- As someone who has come around on Notre Dame football from the point of hating them with a passion to rooting for them on a weekly basis, I hate saying what I’m about to say. But it’s the truth, so I have to state it whether I like it or not. In all of the moves the university and its athletic department have made since the season ended, the lone correct decision was dropping the guillotine on the ill-fated coaching career of the cherubic Charlie Weis. Weis was mediocre at best during his five years at ND and the talent he brought in was clearly not translating to success on the field. However, the way the team is handling its head coaching search thus far isn't exactly inspiring confidence. Two of the coaches they have an interest in, Florida’s Urban Meyer and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, have been hounded so relentlessly about the ND job that they have gone out of their way to insist that they have no interest in it. The one coach that the Fighting Irish want and have a shot at getting, Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly, admitted that he would listen if the Irish wanted to talk and they had sure as hell hope that they get him because if they don’t, I don’t see a single candidate out there who inspires confidence in my mind to turn around the sinking Notre Dame program. But my real beef is with how the school, specifically athletic director Jack Swarbrick, handled the possibility of the Irish being selected for a bowl game. Going 6-6 made the team bowl eligible, but rather than give their outgoing seniors one last game in the Notre Dame uniform, Swarbrick and his minions decided to decline any potential bowl bid. In speaking about the decision and displaying the very arrogance of which Notre Dame is so often accused, Swarbrick announced the decision and cited "unique circumstances." He didn't elaborate, but
- It’s a new world for punk rockers Motion City Soundtrack, who are set to move to a new record label, Columbia, and release their first album with their new imprint after putting out three albums with indie label Epitaph. The band’s last Epitaph effort was 2007's "Even If It Kills Me," but MCS had signed its new deal with Columbia several months before the album was released. Now, the band is preparing for the Jan. 19 release of its Columbia debut, "My Dinosaur Life." The challenge from this point forward is going to be balancing its new major-label status with the independent, grass-roots approach that has endeared Motion City Soundtrack to its fans. It’s a challenge that a lot of bands face and unfortunately, most fail to conquer. Too many promising indie artists sell out and go mainstream when they ink a deal with a major label, eschewing their original sound in favor of something more commercially viable. As for the move to Epitaph, guitarist Joshua Cain says it seemed like a logical next step. "Knowing how things change so fast and having no idea how the next record would do on Epitaph, it just felt right to make the move when there was the right interest there," he said. "This feels like a big machine that can work really well toward the goals we have at this point. Because we're not a new band, we don't need the [initial] development phase, but we need the development phase on the bigger side.” I don’t like the sound of that, to be honest, because it sounds like a bit of a cash grab. However, Motion City Soundtrack has already gone down that road a bit with its frequent appearances on the Warped tour. Upcoming touring plans call for MCS to support Weezer on several dates in December and January, which is fitting because Weezer is one of the bands that Columbia executives want to liken their new artist to in the minds of fans. Following the dates opening for Weezer, Motion City Soundtrack will go out on a headlining tour starting in late January, covering the United States, Australia, and Japan in the first three months following the album release. On top of all that, MCS already has three sold-out Chicago shows in mid-December, each of which will feature one of the band's Epitaph records in full. "It's kind of our holiday, coming-back moment for being on and off so much in the last year," Cain explained. Fans can preorder the new album on the band's Web site, and fans who are dumb enough to fork over $60 (seriously, I love Motion City Soundtrack, but I’m not shelling out $60 for a deluxe version of anyone’s album) will receive five bonus tracks, a hard-bound book with six 7-inch picture discs, a signed lyric booklet and album artwork for each song by Joe Ledbetter. The album's first single, "Her Words Destroyed My Planet," is being serviced to modern rock radio, and the track "Disappear" and an accompanying video were already released to fans online. In an attempt to reach out to its longtime fans, MCS frontman Justin Pierre spent the month of November traveling with the band's tour manager and a friend on a tour they called On the Dino Trail, during which Pierre made appearances and played acoustic shows throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Fans were encouraged to help plan the tour’s itinerary through Twitter, and all of it was chronicled on MyDinosaurLife.com. As I said before, the question is whether the band can keep the same sound and M.O. now that it is a major-label band. That’s a question we won't be able to answer for a long time, perhaps another album or two down the road……….
- The tough financial times facing the United States and the world in general do not discriminate. Even for non-profit and religious organizations, the sagging economy is posing major problems and for the parishioners of First Baptist Church in Brattleboro, Vt., their perilous financial state is forcing them into a difficult decision to part with a longtime landmark. With donations declining, tithes tapering off and attendance down, church leaders recently voted to seek bids and sell a 9-foot tall, 33-inch wide, multicolored window displaying the image of St. John the Divine. The image of the saint has looked down from a stained glass window in the choir loft for almost 100 years, but with the church down to its last $8,000, the impossible decision became unavoidable. "When you see the sunlight coming through it on a Sunday morning, it's just spectacular," said church member Karen Davis. However, the fact that the window is a Tiffany original makes it the most valuable asset the cash-strapped church possesses. Church leaders aren’t happy about the prospect of auctioning off their prized artwork, but they believe it's the right thing to do if it keeps the church and its winter homeless shelter open. “No one wants to see this Tiffany go," said the Rev. Suzanne Andrews, the pastor. "But when it came down to the question of do we sell the Tiffany to keep our doors open for the ministry of God, then the decision became quite clear to all of us, that this Tiffany window — as beautiful as it is — is a material thing.” First Baptist of Brattleboro is not the only church having to make tough financial decisions, but selling off a valuable Tiffany original is one of the more extreme examples I’ve heard of a church trying to stay afloat financially. While no figure was given for the expected sale price, the church spent $34,000 last year alone to heat its building and with roof repairs needed, the proceeds from the sale will go a long way towards making ends meet. For a small church (the 88-member congregation's attendance at Sunday services has dropped to about 35 people in recent years) in a tiny Vermont town, it could be a saving grace or it could simply be delaying the inevitable. Already, the church's trustees voted to make Andrews a part-time minister and to lay off sexton George Goulet, the only other full-time church staffer. When those steps weren’t enough, it came time to talk about selling the window. By a vote of 20-4, the trustees approved the decision to take bids on the window, which is signed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a scion of the New York jewelry house Tiffany & Co., who dominated the stained glass business in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Place your bids now, one and all, as proceeds go to help a good cause…….
- Not sure about all of you, but I love things that liven up an often drab, dreary afternoon commute. Bumper-to-bumper traffic, honking and construction zones tend to bring me down, so I can honestly say that I wish I had been in the greater Phoenix area early Friday afternoon when a naked man started removing his clothes and hurling them at passing motorists. According to Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves, the disrobing man took up residence on in the median off the southbound Interstate 17 to the eastbound Interstate 10 at the stack transition. Graves cryptically stated that the man's actions were apparently the result of a collision, though he did not provide further details. Traffic cameras from the Arizona Department of Public Safety showed several highway patrol cars and a fire truck surrounding a single black vehicle, although no obvious damage could be seen on the vehicle based on the video footage. The same video showed police officers wrapping the clothes-chucking man in a blanket and escorting him away from the scene. A small section of the left lane was closed as a result of the incident, but I say it’s a small price to pay for a little afternoon entertainment on the highway. How many of you wouldn’t get a good laugh and smile out of seeing an angry fellow motorist – provided he’s not a disciple of the Mark Mangino fitness plan – throwing a temper tantrum and ripping off his clothes, then throwing them at the cars in his immediate vicinity? Your life would be much better for having that experience and I can only wish I had been there for this one…………
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