F.U. Friday!

Hey Kids! It’s F.U. Friday!

I was going to give a big F.U. to the phone that doesn’t do anything but ring all damn day. But instead, I have a bigger fish to fry. I am giving my official to everyone in Memphis who keeps pushing this voting thing down our throats.
I’m constantly getting emails from people who say crap like “I normally don’t do this but I want to tell you about candidate X.” If you don’t normally do it, then keep being normal, you jackass. I’m not voting in this fucking election. Kiss my ass. I got jury duty in September because I voted in the last presidential election. I’m not going to vote, because I really just don’t care. I don't want to hear how your candidate is going to solve the problems of the world. They won't. They never have and they never will. All beaurocrats do is create more bullshit laws that we don't need. Yeah, they get it right every once in a blue moon, but I really don't care about state senate. We'll get some dumbass either way you vote. So quit posting bulletins about your buddy the candidate on MySpace and quit sending me emails about it too. I really don’t care. And in fact you are starting to piss me off. So here’s to you, you arrogant bastards. Now Fuck Off!

Damn, that does make me feel better.

I'll post the recaps of Wednesday & Thursday night later.

Rockstar Elimination Show Recap

Rockstar Recap
For those of you looking for the HNT, it’s the next story down. For those of you looking for the ghost writer opportunity, follow this link to that story. And for those of you looking for the story of what I did last night, I’ll put that up later with a few pics (bad pics) from the Walrus show.

So the other day in my comments, MG asked me who I thought would go. I told her instead who I thought the bottom three would be. This is what I said:
“Ryan - No Stage Presence. Too uncomfortable on stage.Jenny - Great voice, but not strong enough to keep her on the show. She needs to learn how to be louder.Toby - Song Choice maybe?Actually I threw Toby in there because of the song choice. BUT I doubt he'll be in there now that I'm thinking about it. I don't know who the third person will be.”
It turned out to be Jenny, Dana, and Josh. Looking back I can see that. I called Jenny’s choice. I wanted to say Dana, but I like her. She brings some Georgia Peach to the show. And Josh, well, I didn’t think he would be there, but I did say he did a weak performance of “Come As You Are” on the performance show. And the more I think about it, he has this odd voice. It’s like he is singing in the upper back of his throat or something. But not in a nasally way.
So after our rockers were called out, i.e. after Brook Burke bored us to death and sent us to too many commercials, Jenny came up and performed Stone Temple Pilots’ “Vasoline.” It wasn’t that great. Then Dana came and played a song called “High Road Easy” from a band called Sass Jordan. Never heard of them, but after listening to her kill it, I’ll definitely check them out. She was badass. Finally after more commercials, Josh showed up to cover Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box.” And this one he put a little bit more angst into it. Not enough for my tastes (I grew up listening to Nirvana), but just enough to keep him safe.
In the end, Tommy “The Tripod” Lee played hatchet man and axed Jenny. I think she has a lot of potential, but she’s going to have to take some lessons from Liz Phair on singing. She needs to be louder. Hopefully this will be the inspiration that leads her to a new level.
I noticed something at that point: Jenny went and said goodbye to her competitors. Last year, the INXS guys always invited the person booted off to come say goodbye to the band. Yeah I know a little nitpicky, but I just noticed it. It’s like they seem less genuine in finding a singer that they’ll have for years and more interested in finding a gimmick to sell a few albums before dissolving. I feel that Tommy Lee will be the first to leave the band. He just seems to have an ADD approach to his career path that will probably doom Supernova from the beginning. It's like he changes his mind all the time:
I’m with Motley Crue.
I’m doing a solo project.
I’m with Motley Crue.
I’m making porno flicks with my wife and my “third leg.”
I’m with Motley Crue.
I’m giving Pam Hepatitis.
I’m with Methods of Mayhem.
I’m with Motley Crue.
I’m going to Nebraska and shooting a reality show about it.
I’m with Motley Crue.
I’m with Supernova.
What’s the next step? I’ll let you look back and take one guess. Maybe it’s more schizophrenic than ADD.
So anywho, I can't wait for next week. I like what I'm watching.

That's all for now. Have a good one.

Songs on the Playlist:
Kiss – Strutter
Tom Petty – Don’t Come Around Here No More
The Grateful Dead – Me & My Uncle
Pat Green – This Bottle
Black Eyed Peas – Hey Mama
The Clash – Should I Stay Or Should I Go
The Who – Substitute
Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
Robert Earl Keen – Undone
The Doors – Break On Through (To The Other Side)
Neil Diamond – Forever In Blue Jeans
Motley Crue – Same Ol’ Situation
Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back

HNT Post

For those of you looking for my recap of last night's Rockstar:Supernova. I'll get it up later (no pun intended). I have to do this damn HNT.
Memphis readers, remember the Ghost Writer opportunity. And you can submit more than one story. Email them to me at memphisphilip (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Ok, here's the HNT. I don't have anything planned so here's a pic from the lake a few weeks ago. And this is what I'll be doing this weekend too.
Happy HNT yall.

Minor League Props, What's Happening this week

So I was screwing around on CNN.com when I found this article on renewed interest in Minor League Ball parks. Here is what it says about Autozone Park here in lovely crime-free downtown Memphis:
“AutoZone Park in Memphis, Tennessee, is steps from the renowned Peabody Hotel and two blocks from the music clubs on Beale Street.
The ballpark serves up barbecue nachos with pulled pork from a nearby rib joint. The smell of grilling ribs sometimes makes its way into the seats, said Kyle Parkinson, a spokesman for the Memphis Redbirds.”
Pretty damn cool. And the only pic of a stadium (besides some kid at the top) is a view from the sky of Autozone Park. How cool is that?
Now I know I’m going to have to get BBQ Nachos tomorrow night at the Redbirds game. Why am I going? Because the Ptolemy July Happy Hour is at the Redbirds game tomorrow. We’ll be behind the right field area like last year when we ate, drank, and had a great time hanging out. Of course, I’m going to drink more water than beer this year. It’s over 100 degrees outside. For those of you who don’t habla ingles, that means it’s friggin’ hot. We’re not talking 100 degrees like out west. No, we have a thing here called humidity. If you’re not from here, it’ll knock you on your ass. If you are from here, well you know how to deal with it: stay inside where the factory air is.

So what else is going on? I’m heading to the lake this weekend. Tonight I have two shows I want to see. The first is Walrus at the Brookhaven Pub. They always put on a badass show. Then there is this band called Creech Holler is playing at Murphy’s in Midtown. I found them through life according to jag. Their MySpace page says their style is Roots Music/Country/Blues. I've heard a few songs of theirs. Pretty cool stuff. It’ll be a nice change from the 80s sounds of Walrus. So which show will I see you at?


Item Next! I've been meaning to talk about this for some time, but I never get to it. I've been watching the tracker on this blog and over the last few days to a week now, my reader numbers have almost doubled. It's pushed my average daily readers from 64 per day to 69 per day. That doesn't sound like a big movement, but that is the average of readers per day since April 20. That's three months. And now BAM! I'm getting tons of new readers. So to you new readers, WELCOME.
But I wonder where do you come from? How do you get here? I checked the tracker on the search results that led people here. These are kinda normal:
mpact memphis "paul ryburn"
dilana supernova rockstar
rockstar supernova lukas
ghetto fashion
memphis lakehouse
These are all things that I talk about. But then there are some things that must be mixtures of words from different posts:
married ladies looking for sex in southaven ms
modeling in memphis tennessee for babies
So to the readers who found me while looking for modeling acts for their kids while they are looking to cheat on their spouse down in Southaven, Welcome you freaks!

Now, yall remember about the ghost writing opportunity. You have until July 31 to get your story in.

Ok, I'm getting out of here so I can get to the gym and go out tonight after dinner. Have a good one and don't get none on ya.

Songs on the Playlist:
Jimmy Buffett - The Great Filling Station Holdup
Robert Earl Keen - Dreadful Selfish Crime
The Clash - I Fought The Law
Widespread Panic - Sex Machine

Rockstar:Supernova Recap and Storm Large's Pics

Before I get to the recap of the show, remember after Storm Large's performance of "Just What I Needed", Tommy Lee (aka the Tripod) said something like "I want more!" Storm said "Tommy, I have a six letter word for you...GOOGLE." Well I was screwing around on the net when I said "Hmm..." So I googled Storm Large. After scrolling down past a few bogus looking links. I found her MySpace account. Pretty cool. Then I saw something else on google. I clicked on it and found pics of Storm. Holy crap. She's all tatt'ed up and dressed in panties, boots, and that's it. And fellas, she looks hot. I'm going to say it: DO NOT OPEN THIS LINK AT WORK. You will probably get in trouble. But damn is she hot. So I looked around the site and found a few pics of her with band. Check these out too. She's clothed, but a few are from performances and she is ridiculously sexual on stage. I can't wait until she blows it out for Rockstar. Hell, I'm going to vote for her a few more times just because of that. What can I say? I'm a man whore.

Ok, onto the show. I'm not recapping the drama from between episodes because that sucks. Here are my opinions on the artists and their performances.
Dana with "It's My Life." First I think it's a weak song. It's a latter day Bon Jovi song, and since I'm not from Jersey, I'm not too into Bon Jovi. I always thought they were more pop than rock. She did an okay job on it, but there were so many other badass performances that make her performance kinda bland.

Josh covered Nirvana's "Come As You Are." Sorry, I know the Supernova guys liked it, but I really didn't. He sang that very upbeat. It's Nirvana dude. It's supposed to be angst-ridden. Painful. It's grunge which means NOT HAPPY. Other than that he did an okay job.

Last week Jason Newstead (bassist for Supernova, former bassist of Metallica) told Phil that his performance sucked. This week, Phil got the old Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit." Jason got out of his seat and came to play bass on the song. I'll tell you what Phil held his own and did a great job with that song. I liked it.

Zayra did REM's "Everybody Hurts". Great song. And she sang it perfectly. Complete 180 from the crap she did last week. I think she knew what she was doing with this one.

Ryan Star covered CCR's "Fortunate Song." And he kinda sucked as usual. He's too New York. He's always serious and doesn't smile. Even Dave Navarro said so. So during the comments he smiled. If he shows a little more energy on stage, he can stay for a while I think. He's a great singer, but needs to turn up the stage presence...or as the Tripod Tommy Lee said "Show me some boat, bitch" (personally I think that comment may rival most anything Drama says on Entourage).

Lukas Rossi got to cover the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together." Now this song has a special place in my heart. Two of my best friend-girls from college spent a year living in Liverpool. They came back for our senior year. We'd get together a group of folks and head to the bar (go figure right?). After last call we'd stumble back to their apartment just off the Oxford Square. They'd almost always put on this song and we'd act like fools while singing this song. So when Lukas cranked this up and tried to make it heavier than it was, I didn't dig it. The guys in Supernova and Dave dug it, but I didn't. It was too angry. Listen to what the song says, Lukas. It's a guy trying to convince a girl to hook-up with him. He's not angry; he's just trying to get some strange ass.

Magni, the Icelandic dude, covered Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush." I was a huge STP fan back in the early grunge days. I loved their first two albums. Didn't really dig the third and never bought the fourth. So I love "Plush." And while Magni was no Scott Weiland, he did kick ass with that song.

Dilana. Dilana. Dilana. What can I say? Each week I wait for her to repeat herself or just fall flat. Each week she comes out and blows my mind. I hope she keeps kicking ass. She did the Cranberries' "Zombie." I kept wanting to be like the Cranberries' version, but it never was...and I was never disappointed.

Jenny covered Incubus's "Drive." I love her voice and the way she plays the guitar...BUT her voice isn't enough to keep from being drowned out from the rest of the band. I honestly don't think she has the ability to front a rock band. But she'll be badass in another band. I don't give her more than 2 more weeks.

Storm. Yeah, the chick from the pics. Have you checked them out yet? Smoking. Oh, did she perform tonight? Yeah she did. She covered "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. She did a great job. It wasn't too strong or too weak. Just right. I hope she's around for a few more weeks.

Toby, the Aussie, covered Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train." Sorry, but that song is not right for this contest. I think it was a landmine. I dug his performance, but it wasn't his best. However if that costs him and puts him in the bottom three, I'll be pissed.

Patrice covered Charles Manson's favorite Beatles song "Helter Skelter." I honestly don't remember much about it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable. The crowd and Supernova liked it so I'm sure she'll be back for next week.

Jill covered Free's "All Right Now." She is smoking at 5' 2". And she has a voice and a presence on the stage that blows my mind. She did a good job for it too.

Overall, I enjoyed tonight's show. I'm gonna jet and hit the hay. Keep dreaming your dreams folks.

Who Wants to be a Ghost Writer?

I had an idea the other day and after much consideration, I’m going to post it:

I am officially offering the chance for one reader to tell his or her story from a night (or weekend) of debauchery anonymously. You can be a Ghost Writer for one post on my blog.

Here’s what you would do:
Write a decently detailed account of one night or one full weekend of drinking/partying. Provide photographic proof of said event. I’ll post the pics only with your permission and after hiding the faces. The pics will serve as a proof of said evening.
I will choose the best story (that I don’t think is complete BS). The events must take place in/around Memphis (example: any of my stories where I went out to a local bar or party) OR be a story from a local Memphian who went out of town (example: my wedding trip to New Jersey).

Why am I doing this?
I would like one of my readers to get the chance to tell one of their stories. Plus it’ll add a little variety to spice things up.
When does this have to take place?
The story must take place between now and the end of July 2006. I don’t want some story from back in college. So you have about two weeks to do it and email it in. I will accept all stories that I receive by 11:59 PM July 31, 2006 (CST).
Any other rules?
Like my stories I don’t want it to involve anything political or describe sex life. You can mention that two people were getting familiar or hooking up, but don’t say something like “Dude, Mike was totally about to tap that when everyone jumped out of the closet. We wanted to pull a rodeo.”
If you hook up, you can mention it, but don’t go into detail. Say something like “she and I left the bar together…”
Don’t make it profanity laced. It’s cool to have a few cuss words, but I don’t want an F-bomb every other word. It’s not creative or that interesting to read a 500 word story with 350 F-Bombs.
Use codenames for everyone involved including yourself so that neither you nor the other people in your story can be identified. Example: instead of saying John Smith find something that isn’t too obvious about him and call him “Blue Shirt Dude” or “Geek 3”. You can call Jane Smith “Chick With Issues” or “Hottie 1”.
If two people want to do it together, that’s fine (i.e. two people went out one night pub crawling and write it together).
You can name the bars if you want to.
Don’t make obscure references to things without a link to whatever your talking about or an explanation (i.e. COUGARS!!!). If you use some term that not everyone will be familiar with, we’ll need to define it or link to it in the urban dictionary.
If you are going to be drinking all night while doing this (otherwise, what chance do you have of winning), get a designated driver OR a cab everywhere. If I find out you were drinking and driving, that’s automatic disqualification. We aren’t suffering for our art and I don’t want your drunk ass killing some innocent person.
You can be critical of people, but be careful. If you write something too derogatory and I don’t want to associate myself with what you said, I will either throw your story away or ask you to rewrite it or that part. I will only ask you to rewrite it, if it is really good.

Now I reserve the right to edit the story. If I edit anything, I will send it to you before posting it so we can discuss what was changed and why.
In the event that there are two evenly badass stories, I will ask both authors if I can post two. Again they have to be two badass stories that I can’t pass up posting.

A couple of pointers:
Carrying a camera helps you recall the events, especially in chronological order.
You can carry a small notepad in your pocket to make notes if you want. I don’t do that, but you do it if you feel you need to.

This is open to men and women. I’m going to limit it to two writers per submission. You will have to identify yourself/yourselves to me. I won’t make your names public though.

How to contact me:
Send me an email: memphisphilip (at) hotmail (dot) com or my personal email if you have it.

Notes

Ok, I'm going to cover a few topics in this post:
Item 1. Holy Crap! I won some award naming this one of the best blogs in Tennessee. It even gave me a button to put on the side (down at the bottom of the stuff on the right).

Item 2. I'll post recaps of Deadwood, Lucky Larry, Entourage, and Chappelle Show later. They'll be kinda long. So what else did I do this weekend after Friday night? I slept late Saturday (obviously). I screwed around the house Saturday, avoiding drinking (read: spending money) Saturday night. Sunday I went to Oxford to help the brother move a couch, grill, bed, and other miscellaneous items back home. I watched my TV shows Sunday night and then went to bed. After Friday night, I felt I deserved to be low key. And I feel recharged today instead of drained. Nice feeling.

Item 3: Serrabee is putting together a "Blogger's Bash." Hopefully I will be able to make this one. I'd like to meet a few of the folks who's blogs I read. I just hope that it doesn't turn into a political discussion. I really don't need to hear that shite. One of two things will happen if it does: I'll leave or I'll start to belittle people for being intellectual idiots. As most of you know I keep this blog away from anything political. Mostly because I hate getting into arguments about it with people (read: people with different views) because I'm as hard headed as the next. I really don't need any added stress in my life.
So I'm going to suggest that we have two marked seating areas: one for the strict political folks (read: no social life) and the people there for fun and a good time.

Item 4: Upcoming schedule:
Wednesday July 19: Walrus plays at the Brookhaven Pub. They just added one of the keyboard players from HiFi Evolution (after HiFi broke-up, major downer).
Thursday July 20: Ptolemy Happy Hour at Autozone Park Edit: This is open to anyone, not just Ptolemy members. If you are interested, come hang out with us.
Monday July 24: Ducks Unlimited Memphis Chapter Kick-Off Fish Fry! Email me if you want to hear more about it and/or would like to join. Edit: I decided not to leave my email address on the net. If you want more info, leave a comment with a way to contact you. After I get your contact info, I'll delete the comment.

That's all I've got for now. Have a good one and don't get none on ya.