The SeedSing (half) year in Politics and Society

What is the opposite of progress?

SeedSing was launched on May 1st (National Workers Day) so we could look at politics and pop culture from the common person. We are not interested in influence or telling stories that will protect the egos of the well connected. What started out as one man's personal political philosophy has grown into a discussion covering a variety of topics. Join us for a look back at the year in politics and society.

The first article posted on our Politics/Society section was about The Ohio Problem. Every presidential election states like Ohio become very important to the national Democratic Party. Out of state consultants are brought in to fund raise and create a massive voter outreach program for the presidential nominee. In their effort to secure the state, the Democratic Party forgets about the local candidates. The lack of voter turnout during non-presidential elections is a direct consequence of the Ohio problem. There was another election in November of 2015, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky saw the election of a Tea Party zealot for Governor, large in part because voter turnout was so low. This is directly related to the Republican Party taking over the majority of local offices in many blue states. We identified the The Ohio Problem, and then tried to find out how to solve this issue. Technology and an emphasis on local messaging are two solutions we put forward. In 2016 SeedSing is looking forward to many other solution oriented ideas on how to fix a problem like Ohio.

The how and why of the modern Republican Party was featured many times on SeedSing. The hypocrisy, lack of global leadership, the need to be hateful, the absence of vision, and the celebration of failure, were all on display for the Republican Party this year. The only glimmer of hope in their dreary future seems to be Senator Rand Paul, but the Republican Party does not seem to care about a candidate who can grow the parties voter base. The parties faithful base would rather rally behind a loudmouthed bigot idiot that has never heard of Muhammad Ali or Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

The traditional press and the original internet taste makers were beginning to show their incompetence in 2015. The rise of Donald Trump is upon us because the news people on television love to have a good story. It is time to ignore the press before they really bring disaster to our society. The old icons of the internet were not behaving any better than their television counterparts. Reddit and Gawker may be letting out their final breaths. At SeedSing we believe it is time for the old walled ways of the internet to die, and it is time to make way for a new open discussion.

How we live and the way we define people became a topic of discussion all over the internet. Tina S shared her views on what #ILookLikeAnEngineer really means. The saga of Rachel Dolezal briefly made us talk about how we identify race. Kirk Aug recommended books on  the failure that is the war on drugs, and the policy side of death. We took a look at the legalization of marijuana, and it's eventual failure at the Ohio ballot box.  Who we are and how we live will determine the type of society we will die in.

Gun violence became a larger problem with a solution falling farther away. Guns were used as tools of destruction for a racist. Guns were used to kill two people trying to do their jobs. Guns were used to cause terror at rural community college. Guns were used by crazy people to insight terror in Paris. Predictable we decided to fight this terror with more destruction. Each event was covered by the news, and as a society we tried to find meaning. The public was never able to discuss the gun as being part of the problem, and the violence continues. 

We had many challenging discussions at SeedSing about the state of our politics and our society. 2016 looks to be an even more exciting year. We have a Presidential election to look forward to. Will Hillary win it all (probably)? Have something to say about the state of politics and society? Come join our conversation.

Thank you for 2015. On to 2016

RD Kulik (and all the SeedSing contributors)

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. Do you love SeedSing, but do not want to write? Money is always welcome around here.

SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 24 - Snoopy's Christmas

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday song for every day of Advent. This is the greatest music of the season. Enjoy.

Day 24: Snoopy's Christmas by The Royal Guardsman

Opened doors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten,

 Eleven Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen,Sixteen,Seventeen,Eighteen,

Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One, Twenty Two, Twenty Three

The Christmas season can feel like a battle. There are large crowds and everyone seems to have their own agenda. People are constantly fighting each other for parking, space in line, and the hot holiday gift. We move through the malls and hardly acknowledge one another. On Christmas Eve, the holiday season reaches its peak while everyone rushes past one another to complete their individual goals. Christmas Eve is the final struggle we face on the battlefield of the holiday season.

"Snoopy's Christmas" is the 1967 follow up to The Royal Guardsman hit "Snoopy vs The Red Baron". The band made their name by incorporating in their songs the Peanuts character of Snoopy, and his exploits of aerial dog fighting against The Red Baron. "Snoopy's Christmas" reads like a classic tale from Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strips. The Red Baron is terrorizing the skies, and Snoopy with his trusty Sopwith Camel (his doghouse) must engage in  battle high in the sky. While Snoopy valiantly tries to defeat the German ace, disaster strikes. The Red Baron shoots down the pup in German territory. Snoopy lands and believes that the end is here, then suddenly the bells ring out over the countryside marking the beginning of Christmas. Being inspired by the spirit of the season, the Red Baron offers Snoopy a drink and wishes him a Merry Christmas. The brotherhood of Christmas Day causes the foes to befriend, and they then go on their separate ways. Christmas Eve saw bloodshed, Christmas Day is about peace.

The exciting tale being told in "Snoopy's Christmas" is based on a true event, the 1914 Christmas Truce of World War I. British and German troops were shelling each other on December 24th, suddenly the firing stopped when both sides heard the bells from the countryside ring out for the beginning of Christmas Day. The Germans invited the British troops to cross no man's land and have a peaceful celebration. The enemies shared food and drink, showed pictures of their families, and even played games together. The magic of Christmas stopped sworn enemies from killing each other. The feeling of brotherhood trumps the anger of war. It is a magnificent piece of human history.

Christmas Eve can be a tough day. Many people are frantically trying to get that last must have gift. We have no time to be kind and courteous to our fellow man. If you are not relentless, you will lose the battle of the Christmas Season. Once midnight hits and the bells of the village rings out for Christmas Day, a new feeling takes hold. Our disagreements on religion, geopolitics, and philosophy take a day off. Christmas makes us one family. Enjoy your holiday, and thank you for your eyes this Advent Season. As the Red Baron would say, "Merry Christmas my Friend".

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. No matter who you are, or what you believe, the bells at midnight will make you the editor's new friend. Join our circle of joy by liking SeedSing on Facebook.  

SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 23 - Christmas in Hollis

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday song for every day of Advent. This is the greatest music of the season. Enjoy.

Day 23: Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC

Opened doors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten,

 Eleven Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen,Sixteen,Seventeen,Eighteen,

Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One, Twenty Two

For SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday music, I'm going to talk about the phenomenal "Christmas Time in Hollis" by the great RUN DMC. This song is one of the greatest holiday songs of all time. I've mentioned many times before that I don't care for holiday music, but this tune and "Christmas Time at My House" are the two exceptions.

"Christmas Time In Hollis" is a rap song about the holiday. This could only be done by RUN DMC. They're the only straight forward rap group that could pull off a holiday song. Do you think Eminem or Wu Tang Clan or Tribe Called Quest could really pull off a holiday song? I love all those people, but no way. This was one of the first holiday songs I heard that I wanted to hear over and over again. The beat is classic RUN DMC. It's repetitive and thumping and just downright awesome.

I love the way it starts out. The opening lyrics give you the date and the place, then they say, "When I see a man chillin with his dog in the dark". So, they think they just see an old haggard man walking a dog, but then, "I approached them very slowly with my heart full of fear. Looked at his dog, oh my god, a illin reindeer". It may sound corny, but when they rap these words, I'm in. They've grabbed my attention and I'm fully on board for what RUN DMC is going to tell me throughout the entirety of the song. They go on to say, "But then I was chillin because the man had a beard and a bag full of cookies, 12 o'clock had neared". They realize that it's Santa. This is not only a perfect song for rap enthusiasts, but for kids too because they keep the myth alive that Santa is a real person. I love it. Then they turn their heads and Santa is gone, off to do his work since it was midnight, making it Christmas day technically. I also love that they check out his wallet, because he dropped it, and they find a million dollars in it. I didn't know Santa rolled like that. He's a baller. Being the good people that they are, RUN DMC doesn't steal the money from Santa, they mail it back to him that night. What a bunch of saints. But when they get home, they realize the wallet and the money was a present for them from Santa, he left it there purposefully. The boys were bummed, but they'd soldier on.

Then the greatest chorus in holiday music history is spoken, "It's Christmas time in Hollis Queens, mama's cooking chicken and collard greens. Rice and stuffing, macaroni and cheese and Santa putting gifts under Christmas trees". Poetic. This is the coolest chorus in, not only holiday, but all of music history. I love the rhyming structure and the ferocity that they deliver it with. This chorus has been in my life so long, when playing one of the first iterations of Madden on PlayStation One, the Jaguars had a kicker named Mike Hollis and my brother and I would sing the chorus after every extra point and kick off. I still hum this chorus in my head all year long. I absolutely love it.

In the second verse, they talk about decorating the tree and the house with the excellent line, "snow's on the ground, snow white snow bright". RUN DMC are lyrical geniuses. It seems simple, but it's complex and fantastic. Then they say, "The rhymes you hear are the rhymes of Darryl's, but each and every year, we bust Christmas carols". I love that they don't have to be hard core, or gangster. They are rappers that like holiday music, how cool is that. They almost make me like holiday music. If only every holiday song could be like "Christmas Time in Hollis". I like how upbeat they are throughout the song. Lines like, "Jack Frost chillin, the hawk is out and that's what Christmas is all about", or, "The time is now, the place is here and the whole wide world is filled with cheer". It's so great. They're the happiest rappers in the world. They work clean too, so, like I said before, I can listen to this song with my three year old and not worry about any swear words.

They close out the song with some of the best lyrics in rap history. The final verse goes as follows, "My name's DMC with the mic in my hand and I'm chillin and coolin just like a snowman. So open your eyes, lend us an ear, we want to Merry Christmas and a happy new year!". It's so upbeat! I can't get enough of it. I love this song, but the chorus is the greatest part by far. As I said before, I still hum it year round and my son even gets involved now. RUN DMC can do no wrong, so no wonder I enjoy their one and only holiday song. This song is great and everyone should go listen to it now and enjoy all the merriment. It's not only a great holiday song, it's just a great song.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. It is not Christmas in his house until he gets a nice helping of chicken and collard greens. Wish Ty a merry Christmas by following him on twitter @tykulik

Happy Retirement to Charles Woodson, the Greatest Player Ever

It is an honor calling Charles Woodson a Wolverine

Yesterday Charles Woodson announced that he's retiring at the end of this season. Woodson has been in the NFL for 18 years. I wrote last week about him, comparing his and Peyton Manning's careers. Today, I'm going to heap praises solely on Charles Woodson and what has been an illustrious career.

First and foremost, Charles Woodson is my all time favorite football player. He's passed Barry Sanders within the past five years. Woodson is the man. Let's start all the way back at his late high school career. He was an all world recruit coming out of Ohio. Everybody wanted him to come play football at their school. Some wanted him to play running back, where he also excelled, but a select few wanted him to play corner back or safety. One such school was the University of Michigan. In what has been one of their best recruiting signings, they signed Charles Woodson in 1995. His first two years at Michigan were stellar for him, but the team was finishing 8-4 or 9-3. They were good, but not as good as they could be. During his freshman year at Michigan, Woodson saw the field quite a bit as a cornerback and in their nickel coverage. He was great. He won Big Ten Freshman of the Year. He was an All Big Ten performer and led the team with five interceptions and eight total takeaways. Pretty great freshman season. During his sophomore year, he was the man in the secondary. He set a then record with 15 pass breakups. He was named the Chevrolet Defensive Player of the Year and was named an AP first team All American. He was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe award, given to the top defensive back in college football. He also garnered first team all Big Ten honors. A star was born.

During his junior year, Woodson blew up. He was the leader and the best player on one of Michigan's all time great defenses. He also expanded his game to punt and kick returns and played some receiver. Michigan opened the season as a top 20 team, I think they were preseason number 19, but we all know how that season ended. Michigan played suffocating defense, they had a great running game and Brian Griese and Tai Streets dominated in their passing offense. Michigan defeated Washington State in the 1997 Rose Bowl and won the National Championship. I will not say co champs because Missouri beat Nebraska, although the past scores will say different. Michigan played a tougher schedule and beat a tougher opponent in their bowl game. Prior to their Rose Bowl win, Charles Woodson won the Heisman trophy. He beat out Ryan Leaf, Randy Moss and Peyton Manning. This was unheard of at the time. He was, and still is, the only primary defensive player to win the Heisman. Sure, he had some great moments as a receiver and his punt return against Ohio State is one for the ages, but he was such a lock down cornerback, the voters thought that was sufficient enough to give him the Heisman. He lived up to the award in the Rose Bowl, intercepting Ryan Leaf in the end zone to secure the national title for Michigan. Also, go back and look at the pick he had against Michigan State earlier that season, best interception I've ever seen.

Woodson left for the NFL after his junior year and was the fourth overall pick in the 1997 draft by the Oakland Raiders. His first run with the Raiders lasted from 1998-2005. He was exceptional from the start. He won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award. He started every game and led the team in tackles from a defensive back. He was third in the league with five interceptions, returned one for a touchdown and forced a fumble. He was selected to the Pro Bowl and was named an All Pro by the Associated Press. Much more of the same accolades and production from Woodson for the next couple of seasons. In 2003, after getting over a shoulder injury, he started every game for a Raiders team that made the Super Bowl. He had an interception in a losing effort against the Buccaneers. Previous to this Super Bowl, Woodson was involved in one of the most controversial calls in playoff history. Woodson appeared to strip sack Tom Brady and the Raiders looked like they would make another Super Bowl by beating the Patriots, but that's when the "tuck rule" was created. The officials said that Brady was bringing the ball back in, so they called it an incomplete forward pass, instead of a fumble, and the Patriots kicked a chip shot field goal and went on to the Super Bowl and won. Woodson caused that fumble, I will go to my grave believing that. Later in his Oakland career, they hired the god awful Bill Callahan and he and Woodson did not get along. His contract was up at the end of the 2005 season and he signed with the Green Bay Packers. He was revitalized, although he didn't need any revitalization. He was with the Packers from 2006-2012. His first year with the Packers Woodson led the league with 8 interceptions. He also got back to retuning punts and did a fine job, averaging almost 10 yards per return. In 2008, after putting up stellar numbers once again, Woodson was named to his fifth pro bowl team, first while with the Packers. For his fantastic 2009 season, Woodson was named the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. His stats improved every year with the Packers and he was a much better player there than with Oakland, and he was great in Oakland. In 2011, Woodson was lock down all the way through the season and playoffs, helping the Packers reach the Super Bowl. He hurt his shoulder in the first half of the game, but was integral to the Packers winning that Super Bowl. He had tremendous season and was capped off with a Super Bowl ring. In 2013 Woodson retuned to Oakland. He wanted to end his career were it started. The Raiders were not very good, but he has helped turned that team into a viable NFL defense and they are on the verge of their first .500 season since Woodson was last there.

Charles Woodson announced yesterday that he will hang it up at the end of the year, and I truly believe that he is the greatest defensive football player of all time. Look at all the accolades. Heisman trophy and national title and multiple all American nods in college. In the pros, He's won a Super Bowl, the Defensive Player of the Year, 8 pro bowls, Rookie of the year and a member of the all decade team in 2000. He's a stud. He is the GOAT and he does it all with class and grace. No showboating and trash talking. He has let his play do his talking for him. Thank you for all the many, many productive years of football that you've provided me over the past 21 years. You are a sure fire Hall of Famer and you are the greatest defensive football player to ever step on a field.

Thank you again and enjoy your retirement.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His views on the 1997 College Football co-champs has been warped by the editor's love of Mizzou football. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 22 - Patton Oswalt talks about The Christmas Shoes

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday song for every day of Advent. This is the greatest music of the season. Enjoy.

Day 22: Patton Oswalt talks about The Christmas Shoes (language NSFW)

Opened doors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten,

 Eleven Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen,Sixteen,Seventeen,Eighteen,

Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One

I really love Christmas music. This entire Advent Calendar project is a way to show the people who hate Christmas music that there are great tunes available to the uninitiated. My love for holiday music is directly related to the fact that while I was growing up my parents would regularly take me and my brothers to church. I was never super psyched to go to our little suburban catholic cathedral, except for one time of the year. The Christmas season was the only times of the year I was happy to go to mass, and it was the songs that created my excitement. Many of the best holiday songs come from the religious tunes the congregation would sing. Hope, light, the betterment of mankind. That is the true religious meaning of Christmas, and it sounds beautiful.

A couple of years back I heard the song "The Christmas Shoes" and I was left dumbfounded. I first thought that this "christian" song was some kind of SNL parody. It was atrocious. The basic plot centered on the story of a poor kid who wants to buy shoes for his mom on Christmas. These shoes are very important because the kid's mom is dying, and he wants her to look pretty if she meets Jesus. That plot is dumb enough, but what puts "The Christmas Shoes" into the stratosphere of appalling is that the song is from the point of view of some grumpy dude in line behind the kid. The narrator thinks that "God" sent this kid, and his dying mom, to be in this man's life so he will feel the Christmas spirit. It is a truly disgusting message.

In 2009 comedian Patton Oswalt dedicated part of his stand up set discussing "The Christmas Shoes" Everything he says is spot on. Oswalt talks about how manipulative and downright sinister the message behind "The Christmas Shoes" is. He also imagines a world with a God being pissed about people being grumpy on Christmas and a Jesus who is bitchy about a person's fashion sense. What Patton Oswalt does in the YouTube video attached to this article is take one of the worst Christmas songs ever, and give it a new hilarious life. You can skip the song and get a dose of the Christmas spirit by hearing Patton Oswalt tear this piece of trash apart. His thoughts on "The Christmas Shoes" makes the song listenable, because I hear Patton Oswalt's words behind every horrid verse.

A few weeks back my son was being rude to the checkout person at a store. When we were heading home, my wife and I were scolding him about his behavior. At one point I told him that Christmas is about being nice to your fellow person. My son was not listening and being quite defiant. As I was getting more angry and frustrated I heard the opening notes of "The Christmas Shoes". My wife and I stared at each other and smiled. My son was forgiven. The rest of the car ride was filled with joy and laughter. Patton Oswalt has made "The Christmas Shoes" a holiday tradition. Not the song, it is awful, but his thoughts about the tune's idiotic message is what Christmas means to me. Mr. Oswalt, I owe you a pair of some great Christmas shoes.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of The X Millennial Man podcast. Every year he tries to buy his wife some ugly shoes for Christmas, but he never has quite enough pennies. Help him buy those shoes by supporting SeedSing.

Beware the Bullying Nerds of Twitter

The Star Wars dog is trying to explain his views to the sports dog

I was scrolling through my Twitter feed yesterday, as I'm want to do, and I came across a tweet from Doug Benson that made me very upset. Now, first of all, I'm a humongous Doug Benson fan. I've seen him do standup multiple times. I've gone and watched him do a live podcast. He, in fact, introduced me to the world of podcasts and as many of you know, I'm an enormous fan of many podcasts. I own all of his comedy albums. I've spent a lot of my personal time and money on Doug Benson stuff. But, this particular tweet from yesterday just rubbed me the wrong way and I can't shake it.

In his tweet Doug Benson said, "if your Twitter avatar is of something involving sports, I don't care what you have to say about Star Wars". So, first of all, he's entitled to his own opinion, I get that, but, why does he feel he still needs to attack people that play and/or watch sports? I wonder if he was bullied as a young kid by a jock, but why does he have to lump every other sports fan in with this one particular asshole? Yes, I've played and watched sports my entire life, but I have never once bullied or picked on someone for not playing sports, or for liking Star Wars. And, furthermore, I've known many more "jocks" that have many other outside interests than just sports, Star Wars being one of the main ones. I'm sorry for this one or maybe two jackasses that teased you, but don't lump the rest of the people that like sports in with these people. It's not fair to pigeonhole every "jock" as bullies and jerks. That's a very, very small number of douchebags. Anyone that picks on someone else is clearly insecure and has deeper issues.

But, I'd like to ask Doug Benson personally, do you not care for or like Mike Schur(co creator of the American "Office", "Parks and Rec" and "Brooklyn 99") because he has a baseball player as his avatar? Do you not like Nick Swardson since he's a huge Minnesota Vikings fan and just a fan of football in general? Do you not care for Brody Stevens since he played and still watches a ton of baseball? Do you not get along with Joe Mande or Hannibal Buress because they are both huge NBA fans? And what about your personal driver and opening act, Graham Elwood? Do you not care about his opinion since he's a big time football fan? I'm sure there's dozens of other contemporaries of yours that like sports a lot that you're alienating with this one tweet.

It's also pretty sad that a tweet can dredge up this much anger, but that's the world we live in with all the social media nowadays. Also, you may need to think about growing up and getting over this particular bully. First of all, you are a 50 year old. This person that picked on you did it over 35 years ago, I'm sure they've forgotten about it, so maybe you should too. Also, you are 50, like I just said, and you ask young girls on Twitter to send you side boob pictures and pictures of them in their BB-8 underwear. GROW UP! You are old enough to be a grandparent. Stop asking girls that could be your daughter to send you pictures via Twitter. Maybe, you should lay off the weed too. If I've said it once, I'll say it much more during this blog, YOU'RE 50! GROW UP! I know that weed is your whole "image", but you have to stop doing it sometime. I'm worried for you and I don't even know you personally. I'm scared you're going to drop dead from undetected cancer or something else and I don't want you to die because I really enjoy your comedy. Also, stop throwing donuts at the crowd during your shows. Stuff like this is why foreigners hate America. We act so privileged and just throw food in a vast arena. It's wasteful and gross. Just stop it.

I'm sure you won't read this or, if you do, you'll block me on Twitter, but so be it. I'm a "jock" that has never bullied anyone and your tweet really offended me. I have many other outside interests including comedy, music and movies, but you wouldn't care to know that since I like sports. You've now become the bully. You are doing exactly what this person did to you over 35 years ago, but instead of just picking on or alienating one person, you're doing it to hundreds of thousands of people. I'll still listen to your comedy and your podcast, but not with the usual giddiness because I know you will judge me without getting to know me since my Twitter avatar is of me in my basketball gear. You won't even give me a chance and that's the real shame. I'm sorry that I like sports, but I will never lose my love for sports no matter how much you bully the sports loving community.

Another person that's guilty of judging books by their cover in the alternative comedy world is Chris Hardwick. He has a vendetta out for hipsters. As you all know by now, I don't particularly care for hipsters with beards, but Chris Hardwick must be ignorant to how much of a hipster he truly is. He is the biggest hipster in all of comedy. Just go back and look at that shiny silver suit, with the extremely skinny tie you wore during your last standup special. Go back even further and look at the way too short, way too tight t shirts you wore when you hosted "Web Soup". And now that "nerd culture" is the hip thing, you are the leader of the biggest hipster uprising in the history. I don't care that you can name Pi to the 100th degree and I definitely don't want to watch you saying all the digits on "The Meltdown", that's just bad TV. You may also be the biggest whore in all of television. The last thing I want to watch after "The Walking Dead" or "Breaking Bad" is you and your hipster friends discussing the episode that we just watched. I also don't need to see you handing out points to your comedian friends on your ripoff gameshow "At Midnight". That show is a complete waste of time.

Chris Hardwick and Doug Benson have become the people that they hated in high school. Sure, you guys were nerdy and into things like comedy and movies when you were younger and some douchebags thought that it was okay to pick on you, but now, you've turned into the bullies. You guys have a platform where thousands of people listen to you and instead of using it for good, you're using it for revenge. That's a pity. I thought you'd both be bigger than that, but I guess you guys aren't above the same bullies you detested in school. That sucks. As I said before, I'm sure you guys won't even glance at this, or if you do, you'll just ignore or block me, but, I felt that this needed to be said. Not everyone that likes or plays sports is a bully. Quite the opposite in fact, most of us are nice people and if you took the time to get to know us, you'd realize that. But, you'd rather just go on Twitter and bash us without giving us a chance.

You guys are the true bullies.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. The only numbers of Pi he knows is how many slices in a whole one. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Being a reality show moron does not make a person a better cook

The proper way to serve oysters

I watch a lot of cooking shows.  I've written about my love for Ina Garten and "Barefoot Contessa". My wife and I watch "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen", "Pioneer Woman", basically any type of show that makesfood the star. We love them. It's an escape and it's nice to have some noise on in the background while doing stuff around the house.

I've become to grow wary of the competition cooking shows though. These shows take themselves WAY too seriously. The way the chefs and the judges act is downright laughable. You hear the chefs talking about stupid shit like doing food "farm to table" or "cooking saved my life" or "I'm the type of chef that will smile in your face, then cut your throat out to get what I want". It's all ridiculous. Sure, I do believe, for a very small few, that cooking may have saved someone's life, but ease up. I'm sure there's other things that helped to save your life. Maybe rehab or loved ones or growing up. All those are more important than cooking, in my opinion. This whole "farm to table" started out as a nice idea, but it's been beaten to death. I'm so tired of hearing these young chefs, most born after 1995, talking about the good old days of cooking. You're 20 years old, the good old days were 1990 to you. Just stop with the whole "farm to table", unless you're a farmer. And this new breed of chef, the asshole chef I'll call them, they're insufferable. These chefs act like cooking is a sport. No offense to the elderly, but my grandma cooked until the day she died at the age of 84, and she was a much better chef than these punks that think it's a sport. Get over yourself, you're a chef, not a professional athlete.

Like I said, I'm growing very wary of the competition shows and the worst offender is "Top Chef". "Top Chef" is laughably bad now. These chefs are the worst of the new asshole chefs. They're all young, douchebag chefs. On "Top Chef", the "cheftestants" take themselves so seriously, you'd think they were saving lives with their food. Calm down, all your doing is making food. Your job isn't that important. Almost anyone can cook. And before you say I don't know what I'm talking about, my brother is a great chef. He's made that his career, but he's not an asshole. He doesn't take himself seriously at all. He knows what he does is universal. He's a great, special person that I love, he's an awesome bigger brother, but his cooking skills aren't what makes him great, it's his love he shows for me and our family. But, I digress, back to "Top Chef" bull shit. These contestants are much too passionate about a job that any 15 year old child can get. I hate the waythey present their food like its a god damn gift to the person eating it. Screw you, it's not that good. I hate how hipster and not self aware these young chefs are. They couldn't be any more ridiculous.

On a recent episode of "Top Chef", one of the contestants served oysters on a hot rock. What the hell! Is he some kind of idiot? He claimed, "I like to use the elements outside to present my food". Screw you you asshole. You suck. Don't serve something that's supposed to be ice cold on a burning hot rock. Gross. This same contestant goes on later in the episode talking about him and his wife serving food at Coachella, because of course he went to Coachella to serve food. Could this guy be anymore of a douchebag? Ugh, I hate this guy. He's chef Phillip on the current season if you're curious and want to watch a supreme dick head on TV.

Which brings me to the judges. They talk about this food like they're going to send the losing chef to jail for making sub par food. They say stupid things like, "the bass needed 4 or 5 grains of salt to really put it over the top", or "this is good, but there's a whole piece of star anise in there and if I ate that, my palette would be completely blown out". I HATE these judges. You guys are judging food! Your job is less important than the chefs! You guys suck too. I hate that they get so mad at chefs for leaving out little things on all these free meals they're getting. Ugh, you are the worst. The absolute worst judges are Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. They take their jobs MUCH too seriously. They get legitimately mad at these chefs sometimes for the smallest things. Lakshmi, at one point, said she's "never had to wait for a table before and I'm not going to start now". Ugh, screw you. Sorry we aren't all as privileged as you. And Tom Colicchio, stop with the act that you're these chefs friends. You're just as bad as any other judge on any other cooking competition show. And don't act like you're more important because your show is on Bravo. You know what else is in Bravo, any style of "Real Housewives" crap.

"Top Chef" is just as trashy as any other reality show. You guys aren't more important than any other garbage cooking competition show. You're worse. I'm sick and tired of how serious these shows have become. I'm done watching them and I'll stick with my "Barefoot Contessa". Ina cooks for the love, not the competition. She will forever be a better chef than any douche on "Chopped", "Cutthroat Kitchen" and most importantly, the god awful "Top Chef".

Screw these shows forever.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Not only does he think Ina could outcook any cheftestant, he would take her in a straight up fist fight with any of those idiots. Join Ty's anger by following him on twitter @tykulik.

Do not count "The End of the Tour" out as one of the best movies of the year

Ty's VCR is ready for all the great movies of 2015

As 2015 comes to a close, I've been catching up on all the big time movies that I couldn't see in the theaters. One such movie I just watched was "The End of The Tour" and man, this movie is incredible.

The movie is about a Rolling Stone writer, David Lipsky(Jesse Eisenberg) interviewing author, David Foster Wallace(Jason Segel). At least, the synopsis of the movie states that it's about the interview, but the movie is more about the relationship between the two men leading up to the interview in Rolling Stone. The movie opens with an older Lipsky receiving a phone call from a former colleague saying that David Foster Wallace has committed suicide. Lipsky is stunned and upset at this news. He immediately goes to his storage and grabs his old Walkman and a box of cassette tapes. He plays one of the tapes and you hear David Foster Wallace talking. We then cut back to 1996 where a younger Lipsky is giving a reading of his newly published book. He has also just landed a job at Rolling Stone. He's high on what he assumes will be his newfound fame, but all the people at the party, including his girlfriend, are only talking about this new book called "Infinite Jest" , and how it may be the greatest book ever written. Lipsky is annoyed, but then he goes home and on the urging from his girlfriend, he reads "Infinite Jest" and is enthralled. He can't help but admit that this is one of, if not the, greatest book he's ever read. He persuades his editor to let him go on the end of Wallace's book tour and interview him. Rolling Stone has never interviewed a writer before, so why not start with the biggest fish in the pond. He agrees and Lipsky is off to Bloomington, Indiana.

When he first arrives at Wallace's house, he's met by two large black Labradors and Wallace emerges from the front door. At first sight, Wallace is very stand offish and hard to crack. He doesn't seem to want to say too much. It doesn't help that Lipsky is always turning on his recorder so he can capture every moment. Wallace, at least at first, seems like an introvert. He doesn't seem to like the fame. He almost begrudges the fact that he has become this big time author. But, the more he gets to know Lipsky, the more a friendship evolves. They opine over food, TV and girls. Wallace loves his junk food, be it candy, fast food or any type of sweets. He also claims to be addicted to TV. He doesn't own one because he says that he'd constantly have it on. He wouldn't watch it, but it would always be on just to have noise in the background. He also says that he would want a wife and kids someday, just not now. He becomes very open with Lipsky. He has let his guard down right before they go out for the final leg of his book tour. The two of them have very long, very deep conversations involving everything from food to writing. They are becoming legitimate friends. This angers Lipsky's editor. He wants him to get the story and come home to write it. He specifically tells him to "not become friends" with Wallace. Lipsky ignores this and continues recording their conversations and continues to be friendly. They pack their bags and fly to Minneapolis, the last leg of Wallace's tour. At first, everything is going great. Not only is Wallace being open with Lipsky, but he's being open with everyone. Interviewers, fans and even his driver. He's nice to everyone. At one point though, Wallace sees Lipsky getting some love from his fans and he looks a bit miffed. Even later, while hanging out with some of Wallace's college friends, one which he briefly dated, Wallace becomes even more angry and annoyed with Lipsky. He feels that Lipsky is openly flirting with his ex girlfriend right in front of his face. This causes a big bone of contention between the two and Wallace completely shuts down. He won't talk to Lipsky anymore and he's back to his introverted self. They fly back to Indiana and get their rental. On the ride back to Wallace's house, the two men air their grievances and get it all out. This fight actually brings these two closer. The day before Lipsky is set to return home, the two of them just hang out. They're eating McDonalds, talking about life and Wallace's phone rings. He gets a call from a friend to go out dancing. As much as he wants to stay, Lipsky has to catch his flight home. Before he leaves, there's a moment when Wallace is outside cleaning the snow off his car, Lipsky has a few minutes to look over his house and he takes it all in, recording everything he sees. By the time he reaches his basement, he's amazed at everything he's seen, but the writing room takes the cake. It's totally dark and has only a single computer. Lipsky is shocked that such a great writer lives so minimalist. Wallace doesn't need the fanciest computer, desk or office, he just needs his computer. When leaving, Lipksy gives him his book, begrudgingly, and asks him to give him some notes. Wallace says he will, but with most people in his life, he doesn't follow through. We then cut to Lipsky giving a reading at Wallace's "funeral". It's moving and heart breaking at the same time.

This movie has all the potential to be a classic. And, Jason Segel is absolutely phenomenal as David Foster Wallace. Segel usually plays the over the top goofy guy, but in "The End of The Tour", he's a revelation. He inherits all of Wallace's mannerisms and the way he carries himself and how he talks. It's as if Wallace has come back to life. Eisenberg was very good too, but Segel is the true star of this movie. I would be shocked if he doesn't get an Oscar nomination for this movie. I love this movie, but, by no means am I going to read "Infinite Jest". I don't have the time to read an 1,100 page book. This movie had all the information on David Foster Wallace that I could ever ask for. If you want, read "Infinite Jest", but a better way to spend your time, in my opinion, and learn about David Foster Wallace, watch "The End of The Tour'. It's less than two hours and told me what "Infinite Jest" was about. I love this movie and I can't recommend it enough.

Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He does not have time to read a 1000+ page book because he needs his hours to watch good movies. Urge him to read "Infinte Jest" by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Why do the Republicans love losers so much?

How most of America watches the Republican Presidential debates

Another pointless Republican debate, another stage full of idiots, another lost night for America. The Republican party doesn't care, they love losers. The modern party embraces the failures and quitters of the political world. The current crop of national republican leaders are the height of failure. When your policy is to avoid real leadership at all costs, the biggest losers will become your leaders.  Good thing that none of these never been Republicans will be President of the United States. They are losers. They lose.

It may seem harsh, and Trump like, to ascribe the loser label to the entire Republican party. Well take a look at their nominees. Donald Trump is an ill prepared hate monger who lost money because he tried to be a business man. Dr. Ben Carson may actually be a stupid person. Carly Fiorina is one of the most comically bad CEOs in history, plus she is a pathological liar. Marco Rubio is a lazy opportunist, oh and he is also a lying about his family history. Jeb Bush is an entitled spoiled brat. Ted Cruz is a crazy person who hates the very idea of America. The rest of the cast doesn't matter because they will be lucky to win a single delegate. There is not a uniter in the group. They learned to only be dividers, like a dog learns to shake. Do a simple task and then get your reward. So not only are the Republicans losers, they do not have intelligence beyond the common dog.

How did one of our major political parties come to embrace and celebrate losers? Is it racism? How about sexism? Is the current republican white male (that  is the large majority of the party) so insecure that they have to embrace known losers? The Republicans claim to be the tough ones, yet Vietnam was lost on Nixon's watch. They claim to be tough on terrorism, yet Reagan illegally sent weapons to known terror groups. They claim to have America's safety front of mind, yet George W. Bush admitted to not being that concerned about Al Qaeda or Bin Laden just a month before September 11th. The modern Republican party has been a colossal failure in nearly every aspect of foreign policy.  Even the idea that Reagan ended the cold war is comical in how much his administration over estimated the strength of the Soviet Union. The Americans had next to nothing to do with the fall of the Soviet empire. People like Reagan were very lucky to be around when history was taking its inevitable course. The war in Afghanistan had more to due with the downfall of the Soviet Union than any US military build-up. Once the Iron Curtain came down the Republican party had no idea how to handle post Soviet Russia. Years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Reagan disciple George W. Bush gave Russian premiere Putin a pass. Good old George saw into Putin's heart, and he thought all was good. Another Republican getting it horribly wrong.

Now the question becomes how can these incompetent losers still rule much of our political landscape? We have discussed many, many, many, times about how the Democrats have ceded the US Congress and state governments to the Republicans. We have also discussed how a lazy, greedy, and overall incompetent media likes to prop up the failures in the republican party. Any Republican candidate is given a head start because we have been force fed this idea that the GOP is tough on terror and good with money. The facts show a completely different story. The current Republican Party has no bold leadership, look at the folly of errors leading up to Paul Ryan reluctantly accepting the honored position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. The party has horrible when it comes to fiscal policy. George W Bush inherited a strong economy, fiddled with it, drove it into a massive recession, and then President Obama fixed his mess. The Republican parties work in foreign policy led directly to the creation of ISIS, and America's overall sense of isolation from the rest of the developed world. All of these actions are not the mark of an intelligent and winning direction for America. The debate on Tuesday night had a bunch of losers continuing to embrace philosophy that has failed.

It must be incredibly frustrating for many republicans that the competent members of their party have to be shoved aside for all the losers. Ohio Governor John Kasich is very popular in a state the GOP must win, yet the national press and his own party treat him like a pariah. Rand Paul may very well be the only one on that stage that can actual create votes, yet he his sabotaging his own campaign by trying to dumb down to the rest of the group. Mitt Romney is the best candidate the Republicans have had in a generation, but he had to cower to the zealots on Fox News and therefore ruined any chance to reach new voters. Failed Governors like Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, and Scott Walker recieve more respect than viable candidates like George Pataki and the aforementioned Kasich. The entire Republican party is not a bunch of losers, just the people who lead them.

While the media treats the Republican party with kid gloves, and the white male Christians claim to be victims, America can feel good about itself because no one on stage last Tuesday will ever win the presidency. The GOP primary debates are entertaining in their chaos, and infuriating in their lack of truth. Americans like success, the Republicans are lacking. Americans like practicality, the Republicans fail to deliver. Most importantly, Americans like winners. The Republican Presidential candidates are losers. They lose.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He enjoys the idea of political debate and welcomes any one who disagrees to write for SeedSing. Make sure you get all of our great thoughts by follow us on twitter @seedsingrdk.

Charles Woodson is the greatest player to come out of the Peyton Manning draft

We all know a wolverine could tear a volunteer in half

I was watching Sports Center or NFL Network or something where they were talking about football. They were previewing the upcoming Broncos-Raiders game and they kept showing pictures of Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler, comparing the two quarterbacks. My wife was watching with me and, the longer we've been together, the more she knows about football. She asked me, during the preview of the game, "why are they only talking about Peyton Manning? Why aren't they talking about Charles Woodson more, he's had a better overall career than Peyton Manning, right?".

Now, Charles Woodson is my all time favorite football player, and yes, he is a University of Michigan alum and yes, I'm a diehard Michigan fan, so naturally, I agreed with my wife. Then, I looked much, much further into her statement and yes, I do believe, with no bias, that Charles Woodson has had a better overall career than Peyton Manning. Let's look even further into it though. Sure, Peyton Manning is the more famous player. He is a quarterback, he has way more endorsements, he has hosted SNL multiple times and he's won a Super Bowl. But, Charles Woodson won the Heisman over Peyton Manning in 1997, he too has won a Super Bowl and been to a second one and he's stayed healthy and productive his entire career. He's still producing at an All Pro level and he's the captain and leader of the resurgent Raiders defense. Peyton Manning was recently just benched, some will say due to injury, for a back up QB from Arizona State. But, was the injury the only reason Manning was benched? I've written about Manning before on the website and I think that blog speaks many truths on his benching. His ball has no more zip. He throws multiple interceptions per game. He cannot move in the pocket anymore. He's a Hall of Famer, but I think his time is done. Charles Woodson on the other hand, he's still picking off passes and making open field passes. In fact, when the Raiders and Broncos met earlier this year, when Manning was still the starter, Woodson picked him off twice in that game. No praise was heaped on Woodson and how well he's still playing for a 39 year old in the NFL. The announcers only talked about how Manning will always be a great pro and these interceptions were just a flash in the pan, he'd bounce back for sure. But, as we all know now, he didn't bounce back. Woodson has produced every week for the 6-7 Raiders. That doesn't sound so great, but when was the last time the Raiders sniffed a .500 or even a winning record? They have a legitimate shot, albeit an outside one, to make the playoffs this year. The Broncos are a lock, but it's not because of Manning, it's their defense. Sure, the Raiders have a good young QB in Derek Carr and a great young receiver in Amari Cooper, but they are led in their defensive backfield by Charles Woodson. Their defense is middle of the road in the NFL, but I say again, when was the last time the Raiders were relevant? I truly believe that Charles Woodson has a real chance to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He's been lockdown all season playing out of position as a safety.

Lets go back and look at their Super Bowl wins. I will give you the fact that Woodson didn't play in the Packer Super Bowl win, he had a separated shoulder. But, he was the anchor of that defense all season, leading them to the Super Bowl. If I remember correctly, he hurt his shoulder making an important tackle or even interception in the NFC Championship game. He laid it all on the line for that Packer team and he definitely helped them win that Super Bowl. Sure, Peyton Manning was playing when the Colts won, but they played a sorry Bears team led by Rex Grossman in their Super Bowl win. Also, the game was a sloppy mess and Manning didn't win the game for them, their defense and running game was the determining factor. The two of them also lost a Super Bowl. The Manning loss was solely on him. The Colts had a chance late against the Saints, but we all know about the game sealing pick six that he threw to secure the win for the Saints. When the Raiders, that's right, this is Woodson's second go around with the Raiders, lost to the Buccaneers, it wasn't their defenses fault, Rich Gannon threw multiple picks and took multiple sacks in that game. But, Peyton Manning will go down as the more remembered player. He is a QB and they're stars. That's the way it is in the NFL. Woodson has been solid for 18 seasons now, but he plays defense and, what's worse, he plays cornerback and safety. And, if you don't constantly run your mouth like any secondary player on the Seahawks, you don't get noticed. But, I think that's the way Woodson wants it. He won a title in college. He beat out Manning for the Heisman. He was the best and most important player on one of the all time great Michigan teams and he's done it with little to no fanfare.

Manning has been great, as I said before, he is a sure fire Hall of Famer, but it big moments, he's choked more than he's succeeded. In college, his Tennessee Volunteers could never beat Florida and got trounced by Nebraska when they had a shot at a national title. In the pros, he's won a Super Bowl, but it wasn't because he had a great game. Peyton Manning will go down as one of the all time greatest QB's in NFL and college football history, but will he be remembered as the greatest QB of all time? I don't think so. He's not even the best QB in his draft class, that title is firmly in Tom Brady's hands. But, Charles Woodson may very well be the greatest defensive back of all time in the NFL or college football. He's had a stellar career and he continues to produce. I 100 percent agree with my wife's assumption that Charles Woodson has had the better overall career than Peyton Manning. Look at all the reasons that I mentioned above. It's not just my love for Woodson, the facts can't be ignored. Tell me why I'm wrong in the comment section. 

I will go to my grave thinking Charles Woodson is not only better than Peyton Manning, but he is the best defensive back to ever play football.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He once benched Rex Grossman on his fantasy team for Drew Henson. Not because Henson went to Michigan, but because Grossman stinks. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The trashy "Bar Rescue" performs a record breaking dumpster dive

This strip club is way below my trash standards

ed note: Since the popularity of this article, Ty has decided to review each new episode of Bar Rescue. Look for his column on the latest episode every Tuesday.

I'm a big, big fan of the show "Bar Rescue" on Spike TV.

It's everything you'd want in reality TV. It's staged, it's trashy, people talk over one another so you can't hear what anyone is saying and the host is ridiculous. Jon Taffer is utterly insane. First of all, during the opening credits, he claims to be a member of the Nightclub Hall of Fame, whatever the hell that is. Second, his best way of delivering advice is to scream and yell and demean the owners of these failing bars. He also looks like a goblin, literally. He calls everyone failures and forces people to fire friends and family. This all sounds bad, but it's quite hilarious. His "specialists" that he brings in are just as absurd. They're all yes men and women. They look like bobble heads, anything Taffer says, they nod and agree, no matter how absurd or terrible the idea is. This show is the perfect reality show.

Taffer and his people have "rescued" a lot of bars. In fact, you can go to their website and see how many of the bars are still open. Last I checked, he had about a 50 percent save rate, not that good for all his talk. Well, on their latest episode, they did something I thought I'd never see on this show. I mean, it's pretty classless, but last night, they took it to a disgusting level.

Last night, they "saved" a strip club in Detroit. And yes, it was as gross as you'd think it could be. When they arrived, the club was called Chix on Dix. Ewwwwww! That's so appalling and very foul. When Chix on Dix first opened, the owners claimed they were making millions, I don't buy that. Then, the problems started. The club became dirty, the workers and strippers were disinterested and one of the co owners just stopped showing up. The strippers were not happy and they looked like it. They started to drink, sleep on the job and flat out quit doing their job. They also changed the name from Chix on Dix to Industrial Strip. Another terrible pun. What was the worst though, the new owner wasn't reprimanding customers that physically touched the dancers. Even I know that's illegal and I've only been to one strip club in my 33 years on Earth. I think strip clubs are depressing and gross, but that's not the point of today's blog. At this point, Jon Taffer and his "experts" are outside the club watching the action on a video in the car. Typical Taffer, he sees something he doesn't like, storms into the club and starts yelling almost immediately. Now don't get me wrong, these people deserve to be put down a couple of pegs, but Taffer could've gone about it differently. But, his go to move is to yell and berate. Taffer and his team assess the situation and get ready to go to work. His bartending expert actually had the easiest job because the current bartender was okay. She was lively and energetic, she just needed to be taught how to properly pour drinks. But, his cooking expert and his strip club consultant had their work cut out for them. The chef was the owner of the night club. Taffer hates this and addressed it right away. He made the other owner show up and be the boss and made the other owner become the chef. Needless to say, he struggled mightily. My only question, who eats at a strip club? Is the club not disgusting enough? Who goes to a strip club and thinks, I could use a meal? My only guess, A monster, but that's just my opinion. The strip club consultant, aka a lady who got to old to strip, but couldn't find a new job, had little to nothing to work with. The dancers were still disinterested no matter how hard this lady tried and she really tried. She showed them her tricks of the trade. She showed them how to interact. She showed them how to make extra tips. It all fell on deaf ears. Try as she might, these girls weren't interested. Instead of really pushing them, they just decided to bring in newer, more professional dancers. This is another Taffer staple. When he doesn't get results, he fires the old crew and brings in his people. That's pretty lazy in my opinion. After all this and the remodel of the club, Taffer renamed it The Power Strip. Another god awful pun. He put in new drink systems and new poles and cleaned the place up a bit.

As with the end of every episode of "Bar Rescue", the club looks like it's saved. Everyone is happy and flashing money along with their smiles. This episode was no different, but they went back six months later. The owners admitted that they weren't making as much money and the staff was going back to their old ways. Not surprising if you ask me. I was grossed out by this whole episode. I don't like strip clubs, as I said before. I don't drink and I definitely would not drink at a strip club. The people were flat out mean and nasty. I knew that this day was coming on "Bar Rescue". They were bound to do a strip club, but why did they pick such a gross one? It was very upsetting. I won't stop watching "Bar Rescue", but I will read what each episode is about now because I don't ever want to see them try and save another strip club.

This episode will forever haunt my nightmares.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. Little does he know that the head editor has had plenty of meals at strip clubs, they were all for business meetings. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Awesomeness of the St. Louis Zoo

This is a great place to people watch

SeedSing stories is a place to talk about what shapes our own experiences. Let your stories be heard by writing for SeedSing.

Today the temperatures in Saint Louis was in the high 50's, low 60's. This is unheard of this time of year.

Being that it was cloudy, yet warm, me, my wife, her mom and our kids decided to take advantage and go to the zoo. I absolutely love the Saint Louis Zoo. It's one of the best zoos in the entire country.

First of all, the admission to enter is free. I think this may be the only big time zoo in the US that is free to get into to. This is so awesome. Every other zoo charges 20 dollars, at the very least, to just get in. I love that you can just walk right into the Saint Louis Zoo, free of charge. Sure, memberships cost money and if you don't have a membership, you have to pay for train rides and the carousel and their Children's Zoo, but the fact that you can walk in there and not spend a dime and see all the wonderful animals they have is great. You don't have to ride the train or carousel or do the Children's Zoo, those are added bonuses. You can spend hours there and you don't have to open your wallet once. That's fantastic.

Second, the animals they have there are so cool. When you enter through the main entrance, anyway you pick to go, you have endless options on what you want to see. Go left and that leads you to Rivers Edge. This is a newish area in the zoo, but man, it's excellent. You walk through and you see rhinoceroses, laughing hyenas, capebarys, huge fish and their main attraction, African elephants. The African elephants are a must see if you go to the zoo. It's incredible to see such a majestic animal that close. There's even a baby elephant, Priya, that's adorable. Rivers Edge is wonderful. If you choose to go right at the main entrance, you walk past some humongous turtles, the sea lion exhibit and that leads you to my favorite spot, all the apes. There's so many of them and they are very playful. These apes put on shows for visitors. They play and tumble and jump from tree to tree. It's tremendous. It's so cool, much like the elephants, to see these evolved animals up close and personal. Walking past the ape exhibit, you get to two newer spots in the zoo, the Polar bear habitat and Puffin Cove. The Polar bear habitat is very new, opening this past summer. It's awesome. They have one bear and its exquisite to see. The bear is huge and white as snow. It kind of walks back and forth, but sometimes, it jumps into the water and puts on a spectical. It's cool. Puffin Cove has been around for awhile and they recently renovated it. It is really cool. There's puffins, little baby penguins and King penguins. You are so close that you can touch them, you're not allowed to, but you are that close. If you double back, you wind up in Big Cat Country. This is an awesome habitat as well. Cheetahs, leopards, tigers and lions are the first things you see. As you walk further, there's camels, zebras, giraffes, various types of deer and antelopes and even kangaroos. I love seeing all these exotic, majestic animals in a corner of this enormous zoo. There's another habitat near Big Cat Country that specializes in reptiles. I'm not the biggest fan of snakes and alligators and crocodiles, so I kind of skirt this spot. Very near the reptiles is a huge bird house with various species of birds. Closer to Rivers Edge, on the exact opposite side of all the spots I just mentioned, there's a very big and very educational insectarium. My son loves this part. He can look at insects without fear of them getting out and he can hear the cool noises they make. There's an attached butterfly house that's pretty great as well. Walking through the zoo, you see flamingos, swans, there's some specific bear and panda habitats, pretty much almost any animal you could hope to see in a zoo. Finally, there's a free playground right by the zoo that has humongous animal sculptures that the kids can play on before or after your visit to the zoo. It's a really cool playground that, not only my son loves, but I love too. It's a ton of fun.

The Saint Louis Zoo lives up to its reputation and then some. It's probably my favorite spot in all of Saint Louis. I love that it's free, I love all the variety and I love that it's been around forever and has barely changed. It's a great, great Saint Louis staple. Check it out on your next trip and if you're from Saint Louis, check it out more often. I guarantee you haven't seen it all, no matter how many times you've been there.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Due to his hairness, Ty gets mistaken for a pants wearing ape by many of the zoo guests. Learn all about how evolved Ty is by following him on twitter @tykulik.

SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 11 - Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus?

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday song for every day of Advent. This is the greatest music of the season. Enjoy.

Day 11: Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus? by Guster

Opened Doors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten

I never questioned the science behind Santa Claus. How did he get to every house in a few hours? How did he really know what each person individually wanted? Why did other reindeer not fly? These were not the questions on my mind. Santa was a magical being, that was all the explanation I needed. Every Christmas Eve I never questioned how the big man did his job, the only question on my mind late into the night is where is Santa Claus.

In 1959 "Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus" first hit the airwaves. Twelve year old Augie Rios was the original artist to sing the part Spanish and part English Christmas tune. Waiting up to see Santa is captured with childlike joy on the song. The singer is excited because today is Christmas Eve, and he wants his mother to answer the question, where is Santa. The excitement is keeping the little boy up, he just wants to get a peek at Santa, his sleigh, and the mix of traditional and Latin reindeer (Pancho and Pedro should be included in all reindeer related tunes).

Many people have covered "Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus", but the artists who tackle the song have always been trying to mimic the annoying high pitch sound of the original. It was a tune of great words, not great singing. Finally in 2003 the indie band Guster recorded an awesome low key version of the song for the collection of Christmas music on Maybe This Christmas Too? The band took the grating sound of the original, and dialed it way down. There is still a Latin musical influence in Gusters version, highlighted by some awesome steel drums. The easy going, laid back version of "Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus" by Guster took the great words of the original, and made it a great Christmas tune.

On Christmas Eve I will be filled with anticipation. Where is the big red sleigh being piloted by the bearded fat man? Is Pedro still flying next to Donner? Did Santa pack his castanets? All these questions will be in my head, and to calm down I will let Guster ask the same questions. We do not question the science of the man, we just want to know donde esta Santa Claus.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He hopes Santa packs some new writers in his sleigh. If he did, make sure you come on over and write for us.

Ty calmly teaches Donald Trump about the fine history of American - Muslims athletes

One place covered in gold not owned by Trump

The wonderful President Obama gave a very eloquent, powerful speech on Sunday night in regards to the horrific shooting that happened in San Bernadino, California.

It was a tragic event that happens way too often in the US. These mass shootings need to stop and we need much better laws involving gun control. It's sickening that you can walk into a local Wal Mart or Gander Mtn and walk out with a gun. What has this country come to? Why does everybody need a gun?

Those are questions for a different blog at another time. What I'm writing about today is the ignorant, arrogant, stupid, maniacal and just plain wrong comments world class moron and very racist Donald Trump made during this speech. First of all, he will never be the president. There is no possible world that he becomes president. He's grossly under qualified, he's stupid and he is way too arrogant for the job. He can't run his own business properly, let alone this country. And before you say, you're a liberal and these are just your beliefs, not true. I've heard many prominent conservative republicans that are very pissed and very outraged that Trump is still being talked about as a viable candidate for the republican party. He's a cancer that needs to go away. He's no different than the Kardashian family. He's a joke and his campaign is a joke akin to something "The Onion" would mock on a daily basis. But, like the douchebag he is, he live tweeted President Obama's speech and made one of the most asinine and flat out racist comments on Twitter that I've ever heard.

The President said, "Muslim-Americans are our friends and neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes". Then, in his infinite stupidity, Trump said, and I'm giving an exact quote again, "Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling?". First things first, that tweet has terrible punctuation. Even I, a career ready college grad, can spot all the grammatical problems with this. He needs to end the first thought with a question mark, not a period. Second, he needs no comma between about and who, just leave it alone. Third, what the shit is he talking about with profiling?! The only person who's been profiling is you, you stupid son of a bitch!

Lets look closely at that quote. Clearly, Trump hates Muslims, be they American or any other country born. If that isn't the definition of racism, I don't know what is. Secondly, there are actual pictures of Trump giving a humanitarian award to one of the greatest Muslim athletes of all time, Muhammed Ali. So, we all now have photographic evidence that he damn well knows of at least one very famous Muslim sports hero. But, Muslim American sports heroes don't just stop at Ali. We have Kareem Abdul Jabaar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shareef Abdur Raheem, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, and even Shaquille O'Neal, just to name a few. Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal may be shocking surprises to you, but they have gone about keeping their religion to themselves, making me like them that much more that they don't push religion on anyone. Shareef Abdur Raheem and Mahmoud Abdul Rauf may be lesser known, but they some of my favorite NBA players of all time. I used to have a Abdur Raheem Vancouver Grizzlies jersey when he was first in the league. I loved his game and the tenacity with which he played. Mahmoud Abdul Rauf may only be known to the outside sports fan as the guy who wouldn't stand for the national anthem, exercising his religious right, but he was one of the top point guards in the NBA in the mid 90's. He was a great assist and defensive specialist and he could score buckets when needed. And of course there's Kareem Abdul Jabaar, one of the NBA's all time greats. He was a star at UCLA, going by the name of Lew Alcindor, and that was his name while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, but he later converted to Islam when playing for the Lakers.

So, let's take all the other guys out that I just mentioned and let's focus on Kareem Abdul Jabaar and Muhammed Ali. Can you think of two bigger names in American sports? Some will throw out Michael Jordan or Mike Tyson, but I know that Ali is a more famous fighter than Tyson and Kareem is right up there with Jordan. And guess what, they're both Muslim-American athletes Donald Trump, you dumbass. Also, in response, both Ali and Jabaar have come out and denounced Trump. I didn't think I could look up to these men anymore, but they just gained a lot more respect from me. Something needed to be said and who better than two uber famous Muslim athletes. Jabaar put out a very eloquent, very poignant piece in "Time" magazine, basically saying that what Trump is doing is basically terrorism. One part of his piece stated that Trump is basically a Manchurian candidate, putting fear into people where it need not be, essentially doing ISIS job for them. He also said that Trump is ISIS greatest triumph. This is exactly what they want out of American's, fear, and Trump is putting it into people that ISIS has no beef with. He also stated that saying Muslims aren't sports heroes is dimwitted and cruel, suggesting that Muslims are "less worthy"  and a "lesser person" because of their beliefs. Jabaar is 1,000 percent correct and I'm so glad he came out against this monster. Something further needed to be said about this and in swooped Ali. Ali stated, and I quote, "there's nothing Islamic about killing people and that goes against the tenets of the religion. Islamic jihadists go against the true spirit of Muslims". He further added, "speaking as someone who's never been accused of political correctness, I believe our political leaders should bring an understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify the misguided ones that have perverted people's views on what Islam really is". Pretty god damn poetic words from Mr. Ali if you ask me.

I figure at this point Trump is just saying whatever comes into his tiny little pea brain. He's never had a filter, but now, he's off the rails. He's Fox News come to life. My brother and editor of the website RD had a perfect response when I posed the idea for this article today, he said that "Trump is saying what all the Fox News anchors think. He's just as racist and ignorant as the whole crew at Fox News". I couldn't agree more. I hope Trump gets the message loud and clear that he's a dip shit of the world class variety. He's so arrogant, that when he speaks, no matter what he says, he believes it. It can be wrong, racist, idiotic, he doesn't care because it's coming from his mouth. Trump is the true terrorist.

I hope that the people who back him get their wish and he runs the country. It will be a shit show of the highest caliber. As I already stated, he can't even run his own company or his own TV show without it eventually failing, so imagine how terrible he'd be as president of the USA. God, it would be awful. I bet he'd get impeached before year one even ended. Go to hell Donald Trump. I hope you get gonorrhea and have to suffer horrible pain for the rest of your life. That's what a racist asshole like you deserves. You suck. And thank you Kareem Abdul Jabaar and Muhammed Ali for being the inspirations you've been your entire lives. You still inspire millions of people today, no matter what some random dick head says. Kareem Abdul Jabaar and Muhammed Ali are more heroic and more American than Donald Trump will ever be.

Oh, and they're Muslim too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He admires the patience and humanity of Kareem and Ali, yet Ty can not share their civility when discussing Mr. Trump. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Where the Hell are the Responsible Adults on "PJ Masks"?

Next season on PJ Masks, the police will lock up all the adults

Having children means having to watch shows you don't care for. I've watched stuff like "Doc McStuffins", "Team Umizoomi", "Handy Manny" and "The Octonauts". These shows I do not care for. They're boring and loud and dull. I've also seen stuff like "Wally Kazaam" and "Yo Gabba Gabba". I really like these shows. "Yo Gabba Gabba" has cool music and cool guests and there's always a good lesson. "Wally Kazaam" may be the most clever and best written children's show I've ever seen. There's been some jokes that have made me legitimately laugh out loud. "Wally Kazaam" is my favorite show that my son has watched.

Lately my son has been watching a show called "PJ Masks". This show is fine. It's not good, but it's not that bad. The show follows three young children that, at nighttime, become superheroes when they put their pajamas on. Sounds pretty cute, right? That's what I thought when I first saw this show, but then I actually sat down and paid attention to what was going on and I've got to say, the negligence of the parents on "PJ Masks" is downright criminal. I'd venture to say that they are worse parents than the parents from "Charlie Brown".

First things first, at least the parents in "Charlie Brown" are present. Sure, we can't understand what they are saying and the kids never take their advice, but we know that they are there. The parents in "PJ Masks" are non existent. And, when there is an adult around, they just leave when the situation turns sour. I'll tell you about a recent episode that had this happen. The kids were just regular kids and they were about to watch a puppet show. The puppet master, apparently one of their teachers, shows up and sees that the puppets are missing. All he says is, "My puppets are gone. I guess there will be no show today" and then he just leaves. Doesn't investigate the problem, doesn't tell the children he will be right back, in fact he doesn't tell the children anything except that the show is cancelled, and he just leaves, never to be seen or heard from again. That's insane! He's an adult and he just lets the kids deal with this problem on their own! WTF!

This leads me to my main problem with the parents of the three main kids. These children, maybe 7 or 8 years old, are allowed to leave their houses in the middle of the night and go fight crimes. The parents have no say and just let this happen. Where on Earth is this ever a good idea? Why would you let a child go out into the streets in the middle of the night. That is the whole point of the show. These kids turn into superheroes when they go to bed and put their PJ's on. I say again, this is insane! And the parents just let them go, I DON"T GET IT!

You are all probably asking the names of the three main kids, so I'll tell you. You have Owlette the girl, Gekko the shy one and Catboy the athlete. They fight villains, yes this show has children as super smart villains, Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalenos. It's so surreal. One saving grace, you never see actual fighting. They have races and they play party games and they use gadgets, but they never actually fight. I guess the parents at least gave them the proper rules that fighting is wrong. But, that doesn't excuse the fact that these kids are out in the middle of the night. Also, where are the police in this town and why aren't they doing anything about this? Now, I'm upset at not only the parents, but all the adults in the "PJ Masks" universe. Why do you all let children decide what to do? I'm all for letting kids figure things out for themselves, but there's a time and a place for that and it's not after midnight. I just don't get why there are no rules for these kids.

Also, what kind of parents do Romeo, Luna Girl, Night Ninja and the Ninjalenos have that these kids are super villains? Romeo is some kind of tech genius, but he hates the PJ Masks, and I mean hates the PJ Masks. He is some kind of tech wizard, going so far as stealing their voices in one episode. Are his parents some kind of tech wizards? If so, at least they taught him how to use technology, but he uses it for evil. How messed up is that?! Luna Girl just wants to stop the PJ Masks from having fun. That's straight up mean. She is the definition of a "mean girl", but she too is a child. Why does she have all this hate in her tiny soul? Night Ninja is a spoiled baby and he has the Ninjalenos answer his every beck and call. Why is he so spoiled and how did he train four little kids to be his helpers? What kind of family do these kids come from?

I guess, overall, I'm just disappointed in the adults in this world. I know, it's a children's show, it's a cartoon, it's fantasy, but my brain won't allow me to look at it that way. I want to know why the adults aren't involved at all. At least in "Charlie Brown" and "The Simpsons" the parents are there. They may not be the best people in the world, but they are there and that's more than I can say for the adults and parents in "PJ Masks". I'm sure this show will fade much like all the other shows my son watches, but I will still wonder, long after he stops watching, why weren't the grown ups more involved? What were they doing and why was that more important than making sure their kids were in their beds like they should be? I'm sure I'll never know, but I know that it will haunt me for the rest of my days. Shame on you adults in the "PJ Masks" universe. Take more interest in your children and maybe they won't go out in the middle of the night and argue about cake and toys and balloons. Get off your cell phones and take the time to get to know your kids.

You sicken me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks judging others is easy, and fun too. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty Previews College Football's Final Four Teams

How about one more game of catch with old orangie

The final college football playoff rankings came out yesterday. The final four was revealed and there were no surprises.

At number one you have Clemson, the team that's been number one most of the season. Number two, Alabama, with a great running game and a very good defense. Three, Michigan State, probably the luckiest team in all of college football this year. And number four is Oklahoma, maybe the hottest team in college football right now. If I was on the committee the only difference I'd have would be Oklahoma at 3 and Michigan State at four.

When looking back at my preseason preview, I got two of the top four correct with MSU and Alabama. In my midseason rewrite, I only got one team correct and that was Clemson. TCU fell apart due to injuries and a porous defense and Ohio State lost late to a team in the final four pushing them out. I also put LSU in at one point, but they have no QB and they got beat three times. Stanford was in there too, but Oregon beat them late in the year and they didn't do enough at the end to leapfrog the three teams ahead of them. So, at two different points, I got three of the final four correct. Sorry Oklahoma, I had no faith in you and your coach, but you have proven me wrong. I thought after Texas beat you guys, you'd blow a couple more games, but you stepped it up on offense and your defense came alive. Like I said earlier, Oklahoma is the hottest team in football right now.

So, let's get into it and look at the matchups.

The one versus four matchup pits Clemson against Oklahoma. This should be a pretty high scoring affair. Both offenses are very good and play very fast. Their defenses, on the other hand, they tend to give up big plays and have a hard time shutting down quality opponents. Both QB's, Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma and Deshaun Watson at Clemson are Heisman candidates, Watson more so than Mayfield. Deshaun Watson runs the Clemson team exquisitely. He is a precision passer and a deadly runner. He throws a great deep ball and runs the read option very well. He has weapons all over the field and spreads the ball to all of those weapons evenly. Watson has had a spectacular season and he could very well be the determining factor in this game. Baker Mayfield has had a very good season too. He transferred away from Texas Tech to Oklahoma this season and has thrived in the Sooner offense. He too is a good runner, but not on the same level as Deshaun Watson. He throws a good short to intermediate ball, but Oklahoma doesn't take too many deep shots, that's not their offense. Oklahoma has a lot of great weapons as well and they have a better running back in Semaji Perrine than Clemson has. He is a bruising yet explosive runner. He, much like Watson, could be the determining factor for Oklahoma. This game really comes down to the QB that plays better. As I said before, the defenses won't really stop either team, so the QB that leads his team better will help his team win. I really wanted to pick Oklahoma to win this game, but Clemson, and more importantly, Deshaun Watson, are having a magical season, and that will continue in the Orange Bowl with a close, high scoring win. The final score will be something like 42-38 in Clemson's favor.

In the Cotton Bowl we couldn't have gotten a more opposite matchup than the Orange Bowl in number two Alabama versus number three Michigan State. Both these teams are predicated on defense and running the ball. Running wasn't Michigan State's strong suit until Connor Cook got hurt a month ago, but they've taken to the run since then and its greatly benefitted them. LJ Scott has been a revelation and he doesn't play like a freshman. He gets stronger as the game goes on and he wants the ball in critical moments, take last weeks Big Ten Title as an example. He willed that team to a victory and a spot in the playoff. Connor Cook is clearly hurt and I don't know if he'll be any more healthy for the game and that sucks for MSU because they will not beat Alabama by simply running the ball. Alabama's defense is absolutely suffocating. I don't know how any team expects to run for any kind of yards against their front seven. They are faster, quicker, stronger, smarter and deeper than any other front seven in all of college football. Their secondary is equally as good. They cover better than everyone else and they're just flat out better than everyone. On offense, Alabama has the presumptive Heisman favorite in Derrick Henry at running back. Ever since their game against LSU, when he looked better than Leonard Fournette, he's been on an absolute tear, averaging 200 plus yards of rushing per game. He, much like their defense, is better, faster, quicker, stronger and smarter than every other running back in football. He's an absolute beast. Their offensive line is massive and blows people off the line, opening all those holes for Henry to run through. The problem lies with their QB and receivers. They don't have a receiving threat like Julio Jones or Amari Cooper anymore. The receivers are good, not great. Their QB is a fine game manager, but he's no real threat. He throws a subpar deep ball and he gets hit way more than he should. He holds the ball way too much. This game will come down to who can run the ball better and that's a HUGE plus in Alabama's favor. They have the better offensive line and they have the MUCH better running back. MSU may hang with Alabama for a half, but the Crimson Tide will cruise to an easy 28-10 victory in the Cotton Bowl. This was MSU's last real shot to win a title, but Connor cook is too banged up and, while their defense has played better as of late, they will not be able to stop Alabama and they won't be able to move the ball that much on Alabama. Alabama is the superior team.

So that leaves us with Clemson playing Alabama in the title game on January 11th. Number one versus number two. Two completely different style teams. Clemson is a spread team with a ton of quickness and scores in bunches. Alabama is a pro style team that beats you into submission on both the offensive and defensive lines and they want to chew up as much clock as possible by running 50 times a game if they have to. I like this matchup a lot and I will be rooting for Clemson, I hate Nick Saban and he's the biggest curmudgeon in all of sports, but Alabama is too good. They're just as fast as Clemson and they are much, much bigger. After they got beat by Ole Miss early in the season I thought Alabama was done, but they figured it out, of course, and they look just as good now as they did when they beat LSU in the BCS title game a few years ago. Alabama will beat Clemson pretty handily in the title game with a final score of 35-13. They're the best of this final four bunch.

So, Alabama will be your 2016 National Champs.

I'll also give one more Heisman prediction to keep some continuity and two big coaching changes that I think will take place. I think, as every other major publication does, that Derrick Henry will win the Heisman. Since the LSU game he's been on fire. He's broken Herschel Walker records. That's pretty god damn impressive. But, don't be surprised if Christian McCaffery, Stanford's running back, whose broken some of Barry Sanders records, gets some Heisman love. I think he's finish a narrow second to Henry. And the two big coaching moves you ask. I think both Urban Meyer and Nick Saban jump to the pros. In Meyer's case, he's won multiple titles at multiple schools in college, he's losing coordinators left and right, some kind of recruiting violations will almost assuredly be coming his way and the Cleveland Browns will stupidly(do they do anything smart) pay him a humongous amount of money to not only coach, but give him a say in player personnel. He will fail spectacularly if he makes the jump, but the amount of money will be too much to pass up. In Saban's case, and I'm really going out on a limb with this prediction, he failed once in the NFL and a la Pete Carroll, I think that he thinks he can win a Super Bowl. He can't, he's a much better fit for the college game, but his ego is so big, he thinks he will now succeed in the NFL. He's a better fit for college because he is the boss, he makes the most money, but in the pros, the coach is low man on the totem poll and that won't work well for Saban. But, I think his pride and ego and the fact that he's also losing coordinators left and right will give him the "confidence" that he will now succeed in the NFL where he previously failed. He won't, but I think he thinks he's ready to make that leap. So, two major college football programs will be looking for new coaches this summer.

There you have it, my final college football blog of the year. Tell me why I'm right or wrong in the comment section and lets enjoy the bowl season. I'm happy that my Wolverines are playing on New Years day, and I think this final four is a very good and competitive final four. The committee got it right this year and the playoff should be good.

At least, I hope so.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He expects Meyer to leave Ohio State because the coach is afraid of what Harbaugh is bringing to Ann Arbor. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Better late than never on the awesome "Kingsman: Secret Service"

Tell me once again what happens to the dog?

I know I'm late to the party, but I just watched "Kingsman: Secret Service" and it is awesome.

Sure, it's an orgy of over the top violence, but compared to some other shit shows that have been released, I'm talking to you "Victor Frankenstein" and "The Last Witch Hunter", "Kingsman" is so much more fun and enjoyable. This movie is crazy from the get go. There's a huge fight scene in the far east at the start and that's where we meet Harry Hart/Galahad(Colin Firth). They are "training" one of the new members and the mission blows up, literally. We then transition to a house where an older gentleman is tied up. The home is over looking the mountains and one of the new Kingsman comes to the rescue. He offs the guards and saves the older man. Then, he opens the door and is literally sliced in half by a lady with sword legs. I'm serious, literally sliced in two. This is when Valentine(Samuel L Jackson) comes in to see that his aid, Gazelle(Sofia Boutella), has "cleaned" up the mess by placing white sheets over the bodies. Valentine doesn't like blood. So, about three or four minutes in, we see that Valentine is the bad guy. He's a billionaire tech guy, but he's also crazy. He's hell bent on controlling everyone in the world. News gets back tot he Kingsman that one of their own has died and it's revealed that he and Harry were close friends. It's also revealed that the deceased Kingsman has a young child. This child has grown to a teenager that is a rough and tumble fighter. He was in the Marines, but kicked out because of his behavior. Harry comes to meet Eggsy(Taron Egerton) to tell him about a job opportunity with the Kingsman. He's skeptical at first and then something totally awesome happens. Eggsy is being pestered at the local bar by some of his bullies and Harry goes about beating the shit out of every single one of them. It's an awesome scene. Who knew Colin Firth could play such a kick ass character. The scene is shot in a slow motion style. You can see all the cool spy stuff that Harry uses to beat up these five guys pretty effortlessly. My favorite part was when one of the thugs pulls a pistol on Harry and he open his umbrella which doubles as a bullet proof vest and a stun gun. It was rad. After seeing this display, Eggsy agrees to go through "application" process to become a Kingsman.

There are many intense tests which the recruits have to go through. Things like getting out of a room completely flooded with water, raise a dog, skydiving with a parachute that may or may not be functional and, above all else, never ratting out Kingsman. They eventually dwindle down to two candidates, Eggsy and Roxy(Sophie Cookson). They have one last task and that's too shoot their dog. Eggsy won't do it, but Roxy does it without a second thought. Eggsy is deemed unsuitable to be a Kingsman. We come to find out later that the gun had blanks in it, so the dog would have never been shot. This is found out when Harry comes to Eggsy's house to try and convince him to come back to training. Eggsy relents and Harry leaves to go on a mission to Kentucky. He has been on to Valentine the whole time and he heard there was something bad about to go down at a church in Kentucky.

Here we get one of the coolest scenes I've ever witnessed in a movie. Valentine has slipped a SIM card into everyone's phone or their brain if they've gotten close enough to him and he wants to activate the card to see if it works. If it does, everyone would become out of control and try to kill everyone else, basically chaos. This is exactly what Valentine wants. The SIM card goes into effect and the one planted in Harry's brain, he had a one on one dinner with Valentine earlier in the movie, makes him, unconsciously, start to fight and kill anyone that attacks him. He demolishes all comers in this church. It's a frightening and incredible scene all at once. While he's doing his kick ass fighting moves and maiming and killing everyone the song "Free Bird" by Lynrd Skynrd is playing and it's so awesome. This scene is almost as good as the one in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" where the super heroes fight in slow motion. The stunts in this fight scene are absolutely incredible. After Harry comes to, he walks outside the church where Valentine shoots him in the head. After seeing all this happen and seeing his mentor Harry killed, Eggsy has no choice but to go and fight for the Kingsman. He will do whatever it takes to stop Valentine and with help from Roxy, they go and fight the good fight.

There is some awesome hand to hand and weapon combat during the final battle scene. I'm not a fan of weapons, but I like to watch them in movies and I love hand to hand combat. They get to a spot where they can render the SIM cards useless and in one spot they do and there is a confetti of colors as the people who had SIM cards implanted in their brains literally explode. You think it's done there, but Valentine didn't plant one in his brain and outside of the night club they were just in, the SIM cards go off on people's phones and the world begins to fight with each other. Everywhere from England to LA, there's a full on brawl. We now get a fight between Eggsy, Valentine and Gazelle. The main fight is Eggsy and Gazelle and it's awesome. She's doing awesome karate moves with her sword legs and Eggsy is batting off her every attempt. In a slow motion scene, Eggsy uses the spy techniques that Harry taught him and he renders Gazelle useless. She can no longer fight. Eggsy then uses one of Gazelle's sword legs and puts it through Valentine's chest and he pukes blood and dies. He cannot execute his full plan and the SIM cards are now completely useless. Everyone is saved thanks to Eggsy. He is now the top Kingsman, replacing his deceased mentor Harry.

This movie is totally awesome and doesn't get the love it so badly deserves. I'm sorry I missed it in the theaters, but I'm glad I watched it on DVD. I ABSOLUTELY loved this movie and I highly recommend it. It's not for the faint of heart, but it is totally awesome.

Go check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is been involved in deep spy training that entails massive amounts of football watching. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

After a strong episode, Ty is optimistic about the end of "The League"

One more episode, then I can turn the TV off

Spoiler alert, in fact this whole blog will be a spoiler alert for the whole season, so watch the episode before reading this.

Last nights episode of "The League" on FXX, "The 13 Stages of Grief" has been, hands down, the best episode of this, their final season. 

We found out in the last episode, , Ruxin's(Nick Kroll) wife, Sofia(Nadine Velazquez) was killed during a plastic surgery blunder. They had a funeral and everything, but there is still some question as to whether she's really dead. I say this because last nights episode opened with all the actors hanging around at a lunch table and asking Ruxin if he's grieved enough so they can get back to keeping regular score in their fantasy football league. Ruxin still seems pretty shook up, but he relents and says it's okay for them to go back to keeping real score. Ruxin leaves the lunch and heads to his empty home. When he walks in the door, he sees two table setting with pasta and bread and some lit candles. He thinks it's Sofia, but when he turns around, Rafi(Jason Mantzoukas) is standing right behind him. Any episode that is Rafi heavy are my favorites. So, when I saw him, I was immediately into the episode. Rafi was Sofia's younger brother, so he tells Ruxin that he is there to help him grieve the loss of Sofia and that he was putting him through his 13 stages of grief.

For those of you that don't know about the show or Rafi, he's a disgusting, dirty and downright nasty person. He has a drinking and drug problem. He shoots pornography with his buddy Dirty Randy(Seth Rogen). His sex life doesn't just include people, he has relations with animals and food. He is a garbage person to a t. He's so gross.

Back to the episode.

While telling Ruxin that he's going to help him grieve, he says that he prepared the dinner in his "toilet-kitchen". This is so foul, especially to Ruxin, he's a HUGE germaphobe. In Kevin's(Steve Ranizzissi) house, the rest of the crew is talking fantasy football. Pete(Mark Duplass) walks in and starts to talk about his daily fantasy team. This is off limits to the rest of the crew. They say, and I agree, that daily fantasy football is a useless, non strategic form of fantasy football. They will not allow Pete to talk about it. Jenny(Katie Aselton) goes as far as calling it "cheating on your fantasy wife and bragging about it". They, and I, hate daily fantasy leagues.

Later on we see Andre(Paul Scheer) talking to Ruxin at Ruxin's house, asking how he's doing, how's he dealing with his loss. But, the main reason he's there is to see if Ruxin is still keeping his reservation at the Michelin star restaurant that the whole crew is going to the week before fantasy playoffs. After Ruxin kind of hints that he doesn't know if he still wants to go, Rafi shows up with a bloodied bag that we come to find that there's a dead raccoon in. Rafi says this is stage 3, the episode doesn't give us every stage, facing death. He wants Ruxin to look the dead raccoon in the face, Rafi is calling it Sofia now, and drink it's blood. He swears it will help him get over Sofia and that he's already drank some of the raccoon's blood. This is where Andre leaves. He cannot stand Rafi. The whole crew doesn't like Rafi in fact.

Later on, the whole crew is hanging out and all of the sudden their league is shut down due to graphic material on their fantasy message board. They have always had very cruel, hurtful and hateful speak on the boards, so they can't figure out why, now, they were being shut down. Rafi emerges and asks if they have seen the video he just posted on the board of him and Dirty Randy having relations with a chicken in Mexico. So, that's why they were shut down. They now have to do all their fantasy stuff offline, like the old days they say. This leaves Kevin, he's the commissioner, with a ton of work. He has to track add/drop players, scores, trades, pretty much anything that you can do with a click of a button now in fantasy sports, he has to do by hand. It's very hard to keep track of it all.

While Kevin is doing all this work, Andre goes to the restaurant to try and put the reservation under his name, but it doesn't work. At another point, Kevin goes to Ruxin's house to try and figure out all the players he wants to add and drop and we get an excellent scene between Ruxin and Rafi arguing while Kevin watches. Rafi shows up with a tank top and an apron, giving them chips and salsa and says that this is part of the grieving. Ruxin has always had someone around to feed him and his friends during games, so that's what Rafi is doing now. They fight and nag, much to the chagrin of Kevin. The fight ends when Rafi throws a pregnancy test at Ruxin and says, "by the way, I' pregnant. I shit on it this morning and it's positive". I was crying laughing. Ruxin even sniffs the test and is immediately repulsed exclaiming, "why would I sniff it!?". So funny.

Near the end of the episode, Rafi tells Ruxin that the last step in the grieving process is for the two of them to sleep together. Did I mention he was wearing Sofia's underwear? No, well he was. He tells Ruxin that he never got one last time to be intimate with his wife, so he would give him that since he and Sofia are blood related. Ruxin wants no part of this, so he lights a vanilla scented candle. The scent of vanilla makes Rafi gag and while he's getting sick, Ruxin actually says that he is through grieving. The process is over and it worked.

The rest of the crew is at the restaurant with Taco(Jon Lajoie) posing as Ruxin. Their plan isn't working, but Ruxin comes in and saves the table and the dinner. At said dinner, they all want to know who made the playoffs. Kevin presents them with scores, but the math is all wrong and nobody is pleased. They decide to let everyone on the playoffs and make it a one week, winner take all for the Shiva. High score wins, low score gets the Sacko, the last place trophy. They all go to the Shiva and give praise one last time and proceed to leave the restaurant. When leaving, Meegan(Leslie Bibb) is there. Meegan was married to Pete in season one, they got divorced and it was revealed this season that her and Andre were dating. They eventually broke up and this is the first they're seeing each other since ending it. Meegan takes off her coat to reveal that she's pregnant and the episode ends there.

I was so happy at how good this episode was. This season has been kind of so so, but "The 13 Stages of Grief" hearkened back to the best of "The League". They have one episode left and if it's half as good as this one, I will be very happy. This was a great first step towards ending the show and let's hope the series finale follows in the same foot steps. I'm more happy and prepared for the series finale today than I have been all season with "The League".

Now end it strong.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The daily fantasy he participates in is the one about all of his kids sleeping through the night. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Thank God Kobe is Finally Leaving

The hoop will not miss Kobe, even if he misses it nearly 70% of the time

Over this past weekend Kobe Bryant announced his retirement from the NBA effective at the end of this season. I saw and read the story via The Players Tribune and my only thought was, "this was two years too late".

Now, I have a long standing dislike, some would say hatred, of Kobe Bryant the player and the person. I dislike Kobe Bryant the person because he seems like a curmudgeon that got away with sexual assault. The incident in Denver should have sent him to jail. I wholeheartedly believe that he had relations with that lady against her will and he got away with it. Why else would he buy his wife a very gaudy, very expensive piece of jewelry if he was innocent? No man or woman that is innocent would buy someone a gift to cover it up. That just doesn't happen. Then, he goes and changes his number from 8 to 24 and claims he's a new man. No, you are still the same person that forced yourself on an uncooperative woman. Daniel Tosh has a great stand up bit about him. The long and short of the bit is him changing his number and making a commercial saying things like, "hate me because I'm a champion", or "hate me because I work hard", but Tosh claims, and I agree, that, "no, we hate you because of the sexual assault". Hilarious and very, very true.

Kobe is also just a terrible teammate. I guess, this is where I transition into why I dislike Kobe Bryant the basketball player. When he first came into the league, he was gifted with having one of the greatest centers of all time fall into his lap. Shaquille O'Neal signed a free agent deal to be a Laker the year Bryant was drafted. So, Bryant should have been thrilled by this, right? The exact opposite. He constantly fought and complained with Shaq and the Laker front office. He wanted to be the man. Never mind the fact that Shaq was leading the Lakers to three consecutive titles and was opening the whole floor for Bryant, that wasn't good enough. He needed to be the franchise player. So, the Lakers caved and let Shaq walk. This was one of the dumbest decisions I've ever seen made in professional sports. A year or two after Shaq left, he went to the Miami Heat, they won a title. This was pre LeBron. This was Dwayne Wade in his prime. Wade showed how to play championship ball with Shaq. Instead of bitching and moaning about shots, he picked his spots and did whatever he had to do to win the title. After Shaq left, the newly led Kobe Bryant Lakers struggled. Sure, Bryant was putting up numbers, but the rest of the team suffered. Nobody else got the ball and when they did, if they missed a shot, Bryant gave them a death stare. They made the playoffs, but they never got out of the second round. They were languishing. 

In the summer of 2005 the Lakers rehired Phil Jackson, who said he'd never coach Kobe Bryant again. He came back to coach Kobe Bryant because that's what his girlfriend and partial owner of the Lakers, Jeanine Buss, wanted him to do. Phil Jackson is a great coach, and he gave Kobe Bryant another title, but it wasn't because Kobe Bryant willed his team to a championship, it was because the Celtics blew it. Boston should have won that series, but Kevin Garnett got hurt and Ray Allen got old and Paul Pierce cannot do it alone. Detractors and Bryant fans will scream and holler that he won that title for them and they wouldn't have been close without him, but that's not the case. Phil Jackson is one of the greatest coaches of all time and he figured out how to use the whole team around Bryant's ego. That's how they won that title. 

Look at the way he's "leading" this young, god awful Lakers team. Instead of mentoring the young core they have, he belittles them to the media. For example, the other night they got blown out by the Warriors and his comment was, "I could've scored 80 and it wouldn't have mattered". First of all, you can't score 80, not when you're shooting less than 35 percent from the field. Second of all, help these young guys out, don't just toss them off like trash. The Lakers have some good young players. Guys like D'Angelo Russell, Juilus Randle and Jordan Clarkson have the makings of being good NBA players, but Bryant's constant belittling is doing nothing but making these guys hate him and not perform to the best of their abilities. 

People say Kobe isa big competitor, yet look at how he handcuffed this franchise with his terrible contract. How much more money do you need? Do you need to buy your wife more gaudy jewelry? Two years, 44 million dollars. No wonder they can't sign any big time free agents. They can't afford anyone because they are paying the corpse of Kobe Bryant 20 million dollars a year. Now, he is one of the all time greats when it comes to scorers, but anyone would be if they shot the ball as much as Bryant. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I'd be willing to guess that in his 20 year career, he's led the league in attempted shots 14 or 15 times. He is also one of the most overrated defenders in the history of the NBA. The fact that he made multiple All NBA Defense teams is laughable. He made those teams because of his name, not his defensive ability. He was and still is a terrible defender. He can't guard anyone. 

To all these people coming to his defense, come on, Kobe Bryant is an asshole and you know it. You don't have to like someone because they play the same game as you. You can respect him, but you don't have to like him. And the comparisons to Michael Jordan need to stop forever. He will never be Michael Jordan. He won't even be Scottie Pippen. If Kobe Bryant played anywhere besides LA or New York, he wouldn't go down as one of the all time greats. Just think if he stayed in Charlotte, the team that drafted him. Would we still look at him as one of the greats? Even if he had the same stats? I don't think so. 

So, as I close it out, I say again, you should have quit two years ago when you blew out your Achilles. You haven't been the same competitor in ten years and you've handcuffed the Lakers franchise for the next couple of years. I hope this make you happy and I hope you retire during the year instead of at the end because you won't make it. You're either going to get hurt again, or you are going to look real bad like you have the first quarter of the season. You aren't doing anyone any favors by staying in the league. It's best for you to leave now. I can't say it enough, go away and never come back. 

Kobe will NOT be missed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He gave up Sprite and went to 7up when Kobe got his endorsement deal. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The McRib and the loss of one's youth

The bones say that this is no McRib

After spending Thanksgiving evening in Columbia, me, my wife, son and daughter all made the drive home on Friday after breakfast. We got very little sleep, a new baby and different house, and we were hungry for anything but turkey. We had our fill, going to three separate Thanksgiving celebrations. So, we chose to get McDonald's. It was right by the gas station where we filled up and it was not turkey.

We all got our usual. I had a quarter pounder, my wife had two cheese burgers and my son got chicken McNuggets. All standard stuff. But, my wife and I decided we wanted to get a McRib. Neither of us had one in over 15 years and we both thought that we remembered they were tasty. So, we threw caution to the wind and ordered one to share. We ate our meals first and then had the McRib afterward. My wife opened it and what was revealed to me was one of the sloppiest "sandwiches" I had ever seen. It was on a hoagie type bun, it was stamped to look like a rib, they SMOTHERED it in their barbecue sauce and pickles and onions were literally falling off the side.

My wife was the brave soul that took the first bite. I asked how it was and she replied, "interesting". I was intrigued. As I said before, I hadn't had one in 15 years and I used to devour them whenever McDonald's brought them back. I LOVED the McRib as a teenager. Now, it was my turn. I took my first bite. Interesting was a great way to describe it, but I would use the words "gross" or "extremely sweet and sloppy" or even "disgusting". Now, I did finish my half of the sandwich. I wanted the full experience I guess. But, it was not the same thing I remember. When I ate the McRib last Friday, I was so disappointed.

First of all, it is just their burger "meat" stamped to look like a rib. My biggest problem with this interpretation, there are supposed to be bones in ribs, that's how the meat gets it's smoky flavor. But the McRib, it's all "meat". Even the bone shape is edible. This was off putting from the get go. Then, you bite into the "sandwich", and all you get is the sweetest barbecue sauce you will ever taste. I've never been much of a fan of their take on barbecue sauce. It's way too thick and way too sweet. I prefer a thinner, spicier barbeque sauce. So, this problem I have is not McDonald's fault, it's just my taste. But the fact that they smother the "sandwich" in their barbecue sauce, that's unacceptable. Why do you need that much sauce on one sandwich? They don't douse their burgers in mustard and ketchup. Their salads aren't drenched with dressing. So why so much sauce on the McRib? My best guess, to mask the taste of the burger "meat". Then, they try, and fail, to cover up the sweetness by adding onions and pickles to the "sandwich". This, in theory, should work, but it falls totally flat. The onions are white onions, so the taste of those mixed in with what seems to be about 32 ounces of barbecue sauce is disgusting. You bite into this sandwich and you taste sweet barbecue sauce and very strong white onions. Does that sound good to anyone out there? (ed note: yes) It's almost like they thought, hey lets combine two totally different, exact opposite flavors because that will make the rest of the "sandwich" not so disgusting. Well McDonald's, I'm sorry to say, it only makes the McRib that much worse. The pickles are almost an afterthought. I've had very good barbeque, I try to go to Memphis once or twice a year just to have some of the best barbeque in the US, and they add pickles on the side, almost like a side dish. This works very well in these restaurants favors. But, the pickles that are on the McRib are sparse and add no flavor. There is 2, maybe 3 pickles on this "sandwich" and you can barely even taste them. They are just slapped on there as if to say, lets add more shit to this sandwich because it's not gross enough.

After finishing my half, I said to my wife, "well, I tried it and I will never eat one again. That was foul". She agreed, but she wasn't as harsh on it as I was. I was so upset at how terrible this "sandwich" had become to me. Also, why is it a seasonal item? Why does it only come around once or twice a year? Does the McRib really have a big enough fan base that McDonald's can have it come and go as they please? I don't know the answers to these questions. It reminds me of Starbucks and their Pumpkin Spice Latte. This was another seasonal item I tried this year that was way too sweet and left me feeling terrible after drinking it. It was just as sweet as the McRib, but in a different way. I felt like I was drinking pumpkin pie and that's not the way pumpkin pie should be consumed. Pumpkin pie should be eaten, not drank. Just like ribs should be eaten bone in, not smushed together into one single, edible patty. Both the Pumpkin Spice Latte and the McRib are terrible, terrible products that need to go away forever. I know a lot of people may like these two things, but I don't. They're too sweet and taste pretty awful. I'm more bummed about the McRib though.

 I absolutely adored the McRib as a teenager, but as an adult, it does absolutely nothing except make me feel awful after I eat it. I guess that's how it goes as you grow up though. Tastes change and you find new things you like and old things you loved are no good anymore. From now on, I'll stick with my quarter pounder with cheese whenever those few and far between moments I get lunch or dinner at McDonalds. No more McRibs for me.

Not now, not ever.

(Ed note: We believe in letting all voices be heard. I strongly disagree with Ty and can only say that the sloppy fake meat seasonal treat from McDonald's is a delight. Ty's taste buds did not become more refined, they became more wrong. Long live the McRib.)

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is looking forward to McDonald's Shamrock Shake with extra green flavor. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.