My Music CD of the Year: John Mayer Continuum

As the year comes to a close, I have to say this year brought some good music to listen to. For the first time in a while, I actually can say there are at least 5 CDs that came out this year that I have totally enjoyed. But yet the best album of the year by far for me, is the new John Mayer release "Continuum". Why? Well its a combination of alot of things..
John Mayer is a great guitar player, simply put. At the same time he manages to write great songs, and had a decent voice. So all around, a complete musician. While most of his fans seem to be women, men should have no problem admitting they enjoy Mayer. His recent CD did not come out till September 12th, a bit after I was home from my Europe trip, which sucks, as it would have made AMAZING music to listen to on numerous 12hr train rides in Eastern Europe.
Along with his great songwriting of his own, he managed to do a cover of one of the most amazing songs guitarwise i've ever heard. From to me the greatest guitar player who ever lived, Jimi Hendrix. Bold as Love has to be one of my favorite of all time hendrix songs, from the colorful images of the lyrics to just the killer guitar work. Its a song that i've never heard Hendrix do it live, yet according to some web sites that list every concert he ever played he played it before. There is an amazing test/demo version on the 4 disc "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" box set, that is suppose to be the 21st take, an all instrumental version. It was Take 27, that we hear on the album that was released..
Anyway check out the amazing live solo performance of John Mayer doing this song below and if you don't have the album, pick it up, you won't be disappointed. Its only $7.88 on sale at Amazon.. check out the link below.

What I will and won't be doing this weekend...

On this weekends list of things to do, and not to do. Not to do, sorry was not invited to the TomKat wedding in Italy. Not that I really care, as i've already seen Katie Holmes nice cans in the movie The Gift, and Tom hasn't made a good movie in some time, Mission Impossible 3 kinda sucked. Plus anyone getting married in a damn HAUNTED Castle in Italy, even if I got the invite, I might have had to send back, sorry can't make it. Not big on Ghosts, I saw my otherwise cool friend Godfrey freaked the fuck outta his mind on the VH1 show "Celebrity Paranomal Project". The Odescalchi Castle is the site of the wedding outside of Rome. Back in the 15th century dude who lived there, his wife would let younger men come in and violate her in ways which must have pissed off her man, so he killed her in the castle. He would later then violate a bunch of married women and wound up killing their husbands. Imagine if they had a NY Post back in 15th century Italy, I can only imagine the headlines that would scream out..

Ok since i'm not invited to that wedding or any wedding for the matter. I'll be watching sports(again)! If you haven't heard there is a certain big college football game this weekend, Ohio State vs Michigan. Now growing up in NYC and going to a college that was not a Division I, II, or even III school I dont really get into college sports. I was told its cause on the east coast, we have not had a college football team that matters in a century by my west coast cousin who is a USC nut. Yet as a kid I did like Michigan as they had Anthony Carter who caught some amazing passes during his days in Ann Arbor. Well this year for the first time since 1975, both teams are undefeated and this is going to be the game of the season, decade, century whatever. With this being the last game of the Big 10 schedule now for the past few years, it usually decides a bowl birth, championship, but rare have both teen been the "only"(save for Rutgers, Boise State, etc) undefeated teams. I can only name about 2-3 guys on each team, but I'll be watching and probably rooting for the underdog Michigan. Having never lived or gone to college in either state, I can't understand the full level of HATRED between the school and states. I just have to chuckle at stories about how legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes wouldn't even fill up his gas tank anywhere in the state of Michigan. or how Bo Schembechler a former assistant under Woody Hayes couldn't win a national championship with Michigan and this has spawned a number of hate fight songs. In fact he died today, I guess never being able to win the Rose Bowl, ate at his heart for so many years, it gave out today. I'll be watching this game on Saturday for sure. Saturday at 3:30pm on ABC

Other sports to watch this weekend include the NASCAR Ford 400 from Homestead Florida. Its the last race of the NASCAR season and while it appears that Jimmy Johnson with a 63pt lead has the Chase for the Nextel Cup sewn up. Anything can happen.. Jimmy needs to finish 12th or better to assure the spot, even in some ways a 15th place finish with 2nd place guy Matt Kenseth would clinch the tie breaker for him. Basically unless Johnson blows an engine or crashes, this thing is done. Yet its still the last race of the season, and I'll be watching. Sunday at 2pm on NBC.

No major European soccer games on this weekend, while if you get Fox Soccer Channel, you can watch Manchester United, Everton and Liverpool all in action. Last weekends game of Arsenal vs Liverpool was a quality matchup. The big news in european soccer this week is that Freddy Adu is going to have a 2 week training stint with the Manchester United team. Most likely he will be playing with the reserves, so i doubt he will get to show off his skills to the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Louis Saha.. it will be interesting to see what comes about his 2 weeks overseas playing with the big boys, as so far in his YOUNG career, remember he is only 17 and most of us were poppin zits on our faces at 17, but so far he hasnt done much in MLS.

NFL Football as usual is in effect on Sunday here in the states, my resurgent Jets hopefully can at least play competitive against the Bears, I don't expect a win, but hopefully they don't get blown out. Their schedules after the Bears is easy with not having a play a winning team. Other good games to watch for include the NBC Sunday night game of Denver(7-2) vs San Diego(7-2). I know that the ratings are huge for these NBC Sunday games, and they are glad they paid as much as they did to get football back.. Fuck those deperate housewives, I know what I'm watching on Sunday.

RIP to Bo Schembechler, i'm sure you'll be watching on the big screen HDTV up in the sky.

How to waste $51.1 Million dollars

You want to know how to waste $51.1 Million dollars, well just be Theo Epstein, the GM of the Boston RedSox.. And not its not like the movie Brewster's Millions staring Richard Pryor of having to spend $30 million in 30 days in order to inherit $300 million. Is baseball turning into European soccer where players are moved for gigantic transfer fees? Was Theo on the phone with Roman Abramovich the owner of Chelsea football Club when he was thinking of how to bid for Daisuke Matuzaka?? Roman probably told him about wasting away $40 Million dollars to sign a player like Shawn Wright Phillips only to watch him sit on the Bench and not score a goal in his Chelsea career but making it right by signing Didier Drogba for $45 Million to have him become the best goal scorer in the Premiership, ya know you win some you lose some...

To play $51.1 million dollars just for the right to talk to a player is in many ways crazy, but in many ways like European Football. Now the Red Sox still have to sign Matuzaka to a contract, and guess who his agent is.. Yep Scott Boras, the man who can get the last dollar out of everyone. While at the time the Carlos Beltran contract looked insane, his recent season and leading the Mets to the playoffs and a great season makes it look like a better return on his 7 year, $119 price tag. Word is Boras is looking for a 3 year, $45 million contract. This would make the 3 year, $21 million that Hediki Matsui signed with the Yankees look to be the far east bargain of the century. I can understand keeping it to a 3 year deal, as if this guy proves himself, he will only be 29 and up for a monster 5 year contract. If it doesn't, it limits the Red Sox losses at just short of $100 million dollars.

Just how good this Matuzaka is remains to be seen. Foreign pitchers don't have the track record of performing great in the USA. Neither expensive imports from Cuba, Mexico and Japan or elsewhere have done amazingly well. Possibly a few years with flashes of brilliance, but overall for a full career its been a toss up. Fernando Valenzuela had his brilliant rookie year in 1981 at the age of 20. He went 13-7 seemed unstoppable. Over the next 7 years the Dodgers would let him pitch 96 complete games, of which an amazing 27 were shutouts. Then at the age of 26 he was essentially DONE. After this point only 17 more complete games for his career, only 1 season of over 200IP, and a career record of 60-71, more hits than IP and an ERA of about 4.50 most season.

The fact that Matsuaka is already 26 years old, and has thrown in Japanese baseball about 1400IP to this point in his career is not a good sign for the future. Its going to take him a year or so to adjust to USA Baseball, and having to rely on your fastball to establish strikes early in the count. On top of it, looking at him he looks built like Pedro Martinez, while Pedro has only begun to start breaking down physically now at 34 years old. Roy Oswalt has a similar build, and while he has been a total stud his first 6 years in the Big Leagues, it will be interesting at age 28 if the Astros get their money worth with his current 5 year, $73 million deal. If I was a Red Sox fan, the slight build would bother me. Obviously there is a sense of urgency to do something after not making the playoffs last year, and knowing the Yankees lack of quality starting pitching, they wanted to make it SURE the Yanks would not get him. Well the Yanks will look in other directions and possibly even let our minor league pitching prospect, 20 year old Philip Hughes. My opinion is i'm glad its the Red Sox wasting $51 million so they can go ahead and raise the already league high average ticket prices, instead of the Yanks spending $30 million or so and ending up with another Hideki Irabu.. who it should be noted has more World Series Rings(2) than the Red Sox franchise have in the past 88 years. Along with his 1.7 Billion yen in Career salary.

What I know about Kazakhstan!

Well like the millions of others Americans I went to see the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan over the weekend. It has made a ton of money, with another $29 million over this weekend, for a total of $67 million and rolling on strong. I'm sure the studio is happy, Sacha Baron Cohen is happy, and even the nation of Kazakhstan is happy despite being portraited in slightly backwards ways. I think the only people who aren't happy are the unwitting "stars" of the movie, who signed release forms for like $150, or $500 bucks for their scenes and now want a piece of the pie.. ahh the American way, don't you love it???

Before the whole Borat takeover I actually knew a few things about Kazakhstan. It being the 9th largest country in the world, larger than Sudan, slight smaller than Argentina.

In sports at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the USA beat Kazakhstan 4-1 in hockey. This would be a huge victory, in fact our only victory in the tournament and show just how much we sucked. We tied Latvia, and lost to Slovakia, Sweden and Russia. So if not for the glorious nation of Kazakhstan we would not have made it to the quarterfinal round(where we lost to Finland).

Also if you follow the annual march through France, otherwise known as the Tour de France, everyone could cheer for Lance Armstrong back in the day but you had to really enjoy the race to root for Alexandre Vinokourov who is one of the most exciting riders. He would attack at any time, any place, mountains, or whatever and even was a guy who would be with the sprinters at the end of the race to win a flat stage. Probably one of the best overall riders of the tour, he didnt compete in the 2006 Tour as his team had 5 of its riders eliminated in the pre-race doping scandal. He was never accused of doping, but at such a late date, it was impossible to enter the race with a 3 person team. He will be 34 in 2007 if he rides the tour, and sadly in the endurance sport of cycling that might be a bit too old to win the whole thing. Still he has had a great sporting career, and possibly the most accomplished athlete in the history of the country, having won an Olympic Silver medal in 2000.

While I was in Europe this past summer, I met a girl from Kazakhstan and let me tell you they look alot different than in the movie. Considering Kazakhstan's location the people are a mix of the Chinese Asian look and Russian. It seemed like the people shown in the movie were poor gypsies from a tiny village. I am not sure if any of the movie was filmed actually in Kazakhstan, I did see in the credits something about a Romanian unit.

I was in Bratislava after the World Cup Final game and talking to the few French fans I saw and she was in that group. Knowing the Borat movie was about to come out, I had to trade currency with her and managed to get myself a 200 Tenge bill(worth about $1.50). It will be a nice collectible until/if/I ever visit the glorious country of Kazakhstan itself.

The movie was funny for sure, in fact there was one particular scene where I was crying, tears literally rolling down my face. Yet was it the funniest movie ever? No.. Was the script stupid... Yes.. Is Cohan a genius at this form of comedy? Yes.. Should you go see it? Probably Yes if your not easily offended.. Remember people the actor doing the jokes about Jews is actually Jewish himself. The same way black comedians can make fun of blacks.. but if they talk about jews or whites its TROUBLE. Cohan can make fun of the jews. In fact from some stats i've seen on the web, I dont even think there are many jewish people in Kazakhstan. I've seen the religion break-down as follows: Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%.

Alright next post for sure, how the USA can regain a world-wide sporting presence.

Has the USA lost its sports mojo???

Recently I was watching and NHL hockey game, and it struck me just how many of the players are foreign born. The NHL should literally be renamed something like the International Hockey League, as so many of the players are foreign born, and not just from North America countries of Canada and USA. While the Canadian born players are still the leaders both in terms of sheer numbers and in all-time hockey greats, the European born players are catching up. The NHL is already starting to resemble European Football leagues like the English Premiership and Spain's La Liga where players from all 6 continents compete on a weekly basis. For sure the best up and coming young players from the NHL are from Europe, and looking at past draft history that is not going to change anytime soon. All this thinking had me wondering if the USA as a country has lost our sports mojo. While without a doubt we can claim the best players in NFL Football, at the same time we are basically the only country in the world where the game is played. All the others sports that are played on a national basis, it can be argued we don't develop the best players.

The NBA is still dominated by mostly Black, mostly American players, but more and more Europeans and even South Americans are coming to play. While well known players like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are foreign born and have played major roles on teams winning the Championship, did you know there are 80 foreign born players making up roughly 20?% of the league from 35 different countries. The Toronto Raptors have not 1 but 2 Slovenian players(Rasho Nesterovic and Uros Slokar) from a country of 2 million people smaller than New Jersey.

Yet looking at recent performances in International basketball tournaments it can be said we aren't the best in the world. At the recent FIBA World Championships our team finished 3rd place. True we have won the 1996, and 2000 Olympics, but the 2004 Olympic performance while missing some of the best players due to "terrorism fears" we lost. Who knows if for the 2008 Olympics our best players will go, or claim the long travel to China as a reason for not going. I mean these players are already making untold millions(just look at the Knicks giving Jalen Rose nearly $15 Million dollars to GO AWAY) and they want to spend their summer vacations driving around their fleet of cars.

Other sports are no better, in Baseball, once thought the dominant sport, in the recent World Baseball Classic we simple sucked. While it can be said the timing of the event was not good during spring training, we lost of Canada and Mexico our 2 north American neighbors. The biggest biding frenzy this off-season is for some Japanese Pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka who few fans have ever seen pitched. The best offensive players seem to come from the Domician Republic, Venezuela or other places these days. We won the Olympics in 2000, but this sport with its limited worldwide appeal is being dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 games, the first sport dropped from the summer Olympics since Polo at the 1936 Berlin Games. Not something to be proud of for the game of baseball as it only became an Olympic sport in 1992.

Golf??? Well you can't really consider it a team game, just as much as Speed Skating was made out to be a team sport at these past Winter Olympics with the controversy between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. The recent performance in the Ryder Cups shows the USA either doesn't play well on the big stage, or simply aren't the best golfers in the world. That is the 3rd straight Ryder Cup we have lost and in recent memory have only won the 1993 and 1999 Cups. I don't watch the event anyway as this year the time delay coverage was boring and horrible. While I can understand simple stroke play golf, I have NO IDEA what four-balls or foursomes are other than a potential kinky sexual event!

Hockey, well my favorite sport is being overtaken by Europeans for sure. While I LOVE the Czech players on my NY Rangers, looking at the overall stats of the NHL its clear the foreign born players are the best right now. From today's top 20 in league scoring we find 1 American, 2 Czechs, 1 Slovakian, 9 Candaians, 2 Russians, 4 Sweedes and 1 Austrian. You are telling me the best player in the USA hockey is equal to the best Austrian player?(Thomas Vanek for those not in the know). The recent drafts don't show much promise for American players, in the past 3 NHL drafts, there have been 24 out of 90 players of USA decent taken in the first round. While this percentage of 26% is higher than the current 17.7% of NHL players, wait a minute. Of these 24 players taken, only 2.. yes only 2 have even PLAYED for their NHL team.. Only one of these Phil Kessel has even scored a goal. Yet when you look at the Sidney Crosby, Alex Overchkin, Evegni Malkin, Anze Kopitar and the rest of some of the 1st round foreign born players making an impact now its makes you wonder how many of the 24 Americans are going to pan out.. Watching any of these young players is a treat, last week got to watch the Rangers killed by the LA Kings and this 19 year old Slovenian player Kopitar was all over the ice, everywhere you looked he was in on a play.

So where does this leave the USA? Well it basically means that SOCCER, yes some of your call it football, but that Soccer is the USA's only hope of fielding a team that will compete on an International level to sucess. While this past 2006 World Cup as experienced in person the USA put on a totally embarrassing showing, the future is bright. There are many challenges, and by no means are we about to produce as many quality soccer players as a Brazil, its our nations only hope.. more on this on my next entry as to how Soccer can save the egg on the USA face in International sporting events...