Sunday Reflections: Non-Sports Edition

I’ve had so many things to reflect upon that I’m going to break it up into two parts, a non-sports one and a sports one later.

I purchased the new Omar Rodriquez-Lopez album, Old Money, and love it. Omar is of course the guitarist in my favorite group ever, the Mars Volta.

I was talking with Kenisha about this and I need to get some stock in that group because I pump them up so much yet they are still relatively unknown, even though they are nominated for a Grammy this year, which I’m watching off and on. I’ll get to that below, but for now, here’s the title track from that album featuring John Fruciante from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers:



-I always get stuck into watching the Grammys because I actually hear of most of the artists, albums and songs that get nominated. Its unlike the Oscars where movies I haven’t even seen will get awards and I have no basis to say yea or ney to it.

Coldplay may be the perfect Grammy group ever. They aren’t too threatening for the older voters, hip enough for the younger and middle-aged ones, everyone buys their albums and knows their music so the Grammy committee won’t be criticized for not being mainstream, the lead singer is married to another celebrity so they hit the pop culture element. I really don’t know anyone who truly dislikes their music. Some people may not be fans of theirs but don’t find them bad.

-I’m not a fan of Lil Wayne and I don’t get his appeal. I remember dude when he was with the Hot Boys and was doing tracks on Juvenile’s album, 400 Degreez.

Anyone remember that album? It was the business back in college. Anyway, I’ve followed Wayne’s career and I’m still shaking my head at his development. Good for him doing his hustle.

-Carrie Underwood just performed at the show and I’m not usually a fan of hers and she’s still too thin for my liking but she can get it. My goodness, I understand the appeal.



-I’ve always had a secret crush on Alison Krauss and seeing her success with Robert Plant has been nice to see. In fact, we’ll make her the Crush of the Day.

She has one of the most beautiful female voice I’ve ever heard. Its so sweet and relaxing. I can listen to her sing the dictionary and would be down with it.

-Seeing Miley Cyrus perform with Taylor Swift made me think of only two things. First, Taylor seems nice but she couldn’t get it. I wouldn’t kick her out of my house, if you get my drift, but still. Second, how can Miley have a model-boyfriend who is in his early 20’s and she’s like 15 or 16 and everyone has cosigned on this? I guess the parents approve.

-Speaking of women that can get it, Katy Perry, she fits my profile to a tee.

-OK, enough Grammy talk. I saw the lineup for Bonnaroo and was into it, especially when I saw that the Volta were in it.

You have to understand, I’ve never seen these guys perform live and they are a tremendous live band. I have every album that they’ve done as the Mars Volta. I have every album they did with their old group, At the Drive In. I listen to their songs when I work out everyday, whenever I’m in my car, even right now, I’m listening to some of their music.

I really, really, really want to see them live. They don’t tour in America often, at least near Nashville. Bonnaroo may be the closest that I get to seeing the guys.

However, I don’t think that Bonnaroo is the place to do it.

Its not finances, I have the money, but I just don’t know if I want to deal with a festival.

You have to deal with living arrangements, strange people and other things that I’m usually not in the mood for.

It’s a tough decision because besides the Volta, Bruce Springsteen, Beastie Boys, Nine frickin Nails, David Byrne from Talking Heads, Al Green, Snopp Dogg…crap I may need to go to this.

Erykah Badu, TV on the Radio (my boys from Brooklyn), Band of Horses, Ben Harper, are you kidding me? Yeah, I might need to purchase those tickets now.

-Valentine’s day is approaching and usually I’m a bitter man about being single this time of year, but new approaches are always welcomed. You know this requires a separate post later this week approaching Saturday.

-Just saw Teen Wolf on TV, fun, old-school movie.

-This week, I saw the new movie, Taken. It was OK, good action flick. Liam Neeson was excellent in it and Famke Janssen looks tremendous.



Yeah, I know. The action was solid and I was not bored throughout it. The only thing about it is that when Liam’s daughter gets stolen, you kind of don’t feel so bad about it. His daughter and friend do some of the stupidest stuff you can do in a foreign country and I’m sitting there and thinking to myself, “of course she was taken and kinda deserved it,” that’s not a good feeling to have.

I recommend it, especially after seeing Benjamin Button and The Wrestler the past two weeks, I wanted something light and this accomplished that goal.

-Finally, well, first, thanks for reading this far, means a lot to me.

This week overall was OK, had some lonely moments.

Had a disappointing moment academically that made me mad and that started a two to three day period of feeling down on things which I’m starting to get out of some today.

I wrote about having a sense of calm for the past two weeks or so a little while ago and how that was a new approach of things, well, the calm is still there but its tempered some.

I still have mental and physical issues that will be with me my entire life. That’s a part of my life that I have to manage and make sure that it doesn’t harm my development.

There will still be moments when this guy will appear…

XXXXXXXXXXX

And you will see a post about my depression but that’s OK. I don’t have answers and definitely not solutions but I have ways to approach it.

That’s why either Friday or Saturday night, I looked at my mantras and reminded myself of some purposes and felt better.

-Finally, saw the first episode of For the Love of Ray-J on VH1, I’m in. Maybe the most beautiful reality TV show cast ever for a dating show, I’m digging Ray-J’s style and approach with his women and the unintentional comedy is peaking already.

Also, Rock of Love is coming along strongly as well. VH1 is coming on strong.

MMA Review

Some music, Angry Johnny by Poe. It will make sense.



Sorry for the belated MMA Review. Life comes up sometimes and there’s nothing you can do about it, however, I’m back with a final review of UFC 94 and other mixed martial arts news:

-I missed UFC Fight Night last night because, actually I don’t remember what I was doing last night but I missed the event, so there will be no commentary on that.

-You’re probably wondering what my opinion of the whole “Vasoline-gate” event that took place against Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn.

As a preface, B.J. is probably my favorite fighter ever, however, my boy got his butt whipped by the superior fighter.

GSP won the fight and I know that the greasing of …OK, some of you are novices to MMA, which is fine, so let me tell you what happened.

In between rounds of the BJ vs. GSP fight, the trainers of GSP were applying Vasoline to his back in the corner, which is illegal to put it simply. The Nevada Athletic Commission, who pretty much serve as the referees/officials for a fight, noticed this and wiped the grease off of GSP’s back. However, BJ’s camp and even UFC officials, who you must know don’t legislate this type of stuff during a fight, noticed this during and after the fact and BJ has filed a complaint.

Some may be saying that BJ has sour grapes and is trying to make excuses for his loss, however, I don’t look at it this way. BJ should file a complaint/grievance against the NAC if for anything to make aware of this potential practice for the future. I don’t think that the Vasoline determined the winner of the contest, but it still shouldn’t be done.

On to the actual contest, I was shocked at how easy GSP passed BJ’s guard on numerous occasions. Plus, GSP’s strategy to tire out BJ in the early rounds by grappling with him to wear out his shoulders was advanced scouting and shows the excellence of Greg Jackson, GSP trainer, and his crew.

I’ve never had a major beef with GSP but I was going for BJ and that’s fine. Thiago Alves will be his next opponent and that’s going to be rough if Thiago can make weight. Oh how our memories are so shortsighted in MMA.

For BJ, he isn’t retiring, at least he better not. That would be the ultimate bitch move for him to lose and then just leave the sport without defending his lightweight title against Ken Florian or anyone else for that matter. I would be disappointed as a fan if he took this route.

Furthermore, I don’t want to see a third fight between these two, that would be counterproductive. Look at me using big words.

As a fan of the UFC, I was kinda glad that BJ lost because him holding two titles would be good for him but not so good for the organization because he holds up two titles from being defended at the same time or heaven forbid he injured himself after the fight. Then we get into the whole interim champion stuff which no one likes.

-Lyota Machida deserves a title shot. Even though I called him boring doesn’t mean that I didn’t think that he deserved a chance to get the light heavy strap.

His performance against Thiago Silva was impressive, including the knockout right at the end of the round, loved that. I like Rampage but Lyota needs to fight Rashad Evans first.

-I have a new MMA crush and his name is Jon Jones. His walkout music is featured above, which is one of the best tie-ins to an actual name and vibe for a song, loved it.

That dude is only 21 years old, scary potential. He dominated Stephan Bonner. His spinning back elbow was sweet and the shot of the night besides Lyoto’s knockout punch. Jones’ wrestling skills are an excellent base for him and when he improves striking with that 6’4’’ frame as a light heavy, it may be a wrap.

Jones’ emergence just shows how young MMA fighters are becoming. It used to take years for guys to reach an elite level but now you’re seeing guys in their mid-20’s contending for titles. GSP is the epidomy of this at 27 years’ old.

-I like the energy that this guy brings to the ring and the positivity that he has, but there is no way that Clay Guida should be able to beat Nate Diaz. I still don’t know how Diaz lost that fight, let alone let it get to a decision. That shouldn’t have happened. If Diaz just kept working his jab and using reach, then the match should have been no contest.

However, when you try to act like wannabe thugs like the Diaz brothers, this thing tends to happen.

-Final note, I love, love, love, love and love the fact that Strikeforce is purchasing Elite XC.

I love the UFC and what they’ve done for the sport, however, we as fans need more fights. A monopoly isn’t a good thing for the sport. I’ll hit on that more next week since I don’t have an event to review.

With that folks, have a good night.

Sports Book Club Announcement!

Hey people’s. Lots to get to so let’s start…

-That NBA Review post is going to have to wait until the weekend. If I’m going to do it, I have to do it properly.

-Michael Phelps smoking marijuana is something that warrants its own separate post but it perfectly ties in all that I like to address on this blog. That will also be hit on this weekend.

-You need some music, so here’s some Chemical Brothers with Believe:



OK, on to what this post is really about, the launch of my sports book club. If Oprah can have a book club, why not me or I or whatever preposition fits.

I like sports and I like to read, so lets just merge those two together and have some fun with it.

I’ve actually purchased two books and was torn on which one to start with because one is on probably my favorite current sport right now but may be less accessible to you and maybe less popular, while the second one is by one of my favorite authors on one of the most infamous championship teams of this generation.

So, the first book in the Pourtout Pancakes book club is…



Boys Will Be Boys by Jeff Pearlman, the author of one of my favorite sports books ever, The Bad Guys Won!, a chronicle of the World Series-winning 1986 Mets.

If you want to purchase the book online, here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Be-Cowboys-Dynasty/dp/0061256803

Here are the stipulations/rules of the book club:

1) The first rule of the book club is do not talk about the book club.
2) Ok, that was a lame attempt at a joke.
3) You will have one month from the day of the book announcement to read it.
4) I will give you no clues to how it turns out throughout, to not spoil it.
5) I will pick a different sport/subject every month. So since this is a football book, I will not do another football one for a while.
6) The book must have been released within the past few years, within reason.
7) The book must be non-fiction.
8) The book must be available for you to get, no old-school or out of print books here, at least for now.
9) I will be completely honest in my review of the book, even if the author is a fan of the blog, which Jeff has actually left a comment on here one time.
10) If the reception is well enough of the book, I’ll try to interview the author or key parties within the book here on the blog.
11) Suggestions are always, always welcomed. Just leave them in the comments section.

OK, that’s all for now, I’ll keep leaving you reminders about once a week to read the book and give you a warning of when I’ll do my final review.

Have a good fight and good night.

This...is...awesome

Two questions:

1) Buddy, this is real life and it can last forever

2) Where can I get some of that stuff?

Final NFL Review for a while...or at least until July

Its time for the final NFL Review of the year. Mixed emotions. While I enjoy doing this post every Tuesday or Monday in this case, I was really getting frustrated writing about the same teams week after week.

There are only so many things that you can say about the Lions or Bengals. That’s why I started to add some pop culture and outside football items to make it more interesting for you, the reader, and me. I enjoyed my odes to Seinfeld the most.

Here’s how you should feel as a fan of the two Super Bowl teams…first, some general thoughts on the game itself:

-Good game. Excellent ending, but can we please lay off proclaiming it to be the best Super Bowl ever, yet. Let’s give it a week or two to digest before we make these grand statements.

-Game effort by the Cardinals but the Steelers did more to lose that game then Arizona actually winning the contest. If Pittsburgh was able to convert some short runs, then the game would have been potentially a blowout.

-I don’t give a damn about Kurt Warner, his wife, Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., Larry Fitzgerald, Sr., Larry the Third if he exists, Cuba Gooding, Jr., everyone’s mother, father, sister, brother, anybody. Just want to see the game.

-OK, here was my favorite commercial. Remember, I don’t watch the game for the frickin commercials, but this one caught my eye and made me laugh out loud, so it had that going for it:



I do daydream of punching small animals, especially koala bears. How did it get a pair of glasses to fit him or coffee for that matter?

OK, I like the E*Trade babies as well, but they didn’t even use their best commercial for the Super Bowl. This one didn’t make the cut but is the best one by far…



A final note on the commercials. I’m a fan of Black Eyed Peas, but to see Bob Dylan and Will I Am on a split screen darn near ruined my evening. Furthermore, seeing Gina Carano and Bruce Lee together just didn’t sit right for me as well.

-I’m looking forward to Dockett of the Cardinals holding out to start training camp next season after his breakout performance.

-Larry Fitzgerald is the truth but Santonio Holmes has emerged as well.

-Roethlisberger was a beast last night and now has two Super Bowl championships. I said from the day that he was drafted that he would be the best QB in that class which included Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers. I was pissed that the Giants traded up to take Manning when Ben was right there for the taking at the #4 spot. I saw him play for Miami of Ohio on TV and knew that he would be the business.

Am I still bitter for the Giants passing on him, yes, yes I am.

-Penalties didn’t lose that game for Arizona, even though James Harrison’s assault on that Cardinal was pretty nasty…speaking of Harrison…

-His interception return for a touchdown to end the first half was one of the most awesome plays that I’ve ever seen.

-Bruce did well for halftime. I wouldn’t have gone with 10th Avenue Freezeout but I was cool with that. Born to Run was necessary. I didn’t know the song from the new album but it was ok. Glory Days for a football game? I can’t cosign on that one. Plus, he replaced baseball with football in the lyrics, I can’t let that fly.

OK, let’s get to the teams:

Arizona Cardinals: Saddened with Happiness. You’re a frickin Arizona Cardinals fan. You went from the worst franchise in the history of the league to the Super Bowl. You can’t argue with that. Warner is coming back and so is the rest of the team. You may look back at how close you were to seeing the team win ten years from now if you’re finishing off another 4-12 season but you will look back on this and be happy. You’re too close to the moment right now to be completely happy with it so you’re sad but you will get over it.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Euphoria. Your team just won the Super Bowl and speaking from experience last year with the Giants, it’s a nice feeling. I think that the last Super Bowl win against the Seahawks meant more because a whole generation of fans went without getting a title. However, the Steelers are going nowhere. In fact, I think that they win the Super Bowl once in the next two years to get three for this decade and become the team of the decade or something like that. Plus, the Steelers are the best run organization in the league so you have no worries of them turning into the Raiders anytime soon.

That’s really all I got for you tonight. Have a good night and get ready for the launch of the NBA Review starting tomorrow night.

Sunday Reflections

What’s going on everyone, its time for those Sunday Reflections:

First, when I did my MMA Review from last week writing about my top-five walkout songs, how in the world did I forget Just Like You Imagined from Nine Inch Nails. I think that I avoided naming it because of its connection with the movie 300. I was trying to be “outside the box” with my picks. Go get the Fragile album by NIN like right now, its worth it:



-I’m watching the Super Bowl right now and actually enjoying it for the following reasons:

1) No Super Bowl party. I learned this from last year seeing the Giants win the big game, I don’t like watching games with people, especially at a Super Bowl party.

You will have the jackasses there who only want to watch it for the commercials. You have the women and heaven forbid the men who don’t know anything about the game. And you start answering terrible questions like have the Steelers always been in Pittsburgh, how each team did this season and what happened to the Cowboys. I can do without you.

2) No overanalysis. I didn’t watch one moment of ESPN this entire week. I didn’t read one story on the game. This was the best approach ever.

The problem with the Super Bowl is the over analysis by every talking head, every writer, the entire media. I don’t blame the media in so much that they have to cover the event but place the blame more on the fans who cater to this continuous coverage. We wouldn’t receive so much coverage of the game if there wasn’t an audience for it.

3) Lack of care for the entire game and the participants. If Pittsburgh or Arizona won the game, I would lose no sleep over it and that makes this game more enjoyable.

4) Rooting for both teams to lose. I don’t want Pittsburgh to win because they’re fans worship an ugly yellow wash cloth. If I saw a Terrible Towel in my presence, I would urinate on it and then light it on fire and then urinate on it again to put the fire out because fires cause damage.

I don’t want Arizona to win because I’ve had enough of Kurt Warner. First, that whole story about how they met that some of you have received in your e-mail this past week is partially bullshit. I don’t like feel good stories in sports.

A team wins or loses and God, Jesus, Satan, Allah, Buddah, who the hell ever doesn’t care. Sports don’t matter in the overall scope of life. It’s the truth and I work in sports.

5) Watching the game in mute so that I can listen to my new Thievery Corporation, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Minus the Bear albums. Al Michaels and John Madden don’t do it for me.

6) Not giving a damn about commercials. I don’t need a commercial to tell me beer is good. I don’t need a commercial to tell me if I need a new car. I don’t need a commercial to tell me to eat potato chips. You get the idea, even though free breakfast at Denny’s on Tuesday is intriguing.

7) Not really caring about seeing Bruce Springstein. That’s actually not true. I’m from New York and love rock music, of course I’m a Bruce fan.

8) Not caring if my prediction is correct. When I wrote my last NFL Review post about predicting 17 of the last 18 Super Bowl winners, I looked back on having that much knowledge of the games and realizing that I cared too much about predicting the winner of the contest to later show my intelligence to friends and family.

Sports isn’t about predicting who will win and lose. The thing we enjoy most about sports is the element of not knowing what’s going to happen because every game, contest or match is different. Sure we look at trends and can foreshadow what will take place but isn’t it actually a good thing that we can’t always see what’s going to happen.

So if Arizona won the contest, no worries…which is a perfect segway to my next Reflection.

-I wrote on Thursday about the mellow mood that I’ve been in the past week or two and was wondering why I’ve been in this mood. I think in the end that I don’t worry about things that are out of my control and I’ve learned acceptance. I don’t seek to be happy or sad, I work towards living within the moment. I don’t worry about my job, school, women, relationships, bills or even family.

I have things that I need to do but none of them run my life.

However, in the past few days, I’ve slipping up from my regimen. I haven’t been in the gym, been eating improperly and that turns into bad things for me.

I need to remember my mantras, continue to get rest, meditate and I think that my tranquility will become equitable.

-I heard this song during all of the build up for UFC 94 which I will touch on in a moment. I’ve actually listened to People in Planes in the past but didn’t put together that the song used during UFC Primetime was Last Man Standing. Tremendous song:



-I’m going to hit on a major review of UFC 94 on Friday during MMA Review, but here are some initial thoughts for those of you out there that you can use to speak with MMA fans even if you don’t know the sport well:

1) I’m a huge B.J. Penn fan and his recommitment to MMA parallels my refocus on things in my life so I have a connection with the guy. My heart was telling me that he would win by TKO in the fourth round but my head was telling me GSP by decision. In the end, I said GSP by TKO in the fourth round and damn if I wasn’t correct. Business is business

2) With all due respect to Fedor and Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre is the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA today. GSP outboxed, out wrestled and dominated Penn.

3) I watched the entire event at an MMA gym and with fans and fighters who really know the sport. We were so amazed at how GSP was passing Penn’s guard like it was a light training session.

4) Lyota Machida deserves a title shot. Its that simple.

5) Jon Jones will be the next star of MMA, mark it down.

-Why would I want to list 25 Random Things about myself on Facebook when I have a Blog with worldwide readership?

-Here’s what I plan to write on this week with some Reflections thrown in:

Monday: Final NFL Review of the year
Tuesday: Debut of NBA Review
Wednesday: Announcement of my first book for my Sports Book Club…that’s right, Oprah has nothing on me.
Thursday: Wildcard
Friday: MMA Review
Saturday: Whatever the heck I want
Sunday: Reflections

That’s all for my Reflections.

Have a good fight and good night. RIP Helio Gracie.

MMA Review

Its time for that MMA Review!

Of course, this whole post will be on UFC 94, the biggest mixed martial arts event in the history of the sport in the world!!!

In all seriousness, besides the incredible B.J. Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre main event, the entire card has some excellent depth.

-I’m interested to see how Stephan Bonnar recovers from his injuries and implements himself into the light heavyweight division. Before he had his knee injury, he was developing solidly in his career. However, he’s been off for more than a year and after what we saw in the Shogun Rua/Mark Coleman fight earlier this month, ring rust is something that can’t be ignored. Its one thing to train and another thing to fight.

-Jon Fitch fighting in the preliminary bouts, that’s cold.

-The potential fight of the night can be Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida, seriously. Guida brings the energy and Diaz is a talented fighter. I’m looking forward to this one and the winner will make a case in the lightweight division.

-It’s always fun to see Karo “The Heat” Parisyan fight.

-I hate to say it but Lyoto Machida is boring. However, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t effective, a top-five light heavy and deserves a title fight. He should be fighting Evans for the title. However, he better not look past Thiago Silva because Silva is the type of fighter that can push the pressure and catch you. I still think that Lyoto wins but it isn’t a lock.

-Ok, on to the big event. First, I must preface this by saying that my two favorite MMA fighters are Matt Serra, Frank Mir and B.J. Penn. So whenever you read a prediction that I may have for a fight involving those three guys, beware.

I loved the UFC Primetime show where you saw how GSP and B.J. prepared for the event. I do think that the editing was pushed more positively towards GSP, but that’s understandable. GSP is a good looking guy who trains hard, is good with the media, doesn’t get in trouble and as clean cut as you will find in an MMA fighter.

B.J. is just really honest and has a Hawaiian mentality about things which isn’t a bad thing but can be perceived as lazy. B.J. isn’t going to wear himself out in cold weather and overstress himself like GSP. I think that B.J. taking some days off from training is a perfect example of this.

I can definitely see GSP coming into this fight tight and nervous, which is something you don’t want to have in a title match. B.J. is going to come in more loose, which can be a problem as well.

There are so many angles that this fight can be taken. I think that they’re first fight doesn’t carry much into this one because both men are much better fighters this time around.

The fight being five rounds is a factor. We know that GSP will be in shape and can go but even I can’t ignore B.J.’s cardio issues.

Here’s what I don’t see happening:

-B.J. winning by knockout
-GSP winning by knockout
-GSP winning by submission
-B.J. winning by decision

I think that if B.J. comes in shape and healthy, he wins the fight via TKO.

My heart is saying to take B.J. via TKO in the fourth round.

My head is saying GSP by decision.

I think that the question has to be what does the UFC hopes happen. I think that they actually want GSP to win. The reason I say that is as cool as it would be for one man to own two belts at the same time, its bad for business.

If B.J. wins, then he’s going to have to defend two titles at the same time which means less PPV main events. Plus, while B.J. is defending his lightweight title, the welterweight title will be in limbo.

I’m not saying that the UFC is going to try to influence the result or anything like that, because even if they wanted to, they can’t legally do it. Just something to consider.

But I’m going to ignore all of that tomorrow night and enjoy the fight between two of the best fighters in the world.

GSP by TKO in the fourth. Business is business.