Ty Really Dislikes the Smell of "Entourage The Movie"

This is the only action you should take when presented with "Entourage The Movie"

Every year around this time HBO gets some of the "bigger" movies that were in the theaters less than one year ago. One such movie that I came across last night was "The Entourage Movie".

So, let's get this out of the way right off the top, I loved the first three seasons of that show. That was appointment viewing TV. I loved the concept, I thought the actors were funny, and who was better than Ari Gold? No one, that's who. Then, the show became pretty stale and very repetitive. I also grew up and realized that the show just wasn't as good as I previously thought it to be. I was in my mid twenties by season four, and I realized that this was a fantasy show. This was Mark Wahlberg's life and only Mark Wahlberg can relate to his own life. The show became immediately unrelatable by season four. I didn't care about Vinny getting the role  in the fake Aquaman movie. I didn't care about E becoming a manager. I didn't care about Johnny Drama doing whatever stupid shit he was already doing and I never truly cared about Turtle at all. He was the worst of the four main actors. He had no reason to be there, other than the fact that he was the chubby friend that they could make fun of, that's it.

Although my love for "Entourage had passe, I'd be lying if I didn't say that my curiosity for the movie was peaked when I saw that it was on HBO last night. So, I decided that I would give the movie a try. Why not I figured, maybe it would be kitschy and maybe after all these years, they'd be in on the joke of how ridiculous the idea for this show really is.

Then, the movie started.

Just to let everyone know, I made it through 20 minutes before I gave up on this horrible piece of garbage that these actors, directors, writers and producers made. I cannot believe that all the people involved truly thought that they put out a good piece of work. They had to know it was really, really bad, right? I hope so, but I'm not that sure.

The movie opened with Vinny on a yacht in Ibiza, Spain, so super relatable to anyone watching in their Saint Louis homes. I kid. Of course they have the obligatory shot of many topless young ladies and Johnny Drama speaks the first line of dialogue, and it's the trashiest piece of writing that I've ever heard. He speaks the line, after seeing all the beautiful young ladies on the yacht, "I'm going to have to jerk it at least once before we get to the boat". Yeah, you read that right and yeah, that made the final cut of the movie. From there on out, at least the 20 minutes I watched, was the most homophobic, mimisogynistic and the worst kind of "bro" type dialogue that has ever been on screen. It was appalling at how terrible and how awful all the dialogue and acting in this movie was. It was so, so bad. Some of the misogyny that was portrayed was pretty absurd. All the fellas are sitting down at a breakfast, or some stupid shit, and Eric has to leave to go meet his new girlfriend for breakfast, but all the guys complain that he is "pussy whipped" and ask "why won't you introduce us to this new girlfriend? Is it because she is fat? HAHAHAHA". I mean, come on, do a rewrite before putting this stuff in the ether. Some more misogyny all dealt with Vinny Chase. He gets all the girls and he "hits it and quits it", or so they say. He was married for 9 days, but they all knew that wouldn't last and when asked if they broke it off on good terms, Vinny tells them "yeah, and then we banged one more time for good measure". That is just absolutely awful writing. As I said, how does all this stuff make the final edit. Who are they appealing to with this awful dialogue. The only people who saw this and liked it, in my opinion, has to be frat boys, because frat boys are stupid.

The homophobia was also very, very strong in this movie. They are constantly making jokes at Turtle's expense, because of all the weight loss, that he now must "be gay" because of how he looks. They use the word "gay" so much in the opening act, I was offended. I jut don't get, in the 21st century, why we think we are so advanced as a society, yet this word still gets used in a negative way. The word "gay" means happy, but these script writers clearly have no idea. They use it so derogatory, it was one of, if not the, main reason I quit watching after 20 minutes. The scene where Lloyd shows up and is on the phone with Ari is so offensive, I'm surprised GLAAD hasn't come out against this movie. They may have, but I've heard nothing about it. This movie is offensive.

Moving on to the acting, it is some of the worst I've seen. Adrian Grenier as Vinny Chase is about as vapid as they come. Grenier is supposed to be this guy who cares about Earth and seems to have some kind of truly good feelings, but he is so bad in this role. He has these empty stares and he delivers lines so poorly, it feels like he is reading off cue cards. Being the "star" of this movie, he fails horribly. The guy that plays Eric is about as douchey as they come. He's supposed to be the anti Ari Gold, but he is just as bad, but not as good at his job. He is forever skirting the issue and passing the buck and he never seems to truly care about throwing himself into his new job as Vinny's manager. He is also a complete dick head to the women in his life in this movie. Eric is an awful human being. Jerry Ferrara as Turtle is about as pointless as they come. He is only there now so they can make skinny jokes about him to replace the fat ones from the TV show. You could remove Turtle from this movie and not miss a beat. It would still be awful, but Turtle is about as unimportant as they come. Jeremy Piven is fine as Ari God, but I feel like Ari is just Jeremy Piven in real life. He seems like an asshole that would constantly berate people that don't seem as important to him as they may be. He is a dick head and it's easy to portray that in a dumbass movie like this.

Then there's Kevin Dillon as Johnny Drama. Johnny Drama is the worst human being in the history of the world. He is rude, crude, ignorant and dumb as hell. He is also homophobic, the biggest chauvinist and the "bro-iest" of all the bros in this movie. Don't forget that he is probably close to his 50's in this movie when you watch it(Don't watch it). Kevin Dillon, at least in my opinion, is doing his best Andrew Dice Clay impression, but that would be a slight to Andrew Dice Clay. The Diceman, yeah I said it, at least had his moment and has been decent in some recent things he's done. Kevin Dillon is just a shitty actor and this performance reaffirms this ten fold.

"Entourage The Movie" is one of the most offensive things I've ever seen and I cannot believe that it got made, that it made millions of dollars and that some dumbass critics actually gave it a good review. This movie is absolute garbage, and I gathered that after only 20 minutes.

"Entourage The Movie" stinks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host for the X Millennial Man podcast. He figures if "Entourage" gets a movie, where in the hell is the big screen adaptation of "Even Stevens". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Denver's Defense Would not Allow Peyton Manning to Lose the Super Bowl

It was better to shut your eyes than to watch the offense in Super Bowl 50

Last night Super Bowl 50 was played and once again, my prediction was wrong. 

Sorry Carolina Panthers fans for jinxing your team.

I, along with almost every other sports prognosticators, was certain that Carolina would win. I thought it was going to be close, but I thought Carolina, and more importantly Cam Newton, would be able to pull through in the clutch. Carolina has the better athletes and the better team, at least that's what I thought.

I did not think that Denver's defense would live up to the moment once again. They harassed Tom Brady all game during the AFC title game and they did the same thing to Cam Newton last night in the Super Bowl. This is what took me by surprise. Constantly getting pressure on Tom Brady seemed easy. New England's offensive line was atrocious all season, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola weren't 100 percent and Tom Brady is a very immobile QB. I assumed Cam Newton would be able to evade pressure pretty easily last night. I was extremely wrong. Newton's line gave him plenty of time, but all his receivers were blanketed all game and he held the ball much to long. Also, Damarcus Ware and Von Miller were getting to him fairly regularly.

This just wasn't the game that I thought it would be. It was one of the worst offensive performances by two teams, in any football game, let alone the Super Bowl, that I have ever witnessed. I assumed the Broncos would stall on offense most of the game. Peyton Manning is past his prime, their run game has been hit or miss all season and their receivers routinely drop passes. Carolina though, they have been running rough shot through good defenses in the regular season and the playoffs. They seemed to score at least 30 points every game. They don't have the best receivers in the NFL, not by a long shot and their running game is sub par, but they have the best QB in the NFL. Cam Newton won the MVP. I just figured he would will this team to a victory, like he has all season long. But, as I mentioned before, the Broncos defense made his life miserable all game. They constantly hit him. On designed QB runs, Denver always had two or three guys gang tackling Newton. They didn't give Newton's favorite target and safety blanket, Greg Olsen, any space. I think he only had two catches the entire game. What it all boils down to, Carolina laid an egg on offense, but I think it was due to how great of a defense Denver had this year. Everyone, myself included, kind of thought that Denver's defense was okay, but if they had to face a mobile QB like Newton, they'd be exposed. My belief in Cam Newton was so strong, I just assumed he would find a way to win this game for his team. But, that Denver defense just wouldn't allow it.

This brings me to my main point today, this 2015-2016 Denver defense is the greatest defense that I've ever watched. I know Seattle had a great defense, that destroyed pretty much the same Broncos team in Super Bowl 48, but they don't even come close to how great this Denver defense was this year, especially in the playoffs. The Ravens had a really good defense the year they won the title, but I feel like their numbers were inflated by playing a much inferior Giants team in their Super Bowl win. Some other teams in recent history have had good defenses, the Ravens again when they beat the 49ers, The Colts team that beat the Bears, hell, even the Packers defense when they beat the Steelers was in the top 10 of the league, but none of them compare to Denver. Now, I was only 3 years old and I only know them from stories and old NFL Films shows on ESPN, but I feel like this Denver defense is right up there with the 1985 Bears defense. You know the one I'm talking about, the one with William "The Refrigerator" Perry, Ron Rivera, coach of the Panthers last night, Richard Dent and Mike Singletary, among many others. They are the supposed "greatest defense" of all time. Now, this may be blasphemy, or just my age, but I feel like this Broncos defense is a better defense than the 85 Bears.

Hear me out Generation Xers and Baby Boomers.

The 85 Bears were dominant, but they had a very competent offense to go along with their legendary defense. Sure, Jim McMahon is not the best QB to play in the NFL, but at that time, he was better than Peyton Manning was last night. They also had Walter Payton. No way are CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman even close to being on Walter Payton's planet. They had good receivers and tight ends that weren't used a lot, but they didn't need to be because they had Walter god damn Payton. This Broncos defense had to win games for them this year. Sure, if the 85 Bears offense gave their defense 14, it was a done deal, but for this Broncos team to win, they needed scores from their defense, because their offense sure as hell wasn't performing at any level. Peyton Manning is an all time great, but near the end of that game, while it was still a one score game at 16-10, Gary Kubiak and the offensive staff of the Broncos did not trust him to throw the ball. They would rather run it three times, gain 6 or 7 yards and punt it away and let their defense do their magnificent work. And that defense delivered with flying colors.

Anytime Carolina looked like they may grab some kind of moment, Denver would come up with a sack, a fumble of a tipped pass on third down to force a punt. They did this all throughout the playoffs. When the Steelers had the ball, driving to salt the game away, boom, fumble recovered by Denver that leads to a game winning field goal. Two weeks ago against the Patriots, they made Brady look like a mediocre QB and shut all their weapons down. Sure, Gronk had over 100 yards receiving, but 90 of that came on two plays. Denver won that game because of their shut down defense. And then last night, against the best offense, by a wide margin, in the NFL, they held them to 10 points and just barely over 200 yards total offense. They even scored a TD for the team on a strip sack. Von Miller and Damarcus Ware looked like the future Hall of Famers that they will be all game last night, especially Miller. Miller had 6 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles, the first leading to a TD. He was a man amongst boys last night. He's a free agent going onto this off season and his performance last night is going to make him a very, very rich man. I was so glad that they gave him the Super Bowl MVP too.

I was petrified, literally, that they'd give it to Peyton Manning because that's what jackasses like Phil Simms and especially Jim Nantz and the majority of the people watching last night wanted to happen. They so badly wanted Manning to be the guy to will this team to the win, but he did next to nothing in the game. He was under 50 percent completion, he passes looked slow and downright bad, he had happy feet all night and he looked scared. His team didn't even have faith in him to throw in the 4th quarter, as I said before. The run game wasn't really there either, so CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman were out of the MVP talk quick. But, the deserving player got it. Von Miller and the Broncos defense won that Super Bowl, no ifs ands or buts about it.

This game will go down as one of the most ugly offensive performances of all time, but that Broncos defense is legit. To me, they are the greatest defense of all time. But, the unfortunate thing, no one will remember them because this was probably Peyton Manning's last game. That's all the sports media will remember and that is a travesty. We just witnessed the greatest defensive playoff run of all time, but the casual fan will only remember it being Peyton's last game. That is a shame. The true football fan will realize we just witnessed greatness, but that's only about 25 percent of the population.

So yeah, good for you Peyton, you were part of the team that may go down as having the best defense of all time, but no one will remember how truly remarkable this defense was because you were on that team and you are the "star" player. But, I say congrats to the Denver defense. You guys were the ones that made this Super Bowl win possible and I will remember this game for your dominating performance. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He wants to welcome Peyton Manning to the club of bad quarterbacks on winning Super Bowl teams. Trent Dilfer and Jeff Hostetler will pour you a drink. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Millennial Memories From a Decade Plus Worth of Super Bowls

Many of our memories are of the food being better than the game.

With Super Bowl 50 just around the corner, I want to look back at some Super Bowl memories that I have had over the past decade plus. I've watched a lot of football in that period of time and I have some good and not so good memories of Super Bowl's past. I know that I wouldn't get the exact Super Bowl number, so I will just describe some teams and some of the games that I remember and I'm sure that most people would be able to pick the game I'm talking about. First, I want to go back to the early to mid nineties. Those Super Bowl's are some of my very first memories of realizing that this is a big game. I don't so much remember the games, but I remember moments and, more importantly, teams.

First of all, I was a big time band wagon fan when I was a child. Whichever team won the Super Bowl, that was my favorite team and the team I remember being on the bandwagon for the Dallas Cowboys of the mid 90's. Looking back on it now, I despise this team, but when I was a kid, they were the champs, so I rooted for the champs. If I could go back in time, I'd yell at the young me for being a fan of this team. They were so arrogant and so flamboyant, and as I've gotten older, I'm all about "acting like you've been there before". I don't need flash, just score a TD, give the ball to the ref and go to the sideline. That's why I like Barry Sanders so much. That Cowboys team though, save for Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, were all about flash. I loved it as a kid, but as an adult, I don't care for it. But, that Cowboys team, for a young football fan, was so easy to like and say you were a fan.

The team I should have stuck up for back then was the Buffalo Bills. They played the game the way it was supposed to be played, but added that up tempo, no huddle offense. They were a ton of fun to watch and I liked Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas just as much, if not more, than Aikman and Smith. The Bills also had one of my all time favorite players, Bruce Smith. But, they couldn't get over the hump, especially against the Cowboys. The Bills were the only team to make four straight Super Bowls, and they lost all four of them, three via blowouts. Everyone remembers Scott Norwood and wide right, but what I remember most about those Bills-Cowboys Super Bowls, was Don Beebe chasing down Leon Lett and striping the ball out of his hands. That game was an absolute blow out, but Beebe still wouldn't throw in the towel and after chasing Lett down and stripping the ball, John Madden said something that I will never forget, "Don Beebee is the fastest white guy in the NFL". At the time, I thought it was weird and if a commentator said something like that now, it would be a huge deal all over the internets.

Moving on to more modern Super Bowl memories, I remember when the Rams won their Super Bowl while in Saint Louis. They had one of the best offenses in the history of the NFL and I thought that they were going to crush the Tennessee Titans, but that didn't happen. Now, the Rams won, but it was a low scoring slug fest type of game with Mike Jones tackling Kevin Dyson at the one yard line to preserve the win for the Rams. It was their defense, not their historically great offense, that won that game for them. Then, when they played the New England Patriots, led by backup QB Tom Brady, the next year, it was a foregone conclusion that the Rams would win again. They had the much better team and much better players. Then, the game happened and the Patriots won on a last second field goal. People will look back at that game and say that the Patriots only won because of "spygate", but Bill Belichek outcoached Mike Martz and no matter how much "spygate" may have helped them, the Patriots played a much better game and Martz sorely underused his best offensive weapon, Marshall Faulk. That Super Bowl was a great example of one coach being prepared and the other coach being very under prepared. That 's why the Patriots won.

And thus, began the dominating run of the Patriots. Sure, teams like Pittsburgh and my Green Bay Packers and the Seahawks and the Colts have won Super Bowls in this time, but the one consistent team has been the Patriots. They have played in 11 of the last 15 AFC championship games and they've been to 6 Super Bowls, winning four of them. I already talked about them beating the Rams. They've also beaten the Eagles in a Super Bowl. That Eagles team had Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens, but that wasn't enough to beat the Patriots. What I remember most about that Super Bowl was McNabb barfing in the huddle and Owens making great catches and then excuses for why it wasn't his, but everyone else's fault, that the Eagles got beat. I remember their Super Bowl win over the Carolina Panthers. The Patriots should have won that game going away, but Tom Brady threw one of the worst interceptions I've ever seen with a 14 point lead and the Panthers came all the way back to tie the game. Then, their kicker kicks the ball out of bounds, gives the Patriots excellent field position, and they win by a field goal once again. Then, their two losses to the Giants. One, they were undefeated and favored by 10 plus points. There was no way they were losing that game. But, the Giants constantly harassed Brady and they couldn't get their offense rolling. They still had a chance to win, but Eli Manning chucked the ball up in the air, after evading multiple sack attempts, and David Tyree made the best, and his last, catch I've ever seen. He pinned that ball to his helmet and the Giants went on to win by a field goal. Their second loss to the Giants also came down to one team dropping a pass, the Patriots and Wes Welker, and the other team making a miraculous catch, the Giants and Mario Manningham. That drop that Welker had was crushing. Had he caught that ball, the Patriots could have easily salted the clock away. But, that catch by Manningham, on a terrible throw from Eli Manning, was humongous and that kept the game winning drive alive. The Patriots played in last years Super Bowl, and they should have lost, until Pete Carroll and his offensive staff made the worst play call of all time. Why on earth they did not give that ball to Marshawn Lynch on the one yard line is still extremely baffling. But, Brady did pick apart the "legion of boom" and put his team in position to win, as he always does.

Now, I'm by no means a Patriots fan. I'm indifferent when it comes to them, but they have been the one team that has always been there at the end. Like I said, they've been in 11 AFC title games in 15 years, and they've won more tan half of them. This is why they're so prevalent in my recent Super Bowl memories, I will never forget the Packers win over the Steelers, but I can't help but notice how the Patriots are always in it until the very end. They're the most dominating team I've watched and that is why they are the team and they've played in the Super Bowls games that I remember most.

With all that being said, I hope we get a good, memorable game on Sunday so I can start making new memories about a new team, be it Carolina or Denver.

I think it will be Carolina.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Do you love reading about his memories, well tomorrow you can hear him tell the stories on the X Millennial Man podcast. Read more from Ty by following him on twitter @tykulik.

Martin Shkreli is the Hero America Deserves

This is the normal physical reaction when one hears the words "Martin Shkreli"

The internet's latest ragefest is all about "pharma-bro" Martin Shkreli. According to the masses Mr. Shkreli is an abomination of a human being with no empathy and a total disregard for a civilized society. He is a spoiled punk brat who uses his influence to make money off of the backs of the less fortunate. He has no remorse. He has no compassion. He is a monster. Martin Shkreli is so bad, that our incompetent elected officials in Washington D.C. are being seen as the sympathetic party when it comes to Mr Shkreli's testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. When one person can make the idiots in Congress looks good, that person deserves to be demonized.

I am not here to demonize Martin Shkreli, I am here to praise him. I in no way support the idea of jacking up the price of a life saving drug in order to make another billion. That is monsterous. The question I have is what law did he break (there is the securities fraud issue, but he has not been convicted of anything)? The press likes to focus on the obscene mark-up on the life saving drug Daraprim. By raising the price 5556% ($13.50 a dose to $750.00 a dose) Mr. Shkreli put lives in danger. Daraprim is used to treat infections in HIV positive patients, and is used globally to treat and prevent malaria. The World Health Organization lists the drug as an essential medicine. This mark-up on a life saving drug, coupled with Martin Shkreli's arrogance, has made the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO a popular target for people fed up with corporate greed. The problem is that by raising the price on Daraprim, Mr. Shkreli did not break the law. He embraced a culture that is encouraged by our government and society as a whole. Plus, Martin Shkreli is not the first person to do this.

The practice of pharma companies buying generic drugs and radically raising their prices is not new. Do you know anyone with asthma? There is a very good chance that the asthmatic person uses an inhaler with the drug Albuterol sulfate. This is a life saving medicine for a very treatable illness. In 2013 Albuterol sulfate was $11 a dose. Six months later the price had gone up to $434 a dose, an increase of 4014%. Where was the public outrage towards the pharma companies? The drug was another off patent drug, but the delivery system (inhaler) needed to be redesigned because of new government regulations. The Pharma companies knew the inhalers would be protected by patents, so they jacked up the price of Albuterol to make some extra money (Mother Jones has a nice article describing the situation). I never remember seeing congress scolding at the CEO responsible for this greed?

There are many more drugs, ones not owned by Turing Pharmaceuticals, that have had their prices skyrocket. In 2014 Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) launched a Congressional investigation into the skyrocketing cost of generic drugs. They put together a list of drugs that have recently seen a drastic increase in cost (see the list) and tried to get answers from the pharma companies. There were no answers, there was no public outcry, there was no congressional investigation, there was no prosecution, and there was no change in the laws to make this practice illegal.. These pharma companies were just doing what the United States government allows them to do. 

Now the government wants to get serious because Martin Shkreli is an unlikable fellow. The Republicans (you know the free market guys) and Democrats decide to use Mr. Shkreli as their scapegoat for their own incompetence. They have no case. Representative Cummings  stupidly decided to attack Mr. Shkreli because of the purchase by the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO of the one of a kind Wu-Tang Clan album. If I had a few billion dollars I would have bought the Wu-Tang Clan album, they are one of the greatest american bands ever. What is the point of attacking the man for having great taste in music. That whole tirade by Representative Cummings proves that the government is showboating. Those Representatives created this America, Martin Shkreli is just getting rich off of their incompetence.

It is also amusing that all the supposed free market Republicans want to attack Mr. Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals for the price gouge. These bozos have been defending corporate greed for decades. Why are we not yelling at the health insurance companies who are making money off of people getting sick? They set arbitrary prices all the time just to make a few extra billion. The same charlatans in Congress who got mad at Mr. Shkreli will turn around and praise government welfare queens like Jamie Diamon and other business leaders who depend on bailouts. The only reason Congress decided to grill Martin Shkreli is because the internet is mad at him. There is nothing that can be done to stop him. Well the government could try to pass some laws to make this practice illegal, but that will never happen. The Republicans and Democrats alike would never upset their big money donors, no matter how many people need to suffer. 

Martin Shkreli is an american hero. He is the embodiment of the modern American dream. Born to immigrants who worked as janitors, Martin Shkreli made his way in the world be exploiting our inhumane economic culture. We celebrate these people as geniuses. America deserves Martin Shkreli. He is the hero we deserve. He got rich with shady legal practices, he increases his wealth with inhuman actions, and he smirks his way through life. He is a modern American creation. Plus he is also quite aware that Congress is full of imbeciles. While kids are getting poisoned in Flint, Michigan, through the direct fault of the government, the US Congress wants to scold a successful business man. That is the mark of a house led by imbeciles. Thanks you American hero Martin Shkreli for speaking the truth.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. Do you want to sing the praises of the downtrodden? Come write for us.  

The Greatest Television Ever: "Undeclared"

Getting back to our debate about great TV shows, TV moments and seasons of certain shows, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite shows that only got one short, 17 episode season, but it was a phenomenal season and very memorable. The show I'm going to talk about today is "Undeclared".

"Undeclared" is one of the best, most underrated shows of all time. It was so far ahead of it's time and anyone that watched the show, and spent at least one semester in college, could relate to it 100 percent. "Undeclared" is the best representation of everyone's freshman year in college. Every topic they covered in their lone season, every college student went through one way or another. It was that relatable.

Take their pilot episode. Steven(Jay Baruchel), meets his roommates, Ron(Seth Rogen), Lloyd(Charlie Hunnam) and Marshall(Tim Sharpp) and they are stand offish at first because that's how 18 year olds act when they first meet. It doesn't help that Steven's dad, played by Loudon Wainwright, won't leave his side because he's depressed about his divorce and the fact that his son his going away to college. Steven also meets Lizzie(Carla Gallo) and he's immediately smitten. He was a nerdy high school kid that never really had any girlfriends, so he figures college is the perfect chance to change his image. He wants to be a cool guy now and he tries this on Lizzie, and it works. She sleeps with him that night, but we come to find out later that she has an older boyfriend, played by Jason Segel, that lives back home. Lizzie only slept with Steven because she was fighting with her boyfriend, and she wanted to get revenge. Steven thinks that they are now a couple, but after many conversations with his roommates, he comes to realize that he was just a pawn and that Lizzie wasn't going to leave her boyfriend. This is a great representation of all the things that could go wrong on your first day of college. Crazy stuff can happen that will forever alter your life.

We also meet Lizzie's roommate in the pilot, Rachel(Monica Keena), and she's one of the first characters I'd ever seen on TV that showed the same type of anxiety that I had when I went away to college. She was frightened, lonely and missed her high school friends and her family. I personally related to all of that. Now, Monica found ways to deal with her anxiety and her character only grew from there. I wimped out and left college after one semester.

That first episode had it all. It one hundred percent got the first day of college correct. I was hooked. Look at some of those names I mentioned too. People like Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, Charlie Hunnam and Jason Segel were all still relative unknowns while on this show. Now, most of them have had very successful careers, especially Rogen and Segel.

Back to some of the themes in the episodes that epitomize freshman year of college. There's an episode where Steven decides he wants to join a fraternity and he is put through hell, only to get his revenge on the president of the frat, played by Samm Levine. This episode was great. They made Steven do some stupid, childish things that no person should be made to so, but that's what dumbass fraternity guys do. Steven gets fed up, and with the constant urging from his roommates to not even join the frat, Steven and his roommates come up with a plan to make the president of the frat do the same stupid stuff. And, after they catch him and try to force him to eat an entire jar of pickles, he relents and says that all the frat stuff is stupid and lets Steven walk with no consequences. Or, there's the episode centered around Marshall's crush on Monica. Monica is so sweet and nice, but she is oblivious to Marshall's feelings and after she finally realizes this, it's too late to tell him she just wants to be friends, Marshall is in too deep and he will always love Monica. She doesn't reciprocate the feelings, but they stay friends throughout the show's run. We could talk about any episode with Lloyd and how he is a total ladies man and the envy of his roommates, but how not every girl is receptive to his moves. He has the smooth English accent, and while it works on most ladies, there is an episode where it totally backfires and he has to lick his wounds and realize that he may not be the ladies man he has made himself out to be. The character of Lloyd is a perfect portrayal of the student that comes from overseas and thinks they are the coolest guy, but they are just like every one else in college, just trying to find their way. They also have run ins with RA's, they go to a live Adam Sandler show and then get to hang out with him and his crew afterward, they have dorm parties and they talk and deal with the good and the bad like any real life college student would.

"Undeclared" is excellent. This show also had some huge guest stars. Some were recurring, others may have been on only once or twice. I just mentioned Adam Sandler, but some other guests were Jenna Fischer as a badass sorority girl, Amy Poehler as an over sexualized RA obsessed with Lloyd, Fred Willard as a professor that's lost his love for teaching, Will Ferrell as a Ritalin dealer that also has answer keys to finals and Martin Starr as Steven's super nerdy high school best friend. This was another Judd Apatow show that Fox gave up on way too early, much like "Freaks and Geeks". Apatow had a knack for grabbing these certain moments in young kids lives and portraying them perfectly for the TV viewing public. He hasn't made many great movies lately, but I will always be thankful to him for creating "Freaks and Geeks" and, more importantly for me, "Undeclared".

If you haven't watched "Undeclared", go back and check it out. I believe it may be streaming on Netflix (ed note: It unfortunately left Netflix late last year). and it is well worth your time. You'll thank me after you watch it, I promise you that, especially if you spent at least one semester in college. It is very, very relatable and extremely well made.

I will always have a spot in my heart for the great "Undeclared".

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He left college because they had no major for podcasting, since the term and technology was yet to be invented. You must absolutely follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Robert Johnson

For the greatest American band debate, I'm going to go off the board and nominate a solo artist. I know this is "against the rules" and it doesn't fit the title, but without this musician, modern rock and roll and modern blues wouldn't exist. Those are, arguably, the two most important genres of music. This person is also a personal musical idol of mine and it pains me that I've waited this long to put this person in the conversation. I know, people will tell me that this opens up a while new can or worms and makes solo artists viable for this discussion, but the person I'm going to talk about today is so groundbreaking, he deserves to be talked about more than any other American musician, in my personal opinion. I did a whole article on influential bands, but this guy deserves his own, separate piece. He is a blues god and, without him, I never would have even thought about picking up a guitar. The artist I'm talking about is Robert Johnson.

It does not get any better than Robert Johnson for me. He is a legendary figure in music. He is, at least to me, the greatest musician of all time. He even has a very cool, very crazy backstory. Anyone that knows blues music, and knows of Robert Johnson, has heard the story about him meeting the devil at the crossroads and selling his soul to be an excellent singer and guitar player. If he did truly do this, he got what he wanted for the large price of his soul. He is the greatest guitar player ever. Go back and listen to him play.

Some will say that it sounds simple and blues music is just three chords and 12 bars. Not true. The stuff he was doing, in the 20's mind you, was so far ahead of the game, it's astounding. He was so ahead of his time as a guitar player. Take a song like "Come on in My Kitchen". It is one of the first times anyone had heard this incredible 12 bar blues and that sliding sound he was playing on the guitar. It was so foreign to people back then and he was just getting started. Some of his songs, which he wrote, are some of the most famous songs in music history and have been covered thousands of times by hundreds of musicians and bands. "Sweet Home Chicago" is one of the most famous blues songs. Robert Johnson wrote that. "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", the first song I learned on slide guitar and has been covered by some famous musician every decade since the 50's, Robert Johnson wrote that. "30-20" blues, the first blues song to break away from the traditional 12 bar blues, Robert Johnson wrote that. "They're Red Hot", the first blues/rag time type song, Robert Johnson wrote that. "Stop Breakin Down Blues", the first rock/blues song, Robert Johnson wrote that. "Phonograph Blues", one of the first songs about getting a phone call, Robert Johnson wrote that. "Rambling On My mind", one of the first country/blues songs, Robert Johnson wrote that. I mean, I could go on and on, but I feel like that is a great sample size of all the brilliant stuff that Robert Johnson created.

Robert Johnson is THE most influential artist of all time. Yeah, he was taught and brought into the music world by Son House, another one of my favorites and a legend, but Robert Johnson took what Son House taught him and rose it to a historic level. He made blues music that much better and that much more influential. And when Son House turned to religion, Robert Johnson stayed dark and continued to make excellent, groundbreaking music.

Let's take a look at some of the artists that have covered his stuff. and yes, not all of these bands are American, but the point is the influence Robert Johnson had on all music. Led Zepellin and the Rolling Stones have covered pretty much every song written by Robert Johnson and a lot of those songs are some of their biggest hits. "Traveling Riverside Blues", on the album "Led Zepellin: Live at the BBC" is one of their biggest and best songs. Jimmy Page does his best Robert Johnson impression and he crushes it. The Rolling Stones "Love in Vain" is a humongous hit for them and that wouldn't have been possible if not for Robert Johnson. Eric Clapton has covered a ton of Robert Johnson songs, hell, he made an entire album that is all Robert Johnson songs, but his best is "Sweet Home Chicago". Clapton shreds this song and he owes it all to Robert Johnson. A band I wrote about last week, The White Stripes, do an excellent cover of "Stop Breakin Down Blues". They make it a rock song, but they also pay homage to Johnson by keeping the lyrics the same. "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" has been covered by everyone from Elmore James to The Red Shirt Freshman(my brothers loving name given to my "band").

Robert Johnson was taken far too young, at the tender age of 28. Some people say it was the devil coming to collect payment, others say he died from syphilis. While the syphilis is the more likely scenario, I like to believe the other version. He could have done so much more, but what he did was so earth shattering and so influential, he 100 percent belongs in this conversation. Without Robert Johnson, we would never have gotten some of the greatest songs and greatest bands of all time. Robert Johnson is the best musician to ever walk the face of the earth.

No doubt about it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The head editor is going to send Ty a dictionary with and open to the page with the defination for the word band. Have you followed Ty on twitter? Get to it @tykulik.

Ty has Three Questions and One Plea for Calvin Johnson

Calvin Johnson gives lions a good name. I hope he doesn't leave

With the news of Calvin Johnson retiring, I'm going to pose three questions today. Is he is truly retiring, is he trying to get a new contract, or is he trying to get out of Detroit? That's the first three things that popped into my mind and I'll try to answer each one individually today.

First, let's look at the first one, is he really retiring? I don't know, but I do know, this is the one scenario I believe the least. Sure, Peter King, who's a total idiot and 100 percent in the bag for the NFL and Roger Goodell, was on "PTI" yesterday and he didn't hesitate when asked if he was really retiring. He was quick with an emphatic yes. He seems to think that the NFL has taken a toll on his body. Other journalist seem to agree with this assessment. And yes, he has been in the league for almost 10 years now, and that will take a toll on your body, especially when you are the number one receiver on your team. Not only was he the number one guy, but he was, as little as two years ago, the best receiver in the game. He was unstoppable. Matt Stafford would throw into double and triple coverage over and over again and Johnson would some how come down with the ball. That being said, he would end up getting hit a lot more than say a Dez Bryant or a Demaryius Thomas. Those guys had QB's that would throw the ball to the outside or low so they could get out of bounds or down to the ground without absorbing multiple hits. That's not the case for Johnson. He would go after every jump ball and every pass over the middle, no matter what, subjecting himself to getting blown up by safeties and linebackers alike. And, in the past two years, while he's been great, he hasn't been the same player that he was. He was dropping more passes and fumbling the ball a lot more. I personally think he was trying to protect himself, the right thing to do, and that was causing the new problems. So, yeah, maybe he is actually retiring. One person can only take so much pain and hitting and it's his right to walk away if he wants to. I just don't buy it, in my personal opinion.

The next question I will try to answer is, is he trying to get a new contract. Let's face it, football has the shortest shelf life as far as a career in pro sports goes. Players are lucky if they can play for 10 plus years and they will still walk away with lifelong injuries. Players can also get cut at the drop of a hat. Look at a guy like Steven Jackson. He was one of the top running backs in the league less than 5 years ago, he leaves the Rams, joins the Falcons, barely plays and gets cut before this season starts. Sure, he got signed by the Patriots at the end of the season, but that's because they were desperate for a running back. These guys need to get contracts that benefit them because of how short their careers usually are. And the contracts, they are, for the most part, extremely heavy with almost impossible bonus goals. Some guys have clauses in their contract that have things like, score 20 rushing touchdowns or get 20 receiving touchdowns or record 22 sacks or throw 45 touchdown passes or have 125 catches or get 10 interceptions. They want these type of things done in one season. That's insane and damn near impossible. The last QB to throw for more than 40 TD's in a season was Peyton Manning two years ago. Sure, Julio Jones had 125 plus catches this year, but he had to average damn near 10 catches a game. I can't think of the last running back to rush for 20 plus touchdowns. And I don't think any cornerback has had more than 10 interceptions in a season. These contracts are ridiculous. With that being said, Calvin Johnson is probably trying to restructure his contract to be a bit more friendly and the Detroit front office probably told him to take a hike. But now, he says he's retiring, maybe that front office will change their minds to work with their best player since Barry Sanders. That would be a smart business move by Calvin Johnson.

The last question I'll attack, is he just trying to get out of Detroit? If he is, he will have to be traded, which poses the biggest road block to this tactic. He is under contract and the only way he could leave Detroit is by trade or if they just straight up cut him. They aren't going to cut him, but what if a great deal comes across their desk? Let's look at a few contenders who could use a guy like Calvin Johnson to put them over the top. First, the New England Patriots. They don't have any decent draft picks to offer, but they have some depth at running back and on defense. They could offer up Dion Lewis, Chandler Jones and a later round pick to add Calvin Johnson. I don't think Detroit would do it, but New England would be stupid not to. Can you imagine how good their offense would be with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Calvin Johnson. Damn that'd be scary. But, the Patriots have bigger issues, mainly their offensive line. How about the Green Bay Packers. Now, I'm sure Detroit would be very hesitant to trade Johnson to a division rival, but what if the Packers offered Davante Adams, Richard Rodgers and either James Starks or Eddie Lacy. The trade would help both teams and the Packers would have three of the best receivers in football. They could line up Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson and Calvin Johnson. That move would make me very, very happy, but I know it won't happen. One last team I want to talk about is a team getting ready to play in the Super Bowl, the Carolina Panthers. They have Cam Newton, but their receiving core leaves a lot to be desired. Guys like Jericho Cotchery and Ted Ginn Jr are only getting older and they aren't that great to begin with. They have young receivers that still need to prove themselves in Devin Funchess and Kelvin Benjamin, but add Calvin Johnson to that mix, I can't think of a better mentor for them. I'm sure they'd have to give up one of those young guys and a defensive star, say Josh Norman, but I think the Carolina front office would be foolish to not try and get Johnson to go along with Cam Newton. That would be one hell of a QB and WR combo. Johnson made Stafford look good, so think of what he would do for Cam Newton, who's already a star. I know that all these are pretty far fetched, but crazier things have happened in the NFL.

To wrap it all up, I just hope Calvin Johnson isn't really going to walk away at 30 years old. I thoroughly enjoy watching him play football and I have family members that are big Lions fans and Calvin Johnson has been their only hope for the last decade. He is an awesome football player that is in his prime and I think it'd be crazy for him to walk away, but it's his choice and his life. If he does walk away, it's been a ton of fun to see you play. But, if you stick around, which I hope and think you will, it will be a pleasure to watch you make one incredible catch after the next.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. Tune in tomorrow to the X Millennial Man and hear Ty's "big game" prediction. Once you give a listen make sure to follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Day After: Iowa Edition

Your up next New Hampshire

Now begins the end of our long national headache. Iowa has spoken and it's majority old white male population has decided on Texas Senator Ted Cruz and defender of personal home computer servers Hillary Rodham Clinton. Pack up your bags, we do not need to worry about anything until the general election on November 8th. The nation will make history on that day when we elected the first female President in United States history. This by no means is a statement of political preference, Hillary Clinton will steamroll Ted Cruz. The national electoral numbers favor the Democratic party nominee, and Ted Cruz cannot grow any new voters. Many republicans will not vote for the Texas senator who has made a career out of being an obstructionist and demeaning people in his own party. Thank the gods this whole affair is over. Iowa has spoken, the nominees are set.

How much I wish it was true that the 2016 Presidential campaign was complete. Once the votes are certified in Iowa, the annoying itch of Election 2016 is going to turn into a painful infected sore. The media has doubled down on their incompetence in trying to turn the election of the President into an awful reality show. The news out of Iowa was presented in two ways - Donald Trump loses and Hillary Clinton barely won. New Hampshire will be reported in exactly the same way. The press knows they get ratings when they talk about Trump's ascension and Clinton's struggles. Ratings are way more important than actual journalism. We deserve real journalism in respect to who we elected to lead the nation.

So did the Iowa caucuses actually tell us anything of value concerning the Presidential campaign season? Iowa is a valuable predictor for the Democratic party nominee, not so much for the Republican. Over the last twenty years the eventual Democratic Party nominee has won every Iowa Caucus.  In contrast only Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 (unopposed) has won the caucus. Go back another twenty years and the only Democratic Party nominees to lose the caucus are Bill Clinton in 1992 and Michael Dukakis in 1988. The only Republican nominees to win the caucus are an unopposed Ronald Reagan in 1984 and incumbent Gerald Ford eked out a victory in 1976. In the last forty years the Democratic nominee has won eight out of ten Iowa caucus where the Republican nominee has won five out of ten (two of those Republican wins were by incumbent Presidents who were unopposed in Iowa). If the Iowa Caucus did say anything about the 2016 election it is that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party nominee and the Republican Party is still in disarray.

The tight margin of victory in Hillary Clinton's win is something the candidate should be worried about. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made a better showing in Iowa than expected. His near win is due to the great ground organization his campaign built in the Hawkeye state. Hillary Clinton dismissed Barack Obama'a ground game in 2008, and she never recovered. It does look like the former Senator and Secretary of State may be making the same mistake again. Bill Clinton barely registered in Iowa during the 1992 caucus, but still won the nomination and eventually the White House that year. His biggest opposition, Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt,  did not take Bill Clinton seriously as a candidate. The conventional wisdom was that Gephardt was the true democrat, and Clinton was not in line with the party's philosophy. Bill Clinton capitalized on the youth vote who felt disconnected from the old Democratic Party. This strategy helped sustain the Clinton campaign, and the out of touch Gephardt was eventually defeated. Hillary Clinton seems to be having the same Bill Clinton problem that Dick Gephardt had. Bernie Sanders is going right after the established DC Democratic Party machine, and he is winning the youth vote. Barack Obama has proven you can beat Hillary Clinton with this strategy. The Iowa Caucus did show us that Hillary Clinton is once again relying on the money from the old Democratic machine, and is quickly being seen as out of touch with the youth vote. She needs to be afraid of losing the nomination again if she does not start embracing the Democratic Party that sits outside of the DC think tanks. Iowa should be a wake up call to her campaign.

Ted Cruz's narrow win does not mean a thing. He won Iowa, like Rick Santorum in 2012 and Mike Huckabee in 2008. The Republicans in Iowa sure do like their candidates that have zero shot on winning the nomination. Bob Dole crushed eventual nominee George H.W. Bush in 1998. Republican Presidential nominee John McCain finished a distant fourth place in 2008. Iowa is completely insignificant to the national Republican Party. The New Hampshire Primary is a much better predictor for who will be the party's nominee. Since 1952 the eventual Republican Party Presidential nominee has won the New Hampshire Primary thirteen out of sixteen times. On the day after Iowa, the Republican Party is right where it was on the day before.

The beginning of the end that is the 2016 Presidential campaign has begun. The caucus goers of Iowa have spoken, and told us nothing. The Clinton campaign needs to learn from 2008 and not make the same mistakes. It does not look like they have learned. The Republican Party needs to not read that much into Ted Cruz's victory, Iowa rarely matters to their base. The 2016 election has officially started. Our long national headache is coming to an end.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He really wants some great writers to assist him with the 2016 election season - write for SeedSing. He also really wants to pay those writers - Support SeedSing.

We Need To Stop Making Excuses For Violent Athletes

Violent people belong behind a fence with razor wire, not in our arenas and stadiums.

With the news coming out last week that Blake Griffin will miss the majority of the regular season after punching the Clippers equipment manager, repeatedly, and breaking his shooting hand, I ask everyone today, why do we let athletes get away with heinous acts like this? Why did Blake Griffin feel the need to punch this guy so many times, in the face, to the point of injuring himself? And why are their people out their defending him? I heard Charles Barkley, my all time favorite basketball player, on Bill Simmons podcast recently say that "this stuff happens all the time" and that we "shouldn't overreact to this news". That's insane! If any regular Joe did this at their job, they'd be fired immediately, no questions asked. But, we as a society, feel like it's okay to give professional athletes a pass and that is very disturbing.

In the last two years, we've had far too many incidents involving violent behavior coming from pro athletes. And yes, football is the main culprit, but it's spilling over into other pro sports. The athletes that are involved in these incidents are pretty famous too. Kids are supposed to look up to these people. I've written about how terrible Hope Solo, Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice are on the site before, but lets not forget about Aroldis Chapman's domestic violence charge that was recently dropped. A trade was voided because the Dodgers didn't want that PR mess. He was basically a sitting duck until the New York Yankees traded for him and the whole story went away. Or what about all the off season, in season and now post season stuff that's coming out about Greg Hardy? He abuses multiple women, still gets a contract from the Dallas Cowboys, has multiple fights with multiple teammates during the season and now, in the offseason, he can't seem to stop partying. Why does he still get a free pass from the morons over at ESPN? Also, in the college ranks, look at former Missouri QB Matty Mauk. He had to get suspended four times before they kicked him off the team and they only kicked him off when a video of him doing cocaine surfaced. He's not some hot shot QB that's going to help Missouri win many games, but he was a division one caliber QB so he got way more chances than any other non student athlete at Missouri gets because he's good at sports. Why the double standard? It's not fair to the 95 percent of students that don't play sports. They slip up once, they're expelled. But, if you're competent at football, you get way too many chances. That doesn't seem fair.

Now, there's this new story about Johnny Manziel physically assaulting his ex girlfriend that ESPN and Jerry Jones will certainly try to cover up. How many chances does this punk get? He has made mistake after mistake since his sophomore year of college, but everyone seems to write it off. He can showboat and anchors think it's him getting in opponents head, not him being a selfish asshole. Then he slips in the draft because of "character issues", but that's not his fault either. When he does get on the field in the NFL, he looks lost and slow, but it's never his fault, it's coaching and system. When he goes to rehab, but then is spotted 6 months later drinking on the bye week, it's said that he's a young kid and young kids make mistakes. And now we have the second time that he's been brought up on physical abuse charges. People seem to have already forgotten that he was charged with pushing his ex girlfriend's head into the car window before the season started and now there is this new story of him assaulting her at, you guessed it, a bar. Why does this born with a silver spoon, spoiled punk keep getting second, third and fourth chances. He's not a good pro and he's an even worse person. He needs to be in a real rehab, getting real help. I don't need to hear Tony Kornheiser and Ron Jaworski make anymore excuses for Johnny Manziel. I'm fed up with it.

Which brings me to Blake Griffin. The stuff I've heard, from people I really respect, people like Charles Barkley, Bill Simmons, Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton, just to name a few, is downright absurd and kind of disturbing. Like I said with Barkley earlier, he claims this happens all the time. That doesn't make it right. That is not a viable excuse for someone to physically attack someone smaller than them. The only repercussion that Simmons, Lowe and Pelton can seem to find is to trade him to a different team. Oh yeah, go let him beat up some other team's equipment manager, that will solve his anger problem. These same guys will say, "he apologized, it's over", are dead wrong. You know how many times physical abusers apologize, then do the same exact thing a month later? The vast majority of them. My mom works in a battered women and children's center and she's told me some of the guys have apologized upwards of 10 to 15 times, only to abuse again and again. In fact, and I'll give Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon credit here, they are the only two sports anchors I've heard say that Blake Griffin needs to be suspended immediately for at least, the rest of the season. I agree, except they should have added, suspended without pay. It's like I said earlier, anyone that works a regular job, if they physically attacked someone, they'd get fired that instance, without hesitation. But, there's that double standard with pro sports. I've also heard some of the people that are pro Blake Griffin say that they've been mad enough at a friend to hit them, but they never say that they actually hit them. This is no real friendship if Blake Griffin thinks it's okay to punch this guy until he breaks his hand. This is a sickening act done by a disturbed man child.

I wish we as a society made these abusive athletes responsible for their heinous actions. Instead, we sweep it under the rug and forget about. and therein lies the problem. Everyone needs to be held accountable by the horrible things they do, pro athlete or not.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He was once so mad at the head editor that Ty beat him by 80 on NCAA Football 2006. No hitting, just humiliation. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Donald Trump and the Extinction of the White Man

Welcome to the fossil record GOP

Contrary to popular belief, Charles Darwin was not the first person to use the term  "survival of the fittest". Philosopher Herbert Spencer used Darwin's ideas of natural selection and incorporated them into the social economic world. In the late 19th century the the use of "survival of the fittest" was being co opted by people believing in the idea of Social Darwinism. Many business men, right wing philosophers, and politicians would use the "science" of Social Darwinism to justify their consumption of natural resources, their lust for war, their consolidation of wealth, and their misogyny and racism. All of the practitioners of Social Darwinism were white men.

Donald Trump is not a Republican, at least not in the way the Republican Party has been trying to brand itself. The current GOP believes that the public sees them as a small government alternative to the tax and spend ideals of the Democratic Party. The Republican PR machine thinks people will vote for their candidates because the party believes in personal responsibility and freedom. According to the GOP, we only need a government for military purposes, and to execute criminals. Everything else should be left up to the individual. 

Unless you are a woman, then the Republican Party wants to be completely part of your life. Equal pay for equal work is something the GOP has been using large government to stop for decades. The personal health of a woman's body has been obsessed over by the Republicans in Washington D.C. for nearly half a century. Oh and if you are a minority, the small government Republicans want use the full power of Washington D.C. to control your life. The absolute desire to allow housing and hiring discrimination are top of the mind when it comes to the GOP in DC. They cannot leave those decisions up to the states, it has to be a federal issue. If you are poor, the Republicans think the federal government has every right to control your lives. One's right to vote or to collect needed assistance has been a key point to Republican policy in the seat of federal power. All the talk of personal responsibility and freedom, that only applies to the class of rich white men.

This true face of the Republican Party is what Donald Trump represents. The face of misogyny, disdain for the less fortunate, and racism. The 19th century acolytes of Social Darwinism, that is the 21st century Republican Party. Donald Trump makes the establishment uncomfortable because he has removed their mask and exposed their true self. Everything Mr. Trump believes, and that the Republican Party believes, is all about keeping established white men in power. They want to protect a social group that is rapidly going extinct. Donald Trump and the GOP are fighting nature and are about to disappear from the world.

Once humankind planted seeds in the ground and started to create communities society began to evolve. We created homes, cities, and countries. The growth of the community caused the creating of laws and social structure. Monarchy gave way to the republic. Plutocracy gave way to economic socialism. Power being held by a few men gave way to nations being led by publicly elected parliaments and led by female prime ministers. Society evolved by including more citizens. The monarchs of France, who would not evolve, lost their heads. The Czars of Russia, who did not listen to the next generation, were shot. The fascists of the Soviet empire, who would not flow with history, were all deposed. Those that fight history in order to keep the status quo always lose. Always.

The GOP has been trying to reverse social evolution for over a century. They dress up their antiquated views with fancy language that appeals to a minority of Americans. Donald Trump has stripped away the fancy language and embraced the core ideas of Republican Social Darwinism. Keep money and power in the hands of rich white men and do what ever possible to control everyone else. These ideas will not make society progress. These ideas are doomed for extinction, and the practitioners of these views are doomed to disappear. The age of the white man is over. They are not fit enough to be part of the future.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. Do you disagree? Come write for us.

Ty Saw and Ranked All the Star Wars Movies

I find your rankings disturbing

Make sure to download the X Millennial Man podcast tomorrow (January 29th) to hear Ty and RD talk about the Star Wars movies.

I know I already wrote about "Star Wars" earlier this week, but I'm going to write about it again. This time though, I'm going to rank the movies from worst to best, in my personal opinion. Now, for everyone out there, I've just recently, within the past two months, seen every single "Star Wars" movie of importance. I did not watch the Christmas special and I have not seen any of the cartoons or TV shows that exist in the Star Wars universe. I have only seen the seven movies that were made. That's the basic information any reader needs going into my rankings. This is all very subjective as well. I'm, by my own admittance, a movie snob. I prefer comedies to any other genre of movie, but I also really like science fiction, noir and drama. But, I also recognize that a pop culture writer should see movies like the "Star Wars" movies because they are very influential and are involved with any big time pop culture. "Star Wars" is quoted and referenced in almost every pop culture thing that I've ever seen. And, with the nudging, I call it harassment, coming from my wife, cousins, friends and most importantly, our editor, RD, I caved and decided to watch every single movie. Before I get into my countdown, I watched them in a specific order. I watched episodes 4, 5 and 6 within two weeks of each other, then I watched episodes 1, 2 and 3 about a month later. Just last week I took my four year old and we saw episode 7 in the theaters. So, I have officially seen all seven movies, which in my mind makes me qualified to give my rankings. As I said at the top, I'll be going from what I think in the worst "Star Wars" movie to the best. On with the countdown.

Coming in at number 7, I have "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith". This movie is pure, unadulterated garbage. Nothing about this movie is good. I didn't care about anyone or anything in this movie with the lone exception being the death of Mace Windu(Samuel L. Jackson). That was the only bummer to me. This movie is bad. Hayden Christensen is a terrible actor. He shows zero emotion and I don't buy his and Padme's(Natalie Portman) love story at all. Those two have no chemistry at all. The rest of the movie feels very scattered and poorly made. I HATED this movie.

Coming in at number 6 I have "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace". This was supposed to be the movie that brought "Star Wars" into the 21st century, or so I was told. This movie is boring. Too many federation meetings and stupid back stories about Anakin Skywalker. Also, could Anakin be more of a whiner? All he did was complain about everything. The pod racing scene, which I heard was cool, also felt very boring to me. I didn't care about it at all and by the end, I kind of wanted Sebulba to win. The only "cool" scene in "Phantom Menace" was the light saber battle between Qui Gon Gin, Obi Won Kenobi and Darth Maul. It was neat, but it also was pretty uneventful for something that's supposed to be a big deal in the Star Wars world. I wasn't shocked, nor upset when Qui Gon Gin got stabbed and even less surprised when Darth Maul got his. The double edged light saber was cool, but not nearly enough to save this piece of trash. Oh and the racist accents, that also sucked. 

Number 5 is the only prequel that has some cool stuff in it. The movie is still bad, but there are three pretty cool battle scenes. That movie is "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones". First, let's get the bad stuff out of the way. The scene between Anakin and Padme where they ride a mammoth type beast and frolic in the grass is dumb as hell. This scene should have been the first thing cut, but it made it into the movie. This was a terrible scene. Once again, Christensen and Portman have no chemistry and there are way too many federation meeting scenes. Now, there is the three battle scenes I mentioned. The first is the fight between Obi Wan and Jango Fett. That was a cool fight scene. There was the big battle at the end where we finally get to see Windu's purple light saber. That was cool. But, the best battle scene was between Count Dukuu and Yoda. When Yoda whips out his green light saber and begins his magic on Dukuu, I was legit excited. If they just had these three scenes in this movie, it might have been good, but they did all that other useless crap. Saying that "Attack of the Clones" is a good part of Star Wars is like saying that "Godfather 3" is better than "Speed 2: Cruise Control", it's still not a good movie.

Now, let's get to some better movies.

Number 4 is "Return of the Jedi". This one fell kind of flat for me, but it is still a million times better than the prequels. "Return of the Jedi" didn't need Ewoks and why on Earth was Han Solo all of the sudden a pushover, but the light saber battle between Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine and Luke is awesome. I wasn't crazy about the side characters like Jabba The Hut or Bib Fortuna, but it was some cool make up to see. And Luke using the force to rescue Leia and Han Solo was cool too. "Return of the Jedi" is good, but not as good as the movies I'm about to mention.

Coming in at number 3 I have "Star Wars: The New Hope". This movie is as influential to science fiction as "Citizen Kane" is to all movies. Without a "New Hope", we wouldn't have all the great science fiction movies we now have. This movie is incredibly influential. It's also a good movie. We meet the main characters in this one. Sure, Yoda doesn't show up until the second one, but we meet Luke, Leia, Han, Darth Vader and, my personal favorite, Chewbacca. This is a really cool movie and I thoroughly enjoyed my watching experience. It was exciting and adventurous and instead of saying, "I guess I have to watch these", my sentiment became, "I can't wait to watch all of them". That's a sign of a good movie.

Number 2 on my list is "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back". This movie is non stop, kick ass action for 2 plus hours. I loved everything about this movie. The opening scene in Hoth, when Luke gets captured and Han has to save him is awesome. We finally meet Yoda and he is as awesome as RD told me my entire life. The scenes when he is teaching Luke about the force is excellent writing and directing. Han Solo has one of the coolest lines ever spoken when he's about to be dipped in carbonite and Leia says, "I love you", Han replies, cool as shit I might add, "I know". That's awesome. And the light saber fight between Luke and Vader, where Vader tells him he's Luke's father and then cuts off his hand is incredible. "Empire Strikes Back" 100 percent lived up to its hype. It's an awesome, super enjoyable movie.

Which brings me to my number one, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". I wrote a mini review earlier this week and I still stand by how much I love this movie. I could've seen it without seeing the others and I would have loved it. It's a great action movie that also has drama, comedy and heart breaking moments. The acting, writing and directing were top notch. "The Force Awakens" is such a well made movie that completely restores a franchise that looked lost after the prequels. There is nothing wrong at all with this movie. Now, hard core "Star Wars" fans may find problems with it, but me, just being a lover of movies, I thought it was perfection.

So, that's my personal rankings of the "Star Wars" movies. Take it or leave it, but this is how I feel about a pretty decent franchise of movies. If I had to give any advice to first time viewers, I'd say watch episodes 4 and 5 and then 7. You could probably skip the rest and still be satisfied. I will say though, "Star Wars" has gained a new fan.

I'm excited for episode 8.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thought the prequels could have been better if there was some more Kit Fisto. Everything needs more Kit Fisto. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Do Not Change the Rules for Bad Free Throw Shooters

Plenty of open hoops to practice some free throws

So, I was reading one of my favorite websites this morning, Deadspin, and I read an article entitled, "NBA Teams Have Found Creative New Ways to Intentionally Foul " about the intentional fouling that is going on in the NBA right now to put poor free throw shooters at the line. This isn't the first I've heard about people wanting this rule changed. This is probably the one hundredth time I've heard people griping about the "hack a whoever" strategy that teams are employing. Like I said, Deadspin did a whole piece on it today, it's a great read, and I've heard sports writers and journalists I really admire like Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons also complaining about this strategy.

Well, I'm here today to tell everyone that I side with Jalen Rose on this topic. He was on some kind of NBA countdown show on ESPN and he said something along the lines that these guys are pro athletes and they should learn how to shoot free throws. He doesn't mind the "hack a whoever" strategy and neither do I. I 100 percent agree with Rose's assessment. These guys get paid millions upon millions of dollars and they can't make more than 40 percent of a shot that is about 13 feet from the rim and zero defense on them. It's a "free throw", defense is not allowed. I coach 9, 10 and 11 year olds that are better free throw shooters than these guys that get paid real money to play basketball, that's a shame. It's upsetting that such an easy shot has become so hard for particular big men, I'll get to some of them in a minute, that it literally slows this fast paced game to a halt. NBA games should take no more than 2 to 2 1/2 hours, but with this big men unable to shoot free throws, the games are stretching to 3 plus hours sometimes. That's ridiculous.

Let's look at three particular poor free throw shooting big men. First, I want to point out Shaquille O'Neal. The reason Shaq is first, no one made a stink when teams were "hack-a-shaqing" throughout his Lakers run. It was deemed "smart coaching" and a "good strategy" at the time. What's baffling about Shaq, he was a decent free throw shooter in college and his first couple of pro seasons. Then, he put more muscle on his body and he just stopped working on free throws in practice. It got so bad for him, he was literally shot putting the ball to the hoop. Still, he was about a 50 percent free throw shooter, even at his worst. It was bad, but not as bad as some current players. Shaq was also bigger than anyone playing at the time, so most of his attempts at the free throw line came on "and one" plays. He'd make his shot, usually a dunk, and only have to shoot one free throw. I mentioned Shaq first because of the double standard that is coming up with the next two players I'm going to mention.

Like I said before, when people were intentionally fouling Shaq, it wasn't that big of a deal. I don't recall anyone saying they needed to change the rule. Now, we have two of the absolute worst free throw shooters I've seen in my 20 plus years of watching NBA basketball, DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond. When these two step to the line, look away because you'll see something very ugly. The kids I coach are told to not watch the two of them play because of how poorly they shoot the ball. Now, I don't like DeAndre Jordan, that's been well chronicled on the site, but I think Andre Drummond has potential to be a game changing type of player. He has perennial all star potential and he puts up huge rebound numbers. But, his free throw shooting is so atrocious and that's holding him back from being a big time player. Just go back a couple of weeks and look at his free throw stat. He was 13 for 36. That is downright terrible. His team still won the game, but man, that's a bad, horrendous stat line. Just awful. DeAndre Jordan, he's so bad at free throw shooting, he's been pulled in critical moments of critical playoff games because his coach doesn't trust his free throw shooting. He has decent form, but the shot always goes wide, either left or right, doesn't matter, it's ALWAYS wide. I mean, he has even air balled multiple free throws in a single game multiple times. You are getting paid huge money DeAndre Jordan to play basketball, so you should never, ever air ball a free throw. Never. That is awful. How does an almost seven footer air ball a free throw? It's just appalling.

Now, these guys that want the rule changed think it's unfair to the other players on the court and it's unfair to the fan. I say, practice your god damn free throws. It's the second easiest shot in basketball, behind the layup/dunk. There's no one guarding you. You get 10 seconds to shoot the ball. All you have to deal with is some dumbass fans yelling stupid shit at you. I know you guys can dunk and rebound. I sure as hell hope you'd be good at that. Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan are both close to seven feet tall, they should be able to dunk and rebound with ease. When you're a pro, your game should be well rounded. I mean, at least Shaq made 50 percent of his free throws. Drummond and Jordan both shoot in the low 40's and I believe Drummond dipped into the mid 30's after his 23 missed free throws the other night. I'd suggest, instead of working on your next alley oop, or outlet pass off a rebound, which they both excel at, spend all of your practice time on free throws. Also, go into the gym on off days and work on your free throw shooting. You guys are pro athletes. Your only job is to make your game better.

This is why I agree with Jalen Rose. Everything I said above, he's said multiple times on multiple sports shows. The NBA shouldn't have to change their rules so these pathetic free throw shooters gain another advantage. These guys should work on their free throw shooting, or they should get used to sitting on the bench in crunch time. It's as simple as that. I really like you, everyone at Deadspin, Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons, but to suggest changing the rule is asinine. I am 100 percent on Jalen Rose's side. Learn how to shoot a god damn free throw.

That's your job.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. In 1998 he hit one hundred percent of his free throws, 2 for 2. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The White Stripes

For the greatest American band debate, today, I'm going to nominate a band that I once adored, but now, I cannot stand them and I can't believe that I ever defended them or thought that they were great musicians.

That band is the White Stripes.

I used to love this band, and I mean LOVE them. I thought that Jack and Meg White were two of the most unique, most proficient musicians I ever heard. They burst onto the scene in 2000 with the album "De Stijl". This was a classic blues/rock throwback album. It was a lot of old blues covers and the way they played the songs was quite phenomenal. Jack White's voice and guitar playing was top notch. Meg White was a good drummer, keeping the rhythm, but that's about it for her.

It was also around this time that I discovered the Black Keys, a band that I still adore and I think is ten thousand times better than the White Stripes, but you have to know, I was a teenager when I first heard the White Stripes and my mind wasn't fully developed as far as my musical taste went. Not yet at least. Then, I saw their video for the song "Seven Nation Army" and I was immediately hooked. There was nothing better at the time, not even the Black Key in my mind. I was so, so wrong. But, "Seven Nation Army", the song and the album both, were huge hits that showed the world that a two piece band could make great music.

So, from about 2001 to 2004 I was one of the biggest White Stripes fans there was. I devoured every record they put out. I already owned "De Stijl" and "Seven Nation Army", but then I went out and bought "The White Stripes", "White Blood Cells" and "Elephant". Their very first record, "The White Stripes" was a lot like "De Stijl". It was raw, old timey blues covers that Jack White turned into rock and roll. It was a good album, at least I thought it was at the time. Then I bought "White Blood Cells". I absolutely loved this album when I first heard it. It wasn't all covers this time around. Jack White was making his own versions of old timey blues/rock songs and they were good. He also threw in some acoustic stuff that I really enjoyed. The song, "We Are Gonna Be Friends" is still, even though my feelings on the band have changed, one of my favorite songs to listen to and play on guitar (plus it is featured in my favorite movie ever, Napoleon Dynamite). My kids, especially my son, loves when I start to finger pick this song. This is still a very good song that I will always enjoy, no matter how big my hatred gets for this band. Then, the album "Elephant" blew me away. It was mixtures of old and new songs. Some of the songs on the record are timeless. And then there was another awesome video for the song "The Hardest Button to Button". That video is incredible. Go check it out if you haven't seen it. The White Stripes, to their credit, knew how to make a memorable music video.

In my personal opinion, their album "Elephant" was the last great record they made. In 2005, they released "Get Behind Me Satan", and that was when I started to lose interest. The album is okay. Songs like "My Doorbell", "The Denial Twist" and "Instinct Blues" are all classic White Stripes, but I was growing weary of their sound. 2005 was also the year that my love affair really took off with the Black Keys. That was the first or second time I'd seen them and I loved everything they were doing. They definitely took the throne, as far as two piece bands, away from the White Stripes. It was also around this time, either 2004 or 2005, that I saw the White Stripes live, and that's when I kind of gave up on them. They were okay live, but it was their demeanor on stage, especially Jack White's, that made my distaste for them first appear. He was rude, arrogant and seemed like he didn't want to be there. The songs sounded boring, almost like they were recording in the studio. He yelled at the techs that were back stage whenever his guitar would go out of tune. He's a professional musician, I'd think he'd be able to tune his own guitar. His solos lacked proficiency and flare. He kind of just picked a pattern, and that was his solo. No fuss, no muss. I need some excitement out of my lead guitar player when I see a band I enjoy live. And then there was my big revelation about Meg White during that show. She is the second luckiest person in the history of music, behind only Ringo Starr. She's not that good of a drummer I realized. In fact, she's quite terrible. She just banged away simple 4/4 rhythms all night and seemed brain dead. Even when she sang, it was boring and pretty awful. After that show, I kind of lost interest in the band.

The White Stripes seemed to lose interest as well, only putting out one more album, a live one, in 2010. Jack White went off and did other projects like, The Raconteurs and Dead Weather and produced new records for old country singers like Wanda Jackson and Loretta Lynn. The Raconteurs and Dead Weather are fine, just not my cup of tea. They are too emo to be rock and too rock to be blues. Both bands are White Stripes light, and that's not a compliment. Meg White, I haven't heard from her in about 7 years now. I'm sure she's living large on the enormous amounts of money that the White Stripes made.

What angers me the most about this band though is Jack White's off stage attitude. He's a bully. He picks fights with random other musicians and when they call him out on it, he verbally abuses them via social media. He has a bad attitude. I don't buy the tortured genius bull shit either. He is a straight up bully, there's no other way to put it. He should be happy that he gets to live his dream life, but he picks fights and complains about the state of pop music. Screw you Jack White, you're a supreme asshole. I just can't believe I invested so much of my time, energy and money on this band. I got caught up in the hype, and for five years, they reeled me in. I'm glad I got out and found much better two piece bands, like Deadboy and the Elephant Men and, of course, the Black Keys. When the White Stripes were great, they were awesome. But, their attitude and off stage act became too much, at least for me, to handle. They definitely belong in the conversation, but I can now say, without any hesitation, that I loathe the White Stripes and more importantly, Jack White.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He finds it therapeutic to write about musicians he used to like and now hates. Is Puff Daddy next? Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Congrats LeBron on Building a Perennial Runner Up

Prediction on where Cleveland will finish the season

With the news last week that the Cleveland Cavaliers fired David Blatt, I'm going to hate on the Cavs once again.

This news is not surprising, but it should be. The fact that it isn't surprising is part of the huge, huge problem that this firing shows. First of all, what else did the Cavs want from David Blatt? He won 50 plus games in his first season and the team made the finals. Sure, they lost, but they played what is looking like one of the all time great teams, the Golden State Warriors. I don't think any team was beating the Warriors last year, and no one probably will this year either. This season, they had a record of 30-11 when they fired Blatt. That was good enough for first place in the East, by two games, and fourth best overall in the league, behind only Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. Many journalists and pundits will say the firing was deserved because of how handily they got beaten by both San Antonio and Golden State, but if that's the sole reason he got fired, every single other coach that doesn't coach for the Spurs or Warriors should be fired. They beat everyone all the time. They are far and away the two best teams in the NBA. Others will say that Blatt couldn't handle the egos and the big stage. Well, he guided the team to a finals appearance last year and they were firmly in first place in the East this year. He also won multiple titles as a coach overseas and he had the best wining percentage for a head coach in the NBA since Red Auerbach. He also led the Cavs to the finals after losing Kevin Love in the first round and Kyrie Irving in the first game of the finals. That sounds, at least to me, like he was doing a pretty bang up job as an NBA coach.

What this firing really boils down to is LeBron James didn't want David Blatt to be his coach, he wanted Tyronn Lue. This was evident from the first month of last season. LeBron didn't work well with Blatt and he would go to Lue, who was an assistant, whenever there was a timeout or when he was getting rest during games. It was clear after one month of games last season that James clearly favored Lue to Blatt. So, 41 games into this season, David Griffen gave in to his superstar player and got rid of the coach that he didn't like. I don't buy any of the talk coming from the ESPN moron analysts like Stephen A Smith or Brian Windhorst that LeBron had no say or no idea that they were firing Blatt. He one hundred percent knew it was coming because he told the front office to do it.

The Cavs management haven't said no to LeBron since he returned to Cleveland last season. He wanted Kevin Love, so they traded Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett for him as soon as they could. How much better would the Cavs be if they kept Wiggins and signed James? LeBron and Love cannot coexist together. Love is a much better player when he can post and then float out to the three point line. That doesn't work for LeBron, he needs the lane open to go to the hoop. That's why he and Bosh meshed so well in Miami. Chris Bosh is a much better big man shooter than Love will ever be and he has a much better on court demeanor than Love has. Bosh just wants to win, Kevin Love just wants stats. I bet within two weeks, LeBron will tell the front office to trade Love because they just don't play well together and I think they legitimately dislike each other. And the front office will give their spoiled star exactly what he wants. LeBron also demanded they get another big that is defensive minded and two perimeter players so they went out and got Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and JR Smith. Now, Mozgov is barely playing because he too clogs the lane, Shumpert can't stay healthy and JR Smith is wearing t shirt that say "shoot till my arm falls off". How'd that three man trade work for you in the finals LeBron? Oh yeah, you got smoked when the Warriors went small and ran all over you.

Then, this past offseason LeBron left the Cavs with little to no cap space after maxing out Love, one of the worst offseason deals, and had to resign marginal NBA players like Richard Jefferson and Matthew Dellavedova. Those are not players that will help bring a title to Cleveland. They also maxed out Tristan Thompson, who has the same agent as LeBron, and he has not lived up to the hype at all, not even close. And now, they fired Blatt to hire LeBron's buddy, Tyronn Lue. He has zero head coaching experience at any level, but the Cavs front office, AKA LeBron James, decided he was a better fit than a coach that led them to the finals and first place in the East after half this season.

In Lue's first game as head coach, playing the Bulls in Chicago, another first year coach, Fred Hoiberg, absolutely schooled him with his decision making and player personnel decisions. The Bulls dictated the flow and the pace of that game and won easily. Lue got his first win last night, but the Cavs had to go down to the wire with the Timberwolves and they are not good, not yet.

I guess what I'm trying to say, it's all on LeBron James now. He can't blame the coach. When they trade Love, he can't blame the chemistry and inexperience. And when they make the finals and lose again, it will be solely on him. The Cavs have given him everything he has asked for and it all rests on him now. He has no more excuses. The media may give you a pass, but the real basketball fan knows, it all rests on you now. This is the team LeBron wants and he has no more excuses. When the Cavs make the finals and when they lose, he has to take all the blame because he is the coach, the GM and the star player of this team. No more passing the blame LeBron. Once the Cavs trade Love, this is the team you constructed.

The Cavs that will be good enough to be the runner up once again in the NBA.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once tried to assemble his own rec league basketball team. It did not go well. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and Welcoming the Rise of the Female Action Hero

Maybe Han should have stayed in the carbonite?

Editors note: Part of Ty's goals set forth by the Head Editor at SeedSing was to watch all seven of the Star Wars films. Now that Ty has fulfilled his end of the deal the X Millennial Man podcast on Sunday January 29th will be all about his experience seeing the films. Make sure to bring your ears and listen to the X Millennial Man podcast.

So, I finally saw "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" this past Saturday. I know, I'm probably the last pop culture writer to see the movie, but better late than never. 

Right?

Anyway, I loved the movie. It was adventurous, exciting, well acted, well written, well directed, funny and a great throwback to the original. It could be just because I very recently saw it, but it is my favorite of all seven "Star Wars" movies. I thought it was the most fun and the best looking. "Empire Strikes Back" is a very close second, but I prefer "The Force Awakens" to all other "Star Wars" movies. I could have seen this without seeing the other six and I would have loved it. I wouldn't have gotten the references and the call backs, but I would have enjoyed myself, it was that good of a movie.

JJ Abrams has proven himself, in my opinion, to be a very skillful director that can make old movies or TV shows, a la "Star Wars" or "Star Trek", into extremely enjoyable movies for fans and non fans alike. I never saw any form of any "Star Trek" show or movie, but I really enjoyed the two "Star Trek" movies he made. And, what he did with "The Force Awakens", erasing all the terribleness that is the prequels, bravo Mr. Abrams, you've revived "The Star Wars" movie universe into something enjoyable again.

I could go on and on about how much I like this movie, but my main point of my blog today is, I love that two of the biggest movies in the past 6 or 7 months, have had females being the strongest and most badass characters in the movie. This has to make those moronic MRA assholes nuts. Those idiots have to be losing their feeble minds right now. First, a movie I've written extensively about on this website, "Mad Max: Fury Road", has a female playing one of the most badass characters of all time in any movie ever, Furiosa. It doesn't get much better than Theron as Furiosa in "Mad Max". She kicked so much ass, played the main character in what was always considered a male driven lead role and owned the best movie of all of 2015. The fact Theron didn't even get a nomination is grotesque, another thing I've written about on the site already. She was incredible in the movie. The fight scene between her and Max during the first act of the movie was incredible. The fight was even the whole time, and the only reason Max won was because Nux snuck up on Furiosa and took her off guard. Furiosa basically beat his ass the majority of the fight. I don't think I've ever seen a more kick ass character, be it male or female, than Furiosa. She is the absolute best.

In "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", is it my imagination, or isn't Rey the main character of the movie? She seems to be, at least in my opinion, the new Han Solo. When she is introduced, she's scavenging an old ship and bringing in the best stuff to the traders in Jakku, even though the alien won't give her much food. Then, BB 8 finds her and is immediately drawn to her. BB 8 clearly trust her as much as it trusts Poe. That's very high praise coming from a droid. Then, when she runs into Finn, she ends up saving him by piloting the Millenium Falcon to safety. When Finn sees her at first too, he is on his way to save her from two guys trying to steal BB 8, but he backs off when he sees her kick those two guys asses. He realizes that she can hold her own. Later on, when Finn and Rey run into Chewbacca and Han Solo, I know there's a lot of spoilers, but it's been over a month now, everyone that wanted to see it has seen it multiple times, Han has an immediate rapport with Rey, much more so than he had with Finn. Han even goes so far as to offer her a job working for him and Chewbacca. Even later, when she is captured by Kylo Ren and he has her chained up, his power of the force doesn't work on her. Earlier in the movie, Ren's force worked to perfection on the supposed biggest badass, Poe, but it doesn't work on Rey. In fact, she is much, much stronger than Kylo Ren, who is the new Darth Vader. And that light saber battle between her and Ren, in the snow at the end, what an amazing, amazing battle that Rey wins in the long run. She is struggling at first, but once she realizes that she is a true Jedi, she completely takes over that fight. She is a bad ass fighter and she destroys Ren in the battle. It's incredible. She even takes over Solo's role on the ship(RIP Han Solo) at the end and she's the one chosen to deliver Luke Skywalker's light saber back to him. She's given that order by another strong, kick ass female character, General Leia.

Basically, I love that big time studios and directors are giving these kick ass, no nonsense roles to much deserving female characters. We don't need anymore damsels in distress or the token woman looking for a man because only that will complete her roles in Hollywood. Those roles are old and tired and stupid. I hope these studios and writers and directors keep giving females these awesome roles. We've gotten three great ones in the past couple of years, Emily Blunt in "Edge of Tomorrow", Charlize Theron in "Mad Max: Fury Road" and now Daisy Ridley in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and they have all been great. Please keep giving these roles to well deserving actresses.

I love it and they deserve it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. It is about damn time he got around and saw the Star Wars movies. His training is now complete. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

I Fully Endorse Sarah Palin Endorsing Donald Trump

This is one public housing project Donald Trump will not make a deal on.

The honorable ex-half Governor of Alaska has made her choice for President of the United States. In order to make America great again, political power boss Sarah Palin has given her full support and endorsement to the inept New York City con-man known to all as Mr. Donald Trump. I fully endorse this political marriage. This was meant to be. The national Republican party has been building towards this moment. All of their actions, and rhetoric, the last ten years has been building towards Trump and Palin. Now the country has real hope.

The hope is that the Republican party will either disappear or get their act together and move away from all the hate. The platform of the modern Republican party is one of obstruction, whining, and ugliness. Sarah Palin was the one of the first politicians to capitalize on these tenets, and Donald Trump has incredibly moved to the front of the field of Republican Presidential hopefuls embracing these philosophies. These two "leaders' of the GOP have taken all the white male angst and commoditized in order to create more personal wealth. Palin and Trump have no intention to lead, they only exist to enhance their own personal brands. It is sad that one of the two political parties has decided to throw in with two people who are against the ideals and dream that is America.

Trump and Palin may get all the media coverage, but most of the Republican presidential field can be thrown in with these anti-patriots. Chris Christie is a blowhard with no plans and a horrible public record. Marco Rubio has no core beliefs, is generally ignorant, and lacks very little ability to tell the truth. Ben Carson is horrible at pandering and does not seem to be very intelligent. John Kasich is a typical rob from the poor give to the rich Reaganomic Republican. Ted Cruz is a loathsome fellow who seems to just hate the entire idea of the American dream, plus he is not really even eligible to be President. The rest of the field is not even worth talking about becasue they act the same as those in the lead of the polls, and they have no shot at winning the Republican Primary.

I know it seems that I am joyful in watching the demise of the GOP.  I am actually quite sad. Do not make a mistake, I am very happy that the current form of the Republican Party will be once again humiliated in the November election. At least they will be humiliated in the Presidential election, any other election and the Democratic party does not seem to give a damn. The Republican Party used to offer an actual philosophical difference on how the government should run. I did not always agree on this philosophy, but we could have an actual debate on the future of America. The current field, led by the brain trust of Donald Trump and Sarah Palin, just want to cause chaos and division. They have no plan to govern. They have no view for a better America. These Republicans, who claim they want to lead America, really just want to fatten their own pockets, and the pockets of a very small group of old wealthy white men.  I am joyful that this disease of political thought we call the Republican Party may finally die out with another national humiliation. I am hopeful we can get back to debating different views for a stronger, and better America.

Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump for President is the perfect catalyst to start the demise of the hate filled Republican ideology. Trump has a history of going against classic conservative ideology, and Sarah Palin only knows how to be an opportunist. They both deserve to be ejected from the GOP. I am hopeful that this dynamic duo will finish the job of tearing down the modern Republican victimhood complex. I am hopeful that all the racists, misogynists, plutocrats, and anti-patriots who the media likes to prop up will finally crawl back into their holes and become obsolete. Let them go back to defending the Confederate flag and posting vile Facebook posts so the rest of us can identify them as people who should not be a part in crafting America's future. It is time for the hate peddlers to exit stage left. Let Trump and Palin lead the exodus.

Trump / Palin 2016 has my full blessing. In November we can all watch the Republican ticket get obliterated by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party's Vice Presidential nominee. Sarah Palin can go back to being a quitter and a loser. Donald Trump can continue to spew his hate and live with his inadequacies. The GOP can take stock of their humiliation and rebuild.  My hope is that the party learns and gets back to offering different ideas. Maybe they can find a dynamic politician who can create voters and have an intelligent discussion about America's future. Have they considered Rand Paul?

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He has worked for the Republican and Democratic Parties, and has been on the losing end every time. He know wants to win with great citizen journalism and needs you to write for SeedSing. Do not feel like writing, we could always use some financial support.

The Greatest Television Ever: NBC Thursday Night Comedy

In the coming weeks and months, we at SeedSing will be doing our favorite TV shows. It will be a lot like our greatest American band debate, each week picking a show or a season or just particular moments from TV shows that we enjoy.

I'm going to kick it off today by talking about one of my favorite two hour blocks of TV on NBC. There was a time that the Thursday night line up on NBC had four of the best sitcoms that I've ever seen. It was epic, must watch TV for me and any other fan of comedic television. The four shows they trotted out were "30 Rock", "The Office", "Community" and "Parks and Recreation". Talk about a murderers row of great, great TV. These four sitcoms are all in my personal top ten of TV shows. I love these shows and I love them all for different reasons.

First we'd get "30 Rock". This show is one of the all time greats. Tina Fey is a genius. Her writing and acting are beyond genius. She's on a whole different level from any other sitcom writer I've ever seen. She is a legend. But, it wasn't just Tina Fey that made that show great. We got Tracy Morgan, Jane Krawkowski, Jack McBrayer and, of course, Alec Baldwin. Tina Fey basically revived both Morgan's and Baldwin's career with their roles on this show. And they were both fantastic. Any episode that revolved around Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, was so hilarious and so well written. Anytime he interacted with McBrayer, or Grizz and Dot Com or with Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy was great. Morgan's first appearance on the show, naked, except for underwear, freaking out on the highway, waving around a fake light saber, was a perfect introduction to his character. And when he tries to get the EGOT, that was a great run of episodes. Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy was the perfect representation of the arrogant, yet idiotic studio head that has no clue how to run a network. He was so great on this show. Two of my favorite lines spoken on a sitcom were said by him. The first, Liz asks him why he's dressed so nicely and he says, "it's after six, what am I, a farmer?", loved it. The only line I like better is when Donaghy is talking about his hard working father and he says, "he worked the day shift at the graveyard and the graveyard shift at the Days Inn", that is exquisite writing. I love "30 Rock" and I could go on forever about it, but I need to talk about the other three shows.

After "30 Rock", we got "The Office". This is my second favorite show of all time, behind only "The Simpsons". When this show was great, it was the best thing on TV. Seasons 1-4 of "The Office" is some of the best TV that's ever been aired. We got three phenomenal episodes in those first four seasons. In season one they had the episode where the sales team challenged the warehouse workers to a game of basketball. It was so good. Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) warming up and then playing basketball is so god damn funny. I love that episode. Season two gave us "The Dundies". That was the award show that they had for the employees of Dunder Mifflin. It was cringe worthy comedy, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute(Rainn Wilson), emceeing this train wreck. It was so funny and it was the first time that Jim(John Krasinski) and Pam(Jenna Fischer) kissed. This episode is great. The best episode of "The Office" came in season four. The episode titled, "Dinner Party", is the most uncomfortable 44 minutes of brilliant comedy ever written. Michael and Jan(Melora Hardin) constantly fighting while they have four employees over to their condo is so good, yet so uncomfortable. I still love this episode to this day. It is excellent comedy. I adore "The Office" and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the second greatest show of all time, in my personal opinion.

Then, we got the weird, off the wall, bizarre comedy, "Community". At first glance, I didn't think Id really like this show, but the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it and look forward to it every week. Joel McHale finally got his chance to be the lead role on a show and he did it so well. He is criminally underrated for his work on that show. But the other actors were just as good. Danny Pudi. Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong were great. Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown were also really good. The only person I didn't really care for was Chevy Chase, but he's an asshole. I loved the off beat humor that Dan Harmon brought to major network TV with "Community". The show was an almost perfect representation of community college life. I could relate to the people because I ran into the exact same people in my almost two years of community college. There were athletes, nerds, regular joes, old people and good looking ladies that never got into a four year school, so they had to go to community college. Sure, "Community" is a glorified version of community college, but they made it relatable, especially when Dan Harmon was the main writer and show runner. They had ups and downs, but there were way more ups than downs when it comes to "Community". And yes, the paintball episodes are as good as the fans say they are. Go back and watch those and be amazed at how well "Community" was done. It's an underrated cult classic show.

NBC would close the night with probably my third all time favorite show, "Parks and Recreation". This show is a classic that only got better and better the more seasons it got. I loved the first season, but each season that followed was better than the last. This show was the exact representation of what it's like to work for a parks and recreation department. My sister in law, that works for Columbia's parks and rec department, even confirmed this. Ron Swanson(Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford(Aziz Ansari) are real representations of people that take government jobs in parks and rec and just sail from there. They don't take their jobs seriously at all because it's not a serious job. They plan parties and races and community gatherings, not that tough of a job. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope was the perfect post "SNL" role for her. She was so, so good on that show. She excelled. When shows bring new people on, it's usually a bad sign, but the additions of Rob Lowe, whom I've written about before, and Adam Scott made this show that much better. Rob Lowe, as the always upbeat and exercising Chris Traeger, was the perfect foil for Ron Swanson. and Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, failed mayor and Leslie's love interest, was perfect. When these two showed up, "Parks and Rec" went to a whole new level. Chris Pratt, Retta, Aubrey Plaza and later on, Jon Glaser and Billy Eichner were also excellent on the show. I love every episode of "Parks and Rec", there isn't a bad one. If you haven't seen it and you're looking for a starting point, start at the end of season two, when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up, that's when the show went from good to great.

So, there you have the first entry in our greatest TV choices on SeedSing. I figured I'd come out of the gates strong, and this Thursday night lineup is a slam dunk. Come back for more TV later. I already am writing "The Simpsons" blog in my head now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He desperately wanted to add "Andy Barker P.I." to his list, but then realized the show was no "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Serial" Season 2 Joins the Ranks of Disappointing Sequels

Brings the good, and the boring, to your ears.

As the entire podcast listening world knows by now, season two of Serial began about 2 months ago. This season, Sarah Koenig is talking about Bowe Bergdahl. He's the soldier that was captured by the Taliban, but, others say that he is a war deserter. Opinions vary about both situations and Koenig and her podcast are trying to show both sides. One week it seems that he was legitimately captured and the next week, I change my mind and feel that he deserted the war because of the poor living conditions and war is scary as hell. I personally do not know where I fully stand yet, there's still a long way to go before they get to the bottom of this case. 

The path to the bottom has gotten a whole lot longer with the news that they are switching from every week to every other week. Also, this season of Serial doesn't feel the same as the first. That first season of Serial was phenomenal, although the finale left a lot to be desired, and this season just seems to be falling flat. During the first season, I was on pins and needles before, during and after each episode. Did Adnan do it, or was it one of many other suspects? Why would a seemingly good natured high school student turn on a dime like that? Did he really have this insanity deep down in his body? Did his attorney screw him over? Was he set up by his "friends" that were interviewed? What cell phone tower picked up the calls from that night the best? I could ask about a million more questions pertaining to Adnan Syed. For the record, I do not think he did it and I feel very sorry for him that he has had to spend the majority of his life in prison for a crime I don't think he committed. His new trial can prove me wrong and I'll sound like an asshole, but I don't think he did it. My wife, on the other hand, is 100 percent convinced that he did it. She thinks he's guilty, showing no doubt in her face or voice when we talk about it. We still talk about it to this day by the way. That first season had everything. Drama, intrigue, horror, guilt, flip flopping, it was perfect. I would be scared to go to sleep some nights, just thinking about it. I also have had sleepless nights thinking about whether Adnan is guilty or not. That is the mark of good podcasting.

This season of Serial doesn't have the same allure of the first season. That's my point today. I know it's very hard to follow up something that was so big and virtually came out of nowhere, at least to my generation. "Serial" type stories have been around as long as talk radio has been around, but with my generation, this was the first "serial" story we'd really paid attention to. I also think that expectations, mine included, were way too high going into this second season. There was no way Koenig could top the first season, but I thought she had a chance. It's like a sequel to a great movie. Not every sequel will be "Terminator 2:Judgement Day" or "The Godfather: Part 2", not even close. Most sequels are more "Speed 2: Cruise Control" or "The Godfather: Part 3". They are usually much, much worse because it's so hard to recreate what the actors and director nailed the first time around. It usually backfires and I feel that's what's happening with the second season of Serial. I don't find myself waiting for the new episode every other Thursday. Now, don't get me wrong, I still listen, but it feels like homework this time around. I feel almost obligated to listen because the first season was so groundbreaking. You should never feel obligated to listen to something that you get for free. It should be fun and you should want to listen to it. Much like the first season, you should be on pins and needles waiting for the new episodes.

A deeper problem I think they're having with this season, most people, if not everyone, knows the Bowe Bergdahl story, or they know of it. That wasn't the case with Adnan Syed. I had never even heard of this story that happened in Baltimore more than a decade ago. It was great to hear her uncover new evidence and things that the police and the attorney's missed the first time round. Every week she'd peel back a new layer on the onion of this pretty much unknown story to anyone outside of the Baltimore area and it was great. Like I said before, anytime there's new news on Bergdahl, it's national news. We all find out about it the same time Sarah Koenig does. There's no intrigue or drama in that. It's no fun. She will bring some "new" news to the story and I'll sit back, listen and yell into my phone, "We all already knew that!", there is nothing that she can bring to this story that we all don't already know.  I still listen because I like the way Sarah Koenig speaks. She has a very calm, perfect for NPR voice that only Cecily Strong from "SNL" can replicate. I commend her for taking on a much bigger story for the second season of Serial, but it just doesn't carry the same weight the first season did.

Hopefully for the third season, there will definitely be one, she picks a smaller story again that the entire nation doesn't already know about. This season though, has been pretty dull, at least so far.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He loves great storytelling, but dislikes being bored. Ty is a great storyteller who is not boring. Find out for yourself by following him on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Ramones

For the greatest American band debate on Seed Sing, I'm going to nominate another band that I'm not really a fan of, but to be reputable, we have to acknowledge these bands that most of the music listening population recognizes as an all time great. The band I'm going to talk about today, I actually dislike almost as much as I dislike the Beach Boys. That band is The Ramones.

The Ramones are widely considered the founders of punk rock music, a genre of music I'm not that into, but I recognize how important and influential it is and has been. For my punk rock, I go to Iggy and the Stooges, who I will write about at another date, or more prog type punk rock like King Crimson or Mars Volta, I'll also be writing about Mars Volta at a later date. King Crimson is from England, so they don't make the cut in our debate. Those three bands, in my opinion, are way, way better than The Ramones, but they aren't recognized like The Ramones. The Ramones are credited with starting punk rock because every single one of their songs is a tight 2 minutes and they only play three chords and the lyrics are sung muffled. That, for all intents and purposes, is the definition of punk rock. When it comes to my personal definition, punk rock is anarchy and disestablishment and great, complicated guitar work, especially solos.

When it comes to front men, Iggy Pop is a much better punk rock singer than Joey Ramone. You can understand most of what Iggy Pop is saying and as far as on stage theatrics, there is no one that comes close to Iggy Pop, especially not Joey Ramone. But, Joey Ramone is widely looked at as the essential punk rock front man, much to my shock. He just kind of stood on stage and garbled his way through each song. People will call that punk rock, I say, he was hiding the fact that he was not that good of a singer and he had some form of stage fright.

Then, when you look at the musicians in King Crimson or Mars Volta, they are so much better and so much more proficient than Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone. Robert Fripp, of King Crimson, is ten thousand times the guitar player that Johnny Ramone ever wished he could be. And oh my god, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is one of the greatest, most innovative and weirdest guitar players I've ever listened to in my entire life. I think he's an alien that was put on Earth to show us humans what a real guitar god looks and plays like. He is the Millenial's Jimmy Page. He's a guitar wizard that people will call legendary in about 20 years. I guarantee I will be telling my son about him when he's in his twenties and asks me about music from my generation. He's the man. Do people really say the same thing about Johnny Ramone? Is he a legendary, all time great guitar player? I don't think so. He doesn't have any memorable solos and he basically plays three chords on every song. Anyone that takes one guitar lesson can pretty much learn the entire Ramones song book. It is literally that easy. Just learn a G chord, a C chord and an F chord and you are good to go.

Let's get back to why some believe they are so influential. I will bend and say that without The Ramones, we would have never gotten The Sex Pistols, another band I'm not so fond of, but people love, Jello Biafra, who is a genius musician, there'd be no Black Flag, who is a much better band and Bad Brains, who are a great, great punk rock/reggae band. They did influence these bands and musicians and countless others, but the people I just mentioned took that influence, ran with it and made much, much better music than The Ramones. I know that people love the "simplicity" of their songs. Critics love the fact that they got their message out in 2 minutes or less. In my opinion, they could only handle that small amount of music because they were not that skilled. They needed to get everything done in a short amount of time because, if their songs lasted longer, they would be seen as subpar musicians and songwriters. They wouldn't be as highly regarded as they are now. Big time magazines and publications like "Billboard" or "Rolling Stone" even went as far to name them the second greatest rock group of all time, behind only The Beatles. That's down right insane. No way are they better than The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Kinks, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Janis Joplin and the Holding Company, the Flying Burrito Brothers, I could literally go on and on with bands that are far superior to The Ramones.

I also acknowledge that the Ramones had a big stake and were very influential in making the cult classic movie "Rock and Roll High School" that many people adore. Have any of these people that claim to love that movie seen it lately? It does not hold up well. The movie is a lot like The Ramones music. It's kind of a muffled, garbled look at a Detroit high school in the 70's. It's boring and pointless too. I don't get the love for that movie. It's very overrated.

Look, I understand that a lot of people think The Ramones are one of the greatest American bands, I'm not one of those people. But, I also realize that we at SeedSing have to recognize and write about things we don't like or disagree with if we want to be taken seriously. So, I made the best case that a non fan of The Ramones can make. I believe that there are thousands of bands and musicians that are much, much better than The Ramones, but not everyone sees it that way. Much to my chagrin, these are the "reasons" that The Ramones belong in our greatest American band debate. Please tell me why I'm wrong in the comment section, but also check out some of the people I mentioned above and go listen to the people that The Ramones influenced instead of listening to The Ramones.

That's the best advice I can give you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once adored the Ramones, then learned their entire catalog in one afternoon and moved on. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Cavaliers Will Win the East, and Get Destroyed by the West

The Cavs need more practice, and a lot more talent.

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers got their asses handed to them by the Golden State Warriors 132-98. They gave up 132 points to an NBA team. Sure, they're the defending champions, but still, 132 points is an insane amount. That shouldn't happen to a team that is widely considered to be a championship contender.

Sure, the Cavs are good, they already have 27 or 28 wins and have won something like 12 of their last 14, but I want to focus on those two losses. They were to the Warriors last night and the San Antonio Spurs last Thursday night, the two best teams in the West and the two best teams in the NBA. Sure, they were competitive when they played the Spurs, but the Spurs pulled away from them late in the third quarter. And the Warriors absolutely man handled them last night.

In the post game press conference, LeBron James kept talking about the fact that they're a young team and they haven't experienced a lot of success and they still have a long way to go, but I've heard this song and dance from him before. In fact, I heard all the same stuff last year. I'm at the point now where I call bull shit. They have experienced success, they were in the finals last year and won two games. They are not that young. LeBron has been in the league for 12 years now, Kyrie Irving been around for at least five years and Kevin Love has been in the league for 7 years, I believe, now. The three of them have played in multiple all star games and Love and Irving got their first taste of the playoffs last year. In fact, most of the players on the Cavs have been in the NBA for awhile now. Stop with the young and inexperienced talk. The only player with any clout on the team that is young is Tristan Thompson, and he is not the world beater that LeBron and company have the media believing he is. And winning 50 plus games last year and making the finals, like I said before, equals measured success.

The only thing he said in the press conference that I agreed with was, they have a very, very long way to go. They don't use Kevin Love correctly for one. They've turned him into a three point shooting power forward. His post up game, that was unguardable while he was in Minnesota, is non existent. They don't want him clogging the lane so LeBron and Irving can drive, relegating him to the three point line. Sure, he's a good three point shooter, but he's a much better post player. Love looks lost a lot when the Cavs run their half court offense. Irving is not a point guard. He has phenomenal handles and dribbles the ball up the court, but that's not his game. He is a slasher that likes to get to the rim and can score on open jumpers. He is a two guard in a point guards body. He is a wizard with the basketball, but he is not a point guard. He's never been a good distributor and the offense doesn't run through him, it runs through LeBron. I love the way Irving plays, but he is much more suited to be a two guard. LeBron is LeBron. He's one of the best to ever play the game, but I feel like all those games and minutes that he's played is starting to wear on his body. He doesn't seem to have that quick first step anymore and he looks like a bowling ball when driving to the basket. He seems to create more contact than the players that the fouls are called on. He also cannot shoot from the outside. If I was guarding him, I'd take two steps back and let him shoot jumpers all night. That's what I'd want him to do. He's an all time great, but he hasn't looked that way so far this year.

Now, lets get to the two games I mentioned earlier. I've heard on ESPN and sports talk radio and talk shows that the East is closing the gap on the West. I've heard that the Cavs are a real threat to the Spurs, Warriors and even the Thunder, but look at the Cavs most recent losses to see how wrong these columnists and TV personalities are. They held a slim lead over the Spurs going into half time last Thursday, but then the second half started. The Spurs looked unstoppable. Tony Parker was getting to the rim at will. Aldridge was having an off night, but he was finding open shooters left and right from the post. Kevin Love was getting schooled by Tim Duncan all game. Kawhi Leonard was shutting down LeBron on defense and getting his on offense. The Spurs were clearly the superior team. Side bar, the Spurs play the most beautiful basketball I've ever seen. Their offense is so sophisticated, yet they make it look easy. I love watching the Spurs play. The Spurs dominated that second half and when the Cavs have to turn to Matthew Dellavedova and JR Smith for offense, god help them.

The Warriors just demolished them last night. They were hitting threes at an insane rate. They were running up and down the court with ease. They looked like they were in so much better shape than the Cavs. The Warriors suffocated them on defense. Draymond Green was shutting down all the Cavs big men and Steph Curry did Steph Curry things. As good as the Spurs looked the week before beating them, the Warriors looked better. They looked so much better than the Cavs in fact, I couldn't believe that they were on the same court. It looked like a varsity team playing a junior varsity team. The Warriors are about a thousand times better than the Cavs, even with both teams at full strength. Curry lit up Irving, Green and Barnes crushed Love all night and any number of Warriors player, be it Andre Iguodala or Barnes moving over to James or Shaun Livingston, basically anyone they threw at James, completely shut him down.

The Cavs may be the best team in the East, but stop with the talk of the East closing the gap on the West. The West's three top teams all have better records than the Cavs and I'd take any one of those teams, be it the Thunder, Spurs or Warriors, any day before I pick the Cavs. The Warriors and Spurs proved in the past five days that the East's best cannot even come close to competing with the West's best. I'm sure the Cavs will represent the East in the finals again this year, and I'm sure they'll lose to either the Spurs or the Warriors.

It will probably be a sweep too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He has been practicing his Lebron defense and cannot wait to get his shot at the Cavs. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.