Its not often that you'll hear me say this, since its a rare thing for it to occur, but I was wrong. A few weeks back The Girl and I were down to the Wal-Marts where I had the song Particle Man stuck in my head, which led to an argument on whether or not Istanbul (Not Constaninople) was a They Might Be Giants song or an old song from the 40s. While she had never heard the TMBG version, she had heard it performed in the movie Mona Lisa Smile and insisted it was an old song. Being the hardheaded music snob that I am, I was unwilling to concede that I might be wrong without proof, and so here it is. According to Wikipedia:

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) is a swing-style song, written by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon. It is based on the music for "Puttin' on the Ritz", written by Irving Berlin in 1929. It was originally performed by The Four Lads in a recording made on August 12, 1953.

Anyway, I was wrong, she was right, and here's the video of the TMBG version taken from Tiny Toon Adventures:

I just don't like Elvis Costello. There, I've said it.

The Girl has a theme song...

Update: Either no one knows or no one cares what songs those lyrics came from. Either way, the answers are below.

Ryan at The Highland Road Blog is naming his posts after lines from random songs and seeing who can guess what they come from. Apparently I'm the only one playing, but it's still a good idea, and it reminded me of a meme I saw a while back, so I tracked it down. Here we go:

Step 1: Put iTunes on shuffle.

Step 2: Pick your favorite lines from the first 10 songs that play.

Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song the lines come from.

Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly and give them credit. You're all on the honor system not to just google the line.

1 - I could have reached out to you/But I felt like my hands were tied
(Nico, you should get this one, it's from an album you recommended awhile back)

Adrienne Young - My Sin is Pride

2 - White lace and promises/A kiss for luck and we're on our way

The Carpenters - We've Only Just Begun

3 - I'm gonna hit the road, adios my friend/Go someplace and start all over again

The Allman Brothers Band - No One to Run With

4 - The day she went away/I made myself a promise/That I'd soon forget we'd ever met

Elvis Presley - I Forgot to Remember to Forget

5 - He was turned to steel/In the great magnetic field

Black Sabbath - Iron Man

6 - Her perfume lingers where she once lay her head/And I can almost taste the teardrops that she shed

Conway Twitty - Baby's Gone

7 - Sounds like a field being painted in the delta sun

The Jayhawks - Miss Williams' Guitar

8 - Laugh and sing, but while we're apart don't give your heart to anyone

The Drifters - Save the Last Dance for Me

9 - Could you believe who we knew was stress or strain?

Nirvana - Blew

10 - Well, she would if she could, and she'd be good if she would

Aerosmith - S.O.S. (Too Bad)

With Larry McSwain pulling in all kinds of pre-season honors, it's nice to see another defensive player getting some recognition. Linebacker Mastaki Smith is on the watch list for the Butkus Award. The award is given each year to the best linebacker in college football and has gone to such greats as Derrick Thomas and Brian Bosworth. He finds himself in good company here, with the likes of Juwan Simpson, Brandon Siler, Ali Highsmith, and Patrick Willis also making the list.

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Today's "argargabarga?" update: Woman steals $2.3 million, $6,000 at a time, to buy lottery tickets instead of, you know, just being happy with the six grand a day.

Why is Mythbusters the best show on TV?

1) They blow shit up...


2) ...with the aid of a hot chick.


I rest my case.

I know I'm not helping my masculine quotient with this, but did anyone else watch "Breaking up with Shannen Doherty" last night? What was up with her teeth? Did she always have that massive overbite? Cause it was freaking me out. Also, the show kind of sucked. I was expecting her to get all "Bitchcakes Brenda" on some dude, but it was just lame.


















Seriously, no bar fights, no arrests...what gives?

Today's "Why am I such an old man?" update courtesy me, since I just looked at the clock and that "aw man, it's only 7:30? I wish it was bedtime already..."

















Our hero patiently waits out the clock...

Nico has a pick 'em game going over on his blog, and I fully intend to own it. Here are the first weeks games and my picks and rationales:

Texas - North Texas: Texas. Duh.

Ohio State - Northern Illinois: Ohio State. Again, duh. Some upset minded folks might go with the Huskies on this one (and being a Bama fan, we unfortunately know about the spoiling powers of Northern Illinois), but that's a serious stretch.

Tennessee - California: I grappled with this, because I don't want the Vols to win, but I also don't want Cal to win, so I'm going with UT on this one. First off, after the fiasco of last season and the relative calm of the offseason I think the Vols should rebound enough to win this one at home. Second, as much as I hate those damn dirty hillbillies, the one thing I hate more is a bunch of damn dirty hippies, especially if they're a bunch of damn dirty Pac-10 hippies. I mean, at least the hillbillies have moonshine to brag about, all the hippies can claim are a bunch of chicks with hairy pits. Let's just say I'm going with the SEC, not the Vols.

West Virginia - Marshall: Marshall isn't the Marshall of Bob Pruett anymore, though they do have a movie in the works, so I'm not looking at them to shock anyone. West Va it is.

Alabama - Hawaii: Another trendy pick for the upset minded, but Bama's defense won't be as weak as everyone thinks (We lose 7 starters on defense and suddenly we're patsies while tOSU loses 7 starters on defense and are national title contenders. Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown!) with Robinson a returning starter and Castille having seen plenty of game time last season. With the strength in the line instead of at linebacker this year, the pass rush will be greater and the secondary is still strong enough to contain the Hawaii offense. Ask Mike Leach how passing against Bama worked out for him.

Florida - Southern Miss: You know, I have a weird soft spot for Southern Miss. They own UAB and have been a sort of rival for Bama, but something about those plucky little Golden Eagles makes me want to root for them whenever they aren't play my teams. Even though I picked Florida, I'll be pulling for them. Plus, Southern tends to be pretty solid on defense and I wouldn't be surprised to see them sack Leak a bunch of times. At which point I will laaaauuuuggghhhhhhh.....



Like that, but without some chick throwing stuff at me...unless I'm lucky...

Oklahoma - UAB: Yeah, I picked the Blazers. Mostly homerism, but if there's a legit chance of a preseason hyped BCS team getting upset in week one by a mid-major it's OU. All you Sooner faithful can thank Bomar later.

Auburn - Washington State: I went with State on this one, not out of hatred for AU but because, if recent history is any indicator, preseason hype + an opener against a BCS opponent = tough times for the Teagles.

















Bred for it's skills in magic...

Ga Tech - Notre Dame: I'm going with the Irish here. The Jackets have spoiled some seasons lately but I think they'll save their improbable wins for later on this time around.

LSU - La Lafayette: LSU by a mile.

Arkansas - USC: The Hogs get vengeance as the defense enters Reggie Herring's second year as co-ordinator and actually, you know, stops someone.

Miami - Florida State: I'm going with Miami, just 'cause they're due.

With classes starting tomorrow, UAB wrapped up two a days with a somewhat bizarre practice this morning. Though Watson didn't dress and play QB in an effort to motivate his offense, he did have the members of the team swap jerseys with a teammate and, on the last play of practice, had them line up in the position of the number they were wearing, resulting in WR Norris Drinkard lining up under center and handing off to left tackle Cornelius Rogers who gained 8 yards before fumbling the ball. Explains Brown:

"It was just something they (the players) wanted to do," said Brown. "I had a little fun with it there at the end. It also proved to them that coaching does matter. You saw what happened when we tried to let them play a position that they've never lined up at."

"I knew what would happen," said Brown. "I didn't have to go but one play."

Here's hoping Watson doesn't get any bright ideas about teaching lessons during a real game.

Snakes on a Plane

What can I say about Snakes on a Plane? There were snakes, there was a plane, Sam Jackson said his line, and we all got to go home happy. What more could you want from it? As Reel Fanatic points out most reviews start with something like "It's a bad movie, but...", but I'm going to say it's a good movie because it knows what it is and it doesn't try for more. If you're going to do only one thing, do it well, and SoaP did that. I watched it more through the lens of a disaster movie than a horror picture, and I think that's why I probably thought it worked so well. There's a very basic setup (surfer guy witnesses a murder, FBI wants him to testify, they put him on the plane, add snakes and watch the fun!) that gets us to the action and that's perfect. We don't need a ton of exposition, all we need is a reason for the cast to be in the position they are and once the plane is in the air there's nothing to do but wait and see who dies. There are the people you know won't, the people you know will, the people you hope will, and the people you hope don't but have a sneaking suspicion that they're so likeable because they are going to be killed. There's that certain satisfaction when the total asshole bites it and the moment of sadness when the nice guy gets his and, sick as it may sound, isn't that what we really love about watching these kinds of movies?

Some special YouTubery for Van, the only guy I know who prefers Kiss without the makeup.



When Kiss gets involved, the nights aren't just crazy. Nope. They're not even crazy crazy. Hell, even calling them crazy crazy crazy would be doing them a disservice. 'Cause trust me people, whenever Paul Stanley is around, you're in for some crazy crazy crazy crazy nights.



It's good to know that when the revolution comes and we're all busy scavenging for food and shelter, portions of the post-apocolyptic war zone will be filled with feral, she-beast inhabited bars to service Paul Stanley.



Not only was this a down period for Kiss musically, it was also apparently a rough patch for the group in groupie quality.



I never thought I'd say Kiss overdid something, but they really took the whole "Animalize" theme seriously, didn't they?



There's just one thing money can't buy...a dinosaur!



Even Gene looks kind of sensitive in this one.



Only Paul could make begging your ex-girlfriend for sex sound rocking.



And here's a reward for you if you sat through all the 80s Kiss.

In part nine of the ten part "Celebrity Ass I'm Reasonably Certain I Could Kick" series we have Justin Timberlake. JT recently had some disparaging remarks about Birmingham's own Taylor Hicks and the south in general:

“People think he looks so normal, and he’s so sweet and he’s so earnest, but he can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” Timberlake told Fashion Rocks, a supplement of Vanity Fair. Timberlake also thinks that Hicks’ fame is fragile. “If [Hicks] has any skeletons whatsoever, if God forbid, he’s gay, and if all these people in Mississippi who voted for him are like [then he takes on a thick southern accent], ‘Oh my god, I voted for a queer!’ It’s just too much pressure.”

You know what, Timberlake? God forbid you should ever set foot in the Magic City where I'd be more than willing to live up to the intolerant and violent stereotype you have in your head.


















Instead of subjecting you to an eyeful of that douche and a slightly amusing though highly obvious caption, here's Jessica Alba. You're welcome.