Brett Farrey

I watched Cadillac Records the other night and I absolutely love it. It was great to see them do a movie about that Chicago blues scene. It was truly a magical time.

In this tale of sex, violence, race, and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, “Cadillac Records” follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America’s musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.

It was a great movie except one little thing. Beyonce. I think she did a decent job at acting, but her singing was awful compared to Etta James. When Beyonce started singing “At Last”, I just couldn’t stand it. Once she entered the movie, I had a hard time concentrating because I was so irritated with her awful singing. Beyonce may have a decent voice for pop/r&b songs for the MTV crowd, but people who actually love music realize she is no Etta James.

Etta James

Beyonce

Beyonce didn’t sing out of key or anything horribly bad, but her voice has no soul. She’s an average R&B singer trying to mimic the great Etta James. It doesn’t surprise me Etta doesn’t like Beyonce.

Related Links:
Cadillac Records Trailer
Etta James to Beyonce: I’ll Whoop Your Ass!

I saw a forum thread on Harmony Central about undeserving pop stars, and it got me thinking. A deserving pop star is first and foremost a talented singer. If they can’t sing, they are worthless. End of story. I don’t care if they write their own crappy pop songs, which are probably co-written or molded by their producer, who’s probably also a songwriter.

Anyway, here it goes…..

5. Ke$ha

I wouldn’t consider this girl to be popular yet, but wow does she suck. If she gains any popularity at all, she’ll probably move up a few spots.

If that isn’t proof enough, she does the EXACT same moves for every performance.

I’m pretty sure her 15 minutes are just about up. Hey Ke$ha, I suggest you save your money and go to community college. Otherwise, I see the word “stripper” in your future.

4. Taylor Swift

Taylor is HUGE right now. I’ve listened to her music, and it’s catchy pop songs for little kids. My niece loves her. But, is she deserving? She supposedly writes her own songs, which I have to give her some credit, but pop stars aren’t created because of good songwriting. Taylor is an extremely cute girl with a unique look to her. The young boys love her! Unfortunately, the world that isn’t tone deaf and doesn’t want to sleep with her, simply can’t stand her.

Here’s a few more examples:

Performance at Grammy Live concert 2008
there are no words for how much taylor swift CAN’T sing

There are a thousands of singers of more talented singers out there, yet Taylor is the one making millions and winning awards. If it wasn’t for great marketing, she’d be nothing but an average karoake singer aspiring to someday perform in a cover band.

3. Ashlee Simpson

Ashlee’s career should have never started. If it wasn’t for her sister, Jessica, she’d be a nobody. On top of being a horrible singer, she completely sold out by trading in her rocker look for the blonde barbie girl look, which included plastic surgery. Yay….she now looks like everyone else. It’s not surprising to see she’s doing a lot of lip syncing these days.

2. Rihanna

Rihanna is probably one of the absolute worst singers in pop music today. To begin with, she has a very limited range to her voice, but she also can’t sing in tune. I’m sure the producers even had a hard time getting the recording software to fix her voice….

I’m guessing we’ll never see Rihanna sing live ever again.

1. Britney Spears

Britney Spears is the #1 most undeserving pop star. Britney is an entertainer, not a singer, but she still performs live, or at least pretends to perform live. She occasionally attempts to sing live, only if she’s not dancing and if the part is easy enough for her tone deaf vocal chords. You’d think after all of these years of lip syncing, she’d eventually get good at that, but I guess not. Aside from being a mediocre dancer, what is she good at?

This might not be fair to post, since she’s singing along with the pre-recorded vocals, and it wasn’t meant to be heard by the public, but it gives you a sense how tone deaf she really is…..

Britney is nothing but a softcore porn star lip syncing her way through her choreographed dance numbers, but if it sells, her record label could care less. The only thing more pathetic is the millions of fans who aren’t smart enough to realize she’s a fraud.

I’ve been asked multiple times lately why I don’t like Brett Favre. To me, it seems pretty obvious, but maybe I need to spell it out for everyone.

Brett Favre has been one of my all-time heroes in regards to the game of football, and sports in general. I’ve watched or listened to just about everyone of his games as a Packer. The problem started when he started talking about retirement. At the end of each season, Favre would announce that he was going to take some time to ponder his future. That was fine to a certain extent, but the time to ponder kept getting longer with each year. The Packers gave him way too much time to ponder his decision, since the team wanted to do everything they could to coax him into coming back. To make matters worse, the media swarmed to this ongoing story like rabid dogs.

Favre had a breakout season in 2007, and for whatever reason, decided to call it quits. I remember I was at work when I heard the news, and I just couldn’t believe it. He was arguably the most loved player in Green Bay Packers history, and Packer fans were in shock that they’d no longer be able to watch that gunslinger from Mississippi.

Favre wants to come back out of retirement. The team had already made changes to the offense to accommodate Aaron Rodger’s skill set, and were ready to move on. I had heard rumors the coaches didn’t think Favre could no longer win cold weather games, but that’s just hearsay. At the time, I thought the Packers should have let him come back, but I think Favre knew they didn’t want him, and I believe he ultimately wanted to play for the Vikings, which had his previous QB coach, Darrel Bevell, running the offense he had so much success.

Of course, we all know what happens next….

The Packers weren’t going to just let him go to the Vikings, so they traded him to the Jets. I didn’t like the move, since I didn’t want to see Favre playing for anyone but the Packers, but Aaron Rodgers had a great first season as a starter, and I still enjoyed watching Favre play the game. He ended up getting hurt, didn’t want to break his starting streak, and basically screwed over the New York Jets. Again, he retires, and asks to be released. He asked to be released? Of course he did, he wanted to go play for the Vikings to A) get back at the organization that let him go, and B) rejoin with Bevell and make another run at the Super Bowl. To a certain extent, I can’t blame him, but he also fucked over every Packer fan that loved/loves him. I could handle watching him play for another team from a different division, but the Minnesota Vikings??? Are you kidding me? The Vikings are the most hated rival, and he wants to play for them???

Favre has had a great season with the Vikings, but he’ll go down in history as the arrogant crybaby that let down the fans that bleed green and gold on his behalf.

Favre let his own arrogance get the better of him, and the fans that supported him for 16 years suffered for it. Brett Favre hurt both the Packer and Jets organizations, and most importantly the Packer and Jets fans.

This is why I no longer like Brett Favre.

I got a text from my wife last Friday, and it said, ” Smart Studios is closing.” I was immediately overwhelmed with emotions. Smart Studios was founded by Butch Vig and Steve Marker, both members of Garbage. I’ve recorded at Smart a couple of times with Smokin’ with Superman, and the experience alone was worth it. When you walk into the studio, you quickly see reminders of who’s recorded in that building. It was knowing that bands like Garbage and Nirvana recorded there that made that place so special. There used to be a wall of CDs upstairs, that gave you list of just some of the acts, and it was overwhelming. Smart Studios has been an icon in Madison, something all the locals could use to legitimize the quality of their music scene. It’s sad to see it go.

Related:
Madison’s Smart Studios closing, engineer confirms
Smart Studios closing March 1
Madison’s Historic Smart Studios to Close
Smart Studios is Closing
Recording Studios Face Uncertain Future

Here’s a some tips on how to setup your bass guitar…

The Ultimate Guide To Perfect Bass Setup by Jerzy Drozd
Kindness – Basic Setup
Kindness – Fret Leveling/Crowning

Copps
This used to be one of my favorite grocery stores in town. They always had a decent prices, a fair selection of food, and was extremely convenient due to their multiple locations. They’ve since been bought out by Roundys, and now they’re one of the worst grocery stores in the area. The selection of food has been inundated with the Roundys brand of food, which is just disgustingly awful food. For example: my wife and I both found out, for whatever reason, Roundys’ brand eggs make us sick to our stomach. We tried them several different times, and have since switched to organic non-Roundys eggs. They’ve also recently reorganized their West side location, and it makes absolutely no sense. If it wasn’t for their salad bar, they would have gotten an “F”.

Grade: D-

Sentry – Hilldale
This is one of my favorite grocery stores in town, aside from the prices. The selection of food is excellent, it’s clean, the layout is terrific, but the prices are high. If you’re stopping in for a few items for an evening’s meal, it’s excellent. If you’re shopping for this week’s groceries, it’s not ideal.

Grade: C

Whole Foods
I’m listing this one right after Sentry, since I see them as being very similar. They both have a large and unique selection of food, but both are expensive. Whole Foods has an excellent deli and salad bar, with very unique items on both. If I’m in the mood for something different, Whole Foods is toward the top of my list, especially if I’m thinking of grabbing something from the deli. Unfortunately, you have to pay the price for good food.

Grade: C+

Woodman’s
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Woodman’s has the best selection of food in town. The store is huge, the layout is decent, but it’s also kind of dirty and always packed full of people. The produce section is just a bunch of boxes opened up for people to pick through, so be careful what you take home with you. The ethnic food sections are tremendous. Woodman’s probably has the best selection of food tied in with great prices, but it’s also packed with a ton of people and is typically dirty.

Grade: B-

HyVee
I just went to the new HyVee on the East side of Madison, and it’s fantastic! The selection of food wasn’t as good as Woodman’s, but it’s probably the second best in town. They sell some of their own HyVee brand of food, and from what I can tell so far, it’s far superior to Roundy’s. The prices were very competitive to other stores in town, but they had some really good deals. The layout of the store was very organized and quite unique. At front of the store, they had small sections for season items, which was arranged with an excellent assortment of products. Copps has a section for season items, but it’s in the back of the store and the arrangement only has the necessities. There were a ton of places to try sample different foods. The deli is one of the best in town. The cheese area made me feel like I was shopping at Brennan’s. They also had a place where they have cooking classes, a pharmacy, and an a extremely large liquor store. They had a ton of prepared food that you can either take home with you, or eat in their little cafe area. I very much look forward to having one on the West side of Madison.

Grade: A

Ultimately, I believe HyVee will be the end of Copps in Madison. Good riddance!

We were saddened when we came home from being out of town for Thanksgiving to find Kanel, our much loved cockatiel, had passed away. Kanel had been with Melissa almost 12 years. She will be very missed.

We ended up having her cremated, and in the process, we found a great company called Memorial Pet Services, Inc. Great people!

I understand that this Edgwater plan would increase jobs, and potentially revitalize a college student inhabited neighborhood, but at what price to the taxpayer? As it is, the new budget will have Madison paying an additional average of $76 on taxes. That’s ridiculous!

I’d be all for paying more taxes on something that would improve the city. Hmmm, like say, improving our streets. There are a ton of streets that need some major work. Example: Midtown Road.

The council made only modest changes to the mayor’s proposed operating budget “for hard times” for next year, and on a voice vote early Thursday morning approved a $239.8 million spending plan that increases city taxes 4.1 percent ($76) to $1,936 on the average $245,000 home.

$16 million to revitalize a hotel, but only $25,000 to help the homeless. Really???

Due to the tough economy, the council added $100,000 to boost community services and $25,000 to help the homeless.

Council sets aside $16 million for Edgewater proposal

I have no problem with contact sports, but Elizabeth Lambert was just plain ignorant. This is was well beyond playing a physical game. It was classless and it makes Lambert look like a dumb redneck. She should be ashamed of herself. The one question nobody has been asking is why didn’t the UNM coaches stop it from happening? Lambert never got pulled from the game, so I also believe the coaches should be suspended.

Elizabeth Lambert has been the product of much speculation after her aggressive behavior during the University of New Mexico v. Brigham Young Women’s Championship Soccer game. Part of the reason that this story has gained national attention is because this behavior is surprising for women’s sports, but even more so for women’s college athletics.

Elizabeth has already offered a public apology, but she may also decide to be interviewed to offer an explanation for her actions. Afterall, we are only seeing a few clips of the game. During the interview between ESPN and Sports Correspondent, Jared Lloyd, we learn that the refs set the tone for this game by not calling penalties on Lambert sooner.

Elizabeth Lambert: Interview on ESPN (Video)

New Mexico Women’s Soccer Player Suspended Indefinitely

I just love this song, so I had to post it. Jason will be playing at the High Noon Saloon on November 21st.