It is 2009 now! Crazy, this decade is almost over. In the last ten years I've experience finishing both high school and undergrad, we've had two wars, 9/11, Web2.0, recession, and a black man elected president. So much has changed, and so much remains the same. In honor of closing out the decade, there will be a section called Meat Tracks. I'll basically profile my fave songs from the past decade, a little commentary on why it's one of my faves and where it brings me back to whenever I hear the track. There will be 10 profiled each month from now on, so a total of 100 by the end of the year.
The other two sections are a little shorter this time around. The middle section will be a look at entertainment or electronics, two things other than sports that I enjoy. The last section will always profile something sports, although this one will be more of a rant about one of my fave sports but one that is struggling right now: hockey. Yeah, this entry is loaded. So here we go!
MEAT TRACKS
Music picks of this decade from the Meat Life.
This entry will focus on more party hits.
-Fabolous's "Young'n (Holla Back)" (2001)
This will make me sound really dorky, but this was a theme song of sorts my freshman year of college. The Neptunes were hot back then, producing practically every hip-hop song, and this was my fave that winter. Whenever I was going somewhere I would bump this in my car and I even had the ringtone on my cell. Back then it was a little harder to get ringtones and it was like the tone in one of the verses of the song. Yeah, I was awesome.
-Jagged Edge's "Where the Party At? (featuring Nelly)" (2001)
Back then Nelly used to run the show, and his guest spot on this track displayed that. This brings me back to '02 and my first time at a club. It was a place called Legacy 18 (in Bricktown for those of you old enough to remember, it was where the Green Door used to be). Me and some of my friends from the dorms went. They weren't exactly party people, so it was kind of awkward. But after that I downloaded this song and partied in my car everytime it played.
-Clipse's "Grindin'" (2002)
Another Neptunes track, this beat was crazy. This track brings me back to the start of my clubbin days. No memory in particular attached to this, but just the resonating beat.
-Jay-Z's "La La La (Excuse Me Miss Again)" (2003)
This I like more than the original "Excuse Me Miss." I remember riding in a friend's car that summer with this song bumping. I think we were going about 90 through the highways in and around Dallas. I just remember the song and the colors of all the lights as they fly by.
-Youngbloodz's "Presidential (featuring Lil Jon)" (2005)
At the height of Lil Jon's popularity, this was a jem. Great beat and energy. Just enough cheese where it wasn't annoying but fun. Fond memories of OU-Texas 2005 everytime I hear the song. We certainly didn't win the game but we did party it up that night. I remember Mike going buck wild and Jed falling over and asking "who pushed me?!?"
-Justin Timberlake's "My Love (featuring T.I.)" (2006)
Unbelievable track when I first heard it. I wasn't a big N'Sync fan, but I have to say I am a big Timberlake fan. This song is my fave from him. Just the T.I. verse alone tears it up. The futuristic and dynamic sound makes it feel new each time I listen to it. Brings me back to the summer before my son was born when I lived at Thanh Lu's.
-T.I.'s "What You Know" (2006)
Brings me back to 1821 Concord and the parties, especially the last one: The Chris Mitra Freedom Festival. Loved how our parties were always Old School themed. I remember at one point each of the roommie played this song back to back to back for a good 20 minutes. That and this was a badass song.
-Shop Boyz's "Party Like a Rockstar" (2007)
Not sure why this sticks out so much. My party days had waned before this song came out. I think mainly because they used to play this song over and over again when I used to work at Dell. For the top seller for that week, they had this "Pimp My Cube" where they would put in these cheesy decorations, badass sound system and lights into a cubical and have the top seller sit in there for the week. That song would play everytime they would announce. I was only top 5 so I never quit got to sit in there.
-Rick Ross's "The Boss (featuring T-Pain)" (2008)
Just a badass song. T-Pain is everywhere now it seems and seems to always accentuate the songs he is in. I would bump this on my way back from work all that spring and part of the summer. Yeah, picture that...from bumping in the car going out to the club during college to bumping on the way home to the kid.
-Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" (2008)
It's not so much attaching a current happening to this song but the feeling of nostalgia it envokes when I hear it. Reminds me of summer of '05 and a particular night when I feel asleep at a club. Yeah, good story, so ask me about it later.
There will be more party songs later, but next time we will feature rock.
EE Section
Profiling Entertainment and/or Electronics
This entry Meat Life is going over the new ABC show Castle.
Now, if you watch any TV on ABC, you probably have seen the non-stop commercial campaign for the cop comedrama Castle. They blitz commercial breaks giving pretty much the entire story featured in the pilot episode that came on yesterday.
Normally I don't mind commercials for show, but for about a month I think I saw the same commercial for that show about 10 times a night on the night I catch a show on ABC (Lost every Wednesday, when my wife watches Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives). Although I was annoyed, I was also kind of intrigued.
So I decided to catch the show when it came on. I was presently surprised. Although not the greatest show in the world and kind of cheesy, the show was enjoyable. I've liked a lot of stuff that Nathan Fillion (Serenity) has been in, and his character as a murder mystery writer tagging along the sharp lady cop Stana Katic (The Spirit) is along the same lines of what you have seen Fillion in before. Solid storyline, although I can see the writer helping solve murder crimes novelty will eventually wear off.
I predict ABC will get a decent 2 seasons out of this show at the most, although I could probably see the show getting axed after 10 episodes if the ratings aren't there. Day Break was a decent ABC show they had during a Lost break but did not survive a season because of poor ratings and I can see Castle getting the same fate. We shall see what the ratings will be.
Castle is on Monday nights at 9PM CST on ABC.
The Meat Life Sports Tear
This week, a rant about hockey.
Hockey has been one of my favorite sports growing up. It was the only sport I played in organized leagues. The speed of the game is what attracted me the most to the game...that and seeing the first Mighty Ducks movie. That last scene in the championship game where Josh Jackson takes the penalty shot is awesome. I don't know how many times I pretended to do that triple deke move.
But now I'm upset. Not so much at the game, but at the professional league that represents it. In the last 20 years hockey has gone from the red hot sport that was challenging the NBA as the third most popular sport in America to a sport that has been almost forgotten and relegated to being shown on a channel that half of America doesn't even know is in their channel lineup. It saddens me to see the sport in the place it is in right now.
1994 was the peak of the NHL. The New York Rangers, the team in the largest TV market in the country, won the Stanley Cup. From that championship series the league saw the largest audience ever to tune into the series. The league had signed a great TV deal with both ESPN and Fox to televise games nationally. The sports' biggest star Wayne Gretzky just broke the all-time goal scoring record. The NHL was on a high. And then the summer after its greatest year, the league shut down for half a season due to a labor dispute.
Now, I'm not one to claim to know what goes on in those type of situations, but all I know is if you are a league that is finally gaining some relevance in the United States you better have your shit straight to bring it even harder after your best year ever. I mark the 1994 lockout the turning point in the NHL. From then on things went downhill. The league got overconfident and expanded from 26 teams at the end of the 1993-94 season to 30 teams by the 2000-01 season, 3 of those teams in non-traditional hockey markets like Atlanta and Nashville.
Since then there has been another lockout/league shutdown for an entire season in 2004-05. The NHL's contract with ESPN/ABC ended that season and was not renewed. It was replaced by an unknown cable network OLN (which later was rebranded as Versus) as well as NBC. Attendance for the most part when compared with what it was in 1994 is down in the United States, where only the traditional hockey markets have stayed relatively the same.
Outside of the business, the game itself has lost a lot. No longer was it a fast and exciting game. Since the expansion, the spread of talent is thin. So normally those who were still playing in the minors are now playing in the NHL. Teams went to a more defensive style of play since the talent level dropped. The term "neutral-zone trap" described not only the defense but where the league was stuck.
I'll have to admit there were some changes that were implemented that helped improve the quality of the game like the crack down on slashing and spearing as well as the addition of the shootout in the regular season doing away with ties. But those are only minor things that is more a band aid than anything.
Here are 5 things that will help the NHL get back to where they were in 1994. Now most of these might not happen or be able to be implemented easily. But it is time for the NHL to face the facts and get this straighted out.
1. Fire Commissioner Gary Bettman. He has been commish since 1993 and has overseen overexpansion and two lockouts. He has caused more problems for the league than progress. His shortsightedness and overambition in the southern states are dragging the league. He has tried to spread the league but the league has spread thin. That and renaming the conferences and divisions has taken out a lot of the traditions the league had.
2. Take teams out of the southern markets. Now I'm not saying contract and drop teams out of the league. I'm saying relocate some of the teams north where either there was a former franchise like in Quebec City or Hartford or in other markets up north. Minneapolis could support more than one franchise and there are a lot of Canadian markets could take a team. You could start by moving the double teams in areas like LA/Anaheim and Florida/Tampa. Keep the Kings in LA and move the Ducks and keep the Tampa team there and move the Florida team north. Make the money where you know you can.
3. Consider Europe. Hockey is huge in Euro nations like Russia, Czech Republic, Norway, and Sweden. Ultimately what could happen is have half the teams remain in North America and half send over to Europe. It could be like the NL and AL in baseball. Most teams won't meet until the Stanley Cup finals and they could have parts of the season where there is interleague play. It'll get complicated with the different currencies and all but it would make sure that the sport's exposure is international.
4. Market your stars to the Nth degree. The NHL has struggled to market players under Bettman. Ask any average American to name a current hockey player and most would probably still give you "Wayne Gretzky" as their answer. What about Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin. Ovie is probably the most dynamic star in the sport, but unless you watch Sportscenter on a daily basis you probably wouldn't be able to identify who Ovechkin is or what sport he plays. If you are interested, YouTube Alex Ovechkin and you will pull up some of the craziest goals ever scored, one on his back turned away from the goal while spinning. Yeah, I know...crazy. He is my favorite current player right now and no one knows who he is.
Yeah, that's Ovie on his back...and he scored like that.
5. Sign a damn contract with ESPN. Having to watch hockey on Versus is crap. Not for the production quality or anything like that. The production is fine. But you don't get the exposure on Versus that you do on ESPN. People know what channel ESPN is. People have to look up what channel Versus is. I remember Tuesday and Wednesday night games on ESPN with Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. Thorne's yelling style was so epic. Now I only get a sample of that on my NHL09 video game and whenever I pop in the 1994 New York Rangers Stanley Cup DVDs.
So there it is. With the exception of the Europe thing I think all of this is feasible for the NHL. It's a shame that hockey has declined below NASCAR as a major sport in the United States. Although it may never return to its former glory, it may regain some of that back by doing at the very least the last two things on this list.
See you guys on the next entry!
