A Moment of Silence

Georgia Theatre
18??-2009

I've been there. I've played there. I've seen friends, neighbors and assorted others walk across the stage. Here's to a long life, and life-long memories.

Miscellany

Just so you don't loose respect for me 'cause I jumped the shark by using the same bit two days in a row, here's some rambling crap dredged from the recesses of my brain.

Who I'd Be If I Had Any Actual Hockey Knowledge: Down Goes Brown. To read him is to love him.

From The "Why Don't You Give Me A Nice Papercut & Pour Lemon Juice On It" Dept:

Ouch.

GMwatch '09:
John Manasso over at the Atlanta Business Chronicle (or, the ABC as the hipsters in L5P call it) has an interesting thought of John Risebrough and the Atlanta GM job. He makes fantastic points about Risebrough's success in MIN, and his ability to work with limited resources. This got me thinking about other possibilities:

Warning: what follows is pure speculation and may or may not have anything at all to do with acutal hockey knowledge.
You've been warned.

Risebrough: The question raised by Manasso is a vaild one: Who is responsible for the Wild's defense-first strategy, Risebrough or recently-deposed head coach Jacques Lemaire? If the trap begins & ends with Risebrough, he's an awful fit for HC Johnny A's system. But if the system came completely from Lemaire, well... that's a different story. It would be intruiging to see what John could bring to the table.

Bob Gainey: Gainey = Habs = Epic Mortal Fail, so thanks, but no thanks on this one.

Doug Wilson: This would be exciting. Douggie has a rep for building great regular season teams that don't quite get the job done come playoff time. With a group as young and hungry as the one here in Atlanta plus any key "hockey people" (i.e. scouts, management types) Doug might bring with him, it might be an explosive combination (In case you couldn't tell: yes, I am assuming Ole San Jose Doug gets the ax very shortly; what can I say? I'm a risk-taker).

And, of course, there's always...

Don Waddell

Hm. Wonder which one it'll be.

From The Grass Is Greener Dept:
Erik Christensen is averaging ~12min of ice time, and has 2 points to show for it. Jason Williams is averaging ~14min of ice time, and has 1 point to show for it. Oh, and his team just got swept out of the playoffs. Hm.

Hey. You with the "At least they were in the playoffs" crap. Shut it.


Useless Top 5 List:
It's back. With a vengance.

Top 5 Windows-Down, Ready For Summer Songs
5) Happy Day Mama - Better Than Ezra
4) D'yer Mak'er - Led Zeppelin
3) American Girl - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
2) Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) - Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band
1) September Gurls - Big Star

Bonus Hazy Summer Night Makeout Track: Girl From Ipanema by Getz/Gilberto/Gilberto narrowly edges Dusty Springfield's Son of a Preacher Man.

Yea, that'll all change by tomorrow.

Have a good weekend.

I'm Back.

Took a little time off, took a drive, fell into a cave.

Was it just me, or did the Pens look completely flat yesterday? But there were a couple of Flyers penalties that looked a little suspect.

Anyway, when I get my footing, more open letters to hockey players unlikely to respond, most likely some more LoLs, and much more of.... whatever.

I gots ideas.

Gameday Panthers & Miscellany

Yea, I'm back. Jury duty is worse than I ever could've expected. Disrupts your life in every possible way. I'd rather not talk about it. Still slowly reintroducing myself into the world.

Thrash tonight. We got the Panthers. Their entire season evidently hangs on this one game. The Thrashers (through years of practice) have developed a keen knack for dashing playoff hopes - we got this one in the bag.

All trendy detached irony aside, I'm extremely excited for next season. The Toby-Bogo pairing is probably the best young D pair in the league. The emergence of the Chicago Pipeline, the miracle that is Rich Peverley, and the wonder that is Ilya Kovalchuk all point toward (at the very least) better things next year. Add some potential FA signings, and we may just have a playoff contender.

Some points to consider:
- The best UFA option not named Hossa (to my eyes) would be Mike Cammalleri. Bruce Boudreau once said that Cammalleri is "the smartest player I’ve had the good fortune to coach. He sees the ice well. He can take a one-timer better than any player I’ve seen. He reads plays like Gretzky and Lemieux.” If Cams looks for the upper-range of his assumed asking price the Flames may have to watch him walk - a situation now somewhat eased by the aquisition of Ollie Jokinen. C'mon, tell me a power play unit that could include both Kovy (shoots right) and Cammalleri (shoots left) doesn't make you salivate. Kovy's more than willing to pass, as we've seen all year, so this duo would be pretty exciting to watch. Some concerns: Chemistry, for one. How would he fit in this dressing room, and more importantly, on the ice with Kovy. Then there's salary. Word on the street is a range of $5-8 mil for Cams, and we'd likely be paying the upper end of such a range. Would the ASG assent to something like that? What do you think?

- As a side note, imagine this headline: Maxim Afinogenov Reinvigorates Career in Atlanta. I could see that happening.

Recipe of the Week. Next time you're out at Cracker Barrel (Craker Barrel? You brought her! Ba dum bum. Thanks, Derek.), ask the waitress for an extra plate of biscuits and a little bottle of that blueberry syrup. Drop those in a to-go container, and that's half a meal right there, brother.

Betty Crocker I ain't.

A Display of Manliness That Just May End Your Will To Live. Please pay a visit to the brethren over at the Chronicle. It seems these mythological Kovy commercials do exist. And they are cooler than anything you'll ever do. That's why he is the Ruler of These Parts.

Colby Armstrong is My Second Favorite Player. I thought that deserved a bullet point.

Jeremy Heilpern is smarter than everyone. If the Thrashers don't hire this guy, I'll be... fricken... suprised. (We'll have to put in the liner notes, "during this joke, he points to the back"...)

Boston Gets the Classic. On Frozen Blog with the big-time artists' conception. I'm still holding out for Pens/Flyers in Happy Valley. I can combine a trip home with some hockey madness. But at this point, I'm not so sure I'd have a team to root for.

What's This? Yup, call me Roger Swain, cause I got me a Victory Garden.

Tomatoes, green beans, basil, chives, and sundry other green leafys. Just doin my part to support the cause.

A year-end retrospective may be in the works. Let's see how I feel about that idea tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, anyone else going to the practice?

Peath out.

Go Thrashers.

I Fought the Law (The Law Won)

Juror #447 will be returned to you shortly.

Thank you.

This Post Has No Title, Just Words and A Tune

Let's get this out of the way: if you can't find at least one song to love on Fulfillingness' First Finale, then you have no soul, and should probably have that looked at by some sort of specialist.

The Thrashers officially have a streak. This is very exciting.

John Manasso over at the Atlanta Business Chronicle is joining the chorus of voices chanting "Winning sells tickets," and illustrates the point finely with the Buffalo Sabers. He also shares the little tidbit that (according to American City Business Journals), the Thrashers have appreciated by 6% - thus proving the old adage "You can always make money, even if you suck".

If you haven't yet, go check out the interview with Bryan Little on the team site. Bry-Bry speaks very highly of Outsider-aproved activities like Call of Duty and playing guitar. And have you seen the vid of Lits with goal-calls by the Kamalian himself? Super rad.


But did they know the song is about heroin?


For this next item, I traveled down quite a rabbit hole, but the comedy gold at the end of this rainbow is worth it. Check out one of Bruce Garrioch's March 9th blog post regarding Ron Wilson, fearless leader of the hapless Leafs. the post in and of itself is quite funny. But it's the comments that made me almost wet myself. I like watching Ontario/Toronto flame wars. The only thing missing is one of them dropping the "Jane, you ignorant slut" bomb. Priceless. (Glove tap to Down Goes Brown, he of the "Brian Burke" Twitter account. Aces in my book.)


One of the best lines in recent memory, courtesy Mike Babcock (Via Kukla's).

A/V Squad

Easing back into the process here...

Re: Jason Williams shootout magic



He's found a home. Good for him.


Re: NHL.com's Top 10 Goals of the Year

Thus far, anyway. The usual stuff: The Flying Zednik, a couple of snowplows from the 'Vetch. I would've futzed with the order a bit, but hey....



Tremendous effort by the team on this west coast swing. They look like they're having fun. The Lits-to-Kovy tying marker in the third looks very nice.

Re: Attention Movie People

A little off-topic goodness....

Nothing to do tomorrow? For the 2nd year in a row, AMC Theatres are holding a Best Picture Showcase - a marathon showing of all five Best Picture nominees back-to-back-to-back-to... you get it. Last year's showcase was tremendous. Movie watching for movie people: no talking, texting, people leaving at unfortunate points of plot development... $30 gets you a reserved seat & all the popcorn & beverage your big ole American self can consume. I'll be at the participating AMC Theatre here in Upper Gwinnettia, but other events will be held at Phipps, and that crazy restaurant/theatre conflagration in Buckhead.

Things That Are More Fun to Blog About Than Thrashers Hockey

- It's pretty freakin' cold in Atlanta today.

- I've begun recording again, and I've found some suh-weet (and FREE!) limiter (it's the W1, for the recording-minded) and compressor plug-ins.

- No lie, I have lost 13 lbs. in 40 days on the sadistic slice of evil known as the Wii Fit. You'll lose weight, but you will never curse more at a piece of plastic, ever. Actually, in the balance-board's defense, it's that snide SOB digital trainer that'll really getcha.

- After finishing A Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I'm starting Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground. I don't know what it is about Russian literature... There's a certain plain-spokenness that never seems condescending, just factual. Even in Tolstoy's short stories, which in lesser hands could be simple moralizing, there is a... reality that I can readily identify with. I read The Picture of Dorian Gray, and it seems to me that Oscar Wilde (through the mouth of Lord Henry Wotton) really hammers home his almost nihilistic worship of beauty even as he presents the horrendous eternal consequence of Dorian's actions. It's came off (to my ears) as heavy-handed preaching. But maybe that says more about me than it does Oscar Wilde...

Wow. Didn't think that would happen...

- Big Star's only rival in the Most Underrated Rock Band of the Century debate is Cheap Trick. I would put #1 Record/Radio City up against the Trick's 1977 self-titled debut any day of the week. September Gurls is transcendental, while He's A Whore is the best song about a (metaphorical) gigolo you will ever hear in your life. Srsly.

- I made scones last night. Me = win.



So yea, there's a game tonight. I may feel motivated to expound on that later, I may not. But hey, at least Nuke Laloosh is on our side. (from Puck Daddy)

My, he looks happy.

Off Topic, Part Two

So I thought when I woke up this morning, "I'm gonna drop a High Fideliy reference on the blog today. That'll be cool."

But I was beaten to the punch.

Being late to a party never bothered me none, and being that I want to forget the Thrashers for a little while, we'll see if this game catches on. It's caled Top 5. Name your top 5 “track 1’s” - the first track of a record (cd for the youngins), record name and artist.
In no order…

Top 5 Track 1(/Side 1's)’s

1. “ELO Kiddies”, Cheap Trick (1977)
2. “Teenage FBI”, Do The Collapse , Guided by Voices (1999)
3. “Thunder Road”, Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen (1975)
4. “No Action", This Year's Model, Elvis Costello (1978)
5. “So What”, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis (1959)

Bleated games thoughts, miscellany

Couldn't get to a computer this weekend - hooray for winterizing.

The best game summary came after Hamburglar potted his empty netter and my cat proceeded to vomit right in front of me.

But here are some thoughts:

Gamers (Rose-Colored Glasses Edition):
Ex - Trying to light a fire by dancing with Jared Boll in the second. You may call his offensive (and sometimes defensive) skills into question, but you can never question his heart. Once the team finds an identity (more on that in a second), that heart will serve us well.

Kozlov - A couple of roughing penalties late in the game say to me that he's frustrated. Frustrated is better than apathetic, which has been an issue team-wide for stretches (see: 2007-2008 season).

Todd White - The word "Charmin" shall be uttered no longer around here. Good to see him back & skating.

Other than that, the Jackets remind me of those 07-08 Thrashers, with a couple of key differences. They have attendance issues, a superstar in Rick Nash, cagey veterans (proved by a couple of non-calls on Friday), a couple of players that step up sometimes, and Leclaire, who shows flashes of being a pretty solid netminder. The differences? Work ethic and the trap, aka Ken Hitchcock.

Re: Terrence Moore's surprisingly insightful column from Sunday's AJC. This is the kind of piece we need to copy and mail 100,000 times to the ASG until they get the message. I think Terrance was fair and honest, and this is the kind of thing you see in "real" NHL towns as a calling-out of the powers that be. Hopefully the ASG will learn firsthand with the Hawks that, once you start winning, butts fill the seats. Yea, sure, it's probably easier to build a winning team in the NBA and easier to sell said team to a large group of fairweather sports fans, but with an average ticket price that is $10 higher than the Hawks (for a comparable product, in terms of win pct.), you'd think they'd follow the money. Anyway, back to the article. The only thing that concerns me is the Anderson quote at the end:

“We’re dealt a hand here a little bit... We can’t just say, ‘OK, this is what I want us to be.’ You look [at the Thrashers’ roster], and that’s not what it is. You have to adjust a little bit, and that’s what we’re doing.”

A little bit of "you go to war with the army you have"? Let's hope our fearless leader is not losing the drive & desire that motivates the guys on a good night. But is it true that the Thrashers are "talent-challenged"? I may have to think on that a bit...

Re: The Leafs on Tuesday. If any team has been as schizophrenic as the Thrash, it's been the Buds. Seems to me a major difference between the two teams has been Toronto's ability to pick up the charity point. Maybe we'll have a Burke sighting in Phillips. Maybe the ASG will have a moment of clarity and throw large piles of cash at him and put Don Waddell in charge of... I don't know... something else. Maybe Burke will sign a 52 & 1/2 year contract, make some shrewd deals (further enraging one Kevin Lowe in the process) and Atlanta becomes the 6th "sunbelt" team in 7 years to reach the SCFs.

Or maybe we get to see a shootout showdown between their Poni and our Pony.

Yea... cause that's the same...

Re: Dan Kamal on HTM/XM204 with Dulcet Tones & Big Country. Sounds like fun.

Re: Off-Topic

- It's amazing how much better NHL2k9 looks when you set your screen resolution to match your TV.

- Saw the new James Bond. +1

- Had personal rediscovery of Mitch Hedberg this weekend, and was thusly saved by the bouyancy of citrus. Hockey Luv.

Now I'm off to catch up on what everyone else has to say...

Off Topic

Usually, I hate these things, but check out "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers" list. What's great isn't the list itself, but the photos of the ballots sent in by artists:

Merle had to do some thinking...

A surprisingly organized Keef.


Mike Campbell: disgustingly good at everything, including making lists.