Come On T.S. Hanna, We Don't Have Time For This...

And here is her guess-timated path as of this afternoon!

Wednesday's WTF? WTF Do We Care So Much About Politicans Personal Lives?

Now that's how you kick off a Convention!

Gov. Sarah Palin announced yesterday morning that her 17-year old daughter, Bristol, was 5-months pregnant. (Link to article from the NY Times) Well at least this can put a stop to the rumors going around that Bristol (Gov. Palin’s now pregnant daughter) had given birth to Trig (the Governor’s infant son) and not the Governor herself. Which also answers the question of why Bristol is always holding the baby-practice! Obama had it right when he said today that "Gov. Palin's daughter is off limits". Which to the Bushido means he gets it. (Photo of Todd Palin, with Piper, Willow & Bristol holding Trig and Meghan McCain in Ohio credits: Jim Wilson/NY Times)

WTF don't we care about politicians professional lives as much as we care about their personal lives?
Liberal bloggers and far-right bloggers let Bristol be, who are we to judge? Does it really say something about Gov. Palin's parenting ability? Bristol is for all intensive purposes an adult, able to make her own "mistakes" and accept the responsibilities for those actions. But therein lies the problem with American politics and media: we (Americans) for some reason believe that our politicians should have a special moral gravitas when it comes to their personal life and if they don't the media hangs their laundry out for everyone to see. Sadly, this keeps numerous well qualified Americans (who want to serve, but don't because their family has a member whose subjective aspirations of life have gone off track). Ironically, the flip side of the coin is that Americans are quite forgiving for mis-steps in office and won't hold politicans rears to the fire for their mistakes but for some reason, we're not so understanding when it comes to politicians in personal lives. For example, former North Carolina Senator, John Edwards a populist voice for the "poor" was left off of the speaker list for the Democratic National Convention, due to an affair he had. Yet, with all of this emphasis on Palin's daughter, we seem to forget that (in a professional capacity) Governor Palin was involved with a group of fellow Alaskans who wanted to succeed from the Union. And now this is the American, John McCain has chosen as his running-mate? WTF?

The Hunters become the hunted
It's a very interesting movement going on with Republicans as they move from a negative-smear campaign Rovian-styled politics to a victimized style of politics. (It doesn't seem fitting that the party of God and Guns should be lying down and taking whatever doses of their own medicine in the Palin-pregnancy). So, the Bushido offers these suggestions to the P.R. person for Gov. Palin: If you truly want the WT vote, you should say, “Bristol is named after the race-car track instead of some salmon fishery (Bristol Bay) in Alaska of which no one has ever heard." When the media pokes their head into the scandal of abuse of power for trying to fire her former brother-in-law (an Alaska State Trooper) to add pressure to his divorce-custody battle. You answer: "That's right we have just as big of beatch on the right as you do with Hillary." When they question her experience, you answer: "She made a $1,000 bet with her hair-dresser that she could have everyone in the US knowing where Wissilla, Alaska is by the end of the week." And when they ask, why would a woman with a new-born child that has down-syndrome would want to take one of the most time consuming and stressful jobs in the world? You say, nevermind, I don't have an answer for that one. That's a tough question, which makes me question why Gov. Palin would want to even consider the position due to the timing of it all. No wait, here you go: You say, have you seen how attractive Meghan McCain is? Boo-yah!

I caught the CNBC "Street Fight" yesterday and they made some astute points considering the nomination of Gov. Palin. I'll buy in to the idea that perhaps her lack of experience is due to the glass-ceiling that all women face in business and politics. And perhaps this recent unveiling of events with her teenage daughter is a humanizing event; but Erin Burnett (love her by the way) made an excellent point, if one of the Obama's daughter was a teenager and pregnant would the media be dealing with Obama the same way?

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC & Feeling Minnesota Nice with Michele Bachmann!

Two of her fellow journalists were arrested and evidently this gray-lady of journalism was subsequently arrested as she checked on the status of her colleagues. For those of you college or law students taking Con-law thinking you have that self-evident First Amendment "right" to say or express yourself as an American, just remember, when in front of a line of po-pos with po-po sticks, your freedom of speech is quite arbitrary.



Feel the Love with Michele Bachmann's "Minnesota Nice"
But if you feel this is too one-sided of a look at the RNC, here's a video of Minnesota's Sixth District U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention-following Democrat Toby Keith's "Stars & Stripes". If anyone happens to know what pharmacutical she is on by all means leave me a comment, so I can get a script from Dr. Feelgood.

Rick Neuheiser and the Bruins take Rocky Top to the wire and a note to Coach Spurrier

Rick Neuheiser made his return to college football and UCLA tonight one to remember. Neuheiser didn't inherit a football powerhouse with the Bruins, competitive each year-sure, but powerhouse-hardly. UCLA lost four senior starters to injury during the game. Their two would be starters at quarterback are both injured, and if you watched the first-half of the Bruins' quarterback Kevin Craft (a junior-college transfer) performance, you would have cut the tv off after he threw his third interception (Craft had four INT for the game) to save yourself from watching a SEC team destroy the young Californians. But you would have missed another game of epic proportions (and importance) in this wonderful opening weekend of college football. Besides, what else was there to watch?

As the second half of the game produced a total 180 of the young Bruins' QB, as Craft confidently moved the Bruins down the field and made completions instead of interceptions, he had an air of confidence as he made pass after pass. Throughout the second-half, the announcers mentioned a few words that caught in my mind: rhythm passing, precision, engineered offense. The spotlight of course will be on the quarterback's story; how we watched him develop as a leader during this one game, but to this, I would have to disagree.

Coaching the West Coast Offense and the System, not the player
What I noticed as the difference between the first-half Kevin Craft and the second-half Kevin Craft was the difference in the coaching strategy. In the first-half, Craft had five receivers to choose from, and took numerous attempts at fifteen plus yard passes, the result-he floated the ball (reminiscent of South Carolina's Tommy Beecher in his performance against NC State last Thursday night) and the Tennessee secondary made him pay for it with interceptions and points on the board. In the second-half, Craft had only three receivers to choose from, the offensive strategy laid-out by Norm Chow was text-book Bill Walsh "West-Coast" offense: short-timed passes using the field horizontally and creating a rhythm which allowed the Bruins' defense some well deserved rest and kept the Volunteers' defense frustrated.

The transformation here was not with the quarterback, but with the coaches. In the first-half Chow and Neuheisel went with the flashier albeit higher-risk option of going for the deep receiver (San Diego Coach Don Coryell's interpretation of Sid Gilman's "West Coast" offense) which resulted in nothing more than punishment and frustration for the Bruins' side-lines and young quarterback. The change in the second-half was to more precise and engineered short passes (Walsh's interpretation of Gilman's air-attack). In 1971, as the offensive-coordinator with the Cincinnati Bengals, Bill Walsh took the woobly, floater throwing Virgil Carter's weaknesses and turned them into an advantage by limiting the number of receivers Carter had to choose from and by using his seemingly weak arm (at long distances) and using his arm to shorter, more precise passes (less than 12-yards). Carter's pass-rating went from bottom of the barrell to a league leading 62.2%. Which as we watched tonight worked for Kevin Craft as well. And if the Gamecocks wish to continue with Tommy Beecher (although it may seem that Chris Smelley has won the job) Coach Spurrier needs to use Beecher's "talents" and tweek the system of his air attack to fit Beecher. If not, the SEC secondaries the Gamecocks face this season will do much more harm than the slower, State defense they faced last Thursday.


Photo of Elise, former SI Cheerleader of the Week, and her Bruins cheerleading friends courtesy of Sports Illustrated

Feed Your iPod: Solange's "I Decided"

I know there are a lot of haters, hating on Solange because she has a famous sister, hence a famous last name (Knowles), but the Bushido digs this song and I love the creativity behind the iconography of the video. Brava Solange!

Don't Worry Clemson, Rick Astley Still Loves You!

As you sat there and watched the same tired offensive schemes from last year being shut down by Bama, and scratched your head wondering, how did they know? Well, don't think they didn't watch film on you all. Next week Clemson faces the Citadel-and the Bushido will still be there. Now here's some Rick Astley w/pop-up video (oh that's too much) for you to lick your wounds.

Friday Funnies: Will Ferrell and the Sumo vs. Suma dilemma!

College football season is upon us and with the Trojans headed to the house Thomas Jefferson built tomorrow, I thought that I would share this video of Will Ferrell doing something right in his wheel-house: a funny skit confusing “sumo” with “SUMA” (the Los Angeles Area Children’s foundation) for Pete Carroll’s charity. Love the SC diaper Will!

Friday Funnies: Do You Feel Lucky Punk!

Well do you? Yes, with the last official weekend of summer, I thought it apropos to post this Dirty Harry Grill or what some folks would call the official grill of the NRA. Have a safe, fun, college-football filled weekend.

You're A Class Act John McCain!

Johnny Mac shows some class, I especially like this line: “Tomorrow, we’ll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, a job well done.” Bravo John McCain.

Video hosted on You-Tune by JohnMcCain.com

Serendipity and Suds: Coast Brewery's Cask Party Tonight @ Gene's

I stopped by Coast Brewery after "work" on Tuesday to "float" a couple of ideas, talk shop and sample Coast's new Altbier (6.2% ABV/35 IBUs, "hopped it like it was hot"-der Deutscheland with Perle and Hersbrucker hops) with Dave. He gave his usual hospitable diatribes of humor and good brew wisdom as well as leaving me with some literature and a slot to fill on my social agenda-tonight, Coast will have a cask party at Gene's Haufbrau (Hwy 17-across from Gerald's-you know where it is) featuring their Chocolate Rye Brown casked in chocolate beans-thumbs up from the Bushido and even your girlfriend will like it. The casking gets started at 6pm and with 2 casks, I am hopeful there will be some left by the time I get there.

Serendipity and a photo shoot
Last Wednesday I was on my way to Gene's Haufbrau to pick up a pint of Coast IPA and a to-go order of wings with the Webbed-one, when the peripherals picked-up one of my favorite creatures in nature, Blondus-in-lingerius, from the Latin-blond in lingerie (see photo). I called the Treo absorbed Webbed-one back to the I Heart store-front, a local boutique made popular by one of our hometown favorites and all around sweetheart-owner worldy popular from her appearance on Tv's The Bachelor. I digress; it was one of those surreal moments, stocked full of dueling thoughts of "is this really happening" and "dude, snap a picture with your new phone." As you can see, the little devil on the shoulder saying, "snap a picture" beat out the other guy-Mr. White who just can't believe, there is a professional, lingerie-model shoot going on in front of me. To the model and the photographer who has to waste the extra time photo-shopping some idiot with his cell-phone and tongue hanging out of the background of the picture-my bad, I am truly sorry!

WTF Is Dubya Doing?

The G-Man told me about this picture and I had to find it myself-brilliant! Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh were showing the Prez how they give each other the "good job" tap on the posterior and Dubya decided to give it the “old college try”. Despite the best efforts of our quite brazen president, someone should of told him, (Sir) you don't have to back hand a ho'.

WTF? Does this man not have any shame-wait, what am I saying? Although a Baptist, married man and President of the United States of America, Dubya is still just a man; even a gay dude would be tempted (see picture). But I think this calls for the ol' patented, "Hecka-of-a-job there Brownie!"
Photo courtesy of Reuters.com

This Is Awkward...

Kerri Walsh actually makes back-sweat attractive; Dubya-not so much! (Photos courtesy of Reuters.com)

Synchronized Swimming Is A Great Sport!

Dear Olympic Committee,
Thank you for making Synchronized Swimming a sport. Yours truly, the Bushido!

Doobie Dubya!

That's puff-puff give Mr. President! Dang this is a good Olympics!

Friday Funnies: Tropic Thunder

The premise sounds interesting enough: Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr, (all actors, portraying actors in a movie within a movie) filming an action flick (Vietnam/War/Buddy movie) in the middle of the jungle when their movie all of the sudden becomes the "real deal" as a group of drug-lords think they are an American SF unit sent into take down their opporation.

"Contra"-versy
Downey Jr. performed the role in what they call in the biz, "black-face" (see: Al Jolson) and evidently this is ruffling a few feathers around the blogosphere (link to FlowTv article) and the use of the "R" word is gathering another group of protestors, including former Brady Bunch star, Maureen McCormick (who's brother is "mentally challenged"). (Link to article on StarPulse). Last week, our buddy "the news guy" Warren Peper and Carolyn Murray introduced the Holy City viewing audience to a story (link to line-penned by Larry Collins) about mentally challenged people who work at Delicious Delights, a local bakery, who won't go and see the movie because the term, "retard" is used in the movie 17-times. Obviously, these are the same people who (do) go to R-rated movies, boycott the entire city of Boston, Jimmy Fallon's old Boston love-birds skit on SNL, etc over the use of the word "retard".

But here's what sofa-king retarded: I was talking about this segment the other day and said the words, "mentally handicapped", which led to a thirty minute beach-out from some lady (one must be careful when out of their element and talking politics at a Chattanooga Applebee's) for my lack of the proper semantics for those with an extra protein in the genetic make-up. But WTF people? Why can't we just let this be a movie satire about the people in show-business? Are we that hyper-sensitive as a nation that our American zeitgeist is more in tune with defensive and subjective terminology, than we are with "real" issues? But to leave you on a high note: Stiller's movie is being protested by the dame who played Marcia Brady on television's Brady Bunch, the same role played by Stiller's wife and former smoking hot chick on "Hey Dude" (Christine Taylor) in the movie version, "The Brady Bunch Movie". Btw, the latter Marcia Brady is also in Tropic Thunder.

Regardless of the controversy, I think I will shell out the 9 bucks to see this flick.

Friday Funnies: J-Tra for President

I have to admit, Jay-Bird got me good on this one. At first I was worried that I was on the news (I thought they might have done a American-Fat-so-segment and they blurred out my face but you could totally tell it was me because of the shirt I was wearing, JET, I saw your fat-arse on the news-ha-ha) but then I knew we were in for a laugh when it said, Channel 3 Election Coverage. Wait until the end of the video and you can play the same joke on your friends. Have a good weekend.
-JET

The Black Keys on "Live From Abbey Road"

For every passion or profession, there's a handful of meaningful places significant to your craft; the sort of place where the hairs of your neck stand on end when you cross the threshold entering into the hallowed ground: artists have the Lourve, architects have Rome, kids have Disneyland, stoners have a strip-mall with a Taco Bell, 7-11 and Gamestop, Christians have St. Peter's (which artists and architects dig as well), rednecks have monster-truck rallies and rock musicians have among other places, the Abbey Road Recording Studio. Most people only know of Abbey Road from the famous Beatles' album (Abbey Road) cover of the band walking single-file across the cross-walk with a VW Bug up on the curb, which the average person would probably assume the album is simply named after the street and not the studio at #3 Abbey Road, St. John's Wood, London UK.

"Her Majesty"
The Abbey Road Studio is stacked in history. From Blumlein's inventions to EMI's recordings of a laundry list of talented musicians: the Beatles, Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, Fiona Apple, Oasis, U2, Foo Fighters, Mika, Stevie Wonder, et. al. And let's not forget the mixing of such movies as "Star Wars-1, 2, 3, 5 & 6", "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", etc.


Serendipity (aka: "Golden Slumbers")
Just by happen stance, I was up late the other night watching some quite bizarre British series) when I saw the commercial for "Live From Abbey Road" and thought, plenty of room on the DVR, let's see what this show is all about. I cut it on as I was doing some tinkering on some bottling equipment in the brew-house and I heard the Black Keys in the shorts-introductions. Yahtzee! There's Dan Auerbach carrying his kid into the studio, giving a little chat on his way into "work". I immediately wanted to call Dale and every other person I shopped the Keys to when I was back in Ohio (how do people from Akron not know of these guys?) in June, but alas, it was a bit late for a phone call, so this post will have to do.

"Come Together"
"Live From Abbey Road" is split into performances by three different artists, with a bit of filler, "get to know the band" material in between sets. The show kicked off with The Hoosiers (which I think I first heard about on MOKB) a British band who came to the states to ride the colonist's scholarship gravy-train by playing "football" (read soccer) at Indiana University. They thought Indiana was "sofa-king" awesome, they named their band "the Hoosiers". (Dude, there's about 47 states that are so much cooler than Indiana, but to each their own.)

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
I digress; as the folks at My Old Kentucky Blog note, "They will more than appeal to all fans of the whole brit-pop/new wave/falsetto lead vocals trend that was in full effect a couple years ago." The Hoosiers' first tune, "Goodbye Mr. A" a bit campy in an ELO type of way, but still good enough to toss on the iPod. Their next tune, "Run Rabbit Run" is a little ditty about spousal abuse and loving a woman who doesn't dig you, instead she wants the guy who treats her like crap and beats her. The singer who still cares for her wants that "rabbit to run" (assumingly back to) him-which appears, despite being in a rock and roll band this is the songwriter's first experience with the unwriten rules of dating crazy women with "Daddy-issues". (Special message to the songwriter: You need to write a follow up to the song, something along the lines of "You're sofa-king crazy and I am running rabbit"). Finally, the guys wrap things up with a cover of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" as if people haven't been doing that one since "the world has been turning". Nonetheless, it's a decent cover. It's not as good as What Made Milwaukee Famous' cover of "You May Be Right" but is gets the job done as covers go.

Mr. Sun
Manu Chao the French-born singer and political activist, performed "Bongo Bong/Mr. Bobby", "Bienvenidoa Tijuana" and "Politik Kills". Pretty easy going jams for songs so controversial-I guess you have to listen to the words. I thought this was my first intro to Manu Chao, but I was wrong, I have his song, "Me Gustas Tu" in my iPod-dang that thing has stuff in there I don't even know about.

"The End"
Something I didn't know was how the Black Keys got their name, to which Carney tell a story about how a his dad had befriended a local artist and the guy would call and leave these bizarre messages (i.e. "Jim Carney pick me up a pound of pipe tobacco and a 2-liter Diet Coke-you're a 'black key' if you don't). Auerbach took in all of the history of the place referring to the Blumlein microphones still around the place, that he thought "Blumlein" was just a name engineers threw around, turns out he's a real guy. (Alan Blumlein invented the stereo system) (Link to Alan Blumlein's bio on Abbey Road's site). The best though was when the guys were in the small room off of the studio and talked about the history of the Beatles going in there to eat "sandwiches". And of course, I can't leave out how the guys make their music-by jamming! Btw, the Black Keys will perform at the following locations near the Holy City: the Orange Peel in Asheville (Oct. 3) The House of Blues in Myrtle Beach (Oct. 4th) and the Disco Rodeo in Raleigh (Oct. 5th). For you folks in Ohio, you can check the Black Keys out at the LC Amphitheater on Oct. 9th.

For more on the Black Keys' performance, click here to go to the Sundance Channel's Abbey Road page.

Remembering Jerry!

Thirteen years ago today, Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack after checking into a drug-rehab facility in Forest Knolls, California. I thought that I would include this video of one of my favorite Dead tunes, "Box of Rain"-one of the few songs sung by Phil Lesh, and the song he sang to his father (who was terminally ill with cancer) on his death-bed. As a few of you know, one of my claims to fame is that I was at the last Grateful Dead Show at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9th, 1995 and the Dead performed "Black Muddy River" for their first encore and then returned on stage to perform "Box of Rain" their last song performed together in their 2,314th Show as Jerry died a month later.

Feed Your iPod: The Hold Steady's "Sequestered in Memphis"

Actually the guys will be "sequestered" at the Pour House this Sunday night. Go to theholdsteady.com for ticket info. Some issues with posting lately, I totally blame myself but understand the new PS3 and Direct TV-too many channels and too much time lost playing. Stay tuned, I have quite a few things in the "drafts" section which need a final review. Have a good weekend. -The Bushido

Feed Your iPod: Neutral Milk Hotel's "Ghost"

I couldn't find a video for this, but here is one of my favorite Neutral Milk Hotel songs, "Ghost" from their album, In the Airplane over the Sea. Enjoy. And Yes Jay-Bird is right there is just something that is wrong with this picture of Paris Hilton holding their album.

Friday Funnies: Jim Gaffigan and his Hot Pockets

Jim Gaffigan will perform tomorrow night at the North Chuck Performing Arts Center. Go to Etix.com or jimgaffigan.com for the few remaining tickets. If you can't make the show catch him on "My Boys" on TBS, Thursdays at 9:30 pm. Or watch full episodes on your computer by clicking here.