God bless Japanese game shows

I swear I'm going on Amazon right now and pick up every DVD of this show...the 9 minute clip alone has me soiling myself...

Apparently, the premise (such as it is) is a group in a library being subjected to all forms of cruel torture...the catch is that they must remain silent during the brutality. This episode features a guest appearance by one "Ernesto Hoost" - a quick perusal of Wikipedia reveals he is a famous Dutch kickboxer, but I think his best work is on this show.

I feel a twinge of sympathy for the poor bastard who gets picked three or four times in a row for abuse. At least he didn't get picked for "Old Man Bites Tenderly"

Silent Library

Friday YouTube Nugget

For the final nugget of 2007, I'm reaching back to 1980 and an infectious tune from one of my favorites from the nascent days of MTV. With his minor hit, "Ah Leah", here is Donnie Iris:



An interesting footnote on Mr. Iris - he was a "one-hit wonder" three times over. He hit the pop charts the first time in 1970 with his song "The Rapper" performed by his band The Jaggerz. Then, after the inevitable break-up, Donnie made his way to Wild Cherry, who hit the big time with the execrable "Play That Funky Music" in 1976. Donnie went solo a few years after and hit the Top 30 with "Ah Leah".

Fare-thee-well 2007, Aloha 2008

Well, that was a nice long blogging break. I lost the BlogWar and now live in exile from GabsOSteel-ville. Wars are hard.

I anticipate a nice long weekend of blogging about what's happened in the last month....or vegging out in front of the TV watching the Extras series finale for the 10th time. ("was that really Karl Pilkington as the autograph hound?"). Anyway, Friday YouTube nugget on the way...

Absenteeism in Blogging

If this past week has taught me anything, it is that blogging is way down on my priority list. Not necessarily a bad thing....but my higher priorities are work, drinking and more drinking. There are so many things to discuss - the NIE on Iran debacle, the upcoming Presidential primaries, the Led Zeppelin reunion in London, the resurgence of the Bills against the collapse of the Sabres on their West Coast trip - and I'm running out of days to do it before I have to switch into "End-Of-Year" mode. And you know what that means.

Top Ten Lists.....a whole week's worth.

Like Johnny Rotten once sneered, "I'm a lazy sod...."

Paging Emily Post

Scenario: A good friend invites you to go out one evening....you suggest dinner and she agrees. Unfortunately, your job requires you to work late, so you suggest a time slightly later than normal - 7:30 pm. Your friend agrees. You, who have skipped breakfast and lunch because you're such a slave, er, dedicated worker, are starving....but, out of respect and courtesy to your very good friend, you refrain from snacking on anything until dinner. Even when you manage to make it home for a quick 15 minutes before the appointed dinner time. Even when your hunger pangs are about to drive you insane. Even when a co-worker drops off a piece of birthday cake saved especially for you. You abstain, you sacrifice, you suffer....all in the name of basic, common courtesy.

Which you find out means precisely jack shit at dinner when you discover, to your horror, that your dining companion has already eaten a full meal. One and a half hours before this dinner. A full sandwich and a yogurt. You suspected something was amiss when you asked your friend if she would like to split an appetizer, only to be told "I'm getting soup as my entree". Soup.....as an entree. Yep....that should have been the obvious tipoff. Then, your very good friend orders salad and soup, only to cancel the salad five minutes after ordering it.

I guess I should be flattered that my friend thought enough of me to tell me the truth, instead of claiming some "virus" or other such malady that would have curtailed the appetite in the few hours before meeting for dinner. I choose, however, to be amazed that this friend couldn't wait 90 minutes for nourishment.

Woke up, fell outta bed, dragged a comb across my head...

Well, not really a comb. I cut my hair really short last weekend because my bald spot was rearing itself again.

Not much to report so far today. The snow doesn't get me down as much as people who can't drive in snow. It's not a boxcar rally, people!

I'll check in later to document what fun my workday has in store for me

Declaration (of Blog War)

Well, it's on. I accept the challenge issued by Ms. GabsOSteel and pledge to post nothing this week but commentary on my life and other sundry issues. No easy YouTube links or witty image files to fill space on this here blog. You wanted the best, you got the best.

BTW, the good folks at Maker's Mark bourbon seem very receptive to my initial inquiries into corporate sponsorship...

Better Late Than Never Nugget, Neil Young Edition

What can I say....I'm sluggish after a holiday break. To commemorate his excellent recent show at Shea's, Neil Young gets the love this week....from 1983's Everybody's Rockin (which led his record company to sue him for not making "Neil Young" albums), this is Wonderin'.

Monday, Monday

Oy...whatta weekend. So many topics to cover, so this will be more stream-of-consciousness, Spinal Tap Mk IV vibe....

1) Neil Young at Shea's Friday night - Awesome, awesome concert. Easily the best show I've seen all year and probably the best I've seen since the Cream reunion at MSG in 2005. His wife Pegi opened the show with a nice country-folk set. Neil came out for an acoustic set that was something special. He played my personal favorite ("After The Goldrush") and pulled out some surprises ("Harvest" and "Mellow My Mind"). After a break, the full band came out and blew our minds. He opened with two Crazy Horse classics, "The Loner" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and never let up. I'm definitely picking up his new album Chrome Dreams II if only for the staggering "No Hidden Path" which clocked in at 25:13 during the concert! Encores were "Cinnamon Girl" and "Like a Hurricane". My friend and I were floored by the whole experience - it's been 20 years since I've seen a show at Shea's and the grand ole' theater did not disappoint. There were some VIP sightings - former Mayor Masiello was sitting four rows in front of us and we did notice, walking past us in the aisle....Thurman Thomas?? I guess ol' Thermal digs Rust Never Sleeps.

2) Sabres vs. Carolina Saturday night - OK, the game was of secondary importance...Buffalo steamrolled the hapless Canes en route to an 8-1 laugher. The real fun began when my buddy and I went out after the game. We ran into the wife of a prominent local businessman who was having a girls night out with her friend. Turns out my friend knows her well, so we were hanging with them most of the evening. They were a lot of fun and even managed to get me dancing. The real revelation was when said wife told me she used to be a Playboy Bunny way back in the day (in the Playboy Club, not in the magazine). I'm not really used to women telling me they had any affiliation with Playboy, so I tried to do the polite thing, but there really is no etiquette for a moment like that. So I looked at her chest.

She was very nice about the whole thing, so no damage done (I think).

3) Bills vs. Redskins on Sunday - It's a good thing Joe Gibbs is suffering from early onset dementia because we really should have lost this game. But for Washington's inexplicable failure to run out the clock in the 4th and Gibbs's mental fog in forgetting you can't call consecutive timeouts to freeze the kicker, we'd be staring down a 5-7 hole today. The defense played superbly, as usual, especially shutting down Clinton Portis. Trent Edwards played well, but he's not setting the offensive world on fire. We'll get nowhere with more zero-offensive touchdown performances like yesterday. Our defense is game, but it ain't the 2000 Ravens D. Once we get healthy (read: the return of Marshawn Lynch), we have be more productive in the red zone.

Also, Joe Gibbs should retire before he embarrasses himself and his organization any further. Has anyone tarnished such an impeccable legacy in so short a time span? That a man who won 3 Super Bowls with 3 different quarterbacks failed to remember what any 7th grader knows about calling consecutive timeouts is a sad commentary on how much the game has passed him by.