Moonage Webdream

Roy Williams, who followed a national championship season at North Carolina by leading an inexperienced team to a Top 10 finish, was selected coach of the year by The Associated Press on Friday.

This is BS folks.  Pure BS.  For so many reasons I can’t even seperate them to begin.

1. 23 wins?  32 other teams had as many or more.  That’s a LOT of teams folks.
2. They didn’t win their conference.
3. They didn’t win their conference tournament.
4. Their conference is completely out of the tournament.
5. They lost to an 11th seed in the NCAA Tournament.

That gets Roy Williams coach of the year?  That’s FUBAR.  Roy Williams is going to get talent as long as he’s at North Carolina.  Not because he’s a great coach, but simply because of where he is.  Anything less than a championship means he’s failed as a coach.  That’s the expectation we place on Tubby Smith, it’s fair for Roy too.

My vote goes to someone who’s actually accomplished SOMETHING.  Try taking a small school team to the NCAA Tournament, and in order to get anywhere, has to beat Michigan State, NORTH CAROLINA, and the team that knocked off the regular season SEC champion.  Oh, and it just so happens, have won more games than North Carolina as well.  Rather than being one of the top 30-winningest teams in the country, they’re actually in the top 10 with wins.  Whether they win the NCAA Championship or not, these kids have accomplished something big already.    Their coach has a lot to do with it.  For that, Jim Larranaga IS the coach of the year regardless of what AP thinks. 

And, if having a team in the Final Four’s not a good enough reason, the turn-around Bruce Pearl managed at Tennessee was nothing short of startling.

AP’s screwed this one up BAD.  I just wonder if they’ll get Roy Williams’ thoughts on being coach of the year while he’s watching the coach that beat him in the Final Four?

• Technorati Roy Williams, Jim Larranaga, AP Coach of the Year

Technorati Tags: Sports

AP:

Guess those rankings don’t mean too much?  You won’t even find George Mason.

Even About.com did an in-depth analysis of the teams in the tournament and came up with this result with the team most likely to win it at #1:

In their article, the first thing they say in trying to pick the winner of a bracket is to throw out the polls.  I guess that includes theirs as well.

And, for what it’s worth, the only bracket I’m in, I don’t have a single final four team.  I relied solely on power rankings.  Next year, I’m going with the teams with the prettiest cheerleaders.

Technorati Tags: Sports

When I was in high school, bands were experimenting a lot with different sounds. Some worked, some didn’t. Some failed completely to appeal to anyone my age, but caught on later ( read Metallica ). After doing the usual child-pop initiation of the Jackson 5, the Osmonds, and Herman’s Hermits, I was slapped in the artistic face when I saw David Bowie on Don Kirshner’s Rock Convert somewhere around 1976 or so. Once I saw that, I realized there was a LOT more out there than K-Mart was offering us. I started hanging out at headshops looking for interesting new bands. Right at this time Punk was kicking into high gear. However, Punk at first was basically anything that wasn’t mainstream. Blondie was punk. The Police were Punk. The Talking Heads were punk. Anyone listening to the music knew that wasn’t right. It didn’t take long with the explosion of The Talking Heads and REM for the alternative to everything else to get it’s own description. It was called “alternative”. Early on, I just enjoyed The Cure. Their genre was dominated by other bands like the Talking Heads and REM, but I always enjoyed listening to The Cure. They didn’t have any breakthrough songs early on, but I just enjoyed their albums. Boys Don’t Cry on their first album, Boys Don’t Cry, was a college bar staple in my day. It was little funkier than what they do now, but it was definitely The Cure. Let’s Go To Bed in 1983 just added their presence to the college bar scene. I didn’t particularly enjoy that album as much as some of the others, but that was a great dance song. Inbetween Days just convinced me, I liked The Cure more than I cared to admit. Why Can’t I Be You? just sealed it a couple of years later. But, as much as The Cure had been a focus of my musical curiosity, they had always kind of disappointed me because on most of their albums they would tease you with a great song, and then let you down with the rest of the album. That all changed in 1989 with the release of Disintegration. For years after that release, it was a staple at any Moonparty. Lullabye, Fascination Street, Pictures of You, and Plainsong were all hits. To this day The Cure are still putting out quality music. They are sort of touring, this year’s “tour” is one show in England. But, I’ll never forget how much I enjoyed partying to circa-1990 The Cure. And for that alone, Robert Smith is one of my music idols.

When I attended the NCAA Final Four in New York in 1996, having nothing better to do, we cruised the Manhatten bar scene. After hanging out with Brad Pitt for a bit, which was kind of surreal in itself, we tired of the sports bar and headed out. We stumbled on to an alternative bar that played ONLY The Cure. That’s right, The Cure, non-stop. We topped the evening off there. I’m sure it looked exactly like a modern Emo party. Everyone in black, everyone staring blankly at the wall, everyone looked depressed. Which, kind of struck me as weird at the time. Listening to The Cure gave me a kick when I partied to them. Of course, I didn’t rely on drugs to have a good time. I relied on alcohol and more importantly, the music. And when mixing the two, The Cure was a trip!

Here’s a couple of my versions of The Cure:

And if you want to try out The Cure, here’s a good greatest hits.

Technorati Tags: emo, fascination-street, lullabye, Music, the-cure

Remember my diatribe on how if you ever saw a come-on of “Britney Spears nude”, you were in the process of downloading a virus? Well, things have changed:

There she is boys and girls. Spread eagle, buck naked and life-size. Don’t let the part about her being moments away from giving birth distract you. You can view the real thing ( statue, not Britney ) at Brooklyn’s Capla Kesting Fine Art. According to the fine arts gallery, what you will see will be:

The gallery press release touting the sculpture’s depiction of the pregnant Spears’ “lactiferous breasts,” “protruding naval,” “water retentive hands,” and “widened hips for birthing?”

The article tends to lead the reader to believe this is a joke by the sculpture, presumably on either pro-life people or possibly Spears. I tend to think the joke’s on whoever believes there is any serious intent to this effort at all. And, the bigger joke would be on whoever pays money to see this. Of course, my joke will be on everyone that shows up here by Googling images for “Britney Spears nude”.

Technorati Tags: britney-spears-nude, Pavlov's Dog

I love numbers.  They tell you all kinds of things.  I screw up all kinds of facts here with numbers.  Today’s Mooned lesson is the topic of beautiful women.  And, more importantly, what happens with those beautiful women.  For Him Magazine has been doing an online poll of the 100 Sexiest Women since 1995.  This year’s results are out now.  People will ogle and drool over the Top 100 ( for the most part ).  But, I took a deeper philosophy when I saw this list again.  Namely, other than fleeting beauty, what constitutes “sexiest”.  To me, it’s more attitude than appearance.  Jenny McCarthy once did an episode on Wings where she was looking her best and had a date with Brian.  Now, Brian was your typical horndog who would do about any babe.  However, Jenny’s personality was so over the top and annoying he had to walk away.  So, this is actually leading somewhere, bear with me.  IMO, “sexy” is something you have, or you don’t.  You may look hot right now, but if you ain’t sexy, you won’t last on the “list”.  So, I did a little survey of the FHM polls over the years.  Here’s the Top 14 Sexiest Babes of All Time leading up to this year based on appearances:

And, here are the #1’s:

Only one name is on both, Halle Berry. She’s the only one that’s been THE sexiest AND lasted.  Some are catching up, but that’s not really the point I’m getting at here.  Of the lists over the last twelve years, 158 sexy women only made it one time, Britney Spears being the most recent #1 to not even make the cut two years later.  Was she truly sexy in the first place?  Or, did she just look real good for a short period of time? As I noted citing Wings, there is a big difference.  In the case of Salma Hayek, she’s never won it, but she’s there pretty much every year.  Pamela Anderson’s never won it, but she’s there every year.  You’ve got to have a certain something to keep you there every single year no matter whether you’re the hottest item in the news, pregnant, in an ugly divorce, just having a bad day, or your movies aren’t selling.  That certain something is genuine sexiness.  The first list has definitely got it, I wouldn’t argue with a single one on that list.  Well, except for maybe Nicole Kidman, but she’ll get bumped off the all-time sexiest next year. And, I imagine Jennifer Anniston will get bumped in two years. Denise Richards, Heid Klum, Elizabeth Hurley, Teri Hatcher, Jenny McCarthy, Jennifer Lopez, and Shania Twain are all hot on the trails. And, the Tom Cruise connection will probably get Katie Holmes bumped off the list next year as well, otherwise she’d be hot on the all-time list as well.

The second thing I couldn’t help but notice, the only two-time winner to this day wasn’t a model or actress.  It’s Anna Kournikova, an athlete.  This further supports my theory that guys don’t like skin and bones models.  We like HEALTHY looking babes.  Look at the list of all-time sexies, there’s some pretty healthy looking babes on there.

Conclusion, beauty can be fleeting.  You’re either sexy or you’re not.  True sex appeal reveals itself over the long run.  Don’t ask me to post recent pictures of Britney Spears to prove my point.

Technorati Tags: Pavlov's Dog

Last night I watched possibly the worst basketball game ever played.  And, I mean that seriously.  Given these were #1 and #2 seeds, I expected a heck of a game.  What I got was a clunker that lasted an entire 40 minutes.  Usually teams start cold, but in this case, both started cold and finished cold.  It was comical.  Here’s some stats:

Now, to put things in perspective, Memphis had more turnovers and fouls than they did points.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before in the NCAA tourney ( especially considering this was a #1 seed? ).  And, trust me, it wasn’t because of UCLA’s overwhelming defense.  Memphis missed uncontested lay-ups, wide open short jumpers, uncontested 3-pointers.  You name it, Memphis missed it.  At one point in the first half, Memphis was shooting less than 10%.  And, UCLA wasn’t doing much better.  Half time score, UCLA 28-21.  If I hadn’t been laid out flat on my back sick as a dog, I would have taken out the trash to amuse myself.

Honestly, if I were a member of the NCAA, I’d look real close to see if Memphis didn’t ditch this game intentionally.  I’ve seen them play a couple of times through the season, this was not the same team that showed up.

• Technorati Memphis Tigers, UCLA Bruins, NCAA Tournament

Technorati Tags: Sports

Ever click on one of those links you knew would make you feel very stupid for doing so?

I do it all the time.  Today, I learned something about myself that I have kind of known most of my life, but never really wanted to admit it publicly.  Namely:

You Are Greg Brady

Outta sight! Suave and all American, you tend to be clean cut and upstanding. You’re friendly with most people and a huge flirt (sometimes even with family members!).

• Technorati Greg Brady

Technorati Tags: Humor

OK, here’s the headline:

Angie is top lesbian pin-up

And here’s the Top 10:

1		Angelina Jolie  ( I’ve blogged on her several times here.  In fact, I’ve blogged on her being desirable in a lesbian way before.  Weird huh?  )	AGE31
2		Portia De Rossi  ( Doable even for a straight guy.  But, from what I hear, has good reason to be #2. )	33
3		Gina Gershon ( I don’t have a clue who this is.  But, she looks very, very, norrmal to me.  I don’t mean that in a sexual preference kind of way.  She just looks very, very, normal.  Why would she be #3? )	43
4		Sharon Stone ( Scares me.  She really, really, does. )	48
5		Jodie Foster ( Does this really surprise anyone? )	43
6		Queen Latifah ( Huh? )	36
7		Halle Berry ( Definintely a do, but I’ve never seen her even hint at being interested? )	37
8		Charlize Theron ( Another definite do, but has she ever hinted at being interested? )	30
9		Salma Hayek ( Most definite do, and, to say the very least, has given quite a few hints. )	39
10		Drew Barrymore ( Drew’s a possible do, but reminds me too much of the girl in college that you wanted to do all night long, but could never get to sit still. )	31

Jodie Foster and Queen Latifah are more desirable than Salma Hayek?  And for that matter, Drew Barrymore?  I mean, she’s kinda cute and all, but she’s a goofball and used to do Tom Green.  Why is it I can’t get along with any popularity list?  I didn’t like any of the sexiest lists ( except the best cleavage of 2005 ), and I don’t seem to get along with the lesbian angle either.  Oh well.  Someone’s gonna have to explain to me what appeals to lesbians. I sure don’t get it.  I mean, honestly here, does anyone REALLY lay in bed fantasizing about Queen Latifah?

Now, I stuck the ages up there for a reason.  Anyone notice anything kind of odd about those ages? ( Hint: they’re not terribly young for the most part. ) Does age have something to do with attractiveness to lesbians?  I can’t answer that,  I’m truly curious.

This is the only list I’m not going to whine about Jessica Simpson not being on although I am curious as to why some of the obvious bombshells of today aren’t included, but some less-than-fabulous babes are even though they’ve not indicated they prefer women.  The only common theme I see is the bombshells I’d do, for the most part, are under the age of 30.

• More from Independent Sources, and Egostatic

Technorati Tags: angelina-jolie, charlize-theron, drew-barrymore, gena-gershon, halle-berry, jodie-foster, lesbian, Pavlov's Dog, portia-de-rossi, queen-latifah, salma-hayek, sharon-stone

For those of you wondering what I consider a “great hard rock band“, watch this:

The excitement and intensity of early ACDC concerts was unmatched in my opinion.  No big hair, no makeup, no profanity.  Just blistering guitars and fun lyrics.  Why can’t bands do that today?