lari

Music: Axxis. Albums Paradise in Flames and Back to the Kingdom. Catchy camp metal. TV: Just wrestling and hockey. Books: None. Booze: Just lager. Dark. Internet: Porn.

The Blackhawks are red hot. 7-1-3 under Denis Savard. Now only two points from 8th in West with a game in hand. Wednesday they play Nashville who they have owned all season. Without serious injuries, the Hawks really have a shot at making the post season. It's not just Havlat either. Khabibulin is playing like it was 2004 again. And the defense has some real depth - 7 defensemen travel with the team at the moment and Savard sat out SEABROOK in the last game! Another young stud (3rd overall 2004) Cam Barker should be ready for the NHL, too. That's 8 guys. It would make sense to move one or two of them since there certainly isn't enough room for 'em all in the future (master)plan. Richmond and Byfuglien are also good young guys in Norfolk and have played with the Hawks already this season. Kukkonen and Seabrook have been the best defensemen this season. Those two together with Duncan Keith, Jim Vandermeer, Cam Barker, James Wisniewski, Danny Richmond and Dennis Byfuglien might challenge for the best young defensive corp in the league. Aucoin and Cullimore are the only veterans, who too often get outplayed by all the youngsters. Vandermeer might be the one getting traded - he is somewhat established around the league, has trade value and hasn't played bad, but hasn't really been great either. Especially by not being physical enough. With Reed Low in Norfolk, Vandy should be more active in protecting the star players. I wouldn't even mind trading captain Aucoin if it meant we got a solid top two line centerman. No-one will take Cullimore, but obviously he is still on the trade block.

Hawks are back at .500 again after beating the Blue Jackets. They scored the first four goals and were leading 5-1 after the first. Somehow Columbus manages to get within one and I'm already starting to choose household items to take my anger out on, but luckily the Hawks hold on and take it 6-4. Bondra still didn't hit #500 (got an assist though). Another 3 point night for Havlat (1+2).

Hawks lost 3-2, but played well and it was a close game that could have gone either way. A 19-year-old leads the league in scoring. Sidney Crosby has 47 points, 3 more than Jagr.

Big game tonight. I'm really pumped. Hawks play the Wings - always exciting games. Especially now that the team has been on a roll. No regulation losses since Savard took over: 5-0-3. Also, Rene Bourque makes his return tonight, so the Hawks offense is nearly at full strength (aside from Handzus, obviously). As healthy as they have been all season. Preliminary lineup (according to CBH.COM): Ruutu - Smolinski - Havlat Vrbata - Sharp - Hamilton Bourque - Arkhipov - Lapointe Bondra - Holmqvist - Stewart Kukkonen - Seabrook Keith - Wisniewski Cullimore - Vandermeer Khabibulin Boucher Scratched: Aucoin (groin) Salmelainen Glad to see Salmo scratched. Bondra on the fourth line baffled me at first, but obviously it's only his second game of the season (he only played 11+ minutes in his first, including 5 minutes of PP time) so Savard gives him limited responsibility 5-on-5 and probably uses him lots on the powerplay. Besides, Holmer has pretty good hands so he can probably feed some pucks towards Bondra when he does play. Only thing, Holmer is a left shooter, so Bondra should play right wing and Stewie left, to naturally make plays. Prediction: none, except for 'close game'.

I love it how they are playing the full album. In my opinion it's the best album they ever released and it's not like people haven't heard the classics live before. They've been touring like hell for some 20 odd years and always play certain songs. Happy to see some of them dropped off the setlist this time around.

Cinderella - Night Songs

Hawks are back at .500! Yay for not being a losing team anymore. Bondra scores #499 in his first game wearing the indian head as they beat the Blows 3-2. What better time to score #500 than against the Red Wings next game? Actually, it would be an excellent time to score #501 and #502, too.

So far we've established Will Ferrell is a better actor than Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman and Christopher Walken. I think it's time to establish that this lisn't any good.

Havlat could well be the best player in the world right now. Seriously, 10 goals and 8 assists in only 9 games played. Only one point behind Smolinski in team scoring and Smoke has played all 28 games. Tremendous speed and overall skating strength, he is powerful and he can finish. Havlat is a smooth passer too, with better linemates his assist numbers could be doubled. He was leading the league in scoring the time he got hurt and has picked up right from where he left off - 3+2 in two games. Only weakness seems to be just that - he is so good he attracts a lot of attention from opposing players who know how good he is and how he has a history with injuries and gets targeted lots, which then leads to dangerous situations. With Ruutu constantly having injury problems, I don't know why the Hawks won't dress Reed Low to keep dirty players in check. He doesn't even need to leave the bench - just yell "I'll break your fucking neck!" from time to time to keep all the pussy, dirty hitters who think they can be heroes and change the momentum of the game by taking out Havlat or Ruutu, in check. You think Gretzky would have had such a productive and long career without Dave Semenko and Marty McSorley?

I don't really like Mechanix that much. So to answer the question in the first post - I'd have to go with the Four Horsemen. Not a huge fan of either band, I'm a casual thrash metal fan, but I do own some of their more popular CDs - Rust in Peace, Youthanasia, the first five Metallica discs... but there's plenty thrash metal bands that I like better than these two. Annihilator is probably my #1 thrash favourite at the moment (love Alice in Hell and Never, Neverland, but the two Joe Comeau albums are REALLY something). Big fan of Testament, too, especially the technical thrash of the Skolnick era (first four albums). Then there's Slayer who have a couple real fun albums (Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss), a lot of mediocre ones, but I'd still put them in my top three. If I was to make a personal top 50 bands list, those three would probably be the only thrash metal bands making an appearance. Megadeth and Metallica are probably in my top ten thrash bands though - coming in with the likes of Anthrax, Overkill, Exodus and a few others. Of the two though... I think I'd pick Metallica first. Though Rust in Peace is better than any Metallica album.

That's sad about Gainey. He lost his wife not long ago, right? The Hawks beat the Oilcans 4-1. Havlat was first star, 1+1 and scored on an amazing move on a breakaway. Powerplay was 0 for 10 though. Hopefully Bondra can help in that department.

"Database of cover songs"

Havlat returned last night. He immediately scored 2 goals and assisted a third, but Boucher played in net, so the Hawks still lost. But, the overtime loss means Savard still has points in every game as head coach (this season) - 3-0-3.

Shootouts suck zebra balls. I just hate them.

Hawks up 1-0 after the first against the 'Yotes. Karl Stewart with the lone goal, short-handed. But the highlight of the period was the Jim Vandermeer/Josh Gratton fight. An awesome toe-to-toe bout. Excellent showing by both guys, but Vandy gets the edge for throwing the better punches. Great action. Good to see the bad-ass Vandy back. He's been too soft all season.

You do know it's a Genesis cover?

Two more: W.A.S.P. - I Wanna Be Somebody Axxis - Flashback Radio Gayest anthem ever: Accept - London Leatherboys EDIT: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Love Rock and Roll

He is borderline. I'd say no, but it could go either way. Nieuwendyk was a Conn Smythe winner though, so that could carry him in. Anyway, I always liked watching Nieuwendyk play and it's sad to see all these guys you watched as a kid retire.

Foreigner - Jukebox Hero Queen - We Will Rock You Quiet Riot - Metal Health (Bang Your Head) Dire Straits - Money for Nothing Judas Priest - Take on the World Judas Priest - United Dio - Rock'n'Roll Children Savatage - Power of the Night Helloween - Falling Higher All anthemic rock songs about the power of music.

Bands probably want their promotional videos to be out as much as possible. That's why they were shot in the first place. It's not like they are available for purchase. Playing a video on Youtube ain't any different than it is to catch one on the radio or on MTV. Having those 'self-made' videos with a different song on the background is a grey area though. As long as it's not for commercial purpose, I don't see the harm in that really. Just my opinion though.

You're right, there isn't much of a difference between sharing CDs online or with your friends, except the magnitude. Copying a CD to your friend is worth what, $10-$20? But to put it up online where anyone can get it can mean losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Though obviously copying CD's to friends is still morally wrong - why not just borrow your copy for him for a week and let him hear it and see if he likes it? And it's not really that complicated. If your friend opts to share a CD online he got from you, it's his responsibility and he has infringed on copyright. You only copied a disc once and there's no way anyone would sue you for damages of $10-$20. If you share your CD online and a thousand people download it, you are responsible for 1,000 downloads. If some of those 1,000 internet users then opt to share their copy, they are also infringing on copyright and are liable for damages depending how they decided to share the music. There's a difference in, for instance, sharing a CD to a limited number of people via Messenger or something and putting it up on a file-sharing program where any user in the world has access to it.

50's? Not even close. It was 1961. EDIT: Minnesota wins after a shootout. Damn Finns. Mikko Koivu and Petteri Nummelin scored for the Wild.