Pick dees.

Indy @ Carolina – I think this will be a popular upset pick since Carolina always seems to play them tough.  I just don’t think they have a chance.  Don’t get me wrong, I think Vinny is great (so washed up he’s not even near the coast anymore.  We’re talking tsunami here.)  Their D just won’t be able to stop Peyton and his friends.  Colts.

Detriot @ Chicago – This is probably the most intriguing match-up this week.  Chicago is finally coming around but has taken some punishment at home.  Detroit has the Almight looking after them.  This the closest thing to actually seeing “Ditka vs. God.”  The real fight here will be between Detroits point producing offence and Chicago’s once stingy D.  Here, I like da Lions.

Pittsburgh @ Cincy – Pittsburgh will be trying to avenge their defeat last week while Cincy is just trying to play up to their potential.  Personally, I hope Carson and Ben will be airing it out all day in a shootout.  However it goes down, I take the Steel.

Giants @ Miami – Arsenal would have a better chance than the Fish.  G-Men.

Philly @ Minny – Both of these under-acheiving teams need some momentum.  Be ready for a heavy dose of Adrian Peterson and Brian Westbrook.  Here’s a fun game, try to name as many WR’s as possible from both teams.  If you got over 5 you need a new hobby.  Igles by a FG.

Cleveland @ St. Louis – Is it possible that this could possibly be the week the Rams remember that they were supposed to be a half-decent team this season?  Having Bulger and Jackson on one team has meant a winless start for the Rams and my Fantasy team.  I think they will both have to wait at least one more week for that elusive W.  Browns.

Oakland @ Tennessee – Vince Young just wins football games.  Titans

Buffalo @ Jets – The good news is someone other than the Pats will be getting a win in the AFC East.  The bad news is it will probably put you to sleep if you try to watch it.  Bills.

Houston @ San Diego – San Diego is so hot right now.  Sorry.  Chargers.

Jacksonville @ Tampa Bay – Quinn Gray just wins football games. . . in NFL Europe.  Bucs.

Washington @ New England – I don’t know if I’ll be able to read Bill Simmons if the Pats go undefeated and the Sox win the Series.  The Celtics (all three of them) are looking good as well so he’s going to have to start looking for stuff to whine about elsewhere.  Do I think the Redskins can win here?  No.  Do I want them to injure the Brady so I don’t have to feel inadequate anymore?  Yes.  Will either happen?  Pats.

New Orleans @ San Francisco – A lot of defense in this one.  Could be a fun one to watch unless you like either team.  I need a huge day from Brees so go Saints.

Green Bay @ Denver – The Bronco’s have been celebrating Halloween all season by pretending to be a different team every week.  I really have no idea if they are terrific or pure shit.  I can see them getting up for Monday night, especially after the Rox get Rocked tonight.  On another note, is Korheiser really starting to get to anyone else?  I love PTI but want to strangle him on Monday Nights.  Pack.

And the most important game of the week:

The Joey Lions (palestinmiami) vs. balldroppers (fruffy) – After a 1-2 start, the balldroppers have won 4 straight in convincing fashion and now sit just one game behind the first place Lions.  We’re both relying heavily on our benches due to bye issues, both my starting RB’s (Edge and Willis) and Romo for the bad guys are sitting.  If my QB’s play like they have been I don’t see how he can win, especially with Gore being banged up and Andre Davis remaining in his line-up after being a late scratch.  Muah-hahahahha.  balldroppers!

Pick My Sac Week 8

I’m running out the door for the weekend right now… here are my picks super quick:

GMEN @ MIA – Giants not even close

OAK @ TEN – Ten

PHI @ MIN – Min

CLE @ STL – Cleveland. If the Browns lose this game I think Romeo should be fired at the end of the year these are the games that a team trying to be good must win.

DET @ CHI -Chi

INDY @ CAR – INDY

PIT @ CIN – PIT

JAC @ TB – JAC

BUF @ NYJ -BUF

HOU @ SD – SD

NO @ SF- NO

WAS @ NE – NE

GB @ DEN- GB

Yearly total.

fruffy – 43 -34
palestinmiami – 43-34

That’s officer Shaquille to you.

On the ground floor of my office is an Italian restaurant that’s pretty good.  It’s not great and it really isn’t anything too special but it’s pretty good.  Perhaps the best thing about it is that it has a patio where you can sit outside and enjoy an obstructed view of the ocean.

 Less than an hour ago I was walking by it on my way to park where I was going to eat my lunch and none other than Shaquille O’Neal was sitting outside, eating a Fettuccine Alfredo.  Shaq is a big man, he’s hard not to notice, but what I saw today leads me to believe that he wanted to be seen at least a little.  He had a black t-shirt with the giant superman logo and the word “Police” across the back… and he was carrying a gun in a holster on his hip.  I know it would have been a better story if he had the gun tucked in the back of his sweat pants, but he didn’t.

 As soon as I got back to my office I called Fruffy at work and decided that Shaq should retire at the end of the year for two reasons.  1. By that time the league will have Greg Oden who has enough personality to fill the void and 2. because at Sacs in the City we can’t wait for Shaq to start his own bounty hunter enterprise which will obviously be turned into a intriguing (though probably disappointing) reality show. Essentially what I guess I’m trying to say is that I’m ready for the next phase of Shaq’s life regardless of whether or not he is.  I’m tired of the new Tiki and Keyshawn I want the new Diesel I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be a fun trip to watch.

Buffy does Fruffalo

As you may have seen, I was forced to text my picks in this week because I was in the left armpit of the U.S. to watch Willis’ return to Buffalo.  In a surprising plot twist, the man responsible for half (the hard part) of my birth went to the Miami gamelesson, unseating my aforementioned co-editor as the palest man in Miami for at least the first quarter. That is of course until the sun and beers combined to turn him a delicate shade of tomato.  My Dad praised palestinmiami for his hospitality and chugging abilities so if any of you are in the area be sure to look him up.  Here’s a little bit about my experience:

The highlights of our trip included staying at a wonderful resort (I give it 5 dead hookers out of 5,) eating chicken wings that tasted like fruits and garlic bread respectively, abusing the strength of the mighty loonie by purchasing a ridiculous amount of consumer goods and not paying doody, and drinking as many water-flavoured beers as possible.  This obviously was accompanied by the inevitable 5 p.m. hangover, made worse by waiting in line at the border, layered in cheap brand name dress clothing all the while insisting we were only in the country for a sporting event.  I guess that’s the price you pay to live the American dream, if only for the weekend.

In all seriousness, we had terrific seats which you will see from the ensuing photographs.

This is indicative of the welcome that Mr. McGahee (McLovin, McAsshole, McHatehim) received at the hands of Buffalonians young and old.  Someone was even kind enough to place his jersey in the trough in the men’s room so his return could be a warm one.

Here’s a man attempting to break Kobayashi’s record at half-time, in his seat, with no one watching.

In an unrelated story…..

This lady was doing her damnedest to distract me while I was just trying to watch the game.  I mean look at the placement of the breast cancer ribbon!  Exploiting mother nature’s gifts to bring attention to her cause.  Disgusting.

Here’s my friend Ray Lewis telling me to have a safe drive home after I told him what a fine and upstanding member of society I thought he was.

I guess you can’t really tell where we were sitting but I had to cut small sections of the pics because apparently my brother owns some insane sort of paparazzi device and I’m too lazy and stupid to figure out how to format them properly.  All in all it was a great trip, but I can’t wait for the Bills to move to Toronto so I will be able to do it 8 times a year.

The Black Kids: Proof of Music Development 2.0

 

So I was looking through our post history and I realized that we haven’t had a post that was related to any music outside of the Top 40 in ages.  I figured that today was as good a day as any to change that.

My newest obsession is a band called the Black Kids out of Jacksonville.  The Black Kids are a rock band in the purest sense of the word.  They aren’t trying to be cute or coy they are just rocking hard the whole time.  The band is a mixed race group fronted by the charismatic Reggie Youngblood, with a backing that includes his younger sister.  I know that music professionals throw the term around but the Black Kids truly have “it”.  Within five minutes of seeing them you know that they’ll be big.

I actually got a chance to see them in Jacksonville at the beginning of September and have been following them really closely since.  The Black Kids are a perfect example of how A&R is changing and how a strong internet presence is almost as important for a young act as developing a live show.  Throughout the history of music in order for a band from a non-music city (such as Jacksonville) to get discovered they either had to tour and hope someone saw them, have someone hear their demo tape, or get really lucky (like having a father who is a record producer).  The internet has changed all of this and now bands can become huge before ever playing a live show.

I was lucky enough to be able to say that I saw the Black kids before, or perhaps just as,  they became Internet Celebrities.  I suppose that it all started with this story.  The NME article is where I, thousands of other music fans and insiders around the music industry discovered the Black Kids.  I read the story the day it came out and I remember seeing that the bands, MySpace page had something like 6000 hits.  Less than two months later the page has 185,00 and the band is signed with Quest Management (the same firm that represents Bjork and Arcade Fire).  Once a management firm of such ilk was involved, reviews and show dates started rolling in.  The band was the unofficial mascot of this year’s CMJ (College Music Journal) festival in New York, with three showcases (Spin, Fader and Brooklyn Vegan).  It’s inevitable that the band will sign a deal with one of the dozens of record labels that must be courting them  and when they do the cycle of a band in the new world of music will be complete.  In this case I don’t believe that the Black Kids akin to the emperor sporting his new clothes but you’ve got to assume that since everyone is clawing to get “the next big thing” that more often than not these bands that become famous on the internet before releasing a single album will fail.

Just so you can see how good The Black Kids are here is a video taken from the show in Jacksonville on September 7th:

Blind people fear my car.

This article that I found today let me know that Blind people fear my car. Apparently the Prius is too quiet and it takes them by surprise when they are trying to J-Walk. This is the problem that I have with this; What are blind people doing J-Walking? If I were blind I think that I would take extra car to only cross on lights (which I’m not sure how I would see).

I don’t want to write too much more about this because I feel like I’m eventually going to say something inflammatory that I don’t actually mean and I’ll offend all both of our readers. accidentally inflammatory

So I got a text. (Pick my sac)

I got a text from Fruffy at11:17:14 AM on Sunday that simply said:

“Was, NO, BAL, NE, GMEN, DET, TENN, KC, CIN, DAL, PHIK, ST LOU, PITT, INDY. You having fun?”

I’m not sure if this should count towards our competition for a couple of reasons.

1. It wasn’t posted online

2. By being late Fruffy gives himself the incredible advantage of knowing the status of all game time decisions.

In the end I guess it counts… I’m just a little disappointed… step your game up fruf.

Pick My Sac: NFL Week 7

After a dominating 10-3 week 6 the competition is as close as ever, the score is currently

Palestinmiami 42-31

Fruffy 43-30

 I expect that I will dominate the rest of the regular season and in10 weeks we will be “crowning my ass.”

Chiefs (3-3) at Raiders (2-3)

Are these teams any good?  You know what I’m not sure. If I was asked a month ago what I thought about them I  would have said that they were poopoo but now I’m not so sure.  I guess that I’ll take the Raiders.

49ers (2-3) at Giants (4-2),

This is the game that I’m taking in my Survivor pool.  I don’t think that the 49ers are as bad as all that but their o-line doesn’t stand a chance against the Giants defense.  Giants

Buccaneers (4-2) at Lions (3-2), 

I’m starting to like the Lions more and more.  If they can somehow get Jones and Bell working together with their three or four wide formations they will be very hard to stop on offense.  The problem of course is that they have a terrible Defense.  I don’t think that this will really matter against the Bucs because they don’t have the type of offense that can keep up.  Lions

Falcons (1-5) at Saints (1-4)

Ok so I’m pretty sure that I have been wrong on every single Saints game this season.  Why should that stop now.  Saints

Titans (3-2) at Texans (3-3), 

People forget that this is still a big fuck you game for Vince Young.  The injury report says that he may not play, but if he does you’ve got to expect that he’ll be all over the Texans and he might even win the game by himself.  Titans.

Cardinals (3-3) at Redskins (3-2), 

While both teams have the same record, only one will be starting Tim Rattay.  I will never pick a team lead by Rattay on the road.  I can’t.  Redskins

Patriots (6-0) at Dolphins (0-6), 

New England is 2-5 in their last 7 games in Miami.  So I’m going to have to go with Mia.. psyche Patriots.

Ravens (4-2) at Bills (1-4), 

The Ravens don’t look nearly as good as their record indicates, and the Bills look better.  Perhaps the most interesting subplot of this game will be Willis coming back to Buffalo for the first time since he suggested the team should move to Toronto.  I don’t think that he is a particularly tough running back and I don’t think he’ll respond well to the pressure.  Bills

Jets (1-5) at Bengals (1-4), 

The Bengals are another team that I think that I have been wrong on every game this season, the good thing about the Bengals though is that I know Fruffy will take them every week.  I’ll stick with him in a defensive choice.  Bengals

Rams (0-6) at Seahawks (3-3),

The Seahawks looked terrible last week.   I picked their Defense up in my fantasy league and I don’t think that I’ve ever been so frustrated.  The Rams have also looked really bad this year, but they aren’t going to 0-16.  With that in mind I don’t think that the Seahawks have lost two at home in years.  I think that I’ve got to take Seattle in a crappy game.

Vikings (2-3) at Cowboys (5-1),

I saw Adrian Peterson twice when he was with Oklahoma.  That kid is great.  I don’t think that he’ll do it again this week.  The Cowboys are too good on both sides of the ball.  The biggest problem for the Vikings this week could be the Cowboys air offense.  The Vikings won’t be able to stop that.  Cowboys

Bears (2-4) at Eagles (2-3),

Maybe the hardest game of the week to pick.  Both have looked good at times and really bad a times so on a coin flip I’ll take the Eagles.

Steelers (4-1) at Broncos (2-3), 

This one won’t even be close.  Look for the Steelers to dominate.

Colts (5-0) at Jaguars (4-1), 

Hopefully this Monday night game won’t be as bad as last weeks.  It looks like it should be a good one.  I can’t believe that the Colts are going to lose before they run into the Pats in a couple of weeks though.  Colts

Did you hear it?

This is the sound of the Buffalo Sports Radio phone lines exploding from overuse.

Kid Nation what could have been.

 

When the new shows this year premiered one golden nugget stuck out at me. Kid Nation.  In case you haven’t seen or heard of the show, its premise is that 40 children between the ages of 8-15 are forced to start a civilization by themselves without any influence from adults.  I thought that this show was brilliant, call me crazy but I like the idea of seeing kids cry, it makes me feel good about my own situation.  Honestly though I thought that the show would address some of the seminal work of political philosophy that I studied in my undergrad.  I was expecting the show to be an illustration of the “vail of ignorance” that Rawl’s wrote about in his theory of Justice.  I realize that this is a lot to be asking network television and I suppose that I knew the show wouldn’t live up to this, butI guess worst case I expected the show to be like Lord of The Flies where a few bullies chased after Piggy and broke his spectacles, but it really isn’t even that.  The show is more like Survivor, and the influences of the producers are all over every episode.  About halfway through the first episode the producers segregate the children into 4 teams and the teams are forced to do battle in non-sensible competition.  These segregations are unnatural and while civilization was perhaps unproductive and boring before the teams were made at least the kids get along and the social experiment was natural.  After the kids are divided anger starts and the kids seem to associate more as members of their team then as members of the communities.

The teams that win the team oriented competitions are given more money to spend on candies and soda in the town store, and if all the teams finish the competition in a given amount of time they win the choice between two prizes, one which is instantly gratifying (like a Pizza party) and one which will help the town survive longterm (such as outhouses).  The problem with this is that the producers are again influencing the development of the society by adding money and class to a society that seemed it would have been fine without.  This commerce definately changed the development of the society.

Finally, the best kid each week is given a gold star worth $20,000.  This incentive is perhaps the worst part about the show.  It stops kids from doing things for the sake of the community and it has them doing things for the sake of the prize, most of the children see “playing a role” on the show as an investment in their own future and so the show has become just a competition rather than the social experiment the audience was promised.

I’m pretty sure that Lord of the Flies didn’t have Pizza Parties and miniature golf it had bullying and monsters.  I now realize that was expecting too much and I should learn to stop hoping that television will provide anything more than entertainment.  At least I can still enjoy the kids crying when things don’t work out for them.