Music Monday...and a Few Other Things

So, I will continue Music Mondays with some videos from the Hope for Haiti Concert/Telefund that was on Friday night.





These were two of my favorite performances, but there were a ton of great acts trying to do all they could to help raise money for Relief Efforts in Haiti. I highly suggest downloading this album from iTunes. All of the money raised goes straight to relief efforts. If you don't feel like downloading music and just want to make a donation, you can text "HAITI" to 90999 and it will charge $10 to your phone bill and the $10 will go to relief efforts in Haiti through The Red Cross. I know we are all being bombarded by Haiti News and pleads for donations, but like I said, you can just buy some quality music and it goes to relief efforts. I figure that kills two birds with one stone.

ANYWHO, there were two relatively awesome football games yesterday. The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints clinched births in Super Bowl XLIV two weeks from yesterday in Miami, FL. I myself didn't catch the AFC Championship (Colts vs Jets) and I also missed a majority of the NFC Championship (Vikings vs Saints), but I did catch the end of the 4th Quarter and Overtime, and man was it intense. Honestly, I'm glad the Saints won. New Orleans, like Detroit, has hosted yet never been to a Super Bowl, and obviously it was only a few short years ago that it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. I also just like the Colts and enjoy Peyton Manning commercials, and Mike Hart's on the Colts. I guess I am really going to have to think about who I'm rooting for.

Hope everyone had a safe and superb weekend. And I'll leave you a Top 10 Goalie Gaffes YouTube...

Jack Johnson: A Michigan Man

That a boy Jack...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/01/dean-lombardi-jack-johnson-kings-michigan-hockey-.html

Apologies

To my readers few and far between, I apologize for my incapability to post with consistency this past week or two. I'm still trying to get use to my new schedule and balancing a few new responsibilities. Anywho, because I missed Music Monday, and and deeply regretting it, I'll share this hit from One Republic...



To touch on a few sports notes...

- The Michigan Men's Basketball Team beat UConn at home on Sunday. The win finally gives them a big non-conference win and one that hopefully they can feed off of leading into tonight's road trip to Madison, Wisconsin.
- The Jets, Colts, Saints, and Vikings are all in their respective conference championships and we will know who is heading to Miami for the Super Bowl this weekend.
- Mark McGwire admitted doing steroids (finally).
- Gilbert Arenas was suspended for his gun in the lockerroom (kind of old news, but I still thought I'd mention it).
- Red Wings suck.
- Pistons suck.
- Pistons might be sold.
- Red Wings lease at the Joe ends this summer (new home?)

All just little points that have come up in the past few days.

On a funny note...I came across this today, and it brought back some good memories.



I'm gonna try to be more current and come up with some interesting posts soon. I hope everyone has had a successful and safe 2010 so far and continues to live life to the fullest.

-Kevin

SNAKES!

Once again, I've been busy and haven't had time to post. But I definitely will post this weekend. But, to keep you all entertained until then, here's another interesting article I found.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100115/NEWS07/1150367/?imw=Y

Interesting Article: Native Americans in College Basketball

After doing my relatively large project on politically incorrect logos and team names for my sports management class last semester, I have certainly become more interested in Native American participation in college athletics. Now, this article I came across on ESPN today, by Dana O'Neil, talks about a group of Native Americans all playing together for a college team. What I don't get is why they are ok with playing on a team that goes by the nickname "The Fighting Indians." That can't be ok...

Regardless, this is a great article and I suggest you give it a read if you have a few moments.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=4821534

Music Monday

A new week...a new Monday...a new Music Monday...

Today, I'm just going to share a few classics along with an artist who is quickly gathering a heck of a following.

I first wanted to share the J. Geils Band hit "Centerfold", but unfortunately I cannot find a link anywhere to embed it. So, the next best thing is the link to the YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqDjMZKf-wg

The song just came up on my shuffle a few days ago and as a result I've had it stuck in my head for a day or two. I hope it gets stuck in yours!

Next, a hit from a classic band. Although this isn't one of their early hits, Aerosmith's "Jaded" is a great song and it was one of the first Aerosmith songs I remember liking, and as a result opened me up to one of the greatest bands of all time.



And lastly...this artist I was fortunate to see live this past summer, and he's quickly becoming a big hit, and certainly will become bigger this year. K'naan's music is a mix of political outreach, poetry, and commentry on society. He uses a mix of rap and reggae to spread his opinions. K'naan has collaberated with artists such as Adam Levine and Most Def over the past few years. These collaberations have helped him make the jump to mainstream music. K'naan's first single off his fourth album Troubadour, entitled "Waving Flag" has become the anthem of this summer's FIFA World Cup and is quickly receiving world recognition.



I hope everyone has a wonderful week and tries to stay warm. I know my personal favorite thing to do is sleep with a winter hat and long johns on.

-Kevin

MHSAA Needs to Get With the Times

An interesting article here by Mitch McCabe in the Detroit Free Press. I myself was unaware that high school athletes, if having played in an All-American game for one sport, they are not allowed to play in another sport that year. These All-American games, like the Under Armour All-American Football Game that was recently played, gives stuff to the athletes for participating (mostly t-shirts and gear) to wear during the game. As a result, in the State of Michigan, along with many other states, they forfeit their eligibility at this point. Some states, including Alaska and Ohio, allow the athletes to play other sports. This is just an interesting article that I thought I'd share. I personally don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to play other sports. There is a difference in my opinion between playing in an All-American game and being given spending cash by a booster.

http://freep.com/article/20100110/HSS1201/1100499/MHSAA-needs-to-abolish-rule-that-punishes-our-top-athletes

Its the Weekend and I Don't Feel Like Thinking Too Much

Because it is Saturday, and I really don't feel like putting in a lot of effort to a post, I am going to highlight a few things that have happened in the past few days, and share a few funny and cool links and videos.

BCS Championship: Alabama took care of business in Thursday night's championship game 37-21 (although the game was much closer than the score). Colt McCoy was knocked out of the game early in the 1st Quarter and Texas backup quarterback Garrett Gilbert played outstanding, all things considered. Highlight of the game was when Nick Saban got hit with the Gatorade cooler. He didn't just get the Gatorade poured on him...He got hit in the face with the cooler.



Coaches Leaving: First Charlie Weis got fired. Next Urban Meyer took a leave of absence. Now Pete Carroll is jumping ship for the NFL? All I need now is Jim Tressell to go coach the Browns and Mark Dantonio to finally open his own "Second-Chance" House for underpriveleged youths and quit coaching and I will be an extremely happy camper. But in all seriousness for a moment, it will be interesting to see if Carroll has a repeat of his stint with the NY Jets. In my opinion, I think the guy is one heck of a recruiter, but not a good coach. He obviously has had some phenomenal assistants, but I highly doubt the guy will be able to turn around the trainwreck that is the Seattle Seahawks (think Detroit Lions, except they've actually played in a Super Bowl).

Lastly, although it isn't Music Monday, I'll share a few YouTubes...

Tebow Bashing Time

This here is rant time. Like I said, hate to do it, but its happening. Tim Tebow is done with college football. Now I will give you all a few minutes to celebrate (cue Kool & The Gang). Ok...now, look. I appreciate all the guy does. I mean, he is more or less a living saint. He goes on mission trips. He praises God for this and that. Hell, he even circumsizes little children in third world countries. These are all great things. The guy is awesome. BUT, you know what, the truth hurts. THE GUY IS NOT GOING TO PLAY IN THE NFL AT THE POSITION OF QUARTERBACK. Time Tebow will follow the likes of Jason White, Chris Weinke, and specifically Eric Crouch, and be a Heisman winning college quarterback who does absolutely nothing in the pros. Now, I said specifically Eric Crouch because, like Eric Crouch, Tebow is not your typical pocket passing quarterback. In my opinion, Crouch was still more of a scrambling quarterback than Tim Tebow, but neither of them are NFL Caliber quarterbacks. Tebow, much like Crouch did, wants to play quarterback. Good luck bub. In my opinion, Tebow would be best served looking to another former SEC QB and do what Arkansas' Matt Jones did. Jones was a scrambling/mobile qb. He understood that he would not play if he wanted to play quarterback in the NFL. So, Jones showed off his receiving capabilities and was selected in the first round of the draft as a receiver. Tim Tebow should be a Tight End. He's huge, is mobile. And I'm sure since he's so good at giving circumcisions to little boys that he must have decent hands. Now, like I said, this is just a rant and I do think he is a heck of a quarterback. On top of that he is a model citizen and definitely a role model. All of this being said, the guy needs to suck it up and go do what he was made to be, and whatever it is it isn't quarterback in the NFL.

Sidenote: Tim Tebow Loves Jorts, Crying, and looking like an overall clown.

Movies to See

Over break, just like millions of other people, I spent some major time sittin in a dark room, with sticky floors, watching movies. I will say this though, I watched some great movies. I'm gonna use today's post to just highlight why I thought they were good, and why you should go see them.

The first movie I saw over break was Sherlock Holmes. The movie starred Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, Jude Law as Holmes' trusty sidekick Dr. Watson, and Rachel McAdams as the love interest Irene Adler. The story definitely put a new spin on the Sherlock Holmes story to me. It featured much more action than the old movies. The story itself is well written and if you are looking for a good action movie to see, I highly suggest Sherlock Holmes.



The second movie I saw was Avatar-3D. Now, I figured if it took James Cameron 12 years to come out with a new movie, it had to be decent. I also figured if it took $500 million to make it, it had to be decent. So, I went with my brothers to see it. I have to say, it was pretty decent. Now, the story itself, focusing around the life of the Na'vi and Earth's invasion of their land, is quite disappointing in my opinion. It wasn't a bad plot, there was just more to be desired. What I will say is that the overall cinematography was phenomenal. I have never seen a movie even close to how cool the 3D was. If you are going to watch Avatar, you need to watch it in 3D.



The third movie I saw was Pirate Radio: The Boat That Rocked, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, and Tom Sturridge. This movie was suprisingly good. In fact, I absolutely want to see it again. The story revolves around a group of rock 'n roll DJ's who play rock music in 1960s Great Britain. Rock was not allowed by the British government at the time on the radio and people were driven to DJing from large ships off-shore. The soundtrack was phenomenal, the story itself was very good, and I was impressed altogether with the movie. I really want to see it again in the near future.



The final movie I saw over break was The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. The movie tells the story of Michael Oher. Oher is an offensive lineman now for the Baltimore Ravens. Oher took a road less traveled to the pros though. The movie tells his story and the relationship between him and Tuohys, a local wealthy family. I do not want to tell too much about it, but I really really liked this movie as well. I left the movie with a smile on my face and just could not have enjoyed it any more.



Overall, all four movies were fantastic and I highly suggest seeing each of them. Pirate Radio was probaby my favorite, followed right behind by The Blind Side.

The Courage of Detroit

So I was pretty busy all day getting ready to go back to classes. As a result I never got around to really thinking about what to write about or actually writing anything. So, because I failed at this, I thought I'd share one of my favorite articles ever. I thought about it again after discussing with a friend of mine how we are just sick and tired of Detroit and Michigan teams generally sucking this year. Anyway, the article is entitled "The Courage of Detroit". It was written by Mitch Albom and was featured in Sports Illustrated about a year ago. I thought it was an amazing piece and I think everyone should give it a read.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/01/07/detroit/index.html

Rest of the BCS Preview

This week the college football bowl schedule is wrapping up and the 2009 College Football Season will finally crown a champion. Prior to Thursday's big BCS Championship Match-Up between Alabama and Texas though are two other BCS Bowls and the GMAC Bowl that has a bit of local flavor to it featuring the Central Michigan Chippewas and the Troy Trojans.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Tonight, Texas Christian vs Boise State. 8pm on Fox.
TCU and Boise State both come into this game undefeated and fighting to show who the real non-BCS conference champ is. Boise opened up their season knocking off Pac-10 Champion Oregon and then continued through their season against other WAC opponents. TCU opened up the non-conference season with wins over both Virginia and Clemson. They continued to go undefeated throughout the season beating ranked opponents Brigham Young and Utah. TCU is favored in the match-up and Boise State returns to the location of their large upset victory of Oklahoma in 2007. This game should be interesting if anything. I would say TCU has the advantage, considering who they have beaten (I still think CJ Spiller should have received more Heisman votes and that win against Clemson means a lot to me).
Pick: TCU - 34 Boise - 30

FedEx Orange Bowl: Tuesday Jan. 5, Iowa vs Georgia Tech. 8pm on Fox.
Iowa comes into the game with two losses, to Northwestern and Big Ten Champion Ohio State. Georgia Tech enters the game with two losses, to both Miami (FL) and Georgia. I will say that I will be rooting for Iowa considering they are in the Big Ten, but I see Georgia Tech coming out on top in this one. Georgia Tech's spred-option offense will be too much for Iowa's Defense and will come out on top.
Pick: GT - 24 Iowa - 13

GMAC Bowl: Wednesday Jan. 6, Central Michigan vs Troy. 7pm on ESPN.
I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the GMAC Bowl, considering I'm neither a Central Michigan fan nor a Troy fan. But, I will say I watched the MAC Championship and was once again impressed with Chippewa QB Dan Lefevour. Lefevour will definitely be drafted come April. If he doesn't go Day 1, he will certainly be a Day 2 steal.
Pick: CMU - 27 Troy - 13

Citi BCS Championship: Thursday Jan. 7, Alabama vs Texas. 8pm on ABC.
In Nick Saban's return to the National Championship game he it pitted against Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns. Alabama comes into the game after putting a beatdown on Time Tebow and the Flordia Gators in the SEC Championship Game. Texas enters after sqeaking by the Nebraska Cornhuskers led by Ndamukong Suh in the Big 12 Championship Game. Alabama's Offense, led by Heisman Trophy Winner Runnning Back Mark Ingram, will go up against the No. 1 Running Defense in the country, only giving up 62.2 yrds/game. Colt McCoy will lead the run-and-gun offense of Texas who have scored 529 points this season. It will be a game for the ages and certainly one you won't want to miss.
Pick: Texas - 38 Alabama - 27

I think these last few bowl games will be quite entertaining. I suggest watching them if you can. This shall be quite an end to a great college football season.

-Kevin

Music Monday

Much like Twitter has, I'm going to try and spread my musical knowledge with people by having Music Mondays. They may not always be up and coming artists, or new songs, but at the very least they will be good, or at least I hope people feel that way. To begin these Music Mondays, I'm going to share a few YouTubes, both old and new.

First, I want to introduce you to Mike Posner. Mike Posner is a Senior at Duke University and is from Southfield, MI. Posner is quickly becoming a major hip-hop artist. He recently signed his first record deal and is working on releasing his first album sometime this year. His first two mixtapes both were No. 1 most downloaded free albums on iTunes and he has opened for artists such as Wiz Khalifa and Akon. Posner is known for sampling many popular tracks from Santana to The Fray to Beyonce.



Now, as much as I love my hip-hop and general "party" beats, if you don't know that I love me some rock music, then you don't know me. Better yet, if you don't know that The Beatles are my favorite band ever, then you can probably assume we are not friends. Anyway, here is The Beatles Rooftop Concert. The Rooftop Concert was the last live performance by The Beatles and is by far one of their most famous, along with the Ed Sullivan Show and Shea Stadium. The Concert is two videos, each fairly long. So, I suggest you watch or listen to whatever you can and enjoy it. Overall great stuff.





I'll be posting a preview on the rest of the BCS Games later in the day. Here is to everyone heading back to school today and I suggest to those who aren't yet diving back into their workload, enjoy it while you can.

-Kevin

Blackouts...The Only Reason I Don't Hate the Lions...Yet

I spent a small portion of today contemplating whether or not to attend the Lions Season Finale tomorrow down at Ford Field in Detroit. The Detroit Lions vs. The Chicago Bears. An old-school NFC Central match-up. But, as I looked online at ticket prices, I was quickly turned away. Do the Detroit Lions really expect me to pay $57 to watch a two-win team secure a Top-3 pick in April's NFL Draft? This is what honestly bugs me about the NFL. The Lions are not the Steelers, or the Cowboys, or the Patriots. They have no business charging fan's that much for a nosebleed seat. The Ford's need to take a look next door to how the Ilitch's deal with not only a struggling franchise, but one in a struggling economy and with a very high payroll (5th highest in the MLB in 2009). They need to make their tickets affordable for the few fans they still have. The NFL requires each team to sell-out their game 72-hours before kickoff before they can be broadcast locally. Although this is a generalized description of the rule, it still sums it up. Because of this rule, I have been able to watch a total of 9 Lions Regular Season Games so far this season, and tomorrow will not be the tenth. For the seventh out of eight possible times, the Detroit Lions will be blacked out in the Metro Detroit Area (which unfortunately includes Ann Arbor). I guess this is all for the better, and causes me to do other stuff with my day. But, I of course am still interested as to if we win or not. I'm sure if I had been watching them all year I'd be thoroughly sickened by now. Regardless, something needs to be done. If the Lions expect to gain back fan support, fans need to be able to watch the games. This is a problem that will continue to go in circles until either the Lions completely do a 180 degree turn around or the NFL changes the rules.

This is a late night post and will probably not be my only one for the next 24 hours. Hope everyone is having a great weekend and keep watching these bowls games. And for the last time until next season, GO LIONS!

-Kevin

Edit: I have been told that the Lions "sold out" the game and it will be aired on television. Funny how I could still buy tickets 10pm Jan 2. Regardless, I still think the entire situation is messed up and the Fords need to wake up and smell the coffee.

New Year's Day: Football, Football, and More Football (and some hockey)

As I sit here typing this, the Sugar Bowl is just kicking off, but I'm going to save my Tebow bashing for another post. Today featured three fantastic Big Ten Bowl Games including the Northwestern Wildcats, Penn State Nittany Lions, and of course TUOSU (according to Terrelle Pryor). Northwestern took Auburn to OT with a thrilling finish, Penn State pulled off a W against LSU, and Ohio State won relatively convincingly over Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

Outback Bowl: Pat Fitzgerald is a great coach. Clearly anyone as young as him must have done something right to be a D-1 coach at this point. But, what the heck was he thinking faking it on 4th down in OT? Kick the field goal. That is an extra point from that distance. The call made absolutely no sense to me and I'm not sure if anyone will agree with that call. Clearly they are going to need a new kicker in Evanston, but nonetheless, kick the field goal. Too bad they couldn't squeak out the W. Auburn - 38 Northwestern - 35

Capital One Bowl: Penn State played a close game with LSU and it was exciting until the finish. Penn State hit a field goal with 57 seconds left in the game to take the lead. After being down 16-3, LSU scored 14 unanswered points. It was a fairly entertaining game that tore apart the field in Orlando. PSU - 19 LSU - 17

Rose Bowl: After keeping Terrelle Pryor under wraps the majority of the first half, Ohio State let him loose and Pryor had an almost Vince Young vs Michigan 2005 Rose Bowl Coming Out Party. Pryor dominated the Oregon Defense for 266 yrds passing, two touchdowns, and ran for 72 more yards. Ohio State's win was the Big Ten's first win in the Rose Bowl since Wisconsin's 2000 win over Stanford. OSU - 26 Oregon - 17

Florida State also beat West Virginia today in the Gator Bowl in Bobby Bowden's last game coaching the Seminoles. A great coach went out with a solid upset and I obviously wish him all the best. Any coach that can lead a team to finish in the Top-5 in the country for 14 years in a row is a legend in my book.

Finally, there was a hockey game played at Fenway today. The Boston Bruins won in overtime over the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1. I will admit, I watched the first period, part of the third, and managed to flip back to it about 10 seconds before they scored the goal in OT. I salute the NHL for their efforts with the Winter Classic and I hope they continue. It is a nice alternative for those fans who don't have a bowl game to watch (cough...me and the majority of my friends and family...cough).

I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve and Day. Good luck keeping your New Year's Resolutions and hopefully I will be able to post in the next day or two breaking down Tim Tebow's crying at the end of the Sugar Bowl.

-Kevin