Friday, March 02, 2012

Top Ten Album Covers

I'll head off the first objection right off the bat - these are the top ten album covers of albums I own. And I'm intentionally leaving off ones that are very cool, but simply existing works of art, like The Big F's eponymous release. Actually I don't have 10, yet, but I thought I'd start. I doubt these are actually going to be in order, but #1 is #1, it's my favorite album cover to date.

#1 - Discipline - Unfolded Like Staircase

Added bonus is that it's an awesome album.

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#2 - Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

And the full art awesomeness:
Hard to pick just one of Derek Riggs', but I think this one is my favorite. And, again, a fantastic album. Very honorable mention to Live After Death, The Number Of The Beast, and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son from the Maiden catalog which features almost uniformly awesome covers (including some fantastic covers for singles - Aces High, The Phantom of the Opera, etc.).

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#3 - Yes - Relayer

An album cover so cool, so Middle-Earth-ish that I picked it up blind, my first Yes album...my still-favorite Yes album (with the magnificently glorious The Gates of Delirium). And below in all it's full art fold out glory.


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#4 - Opeth - Blackwater Park

Just creepy enough to be their best cover...on their 2nd best album.

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#5 - Megadeth - Youthanasia

Weird, baby. Weird. What always gets me is that you look at it, then after a second you see that there's a whole line of them marching off into the distance.

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#6 - Savatage - Dead Winter Dead

I might change my mind on this one, but I like it a lot. Mountain King and Handful are pretty awesome, too.

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#7 - Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

Speaking of fantasmic Middle-Earth covers...and again, your basic everyday one-of-the-best-albums ever!

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Top Lyrical Moments

You have to love a well-turned lyric. At least I think you do. So here I am to pass along some of my favorites, adding as I think of them. Because you care. I know you do. Yeaaaaahhhhh....riiiiiiiight.

Metallica - Damage, Inc.
Fuck it all and fucking no regrets
Never happy endings on these dark sets
All's fair for Damage, Inc. you see
Step a little closer if you please
***

Rush - Available Light
Run with wind and weather
To the music of the sea
All four winds together
Can't bring the world to me
Chase the wind around the world
I want to look at life
In the available light
***

Mercenary - Soul Decision
Nice of you to see me
Good of you to greet me
'cuz I am here to take your soul away

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Heaven In An Earbud

You know what remains incredibly, massively AWESOME after almost 25 years?

Slayer's South of Heaven. What a f***ing awesome song.

I know, you got yer Raining Blood, yer Mandatory Suicide, ye olde Hell Awaits, yer War Ensemble, yer Seasons in the Abyss, my own fav Crypts of Eternity...I'm not taking anything away from them, but they didn't just pop up on my Zune. Awesome.

Monday, February 13, 2012

That Word

I have to conclude...they done it to themselves.

-In non-black world-

One-to-two generations before mine routinely used that word (the one with the n at the beginning) to refer to blacks and, really, all dark-skinned people (Indians, etc).

Some of the next generation decided to not use that word anymore, concluding that it was so offensive it should be completely removed from any use.

This was beaten, in some cases literally, into my generation, thou shalt not use that word. We got it, there was no reason to use a word with that level of negative connotation. For cryin' out loud, treat people with some level of equal decorum. I think we pretty much got it. The PC police had some success there, in a way I can support for a change.

But take a look at what the next generation posts on Facebook. They routinely use that word. In some cases they use it a LOT. What happened?

-in black world-

Generations removed were hounded with that word, it was supremely offensive.

Then, as a generation in non-black world was teaching non-blacks to absolutely, positively, under no circumstances use that word...they decided to embrace it. They basically thumbed their noses at their parents and grandparents and decided to make it their own.

My generation and the one that follows in black world use that word, increasingly openly as opposed to 'privately'. "It's no big thing", I believe is what we'd be told.

So how on earth does someone of my generation react when confronted with lily-white, coddled suburban children calling each other by that word? What moral authority do we have to say 'don't use that word' when the music they consume, the black children they interact with, and black culture uses that word with ever-increasing regularity and lack of shame?

Damned if I know.

On the other hand...has the 'plan' to take the evil of that word away by embracing it and making it 'their own' succeeded? Damned if I know.

I guess this is what getting old is like.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Gumdrops And Lollipops

From my viewpoint (a supporter of an NFL team that is neither the Giants nor Patriots), it is very interesting this morning to hear the reaction from angry Patriots fans and gloating Giants backers with their rose-colored homer glasses. My 2 cents:

1) One of the better Super Bowls? Seriously? Are you kidding? A little flurry at the beginning of the first quarter, trading punts until the end of the 2nd, one Pats drive to start the 3rd, then an absolute bore until about 4 minutes left, and even then, while the game was close, there was no real drama when you get right down to it. Yeah, Brady had almost a minute, but only 1 timeout, needed a TD, Gronkowski wasn't even able to get on the field...what were you expecting? A couple of deep bombs to Julian Edelman to lead a rousing comeback? Maybe Wes Welker skying over a pair of DBs for a catch in the back of the end zone? Their dink and dunk offense didn't have a chance of getting down the field.

2) The catch. Are you kidding me? Comparing Manningham's grab on the sideline to, well, any great, memorable catch from previous games? It wasn't 4th down. Time wasn't an issue. He wasn't challenged by a defender on the catch. Yes, it was a good grab and he did a good job seemingly getting both feet down, but that catch had no more impact at that point than with 10 minutes left in the second quarter. They still had plenty of time, plenty of downs, plenty of options, etc. No doubt it helped them move the ball, but that's it.

3) The Giants rattled Brady. Baloney. Yeah, Brady took a shot in the 3rd that hurt his shoulder, but to say that he had the yips the rest of the game or didn't play as well? I guess you didn't see him winging it onto guys hands in the 4th quarter and them dropping it. It's utter homer/anti-Brady BS to continue the phony storyline that Brady isn't good in big games anymore. He set a record for consecutive completions in this game. He was sharp most of the game. He slid out of trouble time and again to buy time to find...nobody open. Was he supposed to throw it to himself? And where, exactly, was the run game that was pretty effective with BJGE? The dumb slams into the line by Woodhead were both predictable and useless, I think I successfully called about 95% of them - when they were going to run him or send him out on a route. If I can, then the Giants certainly could (and did).

4) Manning! There is nothing worse this morning than hearing people say 'with the game on the line, I'd have to say I'd want to have Manning instead of Brady at this point!' Get real. If you answer 'Manning' to the next question, then you're related to him or a hopeless homer (not that there's anything wrong with that):
With the game on the line, who would you rather have the ball? Brady with Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham - or Manning with Welker, Branch, and Danny Woodhead?
There is just no way Manning or Rodgers or Peyton or Favre or Montana could have done any more with that group of receivers than Brady did. To get that far without a single deep threat is pretty amazing. Yes, Manning played well, played very well for most the game actually. But when he lost two TEs and they just had to spread out the Pats suspect secondary with one of the best group of 3 receivers in the league? Well, let's just say that's a lot nicer than having a gimpy TE, one with butterfingers, an aging 3rd down receiver, and seemingly a half dozen slot receivers that excel at catching 4 yard crossing routes.

5) De-fense! One thing I'm not hearing much about is the defenses. The Giants D did OK, but didn't get enough pressure on Brady. A few less drops or someone to throw to and he'd have had a field day. And the (rightly) maligned Pats defense did not lose the game for them, as I suspected it would. Look, they only gave up 19 points to a very good offensive team. 19 points! For a good offensive team, which the Pats pretended to be all year, that defense did a good enough job. Frankly, though, if the Giants had spread them out more it probably would have been a slaughter (my guess is the Giants intentionally played it 'safe' to limit the time Brady had the ball, which worked). They also forced two fumbles, they just weren't able to recover them. Got sacks at a few opportune times. They were good enough.

6) The pick. Oh, give me a break. Gronkowski had the guy totally beaten, even on a bum leg. The only reason it got picked was because Gronkowski actually got too far away for Brady to throw it far enough, instead it only got as far as the linebacker trailing after him. And he made a nice grab when Brady had it drop into his arms.

7) Safety dance. I don't want to hear any more commentators talking about how it was 'absolutely the right call' to nail Brady for intentional grounding on their first play. Was it? Arguably. But it happens over and over again in games and is not called. Manning did it at least once and it wasn't called. It wasn't the right call when you don't ever call it the rest of the year. It wasn't the right call when you don't ever call it the rest of the game. When you hand one team 2 points at the very beginning of the Super Bowl, you'd better be on high alert for any other instances the entire game, and the officials these people are praising for their 'gutsy call' didn't call it again when they could have.

It was a so-so game with little drama.

It could have been dramatic when the Giants lost their top two tight ends...except they're a better team when they use their WRs more, anyway.

It could have been dramatic when the Pats gave Manning the ball with under 4 minutes and a slim lead...except the only reason it was close was because their dumb, tentative play calling all 4th quarter never gave them any point when they could have been up by two scores at that point, they only need to get a little past the 50 to kick the winning field goal, they had a timeout left, there was almost 4 minutes to go, and the Pats had only managed to stop NY WRs a couple of times on lucky plays to that point.

It could have been dramatic when the Pats let the Giants score a TD to get the ball back with 57 seconds and a timeout...except the Pats don't have a single downfield threat except when one of their TEs manages to get down the seam for maybe 20 yards if you want to call that a deep threat. Did anyone except a Brady relative or Pats homer think they could get down the field in 57 seconds for a TD throwing 4 yard dump offs to Danny Woodhead and Wes Welker?

Hey, how about those Giants, though? They've put together a heck of a group that may not be done winning, yet. Solid QB, about 2 lines worth of good to great D-linemen, good enough O-line, good enough TEs, great top 3 group of WRs, good enough LBs, a decent RB when he's healthy. They can make another run next year if they improve their running game and secondary. Their offense didn't exactly shine last night (it was sort of dreadful at times) and their defense got more lucky than anything all things considered, but they totally did enough to win and that's what matters.

Spectacular Let Down

Wow, Jerry Seinfeld looks old.

Wow, Matthew Broderick looks dead.

Wow, Clint Eastwood looks back from the dead.

They sure put a lot of effort into creating such a spectacle that you didn't notice Madonna, didn't they?

Less 'hit in the crotch' jokes in the ads, that's good. Pretty boring pile of ads, though, that's bad - especially since the game was so boring.

C'mon, admit it, boringest game in years. A couple minutes of false drama at the end couldn't mask a lifeless 1st, 3rd, and 4th quarters. When New England failed to put away the Giants by putting up another score to get up by 2 scores over and over and over again, it was beyond inevitable that the Giants would win given a plump 3+ minute cushion of time only needing a field goal. Best thing that happened to them last night was losing 2 tight ends so they had to focus on their wide receivers that New England couldn't even hope to stop. Then there was no real chance New England would get down the field in a minute with one time out and no wide receivers.

I am, however, now, for the first time, convinced that Tom Brady is a Hall of Fame quarterback. The team took Tom Brady, gave him a couple of tight ends and Wes Welker and said, "Go win the Super Bowl, Tom. Oh, and your defense will suck." And he came this close to putting together a season to do it.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Killed Him A B'ar When He Was Only Three!

Can anyone relate to me any of the legends told about Joe Paterno? All I keep hearing about is how he was the "legendary" coach at Penn State. So what legends exactly are there? The legend of how he's been a figurehead leader sleeping in a golf card during practices for the last few years? The time the team bus tipped over and he single-handedly righted it, lifting it off a carload of nuns escorting injured puppies and kittens to the animal hospital?

Shouldn't there be legends about someone that is "legendary"?

I know, it's also used to represent 'famous', but isn't that kind of stupid? I mean "legendary", by the very basis of the word, should involve someone of whom there are legends...right?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Leafe Fell

The leaf...the leafe...the fall. I can heartily recommend the excellent album Aerolithe by Fall of the Leafe. Particularly luscious is the track Graceful Retreat.

Problem is that this is a defunct band. Aerolithe was their last album and unavailable on Amazon, but you can download it for under $9, which is what I did. I wasn't as enamored with their earlier efforts. Singer is Tuomas Tuominen, now singing with The Man-Eating Tree, a band I'm loving as you've surely noticed. His style is more straight-forward northern metal with Leafe, less experimental. Leafe is not as dense as Tree by a long-shot, and is shot through with doses of traditional rock and metal vs. the more progressive leanings of Tree.

Totally worth $9.