Life's Little Blender

The Blender Is Going Into Storage

2006-11-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

This blog, "Life's Little Blender," is going into storage. Maybe for a short bit, maybe permanently. I don't know.

But I'm becoming disillusioned a bit with this blog. Some people write blogs just for the sake of writing or as a way to express their thoughts, much like a diary. If people read, great. If people don't, great.

I created "Life's Little Blender" with a different intent. I wanted to communicate with people. I wanted feedback. I wanted Web 2.0.

And it's not happening here.

My favorite blogs are the ones that stimulate thought in my mind and elicit a response. Blogs that make me hit the respond button within a few seconds or a minute of reading the post. When I decided to start this blog during the summer, my thought was that my random ramblings would evoke similar emotion and thought, and some good conversations would start.

Again, it hasn't happened, either because my musings are dull or too focused on certain topics, or because no one visits this blog. I have an ego -- doesn't everyone? -- so I hope it's the latter. That said, I didn't create this blog to stroke my mental libido; I honestly wanted to stimulate conversation.

But I'm seeing responses from my faithful reader, Erik, and that's about it. As much as I appreciate Erik's regular and thoughtful comments, I expected there to be more Eriks here after a couple of months.

Finding material for this blog and writing it takes time -- probably an hour per day or so. It was an hour that I didn't mind surrendering at first because I believed that people were reading and would respond in time, and I despise blogs that have one or two posts per week. What's the point? If you're going to be a regular reader here, then I owe you regular, near-daily content.

Now it's starting to feel like that time is somewhat wasted. I post regularly on two forums -- Digital Sportspage and Operation Sports -- about many of the same topics that I cover here and get a hell of a lot more communication.

So the Blender is heading to the closet, for now. It may come back. Who knows?

Thanks to all those who read this blog, and if anyone with a successful blog that generates a lot of feedback has any ideas to stimulate conversation at Life's Little Blender, please feel free to respond.

Take care.

Lifehacker Represents What's Good About The Web

2006-11-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

I spend too much time diddling around Web sites that provide no real benefit for me other than time wasting. Many Web sites are a lot like the midway at the State Fair -- mindless fun that does little for you in the present and leaves no positive residue for the future.

Lifehacker is not one of those sites.

I visit Lifehacker every day and find something helpful or at least damn cool every time. The site is just filled with Web, computer and daily living tips that increase the productivity or enjoyment of life.

Lifehacker is a damn good, indispensible site for me. Check it out.

St. Bono's Halo Is Dimmed

2006-11-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

U2 lead singer Bono has become a perennial candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless work to relieve debt to the Third World, especially Africa. It's a nobel cause for which Bono deserves plenty of praise.

But Bono's efforts are a bit more hollow after it was reported that U2 is relocating the publishing arm of its business from its native Ireland to Amsterdam to avoid taxes. As Bono urges the Irish government to contribute more to African debt relief, his band is moving its publishing operation away from Ireland to avoid paying the taxes that the government could use to contribute to African debt relief.

And we're not talking small change here. It's reported that U2's songwriting royalties are worth $286 million. One-third of the band's income reportedly comes from those royalties.

But while the band pockets more of that money and can get some good dope -- both legally -- in Amsterdam, Bono continues to pimp governments to give more money for African debt relief. Governments fund that relief through taxation revenues, the very something Bono is avoiding in his home nation.

Bono talks the talk, and his tireless work has equated to walking the walk. But his walk has strolled to a slow gait with this hypocrisy.

Somewhere, Karl Rove Snickers

2006-11-01T10:43:00.000-05:00

It was reported over the weekend that Bush uber-spinmeister and dirty political tricks expert Karl Rove made a rare visit to the press section of Air Force One during a recent trip, giddily passing out chocolate-covered pecans to the press.

Odd behavior from a guy whose party could lose the majority in both houses of Congress, according to some polls, in the election next Tuesday, right?

Rove knows better. The GOP isn't going to lose control of either the House or Senate, sadly.

Polls and analysis can talk all about the "discontent" of American voters forever, but the economy is stable and the stock market is booming, and those "pocketbook" issues are the only thing that the apathetic American voting base really cares about.

Otherwise, the war in Iraq, gay marriage and other so-called "hot button" issues inside the Beltway don't affect enough Americans on a daily basis to generate any sort of big swing against the status quo.

I don't mean to denigrate those with loved ones in Iraq or those who work daily and tirelessly on war-related issues. But let's face it: If a president has an approval rating in the 30s and his puppet Congress is rumored to either barely keep or barely lose the majority, that's proof most Americans just don't give a shit about the process.

This Congress is a mirror of its president more than many in years, simply marching in lockstep to Bush's legislative whims and totally ignoring its role of oversight of the Executive Branch. Read the recent cover story in Rolling Stone for examples after sifting through the pro-Democratic rhetoric in the story.

So if Americans really cared, wouldn't the makeup of Congress mirror that of the approval rating of Bush, with Republicans taking a huge hit in these elections?

It's not going to happen because Main Street USA feels so detached from the process that it doesn't give a shit. Plus Joe and Mary American's mutual funds are doing well, and the economy is stable if a bit stagnant.

That's all people really give a shit about.

Another problem with the Democrats, and it has plagued them ever since Clinton left office, is that they offer no plausible alternative plans other than, "WE'RE NOT BUSH!"

OK, fine. Then what the f*ck are you, and what will you do to solve the various woes of this nation? As if government could do it, anyways!

Other than the ethnic partitioning of Iraq, a bandwagon upon which many Democrats have lamely jumped upon, what is the Democratic strategy if they take control of Congress?

I read an interview with Howard Dean -- I shudder to think that nut job even runs a town council let alone a national party -- in which he said the Dems don't plan major changes if they get control.

There is no major difference between parties because Democrats don't have a clue with what they'd do with power.

Given that choice, most people will stick with the status quo because it's easier. Or they won't vote at all due to growing apathy with the process.

Finally, the Iraq War is an overrated political fulcrum.

With all respect to those brave men and women who are fighting or have been wounded or have lost their lives in the Middle East, and their families and friends, this war isn't nearly the political wedge and cauldron that Vietnam was.

There were riots and protests in the streets in 1968 over that war. Public unrest over that war caused a sitting president to decide not to run for re-election.

Now, public outcry to the Iraq War amounts to Cindy Sheehan and some talking heads on cable news.

Americans care about the war, but they don't see it as the global struggle for the world's future that Bush depicts. Hell, how many times have you seen Bush at the Executive Podium during a press conference or photo op in the last three years having to remind Americans, "This is a real war, and it requires sacrifice." It's almost as if he's trying to get Americans to buy the concept.

Something tells me FDR or Truman never had to utter such sales pitches from the stump.

Another reason that Americans aren't that outraged about the war is that sadly it's little more than a TV show or a newspaper story for those who don't have a direct link to the conflict, like a friend or relative serving, wounded or killed. We don't have foreign troops on our soil, thankfully there have been no attacks on U.S. soil since 2001, and our local supermarkets aren't being blown up on a daily basis by suicide bombers.

So after three years, America slowly is becoming numb to it all. We're not seeing newsreel footage of a dictator standing proudly as his army topples yet another country and sets an entire continent ablaze, like Hitler and Tojo did in World War II. We're not being forced to ration here at home, and our factories aren't being converted to full wartime production.

Life is simply going on here in the U.S. It's almost as if: "Hey, I got my PS3 pre-order, a lease on a new BMW and tickets to the Bills' game today, and did you see that more than 100 GI's have died this month in Iraq? That's a shame. Where do you want to have some brews at Happy Hour tonight?"

We see another regional pissing match in the Middle East -- something that's been on U.S. television screens for more than 50 years -- with the only difference this time that U.S. men and women are caught square in it.

I'm sorry, but this war just isn't resonating with the American public as the key struggle for the future of civilization as Bush describes it.

So again, apathy sets in. Sad but true.

Rove laughs, and for good reason. The GOP's reign of error will continue through at least 2008.

All Hail Nicky Hayden, World Champion!

2006-10-30T16:10:00.000-05:00

Nicky Hayden became the first American MotoGP World Champion since 2000 when he finished third Sunday at Valencia, Spain. It was the first career world title for "The Kentucky Kid."

Hayden trailed superstar and multi-time World Champion Valentino Rossi by eight points entering the season finale, and Hayden had to win, with Rossi finishing third or worse, to capture the title. Nicky was running second on Lap 5 of the 30-lap race on his Honda when Rossi, running in sixth, fell by himself. Rossi scurried back on his Yamaha in 20th place and tried to climb through the field but ended up 13th, falling five points short of Hayden for the title.

Fantastic. Rossi is a great champion and a great guy, as he was one of the many riders to warmly congratulate the popular Hayden on the cool-down lap.

Hayden is the first premier-class rider to rally from a deficit in the final race to win the world title since fellow American Wayne Rainey in 1992.

Congrats to Nicky for Chasin' the Dream and making it reality!

Firefox's CPU Brain Drain Continues

2006-10-30T12:42:00.000-05:00

Firefox is the finest browser on the Web, but one of its most persistent flaws has been memory leaks. Various parts of the browser, including its famed extensions, leak memory that cause the browser and user's operating systems to slow to a crawl if the browser is left open for a long time.

The newest version of the browser, Firefox 2.0, was released last week, and many users hoped the memory leak problem would be fixed or at least improved. If anything, the memory leaks are WORSE with 2.0.

Firefox 2.0 hung up on me this morning, and Windows Task Manager showed that it was using 184K of memory. That's ridiculous.

Mozilla needs to forget about the bells and whistles for its upcoming 3.0 release and fix the memory leaks. They represent the biggest threat to the growing success of this fantastic browser. I hate Internet Explorer, and the new IE 7 only adds features that Firefox had a year ago with version 1.5. But if Mozilla doesn't fix the memory leaks soon, I'm going to take another look at IE 7 or another browser.

Geeks, Personified

2006-10-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

The amusing and often informative Destructoid gaming blog posted this video of a dorky dude interviewing fellow geeks who were camping out at a Toys 'R Us store so they could pre-order a Sony PlayStation 3 console.

Talk about geeks. Seriously -- get a life. Anyone who camps out for a console has some serious issues.

There is pathetic humor in one part of the clip, though. The interviewer asks a camper what excites him about the PS3. The camper responds Blu-Ray technology. The interviewer then astutely asked the camper if he knew what Blu-Ray was, and the camper responded, "Uh, no."

Sony marketing Kool-Aid is being engulfed by the gallons by lemming gamers. Pure genius.

Great Idea For NHL Shootouts

2006-10-30T11:31:00.000-05:00

I'll admit it: I was opposed to the idea of resolving ties in the NHL regular season with a shootout before the league implemented the new rule before last season. But the shootouts are exciting and create fervor for the fans, so my attitude has changed. Plus the NHL doesn't use them for the postseason, which would be heresy and rob the league of the glory of sudden-death overtime playoff hockey.

But I don't like the points system used in shootouts in which both teams are awarded one point after an overtime tie and then the winning team in the shootout receives another point. Is this Little League, where everyone is supposed to feel good after a game.

Plus a shootout victory should not receive the same number of points as a victory in regulation or overtime. A gimmick victory isn't as worthy as one earned through the hard work of regular hockey.

Hockey blogger Mike Chen suggests this system in this post:

Two points for a win in regulation
Two points for a win in overtime
One point for a shootout victory
Zero points for a loss at any time

I couldn't agree more. This is a great idea.

Fat Freddy Must Go Now

2006-10-30T11:26:00.000-05:00

Newcastle United finds itself in a real relegation fight in the English Premiership at the quarter-mark of the season after a 0-0 draw last Saturday against bottom feeders Charlton. The Magpies are 17th in the 20-team league, which sends its bottom three teams to the lower Championship every year, and Newcastle is only two points out of 18th.

Fingers should be pointed everywhere. The players. Manager Glenn Roeder. And especially club chairman Freddy Shepherd. He is one of the most corrupt, bumbling chairmen in the league, and his legacy of failure and mismanagement is very well detailed in this post from the strong Newcastle-Online blog.

Man, a successful bid from the Belgravia Group to buy the club can't happen soon enough. Then Fat Freddy can be strapped to a gurney and carted out of St. James Park for good.

The Who's Endless Career Cranks Out New Record

2006-10-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

I got my mitts on The Who's first studio album in 24 years, "Endless Wire," last weekend and gave it a thorough listen. It's a double album with a concept, the band's first record since "It's Hard" in 1982.

Honestly, I don't know what to make of it. It's not horrible, but it certainly isn't going to supplant "Who's Next," "Tommy" or "Quadrophenia" in the band's pantheon.

Musically, the record sounds very much like a Who album from the "Tommy" era. You won't hear anything like "Goodbye Sister Disco" or "Eminence Front" on this record. But the record also lacks the power, the urgency mated with the sensitivity that made The Who one of the greatest rock bands ever.

Understandable, since the band's two surviving members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, are 61 and 62, respectively. But that lack of power makes the album somewhat pedestrian, even though it is nice to hear that classic Who sound again.

There are a few standout tracks on the record, including "Black Widow's Eyes" and "It's Not Enough." The musicianship, especially Townshend's guitar playing, is excellent. Daltrey is reaching for a few notes, again understandable for his age, but he still sounds pretty good for a guy whose pipes have been wailing on the world's stage for 40 years.

I need to give the album a few more listens to investigate the lyrics. Townshend can go both ways with his writing -- it can be brilliant or banal.

The band supposedly is going on tour to support "Endless Wire." What, is this The Who's fifth farewell tour? I remember seeing an incredible Who show in December 1982 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on the band's first "farewell tour."

College Kids' Cribs?

2006-10-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

Sports Illustrated, the most overrated magazine in America, continues to kow-tow to the low-brow altar of its competitor, ESPN The Magazine, by offering inane features. The "Campus Cribs" feature at cnnsi.com is a classic example.

This brainless photo feature shows the places where college athletes live either on- or off-campus. It's pure trash, nothing but vanity. But a quick look at this photo feature of the apartment of a few University of Georgia football players is clear proof that the time-honored tradition of providing Division I athletes with perks and shoeboxes of money is alive and well in Athens.

Look at the place where these guys are living. It's immaculate. And the featured player has a complete wireless setup for his high-powered PC in his bedroom, expensive furniture, paintings hanging on the wall and, last but not least -- a small LCD TV hanging in his bathroom.

Meanwhile, I'm sure his momma is working four jobs living in the bricks somewhere near Atlanta while Junior is "roughing it" in Athens thanks to the generosity of some local car dealer who lives and breathes the 'Dawgs.

Whatever happened to milk crates as furniture and a toaster oven for appliances? That was the staple crop of my college accomodations 20 years ago, and I was a Division I athlete, too. Cross country and track -- not exactly revenue-generating sports -- but still Division I!

Pure Class By Malkin

2006-10-27T12:10:00.000-04:00

Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin has electrified the NHL this season, with four goals in his first four games. The kid already has shown his world-class talent on the ice, including this move that embarrassed first-ballot Hall of Famer Marty Brodeur.

But Malkin's best move came off the ice before he suited up for the Penguins this season. He learned about a young girl that needed to travel from his hometown to Moscow for an operation so she could receive a prosthetic arm, but her family was too poor to afford the trip.

Malkin stepped in and paid for the trip and the surgery. That is pure class -- what a fine human being. Read more about this story here. Very heartwarming stuff.

U.S. Soccer Needs To Act Now

2006-10-27T12:04:00.000-04:00

Letting Bruce Arena go was the easy part. Now comes the first real test for the leadership skills of U.S. Soccer boss Sunil Gulati.

Former German great Jurgen Klinsmann, who sculpted Germany into the most exciting team in the 2006 World Cup, has expressed interest in the U.S. men's national team head coaching job. Klinsmann lives in Southern California, is married to an American and is charismatic and media-savvy, at least by German standards. So he seems to be an ideal fit for the job.

But Gulati needs to move quickly to land Klinsmann, the absolute no-brainer choice for the job. Open the checkbook, offer Klinsmann a sweet deal and get to work.

The U.S. program is at a crossroads after its debacle this summer in Germany, and the sooner Sam's Army can sign up Klinsmann, the sooner it can start to progress into being a legitimate team on the world stage. Plus if Gulati wavers, another nation will scoop up Klinsmann in a hurry if the price is right.

JR, Please Shut Up

2006-10-27T11:53:00.000-04:00

Jeremy Roenick was one of the most colorful superstars in hockey five to 10 years ago. He could score and hit with the best of them, and you always could count on JR to speak his mind on a variety of topics.

Well, some things don't change. JR still never has met a muzzle that he liked. But there's a small problem: JR's talk is cheap without backup.

Roenick made this comment in a Coyotes' notebook in the Arizona Republic, and it's a good thing there was no liquid in my mouth, or my laptop's screen would have looked like a Jackson Pollack painting:

"I'm not going to bail because things are bad," Roenick said. "I'm committed to this city, this team and Wayne (Gretzky). . . . I love this team. I would never ask for a trade or retire in mid-season. I couldn't do that to my players. That would be too much of a huge copout. If I couldn't do it physically, that's a different story. But I feel I'm at the point where I can dominate a hockey game with the puck."

Dominate? Say what? Roenick is 36. He has a goal and two assists and is -6 in 11 games this season for Phoenix. Something tells me JR isn't terrorizing foes like, say, Maxim Afinogenov or Joe Thornton these days.

Roenick had a whopping 22 points in 57 games last season with the Kings. This guy is a spent force, and his gum-flapping is nothing but a gale-force wind in the hockey breeze.

No, JR, you shouldn't leave Phoenix. Because even at only $1.2 million per season, what other NHL GM besides Wayne Gretzky's puppet, best friend and former agent, Mike Barnett, would want you?

Rummy's Eggshell Skin Cracks Again

2006-10-27T10:53:00.000-04:00

Is there a bigger pussy in Washington right now than Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld?

Rummy loves to talk tough about the U.S. war in Iraq, about how he's making all of the right decisions and how the war is going to plan. But the minute a journalist challenges Rumsfeld about the problems in Iraq, he gets more defensive than a 4-year-old caught with his hand in the candy bowl.

Rumsfeld actually had the audacity to tell journalists Thursday to "back off" when questioned about the deadlines set by the U.S. for the Iraqi government to establish security within the country. That's right, Rummy, we should "back off" while your reign of error has aided chaos in Baghdad. We should "back off" while more American kids due to the inept planning and execution by the U.S. in post-combat Iraq.

Sorry, Rummy, but there's more to the worldwide media than Fox News, the official mouthpiece of the GOP and Bush Administration. I take it there are no mirrors in the Rumsfeld residence or the Pentagon shitters, because if Rummy wanted to find a major source of the problems with the U.S. planning and policy regarding the Iraq War, all he needs to do is take a clear look at himself.

So Long For Now, Consoles

2006-10-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

My gaming room soon will consist of my lap, and nothing else.

My Xbox, all games and all accessories will be gone on eBay by Sunday, and I'm getting a Nintendo DS Lite handheld. I've become VERY disillusioned with console gaming over the last six months, especially the next generation.

Sony and MS are asking us to drop between $500 and $700 for a new system and a game, and the games are all so damn derivative. I've been gaming since the early 80s, and I've never felt a more stale, homogenized state of gaming than right now. None of the games for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 have progressed since the PlayStation days.

Sure, the graphics are prettier, but they're the same damn first-person shooters, annual sports games with little more than one feature and a roster update, racing games with shitty AI and the like. The only recent console exception to this rule was the Dreamcast, which was filled with funky titles along with the staple crop of first-person shooters, racers and sports games.

So I'm giving up on console gaming completely until some company gives me a compelling reason why I should spend $400 on a console that has serious design and manufacturing flaws (360) or $700 for a console with a Blu-Ray player that is the next Betamax built in (PS3). Not to mention that we're being forced to pay $60 for games that have fewer features than current-gen games. Ah, but the eye candy is so tasty!

Horseshit, I say, especially since we're a single-earner family with three kids, as my wife stays home to care for the wee ones. It's just not worth it any more.

The DS may be just a handheld, but it's innovative, inexpensive and has a ton of funky little games that are inexpensive and fun as hell to play. Console gaming now has become all about packing as much technology into a box as possible and then letting people play derivative games at $60 a crack on them, hoping your machine doesn't fail.

After an uninterrupted run of console gaming since 1997, I'm returning to handhelds. I've had enough.

PS3 Ads Get Dumb And Dumber

2006-10-27T09:59:00.000-04:00

The first North American television ad for the Sony Playstation 3 made me scratch my head, but the ad shown during the World Series Thursday night is causing me to scream "What the F*CK?" in 17 different dialects:

Seriously, what the hell is that? Can someone explain? Did Sony commission an ad agency to create the most ridiculous commercials ever, figuring the shock factor over their stupidity would cause people to remember the ad and the product?

Where is the game footage? Aren't the cranium-exploding graphics capabilities of the PS3 one of the strong suits of the system?

And if you didn't know the PS3 was being released Nov. 17 in North America, would the symbol ///7 at the end of the commercial mean a f*cking thing to you?

This is a mind-bendingly bad ad campaign. Period.

Toon Gloom Lifts

2006-10-26T13:54:00.000-04:00

There's a bit of joy on Tyneside today as Newcastle United ended its recent slump with al convincing 3-0 victory over Portsmouth in the League Cup. American Giuseppe Rossi scored for Newcastle, and old faithful Nobby Solano added a brace of goals.

Another positive sight was the return of midfielder Kieron Dyer as a substitute. Dyer, who has hamstrings tighter than the wires on a Steinway, attacked Pompey's defense with vigor in his first senior match in quite some time due to his various leg problems.

Arguably more exciting than the victory was that it came on a clean sheet. Newcastle's defense has been more porous this season than the U.S.-Mexico border. But from all accounts, the entire defense played well in a driving rain at St. James Park, including the deservedly maligned Titus Bramble.

This victory raises one question, though. How can Newcastle be so piss-poor in the Premiership yet play so well in Cup competition?

The Magpies are 16th out of 20 in the Premiership this season and going nowhere, but they are advancing in the League Cup and UEFA Cup. And with a round of 16 draw against Watford in the League Cup, a berth in the League Cup quarterfinals is very possible.

A Quack Job

2006-10-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

After watching my Edmonton Oilers lose, 6-2, to the Anaheim Ducks Wednesday night, I'm convinced that the Oil was as much of a victim of the schedule as Anaheim's players.

In a nutshell, the Oilers never should follow a game against Phoenix with one against one of the NHL's top teams.

Edmonton skated circles around Phoenix in a 5-2 victory Monday night, as the slow, old Coyotes hardly put a body on the Oil, especially its clicking offensive line of Petr Sykora, Ales Hemsky and Patrick Thoresen. The Oilers tried to play the same game Wednesday in Tinseltown and were punished.

Anaheim hit the Oilers with the repetitive fury of a U.S. military guard at Abu Ghraib from the opening faceoff well into the third period, by which point the game was over. That pounding caused the Oilers to make repeated turnovers, which combined with the first off night of the season for goalie Dwayne Roloson, added up to only the third loss of the season for the Oil. It was the first time the Oil had lost by more than one goal, too.

Chris Pronger had three assists for Anaheim in his first game against the Oil, but two of them were of the cheap variety, rebounds that were stuffed in by teammates as the Oilers also were very careless in mopping up pucks around their net.

Good news, though: Edmonton plays at Phoenix tonight. And the game after that is Saturday against Washington, not one of the league's powerhouses, so the Oil can gradually work its way back into game shape after playing the hapless Coyotes tonight.

NBA Boss Stern Makes Few Friends With NRA

2006-10-26T10:39:00.000-04:00

NBA Commissioner David Stern won't receive any Hanukkah cards this year from the National Rifle Association since Stern urged NBA players to leave their guns at home during a conference call yesterday.

Stern was asked about the gun issue because the Indiana Pacers' Stephen Jackson shot a pistol in the air at least five times Oct. 6 outside an Indianapolis strip joint. It was one of a growing number of gun-related incidents involving NBA players.

"We think this is an alarming subject, that although you'll read players saying how they fell safer with guns, in fact those guns actually make them less safe," Stern said. "And it's a real issue."

Read that quote again. And one more time.

What the f*ck does it say about a sports league when the commissioner has to urge his athletes to leave their GUNS at home? This is a league we want our kids to follow? F*ck, this is a league that we want anyone to follow?

The Wonder Boys, Sabres Might Rescue The NHL

2006-10-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

Much has been made about the lack of popularity of the NHL in the United States -- inexplicable, in my eyes -- since the lockout, but the game's profile may be impossible to ignore due to phenomena occurring in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, of all places.

That's right: Hockey may be saved in this country outside the glare of media markets Gotham and Tinseltown.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have the most exciting group of stars in the NHL right now with last year's first-year phenom Sidney Crosby joined this year by rookies Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal. These three are tearing up the league right now, as Crosby has 12 points in eight games, Malkin has four goals in his first four NHL games, and Staal has four goals this season.

Pittsburgh leads the Atlantic Division at 5-3, the first time the Pens have achieved such lofty heights in forever. The days of when Mario Lemieux hoisted Stanley Cups at the Igloo don't seem so far away anymore.

Crosby, Malkin and Staal are all incredibly gifted offensive players. They're also having so much damn fun on the ice that it's infectious to watch. They are kids playing a man's game, as Malkin is the oldest of the trio at the wizened age of 20. Then again, if you scored goals like this world-class gem by Malkin last night against one of the top three goalies in the world, New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, you'd be pretty stoked, too:

The success story in Buffalo shows no signs of ending. The Sabres are 9-0, the only perfect team left in the league, with a squad that would have made Eli Whitney erect -- they have three forward lines of interchangeable parts. The Sabres also have provided a big shot of cocksure for Western New York, one of the more economically depressed areas of the Rust Belt. It's really great to feel the passion again in this area of the country, as the Sabres are making people feel good around these parts.

Does anyone remember the Little League World Series about 15 to 20 years ago when the chubby kid from Trumbull, Conn., pitched his team to the world title? That kid is now Buffalo forward Chris Drury, who is tied for the NHL lead with 10 goals and is breaking out as an NHL superstar this year.

It's going to be hard for mainstream American sports fans to ignore the NHL if the Wonder Boys keep lighting the lamp in Pittsburgh and the Eli Whitneys keep winning in Buffalo. Sooner or later, people will tire of the "me first" thugs who star in the "Cops" episode better known as the NBA and the homogenized parity of the NFL, and take a look again at hockey. Everything is cyclical, and a new Ice Age will begin soon.

A Tale Of Two Albums

2006-10-24T12:10:00.000-04:00

Two recent releases by American rock bands, The Killers' "Sam's Town" and The Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls in America," have created quite a bit of buzz among music fans and the music press.

The buzz for one album is totally justified. The buzz for the other mystifies me and proves the power of marketing and hype often trumps quality music these days.

I hate to use this term because it's so high school-ish, but "Boys and Girls in America" KILLS. It joined Robert Randolph's "Colorblind," Derek Trucks' "Songlines" and Neko Case's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" on the short list for my rock record of the year from almost my very first listen to it. That's damn rare with me, as records usually grow on me after a lukewarm first listen.

There's something to be said about great stories within each song from lead singer and lyricist Craig Finn, mated by music propelled by awesome power chords and riffs on "Boys and Girls." It's the kind of rock that I grew up on, and I'm glad to see it preserved by The Hold Steady.

This is great shit for the ears and the brain.

"Sam's Town," on the other hand, flat-out sucks.

The Killers are a joke wrapped into a cliche on this album, trying to be U2, Springsteen and Queen combined with its add-a-chord, make-an-arena-anthem sound. Plus lead singer Brandon Flowers' falsetto is a joke, and lyrics like "burning up a highway, on the back of a hurricane" are beyond lame.

All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't pay for this album. It's pure trash. If this is cutting-edge, exciting rock, then I fear for the genre.

The Killers would be pretty irrelevant if Flowers ever kept his mouth shut. His over-the-top proclamations of grandeur -- a pretty good metaphor for "Sam's Town," by the way -- keep the hype level of the band pretty high. He's a deft huckster; I'll give him credit for that.

The Hold Steady's new album absolutely DESTROYS "Sam's Town" among recent American rock releases. Craig Finn is a mesmerizing sage; Brandon Flowers is a preening moron. Pretty apt descriptions for both bands, really.

White House Spin Cycle Kicks Into Overdrive

2006-10-24T12:08:00.000-04:00

The Bush White House knows no limits in its efforts to keep Republican control of Congress in upcoming elections, and its using the Iraq War as a major pawn in its little game.

I rolled my eyes and laughed when I saw a press conference with the U.S. military this morning from Baghdad in which the generals said the mission in Iraq was going well. Man, they must have had one hell of a successful weekend in Baghdad considering that U.S. generals admitted last week that the U.S. strategy in Iraq was failing and in need of a reshape.

Trust me, I'm not ripping the brave men and women of the U.S. military. It's just painfully obvious that Centcom got the memo from the White House that ordered them to give only shiny, happy news from Baghdad -- in other words, lie. There's an election to win in two weeks, after all.

I also chuckled this morning when I read that White House mouthpiece Tony Snow said President Bush has dumped his favorite, tough-talking Texan phrase of "stay the course" in regards to the Iraq War.

Wow. Sheer brilliance. More like a knee-jerk reaction from Bush, who actually is realizing that American kids are dying at a rapid rate in a mission that has no end game or success in sight. Or maybe he sees too many blue states on the map in Karl Rove's office and realizes there's an election at stake.

I'll give the President the benefit of the doubt -- I'll say it's a combination of both. So, now that we're no longer "staying the course," what is the plan?

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Well, there's no way that answer is coming before Wednesday, Nov. 8 -- that is unless the polls sink even further for the GOP. If that happens, don't rule out an early "November Surprise" by Bush in a brazen attempt to keep power.

MacT's Alchemy Working

2006-10-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish never has hesitated to juggle his forward lines to improve the team's offense, and he's already tinkering quite a bit just three weeks into the season despite the Oilers' 6-2 record.

MacT created a line of Ales Hemsky, Petr Sykora and rookie find Patrick Thoresen for a line against Phoenix Monday night, and the result was magic. Sykora scored a goal and added three assists, and Hemsky and Thoreson each contributed three points as the Oil beat the barkless Coyotes, 5-2.

Thoresen has been a revelation. The guy provides instant energy and offense when he steps on the ice, and MacT also has praised him for his superb positional awareness.

The Oil is 5-0 at home this season. Now comes one of the most interesting games of the young NHL season Wednesday night: The Oil travels to Anaheim. It will be a clash between two of the best teams in the West, a rematch of the Western Conference Finals last season and, oh, Chris Pronger's first game against the Oil since he, Yoko and the kids left Edmonton for SoCal.

My DVR is set, as always.

Ominous Signs For Roeder On Tyneside

2006-10-24T11:51:00.000-04:00

Newcastle United President Sir John Hall made a rare public statement about the club after it lost, 1-0, to local rival Middlesbrough last Saturday in the English Premiership.

Hall rolled out all the typical PR tricks of a damage-limitation exercise, telling the angry supporters that the club will get it right again, that the team wasted too much money on bad signings during the Graeme Souness reign of error (Boumsong and Luque ring a bell?) and that he supports manager Glenn Roeder, who is under increasing pressure as Newcastle's season looks to be a shambles in October.

Still, I might brush up my resume if I was Roeder after reading the last paragraph of this story. Hall indicated that Newcastle may hire a director of football to lift some responsibility from Roeder's sagging shoulders.

Do you think that director of football will be a good, but relatively low-profile football man like Roeder? Hardly. It will be someone with pedigree and PR in the English game, regardless of their past record of success or failure. It will be a name, something Newcastle brass desperately want as the Magpies fall further away from their self-proclaimed delusion of one of the most "massive clubs in England."

In other words, this upcoming director of football will be a perfect replacement for Roeder in the brass' eyes. Watch out, Glenn.