Let's hope Alex Smith: The Sequel has some new plot twists

A mere 3 weeks ago, The Niners were 3-1. The division, and their first playoff game since Jeff Garcia, looked all but assured. And in a mere 3 weeks, the team is back in 2nd and counting on Alex Smith of all people to bring ‘em to the promised land. Wow.

So I guess my question is, do you feel lucky? Successful 2nd stints for guys like Smith are a rare thing in the NFL. But you had to like what you saw from Smith against Houston. He throws passes with zip and has way more pocket presence than I remembered. So when you realize that he never played with good receivers, or an offensive line, and they changed coaches around him all the time…do you start to talk yourself into it?

COLTS OVER NINERS

• Not this week, you don’t.

CHARGERS OVER RAIDERS (Suicide Pick)

• Last week, Mark Sanchez ate a hot dog on the sideline as his team pummeled Oakland.  This week, Phillip Rivers will eat a baby.  He’s a mean hombre

TEXANS OVER BILLS

• You really never know with Houston, but I don’t see the Bills scoring enough to beat them

BEARS OVER BROWNS

• One of the interesting subplots of this season are the famous coaches - Gruden, Shannahan, Cower, Holmgren, etc -waiting in the wings to coach next year.  In any other year, a guy like Lovie Smith might feel like he has some time.  But I’m thinking he’ll have the Bears fired up Sunday.  Maybe he can even ressurect Matt Forte

COWBOYS OVER SEAHAWKS

• Seattle is somehow the “everybody gets hurt” team 2 years in a row.  Life’s not always fair.

LIONS OVER RAMS

• Most everybody likes the Lions this week.  I’m suprised I can type that without suffering an aneurysm

DOLPHINS OVER JETS

• Tough one to call.  I think the Dolphins are a little better than 2-5

RAVENS OVER BRONCOS

• Denver’s good.  They’re legit.  Blah, blah, blah.  They’ve also been a little lucky.

VIKINGS OVER PACKERS

• BrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavreBrettFavre /head explodes. 

JAGUARS OVER TITANS

• Thanks to Vince Young, we get to see the Titans suck in new and exciting ways

EAGLES OVER GIANTS

• Another tough one to call, but Giants have secondary problems, and Philly can throw it, they’re at home, and if they Yankees win Game 3 their fans will be real pissed

CARDINALS OVER PANTHERS

• Poor Jake Delhomme.  You may recall the Cardinals were the team that happened to be there when he melted down in the playoffs.  Clearly, he’s been all post-traumatic stress disorder ever since.  Seeing Arizona again could trigger some crazy “Full-Metal Jacket” kind of freakout.  Hope someone’s watching the showers.

SAINTS OVER FALCONS (sigh)

• Birds will play well, they need a win.  But they don’t have the horses to cover all those receivers

Last Week:  8-5.  But come on, that Dolphins pick was looking pretty good there

Season:  60-37

Suicide Pool:  still here.   Baltimore, Washington, Green Bay, Chicago, Philly, Jacksonville,  Indy, and San Diego have been used

This doesn’t need an introduction. It’s just awesome.

It’s been, what, like 15 years for South Park? And yet, Cartman singing is still always funny.

So, Katie from the No Name show has challenged me to a duel in Rock Band. Doing this song may be her only chance.

Foo Fighters have a greatest hits record coming out Tuesday, but other than that, are on a self-imposed hiatus. Dave’s touring with Them Crooked Vultures, and the other guys are doing…whatever the hell it is that the other Foos do

So it’s not a stretch to say that your only chance to see Foo Fighters play live will involve sitting in front of a computer screen

I have no idea how a concert on Facebook works, but if you’re too lame to come to Spookfest, check it out and let me know

I’m not in the habit of posting things from People Magazine, but I’ll make an exception cause Corey Feldman’s getting a divorce!

Corey Feldman’s wife has filed for divorce, seeking sole custody of their 5-year-old son Zen as well as spousal support, Los Angeles court records show.

Feldman, 38, and Susie Sprague were married in October 2002, nine months after meeting in a nightclub, on the set of VH1’s The Surreal Life in a ceremony officiated by MC Hammer and a rabbi.

Who am I kidding?  I’m really just looking for an excuse to show you this highlight from the couple’s happier days

Corey and Susie, your love may not be forever, but your moment lives on

…but this year’s gayest album cover belongs to Adam Lambert!

I know the words “Mel Gibson” and “historical accuracy” don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, but it turns out the movie Braveheart did exactly adhere to the real story of William Wallace

 ”Wallace was a monster. He always smelt of smoke; he was always burning people’s villages down. He was like what the Vikings called ‘a berserker’.

“He wasn’t as nice as the character we saw up there on the screen. We romanticised him a bit. We shifted the balance because someone’s got to be the good guy against the bad guy; that’s the way stories are told.”

But wait, there’s more!

The areas of artistic interpretation include Wallace’s love affair with Queen Isabella. She would have been aged 2 at the time.

And the errors extend beyond the script to the wardrobe department. The kilts, which were worn by all Scots on the screen, were not invented for another three centuries. The historian Sharon L. Krossa likened it to “a film about Colonial America showing the colonial men wearing 20th-century business suits.”

But I’m sure everything in Passion of Christ went down just the way Mel told it

There’s your first look (language NSFW) at “Sublime’s” performance at the Smokeout Festival in Devore over the weekend. I mentioned on the show today that Brad Nowell’s family is not pleased with the performance of Sublime songs under the Sublime name.

It was Brad’s expressed intention that no one use the name Sublime in any group that did not include him, and Brad even registered the trademark ‘Sublime’ under his own name.

As Brad’s heirs, and with the support of his entire family, we only want to respect his wishes and therefore have not consented to Bud and Eric calling their new project ‘Sublime.’ We have always supported Bud and Eric’s musical endeavors and their desire to continue to play Sublime’s music. We wholeheartedly supported Bud, Eric and the many talented members of the Sublime posse that formed the Long Beach Dub All-Stars, soon after Brad’s death, to honor him through their original recordings, live performances and Sublime music until they disbanded in 2001. But, out of respect for Brad’s wishes, we have always refused to endorse any group performing as ‘Sublime,’ and now with great reluctance feel compelled to take the appropriate legal action to protect Brad’s legacy.

The band responded with their own statement

“On behalf of the band Sublime, founding members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson are thrilled by the opportunity to reconnect with their fans around the world. While we all mourn the passing of our brother and bandmate Bradley Nowell some thirteen years ago, Sublime still has a strong message of hope and love to share — a message that is especially important in these difficult times.

Brad’s heirs apparently do not share this vision and do not want the band Sublime to continue and tried — unsuccessfully — to file a temporary restraining order to prevent the band from carrying on. Despite those objections, we are pleased that the United States District Court has allowed us to perform as Sublime for all of our fans.

Now, inherently to me, the idea of Sublime without bad is just a tad icky.  It’s kind a like that DirecTv commercial that David Spade did with footage of Chris Farley.  But there are a lot of people out there who never got to see the real Sublime.  The band didn’t get famous until after Brad had died, and many of their fans are too young to remember that to begin with.  So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that quite a few fellow musicians were one board with this:

“It’s a reformation, they finally found a guy in Rome that they feel confident enough to bring Sublime back,” Cypress Hill’s B-Real said in YouTube video posted when the lineup was announced. “If you’re an AC/DC fan, Bon Scott passed away, people thought, ‘What are these guys going to do.’ … Those guys could have gave up … but they found a guy that they felt could carry on that legacy.”

Pennywise’s Fletcher Dragge, who’s in a similar name predicament following the August exit of singer Jim Lindberg, couldn’t agree more. “This has been long overdue,” he said. “Brad’s gone, he’s not coming back, but if you believe in reincarnation, then they totally pulled it off. Should they change their name? F@!k no. Bud and Eric earned that spot up there. As big a part of Sublime as Bradley may have been, they were there for him and they’re not trying to do anything but pay Bradley homage.”

So what do you think?  Would you see Bud and Eric Play?  Would you think of it as Sublime?

(via Rolling Stone)

My buddy Dave passed along this pic from the early hours of U2’s show at the Rosebowl. The stage seems like nothing you’ve ever seen, right?

How many of you have your Crabtree jersey?

It’s week 7 of the NFL season, there’s a lot of football to be played. But around these time of year, there’s always a game that REALLY matters. And this week that game happens to belong to your San Francisco 49ers. A couple of weeks ago, the Niners were 3-1 with wins over every team in the divsion. They were feeling like they could wrap a playoff spot in the next month. One blowout loss and a couple of Arizona wins later, and the Niners could be sitting in a first place tie, facing the wrath of Singletary and his stupid hill

As for the picks…

NINERS OVER TEXANS

• This game is made unpredictable by 2 things.  The first is the presence of new rookie wr/primadonna Michael Crabtree.  The 2nd is that no one can figure out the Houston Texans.  I’m going to ignore both of these factors and trust in Singletary’s D

JETS OVER RAIDERS

• Tom Cable not going to prison is victory enough this week, isn’t it?  BTW, we all know Al Davis has made some unconventional signings lately, but the latest member of the silver and black takes it up a notch

BEARS OVER BENGALS

• Hope someone installed some airbags on that Bengals bandwagon

PACKERS OVER BROWNS

• Browns battling the flu and a lingering case of suckiness all week

COWBOYS OVER FALCONS (sigh)

• Falcons D is just a little too banged up right now

CHARGERS OVER CHIEFS

• If the Bolts can’t win this one, they’re gonna have to duct tape LT’s mouth shut

DOLPHINS OVER SAINTS

• Look at me, going for the upset special.  I really do think the Saints are the best team in football.  They’ve yet to trail in a game this season.  But they’re gonna have a letdown sooner or later, and this one on the road looks good to me.

COLTS OVER RAMS (Suicide Pick)

• I’ve pretty much just picked against the Rams in my suicide pool every week and it’s worked out.  Considering how many legitimately crappy teams are out there, it’s saying something that they can be your stand-by

STEELERS OVER VIKINGS

• Upset special #2!  This would be a great game if not for all the inevitable QB worship we’ll have to to endure from the announcers.  Yeah we get it “THEY’RE JUST HAVING FUN OUT THERE!”

PATS OVER BUCS

• This game is in London.  Long way to fly for an ass-whipping

PANTHERS OVER BILLS

• zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

GIANTS OVER CARDS

• Let the Kurt Warner Concussion watch begin!  Sidenote:  after this harrowing Malcom Gladwell article, I know feel sorta guilty making concussion jokes.  End of an era, for me really

EAGLES OVER REDSKINS

• The Redskins GM announced that coach Jim Zorn will be with the team at least through the end of the season.  If you’ve seen the team, you know that’s not going over well with ‘Skins fans.  These guys hate their team more than any other fanbase in the league.  And that’s from a guy who knows a lot of Raider fans

Last week: 7-7

Season: 52-32

Suicide Pool :  still kickin’.  Baltimore, Washington, Green Bay, Chicago, Philly, Jacksonville, and Indy have been used