Moonage Webdream

Here we go again:

The Pacific 10 Conference is investigating the living arrangements of Reggie Bush’s family last season to see whether there were violations of NCAA rules, conference officials confirmed Sunday…..

The story said Bush’s family abruptly moved out of a spacious, year-old home in Spring Valley, Calif., late last week after a reporter questioned Bush’s mother about the property. According to the report, the house was originally purchased by Michael Michaels, a man who allegedly tried to steer Bush toward an agent and who also allegedly has ties to a sports marketing company…….

NCAA rules prohibit student-athletes and their families from receiving “extra benefits.”……

Asked whether USC may have to forfeit games that Bush played in if it were determined that rules were broken, Hansen said, “It’s conceivable you go all the way up to forfeiture of games, but you would have to have very, very solid evidence that there had been a major violation.”

Here’s what the discussion is about:

Now, this ain’t just a house, this is a block. See those little blocks next to each other? Those are the houses WE could afford. The Griffins went from an APARTMENT to a $757,000 house overnight. What part of the word “discrete” did they not understand or choose to ignore? Hell, the house even has their name inscribed on it.

At the very least, USC could likely lose some scholarships, at worst, forfeit games, pay fines, and lose scholarships as well. And, Bush is gone. The only people getting penalized in that case will be the players Bush left behind. The person doing the crime will not do the time. This is no different than coaches getting a school on probation and simply marching on to somewhere else ( read Eddie Sutton and a whole host of coaches ). Bush, will probably be the #1 draft Saturday and make millions while the teammates that got him there will be left to suffer due to limited visibility and the shade of scandal. IF Bush is found to have intentionally violated NCAA rules ( and he OBVIOUSLY has ) and then bailed out on his team, I would recommend his teammates sue him for everything he gets from going pro. Are you guys reading this? Maybe, just maybe, that will teach the next superstar to be a little more considerate of the people that got him there.

Technorati Tags: Jerk of the Day, reggie-bush, Sports

This one’s for tomorrow:

“Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.”

Technorati Tags: emo-phillips, Quote of the Day

( Original post 2/13/05 )

For a long, long time, I’ve been wanting to do a series on the greatest performances ever. Not necessarily the greatest songs, but, the greatest performances. I’ve been to a few concerts in my life. Some bands were capable of playing every single note exactly as it was recorded. Mechanically, they were perfect. Excitement wise, they were boring. It takes a combination of personality, a great song, and that certain element that is hard to define in order to perform a song in such a way that the entire audience there is something special going on.

The first song is without any doubt in my mind whatsoever the single greatest performance of a rock song ever. Every time the original Lynyrd Skynyrd hit those opening chords to Free Bird, you got excited. The triple-lead final ten minutes of the song had to be the most frenetic and exciting ten minutes of rock. When I was in high school, which was when the Free Bird went down, a semi-local radio station started playing some version of Free Bird every night at midnight. They did this for about ten years before they decided to go with canned announcers. Most everyone I knew who listened to that channel quit listening. A local station, learning of the void at midnight, picked it up and ran with it. All in all, I would guess Free Bird played at midnight for about fifteen years. It eventually faded away. Now, hardly anyone plays Free Bird any more. But damn, when I hear those opening chords on the radio, the volume goes straight to max. Here is Free Bird live.

This was performed by the original Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977, just a few months later, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and Dean Kilpatrick ( road manager ) would die in a plane crash.

• ( 4/21/06 UPDATE ) Added my version of Free Bird. Imagine Gary Numan singing to a Bowie arrangement of Free Bird and this is about what you’d get most likely. )

PS: Don’t tell VH1!

Technorati Tags: free-bird, lynyrd skynyrd, Music, ronnie-van-zant, steve-gaines

Watch this:

Now, before you go giving to a bunch of people you don’t have a clue who they are, you can donate to me! I play rock too!

Technorati Tags: damone, Humor, Music

For some reason, people are taking themselves WAY too seriously here of late.  For those people, I need you to watch ALL of the following instructional video before commenting further.  There IS a quiz following the video:

Technorati Tags: bedrock, Humor, weird-al

Technorati Tags: Humor, money, problems, time, women

In the 1930’s, a very silly series of movies was made featuring the very very white Johnny Weissmuller frolicking through the jungles of Africa where upon he bumps into the very very white Maureen O’Sullivan.  Often the star of those movies was a 2 year old chimp named Cheetah.

For the next 20 years Johnny would continue making silly and very bad jungle movies.  He eventually died in 1984 at the ripe old age of not quite 80.

Maureen O’Sullivan would continue to make movies of a much wider variety until her death in 1998 at the equally ripe old age of 87.

The baby of the bunch, Cheeta, gave up acting at the end of his Tarzan stint and eventually took up painting.  He is alive and well and living in Palm Springs California.  Today is his 74th birthday.  Now, Cheeta is about double the average life span of a chimpanzee.  Several years ago, his longetivity got him listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living chimp in the world.

Technorati Tags: Where Are They Now?

Now, SOME people seem to have taken offense to me calling the former Duke Lacrosse team collectively stupid.  Paris Hilton, on the other hand, doesn’t need 46 other people to help her.  Watch THIS:

• Technorati Paris Hilton

Technorati Tags: Pavlov's Dog

Accused rapist Duke Lacrosse player wrote an email shortly after his accused crimes occurred which involved violence and perversion moreso than pure lust.  To say the least, it’s graphic.  The part released to the public today states:

after tonights show, i’ve decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the b——— as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off..

Now, get THIS:

"The e-mail’s language is vile," McFadyen’s lawyer, Bob Ekstrand, told WRAL.com. "It is also perfectly consistent with the boys’ assertion that no sexual assault took place that night. The time stamp on the e-mail of 1:58 a.m. — shortly after the party — is more evidence of a lack of a guilty mind.".

Excuse me, but expressing a desire to commit violence against strippers sure doesn’t strike me as evidence that your client has no desire to commit violence against strippers.  Am I possibly missing something here or is this possibly the stupidest lawyer I’ve ever heard of?  Ryan McFadyen is screwed!

• Technorati Ryan McFadyen, Idiot of the day

April 12, 2006 - Decided to close comments since most people were more interested in personal attacks than discussing the merits of this situation.  If you feel you have something tangible to offer, email it.

Technorati Tags: Idiot of the day

Last year about this time I was trashing Randolph Morris for using no logic whatsoever and deciding to jump to the NBA’s. He wasn’t drafted, he didn’t get signed, and he nearly ( should have ), lost his NCAA eligibility. He came back and played much better this year. If he hangs one more year at UK and plays with the enthusiasm he did this year, he’ll go pro and make millions. Seeing the same thing I did with Randolph Morris, Rajon Rondo looked at what he had accomplished this year:

OK, what that tells ME is that in 35 games, 28 times the other team’s player performed better than Rondo. For the year, they beat him collectively 17 to 11 per game. Now folks, that’s just comparing the TOP scorer for the other team. In several games, the other team had more than one player out-perform Rondo. In several games as well, Rondo was out-performed by other teammates. So, conservatively, that puts Rondo’s status at about 35th on the Kentucky schedule alone. He didn’t even face the best guards the country had to offer. Think George Mason alone. Hell, they scored more often from half court than Rajon did period. So, considering he led his team to a disappointing season, won NO titles at all, lost every tournament he was in, and, got beat one-on-one 80% of the games he played, Rajon not only decides to go pro, but signs an agent and seals it.

I know exactly why Tubby was sitting there encouraging him to go.

Technorati Tags: Idiot of the day, nba, ncaa, rajon-rondo, randolph-morris, Sports