The Blog of Basketball

Last December, I received a text message from Fully Booked Eastwood. “Sir, The Book of Basketball that you reserved is now available for PhP1260. You have three days to pick it up.” Bloody hell! PhP1260?!! I usually just spend around PhP300 to PhP400 per book, why should I pay three times the price for a non-fiction book? I am too averse on spending lately I get a headache when I am about to spend the same amount of cash as some guy will on a regular date.

The following night, I was at Eastwood carrying a Fully Booked bag.

The Kris Allen Route

Horrible week for American Idol. Or in VoteForTheWorst words, the week was VFTW gold. Majority of the contestants were terrible in an excruciatingly entertaining way (if watching embarrassed contestants is entertaining to you). I do not understand why but whenever this batch of contestants are allowed to choose from a wide variety of songs, they just tend to fail horribly.

Speaking of horrible, Paige Miles performed arguably the worst song I have ever seen in American Idol. She totally tanked that song as it was pitchy everywhere (seems like Paige redefined the term ‘pitchy’ with her rendition). What’s worse was that she exhibited such low self-esteem when she was asked about her performance. It is ironic that her best and only decent performance this season happened when she had laryngitis.

NCAA 2010 March Madness Bracket

I am posting my NCAA 2010 March Madness Bracket before all my Final Four teams get eliminated (Kansas just fell awhile ago). But since I picked my teams in less than ten minutes (things like this should never be meticulously thought out, just ask Ted Mosby and Barrack Obama. Their national champion teams got eliminated), I won't be putting as much analysis on it. I just picked them based on familiarity and popularity (and how the teams sound good) with some upsets every now and then.

My Bracket

The American Idol Drinking Game

Some time early this week, I woke up with a bright (or stupid) idea: What if I try to do an American Idol drinking game? (For those who do not know what a drinking game is, it is a game where you decide on certain words or phrases that someone on the show normally says. When the person on the show – normally the host – speaks those words/phrases, everyone takes a shot of liquor. This is perfect for shows that feature someone who has a habit of saying certain words over and over again. A good example of this would be NBA. I saw a website before that had the Mark Jackson Drinking Game).

She DID It Again… America Did It Again: American Idol Shockers

…And I did it again! Here is my weekly American Idol power rankings. This week was just too good to pass up so I will be discussing it (that and I have nothing to do on a Saturday midnight).

Let us start with discussing what went with the performances this week:

Rating The Concerts

In my last blog entry, I mentioned that Paramore’s concert in Manila was the best concert by a foreign band that I have attended. However, I could not decide if it really was the best concert (local bands included) that I have ever experienced. It was so close to call if I compare it to Eraserheads’ Final Reunion Concert last year. It was just too special and unique to be discounted. I need to come up with a better way to evaluate if Eraserheads’ Final Concert can be surpassed by Paramore’s concert and their unique effect on the crowd. My blogs usually feature analyses so we will put this evaluation to a deeper level.

Easily My Best Day Of The Year: Paramore Rocks Manila

I can still remember that morning on December 2007. I was driving my car in our village when NU 107 played a Paramore song. I said to myself, that band with a lady vocalist (with a raspy voice) again! Misery Business hit the airwaves at around June of that year but I never considered listening to Paramore because it really is hard for me to listen and like a new band. I do not usually listen to female front acts (other than Imago…and it actually took me years before I appreciated them). But when NU 107 played Paramore on that December morning, it was Misery Business on acoustic mode. It showcased Hayley’s vocal talent (I initially thought she was old because of her raspy voice). It was such a refreshing take that I liked it. From there, I became curious of Paramore. I searched them in Google and YouTube. That was where I began to appreciate them. Aside from Hayley’s awesome voice and looks, the band is technically great. Zac Farro (drummer) has insane and unconventional skills. Josh Farro (lead guitarist) does solo lead better than most of the recent guitarists (with today’s punk scene, it is rare to hear lead solos). Jeremy Davis (bassist) has great performance skills. Paramore, as a whole, is one of the best live bands I have ever seen on YouTube because they know how to work the crowd, they are technically great and Hayley is such an eye candy. More than two years later, Paramore has become my favorite band. Of all the bands, the band that I have most converted my friends to be a fan of is Paramore. I made a personal list of “Things I should do before I die” last year (I will blog about this in the future) and watching a Paramore concert was one of those.

The Curlgar And The Other Sports Hotties Part 2

This is Part 2 of my blog about The Curlgar and the other sports hotties. Read Part 1 here.

As a sports fan, I believe that not all people watch sports because of the competitiveness in it. Others watch it for hormonal/attraction reasons. That is the reason why you see fangirls from any school shrieking at the sight of Chris Tiu during basketball games. New York Yankees have a field day on bars because they attract the chicks (HIMYM reference and A-Rod and Jeter were known to be playboys). Heck, Tiger Woods hooked up with a lot of girls. On the other side of the fence, we – red-blooded males – also watch and get attracted with female hotties in sports. We do not care if they end up losing most of the time (Anna Kournikova is the classic example for this). We just love to have an eye candy when watching sports. Testosterone definitely influences sports.

The Curlgar And The Other Sports Hotties Part 1

 

“I’ve said it a million times: Any time Canada and Denmark battle in women’s curling, you know you’re in for a special night.” – Bill Simmons a.k.a. “The Sports Guy”

I can still remember when I first read that tweet. My initial reaction was, what the eff is good about women’s curling? It was like having a thought bubble: “Curling? Hair? Did the Sports Guy turn into Sports Gay now?” Obviously, I had no idea that it was an Olympic sport (although it was obvious that it was since Canada and Denmark were battling on it…it’s just that I skimmed through it and just noticed the word ‘curling’). For those who do not know, curling is an Olympic team sport played on ice where players slid stones into a target area that has a bull’s eye on it. While the stone slides on the ice, curlers sweep the path in order to influence the speed and direction of the stone. Their aim is to have the most stones near the center of the target area after sliding eight stones in one end. Ends are like innings in baseball. There are ten ends in a game.

Siobhan Magnus And The Glory Note

Wednesday Night. Normally, it is one of the most boring nights of the week. It is still two days to go before the weekend and you are halfway your body’s stress utilization as work has used up your recharged energy for three days. However, that was not the same case last Wednesday because we have American Idol on TV. (Yeah, and I am doing the power rankings again) Wednesdays and Thursdays get a whole lot bearable during American Idol months because you have to follow it or you will miss the suspense, and it is arguably the most talked TV show. You have blogs, forums, articles and tweets that discuss the show. It is not the greatest show in the planet but the buzz and hype captivates you to get glued in your TV sets whether you watch it during the 8 PM primetime show or the 11 PM show for the workaholics. Last Wednesday, however, was different from the other Idol nights for me. It is because that was potentially the night I hop into the Siobhan Magnus bandwagon (uhmm… although, it already felt that I was riding it after I got addicted at her rendition of Living For The City).