- I may be one of the few non-stoners under the age of 50 who are still big Beatles fans and actively follow the careers of the remaining members of the Fab Four, but so be it. Fact is, the original Beatles albums are still better than 99.9 percent of the music coming out these days, what with the American Karaoke¬-ers, Black Eyed Peas, Fergie and Britney still making music. So I was happy to hear Ringo Starr’s new album, Liverpool 8. Ringo uses the chance to look back nostalgically on his past, channeling it through a message on the power and worth of love. If It’s Love That You Want carries that message quite clearly, accompanied by great instrumental skill and strong vocals from Starr. There is more of a mainstream, pop (I cringe even using that term) feel than I’d like and this album isn’t going to make anyone forget Abbey Road, but it’s a pleasant listen and in a day when hacks like Clay Aiken still have recording contracts, it’s far from the worst thing to come out musically in the past few months.
P.S. Another good album out this week: Audio Eagle Presents…A Compilation of Bands from Ohio. A 21-track collection from some awesome, lesser-known Ohio bands.
- Deion Sanders commenting on a football player’s toughness is like me commenting on the excitement of being the first man to walk on the moon. Actually, I’m a heck of a lot closer to being the first person to walk on the moon than Deion is to knowing the first thing about toughness on a football field. Neon Deion’s comments cracking on San Diego Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson for sitting out nearly all of the AFC Championship game against New England because of an injury are absolutely hilarious. If they were coming from Mike Singletary or Ronnie Lott, two legendary NFL tough guys, that would be one thing. But they’re coming from the softest, least-physical cornerback I’ve ever seen play. Deion himself said often during his career that tackling guys wasn’t his job; that task was for linebackers. He may have been one of the fastest and best cover corners in the NFL in his time, but tough he was not. So when he says "I have expectations, and when you don't meet my expectations, you open yourself for us to try to guess. Now what's the problem? You're a big-time player. And big-time players must play big-time games," about Tomlinson he needs to check himself. Sanders also said he thought Tomlinson's injury would need to warrant a surgery "for him to get a pass on this one." Yeah, Tomlinson wasn’t exactly up off the bench, jubilantly rooting on his team when he was unable (he says) to play due to his knee injury. Yes, he did practice during the week and wasn’t even listed on the injury report for the game, which means he should have been able to play more than three plays. But regardless of the degree or severity of his injury, Sanders calling LT or anyone else out for not being tough enough is nothing short of absurd. Stick to kissing the a**es of your favorite players like Terrell Owens and bringing little more than butt-ugly bright suits to whatever NFL show it is your appear on.
- Last night’s episode of One Tree Hill was great if for no other reason than it contained a character making the single smartest choice in the history of music or television: kicking Kevin Federline out of a band. That talentless hack doesn’t belong anywhere near a microphone or a studio, just as any past, present or future poseur hip-hopper doesn’t. The storyline in question had Peyton Sawyer working with K-Dirt’s band in the recording studio and him acting like a total dick, earning him a ticket out of the band. I didn’t know producers were in the practice of booting band members, but so be it. In keeping with the theme of temperamental talent, the egotistical Quentin, now-former star player for Lucas Scott’s Tree Hill HS basketball team, is still out of school after being kicked off the team. Hayley James-Scott, the teacher who started his downfall by threatening to fail him when he was continually disruptive in class and walked on on her class, feels guilty for things and asks husband Nathan to talk to Quentin. Shock of all shocks, the former Tree Hill basketball star, Nathan, tries to get through to Quentin and get him back on the team. Lucas allows him back on the team, but Quentin continues to not listen to his coach and do things his way. I’m sure a showdown is coming, just wait an episode or two. Lucas also bid adieu to girlfriend Lindsey, who headed back to New York for a few days and left Lucas in Tree Hill to attend the opening of Brooke’s new Clothes Over Bros store with former girlfriend Peyton. Brooke’s bitchy mom, Victoria, is still around as well. She’s pretending to be supportive of Brooke’s new store opening but uses the occasion to repeatedly insult the town and all of Brooke’s friends who pull an all-nighter helping her get the store ready for its opening. Once the opening comes and goes and the store doesn’t sell a single high-end piece, thus losing money, Victoria tells Brooke she knew it would fail and that the store was a mistake. Speaking of mistakes, Mouth McFadden finds himself thinking that sleeping with his boss Alice is the wrong choice when it becomes clear to him that he’s little more than an object of amusement to her. He’s about to tell her things are over when she informs him that he’s now under consideration for a position as a weekend sports reporter position. In other words, the theme ofr the epsidoe was dealing with bitchy, attitudinal people who have a lot of talent but also egos to match. The jump ahead four years in time from the end of last season to the start of this one was supposed to help improve OTH and to some extent, it has, but the show is still not all that great and if it wasn’t one of the only shows with new episodes as the strike rages on, it would look even less appealing….
- So did everyone have a good Martin Luther King Day? I’m sure all of you used the holiday devoted to the late civil rights leader to reflect on all King accomplished and what he stood for, right? Either that or you had a day off from work and used it to sleep in, go shopping, skiing, skating, to the beach or to catch up with shows you’d TiVo’d but not yet watched. Honestly, MLK Day is one of the biggest jokes for a holiday that we have, and it’s not at all because of anything to do with Dr. King. He was a great man and leader whose impact on our country was amazing and widespread. However, anyone who says this holiday honors him is myopic and misguided. Millions of people taking a day off from work and sitting around doing nothing or having a day out with friends doesn’t exactly honor King’s memory, now does it? Sure, there are a few small community events in every area of the country where people get together to honor the spirit of King and his legacy, but those people are in the very, very small minority. I would say that more people should get into the habit of taking time on MLK day to, well, honor MLK, but I know that isn’t happening. So in the future, maybe a better idea would be to stop shutting down banks, post offices, government offices and giving people a day off to “celebrate” a holiday that most of them could not care less about.
- Do they teach blocking YouTube in Oppressive Governing 101 or something? Also-ran countries, places where a bullying central government rules with an iron fist over an impoverished, non-world-power country, seem intent on blocking the popular Internet video site every time they find objectionable content there. Turkey is the latest nation to do so, with a Turkish court blocking access to YouTube after clips allegedly insulting the country’s founding father were posted. This is the second time the site has been banned in Turkey because of clips insulting Mustafa Kernal Ataturk. It is illegal to insult the former leader in any way, shape or form in Turkey even though he’s been dead for 70 years and had no idea about the Internet, video or YouTube during his time. Way to enforce those arcane, idiotic laws, Turkish courts. We wouldn’t want anyone insinuating that your country’s founder was anything less than perfect, would we? Better to enforce a repressive law restricting freedom of speech and block access to a website that shouldn’t be blocked. Good thinking, guys, way to govern…..
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