If you’ve caught the new trailer for Iron Man 2, you may have noticed that the background music was all AC/DC. That is because the soundtrack, scheduled for release on April 19, is made up entirely of AC/DC songs. Unfortunately, this album doesn’t feature any new material, but it is not a slap-dash greatest hits compilation either. Instead it features what seem to be carefully selected classic hits and obscure, but solid songs over the band’s career. Below is the album’s track listing and the ranking it received when this website ranked all of AC/DC’s songs back in April of last year.
1. Shoot to Thrill - #8 (link includes a new video of this song spliced with Iron Man 2 footage)
2. Rock ‘N’ Roll Damnation – #53
3. Guns for Hire – #29
4. Cold Hearted Man – #74
5. Back in Black – #3
6. Thunderstruck – #6
7. If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) – #70
8. Evil Walks – #17
9. T.N.T. – #30
10. Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be – #86
11. Have a Drink on Me -#28
12. The Razor’s Edge – #131
13. Let There Be Rock – #2
14. War Machine – #60
15. Highway to Hell – #5
Unlike most college football fans, I follow national signing day about as closely as I do the Daytime Emmys. This year, however, I took a keener interest in the life decisions of high school seniors, especially if those choices involved attending Southern Cal or Tennessee. A head coach’s departure in the middle of January can do that to a fan. As of 10:00 PM ET on February 2, USC, with its new coaching package led by head coach Lane Kiffin, had signed the seventh-best recruiting class, according to ESPN.
BFD.
What excites me is that the University of Tennessee – the proverbial house that Kiffin and company tried to burn down as they left – pulled in the ninth-ranked class. Granted, four SEC teams (Florida, Alabama, Auburn and LSU) ranked higher, but if you’re a Tennessee fan, what new head coach Derek Dooley was able to accomplish in two weeks has to give you hope for the future.
In response to Washington, D.C.’s new five-cent tax on plastic grocery bags, the District of Columbia Republican Committee has responded with its own reusable khaki shopping bags with the phrase, “Bag the Bag Tax.” They are available for a $25 donation on the Committee’s website. While this seems like a populist outcry, the DC GOP is doing exactly what advocates hoped the tax would do by encouraging Washingtonians to stop using plastic bags. I actually have no problem with the tax even though it doesn’t get to the root of the problem: people not putting their trash in a garbage can.
There are plenty of problems that the D.C. Republican Committee can find in laws passed by a city council made up of 12 Democrats and one independent, but instead they opt for this cheap – and counterproductive - gimmick. I don’t know if bad political activisim is the reason only 6.9 percent of D.C. residents are registered Republicans, but I’m sure it is why that small percentage isn’t more engaged locally.
When learning of the D.C. GOP’s bags, Democratic D.C. Councilman and leading bag tax proponent Tommy Wells told The Washington City Paper:
“The Republican Party has a long tradition of not caring about the environment. Either that, or they don’t recognize a business-friendly measure when they see one.”
I don’t know if Wells is right but sadly, I can’t expect anything from my local party to prove that he is wrong.
Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin’s decision to leave Knoxville in mid-January for a head coaching job at USC makes me think that Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis was spot on when he called him a “flat-out liar”. Davis made that statement shortly after firing Kiffin as head coach of the Raiders so the University of Tennessee took a big chance by offering Kiffin his next gig. He repaid that opportunity by racking up more NCAA secondary violations than wins and most likely killing Tennessee’s recruiting class for 2010 with his departure.
Kiffin and his coaching staff did show a lot of potential in their lone season here and will likely find success at USC. However, part of me hopes this unproven 34-year-old head coach spends his 40s coaching quarterbacks at some mid-level college (of course that’s a noble job, but you get my point).
Sun-Maid has given its raisin girl a 21st-Century makeover. I’lll bet some middle-aged man in Sun-Maid’s board room said, “Makes me want to buy raisins”, when this version was greenlit. No need to worry that she will fully replace a 90-year-old icon found in grocery stores everywhere. This vixen of the vineyard will only be featured in product advertisements.
Comcast and General Electric (GE) have announced a deal where the cable giant will control 51 percent of NBC Universal while GE will control the remaining 49 percent. For more information on the deal, Variety’s coverage offers a much more detailed breakdown.
The idea of Comcast having more control of the television and film industry makes me a bit uneasy. My only basis for this worry is the horrible customer service they have provided over the years. It’s a bit irrational but missing an entire day of work waiting for the cable guy when you were told to be home between 8:00 am and noon can cloud a person’s feelings.
I’m not one to shy away from toilet discussion or humor, but even I found myself a bit disgusted by Hall of Fame Third Baseman George Brett’s story about accidents in public. While I am not one for forwarding embarrassing videos, Brett’s nonchalantless in describing a moment most would take to their grave makes me think he could care less that this video circulates the internet (WARNING: This video contains graphic discussion of bowel movements).
University of Tennessee Head Football Coach Lane Kiffin’s debut season exceeded expectations by coaching the Vols to a 7-5 record and tying for second place in the SEC East behind Florida. When you take into account that Tennessee was 2-3 after the first week of October before reeling off victories against Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky, the coaching feat looks even more remarkable.
This type of season makes it easy to think that next year will be even better but the Vols could very well find themselves in the same spot next year. Three of their first five games are against Oregon, Florida and LSU. Couple that with the fact that the Vols will be questionable at quarterback and fielding a a defense missing All-American linebacker Rico McCoy and – most likely – Eric Berry, a 7-5 record in 2010 may be just as impressive.
That being said, I like what Kiffin and co. are doing in Knoxville and am excited about the run they will make in 2011.
Happy Thanksgiving! You may have already seen or heard about the below Internet ads from 2010 New Orleans mayoral candidate James Perry. While the first will soon make him a household name for the wrong reasons, the second shows his potential to be the next mayor of the Crescent City. Since it will take you a collective 2:15 to watch them, I won’t go in to detail about either.
The GOP may be touting what they learned from Tuesday’s gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia, but the only lesson worth remembering comes from New York’s 23rd District. There Republican nominee Dierdre Scozzafava saw upstart Doug Hoffman, a conservative who received the support of prominent Republicans like Sarah Palin and Dick Armey, declare ideological war on her candidacy. Sensing a defection of the Republican base and simply irritated, Scozzafava, a moderate in the same vein as John McHugh, the Republican who held the seat before being appointed Secretary of the Army, withdrew and threw her support to Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate. Owens won and a seat that Republicans had controlled since 1872 went Democratic.
We’ve all heard, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” In Congress that saying should start with, “Them who has the purple…” Purple districts and purple states – not thought change – are the margins needed for House and Senate control. The shifts in Congressional power have ultimately hinged on the candidates who win the moderate seats; not the ones who make us feel warm and fuzzy. This is echoed in the fact that Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, the respective governor-elects in New Jersey and Virginia, won by garnering the majority of independent votes in their states.
In giving the keynote speech at the Republican Convention in 1996, Colin Powell stated, “You all know that I believe in a woman’s right to choose and I strongly support affirmative action. And, I was invited here by my party to share my views with you because we are a big enough party — and big enough people — to disagree on individual issues and still work together for our common goal: restoring the American Dream.” If that is no longer the case, then the GOP could find itself standing on the sidelines for years to come.
Sun-Maid has given its raisin girl a 21st-Century makeover. I’lll bet some middle-aged man in Sun-Maid’s board room said, “Makes me want to buy raisins”, when this version was greenlit. No need to worry that she will fully replace a 90-year-old icon found in grocery stores everywhere. This vixen of the vineyard will only be featured in product advertisements.