I'm pissed......I'm just pissed, really pissed

- The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee should be ashamed of itself. I know apologists will say what a hard job these guys have and how many worthy teams they have to consider. My reply is one word: bullshit. These tools sit in their meeting room and apparently smoke dope, take repeated blows to the head and take turns spinning round and round to see who will get dizzy and pass out before making their choices. How else do you explain allowing teams like Arkansas (seriously, freaking Arkansas!) and Stanford in but excluding teams like Drexel, Syracuse, West Virginia and my beloved Akron Zips. Also, how do you ass hats explain the disturbingly decreasing number of mid-major schools in, with a measly six in this year as at-large teams, the lowest total in the past six years. Two of my complaints (Drexel and Akron) are mid-majors, and yet the selection committee goes all highbrow on us and cherry picks undeserving teams just because they are from so-called “power conferences”. So now, it looks like to be a mid-major and get an at large bid, you must be at least 31-2, because otherwise you’ll get the shaft so teams whose asses you could kick can get in based on their conference pedigrees. What a joke……..

- Let’s go ahead and start up the office pools for when a couple of new shows, midseason replacements to be more precise, will be cancelled. Andy Barker, P.I., is a show with a premise that’s um, well, bad. If I need to go into more detail about why an accountant mistakenly falling into the business of being a private investigator is destined to fail, then maybe you need to read a blog with a slightly lower IQ level. Bad premise, and any show that’s lazy enough to derive part of its name and the first name of its main character from the name of the actor playing that character (Andy Barker) doesn’t hold much promise. Second on the list would be The Winner, starring Rob Corddry, formerly of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart fame. See, this is what happens when one guy from a show spins off to his own show and has success, a la Steve Carrell with The Office. Others think they can do the same thing and networks, stupid and clueless as they are, blindly throw money and scripts at these people, hoping they can match what their comrades have done. Sadly for Corddry, when even the promos for your new show, which should theoretically be the funniest, most interesting parts in order to generate interest, suck as bad as the promos for Winner do, there’s no way I’m wasting time watching the actual show itself. So in this case, you could actually go one of two directions with your pool; either bet on when each show will be cancelled individually, or bet on which will be cancelled first. My money is on Andy Barker to get whacked first; I just don’t see any redemptive qualities in the show at all.

- Ladies, next time you complain about a guy not being a gentleman and holding the door open for you, stop and remember this story and realize you may actually be fortunate. Police in New York are searching for a man who is suspected of attacking elderly women and stealing their purses after pretending to be a chivalrous gentleman holding the door for them. His victims include a 101-year-old and an 85-year-old, which officially makes this guy a piece of crap. Attacking a woman is cowardly under any circumstances, but elderly women? C’mon, that’s as low as it goes.

- Know how you can tell when you’re a walking magnet for trouble? When someone tries to knife you at a bowling alley, you can be certain that your life has become more than a little out of hand. Tennessee Titans cornerback and aspiring gangsta Adam “Pacman” Jones is just such a person, and perhaps he is the consummate example of this type of person. For someone who has smashed a fellow student in the head with a pool cue in college, spit on a woman, been a major contributing factor in a strip club brawl that left one man paralyzed and been interviewed by the police more often than most people change their socks, Jones just can't learn his lesson and get away from trouble. He was involved in another incident over the weekend, and although this time he is the victim, his previous trespasses and missteps can't help but make you wonder why this dude isn't locking himself in his house and never coming out. Clayton Smith is the man accused of trying to carve Jones up with a knife, but thankfully no one was hurt in this incident. But overall, the Titans have to be even more sure now that they need to release Jones, because even when he’s not causing a riot or melee, a riot or melee seems to find him anyhow. It’s a matter of time before he kills someone or is shot, and the Titans don’t need this head case on their team.

- Two great albums just out that you’ll be sorry if you miss, one is a blast from the waaaaay back past, one is a fresh face on the music scene that’s only been around, at least in the collective consciousness of the music world, since 2004. In some sense, Iggy Pop can't be a blast from the past because he’s never really gone away for any substantial length of time. What is a throwback to another era, though, is the Igg-ster releasing an album with his old buddies, the Stooges. Iggy has been solo for a long time, and this is his first album with the Stooges since the ‘70s. Along with brothers Ron and Scott Asheton, the Stooges were a Detroit-based band that was a forerunner of the punk movement. Iggy made a name for himself in those days, often by doing things like rolling around in broken glass onstage and generally acting like a madman. This new album, captures much of that feel, but it also shows some evolution. For music fans who weren't around for the first incarnation of Iggy and the Stooges, The Weirdness will be a great experience, and for those who were aorund, it’ll be a great trip back in time. The new face in this story would be the Arcade Fire, a Montreal-based seven-person band that’s become a kitschy cool favorite of indie rock fans all over the world. Any band that dares to bring violins, xylophones, tambourines, a disco ball and a mini-parade onstage at their concert definitely has two things: innovation and balls. The new album from the band is Neon Bible, and it follows in the footsteps of the group’s previous efforts, Funeral (2004) and their self titled album (2005) in the vein of abstract, enigmatic music. This isn't a hopeful optimistic album; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. The world of today isn't a pleasant place in the eyes of Win Butler and his merry band of misfits. “Every spark of friendship and love/Will die without a home,” aren't words that leave much room for ambiguity. Still, the musicianship is good, and the reality is that the world isn't always a sunny place, so music like this is often right on the mark. Two albums from very different places musically, but both Iggy and the Stooges and the Arcade Fire deserve your attention.