VerbalPuke

It's hard for me to say, I'd suppose hearing Black Sabbath for the first time shaped my early days as a music fan. I was probably only nine or ten, and started to enjoy "classic rock" during much of my early adolescence. I was also a fan of many bands active during my childhood, such as the Smashing Pumpkins and Rage Against the Machine. Around the time I entered high school I first heard the Ramones, which opened the door.The Ramones opened new doors to me in music, it was because of them that I checked out a lot of other punk bands in their era. Stuff like the Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders, Dead Kennedys, and the Sex Pistols got me to venture into other avenues of punk, which also led to checking out metal, rockabilly, blues, surf, garage, etc. etc. etc. I'd say it was largely the music between 1975-1982 that really shaped my taste in music, much of the proto punk, punk, and metal of the time. It was through that era of music that I got into a multitude of different styles of rock and roll. I'd say my music collection is largely rock and roll oriented but not limited to only rock and roll. Oh, and the bands people may have missed. The Saints - Stranded Prototypical 77 sound, one of the best bands from Australia, and often overlooked as one of the early pioneers of punk. Wayne County and the Electric Chairs - Cream in my jeans Wayne County aka Jayne County was the transvestite front man/woman for this excellent group. Their sound is reminiscent of Johnny Thunders L.A.M.F., but definitely has it's own charm. I think Jayne has since had a sex change operation, but don't remember. Zolar X - Rocket Roll This is a recent concert, but it seems that they haven't lost a step. They were a fun band, they'd be adorned in martian regalia and also created their own martian language. They didn't actually sing in the martian language, but did sing about space agey shit. The Screamers - Think of Suicide, but place them in San Francisco, give them a drummer, and make them much more chaotic. This is the Screamers, one of the greatest of punk bands, but often overlooked. Unfortunately, their only two albums have never been re-released onto CD form, and copies of the original LP's cost a bit of cash. Fortunately the internet has made them accessible, as did as DVD release a few years ago.

The Cramps are guilty as shit of this, they borrowed liberally from old blues and rockabilly acts such as Dale Hawkins, Link Wray, The Rumblers, The Riptides, and others. It's all on a compilation titled "Songs the Cramps Taught Us" with the originals that the Cramps borrowed from or flat out covered. A lot of their catalog were actually modified covers of the original. Speaking of Pere Ubu, they much like the Dead Boys, borrowed from Rocket from the Tombs. Both Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys came from the ashes of Rocket From The Tombs, and used many of the same chord progressions and riffs used in the prior band. For example, the Dead Boys song "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth" is really Rocket From the Tomb's "I'm Never Gonna Kill Myself Again" with different lyrics. There is also Red Cross song "Cover Band" which is musically identical to the Circle Jerks "Live Fast, Die Young", but with a sardonic change in the lyrics.

I won five bucks on the main event myself, just a friendly bet where I took Silva and another dude took Henderson. It was a good show all around, but it was hard to divide time between the show and the strippers.

Matt Millen? Make a sensible move? Oh dawson, you are a card And just to further illustrate Be's point, the Rogers trade is now done. Shaun Rogers was traded to Cincinnati for a 3rd and 5th round pick. Bravo Millen, you mustered two draft picks that will probably be cut by the end of pre-season. Honestly, is that the best he could have done for Rogers? Not even a 2nd rounder? They would have been better off keeping him instead of giving Millen more picks to botch. Edit - And that trade has fallen through. Now I'm reading that we got Leigh Bodden and a 3rd round pick in a trade with Cleveland. I don't know a damn thing about Bodden, but I already like picking up a player over a 5th round pick. I'm a little less annoyed with the trade this time around.

Pigskin Footbrawl. It was fucking awesome, but it seems to fall under the radar in terms of older video games. Pretty much, it was a game of football/rugby where you controlled one character, and had teammates that controlled themselves (with funny results). Your character could kill the other teams members if you picked up a weapon and engaged them in the cartoonish puff of smoke and fists flying out of it routine. The medieval characters were great, including the troll that would join a team in the second half if there was a significant shift in momentum.

It is regarded as a classic, but it does seem that a lot of folks forget about it. It is a great flick by the way. Chopper is an awesome flick from Australia about Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. He was a criminal in the Australian underworld that killed or attacked many other criminals in the same region. The story is based on his life but isn't necessarily a true story, more of a "events based on a true story" sort of film. Eric Bana (or the guy that recently played the Incredible Hulk) does a fantastic job in his role as Chopper, getting his mannerisms and speech down perfectly. He's witty, charming, and completely sadistic.

The Lions sign Dwight Smith from the Vikings, and will probably rotate in for the two young safeties, or get work as a nickel. It's a start. Also hearing that Shaun Rogers could be traded by Friday, with Denver, NY Jets, and Miami in pursuit. I'm ambivalent about a trade. I wouldn't mind seeing us acquire additional draft picks or even a decent player (Johnathan Vilma perhaps), but shudder at the idea of Matt Millen trying to get value for Rogers. Any draft picks acquired by him will probably be squandered and there is a chance that Vilma is damaged goods. By the way, the Lions also hiked up their ticket prices, this on the heels of yet another gem of a season. Thanks Uncle Willie!

I recently checked out a bunch of new bands, mostly thrash as always for me. So I checked out Exhorder from the states, Morbid Saint, Kat and Turbo from Poland (both fantastic), a Maiden esque group known as Attacker (not so thrashy), and Angelwitch (because I have an affinity for thrash bands that have the word witch in their name, and many of them do). I think that Kat is my favorite thus far, they have this fantastic song called "Metal and Hell". It doesn't get anymore metal than that. The Morbid Saint band I checked out just because of the band name, and they turned out to be fucking awesome.

It's not a bad move for the Cavs, but I can't see Delonte West or Wally (I'm not attempting that last name) pushing them over the top. Ben? Forget about it, his defense isn't at the level it used to be and his presence on offense makes it a five on four match up (and for the love of god, just hope he doesn't get to the line). And Detroit made a minor deal to send Primoz Brezec to the Raptors for Juan Dixon. Nothing major, but I'm reading it's possible that we cut Flip Murray and see what kind of big man we can acquire through waivers. I'm hearing Dale Davis, which is pretty meh to me, we need the front court help, but the Dale Davis was marginal when he was here, and he's now even older than before.

My biggest problem with it is that it didn't sustain any sort of buzz for me unless I continued drinking them. So by the time we were halfway home, I was no longer feeling drunk, but feeling the beginning of a hangover. I'd have gone an extra couple of dollars for a Newcastle, or even a Killian's. But on the other hand, it was PBR or pay a bit extra for Buttweiser, so PBR it was.

I've been hearing the D.O.C.'s first album a lot lately, it's really quite good. I get a large dose of rap and hip hop at work due to the fact that the guy I work next to is primarily a hip hop fan (and plays the hell out of it on his radio). I heard that his second album had him sounding almost demonic due to the accident he had, has anybody heard this album? Something about a demonic sounding rapper was intriguing to me. Oh, and I'll never forget jamming to 2 Live Crew as a kid, despite their raunchy nature, they did produce some classic tunes like Fuck Shop and Get The Fuck Out (of my house).

How old does it have to be to be considered old-school these days? I'd think enough years have passed that we can consider groups of the early 90s and maybe to the mid-90s old school. But on the other hand, does old school rap really just refer more to a style, something in the vein of a Run DMC or Big Daddy Kane?

It's not hard to figure out that I'm not a huge rap or hip hop fan, but there was some fantastic old school shit out there. Erik B. and Rakim anyone? Possibly the best hip hop I've ever heard, if not for Mr. Lif emergence in the early part of this century. With the mention of Busta Rhymes, I'd like to go ahead and say that I think E.L.E. is the best rap album I've ever heard.

I went out to this shithole bar last night, a real fucking hole in the wall, and saw some local punk acts play. They were awful, a bit too much grind in there, but fuck was it a good time. The Detroit punk scene these days is funny, it's made up of a lot of Discharge fans, a lot of fucking Discharge fans. It's really something to see 1 out of every 3 kids has some sort of Discharge shirt, patch, back patch, button on them. They're fun people though, especially when you get a few beers in them. That bar looked like shit by the time the night was over, it looked like shit from the onset but was really fucked up by the end of the night. Pizza boxes strewn on tables, spills everywhere, tables scattered from their original placement, and a bunch of smelly fucking punks filling the air with their odd aroma of sweat, leather, and beer. It was probably one of the friendliest crowds of people I've met at any show I've ever been to. Well, folks were friendly towards me, maybe not so much towards each other at all times. The worst part was drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon all night, that is grade A swill right there. Anyway, I'd like to recommend the band Wayne County and the Electric Chairs. This is for those of you that enjoy 77 style punk ala Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders, and The Saints. They had a great sound, as good as anything for their era, and really don't get the credit they deserve for their contribution to that music scene.

1. Robert Deniro 2. Daniel Day-Lewis 3. William Dafoe 4. Leonardo Dicaprio 5. Jack Nicholson 6. Al Pacino 7. Christopher Walken 8. Harvey Keitel 9. Morgan Freeman 10. Liam Neeson

Yeah, Marvel Ultimate Alliance was a lot of fun. I actually just recently beat it, despite having the game since April of last year. It's a great multiplayer game, with a nice roster of super heroes to choose from. Also, I've been wondering about Bio-Shock, why is it the shit? I haven't played the game but have seen nothing but rave reviews for it, and I'm curious as to why folks like it so much.

The Laughing Gnome by David Bowie always put a smile on my face.

When I first got Fight Night Round 3, I had a fight over my brothers house against his friend, I was Marco Antonio Barrera and he was Manny Pacquaio. It was a pretty good fight, with him kicking my ass good in the first two rounds, knocking me down once. I started to get the hang of things and worked him over good in the 4th, no knock down though. I knocked him down in the 5th, then he knocked me down twice in the sixth, but Barrera still got up. Then in the 7th he knocked me down again, and it looked like I was done, until I came back with a flurry to knock his ass out with little time to spare.

I have to agree with Steele around, Lesnar did seem a bit tentative. It seemed to me that he had Mir, but let up on him just a bit, instead of going for the kill. Unfortunately he was caught in a submission, but I think he could be a force if he continues to bust his ass. He already has the wrestling pedigree and of course is an incredibly strong dude, so it should be interesting to see where he goes from here. I enjoyed the whole card, UFC never disappoints me, they always manage to put on a good undercard on top of that main events. Tyson Griffin is becoming a guy I like to watch fight, he works hard out there, I'd say it was his fight with Frankie Edgar that made me a fan (and of Edgar). I wouldn't mind seeing those two go at it again. I sort of missed/didn't pay attention to the Sylvia and Noguiera fight, but that's because I had a bit of alcohol (just a bit ) floating in my brain so my attention span was gone. Glad to see Sylvia lose, I respect his fighting game, but for whatever reason I'm just simply not a fan. Oh yeah, why were they fighting for the interim heavyweight championship? What happened to Couture?

Well, now that it is working and all, I have to say that Assassin's Creed is fun. I played it briefly and enjoyed what I've seen so far, combat looks to be a bit skimpy, but it doesn't hinder the game for me either. I also rented Mass Effect and that has been pretty cool thus far as well. They are the first new games I have played in ages, and I'm glad to see that both were worth the effort.

I have to have a fucking update on my X-Box to play Assassin's Creed? Wait a minute, what the fuck is going on here? Is this thing fucking serious? Edit - Well I don't know, it's working now. I went with the update...though I don't know what it could have updated without being online.

As well as What's Eating Gilbert Grape, good flick. I have never liked Tom Cruise. I don't like any of his movies, nor do I think much of him as an actor.

I'd go with Terminator, Terminator 2, Predator, and Commando as my favorites. Total Recall was pretty cool, and I'd like to see the Conan movies. How about Hercules in New York?

I just checked out this band called the Bleach Boys. I've liked what I've heard so far, it's a nice fusion of punk and surf rock from Texas. I'd like to see them make their way out to Detroit because I wouldn't mind seeing them live. They also cover the requisite song for every surf band, Pipeline. I'd also say they're one of the better bands I've heard from the modern era, good sound all the way around. Also, if anybody is ever in the mode for good synthesizer based music, check out Digital Leather. Sort of a modern take on Suicide and The Screamers, but not what you'd call a carbon copy of either.

She was something else, that's going really deep into the roots of rock and roll. Collections of her work for $16 sounds pretty reasonable, I'd imagine you're getting a lot of songs in said collections. I've been listening to Mr. Lif lately, probably the best rapper or hip hop artist I've ever heard. The Last of the Mohicans theme has been getting a lot of play as well. For those of you who haven't seen the movie (and shame on you fags if you haven't) you might remember the song from a football commercial featuring Shawn Merriman and Steven Jackson this past season. The Men They Couldn't Hang is a group that I'm falling in love with as of right now. I've been jamming a lot of Eddie Cochran as well, always been a big fan of his, but I've been on a huge kick for his music lately. There's always lots of things that I listen to on a regular basis, those would be my flavors of the month currently. I still listen to most everything in my collection at some point or another.