Plastique Valentine is my tonic for the blitz of Hallmark ads that come out this time of year.

I post a lot of anti-valentine songs.  It's not that I hate love songs.  There are plenty of love songs out there, and some will make the hardest heart cry.

Its just that I hate the Dianne Warren/Desmond Child antiseptic love songs, that have all the emotional intensity of a toaster.

Of course, this being 2010, there's a lot of songs that are just about sex.  For example, Britney Spears has a song "Three" which is about how she wants to take two guys back to her room.  For a song that is trying so hard to be sordid, it isn't particularly sexy. 

Not that I don't think songs shouldn't have sex in them.   If not, then everything would sound like Owl City, and that's even worse.

So, that's what Plastique Valentine is about.  Ripping on lame music.  But, there's another part to PV, and that is to warn everyone about what happens when love goes wrong.

I have, over the years, come up with a real good intuition for people.  While I am not always perfect, i have a pretty good eye on whether a relationship will succeed or fail.

I suspect it's because of my years being a fly on the wall; or perhaps I served my residence as confessor/priest/bartender/agony uncle and I just learned the signs to watch for.  Then again, maybe like Craig David, I was born to do it.

So, while you thought you had met a soulmate, I knew that he was going to knock up your roommate.  You should have asked me. 

If I was advantageous, I would have my alien-looking visage all over the television like Neil Clark Warren.  Still, maybe I don't have a gift, and it's pretty easy to tell if a relationship will work or not (is he a Tucker Max fan?).

In any case, it's more curse than blessing.  I am not going to tell someone with their perfect "How we met story" that they're involved with a scoundrel.  Sometimes, people have to find out for themselves. 

So, like Uatu, I have sworn never to interfere.

The chocolate and diamonds blitz has begun.  It's not been a good year for couples, though.

Look at the headlines from last year - Tiger and Elin, John and Elizabeth Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Sanford, Rhianna and Chris Brown

Then, the biggest story of them all - Jon and Kate Gosselin.

Want to get married now?

Tom Waits's "Better Off Without a Wife" has to be in the top 10 Plastique Valentine songs of all time.  I have only had one Waits song on here, "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" (which would be a fine epitaph if it also included "Clogged Arteries").

Anyway, I figured I put "Better.." on here at some point, and as I've been listening to Nighthawks at the Diner on pretty constant rotation ,this seemed like a good time.

As there are several versions out there, don't be surprised to see this song on here again in the coming years. It's a classic.

Plastique Valentine isn't out to prove that songs about hate are better than love songs.

The idea of Plastique Valentine is that you shouldn't feel crappy just because of all the love songs you hear on the radio.

Clear Channel plays the new Taylor Swift single "I will fall in love next year (and also get my driver's licence)" once a hour, but don't let it make you feel bad.  Taylor's singing is faker than Obama's birth certificate.

Then as I like to remind everyone, the greatest love song writer of this era has never been on a second date.  How does that make you feel?

Still, I like some love songs.  I just don't like the cheesy ones the music industry push on us.

I am not that jaded that I can't appreciate a lyric like "Take my order cause your body like a carry out".  

Now, that's poetry.

But I love me a good hate song too.

Mardi Gras King Cake might be the best thing ever.

It is as if someone said 'How can we make cinnamon rolls more unhealthy?". 

"I know.  Put candy sprinkles on top and add lemon filling."

Plus, King Cake is baked with a plastic baby trinket inside.  Delicious cake with a hint of danger.

Will I have a delicious dessert or choke to death?  Eddie Izzard would certainly approve.

You may wonder why I watch pro wrestling.  I would say it's a lot like panning for gold.  It's time consuming, sure, but the occasional gold nugget makes it all worth it.

Last night was one of those gems. 

Now some of you will know these theme songs already.  If you don't, I think it works anyway.  It's pretty self-explanatory.

It's William Shatner sings "WWE Entrance Themes".

 

I don't have a lot of early rock n roll in my music collection by percentage, but I love that stuff.

No one felt pain like they did in the 50s and early 60s.  I'm not saying you can't have both 808s and Heartbreak, but when I hear modern pop songs, it's just not there.  Music was just as overproduced, ghostwritten, and payola'd back then, so that's not it, but those singers sang with feeling.

Dion and the Belmonts?  "Teenager in Love" and "I was Born to Cry".  Are you kidding me?  Amazing records.  J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers?  "Last Kiss" is such an intense song that Eddie Vedder had to cover it.  There were plenty of those "Leader of the Pack"type songs, and this was 20 years before "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out".  I'm talking just the pop and doo-wop and girl group stuff.  Don't forget those early rockabilly singles.  Gene and Eddie?  Does it get better?

Anyway, they just got it back then.  No wonder, the Ramones and Morrissey and the Pixies and the Misfits dug that early rock n roll.  It is amazing.

So, today's selection is a little obscure band, Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, with "Love Pains".  Try to resist singing along with this.

Thanks to whoever you believe in that spring is coming early this year.  The groundhog didn't see his shadow, and that means winter is soon gone.

Wait, what is that?  Huh ...you say?

Oh, you must be talking about Punxsutanwey Phil.  Well, Phil saw his shadow.

But I don't trust that marmot.

Let me break it down:

-Rivals have instigated that Phil's decision is (like pro wrestling) predetermined, and decided by the local weather bureau looking at the long-term forecast

-Phil is hoisted into the air to give his verdict.  This is an unnatural way of determination.  He needs to be on the ground to make th thing legit.

-He's just wrong.  Phil's average runs about 39%.  Pretty low numbers for any weatherman.

-Most damning of all,  Phil isn't always Phil.  Sometimes, he's a she, and rivals contend he isn't even from Pennsylvania  It's almost like if you found out that the President wasn't born in the US.  Wait, bad example.

So, personally, I trust Dunkirk Dave.

Or Frenchkirk Freddie.  Or General Beauregard Lee.  Or Staten Island Chuck.

Anyway, this is the worst winter in recent memory, so I certainly hope it's over, no matter whatever 16 rodents and a gorilla have to say about it.

For those who don't know (and it's quite possible that even includes some of the regulars here), I have spent the last six years battling 'the couples conspiracy' with my Plastique Valentine series

You know 'the couples conspiracy'- It's the flower and jewelry companies (of course).  It is the constant barrage of dating site commercials.  It is those couples who only want you to come over if you bring a date.  It is the annoying co-worker who wonders when you are going to get married.

So, for a couple weeks every February, I post the best anti-love songs.  It will be hard to beat last year's group- "I'm sick of you tasting of somebody else", "Love is the New Feel Awful", "Chlamydia is not a Flower", "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity (I Know You're Fucking Somebody Else" and maybe the pinnacle of anti-Valentines songs - Joe Jackson's "Happy Loving Couples".

I almost brought Plastique Valentine to a retirement after last year's LA Fitness killer.  I am not sure if you remember the story, but I do, because every headline started "He had a blog, and he would blog about his lack of love life".  Hey, that is a bit too close to home.  Why did they have to start every mention of him with "He kept a blog."  It was revealed that he would write constantly about how bad he had it- how he never went on a weekend with a girl, hadn't had a date in 20 years, and only had sex a few times (A few?  Hey, nobody likes a braggart).  Anyway, the next thing came up in the newscycle was the Jaycee Dugard story- the married couple who had kidnapped the 11 year old.  So, see crazy is crazy, no matter what your relationship status.

So, now I do this with some tongue in cheek.  If I portray myself here as a Miss Havisham character creating a new generation to break hearts, well, it's because I have an image to uphold.  I am sure you understand.  I'm not half as bitter as I would like you to believe.

I will try not to repeat, but with classics like "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" and "Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend", the temptation is there.  Also, I may repeat a song just out of plain forgetfullness, but I will try my best.  Anyway, I should be adding a few tunes to the canon this year.

I might as well start with a classic- "Hope" by the Descendents

I know that views are split here on Lady Gaga, with camps of "love her" and "meh".

I am in the first camp for I am always drawn to seeing what is popular and she is one of the more entertaining characters in pop music today.  I have made it pretty clear that I like my pop stars like wrestlers- flamboyant, overdramatic, ego-inflated, and larger than life.

Granted, the current pop landscape is so dull that Adam Lambert looks like Frank Zappa.

Still Gaga's near the top for me.  Until Taylor Swift starts killing herself onstage a la Alice Cooper, or Miley Cyrus starts taking her cues from Todd Rundgren, then you're the one for me, Gaga.

So, she is one of my favorite characters.  Kanye should provide some constant entertainment as we enter awards season, but I suspect he's going to try to keep a low profile .  Pete Doherty's antics just aren't fun anymore.  Lily Allen is semi-retired.  Fever Ray is too obscure.  Axl Rose hasn't been quite as interesting to me since he actually released Chines Democracy, still as long he pulls stunts like this, he makes the cut.

Besides how different is "Bad Romance" from say, Patrick Wolf - overly theatrical, and equally rowdy and bittersweet.  Even if you don't like Gaga now, don't be surprised that you find yourself buying her albums ten years from now when she makes that William Orbit collaboration or finds Kaballah.

What can I say - her music makes people dance.  It's catchy.  You don't even have to buy the argument that she's the next Bowie or Freddie Mercury or that the songs actually mean anything. When you hear her songs you got to move your butt.

You got to get on the floor.  Even if you think Donovan McNabb only gets press attention because he's black, or you think Michael J Fox overplays his Parkinson's Disease for effect, you hear Gaga, you got to boogie down.

What has been seen cannot be unseen.
 

or the first and last post I will ever write about Phil Collins (probably)

I don't often feel old, but I did last night, when this conversation took place at the pub.

"Which came first- Genesis or Phil Collins?"

This probably has more to do with my encyclopediac music knowledge, but if you are my age it was Genesis then Phil Collins.  Both careers ran pretty concurrent, but Genesis came first.  Abacab, Duke and the "Shapes" album were ubiquitous as cassettes on the "Top Sellers" shelf.

So, I was familiar with the band, then No Jacket Required took off as few other albums have in my lifetime.  So soon it was hard to tell which was the bigger star- Phil or the band.  Then, it's not surprised to hear this conversation from someone who graduated in the late 90s.  In fact this conversation was predicted just this month in a Spike article.

We were from ages 22 to 47, so I wasn't the oldest one there, and to the person older than me it was easy to think of Genesis as Steve Hackett's band.

Then again, that means someone at the table wasn't even born when Invisible Touch was released, and she's legal to drink.  Now, I feel old.

Anyway, not all my blog posts have to be deep and meaningful, and it is (oddly enough) Phil's 59th birthday.  Sometimes, as you know, you go on the blog with the posts you have, not necessarily the posts you might want or wish to read at a later time.
 

Well, I think everyone knows what a cult classic is, and at some point "cult classics" (Monty Python, Rocky Horror, John Waters films,The Big Lebowski, etc) become mainstream.

In the internet age, you can find a cult for anything.  Films can be cult for being intentionally bad (Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter)unintentionally bad (From Justin to Kelly - did you think I was going to say Spice World?), or more often than not, just a film that is too smart or too strange for a mainstream audience.

As for me, one movie immediately came to mind.  I love The Quest for the Holy Grail  and Rocky Horror, don't get me wrong, and certainly given the sense of comunnity surrounding them make them perfect examples of cult films.  There are also those films that I wouldn't want to watch over and over again, but really like, and by definition, probably have a small but loyal fanbase (Heavenly Creatures, most of Jim Jarmusch's filmwork,etc).

Still I am going to go with the first one that popped in my head.  A movie from a love-them-or don't-get-them comedy troupe that was bound for cultdom.  As if they weren't going to be cult enough, the film bombed.  

It's the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy.  A movie that I can tie to a specific place in time, as I saw it in a theater (with maybe 12 people) in Champaign, Illinois.  I loved it on first viewing, and love it still today.

Some KITH fans might not like it, i don't know, but for me, it seemed like the full realization of everything they had done.

Oh, and....Fuck Happy!

Oh $#%&!!!  Not another post about Health Care, but I can't help it.

The following BBC article has made it to the front page of reddit.  It is a good article and is one of the big questions we ask.

I wonder it about my mother who despite all reason votes Republican (not all reason, I have a GOP relative who was very successful at the state level). 

The article makes a lot of valid points.  People don't like candidates who talk down to them (Gore and Kerry) and people don't like candidates who take them for granted (see Gore in 2000, the recent Massachusetts race, and the "Teabagger" election in New York).

It would seem that outside of the abortion question, that the issues that would most benefit my mom or she cares about are carried by the Dems- a living wage, view on taxes, war, domestic violence- and none more than health care.  My mom has spent a large chunk of money in the past few years paying off an unexpected surgery- an operation that would not cost nearly as much had she had anything more than just bare minimal medical coverage.

I bring this up (somewhat because of the BBC article), but because of the top local story this week.  This story made it onto some social newssites, so some of you may have already seen it.

Senior Citizen dies after laying for days on the floor; 'too cheap' to call the ambulance

A terible story for sure.  More complicated than the mocking tone it was given on news sites (Ha ha!  She's stingy!).  Nop is the story as simple as it sounds- what kind of husband lets this happen, covering her with a blanket as she waves him off "No, I will be fine".

There is the healthcare system in America in a nutshell.  The question that is used to determine if an ambulance should be called isn't "Does my health need it?", but instead "How much will it cost me?"- not "What will happen if I don't get help?", but "What does my medical plan cover?".

A lot of Americans (myself included) are on the Warren Zevon health plan.  The only time we go to a medical professional is twice a year for dental cleanings.  Granted, some people don't like to be poked and prodded; but as much, it's people who don't want to be put on medication or need surgery, that will leave them eating Ramen for years to pay for it. 

Send complaints, rebuttals, and "YOU LIE!" & "That's not true" messages to the usual address.

For no other reason but that I can, I feel I should say something about the passing of JD Salinger.

Salinger was on the shortlist of people who define the misunderstood teenager and everything that went with being one.  Catcher In the Rye was a rite of passage.  I don't imagine this will change anytime soon.

I read Catcher in my later teen years, as one is supposed to do.  I liked it alot, as you could probably guess.  There would be other books that would have moved me more (Slaughterhouse Five) and it's not even the best alienated loner book ever (A Confederacy of Dunces), but it is worth the reputation it's built.

It doesn't hurt (honestly) that it was controversial.  That it was the Mark David Chapman book only made the legend grow.  Would reading the book make you go mad?  Everything and all of it was part of the legend- up to and including the iconic red paperback cover with gold letters.

Catcher wasn't required reading where I went to school.  There was no way it would be where I am from, but I think we read "A Perfect Day for Bananafish".  In our literature courses, there weren't that many great American authors in the last century (Hemmingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck- all who had been dead for decades), and there certainly wasn't anyone still alive who was mentioned with the same breath as Dickens.  Salinger was the only proof we had that you could still be a modern American writer and be respected on the level of classic literature.

That Salinger walked away from writing was as big of a part of his legend as anything.  Though, that wasn't the intention, Salinger lived the Arthur Rimbaud legend of walking away after releasing his masterpiece to the world- and it made his icon grow that much more.  Cobain, Jim Morrison, Axl Rose, Syd Barret, Terrence Malick- some talked about it, and some did it to a certain degree, but no one was a better example of the textbook recluse (Harper Lee, maybe a distant second) than Salinger.  Salinger is the first person we think of when it comes to artistic recluses.  His life was a ready-made late night conversation.  What did he do?  Were there new novels to be undiscovered?

I have read Franny and Zoey (it's okay) and have Nine Stories on my shelf, but it is of course Catcher in the Rye that moved me the most.  Even if we have JD to blame for Douglas Coupland, Jay McInerney, Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis and countless others for trying to duplicate his feat.  Evan Dorkin was particularly harsh (possibly joking) that Catcher in the Rye is over-rated.  Nothing happens, and you never do find out where the ducks went.

I can't find that panel, so here's something from Dorkin's Fisher Price Theatre version. 



Long may Salinger be found in teenagers' backpacks.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov  -  I have put off reading the Foundation series for close to two decades now.  I even have the first four books of the trilogy (lol wut?).  There's something a bit intimidating about Asimov.  The guy wrote hundreds of books on such topics as religion, nature, astronomy, and history.  Foundation itself starts off with an excerpt from a made up Encyclopedia.  Heavy stuff, no?

But no, I found Foundation very readable.  For all the made up history, made up lands, and made up characters, the book is very easy to follow.  So I want to thank puffdoggydaddy  that little push to finally read this.

With allusions to empire building, science vs religion, technology-based and finance-based economies, itr is a story that can only have been written post-Bush2 administration.  I joke, of course, but it does seem to be a story that is surely as alive now as when it was first written.  It is also a credit to Asimov that in a book started nearly 70 years ago, the technology aspects don't sound outdated.  Perhaps, it's because we adapted our thoughts to Asimov's world.

Foundation is set up a bit like a history book, or at least, not quite what I was expecting.  However, it managed to set up the story (as I would expect from a first book), but also was some compelling storytelling.  The only thing I would have liked was to see certain sections expanded on, though I suppose Asimov with his sequels and prequels eventually gets around to doing that.

Anyway, glad I finally got around to reading this, and looking forward to book two.

Astonishing X-Men #25-33 (Marvel) - written by Warren Ellis - I didn't read Joss Whedon's run on this X title, though for the Whedon fans here, I will pass along it got generally good reviews, although there were quite a few delays in it staying a monthly series.  I am sure his work will be collected in graphic novel form (if it hasn't already).
 
I am a big Ellis fan and had missed out on this.  He is already on his second story arc, so I went ahead and was able to find the back issues.  I am not always a fan of "team" comics, but I got into this one right away.  I have picked up most (if not all) Ellis's recent work for Avatar.  My biggest critique of that work is that by the time he gets a character started and a plotline going, and then he ends the story.

AXM is a real treat for Ellis fans.  It is Ellis returning to superhero comics.  Even casual comic fans are familiar with the X-Men, so Ellis is able to jump right into the story.  All the trademark Ellis stuff is there, starting with the snappy dialogue and big sci-fi concepts.

I didn't really like Simone Bianchi's art, and I'm not that crazy about Phil Jiminez's work on the title, but the stories have been captivating.  I don't imagine Ellis will be on the title for much longer than a year, but I'm really digging it, and looking forward to seeing where it is going. 

Ellis fans should look these issues up.

Joe The Barbarian (DC/Vertigo)- written by Grant Morrison - Polar opposite to my comments on Ellis above, I was looking forward to Morrison getting away from mainstream comics (at least for eight issues).  I have enjoyed Batman and Robin quite a bit, but Morrison seems to be his best doing the Vertigo stuff.  Joe is the story of a teenager who find out his fantasy world is about to come real.

It's a concept that is well-travelled.  Mark Millar just did it in Marvel's 1985 ( a comic I dug), and there's of course precedent in movies like Cool World.  So maybe not the most original idea, but Morrison does a great job in setting up the character and storyline, and I am tempted to think this could be Morrison's best story in quite some time.

It's not too-clever-by-half like recent work like Seaguy.  Plus, it's got the perfect compliment in Sean Murphy's art.  Issue #1 is only $1, so comic fans have no reason not to pick it up.  I have high hopes for this based on its first issue.

Starman #81 (DC)- written by James Robinson - It's been about eight years since Robinson wrapped up Starman  in issue 80, so I had to make the joke to my comic shop guy that he forgot to add it to my pull-list (the comics they keep back for me every week).  My (adult) comic habit basically started with Starman's first issue in 1994. 

Robinson's run on Starman (collected over several graphic novels) is on the short list of the answer I give when I hear the question "I am interested in comics, but don't know where to start?"

The unexpected Issue #81 comes out as a tie-in to DC's Blackest Night event.  I have all but given up on DC, but I couldn't pass up this issue.  I, at least have a general idea of the BN concept - as per wikipedia, "a personified force of death resurrecting deceased superheroes and seeking to eliminate all life and emotion from the universe."

I enjoyed it quite a bit and even not knowing much about Blackest Night, the story was easy to get into.  As far as one-shot comics go, it doesn't get much better.  To read Robinson revisiting Starman's Shade (not to be confused with Shade: The Changing Man) was a real thrill.

This won't work for new readers, but for old fans, it's a nice addition to the canon. 
 

Two and a half weeks ago, two wrestling promotions went head to head airing live programs on the same night for the first time in nine years.

I occasionally will have an enlighting or entertaining blog post here, but you will have to forgive me a half dozen posts about wrestling to get to them.

As some of you know, i spent most of my Sunday mornings watching wrestling (I don't know how many times Peter denied Jesus, but I do know who Randy Savage beat to win the Intercontinental Championship)..  I lost interest during high school, for a couple of reasons- the priority of being a teenager and the revelation that wrestling was.. uh.. umm.. not going to have its results printed in the sports section.
 

It was def_fr0g_42  who got me back into wrestling around 1995.  I joke now because that wasn't quite wrestling's halcyon days (Paul Orndorff + Psychic Gary Spivey = Ratings), but wrestling was now enjoyable for different (or maybe the same) reasons as when I was a kid. 

The thing was the market was about to go Bullish, and there was the Monday Night Wars.  For those who know, I won't have to describe.  Those who don't, won't care, but I will just put this here.

For five and a half years, Vince McMahon's WWF took on Ted Turner's WCW, and for a time, caught the public's attention and went to new heights.

I have went into some detail about this before, but essentially WCW's strategy was to buy the contracts of the sports' biggest stars (Most of the 80's biggest stars had been signed to WCW by 1997 - Hogan, Savage, Flair, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall).  Without the financial advantage, McMahon's strategy was to go all out with his "Attitude era", push boundaries, and develop new stars from unknowns (most famously "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the Rock).  It was the WCW that won all of the early battles, but would end up losing the war.

Vince ended up buying WCW, but there were some memorable moments, and a lot of us look back at that time fondly.  For a year, we gathered at a friend's house and set up two tv's, so we could keep track of both programs.  We moved to a local sandwich shop, and then a grad student bar.  Later on, when I worked Monday nights, I would go to a friend's house after work, and watch the shows off the vcr.

The WWF (now the WWE) pretty much owns wrestling.  There is another promotion, TNA that for the last five years gained a small loyal audience, and a time slot on Thursday nights on Spike TV.  I complain about TNA alot, as they always seem to do the things that put WCW out of business (They bury young talent in favor of the established names.  The WWE isn't perfect, but they have made stars out of John Cena and Randy Orton.  Even the biggest young TNA star, AJ Styles, isn't that well known).

TNA wasn't going to take the WWE down any time soon, but there was a big event in fall that promised to change everything.  TNA signed a partnership with Hulk Hogan and former WCW/WWE booker/producer Eric Bischoff.

On January 4, Hogan was to make his debut and the two promotions went head-to-head on a Monday night.  TNA pulled out all the stops and brought in the biggest free agent they could find (Jeff Hardy) and a variety of Hogan cronies and unsigned talent (Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Orlando Jordan, Val Venis, the Nasty Boys,)
 
Vince is never one to be outdone, so he brought in Bret Hart.  It was the first time Hart appeared in the WWE in twelve years.  Hart had left after the Montreal Screwjob, the most memorable event in the last 20 years of wrestling.  After years of biting comments, Bret Hart made peace with Shawn Michaels and in a moment fans never thought they would see, shared the stage with Vince McMahon.

It was a good night to be a wrestling fan.  It was one of those nights when anything could happen, and both promotions looked like they could pull out anything at any time.  Bringing in Jeff Hardy was an impressive move, but TNA (as usual) squandered the opportunity- the first match took place in a cage that didn't work well on television, had a badly explained no-contest finish, and Hardy came out to feud with someone who was not a Main Eventer, but a mid-carder.

I won't waste too much more time here, but what started out with an exciting beginning, has become a trainwreck in subsequent weeks.

A list of things that the crowd has crapped on:  Pushing out-of-shape Scott Hall and drunk Sean Waltman as if they were still in 1997.  Remaking popular AJ Styles (who didn't need the makeover) as a Ric Flair-style heel,  Popular star Daniels losing to perennial jobber Sean "Val Venis" Morley. 

There of course are plenty unexplained heel/face turns, forgotten storylines, and a lack of clean finishes- all par for the course, for TNA, though  it as if they got rid of all the best things about the promotion, and kept all the bad.

TNA saw the height of absurdness on Thursday night's Impact (oh, probably not, it can always get worse).  The WWE has been revisiting the Montreal Screwjob, the Waterloo of the Monday Night Wars.  However, even the biggest fan doesn't know where it is headed.  Okay, we know- likely we get a final hurrah for Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 26.   Still, it will be an interesting couple of months getting there.

TNA which prides itself as an alternative to the WWE ended their Thursday night show with an almost note-for-note replay of the Montreal Screwjob with Kurt Angle as Bret Hart, and Hulk Hogan as Vince McMahon.

There we have the current promotions in a nutshell.

There were a lot of memorable moments from Dave Chapelle's Comedy Central show, but among the top were Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories.  The (apparently true) revelation that Prince liked to play basketball blew all of our minds.

The Artist Once Again Known as Prince has shown up to cheer the Minnesota Vikings on to playoff victory.  A bizarre sight to be sure.

The delicate, reclusive artist amongst burly, sweaty football fans.  Still, it makes an odd amount of sense.  Prince has repped Minneapolis for years.  Like Husker Du and the Replacements (except even more so), the guy put the Twin Cities on the musical map.

Plus, they wear Purple.  The affection should be obvious.

I should probably mention (before he makes me delete this post) that I like the guy.  I tune in to check every album.  I am not always sold, but the man has a track record that any musician should be envious of.  The guy could have quit after Dirty Mind, and he would have done better than most.

So, when I heard Prince had put together a Vikings rally song, well, there was some trepidation, but it didn't necessarily have to be bad.  It's hard to beat Prince when it comes to bringing the funk.

Sports theme songs are notoriously cheesy.  "The Super Bowl Shuffle" being the Citizen Kane of sports songs, though there have been dozens more over the years.  That doesn't have to be the case always and sometimes teams took songs from the charts, from "We Are Family" to "I Love LA" to "All the way Turnt Up".

Anyway, it's Prince, a million selling artist, not football player-turned coach Mike Singletary.  Besides, the guy played at a Super Bowl halftime.  He gets it, right?  So, this is his next great single?  His "When Saints Cry".  His "Nothing Compares 2 AP".  His "Sign O' The Vikes".

Maybe,not so much.

Oh well.  I guess there's always "Pants On The Ground".