Fire Jam Friday (11/28)

We all may be on break, but ya still gotta love Fridays. Thanksgiving break has kept me from blogging, but it won't keep me from doing FJF. Finally got the new Selena song up here, there's some new David Guetta, and then just a mixture of everything else. It's all deadly. 

#FireJamFriday

Anaheim Ducks Weekly Round Up

Anaheim Ducks Weekly Roundup: Week of 11/17/14-11/23/14

Calgary over Anaheim, 4-3 in a shootout.

The Ducks looked poised to win this one, going up 2-0 on goals from Matt Beleskey and Sami Vatanen.  Anaheim was looking dominant through 2 periods against former Ducks net minder, Jonas Hiller.  The Flames scored 3 goals in the third, 2 off the stick of Dennis Wideman who unloaded absolute snipes from the slot, and 1 from Jiri Hudler off of a rebound which was also from the slot.   Palmieri scored the 3rd Ducks goal to tie up the game with his first goal of the season.  After a hard fought OT, the score remained tied and the teams faced off in a shootout.  Ryan Kesler scored to tie the shootout but then the second shootout frame went scoreless.  Sean Monahan converted on his attempt and then Jonas Hiller shut the door on Corey Perry to seal the victory for Calgary.  Ducks  have had trouble finishing games off, playing a good forty but not a full sixty.   Anaheim needs to step it up to get out of their groove.

Anaheim over Vancouver, 4-3 in a shootout.

This was a special night for Ryan Kesler who made his return to Vancouver, he wore a Canuck sweater for the first 11 years of his NHL career.  Nick Bonino was valiant in his return to Anaheim, a big piece in the Kesler trade, and the Ducks returned the favor by being victorious with Kesler's turn. Cogliano and Getzlaf put up tallies in the first period putting the Ducks up 2-0.  Vancouver responded in the second off of goals from Bo Horvat (1st of his career) Jannik Hansen and Radim Vrbata scored 30 seconds apart 5 minutes after Horvat's goal.  Matt Beleskey who is enjoying a career year so far scored his 9th of the season with 8 minutes left in the third to tie the score.  Corey Perry opened up the shootout with a goal and Jakob Silfverberg scored the winner in the third frame.  Former Duck, Nick Bonino was stopped by Andersen in the first round and Radim Vrbata lost the puck on his attempt in the second round.  It still pains me to see Bonino in a Canucks sweater so a win over him and him failing in the shootout is bittersweet, but as a Ducks fan, a win conquers all, and I love what Kesler brings to the table.  Andersen stopped 25 shots and This victory was just their 2nd in 8 games (2-1-5)  The boys must being full of gray hairs with all of these Overtime games, especially seeing that they don't fare well in them overall.

Anaheim over Arizona, 2-1.

Anaheim again put up a 2-0 lead and let off of the gas pedal in the third.  Even when the Ducks have won lately, they do not play a dominant game for a full 60.  The two Anaheim goals were scored by Kyle Palmieri and Pat Maroon.  Keith Yandle scored midway through the third but the Ducks held on to their slim lead in a period marred by penalties and Coyotes pressure.  Anaheim had to kill off a Francois Beauchemin tripping penalty with under a minute left to seal the deal.  Freddy Andersen made another 26 saves in this 8th straight start, another solid effort for the mountainous net minder who has been good all season aside from a few down games.  This game marked the debut of new Duck, Rene Bourque, a former Canadien who scored 8 goals in last seasons playoffs, he finished his first game with 3 shots on goal and 3 hits in just under 10 minutes of ice time.  Rene is a competent goal scorer who can contribute on any of the 4 offensive lines.  The Ducks have earned 10 points in their last 11 games but this was their first regulation win in that span.  The Ducks now stand at 13-4-5, leading the western conference with 31 points.  Though the ducks took their foots off of the pedal yet again, this was a confidence boost, winning in regulation at home.

Footnotes

The Ducks acquired Rene Bourque in a trade with Montreal, defenseman Bryan Allen was shipped the other way.  Bourque brings a versatile forward who shows up in the playoffs, something the Ducks did not do on a nightly basis last season.  I liked Bryan Allen but the young guns like Vatanen and Josh Manson played their ways into the lineup and pushed Allen, the 34 year old veteran out.

Clayton Stoner sat out the last game after exhibiting Mump like symptoms, the illness that kept Beauchemin and Perry out for an extended period of time.  No diagnosis was confirmed so Clayton may or may not be ill, but the Ducks want to take precaution and not let anything spread throughout the team.

Kyle Palmieri has scored 2 goals in the past few games after missing the first month of the season due to injury.  Palmieri's success is refreshing because the Ducks can use any bit of offense they can get.

AMA's Reaction

So the American Music Awards were last night and I of course watched the whole thing. I love awards shows because usually there's controversial shit, and some of my favorite artists were performing so it's always fun to see what happens. The AMA's aren't as weird, controversial and ridiculous as the VMAs, but still fun to watch and to live tweet. Anyway, here are a few things to take away from this year's AMA's.

Taylor Swift Keeps Reeling Me In

Tay performed her single "Blank Space" to open the show up, and I just keep falling more in love with her. Not only is her music freaking spectacular, her performances are entertaining. Gotta love T-Swift's facial expressions she makes during a performance. Last night her expressions were top notch since "Blank Space" is basically about being crazy. Oh, and then she won the first ever Dick Clark Award of Excellence and they played a video of her being awesome and I got the chills. She's 24 and won an award of excellence. Suck it Beyonce. Bow down to Tay.

It's Impossible to Hate One Direction

I graded One Direction's performance as an A++++ last night, and it holds true today. Absolutely unreal. Oh, and they took home all three awards they were nominated for, including the big one Artist of the Year. These dudes are unstoppable. Look at the hair. Look at Liam's coat. Not even fair. Flames for days.

Lorde Will Murder Us All

Everything this bitch does scares me to death. I have no idea what she's capable of. I tweeted it last night that if she's capable of making people think her music is, there's no way of predicting what else she can do. Never know what this freak will do next, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if her next move is to kill the entire world. And I hate that Tay associates herself with this despicable walk of life. 

Kate Beckinsale Making a Case for Hottest Woman on the Planet

Wow. Just wow. Forgot how hot Kate Beckinsale is. When she walked out to present an award it was literally a "holy fucking shit" moment. Just stole the show.

Ariana Brought Her A Game, As Per Usual

Ari's voice gets to me every time. It's honestly probably the best voice I've ever heard. And her songs lately have been absolute jams. 

Some other noteworthy moments:

Selena Gomez cried during her performance of "The Heart Wants What it Wants" which is a fucking jam by the way.

J-Lo and Iggy's performance of "Booty" didn't have enough booty in it, which was disappointing.

Iggy winning rap awards over Eminem and Drake was laughable.

Here's a complete list of all the winners.

And here are some of my favorite/least favorite performances/videos from last night.

I'm so scared

Sick hair, The Weeknd

Frightening

Couldn't find a good video of Tay's performance. Probably keeping it locked up and hidden and making people pay for it, but oh well. Still love you, T-Swift.

1D, Tay, Ari, and Kate Beckinsale clear winners of the 2014 AMA's, and Lorde is the clear loser. Let me leave you with this picture and you try to tell me who doesn't belong. 

What an amazing pic of Selena and Taylor though. Not sure if I've ever seen either look better.

Boston Bruins Weekly Recap

Boston Bruins Weekly Recap

11/16-11/23

11/18

St. Louis Blues at Boston Bruins

W 2-0

The Blues in my opinion are a very solid hockey team. Although they have been known to struggle in the post season in the past few years, they're always on top of their game during the regular season. The Blues came into this tilt winning the last 10 of their 11 games and averaging nearly 3 goals a game. If you follow the Bruins, you'll know that the B's hadn't been quite as hot. Luckily Rask came ready to play in this one. He stood on his head most of the game and kept the Bruins in control of the game. There were a few moments during the game when it seemed like the Bruins couldn't get the puck out of their defensive zone and the Blues were just hammering shots on Tuukka, he held strong through those moments. The Bruins played most of the game with only 5 defenseman after McQuaid left with a hand injury after blocking a shot by Blue's d-man Kevin Shattenkirk. This makes the whole win even more so impressive, to be able to shutout the Blues with only 5 defenseman is a big confidence booster. The next day we found out that McQuaid will be out 6-8 weeks with a hand injury. Awesome, just what we needed. Can we get Johnny Boychuk back now?

11/21

Boston Bruins at Columbus Blue Jackets

W 4-3 SO

The Bruins entered the 3rd period down 2-0. The Bruins then went on to take a 3-2 lead over the Jackets before recently bankrupt Jack Johnson scored a goal to tie it up and send the game to overtime. After a scoreless OT the game then went to a shootout. The shootout was also scoreless throughout the first 6 rounds before rookie Alex Khokhlachev who was playing in his 2nd NHL game stepped up and got one past Bobrovsky. 

11/22

Montréal Canadiens at Boston Bruins

L 2-0

This is absolutely no excuse for the Bruins to lose, but it sucks that every time the B's will face the Habs it's the 2nd game of back to back games. These are always tough games for guys, they're generally tired and beat up from the night before, plus traveling. Still, that's no reason to lose this one. The Canadiens were just the better team in this game. Carey Price had a great game earning his first ever shutout against the Bruins. Unfortunately, the injury bug seems to bite the Bruins roster. The B's took on the habs without Chris Kelly, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, Zdeno Chara and Adam McQuaid. Those are all guys that you want in the line up every game, but especially when you're facing your biggest rival. Instead the Bruins had 5 rookies in the line up. As usual, Rask played awful against the Canadiens, in the regular season he's 3-12-3. Somehow the past few seasons, the Candiens have had the Bruin's number and it SUCKS. 

Games This Week:

Gun Fight Over Instagram

Source- NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) -Police in New Haven arrested two men they said were involved in a shootout over an Instagram post. According to police, 22-year-old Dashaun Bowes-Ware and a 17-year-old exchanged gunfire on Dover Street around 3:45 p.m. Authorities said Bowes-Ware admitted the confrontation began over a girl on Instagram, and that's when the unidentified teen threatened to shoot Bowes-Ware, who responded by getting his own gun.

So I guess people take this Instagram pretty serious, huh? Can't imagine getting in a gun fight over an instagram post. While this is the dumbest thing I've ever read, I also love the passion these guys have over Instagram. You godda have some fire in your heart to be willing to take a bullet over that. These guys are true pioneers. Maybe we will start seeing more duels over Instagram posts in the future. I always wondered when and why duels went out of fashion. They're an awesome way to settle any disagreement. These two dudes are taking New Haven back to the wild wild west. 

College Football: Week 13 Roundup

Week 13 wasn't a great week of college football. A lot of easy games this week leading up to rivalry week in Week 14, so I probably won't go into too much detail for these games.

1. Alabama Crimson Tide (vs. Western Carolina, W 48-14): Good job Bama.

2. Oregon Ducks (vs. Colorado, W 44-10): Colorado is one of the worst teams in a power 5 conference. 

3. Florida State Seminoles (vs. Boston College, W 20-17): FSU just keeps pulling wins outta their asses. Still undefeated.

4. Mississippi State Bulldogs (vs. Vanderbilt, W 51-0): Vanderbilt is the worst team in the SEC. How are they still in that conference?

5. TCU Horned Frogs: BYE

6. Ohio State Buckeyes (vs. Indiana, W 42-27): This is why people can't take Ohio State seriously. Sick 15 point win against Indiana.

7. Baylor Bears (vs. Oklahoma State, W 49-28): Boy OK State really fell apart, huh?

8. Ole Miss Rebels (@ Arkansas, L 30-0): Arkansas is so good. It's a bummer they took so long to figure it out. Should be number one in the country.

9. UCLA Bruins (vs. #19 USC, W 38-20): Worst top 10 team I've ever seen.

10. Georgia Bulldogs (vs. Charleston Southern, W 55-9): Cool.

11. Michigan State Spartans (vs. Rutgers, W 45-3): Good stuff MSU.

12. Kansas State Wildcats (@ West Virginia, W 26-20): Good win for K State. Thursday night in Morgantown and they came out with the W. Not bad at all.

13. Arizona State Sun Devils (vs. Washington State, W 52-31): If only Mike Leach cared about defense, then Washington State might be decent.

14. Auburn Tigers (vs. Samford, W 31-7): Why is Auburn still ranked so high?

15. Arizona Wildcats (@ #17 Utah, W 42-10): Best matchup of the weekend, rankings wise. But not on the scoreboard.

16. Wisconsin Badgers (@ Iowa, W 26-24): Iowa is not a bad football team at all, so it's hard to knock any kinda win. Pretty sure the Badgers are gonna get a shot at the Buckeyes in the Big 10 title game.

17. Utah Utes (vs. #15 Arizona, L 42-10): The Utes just haven't been able to keep up once the schedule got tougher.

18. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: BYE

19. USC Trojans (@ #9 UCLA, L 38-20): Aaaand USC is out of the top 25 again.

20. Missouri Tigers (@ Tennessee, W 29-21): Missouri is one win away from returning to the SEC title game, but they're gonna have to beat red hot Arkansas.

21. Oklahoma Sooners (vs. Kansas, W 44-7): And one week after Melvin Gordon broke the record for rushing yards in a game, Samaje Perine broke it again for OU.

22. Clemson Tigers (vs. Georgia State, W 28-0): We scored 28 points against an FCS team that entered the game 1-9, and that's all you need to know about Cole Stoudt. Once again, our defense didn't allow 200 total yards, 5th time this season we've done that. Tyshon Dye finally got some significant playing time and he broke 100 yards on the ground going for 124 yards and 2 TDs. It would be HUGE if both he and Gallman show up against South Carolina this week because if Deshaun can't go, we're gonna be preeeeetty reliant on our run game.

23. Nebraska Cornhuskers (vs. #25 Minnesota, L 28-24): Tough one for Nebraska. Now they've lost two in a row and are done in the Big 10.

24. Louisville Cardinals (@ Notre Dame, W 31-28): Wow Notre Dame has fallen apart.

25. Minnesota Golden Gophers (@ #23 Nebraska, W 28-24): Okay so Minnesota was ranked 25th last week, lost to OSU, and remained 25th? How stupid is that? But now they beat a ranked team, and are gonna move up in the rankings. The Gophers just killing the top 25 game.

Military Appreciation Day is always a cool site in Death Valley. Purple Heart recipient Daniel Rodriguez carried the American flag down The Hill again, and there was a sweet fly-over. Clemson always has a nice ceremony at halftime honoring veterans as well. Definitely a cool thing to be a part of. LOVE our purple jerseys too.

On to South Carolina.

#GoTigers #Pray4Deshaun

Free Money Friday

Alright ya degenerates, we're back for another week of #FMF. Sorry I missed last week, forget why I did. Since I missed last week I'll give you some NFL picks too.

I'm taking Miami -6 here. That's just easy money. I expect them to come out firing after the devastating loss to stupid FSU last week. 

I'm taking Maryland +5 in this one. Michigan is absolutely AWFUL this year. 

Ole Miss -3.5 all day. Ole Miss is still a good football team and Arkansas still isn't a good football team. Ole Miss should have no problem with this one. 

I'll go with the over on this one. Whenver I take the under with Oregon, it's the over so i'll take the over, science. Ducks put up big points.

I'm gonna go with USC +4 here. UCLA is so over hyped I can't stand it.

I'll take FSU -17.5 here. Although BC beat USC and gave Clemson a run for their money, I think FSU is just too dominant and will blow BC out of the water.

I'm taking California +5.5 here. This should be a good game. Both teams are 5-5 and absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to read. 

LOCK OF THE WEEK:

Without DeShaun the Tigers have been struggling big time. Stoudt is getting benched this week and their 3rd string QB is getting the start. I don't expect them to win by 40.5 points with a brand new QB so I'll take Georgia State +40.5. Hopefully Mark doesn't hate me after this pick.

NFL:

LOCK OF THE WEEK:

Packers -10?!?!?! YES PLEASE. That's the easiest money i've ever heard of. GB has been absolutely DOMINANT lately. This isn't even fair. I don't think Aaron Rodgers has played a 4th quarter in over a month. The Vikings don't stand a chance, Sorry Nate.

I'm taking Arizona +7 here. While I don't think that they're the real deal, they're having a good season thus far. Plus Seattle just lost a close game to the Chiefs. I think it will be a real close game.

I'm gonna go with the Cowboys -3.5 here. Eli played the worst game of his career last week and I'm not sure how he'll rebound. The Cowboys have been pretty good this season so that's my pick. 

11 Drunkest States In America

So I saw this on Bloomberg today which is always a reliable cite so I decided to check it out. Most of the time these lists are stupid and don't make any sense but I believe Bloomberg since it seems like a trust worthy site. 

1. District of Columbia 

I guess this doesn't come as a total shock. There is a large amount of universities in the DC area and it's quiet the affluent area. You've got government officials, college kids, politicians, lawyers, financial studs. That's a perfect storm to have a heavily alcoholic city if you ask me. I would love to see a drinking competition between said parties. 

2. North Dakota

Was this an error or something? I NEVER would have guessed that North Dakota was in the top 11 most drunk cities. Never would have guessed it as a place to be heavy boozers, but that's because I know absolutely nothing about the state. I know they have a nice puck team University of North Dakota which I'm sure makes up for a large portion but I still wouldn't have guessed them to be this high. 

3. Rhode Island

Before I came to University of Rhode Island, if you told me that Rhode Island was in the top 11 for the drunkest states I would have laughed in your face. Now that I'm wrapping up my first semester I 100% believe it. URI loves to party, Providence College loves to party, there's a ton of universities in this silly little state and the all know a good time. Rhode Island peeps like to booze and I respect that. You've got Newport which is one of my favorite summer cities, ever. You can't go there and not have a good time. Plus all the RI beaches makes it one of the best summer destinations. I love RI being #3 on here. 

4. South Dakota

South Dakota is another state that i'm not quite sure how it made the list. I literally have nothing to say about SD? Not sure how they snuck on here. Must be due to the fact that there's nothing to do in SD than get drunk.

5. Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin and the Packers, need I say more? I don't think so.

6. Minnesota

Ahh the hockey state. I love it. Everyone know that hockey players love to drink. I think this makes all the sense in the world. Anyone thats anyone knows that Gordon Bombay had a drinking problem in the first Mighty Ducks. Boom, living up to the Minnesota man name. 

7. Iowa

I'm guessing that when they're done planting, taking care of, and harvesting corn they drink? Literally don't know anything about Iowa other than corn.

8. Massachusetts 

Massachusetts makes sense being in here. Pretty big state. I'm pretty sure that Boston makes up for 95% of this. Talk about a city that loves to drink. With the amount of colleges in Boston and all the young people I'm kind of surprised that Mass isn't higher on the list. Mix in all the championships that New England based sports teams have won recently, it's really no surprise. 

9. Louisiana 

New Orleans. LSU. Hicks. I think this one makes perfectly good sense. NOLA has Bourbon Street, LSU is in the SEC, and everyone knows that hicks LOVE getting piss your pants and riding four wheelers. 

10. Illinois 

I'm gonna go ahead and assume that Chicago makes up for a lot of this. It's the third biggest city in America and I know it's a BLAST. Lots of young people and a lot of colleges. Pretty reasonable. 

11. Connecticut

Ahh finally. We're saving the best for last. I was surprised that Connecticut made the list over New York, California, Texas, those big states. But I'm so proud to see my home state at #11. What an honor. In all reality, I guess it's not that surprising that CT is this high up. I don't think I knew one kid in high school that didn't drink and I went to high school with like 500 kids. There's not a lot to do where I grew up so kids would just have parities in the woods. Incase you've been wondering why I made this list 11 states long, this right here is the reason. Had to include CT. CT is one of the most affluent states in the U.S. and a lot of the towns are really nice and have some rich ass players. No surprise these people are gettin' crunk. Respect CT, RESPECT. 

Fire Jam Friday (11/21)

It's Friday, bitches!! Got a lot of new stuff for you folks this week. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay soundtrack was released and it includes an AWESOME song from Ari. One Direction dropped their new album, FOUR which is incredible. Nicki Minaj also has a new single out this week. Back end of the playlist features some classics.

#FireJamFriday

5 Packers Players, Including Clay Matthews, Have Roles in Pitch Perfect 2

Source: GREEN BAY—Secrets are hard to keep in Hollywood, but this one was kept quiet for quite a while.

Five Packers players are in the upcoming movie “Pitch Perfect 2,” set to be released this summer, and the news got out on Thursday as the trailer was released.

Clay Matthews,David Bakhtiari,Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang andDon Barclay (along with Aaron Rodgers’ younger brother, Jordan) appear in the trailer, which briefly shows them in a night-club scene with Matthews getting the sleeves of his tuxedo jacket torn off as he poses and flexes his muscles.

“We’re all A-list celebrities now,” Matthews joked. 

The players talked about the movie project with the media on Thursday after practice. Their involvement began with a tweet from Bakhtiari to Alexis Knapp, one of the stars of the original “Pitch Perfect” from 2012.

A big fan of the movie, Bakhtiari has made his teammates fans of it as well, and he took a shot in the dark on Twitter about getting him and his offensive linemates into the sequel.

“A lot of determination by Dave to set the whole thing up – determination-slash-desperation, because he was at it quite a bit trying to get a hold of the producers to get us in the movie,” Lang said. “Shockingly, they actually let us in after all his desperate tweets and phone calls and emails. It was fun.”

Added Matthews: “We have to thank him for his creepiness. He had to do a lot of lobbying, but he came through, and more power to him.”

Turns out the producers got a kick out of the fact that a bunch of Packers players were fans of the first flick, so they cast the group in a scene. As soon as OTAs wrapped up in June, the players flew down to Baton Rouge, La., for four days of shooting.

They even had to fill out actors’ union paperwork and got paid, but that was far from the motivation.

“We probably would have paid to be in the movie, to be honest with you,” Lang said.

Lang added that the Packers do a little singing and dancing within the musical competition that’s part of the plot, but the rest of the details of their scene is being kept under wraps.

“It was a piece of cake,” Sitton said of the filming, tongue planted in cheek. “We were definitely fish out of water at first. Then we kind of got into our groove, and it turned out to be pretty good.”

How good, and what song do they sing?

“It was a shock. We got a good laugh out of it,” Matthews said. “It was funny to see 300-pound plus men singing … said song.”




Great stuff from the Pack. Gotta love how obsessed David Bakhtiari is with Pitch Perfect. It's honestly a pretty good movie and a bunch of three hundred pounders dancing is probably gonna make this sequel great. From the looks of it, that scene will be pretty funny. Not sure how it won't be. 

And Clay Matthews has to end up with Anna Kendricks, no? Pretty sure that has to happen. Can't just put a star linebacker in a movie and not give him the hot chick protagonist. Even if it is just a cameo role.

A+ quote by Clay talking about Bakhtiari, too. Gotta love the guy's creepiness. Now they're actors.