'Black Viper Barbarian Clan' is the nicest song I've ever heard.

I'm starting to think that I'm having an observational adverse affect on the Flames, and I'm not even sure if that sentence made any sense.

See, I love watching hockey games (although watching Boston score that 5th goal on Montreal tonight was just sad. I mean, Price didn't even try to stop that shot...), and I love listening to the game on the radio even more (as Barsky says, it forces you to visualize the game in your head, and in my head, they have battle-axes instead of hockey sticks and when the announcer says 'shoots the puck' what I really hear is 'lops off his opponent's head with a heaving mighty blow', but that's just me...), but I always get this nagging feeling that just by paying attention to the game, I'm jinxing it, because almost every time I tune in, they lose.

Of course, it could be because the Flames, while they'll always be my team, have just never been that good.

Certainly, they've got pluck, or heart, or grit, or whatever you wanna call it. They do, they got that shit in spades. It's just that they've never been a consistently solid team. No one's ever thought of the Flames the way you think about, say, the Islanders or the Oilers during the 80's, or Messier's Rangers during the 90's. They've always been lucky to get where they are, obviously working hard (or 'grinding', as everyone's so fond of saying these days, despite the fact that no one had ever used the term before Sutter took over a few years ago...), but always holding on just by the skin of their teeth.

After a while, rooting for such a team becomes an exercise in heartbreak. Don't get me wrong: I'll always cheer for the Flames - I just don't expect much from them anymore.

Anyway: stuff:

1. The Browns got us wonderful babystuff, my favourite thing being a CD entitled 'Rockabye Baby: Lullaby Renditions of Queens Of The Stone Age', and yes, you may scoff, but it's surprisingly lovely.

2. Speaking of QOTSA: the Queens just re-released Era Vulgaris with a second disc full of live stuff, as well as some extra cover songs, one of which being Billy Idol's 'White Wedding', and again, you may scoff, but it works.

3. I don't know why I like this song, but I do.

4. Speaking of battle-axes: Lair of The Minotaur's latest is called War Metal Battle Master, and that's all you need to know, because that title is AWESOME, but if you need more, they have a song called 'When The Ice Giants Slayed All'. (This might explain why my mind works the way it does during hockey games...)

5. Oh, hey, that guy who directed The Cell has a new movie, and Jennifer Lopez has nothing to do with it.

...and now my roommates are comparing drug stories, which is really weirding me out for some reason, so I'm gonna go play video games, because that's my preferred addiction these days.