:: Privatjokr ::

There probably has not been a dancehall/reggae album this good since...well since Sean Paul released Dutty Rock in 2002. The Trinity, amidst a large handful of references to weed, serenades women from all regions of the world. He stays true to his Caribbean roots and did not Americanize (euphemism for "sell out") his sound for this latest album. I will be the first to admit, however, that it is difficult to understand what he says most of the time. Regardless of that, so far I predict The Trinity to be the best warm-weather-with-the-windows-down-in-the-car-and-the-volume-up-high album this year...even though it was released last year, late last year. I cannot get enough of some of these songs right now.

01. Fire Links Intro I still do not like Intro tracks. This one did nothing to change that. I do not understand them; especially one that is 49 seconds long and yet just repeats the same thing over and over.

02. Head In The Zone A nice beat for a track that warms us up for the rest of the album ahead. I do tire easily of DJs and producers who yell at random intervals (see: Lil' Jon and DJ Clue), which is a blemish on this song.

03. We Be Burnin' We Be Burnin' was the first single released from this album. I became certain of a few things when I first heard this track: I would get this album and this would be the best track on it. I was right and wrong. This is a great song and definitely will get bodies on the dance floor, but not the best song on the album. That is a good thing. You can watch the video here.

04. Send It On This is a great example of a "catchy" song by Sean Paul standards. If I could figure out the words...they would be in my head all day!

05. Ever Blazin' This is my dark-horse pick for favorite track. The beat causes body parts to move of their own accord. Without realizing it you will be bouncing -- sitting, standing, laying down -- I don't care what you are doing. A great track to put on a mix you are making for your special lady friend if you want to add something with a beat.

06. Eye Deh A Mi Knee This is a fine song, but I can't help but think of Tunak Tunak Tun when I listen to it.

07. Give It Up To Me Time to slow it down some. One track that stands out as evidence that The Trinity does not have all of the energy that was in Dutty Rock. Do not misinterpret that, I did not say it was a bad song, just slower than others.

08. Yardie Bone This one is much less dancehall and much more reggae. In case you are curious, Wayne Marshall is featured.

09. Never Gonna Be The Same Another slower track. Sean Paul sets this song aside to reflect on the things that happen in our lives that are out of our control. It is a nice tribute to friends and family.

10. I'll Take You There A good song that would get more respect on an album with fewer "hits."

11. Temperature It is, unfortunately, unfair to the other tracks on the album for this song to appear. There are so many good songs on The Trinity, though this one just won't share the spotlight. As stated above, I was sure We Be Burnin' was as good as they could get. I was wrong.

12. Breakout It is a rare thing indeed when you can find an album you can listen to, start to finish, without skipping any songs. You *can* do that with this album, but if you were going to skip one song, this is probably it. It seems much less refined (for lack of a better word) than the other songs.

13. Head To Toe Has it been too long since he slowed it down for another ode to the ladies? I guess so. Apparently it was time for another. Probably the weakest of the slower songs, but the competition is stiff.

14. Connection One thing Sean Paul did so well on Dutty Rock was collaboration tracks with recent hot, female artists. This is the big one on The Trinity, featuring Nina Sky. She sounds good with him.

15. Straight Up Despite being a three-minute track, it seems to go too fast. The song is, overall, unremarkable -- neither good nor bad. It is fine, and well placed tucked at the end of the album.

16. All On Me Another collaboration song with a female artist. Sean Paul and Tami Chynn team up for this track. A mediocre song.

17. Change The Game Featuring Looga Man & Kid Kurup. This song saves the slow fall-off that was happening. The last few tracks made you think the album had run out of steam. Unfortunately, this track does what many do at the end of hip-hop albums recently; the featured artist takes the front seat and Sean Paul appears only as support.

18. The Trinity Last but not least, the title track. You have made it through 17 tracks to get here; the choice is yours if you let the last one play. You will not miss much if you stop now. The strength of the album is early.

The album's title, if you are curious, has a three-part meaning: this is Sean Paul's third album, it took three years to create, and it was "all done right here in the Third World*," according to him.

*The Trinity was recorded entirely in Jamaica.

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This past weekend the NCAA Tournament narrowed its field to the Final Four teams. Congratulations to LSU, UCLA, George Mason and Florida for their success. During some games, the analysts providing play-by-play give a player's background. It is a heart-warming, humanizing addition to the action on the court. There were two stories, from separate games, that were presented in the same fashion, yet were nearly polar opposites.

The first was a story of Villanova Wildcat senior guard Randy Foye. Foye's father, they said, left when Randy was of a very young age (3-and-a-half years old I believe) and his mother disappeared after he completed kindergarten. Her whereabouts are still unknown. Randy was raised in Newark, New Jersey by his two grandmothers, one of which had never been on an airplane, but agreed to fly to Indianapolis to see Randy play in the Final Four if his team made it. Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright said of Foye that he has a God-given ability to listen to the right people. When asked about his future in the sport of basketball, Wright commented that above success on the basketball court, Randy Foye would be a great man.

The second story featured George Mason senior guard Tony Skinn. The George Mason Patriots (GMU) were seconds away from completing the upset of top-seeded Connecticut as Skinn walked to the free-throw line. GMU was ahead by two points and Skinn had the opportunity to make it a two-possession game if he made both attempts. While he walked the length of the court the commentator mentioned how remarkable Tony Skinn's story was. He elaborated that Tony Skinn lost himself for a moment with about a minute remaining in a game against Hofstra and punched an opposing player in the groin in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. He had been immediately pulled from the game by his coach and suspended by his team from the first round NCAA Tournament game against Michigan State. The team managed to hold on against the Spartans without him and now here he was with a chance to put the game out of reach. And to think he had overcome this adversity to now find himself with the opp...

:Missed the first free throw, the front-end of a one and one. Rebound to Uconn.:

Well he had the opportunity to "ice" the game for George Mason, he said.

Call it my Villanova bias, but I think Randy Foye's story was a little more vivid and appropriate considering the circumstances. They were both presented the same way. When they launched into story about Tony Skinn it was in a way where you expected to hear of tragedy and triumph over adversity. And you find out he overcame a one-game suspension he received because he punched a guy below the belt.

George Mason, an 11 seed in the tournament, was a controversial invite to the 65-team tournament. Many critics felt that other teams, Hofstra for one (who beat GMU twice head-to-head), should have been asked to the tournament instead. Since the brackets were announced, GMU has beaten 6th seed Michigan State, 3rd seed North Carolina and 1st seed Connecticut. The last two games were wins over the past two winners of the NCAA Tournament. The team's story has been and continues to be a remarkable one. Tony Skinn's story is about nothing but him losing his cool.

I was highly entertained yesterday while at lunch with my parents. Our family is very close and I am comfortable saying that it is always entertaining when we are together, but yesterday was different. They told me a story that started with my mom asking if my dad had yet told me about the noises he heard coming from the basement at 6:15AM Saturday.

My immediate feeling was one of shock and terror. What could possibly have happened? Are they ok? ...Oh, right, they are both sitting here with me and in fine spirits. If anything had gone wrong, I would surely have heard about it before now. Dad took the reigns and led me through the details of his story.

Before heading down to the exercise room for his Saturday morning work-out he went to the computer to do who knows what. While sitting at the computer he hears a loud crash and then silence. He pauses and remains silent, listening. A few minutes pass and he thinks that something must have fallen over and he has no cause for concern. And then a crash, louder and longer than before. Something is afoot.

He stands at the top of the stairway leading to the basement and turns on the light. Again he waits, listening. And he hears something walking! Alarmed and confused all at the same time while a few moments pass and he sees the perpetrator. Into the guest room walks a duck. Yes, a duck.

The duck came back out of the guest room, walked into the laundry room, then back into the hallway and sat down. The animal was safely caught and released.

The only explanation was that the duck must have come in through the chimney downstairs in the bar area as the flue was found open. There has been no determination of whether the flue was open prior or if the duck opened the flue by landing on it after falling into the chimney. The sound, by the way, was the duck flying into the blinds on the windows as he attempted to free himself.

Who says there is no excitement in the lives of empty-nesters?!

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

From the main screen move the cursor right to "Starz on the Set" and then move the cursor up. The arrow will appear in an empty part of the boat pointing upwards. Press enter to watch a continuous video of takes while they try to create a scene in which Bill Murray tries out a new pair of shoes. It is hard to explain, but they have him keep jumping and running and dancing around as his character, Steve Zissou, might do to test the merit of such a pair of shoes. Ok so I can't explain what it is, but I can say that it is hilarious.

Dear Coach Al Skinner,

Thanks for the help.

Sincerely,

Billy Donovan

Cosas. Things attach themselves like leeches to the human soul, then they bleed out the sweetness and the music and the primordial joy of being unencumbered upon the land. Comprende? People feel tremendous pressure to settle down in some sort of permanent space and fill it up with stuff, but deep inside they resent those structures, and they're scared to death of that stuff because they know it controls them and restricts their movements.

I want to say that I am sorry to those few of you who have commented from blogspot locations. If you put your blogspot url with your comment(s) I accidentally deleted it/them.

Truth be told I did it on purpose...kind of. In my on-going battle against stupid spam-comments I was doing my routine clean up. The latest trend is comments from blogspot sites. Rather than delete 30 comments 1 by 1, since each was different by subdomain, I tried to take a shortcut. I deleted all comments containing blogspot.com...

It never occurred to me in my haste that I would be deleting some relevant comments as well. So there you have it. The exciting tale of how I tried to cut corners and screwed up. Well I guess it's not the first one of those, just probably the first one that relates to you.

I am trying to squeeze time in to research options so that does not happen again and so I can still cut down on the amount of spam I get.

So yeah...I'm sorry I did that.

1. Dumb & Dumber

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

3. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

4. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

5. Me, Myself & Irene

(Honorable Mention: Bruce Almighty)

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The first time I heard Panic! At The Disco was at a friend's house; he put it on while he played Need For Speed: Most Wanted for XBOX 360. My initial impression was that the band sounds eerily similar to Fall Out Boy, and come to find that Panic! was the first band signed under Fall Out Boy lead singer Peter Wentz's record label Decaydance Records. Coincidence?

01. Introduction The introduction is a quick 36 second track. As far as intro tracks go, it is one of the better ones, though I am not a fan of using one to begin the album. When I say it is a better one, I mean only that it is less obtrusive than most.

02. The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage This is one of the more catchy tracks on the album. It is also a good representation of how the band tries to tie the rock and dance mentalities together.

03. London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines I think this is the track that sounds most like Fall Out Boy. I like FOB, so this is not a horrible comparison, but here is a strong argument of how Panic! may not have necessarily made a unique album. That said, this is still one of my favorite tracks.

04. Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks Nails is probably the track that was most disappointing to me. I do not like the music they chose for this one. It sounds more like a poor attempt at a mash up between a pop beat and rock lyrics.

05. Camisado This song is probably what the band had hoped to create most. It seems to embody the marriage of rock and dance. Difficult to sit still while this song plays.

06. Time To Dance This song is OK. The feeling I get most from this song is that the band tried too hard. It seems forced.

07. Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off Probably the closest Panic! will come to making a love song. And this is as close as they should get. It's another OK track that gets you tapping your feet and bobbing your head a little bit.

08. Intermission I have read a few reviews that highlight the Intermission. I have to disagree. I see no point in it other than for novelty value. If I want a break from the band, I will change CDs; I do not need a keyboard instrumental.

09. But It's Better If You Do It was high time for a jazzy track on this album, right? You got it. The tempo is not quite the same as the other tracks. I guess this serves me better as an intermission than the previous track.

10. I Write Sins Not Tragedies Let's continue the second-half strength. After the Intermission the album grows stronger. This is a good song that could easily be many listeners' favorite.

11. I Constantly Thank God for Esteban I like the use of the acoustic guitar here. Well in fact I like it too much so I got frustrated when they take it away. An OK track overall.

12. There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet This is probably my favorite track on the album. It is the most fun of all the songs and I can only hope the band had as much fun making it as I have listening to it. Maybe I am just a sucker for a horn, but I think the song brings more to the table than the rest.

13. Build God, Then We'll Talk An OK track. It does not do much for me overall, but does not rub me the wrong way. If this sing has to be on the album, might as well hide it at the end. It isn't the worst, just sounds the least like the rest of the album.

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AquaKnox - Global Water Cuisine

AquaKnox's fresh colors reflect the vibrancy of the cool ocean waters. Experience an environment designed to entertain your every sense, highlighted by a water encased walk-in wine cellar and a state of the art open kitchen. Celebrated Chef Tom Moloney attains a new standard of culinary excellence, boasting global seafood flown in daily. -AquaKnox.net

AquaKnox, located in The Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino, is, as I am told, one of the area's premier seafood restaurants. I am not one who enjoys fish, so I perused the menu for an alternative. On that, or any menu, a steak suits me just fine.

It is fish that I can live without, but I do like shrimp, crab and lobster. Fitting with that, I and my business travel companion shared the Seafood Trio appetizer: sweet shrimp, lobster and jumbo crab served with AquaKnox cocktail sauce. The name is rather misleading as only the shrimp comes with the cocktail sauce. Each of the three meats comes plated with its own unique sauce. Of the three, though I liked them all, the crab was my least favorite.

I ordered their Bone-In Ribeye, though the menu online shows "Bisteca (32 oz. Prime Double Cut Porterhouse)." I cannot say if that is new to the menu or if the ribeye is instead. What I can tell you is that the competition in my search for the best steak in Las Vegas just got a little tougher. The ribeye came over root vegetables. I feel bad saying that the ribeye at AquaKnox is one of the best steaks in 'Vegas if it is not even an option anymore. I cannot speak to the porterhouse, though I would be tempted to try a "serves two" steak alone!

The prices were not outrageous, though I had expected them to be. Most main dishes were around $30. If you need to find it, the restaurant is located outside the Blue Man Group Theatre.

AquaKnox has not converted me to the ways of seafood, but through steak they have helped me recommend this restaurant to you. There are so many restaurants in Las Vegas I do not know if I will ever go back to AquaKnox, but it was worth going once for me. And if the situation arose, I would not hesitate to go back.

What happens when you take Wil Morris's man-crush on Kevin Pittsnogle, teach him about the rapid-capture action-shot capability of my camera and let him loose on the West Virginia v. Northwestern State game?

148 pictures. (Though in fairness, included in that total were pics from the Pitt/Bradley game. And only 130 made it to the gallery.)

Impressions:

The officiating for Pittsburgh v. Bradley was some of the worst I have ever seen. Bradley won that game fair and square, and Pittsburgh is not a team I would ever make excuses for; that is not my intention. Calls on both sides of the ball were horrible. I guess the silver lining is that at least they were equally bad to both teams, but they were not consistent in the level of contact required for a foul.

The band director/leader for the Northwestern State band was awesome. The band itself was little more than a drunken student section with instruments. In his highly animated state, the man led his band through many hip-hop/rap hits such as "Let Me Clear My Throat" and "Laffy Taffy." He also led the band in cheers. After one bad call the band yelled "Nuts and bolts. Nuts and bolts. We...Got...Screwed!" Pretty funny, though not the best. While at the free throw line, West Virginia Guard Johannes Herber was serenaded by the band as they chanted "Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback Mountain." (I have just learned that Gonzaga fans had been reprimanded for similar behavior. Thanks for the update, Matt.)

I know it is hard to get fans from schools across the country to make the trip, but I thought the stadium seemed very empty. Maybe it was because there is no alcohol served at the NCAA events.

Bradley played very well against Pittsburgh. Since Kansas was kind enough to lose to them in the first round, maybe I will jump on the Bradley bandwagon to beat Memphis...

I could not believe that there was not a screen in the building that was constantly scrolling scores for the other games-in-progress yesterday. Only during a stoppage of play would the other scores be shown.

I was not happy that I had to leave Las Vegas early to come home for class on Saturday, but at least having tickets to the two games on Sunday was a consolation.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter, Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it's Janine, Miles's soon-to-be-ex-wife, who's taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it's the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town -- and seems to believe that "everything" includes Miles himself. In Empire Falls Richard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace.

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Whale Rider

A small Maori village faces a crisis when the heir to the leadership of the Ngati Konohi dies at birth and is survived only by his twin sister, Pai. Although disregarded by her grandfather and shunned by the village people, twelve-year-old Pai remains certain of her calling and trains herself in the ways and customs of her people. With remarkable grace, Pai finds the strength to challenge her family and embraces a thousand years of tradition in order to fulfill her destiny.

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While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us.

1. Braveheart

2. Glory

3. Full Metal Jacket

4. The Deer Hunter

5. Saving Private Ryan

(Honorable Mention: Apocalypse Now, Gettysburg)

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In David Sedaris's world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred. A manic cross between Mark Leyner, Fran Lebowitz, and the National Enquirer, Sedaris's collection of essays is a rollicking tour through the national Zeitgeist: a do-it-yourself suburban dad saves money by performing home surgery; a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tries to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; a bitter Santa abuses the elves.

David Sedaris made his debut on NPR's Morning Edition with "SantaLand Diaries," recounting his strange-but-true experiences as an elf at Macy's, and soon became one of the show's most popular commentators. With a perfect eye and a voice infused with as much empathy as wit, Sedaris writes stories and essays that target the soulful ridiculousness of our behavior. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life, and anything can happen.

I am told David Sedaris has amassed quite a devoted following. Many readers have found his work to be incredibly funny. A while back, in my first conversation about Sedaris, Barrel Fever was suggested as the book I should read first as my introduction to the author. Before I read Barrel Fever my sister-in-law-to-be told me it was the worst book to start with, but I had already acquired a copy.

The book is a mere 200 pages, so thankfully it did not take long to read. The breakdown of short stories to essays was a 3:1 ratio. The first 150 pages were short stories and the remaining 50 were various essays.

The second worst thing I could do right now would be actually telling Kristen she was right. The single worst thing I could do is read Barrel Fever a second time...with a small exception. Or rather 50 pages of small exceptions.

I normally do not like short stories. I have a hard time differentiating characters, especially when they are so similar like they were in The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami.

The characters created by Sedaris were not so similar that I had difficulty remembering who was who, but the stories were not good. I did not like a single one of the short stories. I did laugh a few times, but it was at single situations, not the premise of any of the stories. They were not funny, though they had funny parts...if that makes any sense to you. The plots were dark and almost everyone included an interjected comment about a character's secret homosexual affair with another character. None had any relevance its respective story. The tone of the short stories was very similar to that of Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters; a book that I did not enjoy from an author I do enjoy.

For the essays it was almost as if they had been penned by an entirely different person. They were very enjoyable. Had the ratio of short stories to essays favored the essays I would surely have listed Barrel Fever as "Read" instead.

If you tell me to give author David Sedaris a second chance, you had better suggest a book that is more like his essays and less like the short stories in Barrel Fever.

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This young lady (Erin) works for a local news station and moonlights at home games for the Detroit Pistons. She works on the promotions team and can be seen throughout the night in the stands hosting the contests for the fans. One of the contests we will call 3-ball Monty as it is in the vein of the old street hustle 3-card Monty. On the big screen those in attendance see three basketballs. One of the three basketballs has a logo on it and it is shown to the audience, then turned around. They then begin to bounce around the screen and when they come to rest the contestant has to pick the one which had the logo. A correct answer wins the contestant a $50 Gift Certificate to Belle Tire, the contest sponsor.

Courtesy of some friends I had great tickets to last night's game. At one point I happened to notice Erin on screen for 3-ball Monty (I think I knew a guy in college named 3-ball Monty...) with the contestant standing next to her. I glance around the stadium as I like to see where the contestant was chosen from. She was halfway up the lower bowl in one of the sections in the corner of the arena.

After the girl contestant answered correctly, she was handed her gift certificate. The cameras went back to the game after whatever stoppage of play allowed for the contest in the stands. Erin and the contestant then both came down the stairs to seats on the floor in the corner. The "contestant" was not even seated in the section where she was shown while the contest was in progress. Her seat for the game was near a whole crowd of press passes where I had noticed her earlier.

I am not going so far as to say she was Erin's friend, but she certainly was not the fan from whatever section the fans were led to believe she was.

Now the conspiracy theories can be let loose. Why not speculate that this girl was chosen because she or a family member works for Belle Tire? She was a plant. She was only at the game to be in the contest...and answer correctly. Shameless ploy on behalf of the Pistons organization and Belle Tire to get screen time with the logo and look benevolent as they give out a prize for a contest that any average Joe off the street can win, even you or me, even though it is all smoke and mirrors.

Who knows...maybe next game you could be chosen for 3-ball Monty. But I bet you won't! Call it a hunch.

With Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis and Mary Steenburgen. Gilbert Grape is a young man in a small Iowa town who must oversee his mentally disabled brother and seriously obese mother. When he meets a girl passing through town, he realizes that a normal life could be his.

Gilbert had a difficult time just getting by on a daily basis; things were never easy for him. His father was gone so he was left as man of the house. He had two sisters who did a fair share with the responsibilities around the house and in caring for their mother, but their mentally-disabled-brother Arnie was mainly in Gilbert's charge. The doctors said he would not live past 10, but the story picks up as Arnie neared his 18th birthday. Various distractions made Gilbert's life more tolerable, though after he meets Becky (Juliette Lewis) his life took on new focus.

Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Arnie Grape. When the movie came out in 1993, Leo's competition for the accolade was Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List), Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive), John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire), and Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father). That is pretty stiff competition for a 19-year-old DiCaprio, though I thought he was fantastic in his role.

I liked this movie. There was nothing in particular that stood out about it aside from the performance by Leonardo. I try not to let movies like Titanic taint my opinion of him and focus more on other roles like The Beach and Gangs of New York, two movies that were not fantastic in my opinion, but he was good in them.

I was even slightly touched by the devotion Gilbert Grape (Depp) showed towards his family and enjoyed the way he and his siblings came together under the circumstances at the end of the movie.

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Why? Can you tell me? I do not understand why we see adult (in the eyes of the government) men who feel the need to hit/punch/kick each other in such a sensitive area.

A story has arisen from a basketball player at George Mason University who, in the word of the article "punched" an opposing player between the legs. There was no foul called on the play, but he has been suspended, by his own school, for one game.

This continues to happen in college basketball mostly. Earlier this season Villanova University sophomore guard Kyle Lowry had his groin intentionally stepped on by an opposing player while he lay on the court after a play. Last season Wake Forest guard Chris Paul was suspended for one game for a "low blow" delivered to an opponent.

The young man from George Mason said that he l