Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Me, Chambers, Pat, Liam, Kyle, and Alex all went to Aussie Pink Floyd last night. It was insanely good. It was almost better than Roger Waters, and you couldn't really tell the difference between them and the real Pink Floyd, with some exceptions, but whatever.

They opened up with Shine on you Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V), the awesome 15 minute song from Wish you Were Here. From then on, it just got better. The next two were some of my favorites, Money, and Us and Them. Later on Sheep, Great Gig in the Sky, and some other hits. The lights were the best I have ever seen. They were crazy, Better than Waters and the Allman Brothers.

The Second Half was good too, Wish you Were here, Another Brick in the Wall (Part two), Time, and some other sweet ones. The encores were Hey You and the end song was Run like Hell. It was almost, almost, better than Roger. The greatest cover band of all time. A+.

Tenacious D

I went to go and see the Pick of Destiny with my dad last Saturday. It was not all it was cracked up to be. I thought it wasn't going to be that great, but I thought that it would be funny. It wasn't really either.

Michard's thoughts on Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny.

Wasn't that good. Let me just say that I'll give it a C+ right now. It had Jack Black in it so I thought it would be hilarious, but it wasn't that funny. They brought Meat Loaf and Dio in it, but it still wasn't that great. Every other word was fuck or cock. Yeah, not that cool. It's just sad, in a movie with Jack Black, I can't even remember 5 funny parts in the movie. And Alex brought up a good point when we were talking about Silvia, Jack Black is all about paying rent. In the PoD and in School of Rock. Thought I'd just share that. But back to the movie, I'd give it 3 or so stars.

Hendrix

Alright, I have a ton of homework so I am going to make this short and sweet. Today is the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death. Probably the greatest guitar player ever, Hendrix literally revolutionized music and the way the wonderful instrument that is called a guitar is played. Many people try to take after this legend's style, but are unable to achieve it. Hat's off to Hendrix.

Arizona Part II

I'm back! After a long vacation in Arizona, I have finally come back to freezing New Hampshire.

AZ was awesome. It is totally different from NH. You cannot see a set of 10 consecutive trees there, instead there will be 100s of cacti. There are mountains literally everywhere you look. It's crazy.

Me, my mom and Erik flew into Tucson Friday night after around 8 or so hours of flying. We were picked up by my uncle Jeff and then drove to their mansion style home. It wasn't huge, but it was big. 3 bathroom 8 rooms, and best of all, a 60 inch HD Sony TV. It was wicked sweet. The whole TV was the size of my wingspan. Watching Ohio State Michigan was a blast.

The first couple of days, we just relaxed and got used to the time difference. It was weird, last Saturday, I went to bed at 9:00 there time (11:00 our time.) I went running with my Uncle Marty almost everyday and each time we went a different route. Every time we had to stop. The view was unreal. Wednesday we went mountain biking, and I ran into a cactus mountain biking with Erik and my two other uncles. I didn't have to get any needles pulled out, but Erik ran into one and had around 200 pulled out of just his hand. He had an extra 50 or so pulled out of his knee. Thursday, I did the turkey trot, a 5 K. My time was 23:30. Not that bad, around 7:40 miles.

On the way back, we stopped in Chicago. They have the best airport I've ever been to. They had two McDonald's there, around 3 cafes, more than half a dozen shops, it was awesome. My family stopped at Harry Carey's (who was the greatest Cubs announcer ever.) Food, great, although it was pricey. Then we got ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. It was sweet. (Pat, I didn't get a pin for you in AZ, but I got one for you in the airport in Chicago.)

It turned out to be the best vacation I've ever been on. Guys, we have to stop by Tucson on our road trip.

Arizona

Alright, I just want to tell everyone that I leave for Arizona tomorrow. That's right. A week without me, (Pat's probably really excited.) But, I'll bring all of you guys back some iced tea, and I'll try to get some pics up on my blog about the whole thing. I'm gonna run the Turkey Trot there which is an annual five mile race. I've been consistently running five miles everyday in training for this and have figured out that it's going to take me around 35 minutes. Not bad.
But this brings me to another point. Chambers is signing up for the Grand Canyon Backpacking Intersession at our school. All of us believe that one, he will not last an hour, and two, he's only doing this one because it's the most expensive one. Either way, he's not going to make it out alive....
Okay, I'll see you guys in a week! Except for W.
Peace.

Borat

Okay! I hopped on the band waggon. I now have a new tricked out blog. Even though it's pointless, since I'm not really going to be posting anymore.....oh well.
But more importantly, I saw Borat yesterday with the gang. Let me tell you, it was hilarious. I thought that it would be a little funnier, but it still was wicked good.
Michard's take on Borat:
This was a goodun. It was tons funnier than Taledaga Nights, the only other comedy I've seen this year. It was "Very nice." Sacha Cohen, (in Taledega, and also Da Ali G show) did well in this movie. The accent was near perfect. It fit the movie. I totally agree with the critics, who gave Borat four stars. I think it deserved four stars or more. I say go see it.
But there was some debate over this, was most of it staged, or was almost all of it unwritten and it just happened. Me, I think that most to all of the movie was staged. The Pamela Anderson scene had to be staged. And besides that, I think that the Running of the Jew, the end of the wrestling scene, and also the scene with gangsters were all staged and writen. I know that someone on the ride home, (either Lee or Patty, or Chambers,) said that they thought that the Pam scene was the only scene that had to be staged. But it doesn't really mater. The argument could go either way, and it was funny wether written or not. I give it at least a B+ or and A-.

Road Trip

I'm bored again in free period, so I'm blogging. But this tiem, it's actually important. Me and some others (Lee, Alex, Kyle, etc.) are going on a road trip next year to California. If anyone has anything they think we should bring, tell me. I already have a huge list but I need some other ideas

Death Penalty

Alright, I know that I haven't posted in forever. Well, that's because I'm not going to blog anymore. It's a waste of time. I said this before, but this one, I'm actually going to follow through on. I'm only doing this one because I'm in Free Period and I have nothing to do. For this post, I'm doing something that's really an important issue all over the world. The Death Penalty. I hate this thing so much. Whoever says the death penalty is the right thing to do can kiss my ass. That's crazy. If you're one of those eye for an eye people, try this, "An eye for an eye will make us all blind." And it's true. You know it is.
More important than this is the Mumia case. Free Mumia. He is so innocent. Anyone who says otherwise (Chambers) should do some research on a site other than Wikipedia, (except if the article was written by W) an non Daniel Falkner site, and a non anti Mumia site. Chambers, get on your computer and start. By the end of it, even if you still want to believe he's guilty, you'll know that he is innocent.
Anyway, back to the death penalty. It's cruel and unusual. And what if the guy is innocent? It's a factor. He could be. Mumia is. Other than that, it is embarrasing. Idaho and Utah still offer the firing squad as a choice if you want it. That's terrible. It's inhumane. Let's tie a guy up to a tree and have 20 people fire at him at him WITH THE INTENTION TO KILL. That's not a punishment, it's murder. There was once a case where a lethal injection was trying to take place, but it took 33 minutes of cutting the guy to find a good vein. That's sick if you ask me. This whole thing is literally rediculous. I personally hate it.
And here is something about the Philidalpheia court system (speaking of Mumia.) I found out today that the in the Philly court system, 60 percent of all capital cases went without proper investigations or experienced attorneys. Hmmm......makes you stop and think does'nt it? Not that I don't love America and stuff, because I do, but there are so many things that need help in the US needs to take care of or start taking a lot more seriously.

The First Ever MAAA

Alright! The votes are in. The most important award since the Heisman trophy is about to be given away. Some people, (W) didn't vote because of really stupid reasons, the people that did vote are done. I am ready to give out the first annual, Fall MAAA.

Before I do, I would like to congratulate some of the awesome bands that unfortunately didn't make the cut.

• Santana
• AC/DC
• Traffic
• Aerosmith
• Cream
• CCR
• Van Halen
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Jeff Beck
• Johnny Cash
• Bob Dylan
• Snakes on a Band
• The Kyle Mandro Experience
• Vanilla Ice

I probably left out a ton, but those are some of the greatest that didn't make my list.

Okay! The votes are in.

And the winner is....................

The Beatles!!!!

Yeah, we knew the winner from the very beginning. The greatest band ever (arguably) takes home the Award. Let's see how the votes turned out.

The Beatles: 4 Votes (Michard, Joe, Liam, Chambers)

Led Zeppelin: 2 Votes (Michard, Alex)

Neil Young: 2 Votes (Joe, Alex)

Lynyrd Skynyrd: 2 Votes: (Pat, Liam)

Pink Floyd: 1 Vote: (Pat)

Well, that's it and that's all. Thanks for voting. Now, we wait till the Spring.

MAAA Part III

This is the toughest Part of the whole thing. Picking the final bands, and also the final way to vote. After thinking a ton about this, I made my decision. Everyone will get two votes, and I will get two also. You cannot vote for the same band twice, although I can if I want to. So, take your time on this, there is no reason to rush, go back, look at the options, look at the bands on this page, then make your final votes.

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Sorry about this racist pick, I had to because Patty was upset about it. But, I do have to admit, Skynyrd was a pretty kick-ass band. Getting voted into the Hall of Fame (2006) has to mean something. Pat needs to get over that they were pretty racist, but on top of being racist, they were good.

One of the first Skynyrd CDs I bought, in fact the only one I own, is The viscous Cycle Tour. It's crazy. The first time I listened to Simple Man, I knew that I was going to like these guys a lot. And it wasn't just Simple Man. It was Free Bird, Gimme Back My Bullets, Trouble Troulble, The Ballard of Curtis Lowe, That's The Way I Like it, They Call me the Breeze, I Know a Little, Mississippi Kid, Red, White and Blue, and some others. It is one of the better CDs that I own.

This band had some changes, in fact, a lot of them. There were deaths and replacements in the band, but the original cast looked like this. Ronnie Van Zant, Bob Burns, and Gary Rossington. This happened after, Ronnie hit a baseball that hit Burns in the head, who was watching the game with Gary. The three later added Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom and Billy Powel. The cast now looks like this: Gary Rossington, (guitar) Billy Powell, (piano) Ean Evans, (bass) Rickey Medlocke, (guitar) Johnny Van Zant, (vocals) and Michael Cartellone on the drums. A little racist, but very good.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young/Neil Young

You have to put Neil Young on a top ten bands list. His stuff with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was amazing, and his stuff today is still awesome. It might not be as rockin as it used to be, but he is still an incredible musician. Lately, I am hooked on Parie Wind. I never realized how good it really was. I really have to thank Alex a lot for getting me involved with Neil. Now, I totally can agree with him that he is one of the greatest musicians of all time.

Crazy Stuff. The list includes, Hey, Hey, My, My, Ohio, The Painter, No Wonder, Cinnamon Girl, Old Man, Heart of Gold, Almost Cut My Hair, Sea of Madness, Down By the River, and a lot more. The only bad thing is he has credit with making some of the worst records in the world, but this really wasn't his fault, he did it just to get back at the record company. In case you were wondering, I think that these albums were called Everybody's Rockin' and Long May You Run. But other than that, the best stuff.

The Eagles

Yup. Some might be surprised at this pick, but they were voted the fourth greatest band of all time. I was kind of shocked by this when I immediately heard it, but then I stopped and took the time to think about the Eagles and their songs. And I don't think that they should be the fourth greatest band of all time, but they're definitely up there.

They were a rock/country rock band with an outstanding sound. Some of the big ones were Take it Easy, Withchy Woman, Tequila Sunrise, One of These Nights, Hotel California, Heartache Tonight, Life in The Fast Lane, The Long Run, and some other top ten and number one hits. Hotel California is one of my favorite songs of all time, and it might win a MAAA for best song ever, who knows.

This was extremely hard. There were so, so many bands that I could've chose. It was one of my toughest decsions since asked what's my favorite Seinfelf episode. But, I've made my decsion.

The Final nominee is...................

The Allman Brothers

Whew. That was wicked hard, but it's over. That's the last of them. I'm glad for the Allman Brothers, they deserve this spot. Although I wasn't really happy with the Meadowbrook concert, they still are such a good band. They have one of the more unique sounds on this list. Kind of a countryish sound, but still a pretty cool rock and roll/blues sound to them. I like it.

The Band, Duane Allman, Greg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, Jai Johanson, was an awesome original crew. Duane Allman, crazy, Greg Allman, awesome, but that soon changed. With Duane Allman's death on OCTOBER 29, 1971, (that's for the record, now we all know) the band took a big hit. Fortunately, they kept on rockin and producing'. Some of their greatests were Little Martha, Statesborough Blues, Wasted Words, Trouble No More, Midnight Rider, Stormy Monday, Jessica, Ramblin' Man, One Way Out, Hot Lanta, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, and for the sake of it, Mountain Jam. Yeah, a deserver of their 1995 Hall of Fame induction, the Allman Brothers definitely could be a top 5 band of all time.

That it! Those are your nominees! Start Voting!

MAAA Part 2

Alright, the second part is underway. I know that I'm doing all of this really fast, but you're in no rush to vote. I think that I've decided that each person will get two votes, and you can't vote for the same band twice, but I'm not to sure yet. Well, here are three more nominees.

The Rolling Stones

Arguably THE classic rock band. This band consisted of some Hall of Famers as well. Mick Jagger, (probably the most recognizable male singer besides Elvis) and Keith Richards, a guitar God of the 70's. From starting in '62, they haven't stopped Rolling yet.

From the get go, you could tell that this band was at least going to be a little different. Just a couple of young, crazy guys involved in the British Invasion, but boy could they play music. The original cast included Mick Jagger, Keith (on Rythm!), Brain Jones on lead, Ian Stewart, (piano) Dick Taylor, (bass) and a couple of drummers, none of them were really perminante.

Their first real hit was a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On." This was the starter that got it going for the Stones. After that came some of the greatest songs of all time. Satisfaction, Under My Thumb, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Sympathy for the Devil, Honkey Tonk Women, Paint it Black, Brown Sugar, It's only Rock and Roll. Yeah, tons and tons of 'em. It's crazy. And after 45 years, they haven't stopped! They're doing a Bigger Bang tour right now.

The Who

My original favorite band. One of the first CDs I ever got was The Who: Live at the Royal Albert Hall. I thought it was good. Later I found out that when The Who did this CD, they were all around 70 years old. I was shocked. I immediately went out and got one of their CDs done in their prime. It was awesome. I have the Then and Now CD. It contains all of their hits. It is easily one of my favorite CDs.

This band was crowned the godfathers of punk. Unfortunately, maybe because of The Who, we have Yellowcard today. Damn. Anyway, it was a Hall of Fame band, literally. Keith Moon on drums, Pete Townshend on lead, Roger Dultry on vocals and the greatest bassist of all-time, John Entwhistle. I don't really like bassists, he is the only one I think is amazing. The solos of his were mind blowing. Listen to Live at the Leeds. On Amazing Journey/Sparks go around 4:15 in and listen to the bass solo. I can't describe it. It's crazy.

Some hits were Who Are You?, 5:15, Subsitute, My Generation, Happy Jack, Summertime Blues, Magic Bus, Relay, Bargin, I Can't Explain, Baba O'Riley, I Can See for Miles, Behind Blue Eyes, Squeeze Box, and probably a lot of others that I'm forgetting. Definitely a top ten band of all time.

Pink Floyd

Not exactly a tough decision. Floyd was definitely a defining rock and roll band. Although they were a little different than a typical rock and roll band, I think that that difference helped put them in a different league. No One can honestly say that there is another band like them, and some might argue that there is not a band out there that was as good as they were.

The Band name had always puzzled me. If you really analyze it, it's weird, and not rock at all. But, the name came from two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The members included Syd Barret, lead vocals and rhythm guitar (who passed away this year), David Gilmour, lead guitar/vocals, Nick Mason, percussion, Roger Waters, bass lead vocals and Richard Wright, keyboards and vocals. This is the same band with two of the most famous albums in the world, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.

A cool thing about Pink Floyd is that if you count a couple of their hits, the song ties into another one. On Dark Side of the Moon, there are a couple of songs leading up to Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, but they are all just flowing one into another. It's wicked cool. Some hits were Speak to Me/Breath, Brain Damage, Money, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Comfortably Numb, Run Like Hell, Wish you Were Here, Have a Cigar, Welcome to the Machine, you get the picture. Roger Waters is still wicked good in concert, go see him.

That's that for Part Two. Sorry I can't get a lot of pics on here.

1st Annual M triple A awards

Okay, since everybody is doing awards lately, I'm going to do some too. The first annual MAAA (Michard's Awesome achievement Awards.) The MAAA will be held every October and also every April, so there will be an MAAA every fall and spring. The fall category for 2006 is....Bands. I am doing the greatest bands of all-time. This is going to be set up kind of weird. There will be four total parts to this thing. First part, this post, the three beginning nominees. Next, another post with four nominees. 3rdly a post with three nominees. The final post will announce the first MAAA ever. It might be decided by me or you, I'm not too sure yet.
Here are this fall's nominees.

Led Zeppelin.
Of course. One of the most successful rock and roll bands. They were the "definitive" metal band. These guys transformed the blues into a new kind of music. Not many bands can be credited with practically creating a new sound.

The band was an all star line up. Jimmy Page, arguably the one of the best guitar players of all time, Robert Plant, who in my opinion is the greatest singer of all time, John Bonham, the greatest drummer of all time, no questions asked, and John Paul Jones. Jones kind of was a standout, put he still could play the bass very well.

This was one of the only bands that you could not name all of their hits. They must have had at least dozens. These included songs like Black Dog, Heartbreaker, Stairway to Heaven, Kashmir, D'Yer Mak'er, The Ocean, Bring it On Home, Over the Hills and Far Away, the list goes on forever. These songs were not all early metal though, it was a range of minor, rock and roll, blues, metal, almost a regge type of sound in D'Yer Mak'er, and major. I think that Zeppelin was the only band having this much range in their stuff, and actually having it all be great.

Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Oh Yeah! You knew this was coming. My favorite guitarist of all time. The greatest blues guitarist ever. Some might say that this can't be a topic because he is a solo artist. Well to those people, you are idiots. He did it with Double Trouble. This consited of drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, (the ex-bassist for Johnny Winter.)

He dropped out of high school to focus on his music career at the age of 16. This is the biggest risk anyone could ever take, he could have wound up with nothing. But instead it payed off. After a brief stint with the Cobras, SRV and Double Trouble was formed. His first album, Texas Flood, was amazing and received great critical reviews, as did his fourth album In step, the the second and third were good and went gold like the 1st and 4th. Unfortunately, the music world came to a shock after the announcement that Stevie Ray Vaughn was killed in a plane crash that took place on August 27, 1990. He was 45 years old.

He was a genius. There were many accounts from Stevie's wife saying that she could not sleep because Stevie played guitar in his sleep. So think about it, there really was not one point through out the day where he was not playing guitar, and it really showed. Some of his greatest hits included songs like Texas Flood, Couldn't Stand the Weather, Pride and Joy, Crossfire, I'm Cryin', Testify, Tightrope, and some other solo songs like Lenny and Rude Mood. As people in Chicago would say, he's, da best.

The Beatles

Voted the greatest band of all time. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrsion, and Ringo. Four of the biggest names in music history. This band is a definition of a superband. Although Paul, (or was it George?) said, "We're not great musicians. We're just a bunch of guys singing and playing music." Yeah, I kind of think differently. All of them had to be decent musicians if they were voted as the greatest band ever.

Earlier I said that Zeppelin is a band where you can't even count all of their hits, but it is even more true with the Beatles. Elanor Rigby, Help!, Penny Lane, Yesterday, Let it Be, Hey Jude, Get back, Yellow Submarine, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Come Together, Here Comes the Sun, Hello Goodbye, and these are only a couple. I almost guarantee if you listen to a classic rock station, you'll hear at least a half a dozen Beatles songs by the time the day is done. These guys were awesome. If you search Google images for The Beatles, you'll almost get 400,000 results, Zeppelin, almost a tenth of that, 43,500.

Okay, that does it for the first part. Until the 2nd, Peace.

Guitarists

I recently read an article about the greatest underrated guitar players of all time. I found this thing really interesting and kind of odd. He listed players such as Howard Leese, (Heart) Mick Mars, (Motley Crue) and Steve Clark, (Def Leopard.) Now, I really did disagree with a lot of this. Was it an awful article? No, it was wicked good, but I think that a lot of people might agree with me on these reasons.

One of the guitarists on this list was Elliot Easton of the Cars. The Cars, great classic rock band a couple of good hits, solid vocals, but no absolutely killer guitar. Some might argue that he couldn't really do an awesome solo because of the music style that his band played. It was kind of mellow rock for all of you idiots that do not know who the Cars are. But he could have. I have heard many guitarists do soft solos that are wicked good. Page in some Zeppelin songs, Satriani with some of his softer solo songs, Hendrix with, well, a ton of songs, you could go on and on. I know these guys are absolutely in a different category and they play a lot differently, but the least he could do is add some cool riffs in there somewhere. If he was one of the all time greats you would have a least have heard of him.

This one really pissed me off. Slash from Guns and Roses, and also Velvet Revolver. He is not under rated. And if you don't know anything about Slash, he's now in a Volkswagen playing guitar out of one of their new models. Anyway, that is crazy. If you are into music, and especially if you play guitar, you have heard of Slash. He is one of the people on the list of top 50 guitarists of all time. Yeah, anyone who is on this list is not underrated, is wicked good and is someone people have had to have heard of. Extremely good, from a good band. I really disagree with what the article said. An all time great.

Now, you could really put up some strong arguments against this post. And, what the hell? Go for it, leave a comment about it. I want to hear what you guys think about this.
Free Mumia!!!

V for Vendetta

Now I know I said that I would not be posting for a while, but I have absolutely nothing to do today. I had to delete all of my CDs on iTunes and rip them all over again. It is a pain in the ass. But, at least I have something to post about today. Last night, me, Kyle, Alex, Lee, and Patty went over Chambers house to watch V for Vendetta. This was an awesome movie. I said that Four Brothers was great, and sweet and all of that stuff. It was, but V blows this movie out of the water. It was so good. Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving did so well in this movie. Although, I've gotta add that Alex kept saying how hot Natalie was. Do I agree, of course, but it was kind of annoying.
Michard's thoughts on V:
This was the best movie I have seen in a while. I have been complaining for a little while that there are no great movies anymore, but this shut me up. It was solid all the way around. Beginning, ending, story line, everything. Hugo, who I have really never heard of, did a really good job.
It is kind of freaky though. The movie itself isn't scary, but it is kind of scary to think about. If that stuff really could happen in the future, well, to say at the least, it would suck. The Government controls you. You are scared out of your damn mind by the Government. "The people should not be afraid of it's Government, the Government should be afraid of it's people."
Which brings me to another point. I have never heard so many good quotes in one movie. Sure, "Shake and Bake" and "If you ain't first, you're last," there was like 10 wicked good quotes in there. Here are a couple of them.
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, Mr. Creedy - and ideas are bulletproof."
"When all your bullets are gone, I better not be standing, because you'll all be dead before you reload."
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
And THE V quote-
"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you, and you may call me V."

A to A+. Go see this movie.

Number 3

Okay, this might be my last post for a little while. I've kind of figured out that blogs are kind of a waste of time. This one is all about the Number 3. Three main topics, on the 3rd day of October.

First topic. Today is Stevie Ray Vaughn's birthday. I think, along with millions of other people, that he is the greatest blues guitar player ever. This guy was amazing. And I can listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn, on my new iPod! That's right, ordered it Friday, came in today. Having some trouble with the videos and photos, but I'll figure it out. Thrid and Final topic, Fantasy Football! This time, I remain undefeated in not just two leagues now, but three. The only 4-0 team in my Yahoo! league (300.33 points, weird, 3 3s, creepy.) I am still 4-0 in my ESPN league, alothough I'm slipping a little bit, I'm in second still. And, to top it all off, I beat Patty really bad for the my first game of my new league. He was talking smack to me all week so this win was very fun/important. Alright, that's it.
PEACE.

30th Post

30 posts ALREADY! September 28th, 2006. I officially had my first post nearly 2 months ago. (August 2006) Chambers was bragging about his 30th post a while ago. Well, he's been blogging since March. Yeah, little bit of a difference there. And another thing with Chambers, I already have more profile veiws than he does. I am probably going to catch up with Lee in about 2 months, maybe sooner (posts wise). Well, since the playoffs are right here for baseball, I am going to make my predictions for this year and next year.
Nomar: Come back player of the year, NL
NL MVP: Ryan Howard
AL MVP: Sadly, Derek Jeter
AL Batting Champ: Derek Jeter
NL Batting Champ: Freddy Sanchez
WORLD SERIES: Tigers and Mets
Champs: Mets in 6 games (congrats Volz)

Stating the Facts

God, I have now have had to edit this thing three times. Alright, the gang have been arguing about how had the first post. I, Michard, am here to settle it. We will never really know (for a least a little while) who did the first post. Waldo is claming that he did it before Alex did. He sounded very confident that it was on the 14th, but after reading Pat's blog, he said it could have been on the 14th of March. Well, I could have been right. I origionally said that Alex, the worst blogger out of all of us, had the first post. I think he did. Alex did a post on the 14th, W. says he might have. I think it is Alex. And by the way, Pat claims he had the very first post, but really, he posted on the 28th, two weeks after the first post. Pat you are an idiot. Do not believe anything you hear form Pat because it is either wrong or dumb. There. That's that. Stop arguing please. We are not having another war over something stupid like this.
www.fidelgiamatti.blogspot.com
www.waldofiles.blogspot.com

One thing

One quick thing for today, I didn't surrender in the blog war. Do not believe Big Lee on that one, we all know he's a little off his rocker, (a couple sandwiches short of a picnic if you know what I mean.) By the way Lee, when you read this, don't flip out. One, I'm not counting this as a post, so this wont count towards my total number (28.) I know you really get mad when I do "small posts" and actually count them. Two, I don't want to start another war with that comment, I'm all about peace now.

Fantasy Football Week 3

Well, I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that, one, I am still 3-0 in both of my leagues. Also, we are finally getting the third league set up. This one has me, W, Chambers, Liam, Patty, and one of W's brothers. I'm not to sure if it is Joe or if it's Robbie. But now for the bad news, I dropped to second in the ESPN league. I have 552 points, and the first place team has 588.
But now for Yahoo. This week was actually exciting. I went in knowing I was going to win because the other team (nat) had three people that were a bye that week. So, Monday, I get up, check how much points I was up by, and I was shocked. I was down .18 points. I couldn't believe it. All of my players had done horrible and Nat's had done well. I had one hope for me to get those .18 points, and that was Warrick Dunn, (Running Back, ATL Falcons.) He was the only player for either side that was playing Monday night. So this morning I woke up and checked the score, and.....Warrick Dunn got 2 points! That still is an awful #, but I'll take the win. I am now the only undefeated team in the whole league. Unfortunately, I'm going to lose this week because I have three byes on my team. If you want, check them all.....
http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/standings?leagueId=87887
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/12247
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/65608
By the way, the football at the top, autographed by Mike Ditka, ex coach of Da Bears

Four Brothers

I saw Four Brothers today, Sunday, and I thought it was awesome. I origianlly wanted to see Flight 93, but little Mich didn't want to. Welll, I am glad he picked this one.

Michard's thoughts on Four Brothers:

Once again, an awesome movie. The cast, (Mark Whalberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, and Garrett Hedlund) were perfect. I saw Invincible with Mark, and I think he was as good or better in this movie. Honestly, he is becoming one of my favorite actors. The other cast was excellent too.

This movie is aobut four brothers that were adpoted by Elevan Mercer. She was well known in the community as one of the kindest people there ever was. She was constanly helping kids with problems like stealing and all that. This takes place in rough Detroit, were shootings and gangs are a common thing, (just like in Bow, NH.) They come home for the funneral and Bobby (Mark W) decides that they should find the killer and take him down. Andre Benjamin (Jerramiah, also from Outkast,) doesn't really like the idea but Jack and Angel both are up for it. Bobbly, Angel and Jack all go and catch up with a couple of people, and find out that a dirty cop and Victor Sweet are the ones that are behind all of this. After a shootout in which Jack dies, they get a plan to take out Vic and the cop. They do after some minor struggles and end up killing Vic and having the cop arrested. Overall I'd give this movie at least and A-.

Oh, and by the way, the War is dead. It's over, Big Lee needs to update his blog.

Blog War, Unofficially Over

Alright, well just a little while ago, the blog war started all with one little post about how my blog was better than Big Lee's. Exactly 8 posts later, it is unofficially over. That's right, Chambers has threw in the towel, and given up all hope. Lee and Patty are still likely to draw more pictures of him, or post about him, but Chambers has given up. Well, before this thing is officially over, I would like to get my 2 cents worth. That's right, for the first time in this war, I am talkin smack to Lee.

Big Lee is so big, whenever he walks into a restaurant, the waiter hands him a menu, and he says "Okay."
He is so big, he sat on a Gamecube and made it a gameboy
Liam is so big, he stepped on a dollar and made change.
So big, that this idea of exercise is running from the fridge to the bathroom.
Lee is so Big, he put on elevator shoes and two steps later, they turned into flip flops.

That's just a little something to stick up for Chambers Lee. Don't take it personal, these could have been done, and would have fit better, if I did them about Chambers. Just a little laugh.

Anyway, back to the war. That was really dumb. I should have just quit from the beginning if I had know that is was going to be like this. That was just plain stupid. I should have quit, but, whatever, doesn't really matter now.

Post 25 brings Upsetting News

Well, this one is post 25, the silver anniversary. But this one doesn't bring good news at all. Oh no. Instead it brings even more upsetting news on the blog war. Today, without notice, John G. Chambers decided an agreement to surrender and be done with the blog war. Fortunatley, his request was denied. His terms were apparently too high for Liam, I'm not sure if they were too high for Pat because he did not leave a comment.
I was absolutely blown away by this. Here was the person that was actually stratagizing about this blog war was acctually planning to surrender this early. I was shocked, here's what my comment looked like....

Chambers you fricking idiot! You surrender already?! What the hell? I'm in charge of the Sick Nasty Side and you don't even tell me about this surrender? What Gives?! Dude, at least post a comment or something and let me know about this. We, yes we, I am probably going to start going negative now that I know that there is a chance of surrender, are going to win. Don't give up, that is the last thing I want to happen. Don't wuss out, it just started. Come on Chombers. Pal we're in this thing together, and I've had to stick up for you a lot through this thing, I'm not about to give up and you aren't either. You are tired of getting made fun of...Frankly my dear friend, I Don't Give A Damn. You are staying in this war untill I say otherwise.
Your teammate through thick and thin,
-Michard
5:15 PM

Yeah, I was pissed/suprised. He later said that he wanted out beacause he was getting made fun of a lot. Well, I'm not exactly happy about this either. Suck it up I say, they are words, they only sting if you let them, they only hurt if you think that they do. Come on, stick it out.
But right after the post about surrendering, he decided to post about Big Lee. He stated two racist jokes about women that Lee allegedly said. I'm not sure if these were really said, but if they were, I am very suprised about Lee. I could say something about Liam right now, but I'll hold my tounge, for now.

My take on Blog War One

Liam, this is what I think today. The blog war just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Blog War One? Wow. There were some pretty big scuffles between you and a lot of other people in the past, but I totally agree, this one by far blows them all away. W trying to play peacekeeper, Patty trying to recruit Alex, Chambers trying to plan out a strategy over this whole thing, it's all crazy.

By the way, I don't know if anybody has noticed, but I am the only one that is yet to go negative, besides Patty but he doesn't post.....Well.....At all. Even his teammate made fun of him for this. Again, I post every day or every two days, Patty usually posts every two months. There have been some times where Pat has said he was going to post, but has he yet, nope. All in all, Chambers even has a better blog than he does because he posts pretty regularly. By the way this isn't going negative, it's just making a point.

So, Blog War One is officially underway.

Another interesting comment about this little war, if W does get involved in this thing, then it will be a world war, I don't really know why no one noticed that, but I'm throwing it out there. Honestly, I hope he makes the right move and joins with me and Chambers.

Big Lee keeps going at it

This whole thing is crazy. I don't know why I'm still doing this whole war thing, but now it's just getting totally out of hand. Liam and Pat are now trying to convince Alex and W to join his side in the war. Oh, and one more thing, don't believe what they say, it's Liberal Propaganda. They both are now saying that Chambers doesn't like Jaffe, a kid at our school, because he's Jewish. This led to Chambers grabbing Big Lee's shirt and threatening to hit him. Lee said that he did that because he is Irish. Do not believe the Chambers hates Jews and Irish or any other crap they might say. By the way, this is my 23rd post, already I have half as many as Lee does, and almost as many profile veiws as Chambers or Patty.

More News on the Blog War

Wow, I thought that I stirred up a little something with the whole idea of a blog feud, that later turned into a blog war, but it was more serious than I thought. Chambers is also in the war, and is apparently on my side. He is actually really pumped about this whole thing. His most recent post has a picture of an army and an explosion stating that anyone who doesn't join his side in the war is gay. Wow, who knew with one post I could make all this? What the hell, for the sake of Chambers, I'm back in the war.
By the way, the first "shots" of the war were fired yesterday, and guess who they were aimed at, Chambers. Big Lee posted a picture of him "hangin" with the president. The photo is awful and looks so much like it's been fooled around with. A picture of that is at the top, (don't think I did this to my "ally".)
Unfoutunately, Chambers wasn't really happy about this, and posted about how Liam and Patty Scanlin, (Liam's ally in the war) are both gay. I'm guessing that this is going to comeback and bite him right in the ass. Not a real smart move big guy, but oh well, it wasn't me.
I'm not getting wicked into this though and putting up pictures of armies and stuff like that...Just so everyone knows

20th Post

Awesome! I have my 20th post in the bag. On this one, I have something important to blog about....The season premier of one of the better shows on TV. Deal or No Deal. This is an awesome show. Last year it was wicked good, and the season opener was good also. I kind of missed some due to homework, but when I finished and came down, a black dude was the on the show, and he started out pretty strong. He worked his way up to a $130,000ish deal, he refused, and knocked out the $400,000 and $500,000 cases. After that, it was all downhill. Then he knocked off the million dollar case and the offer went much lower, to $30,000. Yeah, el oucho. But, he came back, did one no deal, and then took $56,000, and then it turns out that his case had $200,000. Even more oucho.
Next, a big, fat, cocky guy came on. He was a laugh, but he did pretty good. I only got to stay up for that long, after I went to bed early, but all in all, still a good show.

Fantasy Football Week 2

Okay, time for my weekly fantasy update. Now, as you've read last week, I was in first place in both of my leagues, (still having trouble setting up the 3rd one,) and this week...I still am. I have the most wins, and the most points in both of them. In my Yahoo! league, I am in first with 184 points, and In my ESPN, I am in first with 386 points. I can't say I expected this at all. I thought it was wicked cool that I was in first place for the first week, but I didn't think I could still be in first. I am playing two push over teams in both of my leagues, so I should be 3-0 and have the most points in both by next Tuesday. Hoorah!
(Post Number 24, already have more than 1/2 as many posts as Big Lee does and almost as many profile veiws as Chambers.)

Blog Feud turns into blog war

Chambers on the right...Unfortunately, no pic of Patty available.

Alright, I think that I stirred up WAY to much controversy with my recent post all about Big Lee's blog. The very next day, I find out that Chambers has taken my side in the blog war going on between me and Liam. When the hell did this become a war?! I just did it for a laugh, and I don't think that Liam took it too hard, but then I found out that Patricia Scanlin took Liam's side in the war, and is planning to just dis Chambers for the whole thing. Look, I'm glad I stirred up a little something, but that is really really stupid, a blog war? Come on. That's ridiculous. If it really does escalate to a war, I'm dropping out, it's stupid, and I don't want Chambers to blow up from getting made fun of too much by Pat and Big Lee
I didn't get a chance to talk to Big Lee about this, but he did leave a comment. This was what he had to say.
ITS ON MICHARD!!!Let me respond to a couple of your points...
1. I never said Elvis was still alive. If you look at my comment, I said Elvis was dead.
2. I may go a little while between posts, but I make sure that the one's I do are top notch. None of this "Little Error" stuff you do. That is not a post. And I have been blogging much longer than you have. I am a Blog Veteran, you are a mere rookie... RESPECT YOUR ELDERS MICH!!!
3. You were wrong when you said I do not like rap. While it is not my favorite type of music and I much prefer rock, I do enjoy the occasional hip hop tune. You were also wrong when you said I can't rap, because clearly I can. I seriously doubt you can come up with a rhyme better than mine. Look, I just made one right there.
4. It doesn't matter what other people say, Michard. There's no denying that my blog is much better than yours. Stop trying to dis me because you just can't.
BIG LEE'S BLOG WILL STAND STRONG AGAINST YOU MICHARD. YOU CAN'T WIN!!!!

Yeah...Well...Yeah, that's it, sorry Lee if your down about this, but you'll get over it.

Blog Feud

Big Lee himself

I was going to save this one for my 20th post, but I figured, what the heck, I'll do it now. Me and this guy, "Big Lee" have been going back and forth about who has the better blog. I'm not a guy that likes to brag, but it's not really a question about who has the better blog. I do. By far. Before I start rambling on and on about why I have the better of the two, here are just a couple reasons.
1. According to Liam, people do not die. He thinks that Steve Irwin, Tu-Pac, and Elvis are all still alive. Come on Lee. They have a video of Steve Irwin getting attacked by that stingray, Tu-Pac, dead, no questions asked, and Elvis, even if he faked his death in 1977, he has probably died of old age or something like that.
2. Updating. Liam has not updated his blog for about a month. Every once in a while, I go there to see if he has. Sure enough, that Steve Irwin post is right there, all the time. I am constanly updating, at least once every two to three days.
3. The rap. Good Lord. He had a decent blog before his rap, but this absolutely ruined it. He talks about how ghetto he is, and all that crap, but he's white, doesn't even really like rap, and is the last person I would ever pick to look like he is from the streets.
4. The people. Not one person who has viewed both Big Lee's blog and mine have said that Liam's is better. 100% of them said, "Michard, your blog is way better than Liam's is."

I'm going to stop here with just these couple of reasons, and see if "Big Lee" can at least get some kind of comeback to this.

Little Error

Sorry all....I just today realized that my tenth post was actually my ninth....Believe me, when I found this out I was madder than an old man trying to turn back soup at a deli. I am very sorry for this mistake.
(By the way this is my 17th.)

Rainy Day...

Today was a rainy day in Bow...And that got me thinking, I need something to do. And I thought of ten stupid but good things to do on a rainy day. I'll start with numbero 10 and work my way down to one.

10. Become a Republican! (No just kidding, it's too risky...)

9. Join the club club, they're all over the place.

8. Play guitar, or drums or something.

7. Practice your ping pong skills, (look where it got Forest Gump.)

6. Watch a movie, online or on your TV. (I recommend the Colbert Report for
either one, if you don't have the DVD's....Get them.)

5. The favorite pastime...Watch TV

4. Another big favorite today in America......Eat.

3. Do your favorite sport indoors, (seriously, imagine how much fun doing
javelin indoors would be.)

2. Get a blog. A fun way to waste time.

And the number one thing you should do on a rainy day is.....

1. Get a Fantasy Sports team. These are awesome, and if you already have
one, than get more.

One thought...

I only really have one thought for today, John Stewart is one of the un-funniest people ever. The Daily Show is not awful, but Stewart is now funny.

Fantasy Football

Alright, I promised fantasy football, and I'll give it to you. Alright, I have one league with my cousins and one league with my friends at school, and another league that me and another group of my friends are going to do pretty soon. I don't know why I can't copy the standings for ESPN or Yahoo!, but I'll tell you that I'm in first place in both of them, winning one of my games (ESPN) by 9 points, and the other (Yahoo!) by 20, yeah, 20. Good way to start both leagues, but I can't say anything yet because my premature bragging in fantasy baseball was backed up by not even making the playoffs...I have a better feeling about these two though.

ESPN Fantast Football trophy on the right

So Many Tributes!

I realize that I've done tons of tributes lately, but I have to do this one. Today, September 12th, is the anniversary of the death of one of the greatest musicians of all time, Johnny Cash. Cash passed away recently (2003,) and had a movie come out about him even more recently. The 2005 movie staring Joaquin Phoenix as Mr. Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. This movie paid took a look back at Cash's life, through the good and the awful. Which gets me started on another topic. The movie itself...

Alright, I'll make this short and right away, I am going to say this, Walk the Line was the greatest musical video I have ever seen. Phoenix did an awesome job as Cash, and he kind of looked like him. But now Reese Witherspoon. She did an awesome job too, but unfortunately, kind of too good. You listen to Witherspoon and then the real June Carter, and it's like night and day. Carter was so much worse than Reese. June absolutely got blown out of the water by her. I'm not complaining because really, you can't change it. You can't really say to this good, famous actor, "Okay, you need to do a lot worse."

But back to Johnny. This guy might not have been the greatest guitar player ever, but he was a good singer, song writer and musician. My ex-guitar teacher is really into him, but he doesn't even know how many records he came out with. I think he said some ridiculous number like 40-50+. Yeah, kind of a lot if you ask me. So, that's that, just wanted to do another quick tribute...

Tribute...

Penslyvania to the left...The Pentagon Below On a really serious note, today is September 11th. On this day, five years ago, planes crashed into the Twin Towers, Pennslyvania, and the Pentagon as an act of terrorism. Here are some of the clips of the day that changed many Americans lives forever.

Roger Waters

First off, sorry to all of those disapointed that I haven't been posting lately. There was nothing really to post about. I'm gonna make it up by doing a new one about the concert I went to last night. Alright, I went to my second concert in less than three weeks, not that bad. Who did I go and see this time? One of the great voices of one of the greatest bands of all time, Rodger Waters, the singer/bassist/rythmn guitarist of Pink Floyd. Now for this one, I'm going to do the same thing I did with the Allman brothers, describe the place, and then the band.

It was at the Tweeter Center in Massachusets. This place was big...The paking lot was almost as big as Meadowbrook. This thing was ten times bigger than that tiny place. The grass section was good. We (again Alex PV and Kyle Mandro,) got a really good look at the band from where we were sitting. The only kind of odd thing about it was that there was only a couple of patches of grass there, the rest was dirt. Whatever, doesn't really matter.

Now the important thing, the band. I am serious when I say this, I have no complaints at all about it, Tweeter Center or Rodger Waters. He was amazing. Vocals were soild, guitars and drums were too, it was awesome.

The first half of it was good, not great. He did a couple Pink Floyd songs, but nothing really really special. Although, he did do a new song that he made up, and that was pretty good, I kind of liked it. My favorite part about the first half (besides wishing you were here,) was the pig. This was wicked cool. These two guys were carrying a giant inflated pig up and down the aisles. I think it had something to do with George Bush on it's ass which was funny. And, at the end of the song, they let it go and as it was going up, the spotlight was shining on it. Although, niether, me, Alex or Kyle could figure out if it was intentional or not, but Kyle and Alex both agreed that it was going to end up in someone's bushes in their yard, or it was going to get shot at.

Well, another thing that happened during the first half was that Alex made a new friend. It was a drunk guy next to him. This guy literally fell asleep on Alex's shoulder, he was pretty weirded out by this...Then when the guy wakes up he takes out his flashlight and starts searching the ground and starts yelling something like, "Oh dude, where are my drugs?! I dropped my drugs!" The whole thing was pretty funny...

Now for the second half. This picked up the whole concert right away. They did Dark Side of the Moon and it was sweet. They played one of my all-time favorite Pink Floyd songs, Money, which again, was sweet. I forget what song they originaly "ended" with, but they came back out and played Another Brick in the Wall, another song, and offical ended Breath. All-in-all, this was sick. I couldn't have asked for better, and I am going to but the instant CD of this. I'll give it a 9 out of 10.

Tenth Post

This is my tenth post, and I did it in less than ten days. At this rate, I'll have more posts than Big Lee in a month...

Red Sox

Alright! For the first time in around a century the Red Sox won a game! They now have an excellent 9-21 record in August. They were the first team since 1983 to be in first place, but then lose 20+ games in a month. We had a 7 or a 6 1/2 game lead over the Yanks, but we
Good One Coco
blew it. The only great thing that happened this month was that Curt Schilling got his 3000th strikeout. He did it August 31st, against the Oakland Athletics. Yay Curt, boo Red Sox. I am a die hard fan, but to be honest, I doubt we'll make the playoffs this year.

Invincible

I finally saw the movie Invincible. The true story of Vince Papale who is played by Mark Wahlberg. This movie is about Vince Papale, a bartender who is extremely dedicated Philialphia Eagles fan. While watching tv at the bar Vince works at, him and his friends find out from a press confrence that new coach Dick Vermeil will hold open try outs for anyone interested in becoming an Eagle. All of Vince's friends pressure him to try out. At first he is reluctant, but eventualy does. In the end, he becomes a pretty soild Eagle, lasts for three years, and after going through a divorce, marrys his new girlfriend he met from working at the bar.

Michard's thoughts on this movie....
Alright, I'm going to make this one kind of short. I thought that this movie was good. Mark does a really good job and so does Greg Kinnear, (coach Dick Vermeil.) Both actors are not exactly as well known as people like Tom Hanks or George Clooney, but I think we might be seeing both of them in a couple more movies pretty soon.

Overall, I would give this one around a B or a B+.

Back To School

Back to School tomorrow...

Stevie Ray Vaughn

Well, today is the day. 16 years ago on August 27th, 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughn died. The greatest guitar player ever died today on a plane crash. I think that SRV was the greatest guitarist of all time. He was credited by many (including Eric Clapton) to creating an entirely new sound on a guitar. Stevie was known for his amazing blues music and also known for using outlandishly large strings. I just wanted to pay a small tribute to this guy...he deserves it.