Two new mixtapes - Cool Kids and Bone Thugs

Bone Thugs: Fixtape 3 (Special Delivery)

Cook Kids: Merry Christmas

SMU vs. WSU

Another installment of the annual "Battle of the Rock" finishes as expected... but this one was a little different.

SMU was leading 11-2 at one point and went into the half down by only four (40-36). They continued to nip at the heels of the D2 power until about eight minutes into the second half, where WSU established a double-digit margin and held out for the win.

Consider the past two meetings between these teams to put things into perspective:

2008: WSU 92, SMU 65
2007: WSU 118, SMU 53... wow.

I almost consider this year's game a moral victory. We stuck with a national D2 powerhouse for 30 minutes and gave them a GOOD scare. It made me so damn happy to see WSU panicking when they were down 11-2.

David Johnson is just too good. The HVL product is so well-rounded that he was scoring in the paint almost as much as from outside. His three-point shot wasn't as effective as other games this season, but he still sunk 22 points and made the difference for WSU.

C.J. Erickson will be a legendary player at WSU by his senior year. Don't let his meager appearance fool you - the scraggly beard and white tee distract his defenders while he dunks over them. He finished an amazing play tonight where Brad Meyer and him were working a 2 on 1 break against Tim Kunkel; Meyer wisely gave it to Erickson who slammed over Kunkel, picked up the and-one and crashed into the bottom of the hoop. The guy plays with reckless abandon and is well-rounded.

The only two gripes I had were related to the WSU fans. And yes, I consider myself one of them (when they're not playing against SMU)... but they are just absolutely spoiled from a few years of dominance. This is NOT the same Warrior team from a few years ago. All I heard at the scores table was grown men complaining about the calls being made against WSU or even worse, the "non-calls." They think every damn call is going to go their way! Every time down accusations were being tossed around of travels or tic-tac fouls. I guess this is probably just the nature of a passionate home crowd, but it bothered me for the first time ever in McCown gym.

The meat of my frustration comes from the absolute jokers that were dressed as power rangers standing at the corner of the gym. When school is in session, McCown is a home court to be scared of, as students line the court and provide constant noise and intimidation. But with tonight being a non-conference game and students being away for Christmas break, there were these four douchebags that insisted on pestering SMU all game. They were dressed in the stupidest fucking outfits and were behaving in extreme poor taste. The incident that made me enraged was when SMU's Will Wright was laying on the ground injured and they STILL pointed at him and mocked him. I could barely stand it.

Overall, this is a game that proves that SMU can run with ANYBODY. We killed Bethel, nearly beat Gustavus and kept up with the vastly superior WSU for more than a half. Despite our current 4-4 record, I see us winning at least two of our next three and sitting near the top of the conference. GO CARDINALS!

"Big Poppa" on uke and Bennie Lava

Behold "Bennie Lava"... I laughed so hard at this when I saw it this summer. My roommates and I used to watch this one religiously.

Merry Christmas to all of our readers!

Happy holidays to all of our viewers up to this point. I'm fresh off of another classic Christmas Eve seafood dinner, and with toaster and Seinfeld Season 4 DVD in tow, I'm about to head back to the hotel.

Before I leave you, here's two great clips: The first is Andrew Wiggins, the best basketball player from the class of 2014 - that's eighth grade. I'll be seeing him on December 29th.

The second clip is the famous initial Susan Boyle appearance. My aunt got her debut album for Christmas, and it inspired me to look back on her blockbuster performance that made even Simon smile.

DAT ASS

Both president Obama and France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, take a good hard look at this Brazilian woman at an Italian conference to discuss climate changes and oil prices.

Movie recommendation: Pi (1998)

Pi is a "psychological thriller" from beginning to end. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and released in 1998, the movie is about a man named Max who is both gifted and cursed.

After looking into the sun for too long when he was a child, Max was stricken with temporary blindness and consistent migraine headaches. Since the accident he has had an extraordinary ability with numbers, especially detecting patterns in them. He is convinced that everything - even nature or the stock market - is numerical and works in a pattern.

With the help of his aptitude for math, Max finds a dark secret that is coveted by many. His headaches continue and become more and more painful.

The movie draws many parallels to Requiem for a Dream, which is also an Aronofsky production. Many of the same actors and camera techniques are in both films. Although Pi is a little harder to understand than Requiem, it keeps the viewer captivated from beginning to end and is a haunting depiction of mental disorders, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and the life of a math savant.

The soundtrack is also exceptional. Here's a look at the trailer:

Insane Domino Effect

Guess What's On My Styrofoam Cup?

This guy and lil' Wayne need to team up. The site has more pics: Sharpie Art on Styrofoam Cups (79 pics)

Snoop Raps About Weed Brownies With Martha Stewart

Snoop Dogg was featured on a recent Martha Stewart show and the two made brownies. While making them Snoop raps about how they are missing 1 key ingredient.

Kid Cudi: "Tearin' it Up"

Spending a lot of time listening to Cudi over break so I decided to pay a little tribute.

Music blog from my friends up in the Twin Cities.

MUSIC THAT ISN'T BAD - A music blog by my friends from the U of M. I was not going to link it but then they impressed me with their work ethic and consistent posting. Check it out...

CRAZY musical composition

Whoever made this is a genius. Props to the world famous Derek Drier for sending me the link.

I lol'd

How you can tell when a black man is lying.

$300 movie trailer get the green light and a $30 mil allowance

"An unknown producer from Uruguay, Fede Alvarez, shelled out about $300 to create a cool video of a robot invasion in Montevideo, the capitol of Uruguay. The four-minute short, "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack) features ginormous (but slow-moving) weapon-wielding robots that blow stuff up."

The amateur director ended up with a YouTube mailbox full of movie deal proposals.

Read the story here.

Here's the $300 clip... pretty nice.

Nice drumming

Russian color photos from the early 1900's - WOW

It sounds unspectacular at first... but think about it. What's the earliest use of color photography that you can think of? The 1960's?

This dude came out and was doing it as early as 1909. He worked in a train car that was modified to act as a dark room.

Most kids these days (including me) can't quite imagine what life was like from a black & white photograph. When we're young, we think that life actually was B&W back then. But this gallery is such a great perspective, showing the vibrant and brilliant colors from 100 years ago that have never before been recorded.

Very cool website

NEAVE.com - Maybe the most interactive site made by one person that I've ever seen. Go nuts.

Eminem and Lil' Wayne... and Limp Biskit apparently...

So Eminem stopped by the studio while Lil' Wayne was smoking pot and pleasuring himself to his own album covers and they put together some rap/rock song... it's about time.

Eminem Joins Wayne To Drop The World (Audio) | Eminem | Rap Basement

Singapore parallel parking

Mario remix - Andrea Vadrucci kills it on drums