RPS

To me, TFC2 just isn't fun. And I was a diehard of the original TFC. They had a good thing going with the original, but all the tweaks they did just never sat right with me. I downloaded it a year ago, played for a month and just never got into it.

Anybody like Portlandia? For those who haven't seen, it's a skit comedy show starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein where they mock Portland, but are basically mocking hipster and alternative culture. I quite enjoy it.

http://gawker.com/5876449/lana-del-reys-infamous-snl-performance One of those few times in musical history you can watch the hype just flush down the toilet. Was nice knowing you Lana!

I'm assuming that this will lead to less Pagonging and far more interesting post-merge strategies, so I'm all game for it. Also appealing - the prospect that there will only be one hidden immunity idol. Heck, I'd be happy if they got rid of that already.

Subtle, SRN. Also, gotta around to listening to three amazing albums that I highly recommend - Escort's self titled album, Dro Carey's Journey with the Heavy and Machinedrum album Room(s). All electronic stuff, but great. Escort is straight up disco revival, Dro Carey and Machinedrum's albums are more a mix of recent trends in music (dub-step/garage, house and r&b). All great high recommendations from me.

The ORG I played was probably right around China, because I had just gotten back into Survivor and started to enjoy it. I ended up in fourth place, but only because I was an immunity beast. I had no alliances because they all tried to fuck me over the boot right before the merge, but I ended up winning the challenge for our tribe. After we merged I won immunity and my alliance was dumb enough to vote off my ally instead of voting off somebody from the other tribe. Needless to say, I flipped over to the other tribe, picked them off and almost got to the end, but ended up losing in the second last immunity challenge. It probably would have been more fun had I not spent a month frantically trying to win every immunity challenge so I didn't get voted out. Where is the one you are playing Destroyer? The game in high school was fun because it was a bunch of teenagers in the woods on a weekend doing random challenges and it was much more fun. Probably because most of us knew each other and Survivor at that point was much bigger at that point. In hindsight, it was probably a law suit waiting to happen for the guy who ran it, considering we had swimming challenges and had to climb trees and we were living in the woods for four nights. It was a lot more fun because only me and a few others even watched Survivor and the rest just wanted to have a fun weekend.

I've done Survivor like contests before. In high school a Survivor nerd (bigger than I) organized a game with 16 students from different schools and over a long weekend we did a Survivor game. This was back in Season 4 or 5 when Survivor's profile was really quite big. It was videotaped by the guy and he did multiple events of them. I'm pretty sure the guy put them on YouTube somewhere. Would be a total laugh to go back and watch them. I also did an online Survivor game. The online game, at least for me, was much more taxing. It was a 2 month long process and you get quite involved. I know somebody on the board ran one and I considered joining it, but it really does drain a lot out of you. Didn't GoGo win that?

Bah who cares! Both of you should apply simply to live out my dream! But seriously, ever since the show debuted I've wanted to apply so badly, but being Canadian I can't. And I highly doubt they've got a Canadian versus US version in the works...

Yeah. Agreed. Hey GoGo, you ever applied to be on Survivor? Or any of the Americans for that matter.

Tyson Kidd won MITB, cashed it in at Summerslam and won the World Title. Now he seems to have started a gimmick where he just leaves the ring and avoids matches. He has left matches with Kane, Big Show and Brock Lesnar. Amazing.

I watched a preview and nothing stood out to me. Is it good? What's the consensus on the show?

For the longest time, I never watched Breaking Bad. Holy shit I was missing out. I am halfway through Season 4, and... Any other shows I should watch? I started Damages, but it's atrocious. More so because I'm in the legal field and know it's all horseshit. I think if I wasn't involved in it, I'd like it. But it's so hard to get around how so unreal it is. And I'm half way through the first season of Dexter, but not a fan. I just feel like there is nothing to hook me into watching the next episode. It's not like Breaking Bad with huge OH MY GOD events. It's a bit vanilla for my tastes. Any suggestions?

Anybody can review. Just come in, post your thoughts on the album and give it a score out of 5. Anybody can review any of the albums or if they hate all the albums that week they can review none of them. And this isn't going to be a big indie/rock lovefest. I'll throw some metal, jazz, polka, ambient, whatever the fuck I can think of each week.

Hey, so there was an attempt at an EWB Music Club a few months back and it sort of tanked after a few weeks. I decided to kick start it again with a different approach. Each week on Sunday, I'll post three albums for people to review. One will be a classic album chosen at random from acclaimedmusic.net (I'll use a random number generator to chose a record), another will be a high profile recent release and the last will be a random album. The random album will be something that is divisive or experiemental or from a new genre of music or a missed gem from the last few years. Giving people three albums to chose from will give people choice so they don't have to review an album they know they are going to hate. People are free to review all three albums, just one or none at all. I'll try my best to take from three different genres of music, so it won't necessarily be all rock or electronic or hip hop, it'll be a nice mix. The only requirements: Reviews should rank the album out of 5. I'd prefer people do intervals of .5 (aka, .5, 1, 1.5, etc), but feel free to give whatever score you want, as long as it's out of 5. If it's not out of 5, I won't tally it up to it's overall score. Give a brief write up somewhere between 150 words. Nothing to lengthy, just a brief why you liked it or not. Respect other people's opinions and tastes and don't get upset if somebody disagrees with you. On the first page, I'll average up the reviews for the albums and keep a running tally of the "best" albums according to EWB. Feel free to review albums from previous weeks, but don't just randomly review an album that hasn't been selected yet. If you are dying to have an album reviewed or have any suggestions, either post it or send me a message. This isn't going to be a dictatorship with me choosing music only I like. The point of the club is to find new and old music that people haven't heard before, to open people to new music and new genres and to get people talking about music. All opinions are welcomed! Classic: Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (rock) New: The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence (r&b) Random: Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (electronic)

Ugh. Fuck the Hantzes. I'm legitimately excited for One World. It's the first twist in a long time that feels natural and like it should be part of Survivor. The Medallion of Power, Redemption Island and the over abundance of HII have made the game so convoluted, that a simplistic twist like "two tribes, one beach" is very welcomed.

That whole EP is best forgotten. As I have said before, that duet with Bon Iver is the worse thing released by a major act this year. The Joni Mitchell cover is pretty horrendous too.

No, I don't think you are being a contrarian, I think it's a fair thing to say about James Blake. I really like the album, but I don't think it's really all that experimental at all. There was former more experimental and adventurous records from other bass artists like Africa Hitech, Rustie, Andy Stott, Egyptrixx, SBTRKT, Shlohmo, 2562, Machinedrum. James Blake, in my opinion, just made his big crossover and opened up a lot of people's minds. There is a universality to his records that other bass artists don't have. EDIT: And I think his weakest tracks on the album seem to be the ones that get universal praise. That Feist cover is so dull and Wilhelm Scream isn't overly amazing.

I disagree with the rest of your post, but it's your opinion. However, I'm genuinely interested in the bolded bit. I don't think James Blake is really all that experimental, but what would you classify as way better musical experimentation that was released this year?

Yeah SRN list is pretty awesome.

Yeah, Angie truly was shafted. Caryn was kind of a dud of a character, came across like a cunt and offered nothing really interesting to the narrative. Angie was interesting and actually seemed to have legs in the game. I still maintain, had Coby been smart and chosen Angie, he probably would have fared MUCH better in the game. He'd have an instant ally against the Katie-Tom-Ian brigade, which was always going to be the dominant alliance. Really stupid move on his part.

How amazing was James from Palau? They should have brought him back for FvF and not James from China. I love when he says "This is America and we are going to do democracy" because... they aren't in America. Ulong getting knocked out robbed us of a true Survivor mastermind... James legacy being cut short is tragic.

After a year or so through Universe, the created characters seem to really integrate into the story mode. My RAW's world title picture is Jeff Hardy, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Mike Awesome and Steve Austin. Bret Hart has held the title for over a year or so now, but he's set to face off against Jeff Hardy & Triple H in a ladder match.

She is a lesbian and married to Ellen DeGeneres. Boom. Just blew your mind to bits. Which makes her role on the show even funnier, with her husband being gay and her inability to have any normal sexual attraction from any man on the show.

For those looking for a good compilation of EOY lists... According to acclaimedmusic.net, Top 25 acclaimed albums Harvey, PJ Let England Shake Bon Iver Bon Iver Blake, James James Blake Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues Weeknd, The House of Balloons St. Vincent Strange Mercy Vile, Kurt Smoke Ring for My Halo Destroyer Kaputt tUnE-yArDs WhoKill M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming Waits, Tom Bad as Me Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost Radiohead The King of Limbs Metronomy The English Riviera Horrors, The Skying Wilco The Whole Love Li, Lykke Wounded Rhymes Shabazz Palaces Black Up Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch the Throne Fucked Up David Comes to Life Adele 21 Wild Beasts Smother Drake Take Care Yuck Yuck Real Estate Days And songs: M83 Midnight City Lana Del Rey Video Games Tyler, The Creator Yonkers Adele Rolling in the Deep [2010] James Blake The Wilhelm Scream Foster the People Pumped Up Kicks [2010] Bon Iver Holocene Real Estate It's Real Radiohead Lotus Flower tUnE-yArDs Bizness Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues The Rapture How Deep Is Your Love? St. Vincent Cruel Destroyer Kaputt Girls Vomit Jay-Z and Kanye West Otis The Black Keys Lonely Boy SBTRKT feat. Yukimi Nagano Wildfire Nicki Minaj Super Bass Cut Copy Need You Now Lykke Li I Follow Rivers Frank Ocean Novacane Adele Someone Like You EMA California Metronomy The Look

Joel: It's going to be Mary. Kathy: Mary?