Sad Day In The World of Cycling.

This is most disturbing news. For those of you who haven't heard - today, on the eve of the greatest sporting event of the year - The Tour de France, some harsh realities were brought to light. Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso - the two favorites and all round bad asses in the tour this year have both been suspended from the race on doping charges. Francisco Mancebo was also suspended as well as 50 other Tour contenders. Two complete Spanish teams - Communidad de Valencia and Astana - Wurth were taken down as well. Last year Basso finished second, Ullrich finished third, and Mancebo (who, after last years performance thought had a real solid chance of taking the whole thing this year) finished fourth. What does this mean? This means that the Tour has been completely blown wide open. No one has any idea what is going to happen - two of the most dominant teams, CSC and T-Mobile have lost their protected riders. Because of the scandal, an interesting opportunity has been presented to the Americans in the Tour. George Hincapie from Team Disco, Floyd Landis from Team Phonack, and Levi Leipheimer from Team Gerolsteiner are pretty much the only remaining contenders left in the peloton. What's interesting is not only are all of these guys American but they were all teammates and domestiques for Lance back in the Postal Service days.

This whole thing saddens me greatly, I was eagerly anticipating an intense Basso v. Ullrich battle to the finish. This is a dark day in the world of cycling, I would imagine that Lance is going to make a statement some time later on today - it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. If you want to read more about the suspension check out this VeloNews article - Basso and Ullrich ejected
It also sucks that we are not going to get to see Ivan Basso's super hot, Italian model sister hanging out at the finish line of every stage.

The Hills Have Eyes = Disturbingly Awesome!

I am a pretty big fan of movies that are made to scare you. Especially slasher type movies that are drenched in violence and shock value. I have seen a most of the new ones over the past few months - The Devil's Rejects, Wolf Creek, Hostel, Saw (which was atrocious), Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead, etc... but I would have to say that The Hills Have Eyes takes the cake. I rented this a couple nights ago - and wow. Talk about a violent movie - the antagonists are a wiley bunch of nuclear fallout mutants that murder and eat innocent people who get lost in the dessert hills of New Mexico - so as you can imagine it is pretty awesome. Also, Claire (from Lost) is one of the main characters - which is nice. This movie is good if you like slasher movies, but I don't know if would consider it a good movie - it is kinda hard to judge movies like this on that scale because they are all kinda bad - that's just the nature of the beast I guess. So that's it - I give it my official recommendation, also check out The Devil's Rejects it's also awesomely disturbing. None of these beats Dawn of the Dead, though.

New blog feature - MapStats.

I've uploaded a program that tracks where people are reading Stay Classy Dallas - it's pretty cool. You can find yourself - click on the icon pictured above in the links bar on the right of the page. There's someone in Virginia and Tulsa who checks the site everyday and I don't think I know anyone in Virginia or in Tulsa - so that's cool I guess. I've also had readers in Italy and Japan - SCD has gone global!

My Morning Jacket covers Loving Cup @ Bonaroo.

Thought I would pass this on to you guys, the recording is pretty solid - and who doesn't dig a little Loving Cup? - especially with Jim James vocals.
My Morning Jacket - Loving Cup

If you are looking for some new music to buy this weekend - check out Hotel Lights. The brains behind Hotel Lights is Darren Jesse, who used to be the drummer for Ben Folds Five. Hotel Lights, however is a big departure from Ben Folds - the only common ground being an instantly likeable pop sensibility. As you will find from listening to the samples provided below, this band will probably soon be a big hit in the indie pop arena. Better hurry as I am sure that they will be featured on the OC soon, and don't you wanna say that you knew them before they were on the OC? - is the OC still on TV?
Hotel Lights - A.M. Slow Golden Hit
Hotel Lights - Let Me Be The One

The Spoozinator.

A couple of my friends at work did this spot a few months ago. It's for a new Super Soaker called the Oozinator - and as you can see the whole idea behind this toy is a bit questionable. We had the prototype in the office a few months ago - a lot of sneak-up spooj sniping going on.

I will be there and I think that Andy and Jenkins are both in as well, anyone else?

David Brent Video.

Unrivaled greatness, maybe only outdone by The Dance.

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

This album is worth it if you dig Mark Knopfler (he's from Dire Straits if you didn't know). Here's my favorite track off the album.
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - This Is Us

My Weekend.

Friday afternoon I went through Lasik surgery... Which meant that I did a lot of hanging out at my house this weekend. Wow, was it a long weekend. If I went outdoors, I had to wear these sweet goggles - which basically meant that I didn 't leave the house, except once. On Saturday night I was dying of boredom, so I put on my goggles and went to Blockbuster to rent a couple video games, I also stopped by a convenience store to pick up some beer (see above picture)... That night I realized two things - 1) Video games just don't do it for me anymore and 2) Drinking alone is not fun. After a couple beers and an hour and a half of frustrated game play - I went to bed. I also watched all the movies that I had Netflixed on Saturday - Neil Young: Heart of Gold (awesome), Coachella: The Film (sorta good), and Suspiria (sucked). Even though the weekend was a beating, the surgery went great - I dominated the whole eye chart in my appt. yesterday. I also have night vision now, which is nice.

"It's sort of a long-term strategy..."

"That's a lot of ass pennies I got out there my friend."
I remember seeing this on Comedy Central at 3 am when I was in college and didn't really even know UCB was, but thought is was hilarious - I hadn't seen it since, until I just came across it a few minutes ago. Upright Citizen's Brigade had a pretty hard edge - some of it was pretty brilliant. Enjoy.
Upright Citizen's Brigade - Ass Pennies sketch

ScalesRates and Idiot's Guide to Sports Need a Gut Check.

There is a situation that has developed recently that I find a little disturbing. That is the lack of participation by my bloggin brethren, Hammond and Trampe. People are out there eagerly awaiting your entries. You guys have got to get back on the wagon... Trampe, The Mavs are in the Finals for God's sake! Don't you have something to say - especially after last night's game? Hammond - we need more ratings of snacks, cell phones, shoes, books and music! I am tired of clicking on your blog link and seeing that frozen lemonade pic. I know you've got some fresh opions on new consumer goods - let's hear 'em.

Well it took quite a while, but I have decided on entry two in the Fraser's Edge Rock Traxx Mix - which I hope everyone is eagerly awaiting. The weird thing about this one is that this song does not particularly rock per se. It does roll quite well though... Check it out and let me know what you think. Don't just listen to the beginning and disregard it, listen to the whole thing...
Destroyer - Painter In Your Pocket

Brokedown Blogger.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days, I was out of town on Monday and Tuesday - and for the past 3 days, Blogger (the site that publishes my blog) has been busted or something... No worries though - seems to be working now. Got plenty of stuff to post, so stay tuned. How about those Mavs! Here is a little something to check out that I thought was pretty sweet. Thanks to McManus for sending it my way - check out the pink video, it's the coolest.
Adicolor Videos

Gutentag.

7 feet with a shot?, come on! Nowitzki gonna drop the bomb.
Gotta hear it one more time - hopefully I will be posting this song a couple more times.
I recommend playing this song at full volume. 50pts.
LAZER- M.F.F.L.

Very Cool.

This a short movie that follows the pattern of internet activity as the Earth rotates. The waves of light are webcams from around the world. The track that plays along with the film is pretty phat as well. Animation by Pleix.
Netlag video.