Happy New Year

Joe Bonamassa doing Burning Hell..enjoy and have a safe and sane New Years Eve ya'll.

Rolling Stones classic photos

Jeff Beck with glam hair, Johnny Cash and ironically a very youthful James Brown are here in a great black and white montage of pictures from one of Rolling Stone's first photographers, Baron Wolman.

Its a flash site, so you can't steal any of these great photographs. Believe me, I tried.

Is Barry Zito worth over $100 mil..

No..in fact, Hell no.

His numbers for the last 3 years say that, not me. Lets review Zito's numbers since 2004 shall we?

Complete games-0
Shut Outs-0
Lowest ERA-3.83 for 2006
Win/Loss record- 2004-11-11, 2005-14-13, 2006-16-10

Sportsline ranks Zito as 17th best pitcher for the last season, yet Zito is now the highest paid pitcher in MLB.

But he is a lefty..jesus christ, when will baseball teams value pitchers by their worth, not by which arm they pitch with? A starting pitcher only pitches once every five days but this contract rivals a recent contract given to Toronto's Vernon Wells, a center fielder and pretty decent hitter who plays every day.

It should also be noted that Zito's agent is Scott Boras. Scott is god's gift to baseball players..even those not worth the money Scotty gets them. Like Kevin Brown and Chan Ho Park to name two. Good read up on the Chron about Boras here.

It gets harder to love the game of baseball with contracts like Zito's..it really does. That kind of money for someone that only plays every 5th day..fucking amazing.

Do you know football like I know football?

OK..I know my football..how's about you gents? I think three guys read this crap..take the test you stud muffins!

How well do you know football?
Wow, you know your football!

You really know your football. Congrats.

Take this test

Breathing Earth, in real time.

Interactive site showing the carbon emissions,births and deaths in real time for our entire planet.

Here.

If that doesn't trip your trigger, watch polar bears live in the wild here.

Favorite Dear Santa Letter

Lights, Music....one helluva electric bill

Happy Christmas!



This this guy fucking nuts or am I just a scrooge?

Happy Christmas every one!

May your day be spent as you wish it to be..if not..sorry for your luck.

I will be watching football and cat napping..its the american way at my house. I have cooked all I am going to today.

GO CHARGERS!!!!!!

Fantasy teams be damned..one playing for the championship..its a fantasy and that is all there is to that tune.

I need to go now..bitch at the ball and chain to go get some egg nog..need to mix the brandy with something other than gatorade.

As of midnight..Tower Records will be but a memory.

As a native Californian..I grew up hanging out in Tower Records. It was more than just a place to buy albums..it was the early version of hanging out in the "mall". Tower was a national company when it came to an end..but it was founded here in Cali. I remember bands playing in the stores, listening parties, all kinds of stuff.

I feel very old today.

We buy our music as mp3's not black plastic albums with intricate album covers. We don't visit with friends as we purchase our music..we sit at the computer more times than not. Tower is a dinosauer that just went extinct on our ass.

Fucking bummer.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it STOP!

Here is a pic of my brother in Colorado this week..is he nucking futs or what? Mental Illness and practical jokes do run in the family...Click for larger..the dipshit is in sandals too!

I am on my way back to Cali, the weather is just as sucky as it was when we got here..have a good day folks:)

Last night in Vegas..

The man, the myth, the wonder of blues guitar. Joe opened his set apologizing for blowing off last nights show. He was in the final throes of a bad cold. It was obvious by his congestion and constantly blowing his nose..but his guitar playing didn't suffer. Here are some of my shitty pics..christ, I wish I could learn to use that damn camera.


He ended the set with "Asking 'round bout You" . It's so Ray Charles sounding, that tune..I would say it was well worth the trip from Bakersfield to see my man Joe play. Back to Cali in the morning..long ass drive that it is....night all..going down for some grub and then hit the sack.

there is more here at my flickr site.

Some Xmas cheer...

This lovely ditty is over at Republispin. Its a "not office safe" mp3 entitled "I wanna rock you hard for christmas". Go enjoy the fruits of free speech and lots of crass verbage my dear reader, with lines such as "I want to fill your stocking with my candy cane of joy"...

Tonight is an important football game. Ah shit..they are all important in some way..either a fantasy player going, or someone going for homefield advantage..my Chargers will have to win to get homefield..the Ravens win if it goes to the head to head battle. Tonight is that battle between the Vikings and Green Bay..wait a min..perhaps this game doesn't mean shit afterall..hell its football..the odds sheet I picked up have the Packers minus 3 and a half..real barn burner that game..but..

I can fucking watch it since the casino has satellite..praise jeebus and make me another skyy and soda :)

Have a good day..the concert last night got cancelled..I was depressed and drowned my sorrows in an entire bottle of grey goose..drank the bar completely out of the shit. Ain't that something to be proud of? Perhaps not..but its my story and I am sticking to it.

It's freaking freezing in Las Vegas!

I had an idea it was going to be cold when I saw snow on the ground for the last 90 minutes of our drive. A beautiful but strange site in the Mohave desert and surrounding mountains.

Ok, so when I arrived in the town known as sin city..it was 43 degrees. Seriously, it was 43 friggin degrees at 4pm. As I write this, at 5:46am..its a balmy 34 degrees. This just ain't right folks!

Did someone move the Vegas Strip to northern Canada? WTF is this crap? When we got all our luggage up to the room, the ball and chain waltzed over to the window, looked down at the pool and said..gee, no one is swimming.

Well no shit sherlock, these pools aren't heated, and only an idiot would be swimming when its its in the low 40's outside.

The high today is expected to be..ready for it? 49 degrees.

The casino is kept very warm..too damn warm in my opinion. I am used to being able to hang meat in my living room, The ball and chain keeps the thermostat on 60, not because he is saving the environment, because he is a cheap sob. In my office it's always warmer..but jeez..not as warm as the casino.

So, I plunked down a $20 bill, shoved it into the poker machine as I talked up Pat, my favorite bartender who always remembers my drink of choice: Grey Goose and soda, two limes. I run it up to $60 bucks in a matter of minutes..cool, this might be a good trip. I watch the basketball game, having the power to command what is on each of the 6 tv channels at the bar..Pat is such a dear, and besides he knows I tip well. I flirt with the $100 range for awhile on the poker machine, finding out all the newest gossip here, watching the Lakers and rooting for them to lose. Pat keeps those drinks a-coming..christ, I have to tell him I need a breather..I am not longer able to sling them back with the rest of em as I did when I was a young drunkard. When the trip to the bathroom becomes an exercise of putting one foot in front of the other, I announce to the ball and chain its time to get some grub.

Oh, the poker machine...I ended up with $50 bucks. Not bad for a $20 investment and all the Grey Goose I could drink.

The temperature is still 34 degrees. Why did I bring my bathing suit? Why did I envision a nice lil tan? I ain't going anywhere near the damn pool, much less outside unless an extreme emergency arises...I forgot to bring my snow boots and parka.

As for today, some more booze, some more gambling and a lot of loud blues with Joe Bonamassa.

Alrighty then...

I will be at the above location for three days..getting tanked on expensive booze for free and listening to some great blues upclose and personal. I will blog from there when I can't sleep. God knows if it will be coherent.

My fantasy teams sucked this week. I started with 4 teams in the playoffs..down to 1 going into the finals..I am satisfied this season..McNabb really hosed me big time..so I can't complain. Romo better keep up the good work is all I gotta say.

Have a good week, I know I will :)

The cat below is my usually docile signature cat out on the town in Vegas..shame on him smoking..he bets too.

Peter King is a douchebag..among other things..

For someone, especially King to write an entire article about Mora's little radio interview the other day just bakes my ass.

Mora was playing along..its a fucking joke you fuckwitted morons..get a grip on reality..then your johnson and suck it.

People make so much outta nothing sometimes..

NFL=Not for long if you keep spitting on people T.O.

Sweet jeezuz in a speedo dude..it's his friggin job to piss you off. Falcon's cornerback DeAngelo Hall did his job well Saturday night..His reward? Getting spit upon by the man he was tasked with shadowing..Terrel Owens. How come no one is breaking this guys legs when he goes "long"?

T.O. fessed up to the crime on live tv when being interviewed on the NFL Network. He said the guy got in his face, the guy pissed him off..can you say fuckwit? I can.

God. what. an .asshole.

Another bit o NFL news..big pussy Tank Johnson, who evidently is a big fucking baby and afraid of normal folk..was out an about with his BODY GUARD Sat. night. Said body guard is now dead. Tank is a fucking NOSE TACKLE. Its not like he is some little wide receiver, or pansy-ass Quarterback. Tank has also been arrested 3 times in the last 18 months..wotta clown!

3 of MY 6 fantasy teams are still in the playoffs..of course after today's games..I will be lucky if any are still playing..its been that kinda football season.

Another year older, and deeper in debt...

My gift to the two folks that actually drop by and read this stuff is the best young blues player in the business, Joe Bonamassa. Listen to him, enjoy him because my happy ass will be traveling to hear him gratis next wed and thurs in Vegas! The ball and chain always takes me to Vegas for my birthday...truth is, I hate Vegas. But I go to listen to good music and my man Joe will be playing there for free two glorious nights! Enjoy his music, there is another tune of his up on my political blog if you want some more of his riffs..Somewhere in that 27 year old body is a old black bluesman..HERE is an awesome version of "Burning Hell" off Joe's website.



Interesting that its in b&w..because like I said..he plays like an old bluesmaster from the 50's.

Edit: Ok, my ass has been up since 3am. The back is being a bitch, god I fucking hate it..but hey..I got to watch the sun set, the moon rise and the fog roll quietly in for another year. I am grateful for that, really I am. I am grateful for another year of Padres baseball, my cats and 2 dogs..even if those fuckers will drive me to drink on occasion.and pick me up if I get drunk as the proverbial skunk. :P

Ok, so its 6am now..time to crank some Allman Bros.

Big Mac's stats say no HOF for him.

The rage for baseball nutz, such as myself, to rant and rail against Mark McGwire's nomination into the Hall of Fame has mostly been because of his "supposed" use of steroids and HGH among other things. Even taking into consideration that Big Mac used that shit prior to it becoming illegal doesn't calm anyone down. He did it..he should not be allowed into the HOF.

But, being the bleeding heart liberal that I am, I say Big Mac should eventually get in. Michael Bradley, a columist for Sportsline, who goes by the moniker "El Hombre", says not so fast sportsfans. His recent column on the subject of Big Mac's HOF nomination brings up many points which I, personally, had not figured into the equation. Things like Big Mac's stats, those suckers really aren't up to snuff according to El Hombre. Lets revisit some of them..its a slow sports Saturday and I don't have a damn thing to do, since I just sent the ball and chain out to get my car detailed for my trip to the coast tomorrow.

McGwire played 16 seasons and finished with just 1,626 hits. If he were admitted to Cooperstown, he would find only 13 players with fewer knocks. Of them, four (Roy Campanella, Monte Irvin, Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby) spent considerable time in the Negro leagues, three had just six seasons of 100 or more games played and five had 900-plus fewer at bats than McGwire. His .263 lifetime average reflects his lack of pure hitting prowess.

McGwire can't be considered a big RBI man, either. He finished with 1,414, fewer than any of the other three mentioned so far. He had 100 or more in a season seven times, and in 1998, when he hit 70 homers, he drove in 147, evidence that he A) cracked a lot of solo dingers; B) he didn't have too many other run-producing hits; or C) both. That year, McGwire hit just 21 doubles and had only 103 total bases that didn't come from round-trippers.

And finally, these stats:

Finally, let's look at McGwire in comparison to a player who hasn't made the Hall -- but who many think is worthy -- Jim Rice. Like McGwire, Rice played 16 seasons. He hit .298 for his career, rapped out 2,452 hits, had 1,451 RBI, 4,129 total bases (against McGwire's 3,639), 373 doubles, 1,249 runs scored (to McGwire's 1,167), struck out 1,423 times (vs. 1,596 for McGwire) won an MVP award (McGwire didn't) and finished in the top five on five other occasions (three times total for McGwire). Rice had 200 or more hits four times, vs. zero for McGwire, and knocked in 100 or more runs eight times.

Makes sense to me..sorry Big Mac..but if any of the voting members make these connections, along with the drug flap..yo ass won't be in Cooperstown any time soon..if ever. I have always been depressed about Rice not making it into the HOF. But I don't vote..I just bitch.

The Webby's are upon us..

Its that time o' the year..The Weblog Awards! This year, I have two blogs I would like my dear readers to vote ala "Chicago style" on.

The first is Bring it On!. I am now a contributing writer to this forum, even if someone hasn't gotten around to putting my name on the contributor list yet. Every Tues, Thurs and Sat I will have an article or two up on the main page and three times a month I contribute a "feature" article. To vote for BIO, you will need to go here and cast your vote DAILY. We are up against some very popular political blogs, but we are the little guys, so please try to get us at least into the top 3, which would make us very proud indeed. The fuckwits have us listed under "liberal blog" which is retarded because we have contributors and writers from every spectrum, including conservatives..unlike the folks we are up against. Sites like Daily Kos shun us because we want dialogue with the rightwingers...how the fuck else do you bring this country together? Enough editorial shit..

Next, we have that fine and very funny sports blog, Kissing Suzy Kolber. I heart these guys. They aren't so much about providing news but making fun of the sports news and figures. Some very excellent writers on this site so please go here to vote for KSK, ok?

These things are basically popularity contests, but fuck it, we all wanna be loved don't we?

Happy Birthday

Tom Waits.

Baseballs winter meeting wrapup

This is the week when all the GM's and their associates get together in sunny FL. to talk about all things baseball. They also party a lot, drink a lot, and ocassionally get some business done. They re-sign some of their current players, trade for others and sign a free agent or two. They meet and greet the smarmy agents representing the players who are looking for a team to play for. In the case of free agent Barroid Bonds, he actually showed up at the meetings with his current agent, whos name I refuse to utter.

Thats because the market for his services has dried up like a river running through the desert in the heat of summer. Guess the market conditions aren't real good for a 42 yr old slugger who's only goal is to become the home run leader, surpassing Hammerin' Hank Aaron. Bonds only needs 21 homers to tie Aaron. Bonds hasn't played an entire season in over 3 years. He has bad knees..very bad knees, which only really worked for part of the season this year, seeing his Batting avg. drop to a dismal .236 at one point. So Barroid made an appearance. Barroid of course, expects top dollar for his services.

So does a hooker walking the boulevard in any city in the U.S.

Enough on Bonds. There was a grand announcement on the first day of the 4 days of meetings:

Baseball will celebrate it's diversity by holding the Civil Rights Game, a new annual event to celebrate the movement begun in baseball by Jackie Robinson. Its a dumb name imho. Real dumb. Should of named it after the man himself.

Ah baseball, the best players union in the world. Donald Fehr is one helluva negotiator. That minimum salary requirement will rise this year, just as it always does because players so not worth it, will recieve salaries that would feed a small African nation for a year or a huge section of the Domenican Republic.

Yet Alfanso Soriano's new contract pays him more than Albert Pujols. That just ain't right.

Wife shoots husband..over warm beer, and other bullshit of non-interest to normal folk.

Funny, but I don't get why the beer was warm..they had a snow storm for christ's sake..but here goes, courtesy of Deadspin and STL today:

ST. LOUIS: Warm beer led to killing, police say

12/04/2006

A St. Louis man was shot to death Sunday night over a warm beer, police said.

St. Louis police say a woman shot her husband, who was about 70 years old, four to five times in the chest after he tried giving her a warm can of Stag beer.

Police said the wife admitted shooting him about 5:40 p.m. in the kitchen of their home in the 5100 block of Terry Avenue. Police said the home had no electricity at the time.

Homicide detectives would not identify the man. The woman, whom police also did not identify, was taken into custody.

If you have ever had a Stag beer..you would understand why she shot him folks..

Now, for my shit.

The past week was bad from a fantasy perspective. I started out in the toilet and stayed there all the way thru Monday. Baseball hasn't made it any better so far. Manny won't be leaving Boston for San Diego..damn it all to hell. Neither apparently will Barry Zito. That fuckwit said publicly he wanted to go to SD..wtf happened? I will tell you..that tightassed owner most likely. God forbid that sumbitch drop some money on a decent fucking pitcher..John Moores..kiss my hairy ass you worthless bag of batshit. And tell that George Hamilton-tanned dipshit GM to suck eggs too.

Other than that..I am contemplating drinking alot for the remainder of the week..unless you my dear reader have another suggestion.

Yes Virginia, Michael Irvin IS retarded.

I just can't believe this fuckwit extraordinaire has a job as a talking head at ESPN. He has the IQ of a blade of grass. Below is the now famous piece of ESPN'S Sunday Morning football pregame show where Tom Terrific asks the big question of Mike: Are you retarded? Before that however, read the newest bs coming out of Irvins' piehole.

Now it seems Irvin has once again come off like the idiot he truely is. On Dan Patrick's radio show Monday, Mikey started waxing poetic about Tony Romo's Dallas' new QB. Mikey had the nads to intimate that Romo must have some African-American in his heritage. Seem's that is the only way Mikey can explain that a white player could possibly be any good. Slate has a decent writeup about this newest faux-paux by America's biggest sports nimrod and why he should get as much heat as Jimmy the Greek did when he made a comment along the same lines many years ago. Jimmy was white of course, and Mikey isn't. The article points out that Trent Lott's gaffe about Strom Thurmond cost him his job, yet sports figures seem to get little heat for their racist remarks,tirades and bad jokes. The Big Lead also has a good writeup that gives you pretty much the entire fiasco from Dan Patricks radio show where Mikey let loose with the Romo bs yesterday. Mikey has of course apologized. Asshole.

Now..lets watch Tom Jackson call Mikey a retard shall we?