Go

I borrowed Robert's rollers and have been using them when I'm too lazy to go out for a real work out. Riding the rollers has made me realize four things: 1) I really need a pair of cycling shorts, 2) I sweat like crazy riding with no wind, 3) I'm not very fast and 4) it's pretty easy to ride off the rollers if I'm not paying attention. On the plus side, it's nice getting to watch DVDs while riding my bike and any ride is better than no ride at all.

Speaking of rollers, check out the top two finishers from a Rollapaluza race this summer. Yeah, it's old news but it's worth a watch.

Chris Hoy won 3 golds in Beijing but couldn't win here:


This guy didn't make the cut for the Great Britain Olympic team but he won the rollers race:

Tiger Woods Y'all

At lunch, I watched this video and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.


I forgot that Chris Rock is funny because he's been in a bunch of bad movies. I might have to watch his HBO special.

Guess Who's Back?

Last night's season premiere of The Office was pretty good. It's nice to see that writers were able to use the momentum from the end of last season to keep things heading in the right direction. (The finale was excellent but in general Season Four was weak. It had it's moments but most of it was mediocre, especially compared to earlier seasons.) Anyway, with the exception of Jan (more annoying-crazy than funny-crazy), Darrell (seriously under-used!) and Angela/Andy (unlike most characters on the show, I've never felt any sympathy for either of these two), all the characters have good story-lines and are being well used, maintaining a decent balance of plot development and comedy.

It's too bad Amy Ryan is only going to be around for another 5 episodes (but on the bright side, Holly leaving for whatever reason might mean that Toby comes back. I'm not sure if that's an even trade but it might be) because she fits right in. It's almost as funny watching Michael trying to tone it down around her as it is watching him act like an idiot all the time. It's definitely less annoying anyway. And pretty much every scene with Holly is funny. Aside from Holly thinking Kevin is retarded (and finding out he isn't retarded), there's the rap. I have no idea why Michael and Holly would rap for the cameras but it's awesome. I think Alan Sepinwall said it best:

"Holly beat-boxed! She beat-boxed, people! I don't care if there was nothing else remotely funny about this episode, because I'm a little in love with both "The Office" and Amy Ryan right about now."

Anyway, I'll post a video when I can find one. So far I've only seen it on EW but it's at the end of a set of clips from yesterday's TV shows. (It's worth watching anyway, especially for Pam's g-check (what up 2-1-2?) and for some dude on Survivor making fun of old people.)

Got It From My Dad

At least some of my unintentional tendency to be music know-it-all can be attributed to (or blamed on) my dad. In addition to naming random songs on TV and the radio, he used to always let us know his favorite songs. Something would come on and he would say, "This is song is one of my Top Five Favorite Songs". Always. More than once we had to tell him that his "Top Five" list probably had about thirty or forty songs in it. Eventually, he started saying "Top Ten" instead, but by that time the list may have been 100 songs long.

I have a similarly difficult time narrowing down my favorite songs of all-time. Maybe a week ago, my friends and I were talking about how we probably couldn't do it. I struggle naming only five songs when thinking of my current favorite songs, or my favorite songs of a certain genre, or even my my favorite songs by a particular artist. The thought of coming up with my Top Five Favorite Songs of All-Time is just too much.

Unlike most of us, Max could come up with his Top Five and here they are (I think he may have made a last minute call and replaced Nelly Furtado with something else but I can't remember it):











Anyway, for no real reason whatsoever, I'm going to start a list of my favorite songs. It'll jump past five songs really quickly but I'm going to try to narrow it down a bit as things develop. If you can come up with five, I commend you for being decisive and devoted to those songs (or maybe I feel sorry for you for not loving more music). Either way, you should post them in the comments section. It'll be interesting, maybe.

Roll With The Winners

I know it's only the Carling Cup but Arsenal completely dominated Sheffield United yesterday. I've been excited to see what Vela, Ramsey and Wilshere can do and judging by the highlights, they delivered. Arsenal have been scoring goals like crazy as of late and currently sit atop the EPL. It's still really early in the season so hopefully they keep this momentum going.

Sweet

Good stuff from the season premiere of HIMYM.

Time To Get Paid

This could either be kind of okay, like "8 Mile" or entirely awful, like "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'", which I haven't actually seen but I assume is awful because 50 Cent is a terrible actor, I'm guessing.

Cruisin' Down The Street

Here's the latest short by the Mash guys, which posted last week on their new website. It's a quick vid of their visit to Austin where they got to ride with Lance. It's pretty cool how their minor, "underground" celebrity status got them in a position to meet the face of american cycling. Check out the video (and other videos too) in better quality at MashSF.

What Up!!!

T.I. had a brief but kind of awesome cameo in last night's Entourage:

If they actually made "Black Sabbath", I'm pretty sure I'd go see it and I'm pretty sure other people would as well.

T.I. aside, last night's episode was the best of the three Season Five episodes so far. Ari's bitch slap, the return of Shauna and her assistant, the absence of some lucky and entirely unlikely plot twist to save Vince's career, several hilarious Lloyd moments and some Mrs. Ari screen time were all nice to see. And once again, the music was great, well some of it at least (Santogold, Charles Hamilton and Franki Valli & The Four Seasons).

Nobody Has To Know

This video begs hundreds of questions, such as "What really is the definition of 'teenage'?" and "What the hell has R. Kelly done in his lifetime to get 'blackmailed a billion times'?" and "Do automatic teller machine machines really exist?"

Yeah, Yeaaah! Yeah, Yeaaah! YEAH!!!

Paul Scheer doing a one man Entourage show. Funny.

We Had A Promise Made

One of my favorite songs right now is José González's cover of The Knife's Heartbeats. I hadn't heard the original, so of course I had to check it out. Damn, The Knife's version is fresh. It's not quite as good as the José track (because that one is so calm and moving) but it's great in a different way. I'm digging the looped skate clips in the video too.

And oh, here's a video of the cover:

Bomb First

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

I recently stumbled upon this video, on a fixed gear website of all places. It's worth a watch, especially in HD, so I recommend clicking on the link.

When I was a senior in high school, my friends and I took a trip out to the Berkeley Hills to do some group riding. We actually skated that exact Claremont run with Patrick, one of the guys in the video, and other up-and-comers and former pros. At the time, I think Patrick was an 8th grader or something but the kid killed it, as you can probably imagine after watching the vid.

One of the best parts about the ride was getting to skate with really, really good downhillers. It was the first time my friends and I had skated with people that were better than us and it was amazing. Just riding with those guys (on some of the craziest hills we had ever bombed too), took our skills to the next level. I probably improved more that day that in the two or three months leading up to that.

The ride was organized by Cliff Coleman, a downhill legend (and yo-yo champ). I think Cliff was in his 50s back then but he was still going strong. Apparently, he still is too. Here's a video he did with some college students earlier this year.

Certified Certainly

Most of you probably don't care but I do:

It's Tricky

My boy Theo Walcott bagged himself a hat trick in World Cup Qualifying yesterday. He's done well in the EPL and Champions League so far and hopefully, he keeps up this top form as Arsenal's campaign moves along.



It took me a long time to track down this clip, so don't blame me if youtube pulls it down.

Whip It Good!

This leads me to believe that at least some of the genius of Chappelle's Show can be attributed to Neal Brennan:

Roll Out! Roll Out!

As I'm trying to forget about the Bucs' loss, it's nice to see that DeSean Jackson had a good debut:

My Beats Travel Like A Vortex

I had forgotten about how funny it is to watch Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.

Noticing You, Noticing Me

He's been around for a while (recently rapping about chickenheads on Estelle's latest album). His new album comes out tomorrow and features several people that murder hooks, such as Akon, T-Pain, The Dream and Rihanna. I usually shy away from dancehall-style rap but it's really good. Maybe it's the beats. Maybe it's the hooks. Or maybe it's that he's Canadian.

Without A Doubt

I'm pretty sure I want to see this movie: