zip it

the final days of summer are upon us and so begins the transition to fall. as anyone who has spent time in the happy valley of central pennsylvania knows that means one thing...hundreds of thousands of people are about to spend some quality time in cow pastures, drinking ice cold beer, and feeding some pigs potato chips while singing the psu fight song. that's right, it's time for some college football and anyone who witnessed the nits magical run last year that culminated in a #3 finish in the polls, knows that this moment could not come soon enough. sure you tried to prognosticate this season's outcome while you stood in the freezing rain at the blue white game and you have no doubt poured over various copies of "preseason college football annuals", but that was a mere pacifier for the real deal, the season and home opener for the mighty nittany lions.

with the overwhelming success of last years campaign still fresh in most people's minds, the opener against the zips of akron is an interesting affair. fans desperately want a return to the psu of the past where there was no drop off from season to season just new faces wearing the blue and white and an annual trip to a new year's day bowl. of course with so many new faces (i.e. morelli, secondary, o-line, etc.) there are bound to be some slip ups saturday (look for a morelli pass to travel no more than 10 yards and strike an akron linebacker squarely in the chest at least once) but with an abundance of talent there are bound to be some exciting moments too (possibly the first real special teams play from an offensive stand-point in years).

i never really subscribed to the "trap game" theory and i squarely believe that a good big ten team should beat a good (not great) mac team virtually every time. that being said, the nits will run out of the tunnel to wild applause from the rain soaked faithful at the beav and put on a decent show. notre dame looms in the distance but psu will focus enough to "get 'er done". look for dwheels to line up all over the field and open his scoring account in '06 as the nittany lions beat the zips of akron 27-17.

go state...beat the zips
(follow link to psu blitz/right click to download)

if you really need help getting up for saturday's proceedings...here you go!

thanks to all

"old age is no place for sissies"
-bette davis

a heartfelt thank you to everyone that came out to help ashley celebrate number 30. with the specter of old age hanging over saturday night's proceedings, we managed to have a blast and create a few memories in the process.

i am happy to report that miss ashley "passion" manion is no sissy and i am confident that she will handle aging with all the grace and charm that she has displayed in her first 30 years.

cheers babe.

behind bars

i was reading an article and a figure jumped off the page at me:

one in five americans is under the supervision of the criminal justice system.

that is a lot of people.

a hell of a lot.

if you think about that figure, we are either living in a very violent, amoral society or we have become so puritanical in our thinking and the way we administer justice that the most innocuous offenders are being thrown into the jail system.

compounding this staggering number is the fact that very little rehabilitation is taking place inside our country's jails. so what does that leave us with when 20% of our population re-enters society? it is a very frightening prospect.

360degrees.org is a fantastic resource for a further examination of this remarkable phenomenon. when you think about 2 million+ people incarcerated and without a voice, sites like this have an added resonance.

holy crapola!

this is easily the most disturbing/hillarious thing to come down the pipe in some time...david hasselhoff: the musical! man are you in for a treat if you live in aussie land or gotham.

don't believe me, read it for yourself

psu hotness

big shout to my man tyrone (not erykah badu's tyrone) for hooking me up with this url. straight dope.

(editor's note: watch the video clip 'game tape' and look for dwheels playing ncaa football as dwheels.)

rollback

there are now more wal-mart employees than high school teachers working in america. wow, good job america!

routine

routines are either a godsend (helping us get through each day a little easier) or the work of the devil (reducing our lives to a predictable, oft-repeated bore). i have to say that at this point, my routine monday through friday is choking the life out me. wake up, shower, ride two trains for an hour, get a coffee, and sit my ass down in front of my g5 for 8+ hours, and then go home to do it again the next day. i know that i am far from the only person who dreads the monotony of the daily grind, but i can't concern myself with how other people get by, only myself. life as i know it is far too short for all this predictability and ennui.

this is not a declaration of any sorts, i just feel totally stymied and have to find a better way. the only day in-day out routine that i cherish and can see a tangible value in is getting to see my darling wife's smiling face and spending time with the people who's company i delight in.

cheatsheet

if you haven't already memorized it, mfd has made your life easier by adding the 2006 penn state football to our already spiffy sidebar. more bang for your buck (which is really saying something, 'cause we don't even charge ya!).

mfd loves beirut!

in honor of what looks like the first sensible thing that has happened in lebanon or isreal in over a month, now seems to be as good a time as any to mention a current musical favorite that has been in heavy rotation at the casa de passion, beirut.

hold up now, we are not thinking of decamping of what is left of the chic, cosmopolitan lebanese city...no my friend we are talking about a supremely talented young singer/songwriter of the same name. not unlike the exotic city that he shares a name with, beirut's (the artist) influences are varied and the end result sounds kind of like some backpacking students jamming with some hungarian gypsies by a campfire overlooking paris at night. so there you have it...temporary peace in the middle east, gypsies hanging at a camp fire and now a sample of the mighty fine music i have just described. take that hezbollah!

beirut - postcards from italy
(thanks to rewritable content)

like a puma!

"this is the second time that i've come to this neighborhood without my nunchakus. i am not happy"

summer, summer, summertime.

nostalgia comes in many flavors. sometimes it is rad like a big wad of big league chew, other times it has the nasty taste of tang after you brush your teeth. one blast from the past that still comes off as nice as the first day you experienced it is a summer afternoon spent out in a park with ice cream, live music, and of course slip-n-slide!

longing for the days of yesteryear when you would spend hours on end basking in the glory of the sun and acting like a kid, passion and i set out for a "pool party" at brooklyn's mccarren park this sunday. we were greeted with sights, sounds, and activities that make you wish the sun would not go into hiding for 6 months every year. if you are interested, we took some pictures (when we weren't eating, drinking, and dancing that is).

espn x-men

this is even stupid by my fanatical, college football obsessed standards.

just out of curiosity though...why are there two notre dame x-men? they have not won a thing as of yet, but they have been anointed the savior(s) already. i am sick of those bastards already and the season hasn't even started.

kosher oreos?

lady passion and i were out enjoying an ice cream last night and to make things exciting we decided to get crazy and add a topping to our frozen treat. we opted for the crumbled cookies that appeared to be slathered with a white frosting/cream in the middle. we paid for the ice cream and starting walking, talking, and eating our dessert. after a few bites we began to suspect that maybe we had been duped. were the crumbled cookies with white frosting oreos as we had assumed when we ordered them or were they in fact oreos sneaky, conniving cousin....hydrox! the cookie was a little softer and slightly more bland and the cream was waxier in flavor than the oreo filling we knew and loved. needless to say, despite the warm weather and our love for treats, we left feeling mightily disappointed by our experience. how could you knowingly substitute an american icon for a cheap, bobo knock-off and expect honest, tax-paying consumers to accept it? it is cheap carbohydrates like the hydrox that are slowly eroding the fabric of this country! down with hydrox, viva la oreo in all it's crunchy, chocolatey, non-waxy frosting goodness!

editor's note: i am even more disappointed to let you know that i am now certain that passion and i were eating hydrox, as i have recently learned that hydrox is often referred to as 'the kosher oreo' and the establishment that we were patronizing was indeed kosher!

as rich y. would say....ggggreat! kosher oreos. i mean??????

proof that people are both crazy and that they have far too much time on their hands.

crap kraft dinner

i guess i am a little delinquent in posting something about passion's and i's supreme experience at nyc's south street seaport last friday night. we knocked off work for the week, put on our dancin' shoes, and headed to the east river to see hot chip. i had a clue of what may be in store, but passion was without a clue. that all changed after they played their first song. she was a dancin' machine and she loved the set soooo much that she wanted to get the words 'hot chip' tattooed across her buttocks. cooler heads prevailed and she left with a free pin instead. summer would be a lot more fun if we had free, al fresco concerts with crazed, dancin' verizon employees and cheap coors light every night.

up with hope, down with dope!

ash is right. college football is my thing (in the blog sense) and i'll be damned if i am going to let a dirty buckeye (cue childish laughter) spoil the most majestic of american sports. so with that, i say 'up with hope, down with dope!' and ask you to gaze at the tangible beauty of the masterwork below (entitled history repeats itself...this september!).

for the glory.


does it seem strange that i have shown up for work with my khakis above my ankles, black nikes on my feet, and glasses as thick as coke bottles perched precariously on the bridge of my nose? must be something with the commencement of pre-season practice.

altering video-landscape. huh?

passion and i were lucky enough to procure 2 tickets to swedish techno outfit, the knife (featured on mfd mixtape vol. 1), for there first ever stateside concert in november at webster hall. after reading about the concert on the band's website, i am excited and confused by what they have planned for the evening. there vision of the show is as follows:

The music of The Knife will be performed from a stage for the first time ever. These performances will be accompanied by the images of Andreas Nilsson, which will take the form of various projections along with different kinds of constructions.

Andreas Nilsson gives his description:

"In the first performances by The Knife the role played by the visuals is rather big. Their purpose is to somehow represent the dramatic enacting a performance ideally should encompass, but which The Knife would rather not engage in.

Our aim is to find and enhance the tone of the music, especially where it's presently at with the apocalyptic record Silent Shout.

Karin and Olof will be placed in an altering video-landscape between solid and transparent images. These images will content-wise bring forth the mood that is the ordinary and the simple, but at the same time with an underlying subliminal feeling of that which we run from. A pretty harsh vision.

One interesting aspect of their music is the way in which The Knife work with different characters of singing. These will be visualized by reinforcing The Knife with two individuals of unknown origin. Bred under hypnosis."

different perspective

it sure did not take long for the bloom to come off the psu football rose...if you believe stewart mandel of sports illustrated that is. i understand that the nits need to replace mrob and both lines, but i don't think it is fair to label them a failure before they even get out on the field.

i guess if you disagree with mr. mandel, you can take comfort in the fact that last year he was devoting his column space to chronicling joepa's demise in all it's forms. go figure.

what the..??

as i lay my head down last night to catch some much needed zees, i turned to passion, who had been in deep rem sleep for 2+ hours and said, "i have been having some really psychedelic dreams lately. i mean really effin' weird."

with little hesitation she muttered a quick reply.

"of course you have. that's cause yer psychedelic man."

not two shakes of a lamb's tail later she was back in deep sleep.

go passion, go passion, go!

¡go, papí, go!

there are so many great things about the streets of new york city in the summer: lamb kebabs, crack viles, and prostitutes plying their wares. well, add the mother of all steet urchins to this list, dancing papí­! who is dancing papí­ you may ask? he is a 50 something, latino man who has dance moves that would make john travolta blush. outfitted in little more than spandex shorts, puerto rico baseball jersey unbuttoned to his navel, and fingerless workout gloves, dancing papí­ holds court just off sheridan square in the west village, jamming out and dancing for all to see with his fischer price boombox providing the tunes. in addition to his act, dancing papí­ also has a hype man (think george paterno to fran fischer) who periodically appears chanting "go papí­, go papí­, go!", which is really the jam to papí­'s toast.

when temperatures reach triple digits and emergency sirens are the soundtrack of the summer, it is essential that artists like dancing papí­ help keep our sanity. bustin a move like young mc on a nyc streetcorner is an god-given right that more people should exercise (or else the terrorists win), but until they do...thank god for dancin' papí­!

watch out euro 2008

sweden coach, lars lagerback, finally made a football decision that makes sense...replacing olof mellberg with freddie ljungberg as captain of the swedish national team ahead of their first post world cup friendly with germany. maybe now they can get past the first knock-out round of an international competition with lagerback.

in a related story, lagerback also named tobias linderoth vice-captain of the squad, replacing the retired henrik larsson.

i guess we will find out how all these changes really work out for the swedes when they begin their euro 2008 qualifying saturday, september 2 when they travel to latvia.

you are what you eat

in the past few months i have spent more time thinking about food, than i have at an time in the past. not any food stuff in particular, more the philosophy and politics of how food ends up in our homes and in the meals that we eat. there is a new catchall term that has recently surfaced, grub, which describes food that is sustainable, locally, organically, and ethically grown. i am willing to concede that this may be a bit "pie in the sky" (pardon the food pun) concept, but i think that there is something there none the less.

why are we eating food that is loaded with harmful pesticides and chemicals, picked before it is ripe, and trucked around the world (which wastes natural resources and drains food of it nutrients and freshness), when we can eat food that is grown on local farms and put on the market the same day it has been harvested? think not only of the personal benefits that we would reap from eating food with more vitamins, minerals, etc. but how we could help to create a more positive economical/political system where farmers are rewarded for providing a high quality product that meets a local demand. allowing local growers and food sources to flourish would also help change the current system of multi-national food production and distribution that is wasteful and totally negligent in term of oversight.

i am by no means a model of sustainability, as i enjoy a mountain dew and a pack of sour patch kids as much as the next 8 year old. however, when i think about the old adage "you are what you eat" and ponder my diet, i quickly realize that I want that equation to be as healthy, physically and socially, as it can be.

Death From Above 1979

dfa 1979, was honestly one of the best live performances that I have ever seen. I am saddened that they decided to break up, but I respect their decision and imagine that their creativity will continue to pour out in other projects. Prost to dfa 1979.

A few snippets from their website:

"i never would have imagined that the wall of noise i love so much could have come this far. to see my silly elephant trunk idea become so popular... im sure its the greatest piece of graphic design i'll ever do."

"over the last 3 years of touring, sebastien and i had grown apart to such an extent that the only real time we spoke was just before we would play and during interviews. we both changed so much that the people we were by the end of it, probably wouldnt have been friends if they were to meet for the first time again. its a totally normal function of growing up. like how your high school bf/gf that meant so much to you would probably be the last person you would date at 30, ya know? thats where we got to. its not sad."

"it would be more sad if we stopped changing and growing and kept playing the same songs for 40 years like the rolling stones. for me that would be a nightmare."

how does #19 sound?

the first usa today poll is out and everyone's favorite blue and white clad gridders from happy valley are sittin' pretty(?) at number 19. this ranking and team remind me of the 90's where you had holes to fill on the squad and not a lot of love from the media early on, but when the dust cleared psu came out on top.

no suri for passion and i

unfortunately, passion and i have not been one of the lucky few to see suri cruise-holmes, but we are holding out hope. with everything that is going on in the world, it is so refreshing to know that cnn (the most trusted name in news) can still get it right by giving us daily updates on the legitimacy of tom cruises gd offspring. maybe we could send condi rice to help out since she is obviously not doing shit in the middle east. awesome!

on demand

i was sitting eating some beef barley soup for lunch, when terence trent d'arby's "wishing well" came over the radio. i immediately smiled and thought of bygone days when terence trent was burning up the airwaves. soon after the nostalgia wore off, it got me thinking about technology and the subtle and not so subtle ways it molds and changes our lives. used to be, you had to patiently wait by the radio or in front of mtv (when they still played videos) and hope that "wishing well" or "girls on film" came on. at times, the wait felt like eternity, but when the song came on all the waiting was worth it. now we can have instant access to any form of entertainment we want 'on demand'. this is great when you want to have your cell phone ring with the jem theme song or you don't want to sit through commercials to just to see reno 911. unfortunatly, it makes our already homogeneous lives that much duller and devoid of color. we have managed to sanitize culture to the point that it is devoid of anything other than data that can be transmitted back and forth at anytime.

sure, "wishing well" is a great song anyway you slice it. but it has the ability to make a non-descript car ride to the corner store or lunch in a cafe so much more when it randomly pops on the radio. it re-confirms the randomness and unpredictability that we try so hard to eliminate from our lives.

added bonus: terence trent d'arby is no more! the artist formerly know as ttd now goes by sananda maitreya. go figure.

new features!

i am always looking for new things to add to mfd, but sometimes the darn new idea well just runs dry. that's where passion manion comes in. from time to time she hits me up with some serious knowledge. take for instance an email that i got from her this morning regarding the new album by midlake (who we just saw at maxwell's this past monday):

"Really dig the cd, only stinker is track 9. Very chill, I really like his voice and just the relaxing nature. Good for my soul."

"good for the soul" people. that is some serious shhhh...ut yo' mouth! you go girl, from now on, i will try to bring as many album reviews as i can. in honor of passion's review, we have loaded the musical machine with a midlake track (click on the machine and enjoy). the track could change your life man!

buckle up

living in the vicinity of nyc gives you countless cultural options in which to indulge. museums, concerts, cafes, and minor league baseball. minor league baseball you ask? that's right, if you are lonely and without plans for this weekend, why not join the dozens of people in lovely downtown newark (mere minutes from mid-town manhattan) to celebrate britney spears baby safety night with the newark bears (aaa baseball). while this seems like an opportune time to make a crack about newark, anything said would be overshadowed by the fact that america's former pop princess has been reduced to being the butt end of a joke at the hands of a minor league baseball team. boy, the days of hangin' with justified and helping him put activator in his jherri curl must feel like a lifetime ago to brits.

32 days and counting

enjoy the summer days while you can, because the blue and white madness that is state courage, pa in the fall is almost upon us. 5 days until practice begins and only 32 days until the nits square off against the zips of akron.

the big ten has announced their preseason predictions and the nits are on the outside of the top three (they only reveal positions 1-3) looking in. i guess one title in 12 years doesn't restore all of the respect at one shot. being that as it may, respect was shown to captain paul posluszny, as he was tabbed preseason big ten defensive player of the year. assuming his knee is 100% (he assures us it is) this should just be one of many awards that poz collects this year.

i have to cut this short as i am at work and all this talk of penn state football is getting me way too fired up.