Some links to start off the week

After an excitement filled weekend of NCAA tournament action where my beloved Blue Devils pulled out a squeaker against Texas to get to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 3 years, here are some links to get your week started.

For those trivia buffs, here is a great website that my roommates found which has kept us occupied for the past day. It is called Sporcle and is a collection of categories where you can fill in the answers under a time limit. For example, one of the lists is of "Countries in Africa" and you get 10 minutes to name as many African countries as you can, and it will tell you if you are correct or not. It sounds dumb but it is extremely fun and addicting.

Lance Armstrong was hurt in a race in Spain and broke his collarbone. However, it looks as though he will recover quickly and will be able to race in the Tour de France this summer in his comeback bid.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is making a comeback after retiring from boxing. This was easy to predict as most boxers rarely can pass up another opportunity for a big payday.



There are amazing photos online of an undersea volcano erupting near Tonga. I don't think I would have gotten as close as the photographers were to this spectacular event.

The Allman Brothers have been doing their annual concerts at the Beacon Theatre in NYC, but no show was quite like last Thursday's performance, when Eric Clapton joined them onstage for an hour long, six song set. What a great show that must have been!

VIDEO GAME ALERT!

For those who play Call of Duty: World at War online...



The new downloadable map pack will be available starting at midnight tonight. It features 4 new multiplayer maps as well as a new map for the very popular Zombie mode called Asylum. As a frequent player of Zombie mode with friends online already, I have to say that I am extremely pumped for the next couple of days. Zombies were already extremely fun and creepy with the current map and I cannot imagine how much creepier Nazi Zombies will be in a place called Asylum. Add to that the fact that the NCAA tournament starts tomorrow and there is going to be a very miniscule chance that I will vacate my couch in the coming 48 hours.

On that note, some upset picks for Thursday and Friday games in the NCAA tournament. Look for Portland St. to beat Xavier- Portland St. may be a 13 seed but it has already beaten Gonzaga this year at Gonzaga and also barely lost to another NCAA tournament team, Washington, by 1 at Washington. Another upset will be VCU over UCLA. I know this is a trendy pick in the past week but this VCU team is for real. Eric Maynor is an NBA level point guard and might be this season's version of Stephen Curry (ask Wisconsin, Gonzaga, and Kansas how good he was last year). They also have a low post banger in Larry Sanders to compliment Maynor. And VCU has done it before, defeating my beloved Blue Devils two years ago in the NCAA's. Also, look for Utah State to pull off the upset of Marquette, who have felt the loss of their point guard Dominic James to a broken foot. Utah State is 30-4 and is ranked in the top 25 despite lacking name recognition. I have them beating Missouri as well in the next round. Those are my picks and I'm sticking to them. Feel free to come back and rub my nose in it if I am completely off base.

Top 5 Movies of 2008 (I know... really late)

Since I have been slacking over the past 2 weeks, after watching the Oscars I forgot to post the top 5 movies that I saw during 2008. It was a pretty good year for movies and I managed to see a lot in the theaters (always a goal of mine). So without further ado, here are my top 5 movies that I saw in 2008. Feel free to comment and leave your own top 5, I would love to see them.

5. Appaloosa- I am usually not a huge Western fan but Appaloosa was a great movie. The performances of Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris were great and the landscapes and scenery of the movie just made it very visually appealing. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good action movie that revolves around a solid plot.

4. Iron Man- Iron Man was just a fun movie to watch. I would consider it a blockbuster movie but Robert Downey, Jr. did a great job and was really convincing as multimillionaire arms manufacturer Tony Stark. However, I felt as though Jeff Bridges was equally as good and played a great villain.

3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall- There weren't a ton of movies released this year where I consistently laughed for the entire movie but this was one of them. (Tropic Thunder also comes to mind) There were just some hilarious scenes in this movie, whether it was the surfing lessons that Jason Segal took with Paul Rudd (a very underrated comic actor in my book), the Dracula musical, or any scene with Russell Brand in it. This movie was just downright hilarious.



2. The Dark Knight- Absolutely loved this movie, as did most of America. Heath Ledger was probably one of the greatest villains I have ever seen in a movie and it is a shame that he is no longer able to show how versatile an actor he is. The action scenes were done brilliantly, the plot was awesome, and the visual effects were just stunning. I saw this movie at least 3 times this summer and loved it every single time.

1. Slumdog Millionaire- For once the Oscars got it right. This movie was just breathtaking. From the amazing shots of the slums of Mumbai to the way that the movie was filmed jumping from flashbacks and then back to the present, it was simply awesome. Not only was it filmed brilliantly but the soundtrack was perfect for the movie. Never before did I think I would see a movie win an Oscar that had M.I.A.'s song "Paper Planes" in it twice but it fit perfectly. And the last song of the movie, Jai Ho, is great by itself. This was one of my favorite movies of all time and if you haven't seen it yet, I would highly suggest going to see it ASAP.

Amazing Shot by Devin Harris

In case you did not see it last night- in the Nets-76ers game, Devin Harris hit an amazing half court shot to win the game. One of the most amazing buzzer beaters I have ever seen...

Devin Harris Buzzer Beater

More posts to come...

Sorry for the hiatus but both of my computers were in the shop for the past week and I am just getting them back into top shape. There will be posts throughout the week.

Are you ON THE GRID?

If you haven't heard of JOOSE yet, then I suggest making your way to the nearest liquor store or supermarket as soon as you finish reading this. JOOSE is an alcoholic energy drink much like its predecessor, Sparks, and it will rock your world. Recently a group of friends and I purchased JOOSE in order to "get on the grid" and start a party off right. Let me tell you what, I was not prepared for JOOSE. It not only contains the staple of all energy drinks, Taurine, Ginseng and Caffeine, but also 9.9% alcohol per volume. In addition to all those wonderful toxins, it is 23.5 OZ, which means that it ends up being close to 3 beers and an energy drink all in one. To say that it starts your night off on a wild ride would be an understatement. In JOOSE terms, once you have drank a JOOSE, you are "on the grid" and it was obvious who was on the grid at the party we were at. Side effects include excessive dancing, yelling, general debauchery and a flat out good time. I highly suggest investing 3 dollars in buying a JOOSE this weekend. You will not be dissapointed.

Great Night of Television

Tonight is a great night. There is so much amazing television on tap- get your work done early and settle in for 5-6 hours of brain numbing wonder. To start out with, we have the World Cup qualifier between the USA and Mexico in Columbus, Ohio at 7 PM on ESPN. This is always a fun game to watch due to the mutual dislike between the players, coaches and opposing fanbases. Both teams are the dominant powers in North American soccer and are playing at a pretty high level. Look for the business-like style of American soccer to come out on top in a heated affair.

Clint Dempsey of the United States battles against a Mexican defender
























The second great sporting event tonight is the highlight of my year, Duke-UNC in Cameron Indoor Stadium at 9 PM on ESPN. Obviously I have been a Duke fan for most of my life and this game holds special significance to me but it should be a great game. Most, if not all, of these games are close, intense games that are decided in the last couple minutes and hopefully this will be too. However, Duke has been struggling as of late (the calamity at Clemson was one of the worst sporting events I have ever viewed), and UNC has just kept on winning after a mid-season hiccup. Realistically I think this one will go UNC's way but it will be a close game throughout.

More of this to come tonight Hansbrough...




















Finally, if you have DVR and want to watch those two games but still want to watch Lost and Top Chef later, you have yourself a great night of TV. Although I have not been able to get into this season of Lost after watching all of the previous seasons, it is still an entertaining show. However, I have fallen in love with Top Chef this year and cannot wait to see this week's episode. An interesting dynamic has been created in this season with two European chefs, German Stefan and Italian Fabio, seemingly opposing the lone American male on the show, Hosea. Hosea is definitely not a personal favorite due to his jealous envy of the skills of both Stefan and Fabio and his general attitude on the show. Add to that a tryst with the blandest of girls, Leah, and you can tell who I want to get voted off the show. I hope that Stefan does something great to Hosea and he gets voted off but it is more likely that the worst cook of the bunch, Leah, will get eliminated tonight. So everyone gear up and settle into that comfortable chair and prepare for a great night of television.

Nitro Circus

My roommates and I are always in search of that "Next Great Show" (or just any show that will give us some laughs and distract us from schoolwork). Surfing the channels last Friday, we discovered a preview show for this new MTV show, Nitro Circus. The preview show opened with some guy ripping down a steep road on a big wheel and launching off a 10 foot ramp into a lake... we were intrigued. However, we were not prepared for the amazing stunts that we witnessed in the next 30 minutes on just the preview show. To say that we were really pumped for last night's season premiere would be an understatement. At 10:00, 6 people clustered on our uncomfortable futon and love seat, eagerly awaiting Nitro Circus's premiere.

PREVIEW TO WHET YOUR APPETITE



The show is Travis Pastrana's (of XGAMES fame) brainchild and is basically videos of him and his buddies doing crazy stunts on anything with wheels (or without). I came into the show thinking that Pastrana was just some action sports poser who hung out with Sal Masekala and tried to "go big" every time he was on a motorcycle. He seemed like kind of a pretty boy and I was not sold. However, after watching this show I can tell you that he might be the craziest person alive. He is an amazing entertainer, whether it is when he is double backflipping a dirtbike at the X Games or jumping out of a plane with no parachute and a Red Bull. Last night's show featured Pastrana and his gang just doing what they do best, anything that normal people would NEVER do. They build a slip and slide... down a mountain... and it eventually leads to a loop de loop section, which they all go down. They go down a steep hill in big wheels and attempt to backflip them off a 10 foot ramp at the bottom. Basically, the entire time I watched this, I kept asking myself what could make these guys do what they do- they are wired completely different than any other person.

They called it the Slip 'N Bleed


Pastrana's crew is hilarious. It is mostly extreme sports junkies, like a professional skier/base jumper, but there is also a "local", who is actually just a fat guy that the guys love to watch fall. Pastrana and his friend Andy are constantly competing with each other and when Andy successfully backflips a big wheel, Pastrana is hell-bent on one-upping him. He ends up going to the "mega-ramp" of a professional skater, Bob Burnquist, and jumping this ridiculously huge ramp in a big wheel. The show is the best parts of Jackass without all of the gross stunts that make you hate Jackass. I would highly recommend watching it on Sundays at 10 PM on MTV. Not only will you be amazed but you will probably be laughing the entire time too.

Flipping a Big-Wheel

Computer Dies... No Posting

So last week my computer died and as a result, my blog posting stopped and my trips to the Apple store increased. I should have my computer back on Friday. Unfortunately, in my infinite wisdom, I never backed up my hard drive because "I just got my computer in August, nothing could happen to it now." Well it did, and 10,000 lost songs later, I am going to be in a real bind. No worries though, just have to start fresh, so any suggestions as to music to download will be gratefully appreciated as always.

GOODBYE MUSIC.

Bonnaroo Lineup Announced!

The 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival announced their lineup and it is absolutely amazing. Headlining the festival is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish, and the Beastie Boys. Phish is going to be performing 2 shows and it is probably safe to assume that they are going to be on for a long time. Snoop Dogg is also going to be making an appearance. Looking past the big name headliners, TV on the Radio will definitely put on a good show as well as Erykah Badu and up-and-comers Bon Iver. You can view the full lineup here. Tickets go on sale on February 7th and are going to range from $225- $250 for the four day festival that runs from June 11- 14.