Time for a vacation!

George Mason in the Elite Eight? Who'da thunk it?

Just so my blog readers don't get antsy, I'm giving you all fair warning that I'll be away and hopefully (though unlikely) -- nowhere near a computer for a few days. I'm off to Colorado for a 5 day ski jaunt, and I can't wait! Updates to follow with photos included. Cheers.

Quick Elliott Smith shout-out

I rediscovered an amazing live version of Elliott Smith's "Angeles" tonight and subsequently repeated it about 10 times. Then I decided I wanted to share it because it's such a beautiful version.

Elliott Smith - Live in Stockholm Sweden (6.2.98) - Angeles

The guitar work is impeccable. The recording quality is top notch. And the song is... well, just hear it for yourself. It doesn't get any better than this.

The softer side of Jack Bauer?

My weekly browse through the iTunes music store led me to Jack Bauer's celebrity playlist. (Yes, I know it's actually Kiefer Sutherland's list, I just prefer the idea that Jack Bauer is not a fictional character.) Anyway, through the list I learned that Mr. Bauer himself is quite the music fan, and aside from boasting a collection of over a couple dozen Gibson guitars, he started a music studio/record label with none other than artist Jude Cole, who I guess is best known for his early '90s work.

The label, Ironworks Music, which claims to be all about real artists -- those who aren't necessarily "pop hit acts" but "really believe in themselves" -- is not so original in its goal to find undiscovered, talented artists who deserve to be signed over, say, Lindsay Lohan, but it is the only label that can claim to be co-owned with artists hand-picked by the most ruthless and intimidating government agent ever.

Anyway, the first release under the label is for a guy/band named Rocco DeLuca & The Burden. The album, I Trust You to Kill Me, will be in stores on March 21 (but incidentally is already available for purchase on iTunes) and of course, a few cuts are streaming on MySpace.

And suddenly I feel duped... clearly it's a coincidence that Kiefer Sutherland would release his celebrity playlist to iTunes with three songs from his own label's artist on the very week the debut album for the record label is released, right? Jack isn't that sneaky, is he?

Geez, I've barely given it a listen but somehow just because Bauer digs it, I'm all about the promo. It's shameless, really. He's got all of America held hostage!! Damn him for duping me. Sorry for being so careless, dear readers. I guess that's why Jack Bauer really is the man.

A very Sweet Sixteen!

This weekend's basketball games continued in their excitement as they set the stage for the Sweet Sixteen next week. For local fans, the results were especially awesome, with both George Mason and Georgetown advancing in huge upsets (and thus wreaking havoc on lots of brackets). Though GW fell to Duke on Saturday, it's nice to have two other area teams to cheer on.

Today's funniest March Madness moment came via the CBS score box for the Bradley-Pittsburgh game. Everyone had to have a good laugh over this one:

Teeheehee!

March Madness & Shamrock Shakes

The below post was prepared for publication on Thursday, March 16, but due to what I discovered was a widespread "Blogger 505" error, I was unable to post it. Rather than delete it outright, I'll leave it in its original form below, and update the following information: after gloating about my great first round March Madness picks through Thursday, Friday's games left me with a 21-11 first round record. But at least I enjoyed last night's games at an extremely overcrowded and loud bar whilst enjoying a Guinness!!

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3.16.06

Today kicked off one of the most exciting sports events of the year. Whether or not you're a sports fan, or whether or not you "follow" college basketball, March Madness is a time that all can enjoy. This year is particularly exciting because I'm participating in my first-ever office pool. I've got my bracket filled out, and with five TVs spread out around the office, it's hard not to get distracted by the daytime games to see how your teams are doing. As the Post reports, some companies are cracking down on the potential lost productivity. (Sorry, friends at CEB!)

If today's near-upsets of BC and Tennessee (both of whom I picked) are any indication of how nail-biting and exciting the tourney will be, we're in for a great couple weeks.

And GW's second-half 18-point comeback and run to win in OT over UNC-Wilmington tonight just topped off what was a great opening day of basketball. Talk about under pressure. Whew!

Through 12 games that have finished, I've only had one bad first round pick (Seton Hall). So far so good, eh?

In other news, I tried my first McDonald's Shamrock Shake today. Apparently since they introduced this seasonal green milkshake (tastes like a Mint Chocolate Chip shake-- delicious!) back in the 70s and then only offered it on a very select and limited basis thereafter, the Shamrock Shake has had a cult-like following. As a lifelong McDonald's fan, I feel like I completely missed the boat on this one and am actually a bit embarrassed about being out of the loop. But I guess it's not too late, as they seem to be back on the menus (or at least available upon request at select locations) and available as a delicious St. Patty's day treat. I did kind of have a stomach ache for the entire afternoon though, and while I'm not completely certain the Shake was to blame, I'm not quite sure I should back this product 100%. Either way, a Happy St. Patty's Day to all, Irish or not...


Current Music: Clementine, by Elliott Smith

A new download, at last...

Since I haven't plugged any music in a while, I'll take this opportunity to bring back my Sunday downloads. Most of you (whether or not you've known it) have probably already heard Joshua Radin's music featured on popular television shows such as "Scrubs" and more recently "Grey's Anatomy."

I first heard him on an episode of "Scrubs," which is one of my favorite shows in part because of the fantastic music. Zach Braff's got some good taste, and he's been plugging his pal Joshua Radin for quite some time. After I heard "Closer" on an episode last season, I scoured the web to find out more on this guy. Finally, a year later, he's released his first full-length album, We Were Here, which, as of now is only available as an album download on iTunes. But word has it he just signed with Columbia Records, so the album should hopefully be available in tangible record-store form soon ("late spring," according to his website). Among his original tunes, the album also features a surprising acoustic cover of Yaz's "Only You." Who can resist?

Click here to stream some audio of Joshua Radin's recent in-studio performance and interview with the fabulous KCRW.

And in the meantime, here's a sampler... enjoy!

Joshua Radin :: Closer

Congrats to Chloe!

Before I head to bed (it's my third night on Tylenol Cold PM-- works wonders!), I must quickly post on tonight's "Project Runway" finale. In what was a surprising outcome (at least before everyone saw the runway show), Chloe came out on top, rising above frontrunners Daniel V. and Santino to be crowned the winner. After last week's episode in which we got a preview of everyone's collection, I swore it was going to be Santino, not only because his designs seemed to be the best, but moreso for the way Bravo was turning him into this apologetic and suddenly (more) likeable character.

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised that the final two came down to Chloe and Daniel V! And while I truly think the others may have wanted it more than Chloe, and while I didn't love all her pieces, I definitely think her collection was the best-- most professional, sophisticated, and basically just immaculate in its creation. I bet she's all like "Aw man, now I gotta go hang out with some Banana designer? New York is played out, honey, I'm ready to go back to Houston..." And I'm sure Daniel V. is laughing in her face now that he's got a Michael Kors safety net to fall back on!

Anyway, I thought the dress that Grace wore, in particular, was just stunning and so well-made. I never really liked Grace as a model but I thought she looked great!

See Chloe's full collection here with some additional detailed shots here.
And if you want to judge for yourself, check out Daniel's and Santino's collections, too. (You can also see Kara's... I have no idea how she snuck her way into Fashion Week with some of these designs)

One last observation: So I know I'm short and everything, but is it just me or is Chloe literally like 4'9"??? Even when wearing shoes she looked to be about half the size of average-height people! Way to keep it real, Chloe.

TGIM?

"TGIM?" was the beginning of the subject line of an e-mail that I, along with all my coworkers, received this afternoon, alerting us to our new company-wide dress code.

Apparently after reviewing employee survey results from '05, one of the higher-ups made the decision to "relax" the work environment and allow Casual Fridays everyday. Yippee! Granted, the definition of Business Casual in my bureau was already pretty relaxed before, but now that we can roll in wearing jeans (so long as they are "neat, clean, and unripped") whenever we want is pretty freakin' sweet. It was definitely the highlight of the day, and I'm sure the new policy will make going to work that much more pleasurable, at least for the immediate future and before the novelty wears off. I know all you people with the artsy-fartsy jobs (or the young and fun corporate jobs) who never considered not wearing jeans are just scratching your head at this one, but I myself am pretty psyched! No more thinking ahead about how I'll rotate and match my dress pants and tops for the upcoming week. And a great excuse to shop for new jeans!

Monday Television Commentary

Post-Oscar Thoughts:

In what seemed to be a year of fair play, with no "Lord of the Rings" to sweep the show and almost every big movie winning at least one award (Each of the six big categories-- Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress was taken by a different movie), last night's Oscar show was a bit lackluster. Perhaps it was the fact that -- with the exception of "Crash" as best picture stealer-- much of it went as predicted. That said, I was still extremely happy to see the actress awards go to Rachel Weisz and Reese Witherspoon (Whoa, two "RWs," crazy!).

Reese in particular was one of the highlights of the night and delivered what was, for me, the best speech of the night. It's funny when you're listening to speeches and in your mind you kind of guide yourself through what you think they should say next ("ok, now thank your husband, then wrap it up with something poignant and thoughtful...") and the actor does just that in a very articulate way. The gal is just so cute and whenever she's on camera I can't help but love her and have a big smile on my face. Maybe it's because no matter what roles she had before or after "Legally Blonde," she'll always just be Elle Woods to me. And did we really ever think Elle could win an Oscar? I'm just so proud! Now that I think about it, Reese has pretty nice repertoire... "Cruel Intentions," "Election,"... and for those of you who haven't seen Reese's first movie, "The Man in the Moon," it's worth a rental, not only to see Reese as a 14-year-old but also because it stars Jason London. Great flick! And to think, she's getting paid $29 million for her next movie. That's just wrong, isn't it? I bet Ryan Phillippe sure didn't know he was getting that big of a sugar momma when they got together.

Um, ok, moving on from Reese...

John Stewart's hosting gig has gotten pretty poor reviews all around. I think he was pretty much hit-or-miss on the night (the hit, of course, being his Bjork-Cheney joke, and misses being, well, lots of other jokes that fell flat). All in all, I think he may be a little too deadpan for the Oscar audience with not enough tap-dancing Billy Crystal in him to keep everyone awake-- especially the old peeps-- when the show enters its third hour...

24 (spoilers below if you missed last night's episode):

I just have to comment on tonight's new and "explosive" (to use a TV critic word) 2-hour episode of "24." You know Jack is getting really ruthless when he starts not only threatening the bad guys with guns in their faces, but then shooting their wives instead. Yikes, ease up there Jackie. And what's with Tony Almeida rising from the dead again? Last season you get shot in the neck and you're up running around within 5 hours, and this time it's a car bomb explosion and you're on your feet again on the same day? What say we take a breather and watch some Tivo or something.

So we're about 12 hours into the day now and out of nowhere comes the Vice President. Where ya been, pal? Not out hunting, I hope. Just when it appears someone wise may have arrived to give hopeless President Logan some support, we find out his second-in-command is just as whacked out as he is. "I don't know what's going on since I've been M.I.A. all day, but since I don't feel like dealing with it, let's impose Martial Law!!!" Oh boy, this should be good.

In more serious news, the death of Edgar tonight came as a shock to all loyal "24" fans. He and Chloe were like the CTU peas in a pod, and that he would succomb to death from nerve gas within the hallowed halls of CTU Headquarters is a true television tragedy and is made extra ironic by the fact that his good-hearted nature is what led to his ultimate downfall.

That last scene, however, completely summed up what's clearly a pervading high-school culture at CTU. You had to feel bad for the random and unnamed CTU employee after she banged on the door of the sealed room and all the "popular" A-list kids inside (Jack, Audrey, Buchanan, Chloe-- but only because Chloe is smart and does everyone's homework) just kind of stared blankly, basically shrugged their shoulders and were like "Oops, sorry, you're on your own!" Only when they saw Edgar in the danger zone did they actually show a shred of emotion at the thought of a human being actually dying before their eyes.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see what happens next week when Jack is the one in trouble... which kid will be the one to sacrifice himself for the captain of the football team? Stay tuned.

Writer's Block

Just as I thought my blogging inspiration was back, I've been staring at this blank screen for a good five minutes thinking about my next post. Chalk it up to the rut I feel like I'm in or blame it on my bad case of whooping cough, but I've got nothin..nothin good, anyway.

I guess since the Oscars are on tonight and there's no "Grey's Anatomy" to look forward to, I can discuss that a bit. Since I've actually seen a number of the movies, I'm pretty excited to see who takes home the awards. I've been a big "Brokeback" fan since I saw the movie, and since I got a haircut yesterday in which the stylist fully blew out my hair and made me look like Anne Hathaway did in the movie (i.e., a Texas beauty queen in the 70s), it must be a sign that it will live up to all its Oscar hype. However, I did finally see "Walk the Line" a couple nights ago on DVD and was thoroughly impressed by both Joaquin and Reese's performances, particularly the fact that they sung every note heard in the movie.

Other than that, I'm rooting for any award for "The Constant Gardener" (definitely one of my favorites all year) and rooting against "The History of Violence" (might have been the worst movie I paid to see that received so much critical acclaim). "Syriana" was pretty good but frankly, it confused me, and "Good Night and Good Luck" was brilliantly done but ultimately difficult for me to connect with. David Straithairn did an amazing job in his role as Edward R. Murrow though, and I think the Best Actor category will be one of the toughest to pick tonight.

Anyway, as my dad and Huan currently argue as to whether or not Jessica Alba is actually hot, I'm going to kick back and enjoy the show...