And the Song of the Decade Is.....

Hello all,

So, I got my Rolling Stone's Decades Issue last week which named their list of best songs, albums, artists and films of the decades. Now, to me, Rolling Stone completely lost their credibility when they put Jonas Brothers on the cover in March, but my subscription doesn't end until January so I gave it a flip through... Here's some of my thoughts on their and my picks...

Song of the Decade: Rolling Stone’s Choice- Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.
First reaction: You’ve got to be f-ing kidding me. So bad Rolling Stone has lost its credibility, and whoever approved this going into print should be publically scorned and job-hunting. I mean, seriously- is there anyone who likes this song?? I can't remmember anyone liking it back then, more or less down the road- and the song of a decade is supposed to be a classic....
While, unfortunately, we were forced to listen to this in bars and clubs wayy to much in 2006, I have a hard time putting Cee-Lo as the face of the decade. This song had no lyrics, an annoying hook and only 3 years later, this song is quickly greeted by changing the station when comes on. This song was popular and all, but unfortunately so was DJ Sammy’s trashpiece Heaven; which clearly shows popularity does NOT make something a classic.
Other questionable mentions on their list: 99 Problems by Jay-Z as #2 (Jay-Z is cool and all but seriously? This is an instant next button push on the CD player), Paper Planes by M.I.A. at #5 (God- our kids are gonna feel sorry for us when they see this list some day…), and Justin Timberlake Cry Me A River at #20 (No comment needed…)
My top 5 songs of the decade:
#5- MGMT- Time to Pretend (2006). Reminded me of a combination of Jim Morrison’s passion and the Flaming Lips’ artistry the first time I heard it. Epic music video.
#4- Daft Punk- One More Time (2001). Completely transformed music by making house/techno music into a  mainstream genre (but unfortunately paving the way for DJ Sammy's Heaven to be played non-stop...) . Not my favourite Daft Punk song (Digital Love) or probably not even top-10 but everyone in the world knows this song.

#3- The Killers- All These Things I’ve Done (2004). "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"... Stayed on the charts for the better half of a year, has a great music video and even a rapper has been quoted as saying it’s his favourite song of all-time.
#2- 50 cent- In Da Club (2003). If you missed this one, odds are you spent the entire decade on the International Space Station- but even in that case- you still would have still heard it. Can anyone forget the hype behind 50 after this was leaked…
#1- Outkast- Hey Ya! (2005) kids will still be singing “Shake it like a Polaroid Picture” years after Polaroid factories shut it down permanently and I just heard Mike Wilbon ask Tony "What's cooler than being cool?? Ice Cold!" today… ‘nough said. And don't forget about the epic music video....

Album of the Decade: Rolling Stone’s Choice- Kid A by Radiohead.
First Reaction: Agree Completely.

Radiohead’s fourth album, while differing greatly from their previous release OK Computer, proved to be the their breakthrough album in the United States. They were bolder: throwing conventional song structure out the window and focusing more on sound and texture. The sound diversity in this album is superb: ranging from rhythmic keyboards on “Everything in its right place” to  acoustic guitars layered with an atonal string section in “How to Disappear Completely”. The greatest part of Radiohead- they weren’t one and done either- releasing the smashing In Rainbows in 2007 (#30 on Rolling Stone’s list) and Amnesiac only a year after Kid A (#25 of the list).
Questionble mentions: Bruce Springsteen’s Magic (#24)- everything he does (if, in fact, anything he does) isn’t good- and just because this CD is laced with popular political opinions, doesn’t mask the redundant chords, lack of texture and questionable vocals.
Outkast’s Speakerboxxx (#34)- not even their best album.
The rest of my top 5:
#5- Kanye West- The College Dropout- Best Rap CD of the decade. His debut album which combined amazing production, deep lyrics and huge guest appearances to put out the hits “Jesus Walks”, “Slow Jamz”, “School Spirit”, “Never Let me down”, and “Family Business”. Kanye changed his title from a producer trying to rap to a lyricist who also can produce and joined the RZA as the best in the game.

#4- The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots- Combines lethal machines, conceptual anthems, Pink Floyd-esque preogressive rock and Neil Young-like passion in talking about everything from killer robots, death and a gutsy heroine. The Lips have been big in the underground/Indy scene since the ‘80s and it’s good to see them finally get their due.
#3- The Killers- Hot Fuss (2004). The boys from Vegas ruffled alot of feathers before their first release by saying they wanna "knock zeppelin and nirvana off their pedestals" but this album is a classic- spurning 5 singles, 3 chart topers and a 2 VMA awards.
#2- Coldplay- A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002). Their sophmore album actually did what no one thought possible and one-upped parachutes. What a work of genious and diversity, moving from the cathartic rock of "Politik" to the hushed tones of "Green Eyes". Classic


Rapper of the Decade: Rolling Stone’s Choice- Kanye West
First Reaction: Agree 110%
I know Kanye would’ve gotten a lot more votes from the public had this poll be conducted before the VMAs. But, this guy brings it. He released 3 chart toping albums this decade- College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation while producing all of Jay-Zs albums and making numerous guest

appearances. He has joined the RZA and Dr. Dre as rappers who can produce; and his lyrics are meaningful stories, not just rhymes that merely make sense. I know a lot of people wanna see Jay-Z here after his amazingly popular The Blueprint 3 release and I know Jay-Z has great production (Kanye by the way) and hooks; but take a listen to the lyrics of Jay-Zs Empire State of Mind and compare them to Kanye's Everything I Am.... And if he has Sir Paul's approval, he has mine....


Artist of the Decade: Bruce Springsteen "Working Class Superhero"
First Reaction: This has gotta be a f-ing joke.
OK, I know the guy made an American epic when "Born in The U.S.A.", his anti-Vietnam song, was shockingly misunderstood by Richard Nixon and used as his campaign song, but this guy has to be the most overated artist ever. Bruce, to me, has become the guy that everyone thinks they are supposed to like, but no one really does.
My pick: Radiohead, 3 chart-toping albums (Kid A, Amnesiac and In Rainbows).

Lastly this week, I want take care of something I forgot to do last week and give NO respect to whoever made the BCS bowl matchups (I guess Fox or the selection committee, or Tostitos, who knows...) for the TCU-Boise matchup they hit us with in the Fiesta Bowl. I thought after watching Utah dismantle Alabama last year and Boise's win over the Boomer Sooners a few years ago, theses schools would get more respet. TCU looks to be legit this year- but unfortunately by quaranteening them to play Boise (who no one knows much about either), we'll never know. The BCS should have pitted them vs. Florida in the Sugar for several reasons: (1) it would have been way more interesting than playing a Cincy team without a coach, (2) TCU beat 7 bowl eligable teams this year, (3) We would KNOW whether TCU  and the Mountain West is legit. If TCU won, this would make the second year in a row that a Mountain West team beat a SEC team and would give the conference legitimate beef that they are still not a "BCS conference". But, the BCS screwed us again and made the result of the Fiesta bowl, irrelevant. Who cares if TCU pounds Boise??? Also a loss, missing out on creating another classic poster like the one on the left.


As always, be sure to check the "near you" tab on our homepage, www.roosterfly.com, for a list of concerts, games and shows near you....and be sure to check out the BCS National Championship tickets...

Till next week,
MN

There's No Crying In Football!!!!

Hello all,

What do Tim Tebow and Adam Morrison have in common?? Apparently, neither one has watched the all-time cinematic classic, A League of Their Own. Or, if they have, neither one took the words of manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) to heart when he proclaimed (which is rated as the 54th best movie quote of all time by the way- clearly underated!)

Are you crying?? There's no crying in baseball!!!

Maybe Dugan was referring only to women's baseball... But while I think this quote is applicable to not only an all-female baseball team, but perphaps male sports as well; I guess neither Tim Tebow or Adam Morrison agrees with me because as the sports hernia so elegantly stated it- Tim Tebow played a touching tribute to Adam Morrison this weekend when he started crying on the sidelines in the loss to Alabama. Now- while these two do have much in common (mainly the fact they are college superstars with seemingly no place at the next level), there are some differences (besides the fact they play a different sport). But which one is the bigger gaffe???

For all those who don't remmember Morrison's breakdown, Youtube highlights here, but in brief, he broke down with 2.8 seconds left in the sweet sixteen against UCLA with his team down 1 after several Gonzaga turnovers gave UCLA their first lead of the game. To me, Morrison's weep job was waayyy worse for several reasons. First, his team was actually in the game when it happened- Gonzaga was down just 1 with 2.8 seconds left (but UCLA had the ball) when the 6-8 swingman started to breakdown. Second, Morrison actually laid down in the middle of the court (on which there was another game to follow), until several UCLA players felt so bad they stopped celebrating with their guys and went to help him up. Lastly, Gonzaga had a legit look at a game tying and overtime forcing 3-ball at the end of the game- so what would Adam have done if it had gone down??? But, The Sports Hernia, does make a good point- Adam waited till 2.8 seconds to begin crying while Tebow was seen weeping at 1:03 left to go- beating Morrison to the punch by an astounding 61 seconds! In either case, no disrespect at all to either one of these guys, I just wish they would've done us a favor by holding it in until they got to the locker room. But, I do wanna say that Tim Tebow will probably and very deservingly go down as one of the top 5 college football players of all time. The guy is a machine, a warrior, a winner, and I am glad I got to see him play for 4 years! One question I do have about Tebow is I wonder what his teamates think of him?? (Yes, I know they all have to say they love him on interviews and I'm not saying they feel otherwise but am just curious). Watching him yell at defensive players in the defensive huddle in the 4th quarter Saturday made me wonder and got me thinking about how many times I've seen Mariano Rivera yell at Derek Jeter (two players that play totally different positions much like offense vs defense in football) over the years....

As for the games on Saturday, there really isn't much to say about the SEC game other than how shocked I and I'm sure a lot of other people were about how dominate Alabama was. I thought the game would be like last year's in that it would be decided in the 4th quarter, but the Gators never made a push in the 2nd hald and were outscored 13-0 after halftime. Mark Ingram was great- tying the SEC championship game record with 3 TDs, and should gain strong Heisman consideration if not the frontrunner. Greg McElroy was outstanding (12-18, 239 1TD 0INT) for Alabama, and his ability to beat man to man coverage took away Florida's gameplan of putting 8 men in the box all game. Did it look to anyone else like the game winning drive he led against Auburn a couple of weeks ago gave this guy a whole lot more swagger?? I couldn't believe the confidence and zip he had on his throws; completely different than earlier this season.

I want to give NO respect to the 6 voters (4 in the ESPN/Coaches, and 2 in the AP) who gave Texas first place votes after watching their pitiful performance (which they should have lost) against Nebraska on Saturday (I can only justify one vote- if Nick Saban voted Texas #1 to avoid giving his vote to his own team). Now, I am in no way saying that Alabama should be a unanimous #1, because that's not it at all and I would understand TCU getting votes after the amazing dominate season they've had, Cincy after a great win over a very good Pitt team or even Boise (hey they beat Oregon and never stopped rolling), but Texas?? Texas, to me, is everything that is wrong with pre-season polls and the BCS. The Longhorns have proved this year that if you get a high pre-season ranking, the best way to get to a big bowl is by playing NOBODY and hoping a few other bid teams lose. This year, they have played 3 "ranked teams"- Oklahoma without Sam Bradford, Oklahoma State without Des Bryant and Nebraska; and looked good in only one of them (the OSU game, they were close to losing against Oklahoma). They cancelled their annual game vs Arkansas and their other "big" non-conference game was a showdown at Wyoming... Mac Brown took a page out of Les Miles' playbook on Saturday when Texas almost blew a chance to kick a fieldgoal late in the game on what would have gone down as the poorest clock management in the history of college football. Bo Pelini made headlines when overheard in the tunnel after the game saying,

BCS! That's why they make that call! Cheaters! They should be f*cking ashamed to accept that trophy.

I do have to say, JS and I came to the conclusion after the game it would have been very interesting to see what would've happened if it were Nebraska who needed the extra time and not Texas....

Much respect fot the testicular fortitude Lane Kiffin must have to continue to take jabs at Urban Meyer by saying Alabama was gonna win Saturday's game because "even though Florida has better players, Alabama is so much better coached, more disciplined and does the little things right" on gameday Saturday morning. I do like Lane for not taking the middle of the road, politically correct, 5th ammendment-like responses that most coaches do and for throwing some fire into the Florida-Tennessee rivalry. I also wanna take a moment and reflect on how ballsy he really is, knowing that Florida will be loaded once again next year, Urban Meyer is a proven great coach with two rings, and Tennessee HAS TO PLAY them every year. I do love Lane and he is doing a great job rebuilding the program in Knoxville, but his players may pay the price for this one next year and I don't think anyone can fault Urban if he decides to run it up a little bit....

I wanna give big-ups to Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints for a great come-back win on Sunday, following their beatdown of my Patriots last Monday. I watched and bet (which I obviously lost and will pay up when EJM jr confirms SM md paid up on their last one! haha) on the Saints-Pats game last Monday night with a huge Saints fan from the bayou; and was very impressed with how easily they took care of New England (and actually the fan as well for not relentlessly ragging me....). This Sunday was remarkable, what a great stand on the goaline to hold the Redskins to a missed FG late which gave them the chance to tie it up, and what a great throw over the top by Brees to tie it up. This year's Saints team looks like they have it all; their offense has always been great but the defense is making huge plays- Jonathan Vilma, Roman Harper and off-season signee Darren Sharper have been terrific. They've been fun to watch all year and I hope the Saints-Vikings matchup materializes in the playoffs because I would love to see Favre (even though he looked awful last night) and Brees square off and provide a great QB duel by players not named Brady and Manning.... Also, big props to Robert Meachem for his strip and TD at the end of the first half in what was one of the best football plays I've ever seen.....

Kentucky looked good this weekend, holding off a UNC team that looks like they have enough talent to make a deep tourney run once again despite losing 4 out of their top 5 scorers from last year (only Deion Thompson is back; Ellington, Lawson, Hansborough, Green are all in the NBA). I would love to see these two teams play again in March when the UNC newbies and the Kentucky freshman have a little more experience under their belts....

Whoever takes the ND job will have a much tougher first year after Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate declared for the NFL draft today....

BBC named Nickelback as the worst band of all time. Also making the list, Savage Garden and Maroon 5....

As always please be sure to check the "near you" tab on our homepage, www.roosterfly.com, for a list of games, shows and theatre events in your area and please post any upcomming event you know of as a comment...

Till next week,

MN

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!!!! and does tiger owe us an explanation???

Good morning all,

To start this week I wanna give big ups to my man Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans for dismanteling in-city foe UCLA 28-7 in the Coliseum on Saturday night, proving that the football monopoly in Los Angeles is officially NOT OVER, and for adding some spice to a rivalry that has been so one sided for the last decade or so (USC has won 10 of the last 11). I stayed up (kickoff wasnt until 10PM!) to catch this one and let me tell you I'm glad I did because the last minute of clock time was about as interesting as I've seen in a long time. So, with under a minute left, USC is up 21-7 and trying to take a knee and run out the clock- only to see UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel call a timeout (what the hell was he doing?? But more than just this game, what the hell was he thinking taking out the ridiculous newspaper ad in the LA Times seen on the right- did he not think this was going to come back to bite him). So, my man Pete Carroll answered by sending his team back out in a power-I formation and running a play action skinny post for a wide open 48-yard Barkley to Williams TD pass (highlights can be seen here). The Trojans then began celebrating on the sidelines and the majority of the UCLA team left their side of the field and walked towards USC- inciting a near riot which took almost 10 minutes to restore order and finish the game. When asked about calling a bomb with under a minute left, Pete jocked the words of my man Herm Edwards and said (the on field interview by the local FoxWest station),

You play to win the game. Hey, they're calling timeouts so we're running pass plays, just some good solid football

Well said Pete. First, I want to pay tribute to the great Herm Edwards and one of the greatest post-game news conferences of all time which you can see here- (can anyone think of one better than this one??? JS tweeted me a couple of good thoughts- the Jim Mora rant definately being one, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy's tirade being another, and who can forget about Dennis Green's meltdown???... By the way, Herm's rant is a response to a reporter asking him why he faked a FG- and was turned into a great Coors Light Commercial) any reference to it always gets me excited. Second, what the hell is Rick Neuheisel doing??? USC was trying to run out the clock and end a game which was clearly over- why drag it out??? All blame goes to him- if you are still making moves, so should the other team. Dumb move by Rick and he got the what he deserved- and his team burned for a late TD. In any case, this should make this rivalry a little more saucey in years to come (that is if UCLA can ever get players with anywhere near the talent USC has year after year to make it close).... And one more quick point- will someone please hire Herm?? As much as I love seeing him in the studio as an ESPN analyst- he is a great coach, even better on the podium, a classy guy and the NFL misses him....

So, Tiger has made the news lately after wrecking his car in a non-alcohol related accident going less than 30MPH in his own driveway at 230 in the morning. Police reported that all 4 windows as well as the rear window were smashed out by a golfclub (which Tiger said his wife did in order to help save him), and he went to the hospital where he was treated for facial cuts... To be honest, I really don't care what happened, but I do disagree with the sentiment that Tiger doesn't have to explain it. As a celeb, I understand privacy is difficult, but I don't really feel all that sorry for him because the public has paid him over $1 BILLION dollars (through corporate deals, supporting his golf tournaments and buying products he endorses) and to me, you can't have it both ways. If you don't want the celeb status and money associated with it- don't take it. But if you are the most marketed person on the planet, the highest paid athlete and continue to take huge endorsement deals- you owe explenations to those who pay your salary. And great point made by my man BB today- Tiger went to Stanford (dubbed The Harvard of the West by Zack Morris) which is a great school and you know he's a smart dude. He should take a lesson from athletes and famous people who have been in bad positions before- which has shown that the American public will forgive, and doesn't mind that our superheroes have flaws- but will not put up with being lied to and trying to be outsmarted- (just ask the 42nd President of the United States who was forgiven once he came clean, but almost impeached and scorned in public when he tried to cover the truth up). Other less than perfect celebs who have been pardoned in the court of public opinion- Kobe (the scandal in Colorado), Carmelo (the stop snitchin' tape), Axel Rose (jumped off stage and assulted a fan), Ray Lewis (what happened in that alley??), and many more....

So, in a move that is complete expected, Notre Dame has fired head coach Charlie Weis after 5 completely lackluster seasons in South Bend. A couple of weeks ago, I made my case for why Weis should be gone and who I think will replace him. One thing I will say about Charlie is he is thought of as an offensive genius- whether that is true or not no one knows... But, I do expect to see him land on his feet as an NFL coordinator in the very near future (maybe with his boy Brady Quinn in Cleveland??)

The SEC Championship is this weekend!! Check back later this week for my thoughts on what should be a great great football game between two very very well coached (since Les Miles isn't involved) teams with NFL talent all over the field. If you are planning on heading to ATL and need tickets- check here...

Till Thursday,

MN