Guess what? It's that time of year again, when all the lists of Bests come out. It's already December and I've gotten a lot of great new music recently, so I have to get going with my Songs of the Year. After all, this being 2009, of course there have to be year-end lists and decade-end lists.
And now, my first pick for 2009's best songs, and this might be the best of them all.
Don't ask me how to pronounce their name, but the band is Vetiver. I have no idea if anything else they've done is any good. (OK - I just checked out Tight Knit, the album this is on. Pretty good, but most of the songs are a bit too mellow.) I got this song in a free sampler from Amazon (a Sub Pop sampler - see image below). They played the Treasure Island festival this year, but Noah and I were too cold and didn't want to lose our seats on the bleachers, so we didn't walk over to the other stage to hear them.
Nonetheless, this is a great song. It's light & bouncy and if it doesn't make you happy, I don't know what song would. Enjoy...
No change in the Sumo tournament as the two Yokozunas continue their domination and records continue falling.
Asashoryu and Hakuho are both 9-0 now. Neither one has been in any danger this whole tournament, though they've each had 1 or 2 long matches. Today, Asashoryu had a real battle with Baruto but ended it with an awesome Kakenage (which, I think, means a throw that includes kicking his leg up with your leg to get him to flip.)
By winning his 9th, Baruto got to 80 wins for the year. He's the 6th wrestler ever to do that and he did the fastest. (Among the others who've done it are Asashoryu, Takanohana, and Chiyonofuji.) 5-1 the rest of the way and Hakuho has the all-time record for wins in one year.
In the Ozeki team, Koto'oshu is hanging in at 8-1. Kaio has also finally started winning, getting to 6-3, and tying for 2nd all time with 804 career wins. He's 3 wins away from tying Chiyonofuji's all-time record of 807.
Chiyotaikai is 2-7 and faces Asashoryu tomorrow. In other words, he's almost guaranteed to get a losing record this tournament, which will mean a demotion, and hopefully one step closer to retirement.
Yoshikaze made it to 7-0, but then he lost on Day 8. He came back with a win today, though, to stay just 1 back.
The wrestlers at 7-2 include Toyonoshima (a highly-skilled wrestler who's lower in the rankings than he should be right now), Tochinoshin (the youngest wrestler in the bigs), Miyabiyama (a giant lardo who manages to do well every other tournament), and everyone's favorite hero Takamisakari.
Baruto has lost to the two Yokozunas in the last 3 days and dropped to a mediocre 5-4. Still, I expect him to pick it up in the second week and end up with 10 wins.
Once again, I'm having my best tournament ever for picking winners (averaging 7 out of 10 right each day) but not seeing the wins. Lost 2 tiebreakers and one match, 9-8. Kunitachi now sits barely over .500, at 5-4.
Remember Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon?
Haven't seen her in a while. What's she been up to? Looks like she's been having some major surgery to turn her into an African-American for her next role. Amazing.
OK, that's not really Reese Witherspoon, just someone who looks exactly like the African-American Reese Witherspoon, who I saw on a Web site the other day. Weird, isn't it?
Of course, I love Reese Witherspoon, ever since she rocked the Reclining Pig poodle skirt for the Golden Globes.
Yes, we're already 5 days into the Kyushu Tournament and here's the update...
Looks like a 2-man race this time. At an undefeated and unsurprising 5-0, we have Yokozuna Asashoryu (back in his rightful place at the very top of the rankings thanks to his victory in a playoff in September) and Yokozuna Hakuho. (Also 5-0 is Yoshikaze, who's down in the middle of the rankings and has little chance to compete to the end.) Both Yokozunas are looking good this tournament and setting up for a Day 15 showdown like last tournament. There will be some added incentive this time: with 14 wins, Hakuho will break Asashoryu's record of most wins in 1 year. (Asashoryu went 84-6 many years ago and won all 6 tournaments in one year. Hakuho could go 86-4 with a perfect 15-0 this tournament, though it would only be his 2nd win, I think. Not so good in playoffs...) Hakuho did already nail down the title of wrestler with the most wins this year with his 76th win of the year today.
In other record news, this tournament is the 98th of Kaio's career, an all-time record. He also won his 800th match on Day 2. He's only the 3rd wrestler ever to get 800 wins and he's less than 10 away from the all-time record (held by the all-time greatest Sumo wrestler Chiyonofuji). Unfortunately for Kaio, he hasn't won since he got #800 and he's now 2-3. But he's not alone in sucking. As usual, Chiyotaikai looks terrible. He's now 2-3 also, and if he doesn't win 8, he'll be demoted from Ozeki. Chiyotaikai already announced he will NOT be retiring if this happens, but if he can't get 10 wins in January to get his Ozeki rank back, he will. (Oh, please, oh, please.)
Even Harumafuji is succumbing to the curse of the Ozekis, falling to a 2-3 record himself. Kotomitsuki is not far behind, at an underwhelming 3-2. The only Ozeki attempting to compete at the top is Koto'oshu, who still managed to lose an early match and stands at 4-1.
I expected some competition from Baruto this time, but he's only 3-2. There are a few 4-1 wrestlers, including young Georgian wrestler Tochinoshin (though he hasn't really looked that impressive).
There were no new rookies in the majors this time and no one new to the top ranks, either. In other words, this whole tournament is a snooze-fest. The biggest excitement so far has been a couple matches lost by penalty due to hair-pulling. Russian Aran (nickname The Cheater?) lost a match for pulling his opponent's top-knot for the 2nd tournament in a row.
In the minors, my personal favorite Futeno got off to a great start at 4-0 after being demoted from the majors this tournament, but then he lost and got hurt today and may have to drop out of the tournament. No luck.
And in the Sumo pool, despite an unlucky 7-8 record in September, Kunitachi didn't get demoted, staying at Jr. Minors #38. I started out 3-0, but then lost 2 in a row by tiebreaker. Ouch.
I was very sad today to hear of the untimely death of Ken Ober.
It was especially poignant to me because I had just been thinking of him the day before. Yesterday, I was listening to Colin Quinn's appearance on Howard Stern from earlier in the week. When Quinn mentioned meeting Adam Sandler long before they both did Saturday Night Live, I knew he had met him when they worked on MTV's game show Remote Control in the late 80's (along with Denis Leary and Ken Ober). Which immediately had me missing that show, which I remember so fondly, and wondering if they had any episodes out on DVD now? I seriously spent a few minutes trying to decide if Remote Control was on my Top 10 list of Greatest TV Shows of All Time. Seriously. That's how much I loved that show. Apparently, I'm not alone -- I saw countless recollections of Remote Control today from just about anyone online around my age.
I always wondered what happened to Ken Ober after that show. I thought for sure he had a bright future ahead after Remote Control. I guess he did get work writing and producing, just maybe never another big hit in front of the camera. Too bad.
Warning: Adult content...
Today at work, I was working on a new feature where the user can enter text into a free text field. We want to block people from using inappropriate language, so I had to find a list of dirty words and spec out an error message for those who use them.
So I wanted to check a couple sites to see what kind of error messages they were giving in that situation.
I went to Match.com and tried to create a new account using a bad word for a username, figuring I'd get an error message. Wrong.
The username "fucker" had been taken already. So they suggested close alternatives I could use.
Please enjoy (the 2nd suggestion):
A few months ago, I showed how Pearl Jam had stolen a song from Devo.
Apparently, Pearl Jam just really really want to be Devo.
Exhibit B: Their Halloween show a few days ago:
PS - I'm seeing the real thing Friday! Woo!
Just read some awesome Sumo news: Sumo is coming back to Las Vegas! Apparently the Sumo was such a big hit when it played Mandalay Bay a few years ago, they're desperate to do it again. And the Sumo Association has agreed to do it next October (at Mandalay Bay again). Hope I can still get a comped room by then...
Seems like up to this year there has been exactly one decent new comedy on TV in the last 5 years. And while that one, How I Met Your Mother, hasn't exactly been blowing me away this season, there are actually 2 new shows that are funny and worth watching.
Modern Family (ABC, Wed 9pm)
This show is about three different families, with the hook being that one is an old guy married to a young woman with a young kid and one is a gay couple who adopted a new baby. The third is a pretty standard family with the jokes coming mostly from the boneheadedness of the Dad. As it turns out, the three families are related (nice twist/surprise in the pilot, so the families come together in various ways throughout the show.
The cast is great: Ed O'Neill, who played Al Bundy, is hilarious (as you'd expect); the flamboyant half of the gay couple, Eric Stonestreet, is funny but not over-the-top; Julie Bowen is the Mom in the normal family, is basically just a straight-woman but, having played Ed's girlfriend, of course we love her; and Ty Burrell, who I'd never seen before this show and plays the cluelessly dumb Dad who tries to act cool, is absolutely hilarious. (Clueless dumb guys are always hilarious, aren't they?)
The show is done semi-documentary style, with interviews with the characters between the action. That doesn't add so much, but the jokes are set up well, often relatively subtle in a good way, and this seems like a show that will use the build-up of character over time to get even funnier (more inside jokes when we know the characters better).
If you haven't been watching, all the episodes are on the Web site. (I recommend ep's 2 & 4.)
Community (NBC, Thu 8pm)
I was really impressed by the pilot of this show and then another later episode, for their ability to put together an emotionally resonant plot in half an hour with a ton of jokes (especially the pop culture jokes I love) still in there. It's a show about a community college, with a large ensemble cast that's very likable. Most of the characters aren't obviously funny, but they seem to be varied enough that over time the writers will be able to write enough situations and added-in quirks, etc., to keep the shows interesting.
The cast is led by Joel McHale, the guy from The Soup. Like his work on The Soup, he's cynical and snarky but likable and very funny. The tension of the relationship with his love interest is very well done, and I just hope they keep it going long enough, because probably the show loses a lot if they ever actually get together. Chevy Chase plays a supporting role and basically does his Chevy Chase thing, which, of course, is very funny if a little ridiculous. The breakout unknown on the show is a guy named Abed, played by Danny Pudi with a great rhythm.
The setting of the community college not only supplies some funny jokes but also lets the writers expand the cast whenever they want by throwing a new teacher/counselor/administrator into the mix. They did that very well with John Oliver and John Michael Higgins. Unfortunately, they also chose to include Ken Jeong as the Spanish teacher. Ken Jeong is the scourge of comedy these days, suddenly appearing in every comedy movie (and doing his best to ruin them all with his over-the-top ham-fisted comedy bellowing). You saw him as the naked crime boss in The Hangover or the mean OB/Gyn in Knocked Up.
So far, though, that's the only misstep for a really funny show that's even making me care about the characters after just a few episodes.
If you haven't been watching it, I definitely recommend watching the exceptionally well-written Pilot episode, as well as episode 3, in which the attempts by the lead to fake living for the moment for his film class lead to a brilliant final scene.
I'll also say that I'm not sure it's a good show, but I'm enjoying watching Bored To Death on HBO, mostly just because I enjoy watching everything Jason Schwartzman does. I love that guy.
Just saw a trailer for a documentary on Bill Withers called "Still Bill". Looks interesting. Unfortunately, doesn't seem like it has distribution to be in movie theaters any time soon. Check out possible screenings at the Still Bill Web site. Maybe it'll come to cable at some point...
Yet another reminder to complete my list of Top 100 Singers (on which Bill Withers is #43).
Here's some great singing and the best song ever to use the phrase Dad Gum-It:
