Just spit in my beer next time, bartender.

So, went to a bar tonight, put $2.00 in the jukebox.  Gets me six songs (not one of those shitty electronic wallet suckers that give you 2 songs for a dollar).  Play some Creedence, Zeppelin, ELO.  Highly recognizable classic rock songs.  

My fifth song is The Beatles - Norwegian Wood.  Not one of their more popular songs, but I still feel like people know it when they hear it.  

Fuckin' bartender turns the song off.  

I'm a customer who pays money to hear this song, and he picks up the fuckin' remote and turns the song off.

Heard him specifically say to another customer, "Play some rock and roll, and I'll keep it on.  But I can't hear that."

My cousin and I ask him about what happened to the last song, and he comes up with this bullshit story about some songs on the jukebox just shut off and go right to the next song.  

I watched the asshole pick up a remote and intentionally turn it off.  The Beatles.  A bartender intentionally turned off the Beatles because it was not "rock and roll."  The Beatles.

You can't even imagine how much this fucking blows my mind.

Needless to say my tip was suspect.

Fuckin' asshole deserved it.  

"Your music's no good here... paying customer."  Go fuck yourself.

Last time I put money in that jukebox.

Kimbo Slice fight = laughingstock

So I caught that EliteXC mixed martial arts fight CBS aired on Saturday night in prime-time.  What an utter embarrassment.  

I'm not sure what CBS was thinking really as they clearly don't have any clue how to run an MMA fight.  They know how to hype it, but that only works when the payoff is better than all the talk.  

The first few fights only lasted a minute each, but the show had logged about an hour and a half of airtime.  There was just too much time between fights, and that dead air just bores people... myself included.  The editing as a whole was awful.  At one point in an interview with Kimbo Slice, he wishes good luck to Gina Carano, a female MMA fighter.  Only she had been in the ring and out already.

The main event was the previously mentioned YouTube street-brawling sensation Kimbo Slice versus some ogre from England named James Thompson.  It was a joke.  Neither of them could last past the first round, and had just started hanging on each other like amateur heavyweight boxers, wildly flailing a punch here and there.  It was embarrassing.  Eventually the fight was called because Thompson's cauliflower ear had been popped open by one of Slice's punches.  I think it was for the best as nothing eventful was really happening anyway.

Also, for whatever reason CBS decided to give the commentary to March Madness play-by-play man, Gus Johnson.  While I like his basketball work, he just was out of his element in MMA.  Excessive use of hyperbole.  Getting unnecessarily excited.  He just was not comfortable doing an MMA bout and it showed.

CBS dropped the ball here.  I'd much rather pay for the Ultimate Fighting pay-per-views because at least in those I know I'm getting some quality man-on-man-punching-in-the-face-jiu-jitsu-mixed-martial-arts.  And that's what we like.

Kickass weekly webcomic

I've been instructed.

www.freakangels.com

Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield.  Weekly.

A future flooded London protected by a gang of telepaths.

Go read.  Now!

John Cusack interviewed on SuicideGirls.com

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

"I'm gonna kiss you on the mouth and blow chunks while I'm doing it."

That was a line uttered by one of the characters (Jessie) in Mike Carey and Jock's latest graphic novel, FAKER.

What a mindfuck that was.  Truly spectacular work from both contributors.  Honestly, I've loved Jock since I first saw his work on The Losers a few years ago.  But Mike Carey has always been one of those hit and miss guys with me.  I'd check out his work from time to time (all his Hellblazer work, some Lucifer, My Faith in Frankie, etc), and not really get into some of it (particularly his superhero stuff).  But he's shown me some real writing prowess with Faker (and his slightly less recent RE-GIFTERS).  He's shown he can write some angsty scifi psychological horror thrillers involving teen drama and activism.  Which, when I really look into the core of what comics interest me, is exactly what I'm looking for.  Please pardon the abundance of grammatical issues in that last sentence.

The story involves four characters who live together in a house at some insignificant college in the American midwest.  It's just after Christmas break and the students are slowly shuffling back into their college lifestyles and coming back from home (and their parents).  Obviously the first night back is going to be some kick-ass party.  Four go in to the party, five come out.  One of them's not real/alive, but who?  And just what the fuck happened?

Mike Carey does an excellent job of dealing with perpetual issues of identity and teenage rebellion, while concocting an emotionally resonant story involving four very different young adults.  I can't lie to you, there are certainly aspects of this story, especially the characters of Jessie Kidby and Yvonne Latimer, that appeal to the faux artistic, teenage rebel still inside me.

I really really liked this new offering from Carey and Jock (and quite frankly, surprised the hell out of me), and should be on the bookshelves of anyone interested in liquid digital technology, geek culture, suicide prevention, the bisexual community, sexual revolution, social activism, questioning authority, lying as a way of life, backstabbing, hacking, extortionism, hustling, friendship and well... just a goddamn kick-ass four-color world of adventures and shenanigans.

I could not turn the page fast enough.  Highly recommended.

Offer made for Samir Nasri

In a weird sort of "I must be telling the future" moment, ESPNsoccernet is reporting that Arsenal has made an offer for Marseille's young playmaker midfielder Samir Nasri. The French International was one of two midfielders I was hoping Arsene Wenger would sign in the transfer market, considering his penchant for signing young French superstars. I really hope this works out.

And my other signing was slightly hinted at in an earlier post, Barcelona's Portuguese (via Brazil) international Deco. He is 30 years old and bucks Wenger's trend of signing stellar young talent, but they really need a force in midfield to complement Fabregas' creativity.

Although I still think they need a strong force in the back as well. Toure and Gallas are excellent center backs, but Wenger has to stop pushing Toure out to right fullback and insisting to play Emmanuel Eboue in midfield. He's playing out of position there and it shows. Sagna and Clichy are both strong defenders and are still growing. Maybe even a proven center forward could help the club, especially with Robin van Persie and Eduardo's injuries this past year.

Whatever happens, it should be an exciting offseason for Arsenal fans. As long as Wenger makes some moves.

Now Hear This! 2

The Hold Steady's new single is out now.

Sequestered in Memphis.

Click here to listen to the track.

You can't even imagine how excited I am right now. New album's out July 15th.