I'm going to start off road trip style. As you all know by now, these blogs are easy to write up when a road trip is concerned. This one takes us to scenic Charleston, West Virginia. The reason we went was to see a West Virginia Power baseball game. If you remember from last summer, this was the team that we saw last summer where Corndog and myself got to meet and hang with none other than Mr. Belding of Saved By The Bell fame. This year another celebrity was involved, wrestling legend Jerry "The King" Lawler, but more on him in a bit. First, I have to set the tone, right? Along for the ride was Whitney and then we were to meet up with fellow internet celebrity Corndog. You know a good time is about to ensue when Corndog is involved. Whitney had never met him in person before, so she was in for a treat as Corndog is one of the true good guys out there. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he makes our redneck accents sound tame and he's a funny cat on top of that. He's a big goofball like myself.
With our Lobstah message board crew, which is my #1 bookmark that I check every day about four zillion times, Corndog has an idea he wants to start up. I'm not sure how well it'll work, but I think several of us would be on board. His idea is to have a Lobstah cheap t-shirt trade of sorts where you send out random shirts true to your own area out to others in the crew. Just off the top of my head, and the locals bear with me a second while I go through a few things for the internet guys, I think these guys would be interested right away: DerekHood, Wilbur, TheAnswer, ManDingo, Walz, and Blahah. I'd also guess that blog residents The_Freak and Kasher would be on board possibly. Corndog hooked me up good with a "Jersey Shore Fist Pump Champ" shirt that I'll proudly rock. In turn, I came in with goodies too as I brought in four Goodwill shirts that I got earlier that week in Corndog's size just because they are out there and weird. One was for some ATV run in our area, another was a challenger's division of Little League around here that is the handicapped league in Bridgeport, a book shirt that said something about just saying no and it was just strange, and lastly I had a local basketball shirt in the mix. Maybe I'm easily entertained, but I like going to Goodwill every so often to get random shirts to cut up to workout or play ball in. You never know what kind of reactions you'll get wearing these shirts. A new one of mine for example? It says Old Bats up top and ladies softball at the bottom with girls crossed out. In the middle is a logo of two bats crossing and a walker next to it. On the back, #6, Bill Russell style. Yep, I have no problems wearing abnormal stuff out like this in public.
We drive to Appalachian Power Park, which again is beautiful. Another trip may be scheduled next month. We arrived by the Corndog Navigation System as he got us right on point. Outside of that part, TomTom was my buddy. While at the game, we at first wanted to meet up with Lawler. I'm not a huge autograph buff, but since it was a bit different, I had him sign a baseball for me. Corn steps up first in line and chit chats it up. First off, Lawler seemed like he really wanted to be there and wasn't being miserable as a guest. He gave everyone time to talk and is super personal. Corndog told Lawler a story from years ago to see if he remembered. In a nutshell and I may be off a bit, but Lawler was at an indy wrestling show in Corndog Land at the time. One of Corndog's buddies was running the sound for the show and nobody brought in Lawler's music. A call to Corndog and that was fixed, he saved the night. Of course, Lawler remembered the action.
This was the lead in for the conversation and then Corndog asked the ultimate. I told him I doubt he would let him, but he asked Lawler if he could get a pic with the infamous crown. He obliged and it wasn't a problem at all. Meanwhile, as Corn had the crown on, Lawler was messing with him and telling him how huge of a head he has. The crowd in line got a big kick out of that. I took my turn next and needed a way to bust into conversation too, I'm never short of that. I've been reading Dirty Dutch Mantell's new book (which is great) and asked Lawler if he had read it yet since they are buds. In the 80s while in the Memphis territory, these two wrestled a ton and had an awesome feud that drew big money. Lawler hadn't read it yet, but I told him that Dutch had nothing but good words to say about him in the book. He then asked if Dutch mentioned in the book that they both have the same birthday and yes he did. To make a long story short, meeting The King was something I really enjoyed.
Now it's time for the game to rock. Our seats were great, as pretty much wherever you sit in a minor league stadium, you're going to get quality seats. We were 6 rows directly behind the plate and sat right beside the dude running the radar gun. Our view was about as good as it could get. Outside of it being insanely hot that night as we were dripping sweat, the action was a blast. The promotions for minor league baseball are at times cheesy, but I personally love how they do things. During one inning, they had Lawler go after one of the visting players, put him in the Airplane Spin and the crowd was all about it. Of course, Corndog and I were all about that part too. Then another inning, they turned the press box into a rave with the lights and all. Fist pumps start going and even Lawler is in the mix. Be on the lookout on Corndog's FB page for the video of this scene.
Between the works of Corn and Whitney, they had me listening to some country music. Yes, I know what you're all thinking, rare stuff. Don't worry, I'm going to review rap CDs down low, but here's my take. I figured, we were driving south anyways and we needed a little bit of a country feel for part of the ride, so why not test out the Sirius and see how the redneck side of things roll. If it's true country, I'm down. The whiny love song type country stuff, not for me. I'm not sure what country type is for me actually, but I did listen to a good bit on the ride, I will admit that. Corndog was surprised when we he rode with us and country was on. I also want a good story to be told and not just random blabbering. No reason to faint though, rap was a big part of the road trip too.
Cereal time. Yes, we hit all cylinders around here. One I've heard nothing but rave reviews about and I finally got to try it out. One of the biggest fans of this is wrestler Shawn Daivari who tweeted on this recently. Cupcake Pebbles! I'm telling you, these are really good and a definite must purchase. Believe it or not, I ate an entire box in one day, no joke. They're that good. I had one bowl with milk and ate the rest of the box dry. I was a beast with that. Fruity Pebbles are my #1 cereal of all time probably, with Lucky Charms a close second, but these have to go in the debate. Maybe it's a kids cereal, but if it's good, I'm going to give it the trusty try. Go get these bad boys, you won't be disappointed.
World Cup huh? I'm not a soccer guy at all as most will tell you. Most of my buddies are in the same boat, but World Cup action? That's what it's all about. It seems like even the non-soccer fans like myself get amped up when the Cup hits its stride. I watch hardly no soccer during the regular seasons of these clubs, but I've watched tons and tons of Cup already. Another fascination with our crew is the vuvuzelas. You've surely heard these by now, even if you don't know the actual term of vuvuzela. It's the horns you hear in South Africa that the fans crank the entire time. If you've watched ANY soccer at all these past few weeks, you know the buzzing sound you hear. Not only that, but our crew is talking about ordering a few of these just because, partly to annoy people and partly to entertain ourselves. Thanks to Walz, or more so Big Ben, we've all downloaded the vuvuzela app to our phones. This thing is addicting and then some. As Walz gracefully tweets, "Vuvuzelas all day!" Yes, everyone needs in on this fad. My Italian boys need to get it going, Sunday's tie with New Zealand of all teams is not acceptable. Cali Jas, I know you're proud that all of us out here are getting the soccer going for ya. I even see some luchadore masks in the crowd, that's always good times.
How about your ol' Gutter Connection? The boys were hot recently and got their first win of the season. Not only that, but the two games following, we took the doubleheader and swept that thing. Morale is as high as it's been all season for the Gutter Sluts and we have a lot of ball left to be played. One night Spank had four homers and 12 RBI, he was in a zone like no other out there. I'm still not totally happy with my bat this season, but it has picked up quite a bit. I have a blast each and every game and just being part of the action. On the crowd front, we're getting people to come. Either they're bored to death with nothing to do or they just like seeing the ups and downs of Gutta. We don't play at all this week, an off week, but next week it gets serious! Next week we play on Monday, Thursday, and Friday nights, with all nights including doubleheaders at 6:00 and 7:00. Come to Windmill Park, I can guarantee you'll have a blast watching the games and being one of the thousands upon thousands of fans we have attending each game.
Not that many care, but every now and then I get people asking what podcasts I'm listening to on a regular basis. Right now, I have five pods that I download everyday through iTunes. These are all free of course and if you're lost in the dark on podcasts, give them a try. There are pods for any kind of topic you can think of, but I go strictly sports to nobody's surprise. My favorite pod is probably The Tony Kornheiser Show. Yeah, Mr. Tony from PTI fame. He does a daily show through the week and talks about anything and everything: sports, TV shows, celebrity news, whatever the hot topics at the moment include. Another is Bill Simmons, the Boston Sports Guy who I've hyped countless times over the years. I've been a BSG guy since before he hit it big, when he was doing his online articles in the 90s. His show is titled The B.S. Report and it's through ESPN. He'll have a few pods a week usually and is really good in my opinion. A third is Colin Cowherd's show, The Thundering Herd. Fourth? NBA Today, self explanatory. Last is a wrestling pod from the Pro Wrestling Torch guys if you're familiar with those. Their show is through the weekday and is titled BTR: Pro Wrestling Torch Livecast. Again, not that anyone cares, but that's what I listen to more than anything on my iPod when I'm working out or just laying around the house.
Speaking along that line, what games have I been into lately on my phone? I'm always adding things at random times, so here's your chance to get deep into my mind and see what pointless games have my attention at the moment. The main one at the moment would be Coin Dozer. You know those machines at carnivals with the bed of coins? You drop a coin in and the piece pushes the rest of the coins across and you get whatever falls off? This one is that style and for some reason it's addicting to gather up your prizes and unlock things. Second, we have Angry Birds. This is a very fun game that is one of the higher ranked iPhone apps going the past few weeks. The concept is that you shoot different types of birds (think Kitty Cannon if you've played those style of games online) into structures with green pigs. The object is that you want to kill the pigs with the birds being fired off from the slingshot. Weird, I know, but it's worthy. The last I will hype this week is called iMorra. I was looking for an Italian style of the game Morra, but wasn't able to find the exact thing. Instead, this one is more Rock, Paper, Scissors, which in a sense is the same basis of Morra. Another game that can consume you and have you wanting to get the high score. There you have it, now get on those phones and download these games as soon as possible.
Two NBA topics to finish up on. One is the Finals and the other features my favorite day of the year. It's after the fact, but if anyone didn't see on FB or Twitter, I sent the congrats out to all the Lakers fans out there. That's tough for me to do as a Celtics fan, but I try to never be a sore loser and give credit where it's due. At the beginning of the year, I predicted that Kobe and the boys would get another title and they did. Unfortunately, it was to my boys' expense. I'll be one to admit that I never expected my boys to make it nearly this far. One, they beat up LeBron and the boys without homecourt. The next round after that, they beat up the overrated Dwight Howard and his Magic without homecourt. Then they stole one in Kobe Land by taking homecourt away. That ended shortly though as LA won it in Game 7. Some people cry that officiating cost them the game. Get out of here with that nonsense. You will never hear me blame the refs for costing any of my teams I support. I always say, if you play bad enough that you're blaming the refs, your team didn't play hard enough to win. Simple as that. Sure, there is human error and we can argue that till the end of eternity, but the Lakers beat the Celtics and that's that. Ray Allen, what a total bum you were this series. Outside of the game you went into a coma launching threes, you were not a factor at all, you took off the table.
To end, Thursday marks THE greatest day of the entire year for me. What's that? If you haven't seen the FB posts, it's the NBA Draft. I've had this date marked since probably this time last year and can't be anymore excited for this than I am. It's a tradition for me since as long as I can remember, but I get locked into a total zone during this action. I might scare some with my schedule during this day. I still write out the picks by hand, pencil and paper style. Yes, I can get the picks instantaneously online as they happen, but I'm a creature of habit for the most part. I am in NBA mode 24/7 anyways, regardless if it's NBA season or not, but I like getting into this and researching it till no end. I so much just want to ramble and ramble and ramble on NBA stuff, but I'll stop now before I lose every single person. How I wish more true hardcore NBA fans existed in today's world, it's a rare breed.
Drake: Thank Me Later. I wrote about this on FB a few weeks ago, but I'll mention it again. The online reviews are correct, at least from my observation. I like Drake as a mixtape guy and think he's talented, but this album, not so much. The release of this was so overrated and it didn't deliver in my mind. I don't recommend this unless you want to complete your Drake collection. I will throw out a few songs to get though if you're wanting to test the waters. Light Up with Jay-Z, Up All Night with Nicki Minaj, and Miss Me featuring Lil Wayne.
Devin The Dude: Suite 420. You know what you're getting with Dev. Lyrically, I think he's always been pretty good. He has his own VERY laid back style and the 420 reference in the album's title will show where he's coming from. The stuff he raps about doesn't pertain to me at all, but I've always liked his flow. This CD, my complaint was that they put too much emphasis on bass and it drowns out some of the good lyrics. A few things to get are That Ain't Cool, What We Be On (love this beat), and All You Need.
8Ball & MJG: Ten Toes Down. Now this one comes hard. As with Dev, you know what you're getting here, straight gutta with this great duo. These guys should come and perform live at Gutter Connection softball games. This I'm definitely giving a thumbs up to and you need to get it. Without keeping you waiting much longer, it's time for you to check out some of these tunes: It's Going Down, Ten Toes Down with Lil Boosie, and What They Do featuring T.I. You can almost recommend the whole CD here, but it still pales in comparison to our next and final review..
Reflection Eternal - Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek: Revolutions Per Minute. This may be a bold statement, but it's surely in the argument for me if it isn't my winner. This could be my pick for best CD of the year so far at least on the styles of music that I listen to. I'm a huge Talib fan and have been for a good while anyways, but getting him and Hi-Tek back together makes things even that much better. Really, you can't go wrong with anything at all, the whole track listing jams. Talib is one of the better lyricists out there, plus he's great at telling a story in his raps and not just making up stories about his bling, the club, and his cars that nobody cares about or will be out of date in a few months anyways. Recommendations include In This World, Midnight Hour with Estelle, Ballad of the Black Gold, and Ends featuring Bilal. Ladies and gentlemen, this is some true hip hop at its finest.
Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This comes to us from one of the blog's best contributors, Kasher. "Best of the week: Haspop. I see robot impersonations all the time, but they're always great" Well said Kasher, well said. I was impressed with this dude. I don't watch any America's Got Talent, but guess I'm missing out. Plus, how can you go wrong with a name like Haspop? What's that? Enjoy, dude breaks it down.
3 Quick Thangs:
1. Not along the same tastes as the epic Cupcake Pebbles, but another snack thing I've been big on lately. What's that? We'll go the healthy route for those who want that. Blue Diamond almonds, whole natural. I'm tearing these things up like no other. Why do almonds have to be so expensive though? I mean come on. But they're good!
2. Let's stay on food and go back to the unhealthy route. What's the worst burger in America? Apparently it's the Denny’s Smokin' Q Three Pack. It has 2020 calories (ugh), 110 grams of fat (what??), and 3570 mg of sodium (for real?!). I found this on the Yahoo front page the other day. Here's a breakdown of the seven worst as well as alternatives: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/worst-burgers-america-2010. Also, I saw an updated thing on the news the other night in how West Virginia is once again the most unhealthy state according to one poll. No surprise.
3. Quick Jerry Lawler facts to finish up with: Hulk Hogan has never defeated Lawler in a match.. Overall, he has held more titles than any other current WWE star.. He is an accomplished artist.
