McQueen's Machines

If you are looking for that perfect stocking stuffer for a fan of the King of Cool, pick-up Matt Stone’s “McQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Rebel” .From his “detective” work jumping the hills of San Fran in Bullitt, to his POW work jumping a motorcycle over the German lines in “The Great Escape”, to the tycoon (Thomas Crown) racing the dune-buggy on the beach, McQueen always played the character with the cool toys and this book looks to be a catalogue of cool. Anytime a car enthusiast dies with over 100 bikes and 50 automobiles of significance in their garage, someone is bound to write a book about it, enjoy this stocking stuffer for the “gear-head” in your life.

Wednesday's WTF? Sh** The Bed Fred And His God Givin Rights!

Honestly, I almost sh_crapped my pants when I heard the Fred Thompson say the line, “Remember friends our rights come from God and not the Government”. WTF Fred? Now, I know that he wasn’t this in touch with his “church” side whilst in Congress and I am sure this commercial is only airing in the South (read: “Bible Belt”) but WTF Fred? Have you forgotten the Age of Enlightenment when our fore-fathers involved themselves with separating Church and State? The point where most new of a higher being, but believed in Science and the Metaphysical Nature of Man? Good grief, Thompson’s campaign becomes more of a joke to me each and every day!

As you know, we here at the Bushido are steeped in tradition, but alas, respectful of the rights and feelings of others. So the question on everyone’s

As you know, we here at the Bushido are steeped in tradition, but alas, respectful of the rights and feelings of others. So the question on everyone’s mind as we near our state’s biggest rivalry, considering the recent fire-related deaths of South Carolina and Clemson students in Ocean City is should the Univ of South Carolina cancel the annual “Tiger Burn”, the pep-rally celebrated with burning an effigy of a Clemson Tiger? Clemson canceled their somewhat more morbid “Big Thursday” (a mock funeral of Gamecocks’ mascot, Cocky, who is set ablaze after being buried). Obviously, with Clemson canceling “Big Thursday”, U.S.C. would look like huge “Cocks” if they went on with the “Tiger Burn”, regardless the Administration and the SGA will decide today. Your thoughts?
(Photo courtesy of the Daily Gamecock)

Happy Halloween!

A picture from our friends over at MOKB trip to the Big Easy! I guess this is “Good-Bye Kitty”!

Red Sox Win The World Series!!!

If there was ever a year since 1776 that it was great to be a Bostonian, this is the year! Well that is for Boston’s sports fans anyway: Boston College is ranked second in the nation in college football. The Patriots are embarrassing every team they play and even my beloved Celtics (who’ve been laughed at since the early 90’s) present a positive outlook (with a charming nick-name-the PGA Tour) for the coming season. And of course, there’s also our beloved Boston who Red Sox won the 103rd World Series last night, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four games: Game 1: Red Sox won 13-1 @ Fenway. Game 2: Red Sox won 2-1 @ Fenway. Game 3: Red Sox won 10-5 in Denver. Game 4: Red Sox won 4-3 in Denver.

They say Boston’s 2004 World Series win (the first in 80+ years) was for the older fans of the team who’d waited patiently, last night Terry Francona and the Sox won one for won one for the Red Sox Nation (from the Dominican Republic to Japan to right here in the States).
Hats off to the World Series Champs and the World Series MVP, Boston’s third-baseman, Mike Lowell! Let’s not talk about it right now, but I don’t see how you can give up the team RBI leader, World Series MVP. Then again, this is a business and it would appear that Bill James’ protégé Theo Epstein is onto something.

Btw, I love what Dan Shaughnessy wrote in the Globe today: “If you go to a high school graduation in New England in the Year 2026, you will hear a lot of Jacobys, Dustins, Jonathans, and Hidekis when they call the roll.”-I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Georgia Wins Against Florida!

Dubbed the largest outdoor cocktail party in the world, Georgia has now owned the Gators in JAX all time (45-35-2) and this year as the #20 Bulldogs upset the 9th ranked and 8.5 point favorite Gators 42-30! I wish I could tell you has on the helmet, but Bulldog fans like to remain anonymous and keeping with Bushido tradition, we'll respect that!

SABA

I am sure you could have deduced by my lack of posting (unreliable narrator) that I had taken a couple of weeks off to go on sabbatical, holiday, riding the couch reading and watching baseball, search for enlightenment-give it a name.

Things I learned on my search for enlightenment:

1. Baba Ganush is a Middle-Eastern eggplant dish and not just a cool nick-name that most guys started calling their pals after watching the movie “Wedding Crashers”.
2. Chuck Norris taught me that the symbolism in the final fight scenes in every martial arts film. Did you ever notice that in the final fight scenes the weapons malfunction, the swords are thrown to the side and the final fight is hand-to-hand-combat? As Chuck would say, “That’s how we all have to face our problems that beset us; when are hands are empty, what will decide the fight is what is inside our minds.”
3. I know that he is in Cooperstown and he’s one hell of a guy, but Tony Gwynns’ voice annoys the sh_crap out of me. Come to think about it, Gwynn’s voice is the same voice used by black comedians when they impersonate a white male’s voice.

Red Sox win Game 1 of the ALDS

There is a reason Josh Beckett is the only twenty-game winner in the American League and he showed it tonight, allowing just four hits in his complete game shut-out against the Anaheim Angels in Game 1 of the ALDS. After giving up a hit in the first, Beckett retired 19-straight, blast you Vlady! This is Beckett's coming out season and he hasn't thrown this well since four years ago when he showed the Yankees that fanning isn't just something that gets rid of the vapors down in Florida.

Most Citadel guys will tell you that the name John Lackey will strike fear in any cadet's heart (he gave the Bushido 120-tours, no cuts, no amnesty), but alas, there was no Assistant Commandant Army Colonel on the mound for Anaheim and the Red Sox didn't fear this Lackey-they just treated him like the definition in the dictionary. The Cincinnati Kid, Kevin Youkilis smacked a 92-mph pitch from Lackey deep in the first for a solo-home run. Big Papi followed with a two-run shot in the third inning. After Lackey walked Manny Ramirez and then he advanced to second-base on a wild pitch, Mike Lowell did what he does best with a RISP (Runner-in-scoring-position) he hit a single up the middle to knock in Manny.

For the record:
(Stat: Lowell is currently leading the Red Sox with 120 RBIs) I hate to think about it now, but I hope Theo brings Mike back next season. Also, Boon was at the game tonight, I'll edit in a picture from him as soon as I get them.

Game Two:
Matsuzaka, aka: Dice-K (15-12, 4.40 ERA) will face off against the Angels' Escobar (18-7, 3.40 ERA) on Friday for game two, in the best of five, of the ALDS.
Posted by The Bushido

Wednesday's WTF? WTF Did Rob Fowler Shave The 'Stach?

I don't know what it is, but I just can't get used to local weather-csar Rob Fowler shaving his 'stash. Grow it back Rob, you're scaring the kids and freaking me out too. Dang, WTF Rob?

BSR: I've Been Riding With The Ghost

The Magnolia Electric Co. is good. I have a feeling this “Low-Fi” video won’t do this performance justice. Here is a video of an old Songs: Ohia tune, “I've Been Riding With The Ghost”.
My bad, I totally spaced during the jam and ended the recording. If you haven’t figured it out by now or listened to Songs: Ohia or Magnolia Electric Co. before, I’ll go ahead and tell you, their songs average from 6 to 8 minutes per. People are starting to stare at me as I hold up my phone, either they are impressed with my ability to hold a 2.3 ounce device above eye level for close to 10-minutes at a time (it’s all kinetics baby) or they are quietly judging me for poaching their beloved Indie Rock with obvious plans to put this video on the Bushido Way or even worse You-Tube, then everyone will know about Magnolia Electric Co. And then the band will become main-stream and suddenly everyone in this room right now will lose cool points and we won’t be “sofa-king” clever and ironic.

Byaahhh!!! Blast you Indie crowd-“Well, my name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall, and I hate you one and all, damn your eyes” (Thanks Cash) Or maybe no one is really staring at me, perhaps I should take my foot off the Budweiser throttle and apply some brakes to this Rock & Roll rollercoaster. Best not, I could offend the Rock Gods and they would show their displeasure with something totally un-cool like another Duran-Duran album but this one produced by Eddie Money (Wait, Eddie Money was Money there for a spell).

Whatever, damn these guys are good. I have a feeling that Molina’s voice will probably come over the phone as feedback-distortion, but what the heck. As Goldfinger just said, “A good tune can get you to the next gas station.” And we are well on our way.
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BSR: Watson Twins at the Village Tavern

2 Opening Acts on Monday nite and the Watson Twins just started at 10 PM. Maybe that decision to play-through wasn’t such a smart idea. Goldfinger and I seem to be on a mission to increase the pile of empties in the Village Tavern’s recycling bin. Just ran into Jay-Bird, he’s here with some dudes from Millennium Music. Jay-Bird is chewing gum and not drinking. Obviously, somebody is going to be hurting tomorrow and that someone is probably not Jay.


Everybody Likes Twins
I just had a Brief chat with the Watson Twins after their set; they’re hot in a tall drink of water “Indie” way. The one with the hat-wait they’re both wearing hats, keeps on about them being sisters; hence the name, Watson Twins. You don’t have to sell it sister, I get it. Two over six-foot tall brunettes that can sing, I’d assume in a group of 1,000 people that you were related. Whatever, if solid vocals and rhythm is what you dig in an "Alt-Country Indigo Girls" type of way then you will dig the Twins. This message is brought to you by SunCom iNotes Plus.

It's called levitation Holmes!

Tebowmania? Puulease! Tennessee may not be able to defend the pass (or at least against California "Rocky-Top" had trouble) but they can defend the run and they know how to score points. Basically what I am trying to say is, the defending National Champs have a horrible defense and a lack-luster offense and I think they are going to get their first loss of the season today.

Sime, No Reservations, El Cid, the Badgers and a Brewery!

Sime wrote me today in his usual “black-berry” shortened prose to tell me that “Mr. Bone in The Throat” Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations, on the Travel Channel was filmed in South Carolina and would air on Monday night @ 10 PM. Surprisingly enough, he didn’t mention anything about the El Cid marching into Camp Randall Stadium to face his Wisconsin Badgers this Saturday @ high noon. Wait; is Wisconsin an hour behind us? Because that would make the game actually “high-1 pm” which doesn’t sound as cool.

I digress; I am not sure if it is Sime’s security in the Badgers’ level of play (Wisconsin has the longest win streak in the nation with eleven straight) or the highly endorsed (and scouted) talent of the 7th ranked team in the nation that has the usually loquacious Badger fan so unusually quite. Not a breath of talking smack has transverse between us? And I can’t help but think why?
Normally I am not all that concerned with the objective truths (the why); my interests normally lie in the much more interesting level of subjective truths (the how). As in how it is Sime is so quite? Could it be he fears the “App-State-So-Con Underdog” and doesn’t want to look too far down Championship Alley? Or perhaps Sime knows the Badgers are lacking in their ability to stop the spread offense--Wisconsin allowed an average of 317-yards rushing in their first two games: UNLV and Washington State—and this would be the third spread offense the Badgers would face.

Or could it be he knows his history: that Camp Randall Stadium was named after the Army training camp and Confederate-POW camp that once existed where the stadium sits today. Is tomorrow the day of reckoning for those Citadel grads that perished during the Civil War?

Probably not, but if I could pass along advice to the boys from the Citadel, ride up to Madison, collect your paycheck of $425,000 and skip over to the Capital Brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin, which Playboy just voted in their latest issue as being third on the “Top 10 College-Town Microbreweries”. Try a couple of those unapologetically Teutonic brews (see Bavarian Purity Laws, aka Reinheitsgebot) for the Bushido and enjoy your national spotlight and pay-day. Cheers!

WTF happened to Jenna Jamison?

I know the talk of the town was that she flashed her derriere whilst on the runway--at a New York-oh my!~a fashion show where designers display plastic-wrap clothing on occasion, say it isn’t so. Forget that, I want to know why Jenna went all Kate Moss on me. Actually to Kate’s credit she added a few lbs. and looks pretty good.

Jenna WTF? What’s with the hanger-banger waif look? Whatever happened to our voluptuous specimen of talent on the small screen? Crap, I am so busted because I know Mamma Bushido will be checking out the blog to see the videos of her grands and you know I can’t lie to Mamma Bushido. Hopefully, she too will be so turned off by this look that she will want leave it to her normal desire to feed a skinny person and not ask what films Ms. Jamison has to her credit.
(Photo credits: TMZ.com)

Wednesday's WTF? Why is everyone busting on Britney Spears?

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Sure she has been out of the game for a while but I thought Brit looked great! WTF is everyone giving her such a hard time about her body, gurl you look good to the Bushido!

Keith Olbermann reminds us of the true meaning behind 9-11

For those of you who have unplugged or became burned-out by all of the bovine sphincterisms from the Bush Administration, our old pal, Keith Olbermann does one hell of a job breaking it down on this the anniversary of 9-11: those who repent (Colin Powell) and those who do not (Rumsfeld), “No Truth, No Consequences”.

Olbermann rocks the S.S. Bush from the bottom to the top. And the thing about what Keith is saying is that he is not manipulating the facts or selling false truths, he simply doing his job. Sadly, Mr. Olbermann seems to be the only one carrying the torch of questioning authority and seeking the truth in the mainstream media.

And if my Grandfather was right when he said, “Timing is everything”; then I guess this week’s testimony coinciding with the return of the football season is fitting and penciling in General Petraeus’ next testimony for a better explanation of the status in Iraq with “March Madness” is just icing on the cake.

Not to make light of the day

But I think Alabama fans feel sadness for a whole different reason. (Photo credits: I had this photo of Bear Bryant's tombstone sent to me from Gecko a while back)

Feed Your iPod: Feist's 1-2-3-4

As if the melodic banjo and harmonies of Canadian singer/songwriter, Leslie Feist's (aka: Feist) new song ("1-2-3-4") wasn't catchy enough, now it is on the new (3rd generation) iPod commercial.

If bubble-gum drops and lollipops are how you deal with lost love than you just might really dig Feist's entire album.

Curtis Granderson joins the “20-20-20-20 club”

After going 4-for-4 on Sunday against the Mariners, Detroit center-fielder and member of the Bushido Braves fantasy team, Curtis Granderson joined Willie Mays (1957-NY Giants) and Frank "Wildfire" Schulte (1911-Cubs) as the third major leaguer to have at least 20 stolen bases, 20 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 home runs in the same season. This remarkable feat of entering what’s known as the “20-20-20-20 club” was acknowledged with a standing ovation at Comerica Park to which Mr. Granderson responded in a very stoic manner by simply nodding his head and waving to each side of the park.

Make no doubt about it, Curtis Granderson is a class act and that is why he is on my fantasy team. Well that and Granderson has an OPS of .913 with a .301 average. For those of you unaware of the sabermetrics (science of baseball), OPS is On-base percentage plus Slugging. Granderson has a .359 OBP plus a .554 SLG for a total of .913 OPS. And knowing this is one of the strategies (OPS = Winning %) I used to go from last place to second after the All-Star Break.

Who the hell is that?

Exactly, who the heck are the University of South Florida Bulls who beat Auburn last night (at Jordan-Hare Stadium)? News flash, some big teams are going down (see App State vs Michigan) and they are paying for it (both with money and with Poll standings), could we get our act together down there in Auburn and get ready for every game?

FYI: The USF cheerleader in this photo is Jenna Mitcheson! Photo courtesy of SI.com and Jenna Mitcheson.
Posted by The Bushido

This one is for Blackie!

I'm on the road headed to South Bend! Since there won't be a Wednesday's WTF? Here is a truck with WTF on the license plate and with Blackie's 3-favorite teams magnetized on the tailgate. -JET