First Annual Get Your Ass Out and Vote Call to Action

The beginning of the end

Hello All

It is election day. I assume many of our good readers are well informed of the candidates and issues. You all probably woke up bright and early, presented your voting credentials, and are now wearing the "I Voted" stickers to the embarrassment of your non-voting friends, co-workers, and family. To all the good voters out there, good job, you make America proud. 

The preceding paragraph represents less than 30% of America's eligible voter population. Off year congressional elections have voter turnout rates less than 50%. In over 75 years we have seen Presidential election turnouts rate top out at 65% of eligible voters participating only one time (1976 - Jimmy Carter's victory). What the hell is the problem? Why do people not vote? The onslaught of the 24 hour media, and the subhuman conversation on talk radio, make elections into a quasi philosophical battlefield. Cowards like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck use their time on publicly created radio and television airwaves  to claim America will be ending if their chosen politicians do not win. The professional left (once again thanks Robert Gibbs) makes every election into a referendum of their latest cause. With all of this noise, very few people actually vote, especially in non-presidential elections.

What the hell is wrong with you people? I get that a non-presidential election is not very exciting, but it means so much more to your life than you know. The national (and most state) Democratic Party has totally given up on local elections so they can win the "Best in Show" ribbon that is the Presidential election. Way to go Democrats, Obama won two elections. How has that worked out? We have the psychopaths of the tea party in congress now, non-stop obstructionism, and the glowing profiles of dirt bag Paul Ryan because he is the least crazy person we could get to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party's lack of developing any local candidates, and supporting them, has led to nut jobs like Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and worst of all Ted Cruz. The mighty party of the people has completely failed at building a strong stable of candidates, and left the power to the most self serving political movement in American history.

The people who are on your school boards, city/town councils, and municipal courts have a ton more power over your lives than anyone who is elected to Washington DC. Your kids go to schools run by the philosophical whims of the school board. Your emergency services are managed by your city councils. Your home values are dictated by the people elected today. Yet nobody seems to care. We all get excited to vote for history (Obama) or vote to take our country back (anyone in the modern Republican field), but we care not to vote for the person who will give the next generation a chance to thrive. What is wrong with us? The election you do not participate in today will elect the crazy person to your school board. That person will next move on to win a city council race you refuse to vote in. Next thing you know, that crazy person is being featured on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" as another crazy right winger who belongs in the 1800's. They got there because we refused to stop them from winning their first election.  We elected them by not participating.

Wake up and get your ass out to vote. I know that levies, school boards, and trustees do not excite our electoral urges. Grow up. Your home values, your kids education, and the overall future of our society depends on who wins this November 3rd, 2015. If you decide not to vote, I will blame the next Ted Cruz on you. 

Vote.

(Special thanks to FairVote.Org  for help with research. Plus I do know about John Oliver's recent episode about local elections. I only wish he did the episode a few weeks ago when people could still register to vote.)

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor of SeedSing. He does not know what to write over the next year because Hillary has already won the 2016 Presidential election. Is he wrong? Go tell him.

Ty Makes a Few Updates to his 2015 College Football Preview.

Ty  predicts he could throw this ball over those mountains.

We are a bit more than halfway through the college football season and I wanted to take time today to see what I got right, wrong and what I want to correct in regards to my college football 2015 season preview.

I feel like I've done a pretty good job with my picks and predictions, but there's things I definitely got wrong or need change. I'll go through each conference that I previewed and I'll pick the four playoff teams and who I have for the Heisman. On with the mid season preview.

Let's start with the SEC. I had Alabama winning the SEC, and I still believe they have a good chance to win, but I didn't think that LSU would be their biggest challenger. I thought a team like Georgia or Ole Miss or even Texas A&M would challenge them. But LSU and Florida have been their biggest competition, and I think LSU will beat Alabama in their big game this weekend. Georgia has been plagued with injuries and poor QB play. Ole Miss, who beat Alabama this year, played their best football in my opinion already. And A&M, who was supposed to have a good defense this year, has been inept on offense lately, and Alabama and Ole Miss ran rough shot on their defense, they're not at their level yet. Florida has been surprisingly good this year. Sure, their QB is now suspended for the rest of this season for PEDs, but this team wins with defense and running, and they're doing those things very well. I don't think they'll finish the season as strong as they've started, but had you told me at the beginning of the year they'd be a 9 or 10 win team, I would've called you crazy. But, they're on their way to that number easily. LSU, in my opinion, is the team to beat in the SEC. They need to beat Alabama this weekend, which I already said I think they will, but they've been stout on defense and their running game, behind the new Heisman front runner, Leonard Fournette, makes them the favorite. They don't have a QB that's really division one caliber, but neither does Alabama and while Alabama does have Derrick Henry running the ball, he's no Leonard Fournette and LSU's defense is better. LSU is my new pick to win the SEC.

On to the Pac 12. I was completely wrong about this conference. I assumed that Oregon would continue to dominate as they have for the past couple of years, but then they ran into Utah. Utah destroyed them in Oregon and they haven't been the same team since, switching QB's weekly it seems and opposing teams torching their defense. Oregon took a big step back. Utah, after throttling Oregon, looked like the team to beat, but they got pounded at USC. Utah is still good and a team with one loss, can still win this conference. USC has beaten Utah and California, but lost to Notre Dame and still have to play UCLA. They also fired their coach for being drunk on the sideline, so this team is still a mess. UCLA is good, but they lost Myles Jack for the year, and they are led by a freshman QB, who looks like he's hitting the freshman wall. Then we have Stanford. They shit the bed in their first game at Northwestern, but since then, they've looked completely dominant. This conference is going to come down to Utah and Stanford and I'm going to pick Stanford to win. They just look so good right now.

The Big 12 looks just how I thought it would look. Sure, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma look good, but they aren't on Baylor or TCU's level. Oklahoma State is undefeated, but they just gave up 53 points to Texas Tech and that doesn't bode well for the rest of their season. Oklahoma is okay, but they've blown one game already and given their history under Bob Stoops, they'll do it again. Baylor looked like they were going to give TCU a run for the conference until their QB went down with a broken bone on his neck. Their offense was running like a well oiled machine, but I don't think that will happen with a back up QB. That's unfortunate for them. TCU is winning games with Boykin running their offense to perfection. He's putting up video game numbers and will continue to do that the rest of the year. Baylor was going to challenge, but TCU will win the Big 12.

The Big 10 has been pretty predictable except for one team. Ohio State is still number one, but they've looked unimpressive and now their starting QB has been arrested for drunk driving. Their new back up QB, when he's not busy complaining about losing the starting spot, should have went pro last year because he's looked pretty blah this year. Their coach is also a piece of garbage. He goes on TV and bad mouths the way other teams handle their punishment and then gives a lame punishment to JT Barrett and he also recruited and stood by a convicted murderer while head coach at Florida. Michigan State is undefeated, but had Michigan been able to punt the ball, they wouldn't be a top ten team anymore. Their early season home win over Oregon doesn't look so impressive anymore. Iowa has been the biggest surprise to me. They're undefeated and the rest of their schedule is a cake walk. But, even if they win the Big 10 championship game, they won't, the committee would be hard pressed to put them in the playoff. They're not that impressive and neither is their schedule. Northwestern looked like they may have surprised after a 5-0 start, then Michigan shut them out and Iowa hammered them in Northwestern. They're not that good. Michigan has looked very good on defense, with the Minnesota game being a lone exception, but they are very unimpressive on offense. They'll win 8 or 9 games. Penn State plays good defense, but they can't protect their QB. And Wisconsin has disappointed. The rest of the Big Ten is not good. Unfortunately, the Michigan State-Ohio State game will decide this conference, and I have to begrudgingly pick Ohio State. I hate them so much, but they will win the Big 10 this year.

The ACC is between two teams. Clemson and Florida State are the only teams worth talking about. Duke got screwed, Miami is light years behind, NC State and Georgia Tech are completely disappointing and the rest of the conference doesn't bear mentioning. Clemson is a much better team than Florida State and should win this conference with ease.

The AAC, the conference I gave very little mention to will get the same. Memphis has an impressive win over Ole Miss and are undefeated. Houston has an explosive QB and are also undefeated, and Temple is 7-1 with a pretty stout defense. They all have yet to play each other, but I think Temple will win. They've played the toughest schedule and they have the players on defense to stop both Houston and Memphis.

The two independents I mentioned in my preview, Notre Dame and BYU have had decent seasons. Notre Dame has looked good despite losing Malik Zaire in the first game, but their wins aren't very impressive and the toughest team they played, Clemson, pretty much shut them down. Their coach is also an insane person. BYU started with two very dramatic wins, but when they play upper level division one teams, they don't look so impressive. Boise State suffered an early season loss to BYU, but looked good after that, climbing back into the top 25, then Utah State hammered them. This version of Boise State is not as good as previous Boise State teams.

So, where do we stand today? I think I did a decent job. My original four playoff teams were Ohio State, Alabama, TCU and Michigan State. Today, my final four is, Ohio State, TCU, Clemson and LSU. Two changes, that's it. I think the title game will feature TCU and Clemson, and I still have TCU winning. They're outside the top four right now and they got screwed last season, so I think they will play with a fury unmatched and prove the committee wrong from last season. They're still the best team, in my opinion. As for the Heisman, I'm going to stick with Tevoyne Boykin, but Leonard Fournette has been extremely impressive. If he can do to Alabama what he's done to every other team this year, he will probably win, but Boykin is putting up humongous numbers and he will lead TCU to a title. How do you not award him the Heisman if he does that.

So, there's my corrections from the midway point of the college football season. Tell me why I'm wrong in the comment section, and give me your picks.

Thanks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. This is his 100th post on SeedSing. Congratulate him by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty says Boo-Urns to Halloween

AHHHHHHH

Today is Halloween eve.

I don't care for Halloween as I mentioned in my blog yesterday. Today, I'm going to give specific reasons why I dislike this "holiday" but, I'm also going to tell you things that I do enjoy about this time of year.

Let's get to the annoying stuff. First of all, adults dressing up in costumes. This is fine if you have kids and you dress as a family, I get that. For example, my three year old is going as the Hulk this year, so my wife is going as Catwoman, she's wearing kitty ears and will have a bit of face makeup, our three week old is going as a mini Catwoman, she has a sleeper with cats on it, and I'm going as the Punisher, I'm wearing a Punisher t shirt. This is fine in my opinion because, this holiday is for kids, and more specifically, toddlers. Toddlers like dressing up, going house to house showing off their costumes and getting candy. That's what Halloween should be about and parents dressing up with their kids is totally acceptable. The problem I have is the people in their mid 20's and early 30's, kid free, using Halloween as an excuse to dress slutty, offensive or down right stupid. I'm sick of young kids dressing like "sexy kitty cats", or "nurses". Look at the movie "Mean Girls", and you'll know what I'm talking about. These teens use Halloween as an excuse to dress inappropriate. Or, take Julianne Hough last year thinking it was okay to dress in black face because she went as Crazy Eyes from "Orange is the New Black". That's so wrong and extremely offensive on so many levels. Don't use Halloween as your excuse for being a racist Ms.Hough. And guys with their dumbass " God's gift to women" costumes or their "sexy firefighter" bull shit, give it a rest. You're all a bunch of douchebag wannabe frat boys and you make me sick. Halloween is for kids and candy, not for dumbass Millenials that need another excuse to get drunk and act like morons. Grow up.

I also am completely fed up with the stupid Halloween puns. If I have to hear one more time about"spooktacular" savings or "prices so low they'll frighten you", I'm going to destroy my television. I don't understand the marketing for this. Do they want me to be afraid that I'm going to save money? I thought that was a good thing. I've also been watching a lot of Food Network with my wife who's on maternity leave. They have a show called "Chopped" and instead of sticking with this name, which is a pretty good name for a cooking show, they've been calling it "Choppedtober". That doesn't make any sense. Why add tober because it's October? Why don't they call it "Choppedgust" in August or "Choppedcember" in December? Why does October and Halloween only get this treatment? It's totally baffling and pretty god damn stupid.

I also don't enjoy being frightened and I hate scary movies. I've been to one haunted house in my entire life and I had to remove myself from the situation almost immediately because a worker dressed as a clown scared me so much, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I'm terrified of clowns and during Halloween, people dressed as clowns, especially creepy clowns, scare me more than anything I've ever encountered in my life. I don't like that people prey on other people that are scared of certain things by dressing in a costume as someone's fear. That's the worst thing about haunted houses. They're designed to startle you, and who really likes being startled? It doesn't feel good. And scary movies, no thank you. This is pretty much the same thing as haunted houses. I know that they're fake, but it doesn't change the fact that they scare me. I saw the "Shining" once, at a sleep over when I was a teenager and that movie still haunts me to this day. My wife suggested we watch it during the day on Halloween and I immediately said no. There's no way I'm going to watch that movie because I know the consequences that will come afterward. I'd much rather watch something like "Cabin in the Woods" or "Evil Dead". Sure, those movies are scary, but they're also campy and hilarious. I don't like straight up horror movies. Never have and I never will.

Now there are some good things about this time of year. First of all, the candy. My god it's everywhere, and 90 percent of it is delicious. Give me a Reese's pumpkin or any kind of chocolate treat and I'm happy as a clam. I love all candy this time of year except for the most foul, grossest shit ever created, candy corn. I also really like pumpkin seeds and I love pumpkin pie. Those are two great things that come out this time of year. My wife loves the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks and that's only available through November. I love the season. Leaves are falling, there's a nip in the air and it's a good time to be out doors. We get a new "Treehouse of Horror" this time of year, as I explained yesterday. We also get to turn back the clocks one hour, gain that extra sleep, and have shorter, colder days. I like this.

There's a lot of bad, but there's also some good. I may hate Halloween, but at least Thanksgiving, Christmas, cold weather and family gatherings are right around the corner. As a lady on a recent "Chopped" said, "my favorite part about Halloween is November 1st". I whole heartedly agree with her and I love this sentiment. Only two more days until this dumb "holiday" is over.

We've almost made it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His fear of clowns was reinforced by a bean bag toss board painted like a clown and a faulty laser tag gun. Ask him all about by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Treehouse of Horrors is one of the only good things about Halloween

No trick or treating for me. The Simpsons is on.

With Halloween only two days away, FXX has been showing all of the "Treehouse of Horrors" episodes of "The Simpsons".

It's been quite nice.

I wasn't a big fan of the first iterations of these Halloween themed episodes, but since I met my wife, I've grown to enjoy them quite a bit. She has always been a fan and she has turned me into one as well. When they first started to show up, around the second season I believe, they took them too seriously, in my opinion. The first "THOH" was and still is a classic, but the three stories were pretty dark, especially the "Raven" segment. They took Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem , made Homer the main guy from the story and had a raven that had Bart's head super imposed on it. He recited the poem as Homer went crazier and crazier. It was funny in some parts, but for a "Simpsons" episode, it was dark. Homer went insane. This became a tradition after the huge hit that was their first "THOH". They do one every year, usually airing them the week after or a week before Halloween. Today, I'm going to tell you about some of my personal favorites and some of my wife's favorites. I'll pick out mainly segments because sometimes the whole episode isn't great, but of the three segments, one is usually a home run.

I want to start with a recent "THOH". Season 26 had a great second segment with "A Clockwork Yellow". Barney, Homer and Moe played the cronies from "A Clockwork Orange", with Moe playing the Malcolm McDowell character, Alex. This was a fantastic spoof of a classic movie. Moe went through all the same things Alex did, but played it for laughs. For example, when Alex was being reprogrammed, they forced his eyes open and made him watch horrific videos of heinous crimes. In the "Simpsons" "THOH", they did a close up of Moe, eyes pried open like Alex's, but he says, "this is the only way I can sit through terrible Fox programming". It was genius. My favorite part of the segment was when Homer, playing the oafish thug, meets Marge and they play the scene where, in "A Clockwork Orange", it's very sexually graphic and pretty gross, "The Simpsons" played it with Homer eating massive amounts of food, sleeping and totally ignoring Marge. They pulled it off like only "The Simpsons" can.

Season 12 had a great opening segment to their "THOH". It was entitled "G-G-G-Ghost Dad" and it was about Homer's death being for told via a newspaper horoscope. Despite the family's hesitance to let Homer leave, he does anyway, not scared of death, and awaiting a comment from a "handsome" co worker, he presumes it will be Lenny. On his way to work, Homer gets hit by a pick axe, nearly misses being crushed by a metal structure, has an unexplained growth thing and gets bitten by a rattlesnake. He arrives at work and gets his compliment from Lenny, saying," if I may compliment you Homer, that's a mighty nice rattlesnake biting your arm". He arrives home and is fine, but then he eats one single piece of broccoli and immediately dies. He becomes a ghost, eats the broccoli again, dies again and becomes a ghost once more. He has to do one good deed before he can get into heaven, and all his attempts end in failure until he saves a crying baby from going into a busy intersection. Unfortunately, the angel doesn't see this and Homer is banished to hell where Satan gives him noogies and weggies while saying "ha ha" the whole time. It's hilarious.

One of my favorite "THOH" of all time is from season 10, titled "Hell Toupee". In this segment, Homer gets a hair transplant from newly dead convict Snake. At first everything is all peaches and cream and Homer looks great. But, prior to dying, Snake tells the three people that ratted him out that he was going to get them. After the hair transplant, at night, the hair takes over for Homer and controls his actions. He gets revenge on both Apu and Moe, two of the three guys that ratted him out. The third is Bart. This is where the conflict begins. Homer and his new hair do trap Bart is his room, and Bart does everything in his power to convince his dad to not hurt him. Homer finally rips the hair off, thus saving Bart, but the hair comes to life and tries to get him. They get the hair off Bart and while it's trying to escape one of the funniest moments on the "Simpsons" occurs. The hair, that has sideburns, lifts one of the sideburns, a la a fist, and wags it in anger before Chief Wiggum guns it down. It's a classic "THOH" segment.

My personal favorite "THOH" is from season 8 entitled "Citizen Kang". This one is great from top to bottom. We get Bob Dole and Bill Clinton impressions. Kang and Kodos become Dole and Clinton. While dressed like Dole and Clinton, Kang and Kodos hold hands to " give each other protein strains", speak in their typical monotone voice and are together constantly. We get great lines like, "abortions for none, BOO!, ok, abortions for all, BOO!, ok, abortions for some, miniature American flags for all, yeah!" or, " well, I guess I'll just vote for a third party candidate. Go ahead throw your vote away, ha ha ha" and, my favorite coming from Kent Brockman, " Clinton's contributors credited his attitude to an over tight neck tie" when talking about Kang disguised as Clinton saying something very wrong. This is, by far, the best segment of any "THOH" that "The Simpsons" has put out.

I know that my wife loves any "THOH" that has Kang and Kodos involved. She really liked the new one where Sideshow Bob finally gets Bart and keeps killing him over and over again, she's a big Sideshow Bob fan. I know she likes the segment where you find out Maggie is really Kang's daughter and they go on "Jerry Springer". Those three are just off the top of my head. She likes them all, but she talks to me about those more than others.

For all the flack that I give Halloween as a "holiday", I truly despise it, at least we do get a new "THOH" every year. I know that they will always be good because it's part of "The Simpsons" universe and pretty much everything they do is great. "THOH" may be one of the few things I like about Halloween. I still have to deal with the stupid puns and people in their 20's and 30's, with no kids, dressing up like it's a real holiday, but at least I get one thing that I know I'll enjoy and that I look forward to every Halloween.

I guess I'm trying to say, Halloween will always be lame, but "The Simpsons" will always deliver with a great new "Treehouse of Horror".

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He likes people and thinks clown make-up is ok, but people wearing clown make-up are the worst. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Wu Tang Clan

Today for the greatest American band debate, I'm nominating the Wu Tang Clan.

I love Wu Tang. They're one of, if not the best rap group of all time. People will throw out Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five or Eric B and Rakim, both I will be writing about on a later date, but Wu Tang is far superior. They have great, very memorable songs, but they get my nomination simply based on the fact that almost every single member of the band is still performing rap music and some are doing great things in acting. The fact that these guys not only have hit record after hit record while with Wu Tang, but most of them have had hit records as solo artists. That doesn't happen too often, but some of the members are more known for their solo stuff than their Wu Tang stuff.

I do want to mention some of their famous songs still, and I'll do that right now. Songs like "C.R.E.A.M.", "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F$&k With",  "Protect Ya Neck", "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Killer Beez". "C.R.E.A.M." Is an awesome, classic rap song with a great, great chorus. It's an acronym for cash rules everything around me and that's the epitome of a classic rap lyric. I love it so much. "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nothing to F$&k With" is such a cool, dirty, hard core rap song. They put themselves at the front of greatest rap group with this song. They let it be known that they were the best, and anyone coming to get the crown, step off because you don't mess with Wu Tang. "Protect Ya Neck" is grimy rap at its best. This song is filthy in all the right ways and it gave each member a chance to shine. "Bring Da Ruckus" is a cool rap song about bringing the noise to rap. It's a joyous song about the beauty that is rap. "Killer Beez", while not one of their best songs, has the coolest music video ever. Each member kind of morphs into a bee while rapping and it was very, very cool. Check it out if you haven't seen it.

But, as I said earlier, they're getting my nomination because of the members of this group. This is a murderers row of all time great rappers. Let's list them off right now, RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Ol Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killa and U God. See, some of the best of all time. U God is still making solo albums, but he's probably the least famous. Masta Killa hasn't made an album since 2012, but he's still active with Wu Tang and he still performs live with the band. Cappadonna was in the first iterations of Wu Tang and he still performs with Theodore Unit, another hip hop group with Ghostface Killah. Inspectah Deck was a performer and producer for Wu Tang and received critical praise for his lyricism and way he rapped. He did some solo work, but now he's a top of the line producer, mainly doing things for Wu Tang. Raekwon is awesome. He's made a great career for himself as a solo artist, and he was an integral part of Wu Tang at their height. He's credited with creating "Mafiosi" rap. He's got one of the coolest styles of rapping that I've ever heard. We all know about Ol Dirty Bastard. He was one of the grossest, yet coolest rappers I've ever heard. His style was all his own and it will never be duplicated. His most famous lyric, "ooh baby I likes it raw", is disgusting and glorious. I loved ODB and I still miss him. Rest in peace. Ghostface Killah is my favorite member of Wu Tang. I love his style of rap, and his solo albums are the best of the bunch. His style is grimy and gritty and politically conscious. He's achieved critical acclaim for his work with Wu Tang and his solo stuff. Ghostface Killah is one of the all time greats in the world of rap music. Method Man has gained more notoriety for his acting than he ever did with his music. Now, that's not to say that he's not a great rapper, he is. Just listen to the Wu Tang song "Method Man". It's about him and he's the star on the track. But, he's taken to acting like a pro. He's been a star, a role player and a cameo guy and he always crushes. Just look at his role on "The Wire". He played "Cheese" and he was excellent as a thuggish drug dealer and, spoiler alert, when he got shot in the face, I was stunned. GZA is a genius. He wrote the majority of Wu Tang's songs and is the founding member of the band. He always seems like the most level headed guy in the room. He deserves way more praise than he gets. Without him, we never would've gotten Wu Tang. He has maintained a successful solo career as well. I love everything the GZA does. The final member, RZA has the most critical acclaim in music and acting. He's right up there with the GZA. Where the GZA started Wu Tang, the RZA produces everything they do. He's also, for most people, the first name you think of when talking about Wu Tang. He's made a ton of solo albums, he's appeared as a guest on a ton of albums and he's, hands down, one of the greatest rappers of all time. He's highly in demand. As far as the acting, not only has he done as much, if not more, than Method Man, but he's also written and directed movies. He's appeared in movies like "Ghost Dog", "Funny People" and "Coffee and Cigarettes" (ed note: Plus he was the Blind Master in the G.I. Joe: Retaliation - awesome movie). In these bit parts, he all but steals the show. He's a great actor. He's also written and directed and starred in "Man With the Iron Fists", both one and two. While these aren't the best movies, they're campy throwbacks to old school Kung Fu movies and he wrote them. That's impressive. He's right up there, influentially, with the GZA.

Wu Tang Clan is an all time great. This blog was easy for me to write because these guys are so famous and so influential to rappers today. Look at a group like Odd Future and tell me they're not striving to be the next Wu Tang. Wu Tang is awesome and they absolutely, 100 percent deserve to be in this discussion. These above reasons are why.

And remember, Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing to mess with.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He yearns for a Wu Tang Christmas sweater. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Let Me Respectfully Explain Why Your Team Stinks: Ty is Sick of Hearing about the Mediocre Cleveland Browns

The football uniforms are the ugliest part of the city

I'm going to get back to some sports hatred today. I haven't visited my irrational hatred blogs in awhile, and I figured now would be a great time for that.

We are almost halfway through the NFL season, and while I was watching the Red Zone Network this past Sunday, I couldn't help but notice how much they kept showing the god damned Cleveland Browns. Never mind the fact that the Patriots and Jets were playing an important conference game, or the fact that the Dolphins were throttling the Texans or the Saints were surprisingly beating down the Colts, in Indy, they kept showing the Browns, who were losing by 18 against the Rams. This made my blood boil, and I realized at that moment that I hated the Cleveland Browns. Not rational, had never thought that much about them, but the constant cut away to Johnny Manziel on the bench and their douchebag of a coach Mike Pettine with his snarky face on the sideline had me very irritated. So, I'm going to try and explain for new found hatred for the Cleveland Browns.

Let's start with the name of the team and their former owner. Paul Brown owned the Browns in their first go around in the NFL. Let's put aside the fact that he was a terrible owner and look at the name of the team and the colors in their uniform. They do have brown jerseys, their away jerseys by the way, but their pants and jerseys, and most importantly, their helmets are bright, bright orange. Why aren't they called the Cleveland Oranges, or the Cleveland Bull Dogs since their fans are called the "Dog Pound"? I'll tell you why, Paul Brown wanted the team to be named after him, so he called them the Cleveland Browns. How egomaniacal and arrogant is that? You own a team and you name them after you. This isn't a child, or a pet, this is a professional football team. This is what a child would do if they owned a team. They'd name them after themselves. It's so stupid and very annoying. I was informed by RD that the Paul Brown family now owns the Bengals and the Bengals stadium is called Paul Brown Stadium. Apparently this guy and his family can't get enough of hearing their own name. It's pretty appalling. Their uniforms are also pretty dreadful. When they do wear the brown away jersey, the brown looks like poop. Sometimes brown can look good on a uniform, like the old school Sonics uniforms when the space needle was brown amidst the green and yellow. It worked for the Sonics, the brown that the Browns use is terrible. It's the worst kind of chocolate pudding color. Then the helmets are an almost highlighter orange. It's so bright. It's more orange than a basketball. This is a terrible, terrible choice. The people who designed and created these uniforms have worse taste than I do, and I wear t shirts and shorts everyday. Basically, I have no taste for fashion, but I feel like I could come up with a better uniform.

Now, lets look at some of the coaches they've had that have sailed ship almost immediately, or they fired without giving them a chance. Guys like Eric Mangini, who everyone thought was a genius, but now he struggles to find work as a coordinator. They thought he could turn this team around and gave him a big contract. He did not last that whole contract. Bill Belichek got out of there as fast as he could. He took the job, realized the shit show that was the front office and bounced. Now, although a lot of people will call him a cheater, he's one of the best winners in all of the NFL. Mike Holmgren tried the whole GM/coach thing, and the coaching part worked for less than two years. This team has never really had real NFL caliber talent, and Holmgren realized that and just stayed on as GM. He left as the GM a couple of years ago when he realized that they wouldn't let him take the players he wanted in the draft, or trade and sign players they needed. The front office wanted to sign and trade and draft players that would sell jerseys, they don't seem to care about winning all that much.

Speaking of the front office and decisions they've made with players, let's look at two recent picks, Trent Richardson and Johnny Manziel. To Richardson's credit, he had one good season, his rookie year, but he could not produce after that. They should've seen this coming. When he was at Alabama, he wasn't even the primary back. Alabama doesn't feature one running back, they play multiple. This works for them in college, but when these guys get to the pros and are expected to be the "man", they can't live up to the hype. Mark Ingram and Eddie Lacy are realizing this now. Lacy can't stay healthy and Ingram is the starter in New Orleans, but they barely run the ball. Richardson just recently was cut by the Raiders, so his NFL career is all but over and he will be considered one of the biggest busts of all time.

Now, god damned Johnny Manziel. Johnny freaking Football. What a waste of talent and a roster spot in the NFL. He's a spoiled rotten rich white boy that hasn't had to work for anything in his life and feels entitled. Sure, he won a Heisman, but so did Matt Leinart and Chris Weinke. He also clearly has a problem with alcohol and possibly drugs. He checked himself into rehab for "unspecified reasons" this summer and he seemed to be back on track, according to ESPN, but he was recently pulled over for speeding, allegedly pushing his girlfriends face into the window of the passenger seat and having alcohol on his breath. He has a problem. He's also not that good of an NFL player. He abandons plays too early, he throws passes way too short or way too long, gets destroyed by linebackers and safeties when he scrambles and can't read defenses. He's a smaller, worse version of Colin Kaepernick, and Kaepernick is truly terrible.

Which brings me to my final and most important part of why I hate the Browns, the continuous coverage of this mediocre franchise on ESPN. They talk about the Browns almost every single day, as if they're relevant. They are a perennial 4-12 or 5-11 team at best. But, watch ESPN and you'd think that they were competing for playoff contention and Super Bowls. They talk about the Browns as much as they do the Patriots, but it's all love for Cleveland and all hate for New England. Why is that? Are the people at ESPN in bed with the people running the Browns? Sure seems like it to me. To put in even more of a perspective, they cover the Browns more than the Packers and the Broncos combined. That's insane. Those two teams have been to Super Bowls recently and in the Packers case, won their Super Bowl appearance. And the Broncos have Peyton Manning and one of the top defenses in pro football. They're relevant. They talk about Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel more than Tom Brady these days and I thought that was impossible. The Browns are irrelevant and have been for more than a decade now. Johnny Manziel will never be the star that ESPN wants him to be, the front office will always screw something up, they'll continue to make stupid hires for head coaches and continue to lose. They're a down trodden franchise and people need to quit talking about them like they matter. These are the many reasons I hate the Browns.

Now please Cleveland Browns fade into obscurity. It's your destiny.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is in the market for a Johnny Clipboard shirt, help him out. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

When Bad Pop Culture Happens to Hopeful People

This is what happens when you mix hope and awfulness

Piggybacking on our podcast from Saturday and RD's piece about sports heartbreak, I'm going to talk about a different type of heartbreak.

Today, I'm going to talk about two movies and two albums that left me heartbroken. There's things in your life that you look forward to and, even though movies and music are very low on the list, things as small as that can leave you heartbroken. You look forward to something coming out, you're already a fan and the first, or everything prior in the catalog, is great, and then a movie or an album comes out, and it's just a dud, and that makes me upset. All the build up and it's just a pile of garbage. That's what I'm going to talk about today.

First, let's talk about two albums that left me heartbroken. I was a huge fan of the band Rocco Deluca and the Burden. Their first album, "I Trust You To Kill Me" was phenomenal. Rocco Deluca is a fantastic slide guitar player, playing my favorite type of guitar, a dobro. He had a way with the slide and how he used chord progressions and effects that was pretty astounding. "I Trust You To Kill Me" had everything on it. There was blues, rock, love songs and everything I liked. I tried to teach myself songs off the album. I only do that with records that I really like. It was a great album. I saw the band perform at the Duck Room in Saint Louis, and the concert was excellent. He played all the songs off the record, played old blues standards, and blew me away. I was fully on board with whatever was coming next from Rocco Deluca and the Burden. In 2009, the band released their second album, "Mercy". Of course I bought it on the day it was released. I listened to it immediately, and this is where the heartbreak seeps in. This album wasn't the same. It was more emo and sad. I didn't know that the band was going through stuff, and they did break up after this album, but what they put on record was, quite frankly, garbage. There was no distorted slide guitar. There was no fire and passion coming from Deluca's vocals. The band seemed disinterested and the album was a complete downer. Being OCD, I gave this album many, many chances. I swear, I've listened to it from start to finish at least ten times. I still have the album downloaded on my iPod, but I don't listen to it. It is a bad record. This really bummed me out. I also heard that in interviews, Deluca kind of said that if you don't like this album, you're not a real fan of his. He's portrayed himself as kind of an asshole before this album was released, and this interview further proved the point. That also made me upset, because, I was a fan. I really liked what they did on their first record, but to act like this after you put out a dud of an album is really upsetting. I recommend listeningto "I Trust You To Kill Me", but give "Mercy" a hard pass. It's not good.

Another musician and band that I adore, not so much anymore, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, put out six great, different albums and then their seventh record ruined all the good vibes I had. I was a huge fan of Ben Harper's in high school. The second show I ever saw, the first under my own accord, was Ben Harper at the American Theater in Saint Louis. I was a junior in high school and me and a friend of mine showed up about six hours early so we could be front row. I spoke about this show on one of our early podcasts. It was great. I was hooked and loved everything Ben Harper was doing. He was my introduction to slide guitar. His music introduced me to a lot of the blues that I still listen to. He has a really good voice. The band can do everything from rock to reggae. They're very versatile. And, like I said earlier, their first six albums are very good. But, in 2006 a double disc was released called, "Both Sides of the Gun". I was a bit older by this time, and my love was wavering just a bit. I really enjoyed his previous album, "There Will Be a Light", but that was more a Blind Boys of Alabama record than a Ben Harper record. "Both Sides of the Gun" was supposed to be Ben Harper getting back to what made me like him so much. He was supposed to put the acoustic guitar down, which he apparently fell in love with, and get back to the slide guitar. He does on "Both Sides of the Gun", but barely. That's what left me heart broken. He was supposed to have a return to form, but he only did on about four songs on a 18 song double record. It wasn't a return to form at all, it was all a lie, at least in my mind. I listened to this record a bunch too, trying to like it, but I just couldn't. It was too poppy. Ben Harper, inexplicably, started to yell sing on songs. The band didn't sound very good. It was a huge disappointment. I even went to see the band tour this album, and it was a pretty dreadful show. They didn't sound good live anymore, and that made me even more heartbroken. They kind of redeemed themselves with the album "Lifeline", but "Both Sides of the Gun" left a bad enough taste in my mouth, that I haven't purchased a Ben Harper record since.

Now, to the movies that bummed me out. In 2012, I saw previews for a movie entitled "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". This preview had my favorite president, Lincoln, and mashed it up with him being a badass vampire hunter. I was on board. I couldn't wait to see this movie. Opening day couldn't come fast enough. I dragged my wife and her friend along with me because they had to enjoy how awesome this movie was going to be with me. I thought it would be selfish of me to go see it alone. I wanted to share it with the people closest to me. So, not only did the three of us see it on opening day, but we saw it in 3D. I don't like 3D movies, but this movie was going to be so awesome, why not see it in 3D. The first hint I should've taken that this was going to be terrible, the theater was basically empty for a rush hour show on an opening Friday. But, I thought, people were going to miss out on the greatness that is "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". Then, the movie started. I was excited, but, that excitement was drained almost immediately. This movie was so awful. The acting was bad, the action was terrible, the fights were poorly performed and the 3D gave me a headache. This was not the movie I expected. This was supposed to be the movie of the summer in 2012. What the hell happened? I should've realized that a lot of movies released in early summer are released then because they're so bad. This was heartbreaking. I so wanted to love this movie, but I couldn't even like it in a way that people like bad movies. It wasn't fun bad, it was just bad bad. How could a movie that looked so cool be so terrible? Previews, that's how. The only good thing that came out of this awful, awful movie was, I don't take previews that serious anymore, going so far as to not watch trailers for movies that I'm excited to see. Don't watch "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". It's very, very bad and will only disappoint you.

Another movie that broke my heart was Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I adore "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", and I figured that Tim Burton would do a good job with a remake. Casting Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka seemed like a home run in my mind. That was not the case. First of all, Depp as Wonka was god awful. Instead of playing it with the whimsy and humor that Gene Wilder does in the original, Depp plays the role like a creep. He seems like a guy that shouldn't hang around children, and definitely shouldn't own a chocolate factory. He was dreadful in this role. But, he wasn't the only problem. This movie was an absolute train wreck from start to finish. The kids cast in the iconic roles played them way too over the top. They're supposed to be snotty kids, but these actors took that way too literally. Freddie Highmore, who I think is a pretty good actor, doesn't do such a good job as Charlie. He was too boring. I wanted this movie to be as good as the original, but it was so bad. Tim Burton tried to put his weird vibes on this movie, but this movie doesn't need his touch. This is supposed to be a whimsical movie, but Tim Burton tried to make it dark. That doesn't work here, and it broke my heart. Tim Burton needs to stick to his darker stuff and not ruin another classic movie. I looked forward to this movie, but it was so bad, it just made me upset.

So, there you have it. There's a lot of other stuff besides sports that have left me heartbroken, but these four particular things left me the most heartbroken as far as pop culture goes. Tell me some things that have left you heartbroken in pop culture in the comment section, or tell me why I'm wrong about the stuff I mentioned today. And avoid the things I mentioned today at all costs.

You'll thank me later.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He wants to give all these things in big kiss while at a party in Cuba and tell them how they broke his heart. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik

The Excellent and Uncomfortable Humor of "Nathan for You"

We're saving this one for Nathan

Let's all take a minute to soak in the genius that is Comedy Central's "Nathan For You".

The show is in its third season now and it just gets better and better. The first season was a very nice surprise. He put out the basis of the show. He's a business school grad and he wants to help small businesses grow. This is all played for laughs because, his ideas are insane. The two notable ideas from season one were, the poop flavored frozen yogurt and the pig saving another animal from drowning in a lake. The latter idea became a viral sensation. People thought this was a real event and it even made it on national news. To watch Nathan Fielder and his team put this all together was hilarious. I love that it was blown this much out of proportion.

In the poop flavored frozen yogurt episode, I believe it was the series premiere, he convinced a small frozen yogurt place that the only way they could compete with the heavy hitters in town was to have "unique" flavors. He convinced this store owner that poop flavored yogurt would not only drive customers to his store, but it would put this guy on the map. This, of course, didn't work out and the guy nixed the idea after one day. Very, very funny. Season two brought us the infamous Dumb Starbucks. This was genius on so many levels. He used an iconic logo, bringing in tons of customers, and all he had to do was put the word dumb in front of Starbucks. This was, much like the pig story, nationwide news. Everybody talked about this. It was on every news network from MSNBC to my hometown, Saint Louis', local news. Everyone knew of this prank. He also had a running gag throughout all of season two that was great. He kept asking random people how he could be more approachable and cool. These people gave him what they thought was good advice. It was terrible and Fielder did everything they said. He dyed his hair jet black, he wore very skinny jeans and deep, deep V neck shirts. He looked like a total douche. When he met new people and they commented on how bad he looked, he'd confront the people that gave him the advice, and their whole tone changed. They'd claim that they didn't tell him to wear such skinny jeans, or the necks were too deep in his shirts. But, if you go back and watch, he did everything, exactly as these folks told him. Once again, very funny.

So far, we are two episodes into season three, and it's just as good as the first two, if not better. The first episode has Fielder helping an electronics store owner who's losing customers to Best Buy. Fielders theory, Best Buy takes competitors coupons and matches them, so Fielder tells the store owner to have a big store wide sale on TV's, selling them for 1 dollar. There's a whole plethora of hoops to get through to get the cheap TV, but the whole idea was to buy out all the TV's at Best Buy for a dollar using this competitors coupon. Best Buy won't match because this is absurd, but Fielder is so determined, he threatens to take Best Buy to court. He quickly finds out that he can only win if the owner of the small electronics store is determined clinically insane. He takes this man to a psychiatrist, tells the, therapist, confidentially, that his friend is insane, and she agrees. But, they again quickly realize that they won't be able to beat Best Buy, they're too big and powerful. I know this all sounds nuts, but it's so funny and really awkward. It's great TV. Last nights episode had a couple of different ideas. One was a ranch that wouldn't allow anyone over 220lbs to ride a horse. Fielder gets the idea to attach helium balloons to bigger people, thus causing them to feel lighter and get these people horse rides. Good idea, but too pricy and too ridiculous. Nathan even scolds two on lookers for laughing at the gentleman that has three huge helium balloons attached to him while riding a horse. In the second part of the episode, he explains that a company called Tiaga, a jacket maker and a brand he loves, is in bed with a holocaust denier. This upsets him and he comes up with his own line of soft shell jackets with a holocaust education attached. When he pitches this to a store, they let him do a trial run, all done up with holocaust literature, pictures of holocaust victims and even an oven with a fake skeleton in it. Needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable, wrong and nixed by the owner immediately. All the awkwardness from Fielder, the store owner and even a rabbi was uncomfortable in every possible way, but also extremely hilarious. His final idea in the episode was setting up a "man zone" in a women's clothing store. As he puts it, "a place for bros to hang while the lady shops". His first hang out session doesn't work so well, and Fielder decides that he needs to talk about sex to get the guys to hang out longer. The stuff these men say, on camera, is appalling and hilarious. Fielder delivers the best line of the night. When the guys are first hanging out, he leans back in his chair, trying to be cool, and says, "all I need when hanging with my bros is a mother effin beer". Those exact words. Fielders awkwardness makes this great on so many levels. I love this show. It's fantastic and awkward and goofy and funny. Nathan Fielder is a true comedy genius and this show is a must watch.

I'm so excited for the rest of the season and I hope there's many, many more to come.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He learned all about business from the "Buddy Bands" episode of "Saved by the Bell". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Rob Lowe is the current MVP of Television Comedy

Rob Lowe has a new show? I'll watch that for a while.

Today I'm going to take my time to talk about how Rob Lowe is killing it on TV.

Not only is he back, but he's starring in comedic TV shows. I knew he had comedy chops when I was a kid since he was so funny as the bad guy in "Wayne's World", but before and after that, he appeared in pretty much straight dramas. He was on procedurals, in dramatic movies and was part of the "brat pack". He's always been a good actor, but I'm a comedy nerd and I love comedy. Those are my favorite types of movies and shows. If you can make me laugh in a 30 minute TV show or a 2 hour movie, I'll be your biggest fan. Hell, until recently, I used to stick up for Adam Sandler come hell or high water, but he's a nut job. That's another blog for another day though.  

Recently, Rob Lowe has made me not only a fan, but his appearances on recent shows like "Parks and Recreation" and "The Grinder" have been appointment viewing in my household. I also hear very good things about the animated show "Moonbeam City" on Comedy Central. I haven't seen it, but I've heard that it's pretty good. It's a spoof of 80's cop procedurals and Rob Lowe voices the main character. I'll probably start watching it soon since Lowe is involved, and the good reviews don't hurt. But, let's first look at his role on "Parks and Recreation". Lowe, playing the super upbeat, super in shape Chris Traeger was so funny. His addition, along with Adam Scott turned "Parks and Rec" into a great show. It was already good, but those two made it great. When they joined, the dynamic was, Lowe was the good guy and Scott was the bad guy. They played city financial planners and one of them had to be the good guy. This role was perfect for Lowe. Not only is he very handsome, but he also seems like a genuinely nice guy. First, all the female characters would comment, playing it for jokes, about how attractive he was. They all thought that the happy go lucky thing was just a front, assuming that someone that attractive couldn't be this good of a person, but he's also a really good guy. He first approaches Anne, played by Rashida Jones, and at first she rejects him, but they end up together. They have a typical TV relationship, and when Chris eventually breaks up with her, he does it so nicely, she doesn't realize he's broken up with her. Rob Lowe does this to absolute perfection. He later dates Jerry Gergich's daughter, Millicent, and she actually breaks up with him because she thinks he's too old and can't keep up with her. This is a shock to the Chris Traeger character. He's never been dumped, but what's worse, in his opinion is, the fact that she didn't think he could keep up with her. He's the most in shape person in all of Pawnee, but he is getting older, and time always wins. This was an interesting spin on this character, because we, the audience, saw doubt in Traeger's eyes for the first time. Rob Lowe played this very, very well. He was sad, but the sadness was played to many laughs. It was excellent. He and Anne decide to have a child together in the second to last season. They don't want to date, but Anne wants Chris to father the baby since he's perfection in her eyes. And Anne is pretty attractive as well, so they both agree that they'd make beautiful children. She eventually gets pregnant, and after awhile, they decide to couple up again. They even talked marriage, but they decided that as long as they loved each other, they wouldn't need a ring to symbolize it. They moved to Michigan in the season six finale and Lowe plays this to tears and laughter. Anne has Leslie and we all knew that would be emotional. Chris, on the surface, seems to only have Ben Wyatt(Adam Scott), but it's revealed that Tom(Aziz Ansari), Andy(Chris Pratt) and even Ron(Nick Offerman) like Chris. They revealed that they will miss him, and give him a meaningful present as a goodbye. This was played to some tears, but it was mostly laughter. Rob Lowe was phenomenal on "Parks and Rec", and it put him back on my radar. I remembered his excellent work in "Wayne's World", and "Parks and Rec" reaffirmed that he could do comedy.

Early this fall, I saw commercials for a show called "The Grinder". It stars Lowe and Fred Savage. Lowe was an actor on an "SVU" type of lawyer show called "The Grinder" and Savage is his younger brother that is an actual lawyer. Lowe's show comes to an end and he moves back to his hometown to live with his brother and become a real, bona fide lawyer. I know, the premise sounds stupid, but this show is hilarious, and it's due to Lowe and Savage, mostly Lowe. It's nice to see Fred Savage act again because he's a pretty good actor. He's been directing a lot lately, but he's just as good in front of the camera as he is behind it. But, the star and main voice of comedy on this show is Rob Lowe. He's always narrating his life, asking ridiculous questions and some how, some way, winning unwinnable cases, just like he did on his TV show. Two things I really like that he does on the show are, one, whenever he's questioning someone about a case, he has sunglasses on and he slowly takes them off, a la David Caruso when he was on a cop procedural. Clearly this is the writers and Lowe poking fun at that, and it's hilarious. The other thing I like, he makes Fred Savage's younger son watch all the old episodes of "The Grinder" with him, and that's how the episodes start. It's Lowe and the son watching an old episode of his show, and them critiquing it. This is also, very hilarious. "The Grinder" is one of the better new shows to come on TV in awhile, and everyone needs to start watching it if you aren't already.

This brings me back to the reason for my blog today, and that's the fact that Rob Lowe is, quickly and easily, becoming one of my favorite comic actors and just crushing it in general. I know a celebrity of his fame doesn't need anymore accolades, but what he's doing right now requires some kind of recognition. Rob Lowe is a great comedic actor, and people need to realize it.

Keep doing what you're doing Mr. Lowe, because it's working and you are making weekday TV better with your roles.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks Rob Lowe learned comedy while filming "Schoolboy Father".  Practice safe sex and follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: TV on the Radio

Getting back to the Greatest American Band debate, today I'm going to nominate a band that's only been around for a little less than 10 years, but I feel like they're on the verge of becoming one of, not only the greatest American bands, but just one of the greatest bands of all time.

I found out about this band in 2006, and since then, I've been a huge, huge fan. Their debut album, "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" had me on the name alone, but after listening to it over and over again, I was immediately hooked. I'm of course speaking of TV on the Radio. I know that they're fairly newish, they've been around for almost a decade like I said earlier, but they're so innovative, and just really, really good musicians. TV on the Radio formed in New York, Brooklyn to be exact, but they didn't release the aforementioned "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" until 2004. They had released one EP before, entitled "Young Liars", and it's awesome, but it doesn't even begin to show you how great of a band they are. "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I heard one of the songs on MTV2, when they still played music videos, "Staring at the Sun", and it was everything I wanted it to be. It was emo, alternative, bluesy and very rock and roll. I love "Staring at the Sun", it was my gateway to TVOTR. What made this album so unique was all the different genres they showcased. Songs like "Ambulance", with Tunde Adebimpe singing acapella and the band giving him an almost doo wop background was incredible. "Poppy" is a 7 minute epic that builds and builds and builds to an epic awesome rock and roll ending. "Bomb Yourself" and "Wear You Out" are two great ending songs to this album. Both songs are like the band King Crimson came back together, found the fountain of youth and played their songs a bit more listener friendly. The guitars are distorted and funky, but not as hazardous to your ears as some King Crimson tunes are. This album came out of nowhere and I still love it as much today as I did in 2004.

They followed "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" up with the fantastic "Return to Cookie Mountain". This album couldn't be more different than their debut, but that's a good thing because, it showed that they had range. They could play more than alt rock music. Take a tune like, "Wolf Like Me". Sure, it's got heavy guitars on it, but it's almost played like a radio song. It's got a great chorus, and Tunde's vocals are absolutely incredible. The opener, "I Was A Lover", features lead guitarist, Kyp Malone, providing lead vocals, and he's just as good a singer as Tunde, he's just different. There's also a really cool, really odd drum beat as well. On "A Method" and "Dirtywhirl", we get a glimpse of what they will sound like on future records with their big booming guitars and their really cool instrumentation. Tunde sings both of these songs and his vocals are perfection, especially on "Dirtywhirl". Another song sung by Kyp Malone, "Blues From Down Here", is really, really good. It starts out with Malone singing solo, no instruments and then pow, it hits you with fuzzy guitars and loud drums. The chorus is really catchy and memorable. It's an awesome song.

In 2008, TVOTR came out with their most critically acclaimed album yet. They released "Dear Science" and in 2008, Rolling Stone named it Album of the Year. This record is a masterpiece. TVOTR is crushing it on every level on this album. "Halfway Home", the opener is an awesome rock and roll song. Great distorted guitars, a really nice drum beat and great vocals from Tunde. "Dancing Choose", their "single" from this record is a really good song. It has elements of rock, alternative and even a little bit of jazziness to it. "Golden Age" is a phenomenal song that lets TVOTR do what they do best and mix genres of music. "Love Dog" is a really cool rock song. It starts out with a faint piano and drums, and just keeps building, gets louder and is met at the bridge by a crescendo of sounds that all come together perfectly. It closes as quietly as it starts, and everything in between is sublime. "Lover's Day" is a neat little song to close out the album. It's kind of poppy, but in a TVOTR type of way. "Dear Science" is a perfect album from start to finish. If someone were to ask me where to start with TVOTR, this would be the album I'd give them first.

They followed "Dear Science" up with the very underrated and under appreciated "Nine Types of Light" in 2011. It's hard to follow up a great album, but I feel like TVOTR did just that with "Nine Types of Light". This album is a bit more radio friendly and poppy, but TVOTR makes it work to their advantage. My gateway to this record was them releasing the song "Will Do" a couple of months prior to the release of the album. "Will Do" is a great radio rock song and the music video is really cool and trippy. Check it out if you haven't seen it. There are some other really great songs on this album. "Second Song" is a really cool blues/rock song that opens this album. "Keep Your Heart" is a sad song, and Malone's singing and lyrics make it even sadder. "Killer Crane" is a really unique slow song with some cool use of different instruments. "New Cannonball Blues" is Malone doing his best Howlin Wolf impression. This song is awesome. It's like Zeppelin, but Malone sings it as if he's channeling Howlin Wolf. "Caffeinated Consciousness" closes out the album and it's the best three chord rock song I've ever heard. Malone's guitar and Tunde's singing are so good on this song. This was the last album that featured original bassist Gerard Smith, who died of lung cancer nine days after the record was released. The song "Killer Crane" is almost a hymn for him, with the video being mostly still shots of the band, with the majority of them featuring Smith. "Nine Types of Light" was also released as a movie. It's more music videos for each song than a movie, but it moves like a movie. I highly recommend listening to the record and then watch the movie. This was a really good idea by TVOTR and it totally works with their persona.

Last year, they released "Seeds". They took time off due to the death of Smith, and "Seeds" was the result of their off time. This is a really good record and it kind of gave TVOTR the little bit of fame they have always deserved. Songs like "Careful You", "Test Pilot" and "Loved Stained" are all slow burners with very cool and innovative music accompaniment. "Careful You" has one of the coolest guitar effects I've ever heard. Other tracks like "Winter", "Lazzeray" and "Happy Idiot" are straight up rock and roll songs with TVOTR's distinct sound. My favorite song on the album, "Seeds", is love song esque, with great lyrics and simple yet sophisticated instrumentation. "Seeds" seems cathartic for the band and it's a fitting tribute to Smith.

As I said earlier, I know that TVOTR is still semi new, but they belong in this conversation for all of these and many more reasons. They will continue to keep making cool, interesting new music and I'm very excited for what their future holds.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He wants to know what American music makes you rock. Come write for SeedSing, then follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Tracy Morgan brings some glory back to SNL

Tracy Morgan is bringing comedy sunshine the dark landscape that has been SNL.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming from me.

I know I've been blogging a lot about basketball and sports lately, and I'm still going to do that, but now I'm going to get back into the groove and give you pop culture from a lot of different angles. I'll get back to movies, TV shows, music and everything else starting today.

Today, I'm going to tell you about the sheer greatness that was last Saturday's SNL. Tracy Morgan, making his triumphant return to TV, crushed as the host of the 41st seasons third episode. The season premiere, featuring Miley Cyrus wasn't very good, and Amy Schumer did a better job on the second episode, but Tracy Morgan, hosting the third episode, hearkened SNL back to it's glory days. He seemed so comfortable and calm on that stage. This was the perfect place for him to make his official return to TV. As I written before, he's most comfortable at 30 Rockefeller Center and that's where his career took off, both on SNL and "30 Rock".

I did want to touch on the cold open before I get to the meat of the episode. My wife and I usually never watch cold opens because they're always political and we, quite frankly, don't care for humor involving politics. But, due to some social media searching, we both found out Larry David would be making an appearance. I'm a HUGE Larry David fan and this piqued my interest. So, we watched the cold open, hoping that it would be worth it, and boy was it totally worth it. David played Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I can't think of a better character for him to play besides himself. This was a grand slam, getting David not only to appear, but also to play his doppleganger, Bernie Sanders. He was absolutely hilarious, and had you told me the lines David was reciting were actual Sanders quotes, I would've believed it. Bernie Sanders is a total nut job, and Larry David played that almost as perfect as comedian James Adomian does. Seriously people, if you liked David's impression, check out James Adomian's impression, it's better. Needless to say, the cold open set the tone for this being a really, really good episode. Oh, and I didn't even mention that Alec Baldwin showed up playing, a senator I think, named Jim Webb. But, David's appearance outshined everyone else on the stage.

Now, let's get to the return of Tracy Morgan. First of all, during the monologue, he started to talk as if he had a stroke. I was taken aback, but he immediately said he was joking and I was already laughing. The monologue was very good. None of the singing that usually goes on now, in fact, he talked about his old show "30 Rock" being prophetic about his accident. Which reminds me, he said that maybe the accident made him smarter because he now knew what prophetic meant and how to use it in a sentence. Back to the "30 Rock" episode. It was on the same stage, obviously it wasn't a real "30 Rock" episode, and cameos were made by Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Alec Baldwin once again. They all reprised their roles from the show and talked about Tracy Jordan being in an accident. Morgan appeared as Jordan and let everyone know he was okay. This bit was played to many laughs. And, it's always good to have old friends and cast members appear on SNL. Pretty much all of the sketches were hilarious, and they brought back two beloved characters that Morgan played while part of the cast.

The first character they brought back was Brian Fellows. They did the Brian Fellows Show and anyone who watched when Morgan regularly did the show, knows how insane and bizarre this sketch is. It was just as crazy, with Fellows at one part, accompanied by a dream bubble, thinking about a beaver smoking cigarettes. He also yelled his titular line, "I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!".

It was great. During Weekend Update, we got a cameo from Tina Fey, hilariously making fun of Playboy not being a nudie magazine anymore. She even showed off some of the poses she always wanted to do, if she ever got a chance to pose for Playboy. During Weekend Update, while Michael Che was talking to his always upbeat neighbor, Willie, Morgan showed up as the bum who thinks he's way more important than he really is, Woodrow. Woodrow was Willie's life coach and the two of them sang a sweet, but very sad song. This was a great use of this character.

Some of the other good sketches were, one where, it was set up like a musical and all the cast members were joyously singing what they were doing. Well, when Morgan showed up, he sang what was literally on his mind. For example, one of his lyrics were, "I just peed". It was so weird, but Morgan made it funny because that's what he does. There was another weird sketch that Morgan made work called "Where's Jackie Chan At?". Morgan and Keenan Thompson played two guys that simply asked the question, where's Jackie Chan at. They had callers and even a person to person chat with Chris Tucker, played excellently by Jay Pharoah, and no one knew where Jackie Chan currently was. I loved this sketch, because I'm still trying to figure out, where's Jackie Chan at. They did one of their premade videos and it was very funny. The "movie" featured Pharoah, Shasheer Zamata, Taran Killam and Morgan. Killam and Zamata are a couple at the bar and Killam's character is clearly upset. Apparently, Morgan's character said something to her in passing and Killam was waiting for the right time to broach the situation. He finally does, and it's revealed that Morgan's character wants to dance. They keep saying, "you want to dance", insinuating a fight, but Morgan literally means dancing. He even has ballet flats on to prove how serious he is. They get into a whole back story about how Morgan's dad never let him dance, and made him act tough, and finally Zamata says she will dance with him because his story is so sad, but Morgan says he needs to dance with Killam because, "I can't lead, I don't know how". It ended with the two of then getting ready to dance, it was pretty funny.

The best sketch of the entire show was the first sketch after the monologue. They did a "Family Feud" sketch and I was in stiches the whole time. First of all, if there's a better impersonation of Steve Harvey than what Keenan Thompson does, I haven't seen it. He does a spot on Harvey impression, going so far as to call everyone player. It's great. During this sketch, we find out that the two families involved in the game are Tracy Morgan's new family, he got divorced six months prior, and his ex wife and three kids. This was a very, very funny premise for a sketch. We first met Morgan's ex wife, played by Leslie Jones. She's a star and needs to be on this show much, much more often. The kids are played by Pharoah, Zamata and Che. Morgan's new wife and family were as lily white as they come. His new wife was played by Cecily Strong and his kids were the new cast member, his name escapes me at the moment, and Vanessa Bayer. The only question asked during the feud was, "name something someone forgets". Jones rings in first and exclaims, "COMMITMENT!", clearly still upset about the divorce. She gets the answer right and her family gets to play. Pharoah answers, "not coming to your son's clarinet recital because it's not manly" and Zamata says, "not being there as a male role model, so now I have to strip". They each get strikes, and when they get to Che, he's gone to the other family because, "they're happy and always smiling". The whole time, Morgan is yelling back at his ex wife and children and it's hilarious. This was a great sketch to open with.

Obviously, I loved this episode. Tracy Morgan was phenomenal and exceeded my expectations by a million miles. I'm so, so happy that he's healthy and back doing what he loves. The comedy world has missed you Tracy Morgan, but your future looks bright after your triumphant return to SNL.

Welcome back.

Ty takes a few guesses with his Men's College Basketball Preview

Finishing up with all my basketball previews, I'm going to preview the upcoming NCAA season. Now, before I get started. I want to point out how hard this will be for me. I was doing research last night, and during my research, I found out that I don't know many of the new "stars" in college basketball today.

That's a problem.

Men's college basketball is now being defined by this new "one and done" culture, and I hate it. There's no continuity anymore, and players come and go after one season. We don't get any sense of how good a team can truly be because of the rule that you have to be one year removed from high school before you can go pro. I wasn't a fan of the straight from high school to the pros, but the "one and done" culture may be worse. These athletes are basically rentals. A school recruits these kids knowing that they will only be there for one season, and coaches and upperclassmen don't seem to care. Every year it's a revolving door. A five star comes to a school like Duke or Kentucky or Kansas, leaves after the season and a new crop of five star recruits come in. Another thing that blows my mind, pundits and professional broadcasters can't seem to understand how a team like Wichita State or Gonzaga can compete with the blue bloods of college basketball. It's simple dummies, the Wichita State's and Gonzaga's of the world have something that these teams that play mostly freshman don't have, camaraderie. The kids playing at Wichita State or Gonzaga have been playing together for four, or at the very least, three years. They know each other and they know each others tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. The teams led by freshman don't have this and it hurts them when it matters most.

Take last years Final Four game between Wisconsin and Kentucky. Kentucky was undefeated, led by a bunch of All Americans and had just come off their closest game of the year in the Elite Eight against Notre Dame. Wisconsin steamrolled Arizona, another freshman laden team, and they were ready for Kentucky. Wisconsin was also led by a senior(Frank Kaminsky), a junior(Sam Dekker) and a slew of upperclassmen. Wisconsin beat Kentucky up and by the end of the game, the freshman at Kentucky were bruised, battered and physically and emotionally tired. Age won out. Now, that didn't work in the championship game against Duke, another team with mostly freshman, but Coach K is a better coach than Bo Ryan.

Men's college basketball is becoming tough to watch. It's a shit show of, look how high I can jump to dunk this ball, or look at how many threes I can shoot in 10 minutes, or look at the little amount of interest I show in playing defense. It's not very good. The talent is better, but the product has gotten worse. When Geno Auriemma, head coach of UConn's women's team, said that men's college basketball is unwatchable, I, at first, vehemently disagreed with him, but now, I'm coming over to his side. It's not that much fun to watch anymore.

With all this being said, I'm going to give a brief breakdown of the upcoming season and pick who I think, and it will be a flat out guess, is going to win the title. I'll also pick a player of the year as well. When researching, I stumbled upon a great article on cbssports.com, rating every team in division one basketball with a one or two sentence description of the team. I'm going to use this article, but only for the rankings.

They have UNC as their preseason number one. This team actually has one upperclassmen, Marcus Paige, on their roster. He's their point guard, and everything runs through him. If he plays well, UNC will be good, but the rest of his supporting cast are either freshman or sophomores and I know very little about them. Staying in the ACC, other good teams will be Duke, Virginia, Notre Dame and Miami. Duke lost three of their five best players to the draft, but they have a bunch of five stars coming in to take their place. They won't win the title again, but they'll be good, they always are. Virginia and Notre Dame are senior laden teams, but both lost their best players to the draft. They'll still make the tournament, but their runs won't be as deep. Miami should be better this year, they get better every year, and they should challenge UVA and Notre Dame for the third spot in the conference.

CBS's number two team is Kentucky. Yep, the same team that lost 7, I repeat 7, players to the NBA draft is preseason number two. They just did what Calipari does, and out recruited everyone and replace five five stars, with five more. Kentucky is the only SEC team that will do any sort of damage on a major scope this season. LSU does have the top incoming recruit, Ben Simmons, but he won't make them a contender in his one college season. And Vanderbilt may make some noise, but they are very, very far behind Kentucky.

Kansas was their number three team and they will be, once again, the class of the Big 12. They lost Cliff alexander and Kelly Oubre Jr to the pros, but they do get Perry Alexander back and they also have "star" freshman coming into Lawrence. The Jayhawks could, and will be challenged by Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma. Iowa State did lose their coach to the pros, but they have most of their starting five back, and that includes Georges Niang. He's one of the anomalies, and decided to stay in school to improve his game. Baylor is always lurking, and they have been for almost a decade now. It's time to take Baylor serious and stop calling them a surprise contender. And Oklahoma may have the best player in all of college basketball in Buddy Hield. He leads that team and he can do great things with the basketball.

The first Big 10 team to crack CBS's poll is Maryland, coming in at number four. Maryland surprised a lot of people last year by how well they played, and they may be the best team in all of college basketball. They did lose Dez Wells to graduation, but they have Jake Layman and Melo Trimble back. Trimble may be Hield's only competition for player of the year. The other Big 10 teams that will fight with Maryland are the usual suspects. Teams like Michigan State, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan will all be tournament teams. Michigan State has a fine recruiting class coming in and Denzel Valentine is back. Indiana has one of the best offenses in the country and they have some serious recruits coming in. Ohio State will be down from where they have been, but they will still be decent. Purdue has a huge frontcourt, and they will be hard to score on in the post. And Michigan, if they can stay healthy, will be lethal from the outside.

The first Big East team to make their poll is Villanova. They're coming off a 30 plus win season and look to be in good shape once again. Georgetown and Providence will be fine, but the Big East is Villanova's to lose.

The Pac 12 should be competitive. Teams like Utah, Arizona, Oregon and California will be good. Utah did lose Delon Wright to the NBA, but Jakob Poeltl is back and he's a beast inside. Arizona replaces McDonalds All Americans with more McDonalds All Americans. Oregon is a fine team, but they're not really a threat nationally. And Cal. How in the hell is Cal in this discussion? I'll tell you how, they snagged three of the best recruits in the nation somehow, and they will be really competitive for one season. I'm sure an investigation will come out in a year or two involving Cal and recruiting violations, because they haven't been relevant since Jason Kidd played point guard for them in the 90's.

The AAC has three good teams in UConn, Cincinnati and SMU. SMU loses respect because of the sanctions just handed down, so they're not relevant. Cincinnati will win a lot of games they shouldn't, make the tournament with a decent seeding, then crap out in the first or second round. UConn is the class of the conference, and they will win it going away. They have a good recruiting class, and the best coach in their league.

Outside of the power conferences, there's only two teams that really warrant a mention. These teams are the afformentioned Wichita State and Gonzaga. Wichita State returns everybody from a team that should've made the Final Four last year, and the same goes for Gonzaga. If they're ever going to finally make the jump to elite status, this is Gonzaga's best, and probably last chance.

These are the teams I wanted to break down today. There's over 300 division one men's college basketball teams, but the ones I wrote about today, in my opinion, are the only real threats to do damage. Tell me why I'm wrong and who I left out in the comment section. For a more in depth look, if that's what you want, I suggest checking out the CBS website I mentioned earlier.

As far as predictions go, my Final Four teams, right now, are Maryland, Wichita State, Gonzaga and UNC. I think the title game will feature Gonzaga and Maryland, and I'm picking Maryland to win the whole thing. Melo Trimble will also take home player of the year. This will be a big, big season for Maryland basketball. I'll revisit this later in the season, but that's how I see things right at this very moment, 2:49pm central time on October 19th. Thanks and leave a comment telling me why I'm right or wrong.

College basketball and the NBA are almost here folks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. His first big sports heartbreak happened after an ill fated time out call in the NCAA Men's Basketball championship game. I think UNC played in that game. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik 

Heartbreaking Sports Moments and Being a Grownup

Artistic representation of Wolverine fans after the Michigan vs Michigan State game

I feel absolutely awful for the Michigan Wolverine football fans. Here at SeedSing we talk a whole lot about sports, and our pop culture editor Ty is an unapologetic Michigan fan. His fandom drives much of the great writing on our website. Ty's fanatical support of Michigan, the Green Bay Packers, and the St. Louis Cardinals have afforded him many great sporting triumphs. He has celebrated these triumphs like most die hard sports fans. He has been gleeful, and sometimes a little annoying. Many times I have wanted to see his teams lose, just to bring Ty down a few notches. I am his older brother, and I am therefore legally, and spiritual, obligated to be an asshole to my little brother. 

I would never wish on any sports fan the agony of witnessing Michigan's heartbreaking loss in their game to in state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. I have witnessed many sports tragedies / miracles, and nothing comes close to the Wolverines defeat on the night of October 17th, 2015. The games was won, and a routine play by a position given no respect, goes horrible wrong. The Spartans are ecstatic for winning when there was no hope, and the Wolverines are crushed by watching certain victory be replaced by unbelievable defeat. This loss for Michigan fans is as bad as it gets, but they are by no means alone in the world of crushing sports moments.  Let me invite all Michigan fans to the RD Kulik gathering of watching your team lose in unbelievably heart wrenching drama.

I was a young pre-teen in 1985 watching my hometown St. Louis Cardinals go for their 2nd World Series victory in 4 years. This time the Cards were playing the cross state Kansas City Royalsin the "I-70 Series" (way cooler than the idiotic Subway Series). Both teams had a lot of legacy on the line. The Royals had baseball heroes like George Brett and Bret Saberhagen. The Cardinals were a mix of veteran superstars like Ozzie Smith and rising stars like NL MVP Willie McGee and stolen base machine Vince Coleman. This Cardinals team is the one all of my gen x St. Louis peers remember as their very own. The series was all going St. Louis's way until the fateful Game 6. Bottom of the ninth, Cards up 1-0, the Royals Jorge Orta hits a weak infield grounder that is fielded by Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark, who then tosses the ball to rookie pitcher Todd Worrell planted at first base. Umpire Don Denkinger was manning the first base side, and he called the Royals Orta safe. Replay clearly showed that Worrell beat Orta to the bag, yet Denkinger's call stood. After a few misfortunes, the Royals scored two runs and won Game 6. The World Series went to a decisive Game 7, and the Cardinals were still pissed about Denkinger's call the previous night. The Royals clinched their first (and only, so far) championship after crushing the Cardinals 11-0. Many St. Louis fans, including me, never got past Denkinger's bad call. That safe call at first broke a young Cardinals fan heart, and 30 years later it still stings. It stings, but I got over it. I am a grownup.

My beloved Missouri Tigers have had two heartbreaking moments over the last 25 years. The lowly Tigers (4-7 in 1990) had the dominate Colorado Buffaloes on the road to defeat. Missouri was leading 31-27 late in the fourth quarter when Colorado started to drive the field. With time running down, the Colorado Buffaloes were close to the goal line. The Colorado quarterback spiked the ball, on second down the Colorado running back was stuffed for no gain, the Buffs offense called a timeout on third down. The running back was stuffed again, and then the Buffs quarterback spiked the ball once again to stop the clock. During the Colorado timeout the umpire crew never switched the down marker from 2nd to 3rd down. Missouri, and myself, believed the game was won after a spike on fourth down. Colorado, and the refs, thought the spike was on 3rd down. On the next play, fifth down, the Buffalo's quarterback took the ball and dived for the end zone. Touchdown. Missouri loses, and Colorado goes on the share the 1990 NCAA College Football Championship with Georgia Tech. That play sucked, but I got over it. I am an adult.

In 1997 the Missouri Tigers were once again on the raw end of call concerning a team who would go on to share the National Championship. The Nebraska Cornhuskers came to Columbia Missouri with a #1 ranking, and a two plus decade winning streak against the Tigers. Missouri was starting to become a respectable football program, and beating #1 Nebraska would be a huge step forward. With Missouri leading 38-31, Nebraska seemingly missed a game winning touchdown as time expired. One of the Cornhusker players illegally kicked a ball in the air so another Nebraska player could catch it. Missouri fans stormed the field when the clock expired. Upstart Sampson had beaten mighty Golaith. Not so fast. The refs decided the kick was not intentional (the Nebraska player himself has said he meant to kick the ball) and awarded the Cornhuskers a game tying touchdown. In overtime Nebraska scored, Missouri did not. Another victory taken away by questionable officiating. Nebraska would end the season sharing the National title with the Michigan Wolverines. That moment sucked, but I got over it. I am a grown up

1997 was the last year the Wolverines have won a National title. The last decade and a half has not been very kind to Ty and other Michigan fans. Hope was starting to spring with the hire of alumni Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverine football team was climbing itself back into football respectability. They had their upstart in state rivals beaten, all they had to do was punt the ball. With that one simple play, everything went wrong. Hearts were broken. Michigan fans will never forget the end of that game. The Wolverine fans thought the name Kordell Stewart was going to cause the most pain, not any more. The game between Michigan and Michigan State on October 17th, 2015 will always sting with Michigan Wolverine fans. It will sting, but you will get over it, if you are a grownup.

Watching our favorite teams lose in heart breaking fashion will never leave our psyche. How we handle this heart break says a lot about us as civilized people. It has been 30 years, and I still shudder when I someone says the name of Don Denkinger. What would I do if I met Mr. Denkinger in real life? Would I spit on him? Punch him? Commit an insane illegal act upon him? No I would not. I may jokingly tell him that he broke a 10 year old's heart, and he would probably give a good natured laugh , and I would be happy to talk baseball with a man who witnessed some of the greatest times in the game I love. That is what a grown up does. Most Michigan fans who get to meet Kordell Stewart would probably give him some good natured grief about beating their team on a miracle throw, after that they would sit back and talk about a memorable game from a man who was there. That is what a grown up does. Our heart break creates bonds over the love of sports, and the love of our teams. No Cardinals fan hates their team because of Denkinger's call, and no Michigan fan hates their team because of a bad punt play. These bad moments make us love our teams even more. We love them for what the could have done. We love them for what we hope they do.

The psychopaths who use social media to threaten and destroy a college kid because of a bad play are not grownups. These animals are not even fans of the teams they are trying to protect. If you love the Michigan Wolverines, you are not someone who would anonymously threaten a NCAA student athlete. The fans of Michigan football will live with the pain, complain about what could have been, and will go on rooting for their beloved team. You jackasses who use the internet to harass a college kid, you are not the fans Michigan wants. Go away and leave the heartbreak for the true fans.

Sports fandom belongs to the idealistic 10 year olds and the hopeful adults. Denkinger, Colorado, and Nebraska will always be times that fill me with despair. These are also the times that remind me what being a fan is all about. I still root for my teams, I will not let any one person or event take away my fandom. The day after, the weeks after, the years after, will always suck. The victories of tomorrow will wash away that suck.

I am sorry for that horrible ending in the Michigan game. One day Ty, and all Michigan fans will have a great victory to wash away the pain. Being a grownup will make one appreciate that victory. Do not let the bullying, non-athletic, assholes tarnish that victory. Sports fandom belongs to the idealistic and hopeful. I am afraid for the Minnesota Golden Gopher fans, Michigan is going to be pissed.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor of SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He really wants to hear about your heartbreaking sports pain. Tell him all about it by writing for SeedSing.  

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Cavaliers, Warriors, Spurs

I do believe I have mentioned that I love the NBA, and championship basketball is the best of all.

We've now reached the end of my NBA countdown. Today I will give you my number 3, 2 and 1 team. I will also give you my Finals matchup and winner and hand out all the other big awards. Let's get on with it.

Coming in at number three I have last years Eastern Conference champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers. First of all, they have the greatest player in the world in LeBron James. He is the MVP every season, but it wouldn't be fair if they gave it to him every season. He single handily won two games in the Finals last year, one of the games in Oakland. It goes without saying that, as long as he's on the Cavs, they will be one of the top teams not only in the East, but in all of the NBA. Kyrie Irving is still recovering from his knee injury last season, but when he's healthy, he's one of the better scoring guards in the league. He shoots a bit too much, but LeBron will get him to be more of a distributor. Kevin Love is coming back from his shoulder injury, but if the Cavs continue to use him like they were at the end of the regular season and in the first round of the playoffs against the Celtics, the Cavs "big three" could be unstoppable. Love is a good outside shooter, but is better with his back to the basket and stepping back to shoot threes. He's also the best outlet passer in the NBA and the Cavs are devastating when running the fast break. Timofey Mozgov is one of the better rim protectors in basketball and he's got semi decent post moves. Tristan Thompson still hasn't signed his offer and if he continues to hold out, it will be rough for himself and the Cavs. They need him for his rebounding prowess and he needs the Cavs because playing with LeBron makes everyone better. He's not a max contract player and the sooner he realizes that, the better it will be for all parties involved. Anderson Varejao comes back from injury, but that's becoming his story every year. He comes back in great shape and then he, inevitably, gets a season ending injury. He can't be counted on anymore. Matthew Dellavedova was a flash in the pan. He played two okay games, ESPN covered him like he was an All Star, and then Curry brought him back to Earth by crushing his soul at every moment possible in the Finals. He's a tenth man off the bench, at best. James Jones is too old and can't hit the open three anymore, Mo Williams is back, but he left last time around with the Cavs because he couldn't coexist with James for some unknown reason and Joe Harris is too young and inexperienced. JR Smith and Iman Shumpert are both back. Smith is an excellent streak shooter, but he fades in crucial moments and gripes about his playing situation too much. Shumpert is hurt, but when he gets back, he's this teams best defender by far. He can also hit the wide open three. They signed Richard Jefferson this offseason, but he's so old, I thought he was retired and out of the league. No one else on the bench really plays that much. The Cavs "big three" is one of the best in the league and when they're all healthy and playing their game, they are deadly. The problem lies within the rest of the team, mainly the bench. Smith needs to play hard every night, Varejao needs to stay healthy, Williams needs to find a way to coexist with LeBron and Shumpert needs to get healthy. The Cavs will win 55 or 56 games and be the clear number one seed in the East this year.

How the Cavs can win it all.

The Cavs will win the title if LeBron keeps being LeBron and Irving and Love stay healthy and are actively involved in the offense. The surrounding players need to contribute more and keep their heads in the game. They also need to resolve this Thompson situation before the season starts.

Coming in at number 2, I have the reigning NBA champs, the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors didn't really change too much about their roster and this is a team coming off a 60 plus win season. They caught every break they needed, stayed healthy all season long and beat the teams they were supposed to all the way to a championship. Their best offseason decision was to resign Draymond Green. He is the perfect fit with this team. Had he gone anywhere else, it would have been a mistake for him and the Warriors would've missed him dearly. Getting rid of David Lee was a good choice too. Sure, he helped them in the Finals, but he was a huge contract wasting away on their bench. The Warriors have the best backcourt in all of the NBA. Steph Curry, the reigning MVP, is a wizard with the ball and can shoot the three from anywhere on the floor. He also has the fastest release I've ever seen. Curry is the best shooter of all time, yeah I said it. Klay Thompson is a great shooter, but he excels on defense. He locks everyone down that he guards and when he and Curry are shooting well, this team is unstoppable. Harrison Barnes didn't sign the extension the warriors offered him, betting on himself, but he's finally living up to the hype that was praised on him coming out of high school. I think the put back dunk on LeBron in the Finals gave him the extra confidence he needed. He's starting to come into his own. Andre Iguodala, the reigning Finals MVP, is back and while he's older, he still contributes on both ends of the floor. Shaun Livingston is a 6'6 back up point guard and fits in very well with what the Warriors do. Festus Ezeli and Marreese Speights are a two headed monster in the frontcourt. Ezeli is a fierce defender and rebounder and Speights gets points in the paint. Andrew Bogut is still one of the best rim protectors, when healthy. Leandro Barbosa comes off the bench and he's a bowling ball that provides instant offense. The Warriors are one of the best teams in basketball, and they will win 60 games again this season. They will fight with my number one team all year long for the top spot in the West.

How the Warriors can win it all.

The Warriors will win the title if they do exactly what they did last year. They would also need every break to go their way again. It's hard to repeat in the NBA, but the Warriors could and, may do it.

Coming in at number one I have the San Antonio Spurs. This team got the premiere free agent, and they don't even really need LaMarcus Aldridge. They have an older version of him in Tim Duncan, but this feels like a passing of the torch. Duncan has been the face of the franchise for over a decade now, but when he retires, Aldridge will slide right into his place. The naysayers will say that they're too old, but that doesn't matter with the way Poppovich regulates minutes. Everyone should be fresh come playoff time. The back court still has Tony Parker and Danny Green. Parker, when healthy, is probably the smartest player in the NBA. He knows when to shoot and when to get guys involved and he runs the Spurs offense to perfection. Danny Green is an elite defender and he can hit the open three. Besides Duncan, the frontcourt has the best young small forward in Kwahi Leonard. He's an excellent offensive player, he's a great rebounder and he's the only guy that can shut down LeBron James on defense. He, along with Anthony Davis, is the next big superstar in the NBA. Duncan is Duncan. He may be playing on one leg and can barely get up and down the court, but he's one of the better low post scorers, and still protects the rim and rebounds at a high rate. Aldridge will join Duncan and Leonard in the front court and they will be an unstoppable force. Leonard will lockdown the opposition and score in double figures, Tim Duncan will do Tim Duncan things, and when Aldridge fully figures out the Spurs system, watch out. Aldridge will be an MVP caliber player in a year or two. The Spurs bench is elite. It's the best bench in basketball. Manu Ginobli, while getting older, is still a wizard with the ball, and still hits clutch shots. Boris Diaw has had a major resurgence with the Spurs and he's one of the best passing big men in the game. Patty Mills comes in the game and he can put up 20 points in 10 minutes. David West left a ton of money on the table to come and compete for a title with the Spurs. His addition is almost as big as Aldridge, but for different reasons. West is a veteran who loves to play defense, rebound and score when needed. He's a perfect fit with San Antonio. The Spurs look really, really good going into this season. Once Aldridge gets acclimated to the Spurs way of basketball, they will be dominate. I expect the Spurs to win at least 62, maybe 64 games and be the one seed in the West.

Why the Spurs will win it all.

The Spurs will win the title once Aldridge and West figure out Spurs basketball and the rest of the pieces continue to do what they've done for a decade. This team is the best coached team in the NBA and they now have, if they didn't already, the most talent in the NBA. I love this Spurs team.

That's my countdown, all 30 teams. I will revisit later in the year, but this is how I see the NBA looking right now. As for my predictions, my Finals matchup is the Spurs-Cavs and I have the Spurs winning in 6(Sorry LeBron). My MVP is Anthony Davis and he will also win Defensive Player of the Year. Coach of the year will be Erik Spoelstra simply because the Heat will be the most improved team in the NBA. And finally, Rookie of the Year will be Emmanuel Mudiay. I love the way he plays the game and while the Nuggets will be bad, he will get a ton of playing time and I think he will be good immediately.

Thanks everybody.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once drained 25 straight threes with Shawn Kemp on the Seattle Supersonics in a game of NBA Jam. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Clippers, Thunder, Rockets

Did I mention yet that I love the NBA?

Now we are in the upper crust of the NBA. These teams today are legitimate title contenders and have a very real shot at winning the championship this year. Once again, it depends on health and breaks going their way, but each of these three teams have a real chance. Today I'm going to reveal my number 6, 5 and 4th ranked teams in the NBA.

Coming in at number 6 I have the Los Angeles Clippers. Everyone who reads my blogs knows how I feel about the Clippers. I wrote a very long piece on my irrational hatred for this team. I loathe them. I'm going to put that all aside today and judge them strictly on their recent playoff history and their current roster. Here goes nothing. The Clippers had an epic collapse in last years playoffs. They choked away a 20 point lead in the second half of a close out game and went on to lose the series. Their "stars" couldn't come through in the clutch and their coach made poor decision after poor decision. They were failures last year and I think last year was their best shot at the Finals. Sure they would have had to beat the Warriors in the West Finals, but they had their chance and blew it. Their roster is still very talented and while I really like the addition of Paul Pierce, I hate the acquisition of Lance Stephenson, and the dirty tactics they went to in keeping DeAndre Jordan. Resigning Austin Rivers was a HUGE mistake and the most blatant form of nepotism that I've ever seen and Josh Smith is no savior. With all that being said, the Clippers still have Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. As you all well know, I think both of these guys are overrated, but they are very good NBA players. Chris Paul, while moody and whiny, is one of the best point guards in the game today. He can shoot, but he'd rather find the open man for an easy basket, as a point guard should do. He's also a pretty decent defender, but watching Steph Curry destroy him with a crossover lasts season was a huge delight. He is getting older and whinier and he's played a lot of minutes in the NBA. Blake Griffin is the most puzzling "superstar" I've ever watched. Some nights he looks unstoppable, but in the playoffs, in critical moments, he fades away. Superstars rise to the challenge, but Blake Griffin does not. He's the Alex Ovechkin or Andy Dalton (ed note: The currently 6-0 Andy Dalton) of the NBA. He's great in the regular season, but shits the bed when it matters most (ed note: good point). DeAndre Jordan is a glorified rebounder and rim protector. The only reason people talk about him, or that he was offered a max contract was, ESPN puts him on their highlight reel every night. Spoiler alert ESPN, he's 7 feet tall, I'd sure hope that he'd be able to finish an alley oop. Dwight Howard owned him in the playoffs last year and he has been a top tier center since he left Orlando. He also proved how childish he truly is this offseason with the whole backing out of a contract to return to a team that he openly complained about being on. You're a joke DeAndre Jordan. JJ Redick is still just a haircut, but he's also a good shooter. That's it, just a shooter. He's a lousy defender and cannot get to the basket. Lance Stephenson replaces Matt Barnes in the starting lineup, but is that really an upgrade? The Hornets and Pacers couldn't get rid of him fast enough and now he thinks the Clippers will turn him into the "star" he claims to be. He's a classic under achiever who believes his own hype. He's mediocre at best. The addition of Paul Pierce was great. He has a great repertoire with Doc Rivers and is a clutch player. That being said, he's very, very old and I don't think he has a lot of life left in his legs. The rest of the bench is really bad for a "contending" team. When Austin Rivers is the sixth or seventh man off the bench, you have a huge problem. Jamal Crawford is still a good offensive player, but gives this team nothing else. Josh Smith, the same Josh Smith that complained about taking a pay cut this offseason, is not that good. His time in Houston last season was an anomaly. He will still shoot way too many threes and air ball free throws, but this time around it will be all over TV since he's playing in LA now. Other than those guys, and those guys aren't very good, with Pierce being the exception, the rest of the bench is god awful. The Clippers will win 48 or 49 games, but that will be a step back for them and they will be the fifth, maybe fourth seed in the West, probably the fifth though and will have a rough season. The players don't like each other, and that will finally bubble over and there will be a lot of in fighting in the Clippers locker room.

How the Clippers will win it all.

The Clippers will win the title if they can somehow forget about last years playoff collapse, all come together and leave their woes and whining at home. This team complains way too much and they're not that good anymore and they missed their best chance at a title last year.

Coming in at number 5, I have the Oklahoma City Thunder. Full disclosure, this is my favorite team in the NBA. I'm a Thunder fan. This team's shot at a title fully depends on health. They haven't had their three star players all healthy, at the same time, in about three years. If healthy, the Thunder are one of the best teams in the NBA. When three of your starting five include Kevin Durant. Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, that's pretty damn impressive. Durant was the MVP of the league two years ago, but rushed back from offseason foot surgery last year and ended up missing most of last season trying to fully heal. He looks good right now, and can easily get back to being one of the three best players in the NBA, but he needs to string together a lot of games healthy before he is fully back. Russell Westbrook is a beast in every sense of the word. I used to think he was an out of control ball hog, but after watching him last year, without Durant and Ibaka for a lot of the year, I have a newfound respect in him. He's still kind of a ball hog, but he's the most in control out of control player. When he explodes to the rim, or starts a fast break, watch out, because he is going to do something special. He is the new Allen Iverson in my opinion. Serge Ibaka is one of the best defenders in basketball and can give the Thunder 17 or 18 points a night. He's worked on his outside shot and, while I feel he uses it a bit too much, he makes it at about 50 percent. I wished he played a bit more back to the basket, but that's not his game. Enes Kanter is a very good offensive player, but he cannot play professional level defense. He may be the worst defender in the NBA. Steven Adams is a good, young player still fully learning the game of basketball,  but he can be a nuisance at times, and if he wasn't on the Thunder, I probably wouldn't like him all that much. People say he's this generations Bill Laimbeer, but I feel like that's a slight to Laimbeer. Sure, he was a nuisance as well, but he was a good scorer and rebounder. He was much better at this point in his career than Adams is right now. The bench is fine. Guys like DJ Augustin, a good back up point guard, but getting older, Kyle Singler, a hustler, but not very good at any one skill, Mitch McGary, another guy with an unstoppable motor, but can't stay healthy and Nick Collison, an elder statesmen in the league, are good enough to help steal a few minutes here and there from the starters. Anthony Morrow is super interesting coming off the bench for the Thunder. He's an excellent three point shooter and can catch fire at any time, but he's a liability on defense. I think their draft pick Cameron Payne will soon take over Augustin's spot as the second team point guard, and I think he will become a valuable bench player for the Thunder. Like I said before, if the Thunder can stay healthy, they can compete with anyone at anytime or place. Their title chances lie solely on health and I see them winning 50 or 51 games and being the four seed in the West.

How the Thunder will win it all.

The Thunder will win the title if their "big three" can stay healthy and produce like they're supposed to all season and Enes Kanter and Steven Adams become unstoppable at the things they're best at, Adams being a pest on defense and Kanter scoring double figures every night. They'll need help from their bench as well, but that's a very real possibility. Thunder Up.

My number four team is the Houston Rockets. This team has all the potential in the world, it's just a matter of putting it together at the right time. James Harden leads this team and while he's a tremendous scorer, he is a lot like Blake Griffin and fades when the spotlight is on him. When playing for OKC, he was great all the way through their run to the Finals in 2012, but then he crapped out in the Finals, averaging less than 10 points per game. Same thing happened last season in the West Finals. He was bested every night by MVP Steph Curry. He's also dating a Kardashian now, so he's bound to take a dip in production, just ask Kris Humphries or Reggie Bush. Dwight Howard was, at one time, the most unstoppable force at center since Shaq. Now, he is constantly injured and making excuses. When he puts his mind to it, he's a really good player, but his head isn't always in the game. Houston needs him to focus on basketball. They have Patrick Beverly coming back at point guard, and he's a good point guard, but they traded for Ty Lawson this offseason, and he's an upgrade. Lawson will be starting over Beverly by midseason. Donatas Motiejunas is a good power forward, and if he and Howard can both stay healthy, their front court is as good, if not better than most. Trevor Ariza is still there and he's still a lock down defender and an excellent three point shooter. Ariza is a very underrated player. Jason Terry is still playing basketball, and he's still hitting clutch shots. He can't keep up on defense, but Houston doesn't ask him to do that, they need him to hit big threes. Corey Brewer is a great bench player in the NBA and people finally get to see that since he's on a good team. Both draft picks, Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell can be valuable to this team. Dekker is very athletic and can step back and hit the three and Harrell will do all the dirty work and do it happily. The Rockets are good and got a taste of a deep postseason run last year. They will win somewhere in the mid fifties, maybe 55 or 56 games and fight the Thunder for that third spot in the West.

How the Rockets can win it all.

The Rockets will win the title if Harden can perform in the clutch and Howard stays healthy and focuses on basketball solely, all season. The rest of the roster needs to keep doing what they do and the Rockets will be very good. I love the addition of Ty Lawson and I feel that he makes this team a very real threat to compete for a title.

There you have it, teams 6, 5 and 4. Tomorrow is my final NBA preseason piece and I'll give you my top three teams and all my predictions.

Who will be the champion?

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once held court 100 straight times against the editor on NBA Street. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Marty will be here soon. Do we have all the tech he needs?

Displayed at the 2015 Hill Valley retro auto show

I like writing about self-driving vehicles, drone deliveries, 3D printing, and other technology that has great potential to shape our future. Occasionally however, I like to look back at how today was conceptualized by generations before ours. One great example of this was released in the form of a film known as Back to the Future II. When Marty arrived in October 21st, 2015 the setting was quite a bit off from what we will really see on that day. Let us take a look at some of the predictions made by that film and how close they actually came.

Flying Cars

Doc, Marty, and Jennifer arrive in 2015 on a skyway. A skyway appears to be an interstate in the sky which flying cars can use to more efficiently travel longer distances. Flying cars were not conceptualized by the Back to the Future writers. In 1962 the animated series, The Jetsons, traveled by flying cars. Every kid growing up in that era knew that by the time they were adults, flying cars would be ubiquitous. Perhaps the culture that was started with The Jetsons is the main reason that many times when someone expresses disappointment of the present, they commonly utter the phrase, “Where’s my flying car?”

In 1940 Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company fame, said, “Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.” Where are we on Ford’s promise?

Of note are the Moller Skycar M400 and the Xplorair PX200. Both of these are what is known as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The Xplorair is a single seat aircraft, while the Moller can accommodate up to four people. Moller states that the skycar is “an aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, is able to fly at high speed, yet also able to travel at low speed on the ground and narrow enough to fit on urban streets.” The Moller uses rotary engines, unlike the Xplorair which takes advantage of the Coandă effect to propel itself into the air. The Xplorair has been funded by the Government of France and is scheduled for a drone flight in 2017 at the Paris Air Show and commercialization thereafter.

As you can see there are challenges to creating flying cars. Engineering something that is going to be practical takes time. But we haven’t given up yet and maybe by the time we get there we will even have flying cars that drive themselves!

Auto-Lacing Shoes

In 2015 Marty looks very out of place in his 1985 style. So Doc gets him some more current apparel including the Nike Air Mag shoes. So do we have Nike Air Mags today? Well, sort of. You can get a pair of officially licensed Nike Air Mags from an online costume shop for around $100. However you will be disappointed to find that there is no auto-lacing technology in these shoes. But, hey, they have functioning lights!

So what hope do we have for auto-lacing shoes? Well there is a company called Powerlace who have designed an auto-lacing shoe that works simply by pressing your heel down to tighten the auto-lacing. The problem is that their Kickstarter campaign never got fully funded and so it remains to be seen whether Powerlace will ever release a product.

The other, perhaps more promising, hope comes as a confirmation from Nike designer Tinker Hatfield who reportedly said that his team is working on delivering a Nike MAG with Power Laces sometime in 2015. The year is quickly slipping away, but maybe we will see them. I wonder if this would be more of a case of Back to the Future inspiring the future than predicting it, however.

Hoverboards

When Marty runs into Biff’s grandson, Griff, he manages to anger the violent psychopath and “borrows” a hoverboard to escape. Griff follows him on his own, more featured hoverboard which was jet powered. Not knowing that hoverboards would not work on water without jet power he was stuck and so to escape Griff he jumps off causing Griff and the gang to crash into the courthouse. Griff was arrested and Marty got away.

If you want something that looks more or less exactly like the board that Marty hovered around on in the movie, you are in luck. That product does exist today. When it was originally released, it cost a mere $120. That sounds like a pretty good deal for a hoverboard until you realize that it is a prop replica and is little more than a plastic board. It does not hover. Every once in awhile I see these things around. But then I am the type of person who hangs out at geek conventions where there are souped-up DeLoreans made to look like a Back to the Future time machine. I usually see the hoverboard sitting in the back seat next to the flux capacitor.

As far as an actually functioning hoverboard, there have been several attempts. As far back as the 1950s the Hiller Flying Platform was a hovercraft which was quite a bit more cumbersome than anything similar to a skateboard, but did accomplish the task of propelling a person in the air in a sort of hovering effect pretty early on. Jamie Hyneman built a makeshift hovercraft for MythBusters, dubbed the Hyneman Hoverboard. It was made using a surfboard and leafblower, but was still not very practical.

The closest that we have gotten is the Hendo Hoverboard created by a company called Arx Pax. The boards use magnetic field architecture technology to work. To the recreational hoverboarder all you need to know is that it requires a special surface to operate. According to Arx Pax: “Hoverboards have been in high demand since their launch in October 2014. Building Hoverparks and retro-fitting skateboard parks will soon be underway for this new sport to take flight.” There has also been a press release from the company just today that a next generation of their hoverboard will be unveiled on October 21st. This new version will supposedly feature a more skateboard-like design and feel and was collaborated on with famed skateboard guy, Tony Hawk.

So I guess we sort of have hoverboards now.

All of these advances are still far from commonplace though as depicted in the film. The challenges with these ideas are many and while we are forever trying to be inspired by our science fiction dreams of the future, reality always has laws that limit the extent to which we can reach them. But still we try and eventually we come up with some pretty interesting uses of technology. Some of which past fictional ideas never could have thought of.

Lastly, if you want to see a pretty funny fan-fiction comedy of Marty and Doc coming to the real October 21, 2015, I encourage you to check out College Humor’s: Back To The Future In ACTUAL 2015.

(ed note: Some non-tech predictions. Back to the Future predicted a Cubs World Series win. Is it going to happen? Universal also released a preview for Jaws 19, go check it out).

Kirk Aug

Kirk is waiting for his automatic drying jacket to turn on. He got all wet when his wheeled hoverboard ran him into a creek. Follow Kirk on twitter @kirkaug.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Monkees

They were a big influence on the Beatles.

RD Kulik

RD Kulik is the creator of SeedSing and enjoys the early film collaborations of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. He wants you to write for SeedSing.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Bulls, Grizzlies, & Pelicans

I love watching the NBA, I especially love watching really high quality competition.

Now we are getting to the elite teams in my NBA countdown. We are officially in the top ten and every team from here on out has a legitimate shot to win the NBA title this year. They all need some breaks to go their way and health is of the utmost importance, but these teams are the cream of the crop in the NBA. On with the countdown.

Coming in at number 9 we have the Chicago Bulls. This team is the epitome of a team needing health and everything to break in their favor to win the title, but , that could happen. Let's start with the bad news about the Bulls. First, they fired Tom Thibadeau for being too tough on his players. Never mind the fact that they improved every year under him and they played some of the best team defense in all of the NBA, management felt that a hard nosed coach wasn't the right fit. So, to replace Thibadeau, they reached into the college ranks and hired former Iowa State head coach and former Chicago Bull, Fred Hoiberg to take over. I don't know if this will work, but the Bulls seem to think it will. Another bit of bad news for Chicago is all the off the court and new injury to Derrick Rose. First, he was accused of sexual assault in the offseason and I don't know if that case has been closed yet. Next, he said at the preseason meetings that he was in a contract year, and claimed that if the Bulls don't pay up, he'd think about leaving. Now, I can't think of a franchise that's been this patient with a star player, waiting for injury after injury to heal, hoping that he'd be back at full strength. They've given him all the time in the world, letting him miss seasons and multiple games during "healthy" seasons, just to get back to full strength. Now, he is out for all of the preseason and may miss opening night due to an orbital fracture. Since his MVP year, he can't stay healthy and he doesn't play like he used to. I think it's time for the Bulls to move on from Derrick Rose. This brings me to the good news, Jimmy Butler is on this team. He's the unquestioned leader of this team now, in my opinion. He's an All Star, a 20 point per game player, a lockdown defender and has a tireless work effort. Jimmy Butler is a legitimate MVP candidate. They have Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah. Gasol is a great post player and fits in with what the Bulls want to do on both ends of the court perfectly. Noah, when healthy, is one of the better rebounders in the league and plays some of the best defense in all of basketball. Younger players like Doug McDermott and Tony Snell are going to get more of a chance to play with the new coaching staff. One of the knocks on Thibadeau was, he didn't like playing younger guys, well, this staff will play whoever is playing best, regardless of age. McDermott looks to be a good three point shooter, but has to work on every other aspect of his game before he's a legitimate NBA player. Snell on the other hand, he's got a quick first step, can shoot the mid range jumper, is long and lanky and plays good defense. Given more playing time, he'll continue to get better and better. Another younger player that did get critical playing time last year, Nikola Mirotic, is back and looks like a better, in shape basketball player. He's good. Aaron Brooks, Taj Gibson, Kirk Hinrich and E'Twaun Moore all come off the bench. Brooks is a good back up point guard, Taj Gibson was, at one time, one of the better low post players in basketball, and while injuries have hampered his development, he's still pretty good. Hinrich is fine off the bench, but his best days are behind him. E'Twaun Moore is an interesting piece on this team, providing instant offense, but he's very inconsistent. Bobby Portis, the rookie from Arkansas, was a good pick by them, and I see him playing a pivotal role off the bench for the Bulls this season. The Bulls will be one of the top three seeds in the East and win 52 or 53 games this year.

How the Bulls can win it all.

The Bulls win will the title is all their pieces buys into the new coaching staff's philosophy on offense and continues to play suffocating defense. They also need a healthy, focused solely on basketball Derrick Rose to compete for the title. The Bulls will be good, it's just a matter of how good and how healthy everyone can be all season long.

Coming in at number 8 is the Memphis Grizzlies. This team is good, plays old fashioned basketball and are a tough team to face in the playoffs, but they are also getting very old and may have missed their window to win a title. They gave Marc Gasol the big contract he deserved this offseason. Gasol is probably, right now, the best center in basketball. He has great low post moves, a decent jumper, he's a good rebounder and plays good defense. Gasol is great. Mike Conley is a great point guard. He shoots the ball very well, finds the open man every time, plays good defense and runs this offense perfectly. When he needs to score, he scores, when he needs to get players involved, he gets them involved, he's the best example of how a point guard should play their position. The only problem with Conley, he gets hurt at the most inopportune times. Take last year for example, the Grizzlies are cruising in the playoffs, take a game from the Warriors in Oakland and then boom, Conley basically breaks his face. The Warriors cruised after that. Jeff Green joins Conley in the back court, and while he's extremely athletic, he's also extremely inconsistent. One night he'll go for 20 and 10, the next night, he'll foul out in 12 minutes. Zach Randolph is still there and still averaging double figures in points and rebounds and still getting on other teams nerves. He's the definitive player of how Memphis wants to play basketball. He's the inventor of their motto, "Grit and Grind". Tony Allen is exactly the same type of player as Randolph, he just happens to play guard and he's not as good a scorer. Allen is a pest on defense and that's exactly what Memphis needs from him. Coming off the bench you have guys like Beno Udrih, he's fine, but not great, Vince Carter, bless his heart that he's still playing, but he's not the same player, Courtney Lee, who's a good scorer off the bench and they signed Matt Barnes. I can't stand him, but I can't think of a better place for him to play than Memphis, he'll fit in there great. The Grizzlies will be good, and win 45 to 48 games, but, as I said before, their chance to win the title probably passed. Too many other teams in the West have gotten better and a younger than Memphis.

How the Grizzlies will win it all.

The Grizzlies will win the title if they "Grit and Grind" every team to death in the playoffs, making the games very low scoring. That's how they win in the regular season, and they'll have to do that in the playoffs to win the title, that's their only chance.

My number 7 team is the New Orleans Pelicans. They have the best young player, and future best player in the NBA in Anthony Davis. He's the best all around center in the NBA. He's a fantastic rim protector and rebounder, can fly through the air for alley oops, can shoot mid range jumpers and is now working on his three point shooting. He's already unstoppable, but add in three point shooting, he'll go down as one of the greats. I love the way Anthony Davis plays. If anyone one single player can lead his team to a title, it's him, he's that good. The problem with the Pelicans is the rest of their roster. It's a good roster, but needs to be great. Guys like Jrue Holiday, Omer Asik, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon have the potential, they just haven't lived up to it yet. Jrue Holiday is a really good point gurad, he just needs to get other players involved more often. If Asik can stay on the court, it would be impossible for most teams to score on him and Davis. Tyreke Evans has all the tools, he just needs to put it all together. Ryan Anderson is a great three point shooter, but he's not so good on defense, and he has a hard time staying healthy. And Eric Gordon was at one time, the next big thing. Now, he's a bench player, but he can still light up a scoreboard, if he's interested in focusing on the game. The Pelicans took a huge step forward last year, making the playoffs, and they'll continue to get better. Anthony Davis is one of the top three players in the NBA right now and he will single handily make this a 48 or 49 win team.

How the Pelicans will win it all.

The Pelicans will win the title is Anthony Davis goes on a Michael Jordanesque run in the playoffs and wins every game, making every critical play in every critical moment. It's a tall task, but he's that good.

There you have it, teams 9, 8 and 7. Come back tomorrow for 6, 5 and 4. We are truly getting to the elite of the NBA.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is still troubled by the time the editor had Tom Chambers go for 100 on him in a Playstation game. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Hawks, Bucks, & Heat

Before I continue my NBA countdown I want to take a second to talk about two college football coaches. First, get the help you need Steve Sarkisian. You clearly have a problem and you need the rehab that you're reportedly going to get. Your AD, Pat Haden, is doing you a disservice, but get your life together before coming back to coaching. You can't be drunk and be around young college athletes, that's wrong. Secondly, have a great retirement Steven Spurrier. Your teams haven't been great lately, the Gamecocks are 2-4 right now, but you're one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, terrible NFL coach, but great college coach. You turned Florida into a powerhouse and South Carolina wasn't relevant until you took over that job. Enjoy retirement.

Now, back to my NBA countdown. Did I mention that I love basketball.

Today we have teams 12, 11 and 10. All three are East teams and that means that almost all of the Eastern Conference playoff spots will be filled. To give you a comparison, we've got, after today's blog, 7 playoff teams, and 6 are from the East. Clearly, the West is way better right now. On with the countdown.

At number 12, I have the Atlanta Hawks. Yes, the same Hawks team that played in the East Finals last year. They're going to take some steps back. They have a good roster, but last year was a total fluke. They played out of their minds and won 60 games, but they fell flat when it mattered most. I think the same sort of thing will happen this year, but it will come before the playoffs. I've got them going from the first seed in the East down to number four, which would pit them against the Wizards in round one, and that would be a great playoff matchup. They also lost their best defender in DeMarre Carroll. I know that I called him a one season wonder, but he is a great defender, the scoring output was surprising to me. The roster is good, but not good enough to push past the second round. The backcourt is led by Jeff Teague. He's a solid point guard. He can get to the rim, shoot a little bit and finds the open three point shooter more times than naught. Kyle Korver joins him in the backcourt, but, while he's one of the best three point shooters in the game, that's all he does. He doesn't play defense, reference to the playoffs last year when LeBron James exploded through the lane went up for a dunk and Korver literally ran away from the play, can't drive and isn't that good of a passer. They traded for Tim Hardaway Jr and while I think getting out of New York will benefit him, what does he do besides shoot for a low percentage and gripe at officials. I loved Hardaway Jr while he was at Michigan, but he wasn't the best player any of his three years there and he won't be the best player on any NBA team, except the 76ers. Dennis Schroder is a good player, but he's being under utilized in Atlanta. He doesn't get enough playing time, and in the right situation, he could be an All Star. Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha round out the backcourt. Bazemore is a fine player, but nothing special and Sefolosha has a huge criminal case, he was wrongly targeted and hurt by the NYPD because they're a bunch of racist assholes, and that will effect his play this year. He's a lock down defender, but provides nothing on offense. The Hawks frontcourt is their strength, led by guys like Al Horford and Paul Millsap. Horford, when healthy, is one of the best fours in all of basketball. He's got great low post skills, plays excellent interior defense and can step back and hit long jumpers. Paul Millsap is finally getting the credit he deserves, getting his first All Star appearance last year, and is a great player in the NBA. He's the better version of Horford, and Horford is pretty good. The Hawks got Tiago Splitter in free agency, but he reminds me a lot of Aaron Baynes, with the exception being that the Hawks coach was a Popovich understudy. The Hawks run the same system as the Spurs, but Splitter will struggle since there's no Tim Duncan to take the load off him. Mike Scott comes off the bench, but he's pretty blah. The Hawks are going to take a step back this season and while they'll win somewhere in the range of 45 to 48 games, they won't achieve the success of last season.

How the Hawks will win it all.

The Hawks will win the title if Al Horford and Paul Millsap can stay healthy all season and average 40 plus points and 25 plus rebounds combined, that could happen, Jeff Teague becomes an elite point guard, in the same class as Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook, Kyle Korver hits threes at a record level and the bench gives them big time production. This team was a conference finals away from playing for the title last year, but they are destined to take a step back.

Coming in at number 11, we have one of my new favorite teams to watch, the Milwaukee Bucks. First of all, while he may be a crummy person in his personal life, Jason Kidd is an excellent coach, much to my surprise. His team totally buys into defense and spacing on offense. The Bucks get Jabari Parker back after tearing his ACL during his rookie year. He looks to be a good scorer in the NBA, and under Kidd's tutelage, he will become a good defender. Joining Parker in the back court you have guys like Michael Carter-Williams and OJ Mayo. Carter-Williams isn't much of a shooter, but he's explosive going to the rim, plays good defense and usually finds the open man. OJ Mayo came into the NBA with huge expectations, struggled to score, play defense and stay in shape his first couple of seasons, but has found a good place for him in Milwaukee. He thrives coming off the bench, providing the Bucks with instant offense. In the frontcourt, they got one of the better offseason signings in Greg Monroe. Most people, including me, thought he was going to either New York or Los Angeles, but he surprised everyone and signed with the Bucks. He's an excellent rim protector and rebounder, and if he can get some skills in the post, he will be unstoppable. Khris Middleton is an emerging star. He hit some clutch shots last season and is becoming a legitimate 20 point a game type player. Next to Andrew Wiggins, the Bucks have my second favorite young player to watch in Giannis Antetokounmpo. His nickname is the "Greek Freak", so that's what I'll call him. Anyway, he is long and rangy, explosive to the rim, can shoot the midrange jumper and is pesky on defense. He is an All Star and All NBA player in waiting. He's awesome. John Henson and Miles Plumlee come off the bench in the frontcourt, and while I like Henson's game, he's a decent defender and a decent shooter, Plumlee provides nothing for this team. Other guys off the bench are Jerryd Bayless, a castoff from Memphis, Greivas Vasquez, who hasn't been that good since college, Chris Copeland, who's a fine three point shooter, but that's it and Tyler Ennis, a kid who should've stayed in college. The Bucks are getting better and better, but are still two or three years away from competing with the Cavs and Bulls in the East. They will win 48 or 49 games and be third or fourth in the East.

How the Bucks will win it all.

The Bucks will win the title if Greg Monroe becomes an MVP caliber type of player, Parker stays healthy and puts up huge numbers, Antetokounmpo puts everything together and is an All Star and the bench provides huge sparks every night. The Bucks are good, just not elite yet.

Finally, let's get into the top ten. Coming in at number 10, I have the Miami Heat. You've got to give it up to Pat Riley, the guy loses LeBron James, has one bad year, gets the best young player in the draft in Justise Winslow, gets Dwayne Wade to come back, and Chris Bosh is healthy. Also, he resigned Goran Dragic after trading for him last year. This team, if they can stay healthy, has the horses to compete with the Cavs and Bulls, and may actually be better than both. First, the back court is loaded. Dwayne Wade may be old and only plays half a season, but when he's healthy, he's one of the 15 best players in the league. He's also won three titles, so he knows how to perform in the clutch. Goran Dragic is an excellent point guard, and getting out of Phoenix was the best thing to happen to him. He's an All Star caliber player, and with the teammates he has in Miami, he will flourish. Like I said before, I like Justise Winslow a lot. The fact that he dropped to Miami at number 10 in the draft is appalling to me. He was the best player on the national title champion Duke Blue Devils that had guys like Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones. He is going to be great in the NBA. With the return of Chris Bosh and the emergence of Hassan Whiteside, the Heat's front court is ferocious. Bosh is one of the best shooting big men and while he may be a bit soft, he gets clutch rebounds and plays okay defense. Whiteside has the potential to get a double double every night. And I'm not talking points and rebounds, I mean blocks and rebounds. He loves playing defense and that's what the Heat need him to do. Loul Deng, A'Mare Stoudamire and Udonis Haslem, while pretty old and not as good as they once were, are capable back ups and provide the Heat what they need off the bench. Mario Chalmers and Chris Anderson are still there, but these guys are trade chips. The Heat are good and can be elite this year. If they stay healthy, I see a 50 win team, and competing all season long with the Bulls and the Cavs for the top spot in the East.

How the Heat can win it all.

The Heat will win the title, and they're the first team that I feel has a legitimate shot, if these guys can all stay healthy and produce like they've produced their whole careers. Getting Bosh back healthy is huge. He's the leader of this team, and gives them the leadership they need. I really, really like this Heat team, but they are no higher than tenth overall unless they can stay healthy and that's a big if.

So there you have numbers 12, 11 and 10. Come back tomorrow for numbers 9, 8 and 7. Things are starting to get real.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He made a bid to buy the Milwaukee Bucks, his offer of being awesome was turned down. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"The Walk" provides stimulation for all ages, especially in IMAX 3D

Once a symbol of inspiration

Ever since I saw the documentary Man On Wire in 2008, I have wondered why I had never heard of Philippe Petit prior. Once I found out that there was a children's book featuring Petit’s story titled The Man Who Walked Between The Towers, I had to get it for my kids. Scholastic even made one of their Storybook Treasure cartoons from the children’s book. There is something incredibly romantic about Petit, his dream, and his determination to realize his vision. When I saw a theatrical trailer for The Walk a few months ago which is a biographical drama based on Petit’s high wire stunt in New York, I was pretty excited.

It is, of course, no secret why this story had more recently come to light. The towers went down. A tragedy to be certain. But for me the story does not bring up the memory of the tragedy except in the context of acknowledging the role it had in bringing the high wire story back to consciousness. I see what a Petit did as a celebration of the elegance of human potential. The 9/11 attacks represent the level of animosity that can be born of indifference. The only thing that relates these two events is this landmark. Perhaps that is why the children’s story, the documentary, and this film have come about in the aftermath. People want to remember the inspiration that occurred in the landmark’s beginning rather than the desperation of its end.

Both my four and six year olds are familiar with the story. They had even seen the documentary and remained engaged throughout. An accomplishment especially for a four year old (who was three when he saw it). My partner and I were looking for movies that we could take them to. As far as animated features there was only a sequel to a movie that we had not seen, so we showed the kids the trailer to The Walk. They wanted to see it. So a few days ago my family and I went to see it.

My impressions of the story as told by The Walk are mostly good. It is a biographical drama. The “drama” part means that facts are changed to make it interesting. I do not know how many inaccuracies are included in the other versions of the story that I have heard, but I would definitely say there are inconsistencies. That being understood, I thought the story as it was told was moving and captivating the entire time.

As far as the casting, I was initially unsure if Joseph Gordon-Levitt could pull this one off. I have no complaints about any other role I have seen him in, but it seemed a strange fit to me prior to my viewing of the film. I soon realized that my concerns were unfounded. He did a remarkable job of depicting the character of Philippe Petit.

At the theatre which we went to, the only available way to watch it was IMAX 3D. I am not usually a fan of 3D films. It tends to come across as gimmicky most of the time. In this case however, I was very impressed with the use of the medium. The last film I saw in 3D was Avatar, a film which was supposedly made to highlight the possibilities of 3D. In my opinion The Walk much more aptly fits that proposition. After seeing this in IMAX 3D, I think it would be regrettable to see it in 2D.

My four and six year old said they liked the film too. At a point in the film when Petit was walking between the towers they did get a bit scared and ended up taking off the 3D glasses. They told me that they were afraid that he may fall. Even after reminding them that they already know this story and how it ends, they remained tense. In the end, they said it was good. I even saw my four year old playing a “man who walked the towers” imaginary game using our living room furniture the next day.

As I suggested to my partner as we left the theatre, this was one of the most stimulating films that I had seen in the theatre in a while. I recommend checking it out, and if you can, in IMAX 3D.

Kirk Aug

Kirk is SeedSing's go to source for what has inspired and what will bring new inspiration. He believes in hummanity's capicity for greatness, most of the time. Follow Kirk on twitter @KirkAug.