months of having Netflix, I finally had my first one go missing. I don't mean that I lost it, but that it got lost. In the mail. Or so they say. It was supposed to be here on saturday and is never late. Yesterday one came. Alone. So I got online to see what they would do about it and how much I would have to pay.

It turns out this happens. I don't have to pay anything. They apologized and sent a replacement. I love Netflix. But also I wondered, how many people do this? It seems like if you see a movie you love love love and don't want to return you can just say it never came. I mean, all they will do is send a replacement. What is strange is that they don't seem to care that people probably do this. They kind of encourage it actually. Instead of sending a replacement dvd of the one that never came, you can just have them send you the next one in your queue. As if to say, "hey we know you stole our shit, but hazaa! we don't care! We'll send you the next one in your queue because we are just that awesome!"

Since Netflix aren't paying me to say this I will also say something bad about them. If you have a Mac, you can't watch movies online through their site. Part of the package that I have allows me to watch unlimited movies they have on their site online, but alas, it only works with PCs. How about catering to the increasingly large amount of Mac owners and help some people kill time.

It also got me thinking about things getting lost in the mail. Does that still happen? My brother's computer he ordered from Apple got "lost in the mail" but that was clearly stolen. You would think that with the increasing number of people not using mail (when was the last time you sent a letter (not counting cards) and not an email?) the post office would be doing all they can to stay afloat. But for some reason the price of stamps is increasing still and plus you have to go to the post office. I'd actually rather communicate without getting out of bed thank you very much.

As always, go big...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - If you like movies, get netflix. It really is pretty awesome.

The Pope Didn't Go To State...

Obviously.

Last week the Pope changed St. Patty's day from the 17th to the 15th because he felt that the 17th would have been to close to Easter. Or something along those lines. The idea was that people shouldn't be drinking the same week as Easter. The Pope didn't go to State. Instead of what would have normally been a tame weekend before a St. Patty's day that would have landed on Monday, by moving it to Saturday, Mr. Pope turned it into a three day binge drinking weekend here in East Lansing. State kids know how to party so rather than change their plans of drinking on Monday to Saturday, they just added two more days filled with green beer.

I have often touted my old age as the reason I can't drink like I used to and try as I might, I still can't keep up. I had planned on doing a big Saturday and Monday but the first day killed me. I remember hitting the bar at 6am back when I was 21 and staying out all day. By the time I was 23 I didn't make it out til 10am and had to take an afternoon nap before drinking again at night. Now at 25, I got to the bar at 1:30pm, hot another one around 4 or so, then back to the apartment for a round of Power Hour. It was by far the toughest Power Hour I have ever done and I ended up passing out shortly after it was over for about 2 hours before we went out again. I was tired. Very tired.




















(Much too old to be acting like this)

I am resigned to the fact that not only am I not capable of weekend long drinking binges anymore, but I don't want to do them. So far this year I have only been drunk on 4 occasions. That's pretty good considering last year I was probably drunk at least once a week, but being in NYC will do that to you. One of my resolutions was to drink much less this year in accordance with my "get healthy" regime, and I gotta say, drinking is the easiest of my 'vices' to give up. Unlike cookies, ice-cream, chips and wings, giving up alcohol isn't hard. It's pretty easy actually. All you gotta do is not do it. Sometimes I crave a chocolate chip cookie, and that usually results in me buying a pack of the "break and bake" nestle chocolate chunks. Delicious. But I never crave alcohol.

I digress. A lot. Actually I either forgot my point or didn't have one in the first place. Either way, I'm done. Go big...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - I hate green beer. I finally avoided any this year, but for some reason it makes me sick. I know. It's just food coloring. It's got nothing in it to make me sick. But perhaps it's my kryptonite. Who knows. I can't deal with it though and I don't have to.

Skittles...

Aside from an awesome thing to yell when someone is shooting free throws and being a delicious candy, Skittles has cornered the market on hilarious commercials. I love them. Can't get enough of em. They are the most ridiculous commercials ever, yet still hilarious.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here are my two favortie:





Hil. arious.

-M, p,z & shredder

oh ps - chocolate skittles? not so sure...

Roasted...

Keith Olbermann pretty much summed it up when he blasted Clinton's campaign after the Ferraro comments. Pretty awesome honest rant.




Also you know what I find funny. I was an english major in college and there is nothing I hate more than an english class. I like reading and reading things I ordinarily wouldn't have chose to read because a lot of times those can be the best books. But the classroom part of an english class is pointless. Either you're talking about the book on a superficial level i.e. the plot. Or you're making up some inane bullshit about what you think it might be about. It's like discussing art or politics with your friends only you aren't allowed to really argue with people. Discussions are always so timid and, "well maybe the author means this...unless you disagree professor." It's a waste of time. I usually try and write all of my papers as the opposite of whatever everyone in the class thinks just to give the prof something new to look at and also because I like to argue with people and flaunt my superiority. Also then the prof has no other paper to compare mine to so it can pretty much be complete bollocks. It's just kind of pointless.

Also something I wanted to mention was people adding lame things on their facebook page. I like when people add funny quotes or interesting likes but not so much with the lame high school sappy stuff. For example one of my readers recently added two things to her facebook page. One was funny and one was not. She added "thinking about running" to her interests. That's hilarious. It's like something Seinfeld would say. But then she also added to her interests, "missing Brett." Sorry C, but that's not cool. You miss your boyfriend? I feel you. But not an interest. I don't mean to put you on the spot but you just happened to be the most recent in a long line of them and were still on my home page. I guess it doesn't really matter but I thought people stopped doing things like that after we became adults. I remember doing fruity things like that on my AIM away messages back when I was 18. I haven't been on AIM in about 4 years though so I wouldn't know if people still do that. Anyways I guess I don't really care, actually it only bothers me because I have to see it when I log on.

As always, go big or go home and stuff...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - Recent revelation: I'm more excited for The Dark Knight than I am for the new Indian Jones. I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand Batman Begins was possibly the greatest comic book adaptation ever which leads me to believe that TDK will be the new number 1. But on the other hand it's Indy. We'll see though...

Warning: May Cause Seizures...

Gnarles Barkley's new video is on youtube. Next to the title is a warning that watching it might give you a seizure. I'm not the biggest fan of the song or the video. I love the part with JT but how could you not. I'm not really down with the whole psychadellic video thing with spiral backgrounds and patters going across the screen. I didn't really like his their video for "Crazy" either.

Something happened to music videos (probably after mtv stopped playing them, or maybe that's why they stopped). Remember back in the day when new videos used to be the coolest thing ever. I remember when I was a lot younger watching the top 100 video countdown on new years eve and waiting with baited breath to see who would be number 1. The videos weren't just a montage of stuff with some music. They had a story of their own and they were awesome. I miss those days. I think the last time I saw a good video was when I was in high school and TRL just started.

Anyways, here's one of my favorite songs/videos of all time:



As always, go big and stuff

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - I posted over on Ibodera that I would run for mayor one day and I just wanted people to know that I'm serious. I'm not saying today or in the next couple years. But I have a lot of ideas that I think are good (thought they might suck) and I would really want to try and be mayor. Now I'm not talking about NYC or somewhere ridiculous, but I could see myself as mayor of Port Huron. Somewhere with a population of less than 100,000 people. Preferably somewhere around 50-70 would be good. Anyways, keep that in mind. I might need some campaign strategists.

Yes, We Will?...

Seriously Hillary? You can't think of your own hook so you steal my boy's? That's a little pathetic right? In case you didn't see her speech last night, Hillary ranted for a while about Barack's 'empty' speeches and figured the best way to make her point was to steal his catch phrase. Crazy.

Anyways...Sunday was senior night for the MSU basketball team and I saw something that reminded me why I love sports so much. I have never really been a huge college basketball fan. In high school I used to only watch March Madness and got more into it after going to college at a school that had a great basketball team. Over the years though, I have come to appreciate NCAA hoops a lot more. While there are still many things I don't like about it (35 second shot clock, most players suck, can't shoot, 3 point line is too close (though it's changing next year)) there is so much about it that is basketball at it's best.

Oftentimes in the NBA the 'love' gets lost. Players forget that they get to play basketball for a living and make more money than would ever be necessary. People decide that they are going to turn down a 3-year 27 million dollar contract because that's "not enough money to feed their family." They lose the love and claim that their 'heart is in their chest' and not with a team and leave a beloved team and city for more money with a rival. They bicker about every single call or no-call to the refs and argue with their coaches.

College basketball is different. It is people playing basketball because they love it. Because they love to be on a team and compete. Sure winning is important but it's not everything. At least to most schools. If you aren't a top tier school, the odds of even making the tournament are pretty slim given the number of D1 schools. People play because they love the sport. They respect the other teams, the other coaches and best of all, they go 100 percent on every single play. You never see people walk up the court getting back on defense or play lazy, partly because they have a short schedule but mostly because they want to play hard.
















So at senior night on sunday, en route to blowing out 12th ranked Indiana by 30, Drew Neitzel and Drew Naymick played their last games at home for the Spartans. I remember when they were both freshman and talking about how good we were going to be with Neitzel and while we haven't won a championship we got to the final four under him. It was sad to see them go because they always played their hearts out and on their way off their home court for the last time they each kneeled down and kissed the "S" at center court. It was a pretty touching moment I think for any Spartans fan and hopefully for basketball fans in general. They loved the game so much and appreciated every second on the court so much that they kissed the floor of a gym where they spent 4 years working their asses off for free. That's why I love basketball and that made me love not only the Spartans, but basketball in general a whole lot more.

Anyways, that's all for now. Go big...

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - if you know what's good for you, you'll go buy Vampire Weekend. Best cd I've purchased in a long time. For realz.