Okay, my readership is dropping off. I can’t believe, from a pretty lucrative question like “Who is the Greatest Rock and Roll Band Of All Time?” I get two (2) frickin’ votes. (The result was a tie between the Rolling Stones and Nirvana.) I figured that was a pretty easy thing to vote on. I figured even if people didn’t like the options I gave, I might hear about it in the comment section of my blog updates.
It’s not like I was asking something obscure like “Who was the greatest Intercontinental Champion of the 1980s?” Which come to think of it, I did ask, and I also got two votes for. So I guess the moral of the story is the readers of “My Thought Process” care just as much about pro wrestling from the 1980s as they do about great rock ‘n’roll bands.
See..what you’re supposed to do is comment and vote (preferably both) on the non-wrestling polls so that I assume if I ask non-wrestling questions, I’ll get a greater response. When I get the same response from a obscure wrestling-related question as I do from a general pop culture-related question, it makes me think “Okay, I can just toss any old wrasslin’ question up here!”
Of course, as you might have noticed, I didn’t go that way. I decided to make this week’s blog poll a little bit more personal. I figure all of you know me somehow if you’re here reading this, so your vote should be a no-brainer.
If you scroll down far enough, you will notice that I made a blog entry about this new poll. I’ve decided that, each week, I will create a blog entry about that week’s poll. There probably won’t be much there, save a brief explanation and the results of the previous week’s poll. However, that should open things up as a spot for you to post comments with regards to the poll and your particular vote.
And since we on the topic of things you might have noticed is that I changed the format up a bit. As much as I kinda liked the big-@ss photo of me down by the Port Stanley Harbour, it was time to update the look of the blog a little bit.
I decided to can the joke “About Me” and make it a little more serious, not to mention truthful. For some reason, I can’t insert line breaks so it’s all one long paragraph. Oh well. I also deleted the old contents of “Useless Information” and added a couple of new tidbits. I figured it was time to refresh that as well.
I’ll try and blog tomorrow and Wednesday. However, after that it may be a while before you get some new blog comment. As some of you may know, I am heading to Baltimore, MD for a few days to help my friend, Kelly, celebrate her 30th birthday. (Feel free to pass along your greetings in the Comment Section.)
I am heading out on April Fool’s Day and will return on April 6th. I’m kinda nervous about the whole aiport experience, since I’ve never flown before. I just hope that part of the trip goes smoothly. Hanging out with Kelly in Baltimore, meanwhile, will be awesome.
(By the way, feel free to drop me a comment or e-mail me either at my g-mail account or on Facebook. I know I won’t be able to respond right away but I love coming home from an excursion of any kind or length and being able to have lots of stuff, either e-mail or from my favourite websites, to read.)
I’m just glad I’m feeling up to this trip, health-wise. One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging (or doing much of anything) lately is because I’ve had what I’m assuming is the flu for the last couple of weeks. Yeah, usually I get the flu, I have a few days where I don’t feel well and a couple of days where I REALLY don’t feel well. This time out, there were days when I almost couldn’t stay awake, including two days where I went to bed at 7:30 and woke up with at 4:30 am with pounding headache and sweating. Other times it was limited to instances of a really bad cough, the odd migraine, and feeling really weak in the knees. However, I am happy to say that, for now, I am 95% cured.
I say 95% cured because at my age and in my general physical state, I always feel like crap over one thing or the other. I guess a better line is “I am happy to say that I am back to as good as I get.” A couple of weekends ago, my sister and nephew came to visit. I swear, I wish I had a tenth of his energy. I’d probably get a heck of a lot more accomplished. (Although I could probably do without the Thomas the Tank Engine fascination.)
I finally listened to the newly-released Jimi Hendrix album, Valleys of Neptune, over the weekend. I’d give it a B- in terms of a grade. The album sounds less like a polished studio album and more like a collection of jams that Hendrix was known for. There are several tracks that are available on albums released during Hendrix’s life, albeit slightly alternate versions(“Stone Free”, “Fire”, “Red House”) as well as an electric version of “Hear My Train Coming”, a reworking of “Ezy Ryder” entitled “Lullaby for the Summer” and a cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”.
There are also several new (or at least as far as I know) tracks including the title track, “Crying Blue Rain” and “Ship’s Passing Through the Night”, an outtake from his Axis: Bold As Love album “Mr. Bad Luck” and “Lover Man” an evolution of “Rock Me Baby” which had been based on B.B.King’s tune of the same name.
Because of the nature of the material being presented, Valleys of Neptune sometimes feels less like Hendrix and company going into the studio to lay down tracks for an album, and more like he was just jamming with his friends. However, Jimi being Jimi, don’t take that as a condemnation that Valleys of Neptune comes off as just a guitarist and his buddies messing around and, years later, someone trying to cash in on a jam session. Instead, the genius that was Hendrix meant that everything he did, he did well. But in listening to his cover of “Sunshine of Your Love”, you can definitely hear the evidence that that particular track was part of a jam session where Jimi decides to plug in an extended instrumental jam before coming back to the Cream-penned version.
There wasn’t anything on Valleys of Neptune that made me want to hit rewind in order to immediately hear again, but the album is certainly filled with some great tunes to have on while you’re working away on the computer or around the house, which is what I was doing as I listened.
I think if you’re a long-time Hendrix fan, this is a definite pick-up. If you’re a Hendrix novice, I’d point you towards Are You Experienced or his Smash Hits album as a first step to discovering just what made Jimi Hendrix rock’s greatest guitar hero.
Despite not feeling 100% I went up to the Thamesford Public Library and picked up “All Families Are Psychotic” by Douglas Coupland and Trudeau’s Shadow, a collection of essays about “the Life and Legacy of Pierre Elliot Trudeau”. I haven’t started the latter yet but I am about half-way through “All Families Are Psychotic.”
Coupland’s book of 2000 tells the story of a very dysfunctional family all gathered together in Florida as the daughter prepares to take part in a NASA Space launch. As the story progresses, we see flashbacks to how the family deteriorated, including the day the father shot the older son for sleeping with his new girlfriend, the bullet passing through and embedding itself in the mother, and passing along the son’s AIDS.
In the present, the mother and the father’s new girlfriend are taken hostage in a greasy diner, while the younger son’s girlfriend, about to sell their soon-to-be-born baby, counts the money in the washroom, unaware of anything that’s happening. Meanwhile, the three men of the family get involved in a scheme to sell a letter to Princess Diana, which was last seen being placed in her coffin.
So yeah, it’s not exactly a Norman Rockwell painting-type family. But the story is quite compelling as the flashbacks are like watching a car crash as you wait to see just how this family got this screwed up. And the story taking place in “present day” as you wonder where this collection of damaged characters will end up.
About a week ago, I blogged my predictions about the outcome of Wrestlemania XXVI. Since the event took place last night, let’s see how well my predictions did.
World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho vs. Edge - “I say Jericho retains because as great as Edge is on the mic, he's too injury prone to be trusted with the World title.”
Result: The reasons may be unclear, but Jericho did indeed retain.
WWE Champion Batista vs. John Cena - “Much like Hogan-Andre, you expect Cena to win, but there's enough of a chance (probably moreso here) that the heel will win. I still pick Cena.”
Result: Cena regained the title and beat Batista.
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio -“I'm picking Punk to win to continue the feud rather than this being the blow-off.”
Result: Nope, turns out the blow-off was at Wrestlemania. Mysterio won.
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels -“And I'm thinking it will be the last hurrah for the Heartbreak Kid.”
Result: Indeed it was, at least for now. Michaels did the right thing and laid down for the ‘Taker, allowing the streak to go to 18-0. (My prediction: The Undertaker retires two years from now, with the streak at 20-0.)
Triple H vs. Sheamus - “Triple H wins in a glorified squash.”
Result: It might have been a step above a squash, but Triple H won.
Bret Hart vs. Mr. McMahon – “I suggest Bret wins with the sharpshooter after about 5-7 minutes of garbage wrestling, interspersed with the odd punch and kick session.”
Result: It went longer than 5-7 minutes and probably longer than it should have. Still, Bret wins with the sharpshooter.
Money in the Bank Ladder Match – “Since it took McIntyre several tries and the dealings of Mr. McMahon to get him into the match, I'm guessing he snags the briefcase.”
Result: Kofi Kingston was added to the match which made me question my pick. Turns out, it was neither McIntyre nor Kingston, but Jack Swagger who snagged the briefcase.
Unified Tag Team Champion Big Show & The Miz vs. John Morrison & R-Truth – “No matter, Big Show and Miz retain.
Result: I was right on the money there.
Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes (Triple Threat Match) – “Orton wins, Rhodes and Dibiase remain a heel team.”
Result: Whether Rhodes and Dibiase remain a team, Orton picked up the victory.
I picked seven right, and missed on two. When I was in school, 78% was a pretty good mark, so I’ll take that.
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