congratulations due to my fine sister annie who, in six months, will be able to proudly call herself a gryphon. (yeah. not griffin, gryphon. snooty, eh?) small class sizes, individualized attention, access to the big city, and lots of sangria. that's sarah lawrence. go gryphons.

in other news, there's this great old man that lives down the hall from me, although i've never gotten his name. elevator conversation about the weather is always pleasant, and lobby conversation about work or weekend activities is not so unusual. anyway, this morning, about 1045, i had to come home from work briefly. i entered through the lobby's back door, saw my favorite old man who lives down the hall, and said "good morning." and he said "good morning. wild night out?" and uproarious laughter ensued.

good times. woof.

congratulations due to the mighty marquette golden warriors, as greg gumbel called them yesterday. i received a call from my brother, marquette class of 2000, no less than 15 seconds after the closing buzzer. one day, in the next 40 years, i'll be able to make that call to him.

jim boehim, at the half, said to solomon wilcots: "[carmelo]'s pretty good, isn't he?" with an air of amazement. it's obvious that, like us, jimmy's just along for the ride watching this supremely talented player.

angels-rangers at 7:00 p.m. bandits-kernels thursday at 6. life is good.

well, at about 8:45 tonight i was, in my mind, writing my treatise on The Williams Postulate (bottom line: roy williams doesn't win tournament games against good coaches, even when favored), to the point that i was trying to figure out the starting five in the incomparable vaughn-haase-pollard-lafrentz lineup of the mid-90's (was pierce really the fifth?). i was also preparing an essay on why the five-man basketball played by the pitt panthers is superior to having star power.

but, alas, duke falls apart and wade and the boys are just too good and, for real, i'm out of the bigflax.com tournament challenge. i can deal, but this is a bitter pill to swallow.

a lot of announcer bashing goes on this time of year, particularly reserved for one billy packer. and, while i've never been one to engage in such (packer) bashing, i feel obliged to tonight. the man spent the entire second half hammering home two points: one, that duke needed to find redick, that he wouldn't, couldn't keep missing. of course, this proved flat wrong, as mr. redick's 1-for-12 shooting would indicate. secondly, he continued to insist that jeff graves' fouls were hurting kansas, when, in fact, mr. williams (he of the Postulate) stated that the jayhawks were playing better with a smaller lineup. i'd say that graves was only in down the stretch due to hinrich's foul trouble.

finally, is hinrich the ugliest player left in the tournament? if he's a lottery pick (as sports illustrated speculated), will he be the ugliest ever? just wondering.

Are you a dorky white dude looking to branch out musically?

I've got two suggestions, each available in compact, downloadable, single form. The first is Blackalicious' "Make You Feel That Way," which got a bit of MTV2 airplay last summer. It's about the most positive song I've ever heard, just a list of things that make you feel good. "Christmas day when your mom got you your first bike / Kind of feeling when you went and won your first fight" (note: I don't think I've ever won a fight. At least not by 'fair' means. Mostly flying knee drops to my brother's back.) "Deaf man get his hearing and in come vibes / Blind man get his sight, see his first sunrise." And then it ends with this spoken word thing basically underneath the beat, in which the MC, Gift of Gab, just sort of says "...you know, it's the greatest feeling...just chillin' with your family...it's love, it's love, it's love." It's just a real simple, sweet, smile-inducer of a song.

The other is Cody ChesnuTT's "Somebody's Parent," which certainly isn't as positive and doesn't feature super images and certainly isn't even the best Cody ChesnuTT track (or even one of the 12 best, probably), but it'll be stuck in your head for hours, in a good way. I think it's about 2 minutes long (although I've got a 9-minute version on this here hard drive), and I believe it's only got two verses, each which repeat a few times.

Verse one: "All day with no nicotine / is the reeeea-son I've been so mean. / Oh baby, forgive me for being the dick that i've been to the children and you."

Verse two: "All this, caffeine in me / is the reeeea-son I've been so mean. / Oh honey, forgive me for being the dick that i've been to the children and you."

But, even if these lyrics don't appeal to you, try some other cody. I'd say the best tracks are "Look Good in Leather" and "My Woman, My Guitar."

there are two nearby grocery stores. both are hy-vees, which are the cheap, but better than sav-more or aldi, ones in davenport [think jewel, not dominick's, i'd say. right?].

anyway, there's a small one, which is a bit closer, and the big one, which is probably about five minutes farther away. so i went to the smaller one on sunday afternoon, in need of two of life's essentials: milk and toilet paper.

now, i'd never purchased toilet paper at the small hy-vee, and was stunned to find no 'paper products' (or whatever they call the toilet paper aisle) section there; alas, all the toilet paper was stacked on top of other shelves, with well-marked price tags and such. the well-marked price tags would seem to indicate that the 'on-top-of-other-shelves' section was, in fact, the toilet paper aisle.

anyway, after moving up and down the various toilet paper aisles, it became apparent that there were no packages of 'small' quantities [i'm talking 4 rolls] available.

so i grabbed a 24-pack, made my purchase, and headed to the car.

an obviously single guy, carrying 24 rolls of toilet paper. got a few strange looks. i counted three.

rumors of my Bigflax.com Tournament Challenge demise are greatly exaggerated. despite the Louisville loss, I came through with a strong sunday. the mighty Panthers are looking strong, and if Maryland pulls through like we know they can...

in other news, it's 11, and I've been at work since 9 (with a break at 1 and a break at 7), and all that's keeping me afloat is the thought that, come wednesday, everything that i've been working on since mid-january will be complete. bottoms up!

apologies for being awol for the past few days. it's been busy. i mean busy.

we're coming up on the deadline for the quad city river bandits program, and i only received a preliminary roster on friday afternoon. this means mucho stats compiling and page-designing. this, in turn, means staying at work until 8 on friday, going in from 930-830 on saturday, and doing the 930-3 shift on sunday.

and in my weekend free time? perhaps one of the more frustrating endeavors one can take part in: the on-line fantasy baseball draft. i came out with i feel to be a solid team: nabbed soriano with the fifth-overall pick, wound up with a rotation of maddux, wade miller, buehrle. weak outfield (new coloradoan preston wilson, cliff floyd, shannon stewart - - looks bad on paper) should be bolstered by J.D. Drew's return mid-season. Klesko, a 1B/OF, may be a nice pick, and I think Carlos Pena (19th round) will be a steal. Piazza's tops at his position by a long-shot, and Mark Teixeira is a good pick for Rookie of the Year.

i'm hoping this is the final fantasy baseball entry you'll ever read, but somehow i doubt it.

and i'm done. ...off to edit printouts from the program.

ps - my entry into the Bigflax.com Tournament Challenge was likely done in by the Louisville loss today. I had Pitino taking his boys to the finals. However, PITT, my pick for the title, looked outstanding. I stand by that pick.

i just wish that i could talk to my friend sumo with enough frequency that a phone conversation with him wouldn't be considered an event. he's such a great pal, and speaking with him makes me smile. a genuinely good person.

that's all.

[in case you're reading this and are offended that you've not been singled out, let it be known: i would say that most to all of my friends are genuinely good people.]

update: the list is done. finally.

also, wanna know how torn president bush was over his decision? within an hour, abc was reporting that 'the white house lights are out, and the president has apparently gone to bed.' maybe he'll head back to crawford to watch the basketball this weekend.

i had planned to use this entry to make a few comments on the ncaa tournament (i think pitt is the hottest team in the nation and, in my "#1 pool," the one that i used logic and knowledge to make the picks, i picked the panthers; my favorite player in the tournament is hollis price, and my second-favorite is david west); however, i just watched the 45-second address given by president bush, and there a few things that offend me as a thinking person.

first, the fact that the president said that the attacks have begun 'reluctantly.' as i recall, the moment the whole afghanistan thing seemed to be winding down [apologies for the insensitive nature of that remark], the president decided to tie hussein to the 'war on terror,' despite the fact that he has little or nothing to do with al qaeda. then, despite shaky evidence, he decided to attack.

secondly, the president said that we're fighting over there so as to avoid having our doctors and paramedics fight the war over here, apparently indicating that going on the offensive against iraq will do something to stifle the potential for further terrorist attacks. now let's think about that...will the terrorist organizations somehow respect the united states more because they're engaging in unprovoked attacks? i think probably not. orange alert, going on red.

ever notice that the president always says "weapons of mass destruction?" ever heard him say "nuclear?" think they're related?

when an artist is compared to both robert pollard and lenny kravitz, it is seemingly senseless. however, i've just listened to the first 12 tracks of cody chesnuTT's the headphone masterpiece, and it makes perfect sense.

lo-fi and soulful, four of masterpiece's first ten songs check in at less than a minute, and most are as affecting as such pollard gems as "wondering boy poet" or "big chief chinese restaurant."

take, for example, the opener, "Magic in a Mortal Minute:"

magic makes the music more
and a mortal minute makes it more
waking up is naked
you to mine, fine
your body is a temple

it's mostly good because of the sparse keyboard behind the vocals, and the tossed-off nature of the thing. i think i'm gon' love this record.

when was the last time you spoke with dan unstadt? i win. dan brightened up my post dish-washing, pre-cody-chesnutt+the roots-on-kilborn-watching time this evening. the only valuable thing i gleaned from the conversation was this: if everything falls right, there may be a few mini-gwyneth's running around l.a. in the next year or so, courtesy of the almighty unstadt. you heard it here first.

(also, dan is getting eagerly anticipating the final installment of my fifty greatest ever list, making him one of a kind. i told him that wednesday is my goal.)

you may laugh at this statement, but my work as a professional guy in baseball is truly heating up. program deadline is pretty much friday, and i've not yet seen a preliminary roster or updated player bios, which could lead to tense days later in the week. i left work at 715 tonight, and anticipate a similar evening wednesday. (i get free dinner at my grandparents' tomorrow.)

what point is the proper time to get one's hair cut? is it before one's hair gets to that "unkempt and puffy" [in my case] or after? in my regular haircut era [which dates to 1999], i've always fell into the latter camp. because i figure, assuming 6 weeks is standard between-haircut-time [a long time, for sure, but i just get it cut too short], it works out to between 8 and 9 haircuts a year. however, wait an extra week for each haircut, and you're down to about 7 haircuts a year, thereby saving 13 dollars, meaning that you can purchase the latest indie-hipster album. i use this logic approximately twice monthly.

in other news, i'm having difficulty updating the left-most column of this page, meaning that i haven't been able to change the (most enjoyed) section to the beatles' abbey road. i probably listened to that record 20 times between friday afternoon and monday evening. it's pretty incredible.

a conversation with former roomie didi, however, has put me on a hip hop kick, leading to my downloading of the most recent records by talib kweli, common, and the streets. i don't know enough to judge if they're good, but i've been nodding my head quite a bit.

i like tyson chandler and i like eddy curry, but most of all i like the recently recovered johnny red kerr.

with 1:11 left in the tonight's 16-point bulls victory over the lakers, with the tv camera focused on him, red kerr said to the red kerr bobblehead, "do you like this win?" then gave the bobblehead's most prominent feature a shove, so as to make it nod 'yes.'

as the camera moved back to the action, the real red kerr said "and i'm happy they got 100 points, cause then we get sammiches."

i spend much of my time listening to and reading about music, so i've read a way-above-average amount of record reviews in my day. while i've read my share of bad record reviews, i'm proud to report that i've found the WORST RECORD REVIEW EVER. It appears in the most current magnet magazine, featuring interviews with such alternative luminaries as tom petty, pearl jam and beck.

clearly, the reviewer (joe s. harrington) couldn't amply describe the music on the beatifics' the way we never were, so he instead chose to name a bunch of artists that sound sort of like the beatifics. in fact, in the review, he names 20. 20! now, generally, 3.5 reviews fit on a page. there are 37 lines in the review. that's an artist-every-two-lines ratio, which isn't real good.

and so, i'll present to you, all 20 artists named in the WORST RECORD REVIEW EVER:

"...Eric Carmen-like (1) croon of 'different stars' ..."

"...pudding-haired practitioners of neo-Merseybeat, (2) a modern-day equivalent of the Raspberries (3), ..."

"...playful pranksterism...that recalls Teenage Fanclub (4) or the Olivia Tremor Control (5) at its most Beatlesque. ..." (editor's note: this beatles reference doesn't even count...one later)

"...Like Velvet Crush (6), ..."

(and the ridiculous, not-even-hipster-band name-dropping section...)

"equal parts Byrds (7), Beatles (8), and Beach Boys (9), but not devoid of late-'70s Brit new-wave influences like the Soft Boys (10), XTC (11), Elvis Costello (12), and Squeeze (13), either. ..."

"...aren't that far from the Figgs (14)..."

"...inevitable Big Star (15) and Cheap Trick (16) comparisons ... "

"...recalls the heyday of early-'70s AM radio ... . Think Todd Rundgren (17), Badfinger (18), 10cc (19).

and finally, after declaring the way we never were an album of the year candidate, mr. harrington drops in a final other-band-related comment, one not really about the record reviewed...

"(All votes for the Pattern considered, of course.)"


and after all these name-checked bands, all i can tell you about this record: it doesn't sound like eminem, or dj shadow, that's for sure.

spring cleaning time. and for those of you that have had the pleasure of living with me, you know that spring cleaning time, in general, doesn't ever really come. but spring cleaning time came today, as i dusted and vacuumed and generally straightened things up. i figure it's a year until i clean again.

i had a great surprise yesterday afternoon, flipping channels after northwestern's disappointing loss. as i was making the generally fruitless 8 (abc affiliate) to 30 (e!) flip, i came across channel 22, wgn, and the soothing pipes of steve stone and, it's true, it's time for cubs baseball again. cubs-sox. chip with stoney in the booth, and i learned more about baseball in 17 seconds of steve stone than i did in two years of joe carter. should be a great year, only because the television broadcast will be downright educational.

you may have seen a post from my friend dan unstadt in the 'shout out' section (comments welcome. i feel lame having no shout outs. this means you e-chen) regarding a white stripes interview. here's a real interesting statement jack white made, regarding political activism: "When I was a teenager, I was really into voicing my political opinions. But I could never see anything coming from it. The people who were organizing the rallies and everything, I started to notice that they lived for dissatisfaction. And that is not me."

whether or not you disagree with the sentiment that nothing comes from activism, i think the 'lived for dissatisfaction' thing is way observant. as a great man once wrote, 'but for now we are young, let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see.'

a happy birthday goes out to my sister annie, who can now buy a pack of smokes without a fake moustache.

i'd like to briefly talk about the white stripes, currently the best thing going in rock music. nearing two years old, white blood cells has aged incredibly well. this evening brought my first listen to that record in weeks, and it is outstanding.

i also listened today to de stijl, perhaps for the first time since 2002. if any album could possibly be worth the price of admission for just its first two tracks, de stijl, which opens up with "you're pretty good looking" followed by "hello operator," is certainly that album.

i was fortunate to see the white stripes play at chicago's empty bottle in july of 2001. i count it as the third-best show i've ever seen not by a band named guided by voices. (the flaming lips at metro during the summer of '99, before i had heard any of the soft bulletin, is my favorite, while my second-favorite is the polyphonic spree in may of 2001 in austin, texas, as the first of three bands, for which grandaddy was the headliner.)

i'm quite excited for thie white stripes' elephant, due to hit stores on april 1, and due to occupy my subconscious for the first two road trips of the quad city river bandits' season. i've elected not to download, owing to the fact that i'm buying anyway, and waiting will only make me a better person.

how strange is it that, after a winter featuring exactly one snowfall that could be considered 'large,' we get pelted with up to ten inches in early march?

in a related story, what's the only date that's also a sentence? march 4th. (march forth.) how cool/dorky is that?

finally, should i be ashamed or proud? i'm not sure. i just convinced my (second semester high school) sister to 'take tomorrow off,' owing to the fact that she sounded quite ill while we were speaking on the phone. she'll have to go in at about 1, so as to be eligible to participate in an after-school activity. i figure my parents will go for it. good for her - and me. woof.

are EPs the greatest or the most frustrating part of being a music fan? i'm just not quite sure. i received in the mail today eight pavement singles/eps, filling in a few gaps in the discography on one of my favorite bands ever. sadly, while i've listened to all of them quite a bit today (two hours at work, two more hours tonight), i fear that, come next week, they'll be nothing more than space-taker-uppers on my cd shelf. it's too bad, because "cherry area" is really great song that i'll never hear again.

in other news, the second half of the top ten of that damn list i've been compiling to kill time is now available. please mock my tastes. or me.

last night, i had one of those truly enjoyable experiences. sweat and bodies flailing and loud, aggressive music.

certainly, the hardcore or punk or thrash or whatever scene it is is not mine, but it's always a pleasure to see my brother and his bandmates perform.

saturday was the final qca appearance of the soon-to-be-defunct kungfu rick, and they certainly did not disappoint. i was able to avoid the physical contact, and it is a treat to watch a mass of sub-20-year-olds banging into and climbing on top of each other, apparently in time with the music. at one point, i saw one youngster decide against a traditional "crowd-surf;" instead, he chose to walk atop the mass of bodies, taking two full steps before failing to touch shoulder and, therefore, tumbling to the ground.

i've heard k'n'f'n'r called 'extreme music' (at least in this review), and i would say that's an apt description.

they play chicago's fireside bowl next saturday, march 8. prepare to be rocked, one final time.

saw an excellent glenbrook south variety show on thursday night, 67 seconds of my sister's performance worth the six-plus hours in the car over the course of 15 hours.

however, the repercussions were felt friday night, as i struck again.

watching the bulls (a depressing loss, from what i hear), and then, at the quarter, a brief phone call from my dad.

and that's all i remember. boom. asleep. until 5:30. and then 10:30. ridiculous.

(this was, as i recall, the fourth such incident. first came in early 2001, at e-place. second came in austin. third came in november 02, when i actually slept through double-digit phone calls from work-mates. ridiculous.)

in other news, i've never found a picture suitable to use for computer desktop background. you've got to find the perfect one, and the perfect one is difficult to find. until now.
johnny cash rules.

go cats. make it three.