Sports
Seeing as how the best night of television (NBC Thursday night) was airing repeats last night, I got a chance to catch the end of the Duke-Clemson game. I turned the game on in time to see Duke's John McClure defeat the upstart Tigers with a buzzer beater, so that was pretty exciting.
Granted, I hate Duke (I'm more of a Tar Heels fan), but it's always exciting to see a game end like that.
Apparently, the Wizards' Gilbert Arenas is no Duke fan either, as he boasted in a blog on NBA.com that he could score "84 or 85 points if he got a chance to play Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski, who cut Arenas from the U.S. national team last summer." Check out that story at SI.com.Also from SI.com: The 2007 NBA All-Star Starters announced.
An interesting non-choice was the Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett, who is averaging more points, rebounds, and assists per game than Duncan.
Guess that's what happens when you let the fans pick their favorites.
Politics
Barack Obama would be the great black hope in the next presidential race -- if he were actually black.
By Debra J. Dickerson for Salon
I am confident that I have held out longer than any other pundit to weigh in on both the phenomenon that is Barack Obama and the question of whether race will trump gender as America looks toward election 2008.
I had irritably avoided columnizing on these crucial topics (though I have been quoted by others) for several, somewhat unorthodox, reasons. First, because the Clinton-Obama stand-off has been more than well-covered -- and in an overly simplistic, insubstantial, annoyingly celebritized way. (Horrors, Obama smokes! But isn't he hot in his swim trunks?) I was waiting for the discussion to get serious and, at last, it has. Finally, we're asking the tough questions; instead of just crowing that he's raised $20 million, we're starting to wonder where it came from and what will be asked for in return for that much sugar. Why is the supposedly eco-friendly New Age senator supporting coal, however liquefied, as a way to wean ourselves off foreign oil? Wouldn't be his home state's powerful coal lobby, would it? And then there's his support for ethanol, which, strangely enough, comes mainly from corn-rich Iowa -- site of the first presidential caucus, if I'm not mistaken...[Read full article]
Music
Featured Artist: The Safes
"This Chicago band of brothers apes early-Cheap Trick cover art and cut this atomic-pop EP in Detroit with Jim Diamond, the go-to-guy for modern garage heat. Everything else you need to know is in the song title 'Mind Meltdown'." -Rolling Stone, David Fricke
"Boogie Woogie Rumble is a lot like Radio Birdman: a riotous, tuneful, pre-punk/post-garage noise that sounds at once like the middle of the British Invasion and the advent of the Clash." -Kansas City Star
"Hometown Hereos: The Safes Their freight-train delivery and thoughtful arrangements- all delivered with a sneer- will remind you why garage rock is indeed an artform" -Chicago Tribune
The Safes - "Fairy Tale Tomorrow"
Featured Artist: The Strate Coats
In the late 1990s--before The Gris-Gris, before the Mirrors--Greg Ashley was a high school dopehead and fuzz guitar pyromaniac wailing away in the suburban Houston-based Strate Coats.
Download "Do the Bob" (mp3)
from "The Savage Young Greg Ashley"
by Strate Coats
Hook or Crook Records
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Together with Fugazi and Nation of Ulysses, this quartet defined the sound of 1990s post rock from Washington, D.C.
Download "Reel" (mp3)
from "For Your Own Special Sweetheart"
by Jawbox
DeSoto Records
Featured Artist: Less Pain Forever
James Karnes and Christopher Pomerenke play guitar, bass, keyboards drums and sing like angels.
Download "Illuminati Stormhorse" (mp3)
from "I Know What It's Like To Want To Dance"
by Less Pain Forever
Accretions Records