Rants and Ranks

On July 28th two years will have passed since my friend Paul Anderson left us.  I think about him a lot, but comfort myself in the fact that he is in a better place.  The following are some funny Paul stories that I wrote down shortly after his passing so I wouldn't ever forget them (not that I could anyway).   RIP Paul One of my first silly memories of Paul was back when I was sacking one evening.  He said, "Do you watch the Simpsons?"  I told him I did, and he said "Rod and Todd Flanders are right over there."  No sooner did he say that then two young boys with curly red/brown hair came walking around the corner.  Paul was beaming his famous grin, and I cracked up.  That was the first time I saw the goofy side of Paul. Paul had all sorts of funny sayings he used on almost a daily basis.  When he told me I could leave, he would say, "You're ghandi!"  When something was old/broken he would say "X is toast."...

I've been a Simpson's nut for quite a while.  I enjoy the hell out of watching the classic old episodes.  Now I realize that the series has been on for at least 10 years too long, and the new episodes are atrocious, and it's not cool to like the Simpsons anymore.  (It's all about Family Guy apparently.)  However, re-watching these gems will make you remember why you loved it in the first place.  I personally have the first 12 season on DVD.  I will tell you without hesitation, that season 6 is the best.  4 and 5 are great, 7 and 8 are really good, but 6 has so many memorable episodes it's ridiculous.  (I would like to point out that I may be a bit biased on this because around season 6 was when I started watching it as a kid.)   Seriously I only dislike one episode of this season (Lisa's Wedding) and love almost every other one.  I'm pretty picky so this is an impressive feat in itself.  Remember when the Simpson's got...

This list was more of a challenge to put together than my  top bands list. I had a vague idea of which ones to include, but I didn't feel a top 10 would totally represent what I feel are "my" tunes.  So this got expanded to 25.  My criteria for the rankings was somewhat skewed.  Some are ranked higher because of sentimental value, some for totally changing my musical tastes, some for having one or two amazing songs, some for just being a well-rounded album.  So if you compare this to my top band lists you may not think it makes total sense, but I plotted it all out, and it makes sense in my brain if nothing else (at least somewhat).  Essentially what I did was pick the ones I would have to have if I was stranded on a island, then rank them against each other to get the final standings.  Also I didn't include greatest hits albums because that would have made it too easy.  I will again point out that I don't think these are the "gr...

The talk of the wrestling world is focused on one man right now.  People are calling his "shoot" promo (click here ) last night the "best thing on Raw since '98".  I think that may be a bit of a stretch, but it was really, really entertaining.  I've been a fan a Punk for a while now, (notice the picture if you don't believe me) and I'm by no means a bandwagon WWE Punk fan, so this interests me and all us ROH fans ALOT!  He mentioned ROH (this kind of reminds me of the love triangle in '05 Matt-Lita-Edge in many ways) in his promo for cryin' out loud! We all know that if he does leave, he won't have the WWE title in his possession.  If you don't believe that, refer back to Montreal . He may not be leaving at all, which is fine as well because people are confused as to what is really going on, and that rarely happens in the world of wrestling anymore.  With or without the belt, what if he did go back to ROH?  They got...

Disappointing may be an understatement in regards as to how the Lakers' season ended this year.  It was downright terrible in every possible way.  Adding more fuel to the fire was some very scandalous rumors (more on that later) that came out of the woodwork after the fact.  What will be done to fix this situation?  I don't know, but here's what I would do... Quit worrying about bigs.  If the price is right for a Dwight Howard or any other stud big man, then OK, however trading the nucleus of Odom, Bynum, or Gasol really isn't neccessary.  My point is, they don't need to be shopping them around.  Why wouldn't you want two 7-footers, and a 6'10" guy that can play all five positions?  I do see the potential arguments against this thinking though:  1. Gasol played like crap all playoffs, he sucks now, get rid of him.  Sure it's a lame excuse, but the dude's heart was broken.  If all the rumors w...

As I've mentioned in previous entries, I am a music nut.  I have big long-winded discussions with people about music almost daily.  I'm very opinionated on what I like, and what I don't like.  For this blog I will focus on the former.  Here's my top 10 bands (It's been pretty much the same for the last few years, so maybe I can call it "All-time"?  Probably not.): 1. Our Lady Peace http://onthevergeofvictory.blogspot.com/2011/02/and-now-its-time-for-our-long-distance.html 2. The Beatles 3.  Nirvana 4.   Bush 5. Foo Fighters http://onthevergeofvictory.blogspot.com/2011/04/foo-fighters-doc.html 6. Collective Soul http://onthevergeofvictory.blogspot.com/2011/02/collective-soul-youve-heard-them-you.html 7. Breaking Benjamin 8. Staind http://onthevergeofvictory.blogspot.com/2011/04/aaron-lewis-in-concert-is-incredible.html 9. Pink Floyd 10. Alice in Chains Now I'm not saying that these are the greatest bands of all time.  J...

New speculation going around is that Rashard Lewis boned Lebron's baby mama.  Wow, that's pretty intense.  You add on the fact that Delonte West nailed his mom last year, (allegedly) this is like something out of a chick flick.  Lewis has already grabbed the bull by the horns and denied this.  West, I don't think, has ever addressed the issue.  Whether either is true, who the hell knows.  Lebron is so universally despised these days, people could just be making it all up to tarnish him even more.  Is it possible that karma (for those who believe in it) is showing Lebron what a total jerk he is?  Just look at this video of he and Wade mocking Dirk.  Personally I don't like Dirk, however how big of assholes are these guys?  Contrary to what you two believe, you do not rule the world.  However I'm going to stick on Lebron for the rest of this rant. In '09 the Cavs were far and away the best team in basketball during the reg...

Hello there wrestling fans.  Is there any left nowadays?  Hopefully so because I got some good news to share with you.  There is a great podcast called "The Art of Wrestling" and it's hosted by Colt Cabana.  My guess is you either said, "Who?" or "Sweet I love Colt!"  If you love Colt and all his zaniness, it's all here.  If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Cabana, here is a nice example of his exploits.   Yes it's ridiculous and that's the point.  The man is a great wrestler, but he enjoys having fun with things.  "I'm not a wrestling fan, would I enjoy it?"  I'm not going to guarantee that you would, but it is interesting to listen to, if nothing else.  Basically he updates you on what he's been doing, then plays a ridiculous wrestling song, (there is way too many to count, and he plays them from all time periods) then has an interview with someone within the wrestling industry.  Obviously some of his ROH (Austin Arie...

  If you were to ask me what was the match up I would least like to see in the Finals, well you have to look no further than the one we are about to watch tonight.  I've never liked the Mavericks- EVER!  Even in the original JKidd and Jamal Mashburn days.  I don't know what it is, I just don't.  And the Heat?  Well I pretty much feel like everyone else does about them.  All that being said, it could be an interesting Finals I suppose.  Could it be "'06 the revenge" or "we beat ya once and we'll do it again?"  Here's what I think for sure.  Drum roll please.........  Heat in 6.  Why do you ask?  Well Dirk and Co. have been shooting lights out all through the playoffs, they are due for some poor shooting.  Heat's homecourt sure doesn't hurt either.  Also they are the better defensive team from top to bottom, and defense wins championships.  Don't believe me just ask Barkley.  ...

A lot has happened to the former tag team that reeked of awesomeness the last few weeks.  Edge had to retire due to a recurring neck injury.  Christian got to finally live his dream as the heavyweight champ, (in WWE) only to lose it at the following Smackdown.  So essentially they are going in two entirely different directions.  What's in store for the future?  Who knows.  Let's just go to the past instead shall we? EDGE:  My first memories of Edge were as 1/3 of the Brood, and they were commanded by the evil satanic Undertaker.  I just remembered he smiled a really goofy looking  smile the whole time he wasn't actually wrestling.  Eventually the Brood broke away from the Ministry of Darkness, and started getting more and more airtime.  Now at the time I was only 13, and knew nothing about wrestling.  I did slowly figure out though, that not every wrestler gets to be the WWF champion.  They had to possess decent in-...