Broooce (Of Sorts)! Electrelane I'm On Fire

Since I'm not much of an NFL fan, I won't be tuning into tomorrow's Super Bore, especially as I'm not a fan of either team. I can't think of the last time I ever rooted for the Steelers in anything......and as for the Cardinals, about all I can recall of them is..........a very long run of mediocrity and a quarterback named Jim Hart from a long time ago. The last Super Bore I watched in its entirety was the 49er blowout of Denver however many years ago, so with that being said, I'll have no idea about the time of day when Broooce will be performing.


So in order to get my Broooce-fix tomorrow along with untold thousands, I'll be tuning into Brighton's finest combo Electrelane and their smoking cover of I'm On Fire; the least that people around the world should do tomorrow is buy the ELECTRELANE RARITIES DISC (with said Broooce cover included) so that he may acquire some more royalties, more money with which to soothe his troubled mind over having had to deal with WAL-MART. What would Great Pop Things have to say about that marriage?



At any rate, the fab Electrelane live in NYC ripping through I'm On Fire.

Dropping The Towel For You

It's not that I have a particular affinity for television ads, other than as a topic of discussion at work for a brief period of time based on the relevancy of the product in question, but the ending of one of the current Swiffer ads (with the Player song Baby Come Back as background music) is just too fantastic to ignore. The idea of jilted household items trying to woo their way back into the hearts of their former users via romance is a memorable concept, and the towel drop in this ad probably works here as well as it does in real life. Minus the cops being called, of course.

Glad I Don't Take Recruiting That Seriously

Nice to see that the mentor of the nation's top running back recruit will be charging $9.99 a month for updates on the status of Bryce Brown, who has postponed his school decision until the first of March. No word yet if the recruiters from each prospective school will be afforded a special rate, an item with a link to the Miami Herald story is HERE.

Man United 2 Spurs 1: Two Minutes Of Madness Sink Spurs

JUDAS,JUDAS, JUDAS












An entertaining match from the fourth round of the FA Cup saw the home side overcome an early deficit with two quick goals toward the end of the first half that saw them defeat Spurs today.


Roman Pavlyuchenko deftly headed home a neat pass from Tom Huddlestone in the fifth minute to give Spurs the lead, much to the shock of the crowd at Old Trafford, and it took a bit of time for the Red Devils to get their offensive game on track. (Both teams, plagued by injuries, fielded teams that featured a number of reserve players).


That attack started around the 18th minute, with a couple of shots from Carlos Tevez testing reserve Spurs goalie Ben Alwick. The first barely hit the fingertips of the goalie before tipping over the goal bar, the second one, in the 22nd minute, produced an excellent save that had all Spurs fan breathing deep sighs of relief.


The news for Spurs went bad in the 35th minute when a couple of ex-Spurs combined on two different plays for the difference in the match, with Michael Carrick the central figure in both of them. While the Spurs were doing a fine job defending Man United early on, Carrick delivered a pass that Paul Scholes drilled toward the goal from outside the box which glanced off of Huddlestone into the net, with Alwick having no chance to stop the blast.


Mere seconds later, Carrick linked up with Dimitar "Judas 2" Berbatov on a long pass, with the Bulgarian quickly leaving the Spurs defense in an awkward position with some fancy footwork, leaving him with an inviting look at goal that he confidently cashed in, much to the displeasure of Spurs fans everywhere.


In the GUARDIAN MATCH REPORT , Sir Alex Ferguson was quoted as saying the reception given to Berbatov from Spurs fans was "a social disease...we must be the only club to actually welcome back our former players". SAF, I can safely say that it's how players leave one club to another that is the basis for the nature of that reception, and given how nasty (and lengthy) the departure of Berbatov from Spurs was, I find it hard to believe that SAF would have an issue with that.



At any rate, that's it for Spurs in the FA Cup this year, up next is a crucial EPL fixture with Stoke that is crucial for the two teams, both of them hovering dangerously near the relegation zone. Come on you Spurs!!!



ESPN SOCCERNET

Spurs 1 Portsmouth 1: Defoe To The Rescue

It was a perfect time for Jermaine Defoe to score his first goal since his return to Spurs by knocking in the leveler at the 70th minute mark to give Spurs a vital point and lift them off of the foot of the EPL table. What made the shot even better was that is was perfectly driven between the legs of former Spurs defender Sol 'Judas' Campbell.


Portsmouth had grabbed the lead 10 minutes earlier on a great strike from David Nugent, but there was certainly a sense from the team and the home crowd at White Hart Lane that the match was far from settled. The game up to that point had been a lively affair, with Spurs having the greater number of chances. However, perfect Portsmouth defending and some excellent saves from goalie David James ensured that Spurs would be held scoreless for the majority of the affair.


The bad news for Spurs would be on the injury front, the tally on that from coach Harry Redknapp is at the bottom of the match report from Spurs HERE, most troubling is that captain Ledley King has a hamstring injury requiring his absence for an extended period.






SOCCERNET REPORT

$100 Trillion Note To Be Introduced In Zimbabwe

An unbelievable value in an unbelievably sad situation, when will Robert Mugabe do the sensible thing and leave office so that his country might begin to rebound from the severe harm he has done for Zimbabwe?


STORY

New Mac User On Board: The Aluminum MacBook Is Now Mine

Needing a laptop, an instinct was directing my mind, body (and money!) towards buying a Mac over any kind of Windows-based machine. Having no need to make or edit movies and video, the MacBook pro was definitely on the high end of the spectrum, whilst I had my doubts about how the exterior of white version would hold up after time. I do appreciate the sturdy aluminum body of this machine.


Most of the negative reviews for this book seem to bemoan the absence of a firewire port, but seeing as I do not own any device requiring that port, this is a moot detail for me.



Sad to say, this post is not being written on the new toy, still using the trusy ol' PC for that task at the moment (being held back by a stubborn wireless network....a long story itself). I do love the features that I've been able to access, but I've found out that I've got to considerably sharpen my chess skills to beat this opponent, but hey, if I can do well in the two-deck version of Spider Solitaire, it'll just be a matter of playing again to get better.

Wigan 1 Spurs 0: Unremittingly Stupid Loss

(title chosen because I rarely get to use 'unremittingly' and 'stupid' in the same sentence).


What else is new? Spurs allow an injury-time goal to Wigan ( a decent side this season ) off of a corner kick to allow the home-side a 1-0 victory at the JJB earlier today. I hate reading the match reports that say the late goal allowed that team to earn a well-deserved victory........but why put lipstick on a pig, unless you're into that sort of thing (NTTAWWT!). The depressing story of the result is HERE , leaving Spurs in the relegation zone once again. Nothing personal against Wigan or their coach Steve Bruce, both of whom I've felt a sense of liking to in the past few years, it's just that I expected a bit more from a Spurs side desperately trying to reassert its identity after a truly dismal start to the season. Pass the alcohol......please!

Andrew Meinert, R.I.P.

Deepest sympathies to the Meinert family for their loss on the 30th of December during Oregon/Oklahoma State Holiday Bowl, a loss that is the passing of their youngest son Andrew from an especially aggressive form of cancer.


In this world full of injustices, it's not right that innocent people suffer from horrible maladies, and the fact that this scourge has been unleashed on a couple of the finest people it has been my pleasure to meet and chat with over the years (Andrew's parents sit directly in front of me at Autzen for Duck football games, I've been in this section for over a decade and I must emphatically state that they're among the reasons I have no desire to improve my seat location.)



With every passing calendar year, it's become an assumption that those of us in our section will see each other next fall, when football resumes and we can continue our silly obessions. Andrew's passing is a stark reminder that we should all not automatically assume that these things will come to pass, Andrew sometimes sat in those seats in front of me when his mother or father could not make the games for various reasons, and whatever collective enjoyment we got from rooting the Ducks on to victory on those days doesn't even begin to address the sorrow that the Meinert family is feeling on such a sorrowful occasion.



George Schroeder of the Eugene Register-Guard has written a couple of articles concerning Andrew and his brief encounter with his favourite Duck player, Walter Thurmond III, who made a surprise visit to Newbert to visit the stricken kid, along with Patrick Chung, the first of which is HERE and recounts the events surrounding that visit. The second story is from TODAY and tells of Andrew's passing away during the Holiday Bowl; it was good to know that at least Andrew got to hear about Walter Thurmond III's momentum changing kick-off return to start the second half for the Ducks.



All I know for sure is that when the 2009 Oregon football season rolls around, it's going to be a little tough to acknowledge the loss of a loved one, but as Mark and Anne already know, the people in our section care about them very, very much. God bless you Meinerts, see you soon...............and Let's Go Ducks!!!!