Roid Rage and all things Rivals 2 : Week 5

This weeks episode of the Challenge was equal parts entertaining to watch and easy to grade…  I know that my interest in the show is lost on a number of my friends, but I can’t seem to pull myself away from thinking about the show when I’m not watching it.

The show is equal parts : Athletic Competition and Reality Nonsense.  My interest is in the former because this may be the only televised “sport” that doesn’t screen for controlled substances.

My sister still holds a commanding lead of 100 points… but she only has 5 teams left, while I have 7.   Of the 5 teams she has left, she only has one team consisting of men : CT & Wes.

Next week, a girl team will have to go into the Jungle (Elimination Challenge) and I like my chances of controlling more teams in play than my sister.

Week 5 Scores

Team Ro Ro: 145
Team Joker: 80

Top 5 Ballerz of the Week

70 Points - Theresa
10 Points - Winning Challenge
5 Points - Verbal with Diem
5 Points - flashback kiss with Wes
25 Points - Kicking off the episode by having coitus with Leroy
25 Points - Closing the episode for pulling the sheets for more coitus w/Leroy

60 Points - Leroy
10 Points - Winning an Elimination Challenge
25 Points - Kicking off the episode by having coitus with Theresa
25 Points - Closing the episode for pulling the sheets for more coitus w/Theresa

60 Points (the hard way) - Zach
20 Points = Crying - Zach learned that he became an Uncle for the first time on the show.  Then longed on camera about how he wanted to be back home to hold the child in his beefy arms.  I’m pretty sure women around the globe watched while sitting in sexy induced puddles.  Well played Zach.  Well Played…

5 Points = Verbal argument (read: Roid Rage) with the production team (cameras)

5 Points = Verbal argument w/Frank

20 Points = Causing the arrival of a vehicle with a siren…  Medical staff in
Thailand cleared him of having anything wrong.

5 Points = Flashback Kiss with Frank

5 Points = another verbal argument w/Frank  - they may communicate by screaming at each other.

15 Points - Frank
5 Points - Flashback Kiss with Zach
10 Points - For 2 verbal fights with Zach

Statistically speaking… Frank is in the discussion of Rivals 2 MVP.  He casually dropped 15 points and he was practically absent on the show. 

15 Points - Wes
10 Points - Winning a Challenge with CT
5 Points - Flashback kiss with Theresa 

Vassar Jokes & "Unintended Consequences" Episode 4

I need to get into the habit of dropping this quote “These things aren’t supposed to happen to me. I went to Detroit Mercy”.

The screen grab above led to a terrible “Vassar Versa” joke…  that had a “Vasser Versa” punch line.  

It was a rough episode…   but it did have a few things of interest.

1.) We finally learned what happened to Maggie. I’m surprised they knocked it out all in one episode tho’.  Ya know… it could be that I dislike her character and I’m a little weirded out by her eyebrows, but I just watched the episode and I already forgot why they went to Uganda.  The small story arch however was pretty touching.  I have to agree with the Uganda orphanage teacher, blondes are trouble.

2.) Jim is being pulled off the Romney Bus Tour, so I guess we’re going to be subjected to him falling for Maggie again.  He managed to pick up a mercy fuck from Hallie before going back to New York tho’.

3.) The Red Team - I need to reach out to some of my old Newspaper friends tomorrow to ask if we ever had a “red team”.  Mind you… I worked at a small newspaper and we never really worked on any stories where we had to isolate a story before proofing.  It was however a term that i had never heard of.

I’ve seen a number of other movies that specifically cover investigative journalism and I don’t ever recall there being a red team.

I’m sure its just something I don’t know about.  I’m hoping to discover however after reading some re-caps online that Red Teams are a Sorkin creation.

Lastly… no song drop? What gives?

House of Cards

A number of friends have asked… “Have you seen House of Cards yet?”

My answer since February of this year has been “No”.  Between Game of Thrones/Mad Men and playoff sports - time never really permitted me to sink 13 hours into a new show.

I also didn’t have a lot of faith in Netflix putting out something worth watching.  

I may be in the minority…  but I thought that Kevin Spacey played a murderous lobbyist on Capitol Hill.   Part of that is true…  he’s a Congressman who’s hell bent at getting even with people in his own Party for a snub after he helped a new President get elected.

The first 4 episodes were a slow burn of sorts… the political drama was interesting and I would watch 10 more episodes that involved a Congressman  who wants to plot out the professional demise of everyone who crosses him.

The show then sorta unravels in the middle…  Kevin Spacey’s character gets desperate as does the show.  Much to my surprise, the show then tilts to the examination of Neu - Journalism and it recovers nicely thru the end of the first season.

I’m now left wanting more.  Damn you Netflix.

In the mean time… I’m going to buy one of these and use it daily at home.

Shut Up and Play the Hits : The Final Days of LCD Soundsystem

I have a soft spot for concert films…  especially ones that capture that push the boundaries of what a concert film can be.

SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS does all these things and more and it just got added to Netflix this week.

I discovered LCD Soundsystem (and DFA really) when I discovered the Rapture.  A few weeks after picking up House of Jealous Lovers, I stopped into a record store on Woodward Avenue (next to C-Pop/ maybe above?) And purchased a DFA compilation that had just dropped that week.

LCD Soundsystem had 2 tracks on that 8 song compilation and over the next 10 years… i slowly picked up every LCD Soundsystem release into my music collection. 

I never went out of my way to see them live… I kinda wish I did now.  After seeing the concert film, I was really surprised to see how much the band reminded me of the Talk Heads.

Not in a Stop Making Sense kinda way… but I saw and heard parallels between the two bands for the first time.

Another thing I liked about the film was that they rooted a good part of the movie around a Chuck Klosterman interview.  An interview, I think he conducted for another outlet…   I don’t know if this was intentional or not but it really fleshed out the concert film in ways that I haven’t seen before.

Highly recommended.

Benji Hughes - A Love Extreme

Ever discover an album completely by accident?

I was up unusually late the other night and I ran across an interview that Marc Maron conducted with Chuck Klosterman.  

Chuck recently put out a new book so I thought he was doing a press junket of some kind… until the conversation took a strange turn and they started to talk about the Death of Michael Jackson.

It then occurred to me that the interview was from several years ago… 

The conversation then turned into the current state of music and Chuck name dropped an artistI hadn’t heard of before: Benji Hughes. He then said that Benji dropped a debut double album by the name of A LOVE EXTREME…

Double albums are incredibly rare these days and I’m struggling to think of the last contemporary artist to do so with a debut album.

Don’t believe me?

Exhibit A: Chicago Transit Authority (Chicago) dropped a debut double album… then followed it with 3 other double albums.  The artistic merit here is debatable…

But I digress… 

I found it hard to believe that any contemporary artist would get the OK to record and release a double album.

I immediately had to find it and give it a listen.  

A Love Extreme is one of the most rewarding listens I’ve had in 2013…  It’s quickly rising in the ranks of my all-time favorite summer records.

If you’re a fan of Wilco /The Flaming Lips / Eels / Beck - make it a point to add this to your listen pile

EDIT: A friend asked if LCD Soundsystem had a debut double album…  which is partially true. 

The 2nd disc was a compilation singles they had released before their self titled release.

400,000 kill-a-watts of Fantasy Reality : Week 4 (Rivals 2)

Before I get to the top performers of the week…  I want to give a shout out to Cara Maria for revealing what it feels like to attach a car battery to your nipple piercings in last nights episode of the Challenge: Rivals 2.

Said feeling was described as tiny needles… amplified on your nips.

Team Cara Maria 4 Life

Team: Joker scored 95 points in week 4  (total 560)
Team: Ro Ro scored 95 points in week 4 (total 475)

TOP 5 Ballerz of the WEEK

60 Points - Cooke
35 points = Diss from TJ  ”Thanks for NOTHING!”
5 points = Unintentional Nudity… pantsed by Jemmye
20 points = Intentional Nudity…  she carried on a conversation casually and got bare ass slapped by 2 roommates.  

40 points - Jordan
5 points = kissing Jonna
25 points = getting TJ to say he Killed it
10 points = winning challenge (amended rule in our league)

35 points - Cara Maria
35 points = Dis from TJ “thanks for nothin”

30 points - Knight
5 points = verbal fight with Jemmye  (love that I can pencil Knight in for a minimum of 5 points for verbal every week)
25 points = tying to make Jemmye cry and succeeding with the aid of Ketchup.

25 points - Leroy, Ty, Marlon
25 points = getting TJ to say he Killed it

Clash of Rhinos - KNOTS