VAGUE SPACE

Top 5 Albums List: #3 (Pavement)

This is the third in a series of my favorite albums of all time.

Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (released 1994)

Now this post is probably already seen as blasphemy to any true indie rock aficionado, at least unless one of the top 2 favorites of all time is Pavement's debut album that preceded this one, the seminal Slanted & Enchanted.  But while I absolutely love S&E and agree that is it one of the great albums of all time, and that its influence as an early touchstone of indie rock is undeniable, it did not make my top 5 list, and was left off for this, their slightly superior follow up, my #3 favorite album.

NL All Star Ballot

First of all, I left off the DH position from yesterday's ballot (as this year's All-Star game will be in an AL park).  I gave it to David Ortiz, who is having another stellar season and absolutely owns the Yankees.  I won't mention anything about the Yankees owning the crappy teams at the bottom of the American League.  I'm still hoping that this too shall pass.

On to part 2 of my All-Star ballot:

National League All Star Team

1B: Albert Pujols, StL.  Another Die Yankees Die team member gets the starting job here, one that will pretty much be his for the next 8 to 10 years.  He's the best hitter in the major leagues not named Barry Bonds, and Mr. Bonds ain't exactly playing this season.  Derrek Lee is having the best year of his career, but I can pretty much guarantee whose numbers will be better in 3 months.  And Albert will win his first MVP award.

iPod List Mania 2

This is a list of the most played artists on my iPod/iTunes since January 1st of this year.  Last year's top artist was Bright Eyes with 1,009 plays and the top song was "I Felt Your Shape" by the Microphones, with 81.

January - May 2005

1. Bright Eyes  656
2. Mogwai  470
3. Explosions in the Sky  415
4. The Microphones  207
5. The Decemberists  181
6. Morrissey  174
7. Pavement  161
8. The Arcade Fire  154
9. Bloc Party 154
10. Grandaddy  138
11. Sufjan Stevens  126
12. Pedro the Lion  117
13. Superchunk  117
14. Guided by Voices  113
15. Death Cab for Cutie  105

AL All Star Ballot

Ok, I said I wasn't going to post until after Memorial Day, but I didn't want to disappoint my fans, so here goes.  You can thank me later, Switsky.

My All-Star Ballot  (I know it's not for another month or so, but I just voted, so here's my votes)...

American League

1B - Mark Teixeira, Tex.  It's a pretty weak field in the AL this year, as some of the best first basemen in the league have moved to the NL (Thome, Delgado), others have moved to the DL (Frank Thomas), and still others are ravaged by the abuses of steroids (Giambi).  Teixeira's at .286-33-10-29 with an .850 OPS to beat out Mike Sweeney and Justin Morneau, who have higher OPS's but haven't been as productive in recent history as Teixeira.  Plus, Teixeira was the key ingredient in a Die Yankees Die trade that I have won handily so far (as Dmitri Young has sucked and Octavio Dotel has been hurt since they left my team).

The Inferno: Psycho Women Version

This week's Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno 2 featured a battle of two of the most psychotically crazy women in the history of The Real World - well, actually in the history of reality television, and yet - strangely, I was rooting for them both.  Let me explain.  God-loving Mormon freak Julie, from The Real World: New Orleans, was unbearaby annoying on that show, as she chased after super God-loving Christian freak Matt and feared that drinking a Coke would send her straight to Hell.  But she was so stupid and naive and had a good rapport with firecracker Melissa that I didn't really mind her antics, in what was one of the best Real World seasons ever.  Of course, any season that produces David's "Come on be my baby tonight" is gonna be fondly remembered.  It's just that ever since she "graduated" from New Orleans, she's gone over the edge in psychosis.  She got into a huge public feud with former friend Melissa over speaking fees at colleges, which - I don't know who was right in this battle - but it didn't make either of them look good, yet it somehow made Julie look worse.  And then Julie almost killed Veronica in a previous challenge, by trying to unhook her harness and pull her off a high-wire.  Now normally I would applaud the killing of Veronica, but in this case, it just wasn't cool.  And basically Julie has done nothing to alleviate the feeling that she's completely wacko in this season.  So there's that.

Bloc Party

Record Review:

Bloc Party: Silent Alarm   Rating: 8.1 (out of 10)

Bloc Party's debut album has been seen and heard on everything from MTV to The O.C. but that doesn't mean it sucks.  To the contrary, it means that mainstream outlets are finally starting to realize that there is good rock music being played by independent artists.  Actually, with recent commercial smashes by Death Cab, Bright Eyes, and Modest Mouse, the mainstream sources are just going where the money is, but maybe, just maybe, they are learning that there is more to music in the 21st century than hip-hop and American Idol. 

Summer Movie Preview Part 2

Yesterday I posted the summer movies that I was most looking forward to seeing (besides Revenge of the Sith).  Today, I'm writing about the 5 movies there is no way in hell I'm going to see, under any circumstances, including being drunk, bound, and dragged to the theater.  But I don't think Martin Lawrence has time to do that to the entire American public, so I should be safe.  Without further ado, here are the Top 5 Least Watchable Summer Films.

#5. The Honeymooners (Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps)
June 10th

If there was ever an audience clamoring for a movie version of the classic '50s  sitcom, it's black filmgoers.  Because they love their Jackie Gleason.  And they love their Cedric the Entertainer playing Ralph Kramden.  Wow.  This just can't be possible, right?  The American public is getting Punk'd, right?  They didn't actually film this and plan on a summer release, right?  Anyone?

Poker Game Highlights

  I will be out of town until Wednesday, and then away for Memorial Day Weekend, so the posts on this site will be infrequent for the next week or so.  But continue to check out Vague Space because new content will be posted there every morning (hopefully).  I still haven't worked out a good writing/posting schedule, especially with respect to the two separate sites, but I try to have a new VS post up every night by midnight, with the Sports posts sprinkled in whenever I can do them.  It doesn't help that I'm getting busy at work and having to travel, because that just eats into the free time to post.  Anyway, this post you are reading is a report on the highlights of Friday's "Pot Limit" Hold Em tournament at Edison Glen.

Summer Movie Preview Part 1

This year's crop of summer films promises to be bigger and better than ever, or at least bigger than the sorry state of pictures released so far in 2005, as evidenced by declining attendance and overall boredom with the film industry (outside of the anticipation for the upcoming John Gulager directorial debut).  And with Revenge of the Sith breaking box office records left and right, it appears that things are off to the right start.  The following is a list of my most and least anticipated summer movie releases.

#1. War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, Mirando Otto, Dakota Fanning)
June 29

Spielberg. Cruise. HG Wells.  Yeah, it's a decent combination.  The trailer looks awesome, the story is timeless, and the director/actor combination is built for action/adventure excitement that should be right up my alley.  The writer (besides HG Wells) is David Koepp, who wrote such blockbusters as Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, and Mission: Impossible.  So it has all the ingredients.  The only downside I see is the focus in the previews on girl moppet Dakota Fanning, and I don't care how "talented" she is, she's like 8 and if I start rooting for the aliens, I'm pretty sure she'll be the cause. 

Uh Oh... Not Vlady

LOS ANGELES -- Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero left the Angels' Friday Interleague contest against the Dodgers in the fifth inning after a slide into home plate left him grimacing with a shoulder injury. After the game, it was not known how much time, if any, Guerrero would miss.

The team took a quick set of X-rays during the game and announced that Guerrero suffered a subluxation (partial dislocation) of his left shoulder. He will receive a full battery of X-rays on Saturday and will be examined by Angels team orthopedist Lewis Yocum at Dodger Stadium prior to Saturday's game.

"It [got] a little stretched out, and obviously there's some trauma that's taken place," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "The shoulder is stiff, so we don't know the extent of what happened in there."

Scioscia said it was too early to predict how long Guerrero might be held out of action, but that Saturday morning's tests ought to be enlightening.