Professor

Jethro Tull - Aqualung Hank Williams Jr. - The New South Lightnin' Hopkins - Lightnin'! Mississippi John Hurt - The Best of (Not really a best of, just a live show called best of for some reason.) Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar Norah Jones - Come Away With Me Jude - King of Yesterday Buckethead - Colma Jonathan Edwards - Self-Titled Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good System of a Down Jethro Tull - Crest of a Knave Ghost of the Robot - Mad Brilliant Nirvana - MTV Unplugged Prince - Purple Rain Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream & Other Delights BoyHitsCar

I listen to the ESPN Football Today podcast. Monday recaps the Sunday games, Tuesday ranks the teams and Friday previews the weekend. Wednesday & Thursday are not worth the time. The Football Fantasy Focus podcast is pretty entertaining too. They do recap the games on Monday, but with a fantasy slant naturally.

Just finished listening to Cliff Compton on Colt Cabana's podcast talking about his recent trip to Nigeria. I have to say, most entertaining podcast I have listened to in a while.

Try the 25th Anniversary album. Worked for me.

After I posted the first column it dawned on me that I forgot to explain the rules of my little game. Selections are made at random, but not totally so. My library limits you to ten CDs at a time. As such, I shall never rent ten from the same genre. In fact, three ‘library genres’ have to be hit each time. (The library has odd ideas of what genres are, but this is how they are sorted so I deal.) Also, the library has random CDs displayed prominently. One of these must be chosen if possible. Never get more than one from an artist unless they are a known entity. Lastly, randomly asking someone else to pick a CD for you is encouraged. The Ballad Collection by June Christy Release Date - 2000 Run Time - 55:50 Album Art - Classy Reason for Rental - Library Choice Listening Experience - Lovely. I love this style of jazz. It creates an atmosphere of sitting in a dimly lit, smoke filled jazz club watching a beautiful woman sing soulfully in a gorgeous dress. Yes, I have an active imagination. My only problem is I absolutely adore Julie London. As such, I have the genre kinda covered. Nothing against June Christy, but she sounds really similar to London, which in turn, make it unmemorable. Score - Engaging. While this collection was not what I was looking for, it is still excellent. I will seek out a proper June Christy album and hopefully have better results. Classic Railroad Songs by Various Release Date - 2006 Run Time - 1:12:25 Album Art - Vintage Reason for Rental - I looked on the back and noticed multiple people I like. Listening Experience - Incredibly informative. I love little finds like this. Produced by the Smithsonian’s record label, this album takes a look at the traditional blue/folk/bluegrass tunes of the railroad. This took longer than usual to go thru, as I find myself hearing something, pausing, and recognizing it from a song I know. I heard “Linin’ Track” by Lead Belly and remember the lyrics being in the Aerosmith song “Hangman’s Jury”. Or hearing a line in “Jay Gould’s Daughter” and instantly remembering it being in Johnny Cash’s “Rock Island Line”. Then I hear Lead Belly playing “Rock Island Line” twenty minutes later. Which in turn, made me listen to Cash’s version again to see how he made the song his own. I just love being able to trace musical origins like that. But what really puts this over this top is the liner notes. Each songs has two simple paragraphs written about them. The first is a mini-biography of the artist. The second is background about the song itself and a little recording history. I love Elizabeth Cotton. She will forever be the female voice of the blues for me. Oddly, I had never wiki’ed her, so the mini-bio was a nice little addition. As was learning that the New Market Train Wreck killed 62 people, most of which were in two separate funeral processions along the train tracks. Random history tidbit, but nonetheless interesting. Score - A History Channel Special. Now, I loved this album. But would I buy it? I don’t think so. Like a History Channel Special, it was very entertaining, but I doubt would revisit, specially the liner notes. The music is uneven at times, but the good outweighs the bad. I hate sitting on the fence, but I think I have to. So, check your local library for a copy and spend two hours with it. I’d also go a far a to check out any albums from the Smithsonian Folkways label. That is my plan. (Holy Crap! My library has 52 titles from the label. Awesome.) Lucy Old Sun by Kenny Chesney Release Date - 2008 Run Time - 44:21 Album Art - Meh Reason for Rental - My dad. He loves the guy. Tells me I am missing out. Listening Experience - Sleep educing. Everything is just so mellow. I was expecting something more than that. By now means am I a fan of the current country landscape. I think that last time I was a fan of current country Billy Ray was complaining about his heart. So I have missed some stuff. I know the name Kenny Chesney. He seems like a big name, with 13 studio albums and all. But I just don’t get the appeal. He is just so mellow. Too mellow. Annoyingly mellow. The best song on the album is the “That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)”, but don’t get too excited. It is mellow. When Johnny Cash or Ray Charles talk about ‘working like the devil for their pay’, the passion they sign with makes me believe it. Kenny sounds like a beach bum complaining about working at all. I am not happy with my father at the moment and am making plans for my musical revenge. Score - Sleeping Aid. Cheaper than pills I would wager. Rocky Horror International by Various Artist Release Date - 1990 Run Time - 46:10 Album Art - Bad Photoshop Reason for Rental - I love Rocky Horror. Why not? Listening Experience - Like I said, I love Rocky Horror. I try to go to a midnight showing at least once a year. I have seen it preformed by talented professionals in a legitimate theatre, and I have seen it preformed by some drunken college kids above a dive bar. It has never failed to entertain. I love the music, and always have a copy of the soundtrack in my car. Notice how I have yet to mention this album? That is because there is nothing to say. It is what it is. This is a soundtrack for the show, in order, but taken from various sources: the movie, London, New Zealand, Mexico & Norway. Yes, you can hear “I Can Make You A Man” in Norwegian. As I only understand English, it is a little lost on me. Score - This is a curiosity. “Hey, I wonder what this song sounds like in Spanish..” Answer is exactly like you think it does. So you can skip this. Go to a live show, it's a better use of your time. New Gimmick. Quick Hit. Go. The Star Trek Album by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Release Date - 2003 Run Time - Two Discs (53:10 & 44:31) Album Art - Generic Reason for Rental - Blind Pick. Listening Experience - Sounds like the Star Trek TV & Movie themes. Score - Trek Fans: Think about buying. Non Fans: Why bother?

My roommate may call me a bad person for this, but I got an asshat fired at work today. And you know what, I could not be happier about it. The work place is for working. It is not for you to run around with your little friend making videos for your facebook/youtube.

I love music. That is something of an understatement. I am always listening to music. Everything can be made better with music: trips to the grocery store, lines at the BMV or mowing the grass. A quick look at my iTunes says I have over 12,000 songs available at my fingertips. Yet I always looking for something new. That brings us to the reason for this column. My local library has well over 40,000 CDs in their system. And the best part is that it is free. I would never spend money on a CD of an artist I know nothing about. But from the library? At most, I waste an hour while watching TV on mute. So join me in playing what I call “Library CD Roulette”. N.E.W.S by Prince Release Date - 2003 Run Time - 56:00 Album Art - 2 minutes with Photoshop Reason for Rental - Since the spine of the disc only reads “news” I thought that The News released an album sans Huey Lewis. But I like Prince, so it was still a good choice. Listening Experience - To start, the album only has four tracks of 14 minutes each: “North”, “East”, “West” & “South”. First impression is not great. I tend to dislike longer songs when they feel like they are not building toward something. Not to mention that Prince can be rather, uh, batshit insane sometimes. Much to my enjoyment, that is not the case here. This is Prince dabbling into jazz. The strength of the albums rests in the saxophone of Eric Leeds. This really sounds like a jam secession with some vauge sense of narriative. My only real complaint with the album are the track lengths. The album kinda blends together in such a way that nothing is memorable. Had this been an album of standard length songs, perhaps even a few with vocals, I would like it even more. Score - Elevator music. Nice to have in the background, but not something I would go out of my way to listen to again. Get Yer Boots On: The Best Of by Slade Release Date - 2006 Run Time - 1:00:28 Album Art - Average Reason for Rental - The Cover Art. Although, I thought it was a newer band. Listening Experience - Almost completely forgettable. This album is pure classic rock at it’s most average. Of the 16 songs on the album, I only had heard two before. One of those is a Christmas song (“Merry Xmas Everybody“) that I have to heard at work every holiday season on what seems like an endless loop. The other being “Cum On Feel The Noize”. While it is a their original song, the Quite Riot version is more iconic. I have listened to this twice now, which is rather odd for this little game I have made up. I cannot for the life of me remember anything about the remaining 14 songs. Score - A waste of my theoretical dollars. The two recognizable songs are most likely on compilations that are better. Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger by James Luther Dickinson Release Date - 2006 Run Time - 39:55 Album Art - Cartoony Reason for Rental - The cover says it is the greatest album on earth. How could I not? Listening Experience - As much as the Slade album was forgettable, this was just plain boring. Dickinson was going for something of a mixture of Rock & Blues with a little Cajun spice thrown in for good measure. What results is an album that never achieves what it sets out to. After a bit of research, it seems like this an album of covers as well. A good covers album should make me want to find the originals. So, this album fails yet again. Score - Buy Dr. John’s Gumbo by Dr. John. It does everything this album sets out to. And it is awesome. Stranger Than Fiction by “The Wrockers” Release Date - 1998 Run Time - Two Discs Too Long Album Art - Pulp Reason for Rental - Warren Zevon + Stephen King. Listening Experience - Look. I love novelty records as much as the next guy. I have songs from such vocal legends as Muhammad Ali, Jackie Chan & Uncle Jessie from Full House on my iPod and love every second of it. But this album? Why? To fully explain, this is a two disc set of ‘famous’ authors singing. And by famous, I mean Stephen King, Maya Angelou and some people I don’t know. These celebrity things are supposed to be fun. This is just bad and borderline insulting at times. I feel more dumber for having listened to that. At the end of the day, this entire thing was for various charities with a focus on literacy so I cannot be too mad at the thing. I just feel that more money could have been raised had everyone just wrote a short story and sold a book. Score - Take the $25 this album costs, and donate it to your local library. Or buy a kid a book. This way you feel warm and fuzzy inside and not the blood that is coming out of your ears. --- As the very nature of this column suggests, everything is random. I struck out with this batch. Nothing was lost and writing a review was rather fun. On the other hand, that is no way to end the first column. After much thought, here is a ‘blast from the past’ successful find playing this game. King of Yesterday by Jude Release Date - 2001 Run Time - 47:06 Album Art - Goofy Reason for Rental - My sister worked for a smaller library when we were still in school. Since she was my ride, I’d be stuck at the library for hours on end. I sat in the corner with my CD Walkman (I suddenly feel old) and listen to all the CDs. This was simply the next one in the row. Listening Experience - Instantly catchy. This is what pop music should be more often. Fun. Simple as that. Not so say that all the songs are sunshine and lollipops. My favorite song, “Indian Lover” deal with a psycho ex-boyfriend who would rather see her dead than with another. But the songs are still fun and will get stuck in your head for the end of time. Sometimes, it is nice to hear an album that is light and fun and pure fluffy goodness. Score - BUY IT NOW!!! Seriously, I cannot recommend this enough. This has been one of my “make myself feel better” albums for over a decade now. Some of the songs are $0.70 on iTunes. Go buy some. I’ll wait.

Lungs not working properly. It is not as much fun as it sounds.

Jethro Tull Buckethead

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

I just finished watching the "Netflix Edit" of the new Rey Mysterio DVD. A few thoughts: - I think these recent DVDs would be better without the horrible hosts of Striker, Grissom, ect. - The editing to remove Benoit from history is something. I understand it, but it makes things really disjointed. Example is Edge/Rey vs. Guerreros on Smackdown in 02. No Benoit run-in or anything, but the random dropping of the commentary is really noticeable. Also, they missed one mention, which quite frankly, is rather sloppy on their part. - I now want to see Mysterio in an El Santo style movie. With all the shit DVDs WWE is making these days, just make a very low budget movie of Rey fighting a horde of vampires wearing capes. Make it B&W too.

Allow me to speak for everyone in the known universe here. When this entire Punk thing started, a Punk/Nash feud was the last place we thought we'd end up. Unrelated, I looked at the PWI 500 like I do every year. And it never fails to entertain and make me laugh. Good times.

This week at work, we are doing back to school vouchers. People are allotted a certain amount of money to spend on kids clothes, shoes, socks & underwear. You'd figure that these people would be grateful for this. Nope. They are in fact some of the most entitled assholes ever. Not to mention that most have 3+ kids that they just let lose on the store. I even heard one of them complain about an add-on promotion that would give most of them a $25 gift card for doing nothing extra.

Maybe I am blind, but I couldn't find CM Punk.

That looks horrible.

Source I think this story is getting a little out of hand. Not only did Brian Ebersole get a 70,000 bonus for defeating Dennis Hallman, but now I am hearing rumors that several people (UFC employees) could lose their job because of this. Since there was no strict dress code, I don't see any justification for firing people. And I know Dana White is Dana White, but some of the words that he used (horrified, disgusted, ect) are way over the top.

Danny Trejo as a luchador is awesome. Danny Trejo with the lucha mask on? Less scary than Danny Trejo.

I am really getting tired of being told I cannot have an opinion/my opinion is invalid because I haven't done things. Yeah, I have never played a professional sport, made a movie or written a book. That in no way invalidates my ability to have a opinion on things. Also, after you tell me this, you cannot tell me how the movie you just saw was and you cannot yell at the TV because a baseball manager made a bad call. Because, you know, I missed your MLB career. Asshat.

Took me a few months to slowly get through it, but I just finished the 3 disc Undertaker set. And, to me at least, it was surprisingly entertaining. Sure, a lot of crap is on the early discs (vs. Yokozuna in a casket match). And there was too much repetition (3 Foley matches, 3 Kane matches, 3 Hell in a Cells). Yet, it is an interesting look at the evolution of not only the Undertaker character, but the WWF/WWE as a whole. Some simple things just make the atmosphere better. The announcers table going from a regular table to the current style announcers table makes things look more professional. As does the addition of the black barricade over the steel, see-thru one. Not everything is better, as I like the visual of having all the photo journalists around the ring. It makes the entire thing feel like a legitimate sporting event. Also, the crowd using lighters for Takers entrance in 98-99 looks so much better than the cell phones people use today. As for Taker himself? It made me remember how much I liked the American Bad Ass biker gimmick. That is how I was first introduced to the Undertaker, so I guess that is 'my Taker'. Granted, when he came back as the character he was out of shape. But you can see him get into shape and put on better matches as time passes. Also, his Wrestlemania return as the Deadman seems half-assed. All in all, not a bad collection, but as this one ends at Mania XX, I feel it leave off a lot of Takers best matches. If the WWE puts out a better set in the future, I could see myself buying it. I would love a documentary, but I don't see that happening.

The Live Audio Wrestling Review a Raw show. I get that CM Punk coming back so soon is bound to get people to shit on it. But I doubt one character insulting another is going to kill the business.

I missed most of RAW this week. I just finished listing to a review of RAW. And I must say, some people need to get over themselves. Apparently, Triple H saying CM Punk and John Cena were arguing like little girls ruined RAW, ruined CM Punk, ruined John Cena, ruined SummerSlam, ruined the credibility of the WWE Championship, and ruined the WWE as a whole. And to think, I didn't pay attention to the line.

I love El Santo movies. Also, that picture made me bust out my four player chess set. Fun times.

Punk "invaded" an AAW show. No WWE title, no promo against WWE, just putting over the local guy. Video But still, of all the places you could think of him popping up, AAW was not on the list. I had never heard of AAW until I saw this on Punk's twitter.

Based on the Smackdown recap I just read, Daniel Bryan has announced a date he will cash in the MITB contract: WrestleMania 28. As with all things WWE, I await them to fuck this angle up.