Spring-Time for Hitler

It is with a heavy heart that I begin my first post in almost a month. If you haven't heard by now, Yao Ming is out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture in his left foot. This blog isn't about whether or not the Rockets will make the playoffs this year (because they will), it is about the city of Houston having its heart ripped out and getting slapped in the face all at once. What did we do to deserve this? Seriously. No Houston sports team can catch a break. Houston has always been a city where the sports teams are the epitome of the saying "A day late and a dollar short." We've seen it with the Oilers, Astros and, more recently, the Rockets. Its just too much for one fan to bear. I won't go as far as saying the Rockets season is over, but I just don't know how we can overcome this devastating blow. Its truly a sad day in Houston.

On a lighter note, here's a video by Waking the Cadaver titled "Blood Splattered Satisfaction." [Note: this video is pretty disturbing.]



Did you watch it? Pretty fucked up huh? When you finally get past the absurdity of the music (since when did squealing like a pig become acceptable in music?) your mind starts to wonder about the video. Not so much the actions that take place in the video (even though that's pretty fucked up, too) but about the people who find joy in watching things like this. I don't have the strongest stomach when it comes to gore and blood, but what we have here isn't about the blood and guts. Its about glorifying the people who actually do this. As gross as it is may seem, this is what something like this would probably look like if it were to happen in real life. And I think people realize that and take some kind of sick pleasure in it.

The people who enjoy Waking the Cadaver are probably the same people who would enjoy doing this:



Now that looked awesome.

Here's a couple of videos of music with slightly less pig-squealing:

Ratatat-Gettysburg



Fastball-The Way (More like way 1998.)



The National-Mistaken for Strangers

The 2008 Grammys

Even though my hatred for awards shows is well documented, I tuned into the Grammys anyway because the Rockets weren't playing and Rock of Love II wasn't on for another couple of hours. This being the 50 year anniversary of the awards show was also another reason to tune in. I'm not a regular viewer of the Grammys, but it seemed to have an unusually high amount of "tributes" and "lifetime achievement" awards. Like I said, this could have been typical Grammy fair or it could have been because of the 50 year anniversary, I don't know.

What I do know is this: Alicia Keys was lookin' smokin' hot during her performance of "No One", I love Jason Bateman, "The Pretender" sounded really epic (but I still hate the song) and Kanye West is a huge dick. After winning the Grammy for the best rap song, West proceeded to go on stage and trash-talk other artists and predict his victory in the "Album of the Year" category. Then they started playing the "hurry up" music he finally got around to giving a shout out to his late mother. When the music wouldn't stop he started to insult whoever is in charge of the music for playing it while he was going on about his mom. I sympathize with the guy, but c'mon, if you would get over yourself for the first half of your acceptance speech, they wouldn't have to try to drown you out when you are talking about your dead mom. Later on, Kanye performed "Stronger" and it was only saved because Daft Punk came out of that sweet lookin' triangle and totally had their way with the sample. It was very cool.

Fast forward through another hour and a half of lifetime achievements and awkward presenter pairings and we come to Amy Winehouse's live performance. Sadly, it was kind of cool. Not because I like her music or anything, but because she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning and did it via satellite from London. She also won the award for "Record of the Year".

More fast forwarding and we get to the daddy award: "Album of the Year". I was convinced Amy Winehouse was going to win but the the Grammys gave everyone a collective kick in the balls and gave Herbie Hancock the award. I, like everyone else was shocked. Admittedly, I have never heard this album but after hearing Herb's (can I call him that?) acceptance speech I was so glad he won. In an age where Clear Channel and MTV decide what and who is cool, its refreshing to see a man with such incredible musical ability and who is over the age of 28 to win the award. Yeah, I have Graduation and listen to it but I don't think its worthy of Album of the Year. Compared to some of the most influential hip hop albums over the past two decades, it doesn't even compare. Yeah the beats are inventive and fresh, but that's only half of what makes a good hip hop album. Kanye has become a far better lyricist since College Dropout, but he still pales in comparison to Biggie, NaS, TuPac and Mos Def. Any album by those four guys has great, minimalistic beats, deep, gritty lyrics and the all-important "rewind" ability. You know what I mean, the "oh shit, rewind that" factor.

So, while the Grammys weren't enough to get me start watching awards show from start to finish, I can honestly say I had a pretty good time watching them. I got to see some cool performances and I got to see some history (Hancock was only the second Jazz artist in 43 years to win "Album of the Year"). There was also a John Mayer sighting; which is always a good thing.

Also, here's my current favorite song/band: