Watching the demise of major media outlets in Boston has been pretty shocking. First, there has been the long-running fear-mongering about the restructuring and potential closure of the Boston Globe. Then, this week, was the news about WBCN being replaced by sports talk. Sadly, BCN had been dying a slow death – its music has been dead since the late ‘90’s and nothing could make up for the ratings loss when Howard Stern’s show ended in 2006. It’s just further proof of the absolute failure of most media companies to adapt to modern technologies and continue to dig their own graves, unfortunately at the expense of key pieces of community fabric. Continue reading →
Knowing that the Bruins likely wouldn’t be involved in any dealings, I wasn’t anxiously awaiting the news of a big signing and grumbling every time someone on my B’s wishlist signed somewhere else. Instead, I was able to enjoy Wysh’s “live blog” (really just a series of tweets from various news sources) providing updates on all the happenings. For the most part, I found myself in disbelief at most of these deals, to the point that it looked some GM’s had a few too many celebratory Canada Day drinks given their absurdity and some appeared to have hit the bottle too early hard, too early, and slept through most of the day. So, let’s take a look at why your team was a loser yesterday. Continue reading →
Not to be outdone by forbearers Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse release what will probably hold as the best brutal death metal album of the year, Evisceration Plague. Superficially, the album is everything one would expect – totally ripping and brutal, with great production by Erik Rutan. If Scott Burns of Morrissound Studios was death metal’s early producer extraordinaire, Rutan should be considered the modern equivalent. Rutan is able to capture clear sound out all instruments, even making the bass audible, in a genre that is not known for quality sound. Better still is that he does it without sacrificing any of the music’s heaviness. The only “noticeable” change from the band, other than pushing their musical heaviness further, is the seeming lack of gore-based lyrics, which may bother some long-time fans. The songs are unrelenting, generally driving with a ferocious drum beat and riffs, only spiced up by the occasional sinewy, dissonant guitar solos. It’s amazing that Cannibal Corpse is able to approach such a stoic and austere musical style with the same bravado and intensity after 20 years, but they remain unchallenged as the best at straight-ahead, pounding fast death metal.
Now that hockey season is over, there is a lot of crap to catch-up on with the draft less than two weeks away and the start of free agency three weeks away.
The first story was the Bruins re-signing my hockey dreamboat, David Krejci. While the Bruins are saddled with a bit of a cap-crunch, Chiarelli also made a number of smart moves with the signing. Continue reading →
Superseding “Cookies ist Krieg,” this may be the best black metal YouTube video ever. A dude in corpsepaint skateboarding through London, flashing invisible oranges at unsuspecting children and tourists and then tearing pages out of the bible with his teeth. No matter how many times I watch it, it remains freaking hilarious.
Understandably, Anneke van Giersbergen has spent the better part of the last 18 months touring to promote her post- The Gathering project, Agua de Annique. I instantly fell in love with their debut, Air, and have only grown more fond of it over time. Rather than make fans wait while trying to build their name touring, the band(or just Anneke, I believe) has released Pure Air, an acoustic album containing a few re-worked versions of songs from Air, a few collaborations with some famous friends, and a bunch of covers. Continue reading →
On to round 2! The Bruins waited so long to find out who they would face in the next round that I almost considered shaving off my playoff beard. The layoff is generally considered a mixed bag. It gives a team time to rest and get healthy, but in the post-lockout era, teams coming off less rest have generally fared better. Continue reading →
If I played for the Sharks, I would be totally pissed at the Blues right now. Rather than getting a young, inexperienced team that wasn’t even supposed to make the playoffs, the Sharks draw Anaheim in the first round. The Ducks are the scariest low-seed in the playoffs, because they have grit and experience, plus a re-donk-ulous first line. If their goaltending gets hot (whether it is former Conn Smythe winner Giguere or the inexperienced, but seemingly better Hiller), they could win the West. The Sharks and their top two forwards, Thornton and Marleau, are notorious for crapping out early in the playoffs, so given the expectations of a great regular season, I wouldn’t expect them to make it past the second round. The Ducks will scare them, but the Sharks have too much talent and depth to lose to an undisciplined team like Anaheim. San Jose in 7. Continue reading →
It’s only right for the Bruins and Canadiens to meet in the playoffs, especially given that it’s Montreal’s centennial season. There could be no better way to end what has already been a consistently disappointing celebratory than for the Bruins to knock the Habs out of playoffs, especially if it is dominating fashion. Continue reading →
The Herald is reporting that the Bruins will host the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day 2010 at Fenway. I’m not sure how much stock to put into this report, since it is coming from the less-than-reputable newspaper’s less-than-reputable gossip columnists and is not being mentioned anywhere else. I generally expected that Fenway would be the location for a Winter Classic game, but am slightly disappointed. I had hoped the league might, for once, try to do something thoughtful, rather than mimic this year’s game at Wrigley Field. Fenway, being baseball’s other remaining historically significant field, just seemed to obvious, especially when they could have used a more historically significant location like Harvard Stadium (despite it being less famous). I have to believe that places like Harvard Stadium and Philadelphia’s Franklin Field do not even get mentioned because the league is looking at Michigan’s Big House or OSU’s Horseshoe, which have triple the capacity. More than anything, I am just glad that the league didn’t try to stage the event somewhere like San Jose.
