Friday Floetry x 9/14/07

This week could be called Kanye Week as everywhere (CNN, FOX, BET, Yahoo etc.) they seem to be talking about Ye’s battle with 50 Cent. With that said, I bought the album on Tuesday when it dropped (I rarely buy physical albums and even less so on the actual official drop day) and I am feeling it so far. It has several influences (or should I say “samples”) from various past sounds that haven’t typically been heard with raps on top. For example, the radio hit Stronger features “sampling” from Daft Punk (the Paris house musicians that I bet Powdered Sugar has heard about) including “harder, faster, better, stronger”. Some people might call that stealing, but according to various reports, Daft Punk has been acknowledged, compensated, and also featured in the Stronger Video.

Kanye doesn’t claim he is not confident and/or egotistical and/or self-conscious. He actually lays out all that in several of his records. At the same time some of his records talk about how those traits aren’t good overall although most people wouldn’t admit being self-conscious etc. He also doesn’t use much of the common elements in rap or hip-hop today. Those elements include selling drugs or using guns or generally causing violence. Some of his music is heady at least compared to other music in the "genre" (like he'll talk about how he and others buy expensive things because society has made them hate themselves) while other songs flirt with themes of indulgence. I think that contrast is what really stirs his true fans.

Anyway, I am officially concluding Kanye Week with Floetry from K. West (yes, I have done it before, and I’ll probably do it again, but please don’t hate…).

Friday Floetry:

…and i'm back to tear it up
haters, start your engines
I hear 'em gearin' up
people talk so much sh*t about me at barbershops
they forget to get their haircut
okay fair enough, the streets is flarin' up
cause they want gun-talk, or I don't wear enough
baggy clothes, Reebok's, or A-di-dos
can I add that he do spaz out at his shows
so say goodbye to the NAACP award
goodbye to the In-di-a Arie award
they'd rather give me the ni**a-please award
but I'll just take the I-got-alotta-cheese award

damn, here we go again.
everything I'm not, made me everything I am
damn, here we go again.
people talk sh*t, but when sh*t hits the fan
everything I'm not, made me everything I am


- Taken from Everything I Am off of Kanye West’s new album Graduation

TPC at the Dillo - Top 25 (Week 2)

1. Oklahoma Sooners (2-0) - Stoops hung 51 on the 'U' in Norman, they have a tune up this week in Utah State, then travel across state to Tulsa, October is getting closer by the W in Norman
2. Florida Gators (2-0) - Gators put up Big Numbers against the SBC front runner, however they host the Vols from Tennessee this week
3. Southern California Men of Troy (1-0) - I was a week early, but GameDay is headed to Lincoln, SoCal had last week off, looking forward to this one
4. Louisiana State Bayou Bengals (2-0) - The Tigers might be for real, that was an impressive showing against the Hokies! Middle Tennessee is next, but the 'Cocks come in the following week
5. West Virginia Mountaineers (2-0) - Nice win v. We Are Marshall, next up the Terrapins of Maryland [ed. note - Mountaineers were victorious last night vs. the Terps]
6. Alabama Crimson Tide (2-0) - Nice win via the Commodores, souiee pigs up next in Tuscaloosa
7. Nebraska Cornhuskers (2-0) - Huskernation plays host to the Men of Troy in Lincoln, this could make for some shake up in the polls
8. Texas Longhorns (2-0) - Status Quo is still alive and well in Austin, SQBrown better look at the schedule, October is coming, October is coming…. But the Horns oddly travel to UCF this week
9. Penn State Nittany Lions (2-0) - Joe-Pa put it on my Irish and almost knocked them out of My Top 25, but with Buffalo next the Nit's have a week off before they travel to the Big House in Ann Arbor - well it used to be a showdown…
10. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (2-0) - Rolled the Irish then rolled the powerhouse Samford, next up for the Jackets is Boston College
11. Wisconsin Badgers (2-0) - The Citadel comes to town I bet Camp Randall is shakin in their cleats.
12. Louisville Cardinals (2-0) - Is there a defense at Happy Hour U? I mean besides the cockblocking that happens at establishments all over, Papa Johns Stadium guarantees it won't happen in in Louisville
13. Clemson Tigers (2-0) - Smoked the WarHawks, next up is Furman, watch out at the Original Death Valley
14. California Golden Bears (2-0) - The Rustonites of LaTech travel to Berkley this week, the Bulldogs were impressive in overtime L v Hawaii, let's see if they scare the Bears
15. California - Los Angeles Golden Bruins (2-0) - Knocked down Bring'em Young, next up are the Utes I am expecting a 3-0 start from these guys
16. Ohio State Buckeyes (2-0) - Smoked Akron next up is the Washington Huskies, the Buckeyes are more delighted about the Wolverines failures than their own successes
17. Virginia Tech Hokies (1-1) - Hokies were on the receiving end of a Red Stick by the hands of Mike, but the tigers are impressive, next up the Bobcats under Frank Solich….who put it to the Cajuns in the 2nd half last week
18. Texas A&M Fighting Aggies (2-0) - Fran better begin to tune up and get ready fro their Thur Night trip to SoBe and the Hurricanes next week
19. South Carolina Gamecocks (2-0) - 'Cocks and the OBC are looking pretty good right now, big test with South Carolina State coming to town
20. South Florida Bulls (2-0) - Impressive W at Jordan-Hare in OT, next up for the Bulls - raise it up, take your shirt off
21. Arkansas Razorbacks (2-0) - Headed to Tuscaloosa to face the Tide and Saban, McFadden here is your first real test of the season
22. Arizona State Sun Devils (2-0) - Embarrassed Colorado who was supposed to be at the top of the Big XII North, next test the Aztecs of SDSU
23. Rutgers Scarlett Knights (2-0) - Next foe: Norfolk State? Who? Come on, good thing the Friday Nights are still running from last years successes
24. Notre Dame Fightin' Irish (0-2) - The Irish are winless after 2 games in the first time in their history, and they travel to Ann Arbor for the Pillow Fight of the week according to ESPN Bottom 10, but the Irish will roll, and Weis will get the Fightin back in the Irish!!!
25. Houston Cougars (0-1) - Off this past week, this week travel to New Orleans to play TooLame, Coogs should roll

West v. Jackson

Well, about 5 weeks ago (see Fantastic Day For Hip-Hop), I told you how both Kanye West and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson were dropping their respective albums on Tuesday September 11th. In case you were wondering how it turned out, I have the first estimates for you.

According to Billboard, projections from three major record label executives are predicting that Kanye's Graduation may sell 575,000 to 700,000 copies in the first week. These same projections estimate 50 Cent's Curtis may sell 500,000 to 600,000 in the first week.

The official "scorekeeper" for album sales is Nielsen SoundScan. The people at Nielsen have a new system in place called the "Building Chart" which gives an early look at the final weekly charts (official weekly tallies are posted on Sundays at midnight). "Building Chart" looks at a group of merchants that represent about 90% of the music merchant market.

According to "Building Chart", Graduation sold 437,000 copies on its first day, while Curtis sold 310,000 copies. On a related note, the 3rd highest sales position on Tuesday went to Kenny Chesney's Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates which sold 107,000 copies on its first day.

Seems like Kanye is going to beat out 50 in first week sales. If Graduation ends up selling on the higher end of the 575,000 to 700,000 copies range, it may beat the 2007 record held by Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight which sold about 623,000 copies in its first week.

Kanye West's last album, Late Registration (2005) sold about 860,000 copies in its first week while 50 Cent's last album, The Massacre (2005) sold 1.1 million the first week out. Earlier, 50 Cent had promised to give up on his solo rap career (and apparently focus on group rap and/or producing) if Kanye beat him out in the first week. 50 supposedly retracted those comments before this past Tuesday's official drop date. Prior to that, 50 had dropped the acronym "SSK" from the title of his album (now only called Curtis). "SSK" stood for SoundScan Killer.

By the way, that is Kanye's Bear (his logo) wearing Alain Milki see-through shades (which Kanye has been sporting for many of his recent performances and promotional events) in the upper left corner of this post.

L'Shana Tova

With tonight bringing the onset of the Jewish New Year with Erev Rosh Hoshanah beginning at sundown, I will not be posting until the holiday ends Friday evening or more likely Saturday. To all my fellow Jewish readers, I wish you all L'Shana Tova. Enjoy your apples and honey.

Whilst I am away, my fellow contributors will hold serve in my stead and I give you a wonderful article on the original Hammerin Hank Greenberg (h/t to One More Dying Quail - amazing article sir). Of course, this article reminded of that classic scene in the movie Airplane!

Elaine Dickinson: Would you like something to read?
Hanging Lady: Do you have anything light?
Elaine Dickinson: How about this leaflet, "Famous Jewish Sports Legends?"

See y'all on Saturday!

G.O.A.T.

Well, this past weekend I went to NYC to hang out with my parents and some friends. I picked this particular weekend as it was the last weekend for the U.S. Open of tennis and we have been going for the Men’s Final the last few years. I used to follow professional tennis a lot more when I was younger, probably because we would watch many of the matches at home on TV. The U.S. Open would always coincide with the start of the school year in New Jersey so for years I was sort of unable to go, but luckily there was TV.

In any case, that’s why I decided to write about the professional tennis world today and tell you about a player named Roger Federer in case you don't follow the sport at all. Roger Federer will be considered the G.O.A.T. in professional tennis sooner rather than later. If you don’t know what the G.O.A.T. is, think Muhammad Ali in boxing, or Michael Jordan in basketball. Federer has been called the Tiger Woods of golf, and I guess you can say that Tiger Woods is chasing the G.O.A.T. status in that sport(Federer and Woods are apparently friends and attend each others events when their schedules allow). Other G.O.A.T.s could include Lance Armstrong, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, and Pele.

The Men’s Final at the U.S. Open on Sunday was probably the best Finals I have been to thus far. Federer didn’t look like he was at the top of his game, he mentioned being nervous about being on the verge of history, or maybe it was that the challenger from Serbia, Novak Djokovic (ranked #3 in the world to Federer’s #1), was quick enough and strong enough to hang with the Swiss. In the end, Federer stayed relatively calm as per usual. The young Serb hung in there even after being one point away, about 7 times total, from winning each of the first two sets. In the end, Federer won in 3 sets. The first 2 sets went all the way to tiebreakers, with the match offically coming in at 7-6, 7-6, 6-4.

Some people are defined by their sole victory in a Grand Slam. Federer has already won 12 Grand Slam titles. With his win on Sunday, Federer passed tennis greats Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver in terms of Grand Slam titles. He is currently tied with Roy Emerson. The record of 14 Grand Slam titles is held by Federer’s favorite player growing up, American Pete Sampras. There are four Grand Slam tennis tournaments played every year. These are: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. Thus, barring any major injury or premature retirement, it is very realistic that the 26 year-old Federer will utterly destroy Sampras’ record.

With his win at the U.S. Open this weekend, Federer already holds the “Open Era” record for most consecutive U.S. Opens in a row with 4 in a row. The “Open Era” is considered the period of the U.S. professional tennis championship tournament from 1968 to today. American Bill Tilden won the U.S. Championships 5 times in a row from 1920-1925 (a mark Federer could tie next year). With his win at Wimbeldon this year, Federer equaled Bjorn Borg’s open-era record of 5 consecutive Wimbledons. Furthermore, Federer set a record for most consecutive years in which a player has won both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon in the same year. Federer has won both prestigious Grand Slams each year for the past 4 years. Another record Federer holds is having won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open in the same year three times (2004, 2006, and this year).

In his professional career, which started in 1998, Federer has won 51 singles tournaments and 7 doubles tournaments. He has amassed over 35 million dollars in the process just from his tennis winings alone. He has been ranked No. 1 in the World since February 2, 2004. That is 189 consecutive weeks, a record for any male or female professional tennis player.

I’m honestly not sure where I first heard or read the term G.O.A.T. but I have definitely seen it out there several times. For one to truly be considered the G.O.A.T., especially in a one-on-one competition such as singles tennis, we have to look back at history. We have to wonder what would have happened if Federer at his prime had played Sampras at his prime, or any of the other players considered “All-Time Greats”. Who are we to say that Federer is better, faster, stronger etc. than every other player ever before him? An argument can be made that maybe Federer is dominating because his competition is lesser than what other dominating players dealt with in the past.

But, Federer is still young, not in decline, and seemingly still so much better than most of his competition (Rafael Nadal and maybe Djokovic in the future seem to have the particular skill set to challenge if not beat him consistently). Will it take him 15 Grand Slam Titles for there to be no doubt? 20?

Watching him play on Sunday, I increasingly felt that its only a matter of months, not years, before he deserves the title of G.O.A.T. I used to consider him the enemy when he played Andre Agassi in the U.S. Open Finals in 2005 and when he played Andy Roddick in the Finals last year. For much of the night matches at the U.S. Open he actually came out to the Darth Vader theme and wore all black. On Sunday, I realized that you can’t hate on someone that is so fluid, professional, and generally mind-blowingly great at what they do…

In my opinion, Roger Federer deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Jordan, Ali, Ruth, Gretzky, Pele, and eventually Tiger Woods. Roger Federer is cementing his name as the Greatest Of All Time in Professional Tennis and in the even greater "God-like" status of sports in general.

Balls of Fury Movie Review

I actually caught this movie the weekend before last and may I say that I was a tad disappointed. I don't know if I just had high expectations for this movie or what. I mean Christopher Walken and ping pong, what could go wrong. Unfortunately the lead character is very boring and one-note, which wouldn't be bad if he had any charisma to hold down the lead. Looking through his filmography, Dan Fogler has basically been a sidekick and that is where his talents lie. This movie had a funny premise, but few jokes to really back it up. I have noticed lately that the funnier the premise (see Talledega Nights and Blades of Glory), the less funny the movie will be, especially when you have a movie like Superbad that has a very simplistic plot of two friends try to attend last party in high school, but turns it into something magical. Not to give giving too much away, but the movie revolves around a down-on-his-luck ping pong player who is recruited by the FBI to help take down master criminal Walken at an underground ping pong tournament. This movie banked a lot on the cameos of some very funny actors, but unfortunately, they too were one-note. Did I laugh throughout a good portion? Yes, but there seemed to be too many times where I thought to myself (and later confirmed with Brownie) that they took the joke to station B when they should have stayed on course and gone for station A. Altogether, this will make a much better movie as a rental or when it randomly comes on HBO or Spike and you do not have total focus on it.

3 out of 6 beers.

Mr. Bean's Vacation

:( I am sad. This movie was not up to my expectations. Too bad, it could have been fantastic. However, it was still very funny. I was giggling quite a bit. I think there were two major flaws with the movie. 1. It was very short. I like my movies to be two hours...if I am going to stand in line, pay for parking, buy food/drinks/whatever I want to see a movie, not a show. 2. The jokes were duplicated too often. There were multiple times I was saying to myself, not again.
I still enjoyed it though. Like I said, I was giggling the entire time. I think the idea of British comedies is fantastic. I love that dry humor. And Mr. Bean - a classic as he is - is one of my fav's. I think he is best served on a short 30 minute show instead of a full blown movie. I will continue to be a fan of this weird voiced nut job, but I say, save the movie for a rental.

NFL Week 1 Review

The most important thing about week 1 (if I am wrong, please let me know and I apologize if I jinx it) was that I did not hear John Mellencamp singing Our Country. Has Chevy shelved these ads? I saw one during a CFB telecast last week, but NFL games were remarkably silent. Unfortunately, the new commercial from hell is for Heinekin's Draught Keg. Not only does the music absolutely suck, the chick/robot is utterly disturbing. This commercial airs not only during games, but on every channel, every night. I am scared out of my mind right now that this chick will show up with her six arms and ability to clone herself and chop me up in the middle of the night since I don't drink Heinekin.

And now a game by game breakdown of Sunday's (and Thursday's) games:

Saints vs. Colts - Indy D may have turned the corner during the offseason last year and only appear to be getting better. Saints O looked slow. They better get it together cause Carolina looked strong.

Broncos-Bills - Denver needed a last second (and I mean last second) rushed field goal from Jason Elam to beat the Bills. Two questions - (1) Why did the Bills go for a long pass on 3rd and 5 with just over 2 minutes left when if they had run the ball, they could have brought the clock down to the 2 minute warning? (2) Why didn't Cutler spike the ball before the field goal? Prayers go out to Kevin Everett, who was taken to the hospital and is currently in ICU after spinal surgery due to a vicious collision on a kickoff return.

Steelers-Browns - Wow, do the Browns look terrible. I think it is time to usher in the Brady Quinn era. Steelers looked strong, but that could just be the Browns looking really bad.

Packers-Iggles - Favre looks old, Eagles have poor special teams and Mason Crosby is the man. Neither of these teams should do anything this year.

Panthers-Rams - This is the Carolina team that we have been expecting the past few years. St. Louis should still contend, but Steven Jackson should remember to hold onto the frickin ball. St. Louis will be better and Carolina should give NO all they can handle in the NFC South.

Falcons-Vikings - Adrian Peterson looks like the wunderkind he was before injury derailed his senior season at OU. If he can have more games like this, maybe the Vikings aren't as bad as expected. On the other hand, the Falcons are terrible and are in the driver's seat to drafting Brian Brohm.

Patriots-Jets - This game was more about Tom Brady than it was about Randy Moss. Brady finally has the receivers in place, especially little man, Wes Welker. Indy-NE will be fun whenever they play each other. Jets? Eh.

Dolphins-Redskins - Boring game, but exciting finish. Especially at the end of regulation when the hail mary was seemingly knocked down by the Dolphins only for Antwaan Randle El to catch it and try to get to the end zone, only to fall just short. It would've been interesting if he tried to turn back left and go to the far side of the field. Even with Trent Green, the Dolphins offense is no bueno.

Titans-Jaguars - Neither team looked that good, but where did Chris Brown come from. Wow. People somehow are still going to credit the victory to Vince Young even though his stats were a pathetic 11-18 for 78 yards and a pick, to go along with 11 carries for a mere 22 yards for an amazing 47.9 QB rating. Thankfully, the Titans have a decent defense.

Chiefs-Texans - The Texans looked good. The Chiefs looked awful. Next week's game between Carolina and Houston will us a lot more about the Texans. Matt Schaub looked good and did stuff David Carr could/would not do. Can't say enough about Matt Turk and that punt before halftime that killed off any chance the Chiefs had of making it a game at the half.

Lions-Raiders - Say it with me. Jon Kitna!!!!!! When the boy say he goin for 4,000 yards this year, ya betta recognize.

Bears-Chargers - Bears defense still good. Bears offense still very suspect. Chargers look good to take AFC West with few problems despite slow start. SD D looks very good.

Bucs-Seahawks - I had no idea this game was being played. Sorry.

Giants-Cowboys - Both offenses look good, both defenses look like shite, especially that of the GMen sans Umenyiora. The big question coming out of this game is whether Eli Manning is healthy and whether Ward can come in for Jacobs as the starting rb.

Tonight we have a doubleheader - Ravens @ Bengals and Cardinals @ 49ers.

Judz College Football Top 25 (Week 2)

Judz' Top 25 after the second week of the regular season. Michigan, Auburn, Boise State, Miami, TCU and Hawaii have all dropped out of the Top 25 this week.

1. LSU
2. Oklahoma
3. USC
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Wisconsin
7. California
8. Louisville
9. UCLA
10. Rutgers
11. Penn State
12. Texas
13. Ohio State
14. Oregon
15. Georgia Tech
16. South Carolina
17. Virginia Tech
18. Boston College
19. Nebraska
20. Michigan State
21. Clemson
22. Georgia
23. South Florida
24. Texas A&M
25. Tennessee

CFB Week 2 Review

So like last week, I will run down conference by conference a few key games.

1. ACC - Wake played well despite having their backup qb and Miami and VT looked terrible when faced with superior opponents. I didn't watch the FSU game, but beating UAB by only 10 is not a good sign.

2. Big 12 - Texas took care of business against TCU, but still looked a little out of sync on offense. Nebraska better play better than they did against Wake if they want to contend with USC this weekend. A&M struggled in a 3OT game with Fresno State (this is nowhere near the same Fresno team that took USC to the limit a few years back). Iowa State is just bad and Texas Tech came back from a pretty sizable deficit to take care of UTEP.

3. Big East - Louisville and West Virginia's defenses better play better if they want to stay in the top 10, though both offenses are still prolific as ever. Rutgers looked solid. The big surprise, though some people called it (not me), is South Florida. They upset a ranked Auburn team in Auburn in overtime. Cincinnati looks decent and Syracuse is suck.

4. Big 10 - Michigan, Michigan, Michigan. The University of Houston played so much better against the Ducks than did the Wolverines and the Coogs played in Autzen, whilst Michigan played at home. Luckily they play Notre Dame this Saturday in a game of two 0-2 teams. I watched a good portion of the Wisconsin game and they did not look anything like they did a week ago. However, judging by score alone, the Buckeyes struggled against the Zips of Akron. Penn State had no problems with ND.

5. C-USA - East Carolina recorded a victory over North Carolina and Southern Miss played tough against Tennessee, so these are your teams to beat in the East. The best teams in the West had the week off (Houston and Tulsa). Big props to Marshall for putting up a valiant fight against in-state rival West Virginia.

6. MAC - There were a lot of almosts in the MAC this week with Ball State, Miami of Ohio and Akron each falling short of upset victories.

7. MWC - TCU had its opportunities and a halftime lead, but the offense is not nearly what it needs to be to beat the top teams. Colorado State, BYU and UNLV all played well against BCS conference teams, but each came up with a loss.

8. California looked shaky. Oregon (especially their defense) looked much better this week against Michigan than they did last week against Houston. Washington had the biggest win by knocking off Boise State. Ty Willingham has the Huskies at 2-0, while his former employer is sitting at 0-2 (Notre Dame for those interested). USC had the week off before traveling to Lincoln for its showdown with Nebraska this coming Saturday.

9. Sun Belt - Middle Tennessee's offense could not be stopped by Louisville. Too bad the rest of the conference didn't bother showing up this week.

10. SEC - LSU, wow! I knew these guys were good, but to utterly destroy VT was impressive to watch. This is going to be a fun team to watch all year. There were two big upsets in the SEC this week. First, was USF beating Auburn and the second was Spurrier and the Cocks going into Athens and taking out the Bulldogs of UGA. After last week's impressive showing against Okie State, I thought UGA may make a run at the SEC East, but this loss will derail that, especially since they still have to play Florida in the cocktail party.

11. WAC - Boise State loses. Hawaii barely wins in OT. The amazing thing about Colt Brennan is that he owns or will own many of David Klingler's passing records, but the main difference was the Klingler had a defense and he would rarely play the second half. Not to mention that Brennan gets extra games each year because he plays for Hawaii.

Big games to watch this Saturday - USC @ Nebraska, Tennessee @ Florida, BC @ GT, ND @ Michigan, Houston @ Tulane

I was making my way through the blogosphere and ran across this picture over at Houston's Clear Thinkers regarding Notre Damd fandom (kick'em while there down b/c that NBC deal is bs and ND should be forced into a conference if they want to play in the BCS):