A Political Blues

A few housekeeping notes before we move on to You Tube Tuesday on the McLovin Digs Chicks Awkwardly in the Morning Blog...

A Political Blues (theme for this weeks You Tube videos) was a song originally done by Little Feat and later covered by Van Halen on OU812 (everything in the universe ultimately can be tied back to Van Halen).

Van Halen's version could only be had on the CD release of OU812. It was included as a bonus track on the CD, done to spur on CD sales, as the Compact Disc was still a new format and the cassette tape format ruled. Needing to get the bonus track on the CD scam worked on me, as OU812 was the first CD I ever purchased, despite the fact that two months earlier I bought OU812 on cassette the day it came out.

But I digress. March 11 marks the one-month birthday for the Chicks Dig Awkward Mornings with McLovin blog. A great thanks to all of you who have stopped by during the past 3o days to check out the site. I really appreciate it, I hope you've enjoyed it and that you'll continue coming back.

As I mentioned earlier, the theme for today's You Tube entry is 'A Political Blues' and while we try not to be political on the blog site, I figured we'd take a look at the celebrities stumping for the three remaining political candidates.

First we have Curt Schilling, arguably the best postseason game pitcher of his generation - and potential Hall of Famer, backing John McCain.

Next we have Jack Nicholson, one of the finest actors of his era - a multiple nominee Academy Award nominee and winner, supporting Hillary Clinton using a montage of his finest roles.



That's quite a powerful tandem - Schilling and Nicholson supporting McCain and Clinton. Not to be outdone Barack Obama has - Obama Girl aka Amber Lee Ettinger, whom the E! Network has named the #1 hottest woman on the internet. Check out more (a whole lot more) of Obama girl at obamagirl.com

The big question is this: Is the power of Obama Girl enough to swing Bill Clinton's vote from Hillary to Obama?

Time to Panic? Or at least be a Little Concerned

A little concerned might be the way to look at the Boston Red Sox on March 10. Yes it's early, as there's only been 11 spring training games, but there's been some problems popping up in Camp Tranquility over the past couple of days.

We could look back on this a month from now and look stupid for verbalizing any concern, but a couple of small issues are adding up for the Sox.

The biggest issue of concern is now Josh Beckett's strained lower back muscle. With the season opener two weeks away, it appears to be a long shot for Beckett to pitch in the opener. He's only had two outings this spring, and hasn't faced major league batters yet.

I'm sure the Red Sox will do they can to err on the side of caution with Beckett, including having him miss a 14-hour flight to Japan (not the best thing to be doing when you have a bad back).

Combined with Curt Schilling's shoulder injury and Daisuke Matsuzaka possibly missing the trip, due to the birth of his second child, you're looking at Tim Wakefield and Jon Lester potentially being the starters for the two-game Oakland series in Japan. When the trip to Japan was announced last fall would anyone have thought that Wakefield and Lester would have been the starters in the series?

The signing of Bartolo Colon is looking bigger and bigger everyday (no pun intended).

Add to that injuries that have kept Julio Lugo (lower back tightness) and Coco Crisp (groin) off the field as of late, and the physical ailments are starting to pile up.

A little closer to panic might describe the mood in the executive offices of The New England Patriots.

There are reports saying that Matt Walsh is close to finalizing a deal with the NFL for legal indemnification in return for turning over any video tapes that he may have and telling the league all he knows about the Patriots taping practices.

If he does indeed have tapes of the St. Louis Rams' walk through before Super Bowl 36, the Patriots and Bill Belichick are in a world of trouble. One report I've seen speculates that if those tapes exist, Belichick would be suspended for a year (and is a possible explanation for the hiring of Dom Capers as a secondary coach), in addition to the penalties facing the organization.

Part of me believes that a tape of some magnitude must exist, because the NFL wouldn't have spent the past five weeks trying to work out a legal deal with Walsh for more tape of the Patriots filming defensive signals, which they've already admitted to and been penalized for.

The Patriots have struck the first blow in the PR war against Walsh with today's story in the Boston Globe, pointing out all of the inconsistencies with his resume and that there was no possible way that anyone in the organization authorized him to tape the Rams' walk through.

The next few weeks should be interesting in the Boston Sports Scene and we haven't even mentioned the Celtics yet.

Random Thoughs, Sights and Sounds - A Potpourri of Knowledge

The Quote of the Week comes from my brother, Tim, as a result of him telling me on Thursday that he is getting married for the second time.

Me: "So what made you decide to get married again?"

Him: "I figured what the hell, fuck it. Third time's a charm."

Me: "Ahhh, Tim, good to know that you're already thinking about your third marriage before number 2 begins."

But then again, this comes from a guy who at various times during his first marriage would throw out, "Next time I get married I'm going to do things differently", or say "My next wife..."

My brother's always been a romantic, sentimentel-type guy. He proposed to his first wife at a Chinese food restaurant by tossing a ring box at her and asking "Want to get married?" while they were eating, and her whole family was in attendance.

I admit I was a little surprised that he decided to get married again, I'm just throwing this question out there: If you had been married then got divorced, would you want to get married again? I don't know if I would. But I wish the two of them all of the best.

Following up on Wednesday's post: If you haven't already figured out the trick behind of how David Copperfield knows which card you were thinking of then took it away (or Googled it to find the answer), you can find the answer here, but wait - first a hint: take another look at the cards on slide 1 vs. the cards on slide 3. If you still haven't figured it out click here.

I was supposed to have a longer post on Thursday discussing the movie 'The Prestige', but that was bumped until next Monday as a result of the news of a possible Tom and Gisele tape.

Song note of the week: Heard the new R.E.M. song, Supernatural Superserious, this week. They have a new album, Accelerate, coming out April 1. After listening to it a couple of times, I really like it. It's a departure from the first singles that they've had off their last couple of albums (Leaving New York off of Around the Sun and Daysleeper off of Up). Though I like Leaving New York and Daysleeper, Supernatural Superserious is a different type of song, much more guitar-oriented.

Evidentally, iTunes also agrees with my sentiment, saying in the Album Notes for Accelerate, "Fourteen albums in and R.E.M are releasing an album that just might be their finest in more than a decade, if not longer. Accelerate is the group's most guitar-oriented, electric album since 1994's Monster, and the songs prove that there's still plenty of power and inspiration in the band's dynamic."

Hopefully the rest of Accelerate is as good as the first single. They are off to a good start.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Caught in the Act

And on tape no less- NICE!!!!!!!!!

This is the fate that has fallen upon our beloved QB Tom Brady and his supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen (damn!!, she is nice on the eyes), as the two might be mired in their own version of Camera Gate, Spy Gate, Sex on Tape - all of it. It's good to know that those crazy kids still aren't able to keep their hands off each other.


According to The New York Post, Tom and Gisele were allegedly caught on tape enjoying a little more than just dinner and each other's company while in a private wine cellar at the Chinese Eatery - Philippe.

I went to the Philippe website, clicked on their wine menu but didn't see anything, in terms of dollar amounts, about spending some quality alone time in a private wine cellar. I'm curious if the $700 bottle of 1999 Cristal comes with the private room or is it added separately to your tab.

The picture shown above is from the Philippe website and looks like a pic of a wine celluar to me. That's a nice looking room.

If this is true, and actually happened, then it looks like our Golden Boy QB is Golden not only on the football field, but off of it as well. Hopefully his off-the-field activities don't continue to go the way of Joe Namath, and distract him from being Joe Montana on the football field.

The biggest question of all of this is: How long before Tom and Gisele's tape ends up on YouTube or TMZ.com?

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Recently, I watched a movie called 'The Prestige', about two competiting magicians (played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) set in 1890's Victorian England.

I enjoyed the movie very much and it showed me how little we really pay attention to things, and how all the details (big and small) can easily be slipped past us.

In anticipation of a longer post on Thursday regarding, 'The Prestige', I leave you with this card trick. Remember, pay attention to all of the details. As the first screen of The Prestige website says, 'Are you watching closely?' I admit, the trick fooled me a few times before I figured it out.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Ohhh!!! The Gate to the Groin

Not something you want to hear a commentator say if you are a male downhill ski racer. French skiier Yannick Bertrand now knows what it's like. And yes, this is a third video of the day that is helping to alleviate the bad mood that I am in.

The audio is even better than watching him whack his Pepe Le Pew's into the gate. While watching the video, make sure you have the volume turned up loud to hear Bertand's scream of agony and the commentator's analysis. As good as the commentator's call is, too bad John Madden wasn't doing play-by-play commentary using a telestrator.

I can hear Madden's call now, "Now watch here, here he comes around the turn and then whack, right into the pole. That's gonna hurt."

Guilty Pleasures

I'm not going to try to sugarcoat or gloss it over, I'm just going to come out and say that I am in a bad mood today. It bugs the hell out of me when you buy a product or service and that product or service fails to deliver what you expected.

I'm not going to get into specifics, but let's just say if your looking to get your car washed stay away from the Lechmere Car Wash on Mass. Ave in Arlington. That is unless you're looking to have the shit scratched out of your car, and little pieces of the paint taken off.

With that in mind, the theme of today's You Tube Tuesday is Guilty Pleasures, things that when watching will either make me laugh or make me feel a whole lot better.

This first video shows what happens to a guy when he tries to dunk a basketball while jumping on a trampoline. I have watched this video at least a dozen times since I first saw in last fall and I laugh hysterically every time. I can justify how much enjoyment I have from it, because the people making the video are laughing as well.



I'm sure everyone out there has had a bad experience with airline travel (I once spent 4.5 hours sitting on a plane, on the runway in Philly, that was a lot of fun), but LynxJet is trying to change all of that. Traveling on LynxJet would definitely make air travel a much more pleasurable, and enjoyable experience.