January 2007 Music Reviews

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins (bought on iTunes): (This was one of my CD's that was stolen out of my office when I worked at Cox Cable.) I fear that I am ordinary, just like everyone... Billy Corgan and I grew up 35 miles apart and have some interesting comparables in our backgrounds. Although it is true I am NOT in the same place now that I was in 1995 when this came out, it was amazing how it spoke to me then, and is a good reminder of where I was then. Without a doubt, Muzzle is the song I am after here, it may still be in my top ten for songs, it is one of three songs I keep the lyrics for laying around on my computer. To me the entire song offers the best insight into the empty rage that comes from trying to be validated by the world...

Genius

Heard by me on the radio this morning:

Bears player Tank Johnson, who is facing weapons and probabtion violation charges, responded to a question about the pending accusations by saying (about the press) "...they'll talk about you when you get pulled over for a parking ticket."

Okay.

Super Bowl Bound

Okay, for the long overdue SuperBowl posting, first off

GO BEARS!

Secondly, I predict the Bears win 34-24. I cannot see the Colts scoring at will on a pumped up Bears defense playing with a chip on their shoulder. The Bears offense plays much better loose than with the pressure on it. The X-factor is the Bears defense and return teams which scored 9 touchdowns in the regular season, but none so far in two post season games. The offenses play to a draw, with the Bears special teams and defense winning the game.

Now for some amatuer analysis. Maybe I missed this part in all of the hype about the superior Indianapolis Colts offense. I did some crack research, and found out that during the regular season, the Bears scored 427 points, and the Colts scored 427 points. Hmmm, that seems fairly even to me. Yes, it is true that the combined records of the Colts opponents (128-128) was better than the Bears opponents (110-146), but it averages out to just a little more than one game better (Colts 8-8, Bears 7-9), not too overwhelming. During the regular season the Colts scored an average of 26.7 points per game and allowed 22.5. The Bears also scored 26.7, but only allowed 15.9. The overall league average was 20.6 points per team per game. The Colts opponents scored an average of 20.9 points per game and allowed 20.5 points per game, very close to league average. The Bears opponents were obviously not as good, with 19.2 scored, and 21.7 allowed. Taking these differences into account, the Colts opponents were on average about 3 points per game tougher than the Bears.

Simple scoring analysis (CHI Points scored + IND points allowed)/2 vs. (IND Points scored + CHI points allowed)/2 would indicate the Bears should come away with a 25 to 21 point victory. Even allowing the Colts the 3 points for their tougher opponents, although closer, still favors the Bears.

Feel free to blast my simplified math analysis, but it got 8/10 playoff games correct so far, and as a Bears fan here is to making it 9 of 11.

Midwest Balboa Festival

Yes! It is almost time for another Omaha Jitterbugs event! The Midwest Balboa Swing Festival is at the end of March, and I've jumped through hoops a plenty to get myself off of work to attend.

For those of you who aren't familiar with balboa as a dance, balboa is like eating perfect fudge to other dances being like chewing on raw sugar cane. The only other dance I've seen that compares in it's intimacy is tango (which I can't do). When I took my first balboa class, Billy said it would become my favorite dance, and he is right. The connection, the feel, the closeness, it is true that pure balboa is not as exciting to watch as some other dances, but when you dance it, particularly with someone you are comfortable with, you KNOW you are dancing. It is SWEET!

Live bands, great dancers from all over the country, heck, just listening to Peter Loggins talk about the history of dance is worth the price of admission.

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It's a cartoon world... v0003

The post that just won't go away, Gingerkid has this take and description of me:

Onionboy doing all his favorite things (including sleeping)

You can see Gingerkid's "southparkerized" versions of her, her boy Michael, and me here.