Welp, guess you're right about my info being outdated. There was a long streak where it was true - I know that the 2006 Seahawks were the first in a good while to make the playoffs after losing the preceding Super Bowl - but yeah it does look like there's been a course correction in the past decade.

First time I bet on sports since losing $500 on GSW the year they lost with a 3:1 lead. Bet on Rams and lost but Bovada had the under for Rams as 31 at the half and took that action so made a pretty penny .

What do you think the odds are of gronk bro's signing with wwe in the next 5 years?

Not huge, but Heel Gronk would have potential to be an amazing character along the lines of Kurt Angle’s early work.

Bob Stoops is going to coach an XFL team.

...what? He could certainly land another good college gig. I can't imagine how this is better.

Top level FBS coaching is a really high pressure job. Maybe he just wants to be a coach, but not really give any ****s. XFL could be that.

Otherwise, I don't understand the decision either.

Yeah, that's what would make most sense, but in that instance I think you'd look at colleges of lesser tradition who have neither a lot of media pressure nor a psychotic donor base, whether that be a promising mid-major or a P5 school of low prominence where you would be a hero just to lead them to some minor bowl success. This is the type of situation that Mike Leach found at WSU.

That said, he's going to coach Dallas, and given his long tenure in Oklahoma it might be a geographic draw for him to stay in the region.

About 15 months since I posted this, and not only has this streak continued, the current number one is even worse than Bodak Yellow by a not insignificant margin. I don't know how someone can listen to 7 Rings and think "yup, this is great".

I always remember the clear before-and-after dividing line as to when I could enjoy a lot of the pop on the charts and when I couldn't: "Hollaback Girl." I was vaguely aware of a song of that name being on the charts, but when I heard it I was staggered by how completely awful it was, and it felt like music could never fully go back. It felt like a double slap in the face that this piece of absolute trash came from the lead singer of No Doubt, who I did enjoy.

Meh. While going through billboards top 1 the past few years gives very few songs I love, going through their top 20 the past few years has a lot of good ones.

We're living through very good times music wise - and if a song by Ariana Grande (who probably has the best voice of this generation) is a sign of bad times, then... bring on the bad times imo..

That's part of what's so infuriating. She's incredibly talented. She doesn't need to do this awful ****.

There's some bad (or at least, not as good as it should be), but then there's some (really, really) good too:



so in the end I think we still come out ahead

As long as we don't just look at the no.1s but at the whole picture, I think we should be very happy with todays musical scene.

I didn’t tune in for the Grammys, but it should go without saying that everyone should be blocking out multiple hours per day to listen to Kacey Musgraves on a loop. Saw her in concert last month and very much enjoyed.

I find this to be an excessively weird album cover.



I mean, I realize they surely weren't going for normal, but still, it causes me to wince every time it shows up on Spotify.

The vintage mirror has to be the weirdest part of that cover, right?

Seems legit.

2 or 3 suggestions for a non-country fan who hasn't heard a single song by her (that I know of)?

Well ****, that's a tough one given the context of trying to appeal to a non-country fan, though I'm under the impression that she is one that some non-country fans point to as a country singer that they can enjoy. I can't fully tell if that's because she goes fairly sharply against the grain of the conservative country culture or what, but whatever the reason, she gets more love from the Grammys than from the CMAs.

I feel tremendous pressure to get this right. Let's go with...
Merry Go Round
Slow Burn
Space Cowboy

I'm least confident in the third selection FWIW, given the context. It did just win the Grammy for Country Song of the Year, but I can't readily gauge its crossover appeal. "Merry Go Round" is from her first album; "Slow Burn" and "Space Cowboy" are from this newest one.

Been listening to Kacey Musgraves songs for the past 45 minutes, since I'm the only one in the office because it's snowing like crazy here. (I live by far the closest of anyone, so it's not like I'm being super-dedicated.)

My quick thoughts:
It's nothing I'm going to seek out, but this is about the best modern country music I've ever heard. "Slow Burn" really didn't do much for me. "Space Cowboy" was decent. "Butterflies" and "Blowin' Smoke" were highlights of the ones you didn't suggest. "Merry Go Round" is absolutely outstanding.

Curious what you think of "High Horse"? That wasn't country at all imo.

Yeah, I was going to say that if "Merry Go Round" was a bust for you then you could perhaps abort the mission right then, but I couldn't bring myself to encourage you to stop that quickly. Seeing her perform it in concert solidified it as my favorite song of hers.

"High Horse" is...odd. When I first heard it I very much had a reaction of "WTF is this disco ****," but over time it has grown on me as a catchy tune, so I basically like it now. I agree that it bears little resemblance to country. In general her style has increasingly inched slightly away from country with each album (three label-produced albums to date).

Her "Same Trailer, Different Park" album was her first, and to me still stands up as her best from beginning to end, though the current album is getting a bit more critical acclaim. I think she released "Keep It to Yourself" as a single, and I like that one a lot. I also like "It is What It Is," which is just an album track off that one that I'm sure most aren't aware of. For whatever reason, I'm less of a fan of "Blowin' Smoke" than many even though it's fine.

"Rainbow" is another strong one on the current album IMO. "Slow Burn" is actually not a favorite of mine (though I like it well enough), but I was just offering my best stabs at what might have crossover appeal.

I think High Horse is the best song on the album. Also not a huge country fan. Space Cowboy leans a bit too far into some of her more cringey writing habits with really basic wordplay that makes you roll your eyes. It’s still a pretty good song but I think that’s her biggest weakness on display. Sometimes she nails a really simple lyric and sometimes it doesn’t work at all

Yeah, so on the cat-owning front, the repeated assurances of "it gets better," which I've heard from many people IRL but were echoed here, are not bearing out as much as I would like. I would say that the bastard has gotten marginally better, but that improvement happened a while ago and he seems to have settled in since.

With just a few tweaks, that paragraph could also describe my experience with trying to read The Dark Tower, as Dvo kept insisting that all I needed to do was make my way through like five ****ing books in order to really start enjoying it.

(Unlike the Dark Tower, I can't see myself ever reaching a point where I can justify dumping the cat, so I'm just stuck I think.)

My cat puked all over the carpet at 5am this morning, so I feel your pain buddy.

Whats the big problem with the cat? Sleep schedule?

If so, dont let that ****er sleep while youre home during the day. He will sleep all night after that

I used to feed my cat in the mornings. He figured out that when I wake up, I feed him, so he started waking me up earlier and earlier. Smart annoying buggers they are