You know, we're not the only ones destroying trees. What about beavers? You call yourself an environmentalist, why don't you go club a few beavers?

The answer is mustard. Mustard is made from mustard seeds.

Ok, so random obscure SNL Celebrity Jeopardy reference. Moving on…

After a lovely weekend up north during which Erin found out that it’s cold and windy on a mountain top no matter how warm a day it may be and I found out that every single one of my little cousins has no problem water skiing while I can’t do it to save my life, it’s back to the good ol’ workplace in D.C.

Woo hoo! Mets are now only a half game out of the wildcard. After this coming week we’ll pretty much know where they stand as it’s 3 series in a row again the Phillies, Marlins and Braves. That’s rough.

ND football vs. Pitt this Saturday! Still pissed they moved the DC alumni game watch out to Pentagon City. It was so nice being able to walk 5 minutes home and pass out on the couch. We’ll see how long this lasts. Especially cause the game on Saturday isn’t til 8 at night. Ouch.

So I have a few things I’m working on for the next couple entries but as I was thinking about the new TV season and how much I hate cliffhangers here’s a quick top 5 list for you:

TOP 5 BLEEPIN’ LAST SEASON CLIFFHANGERS I WANT ANSWERED:

5. How the bleep is Elliot going to be a major character on Scrubs now that she’s moved to a different hospital?

4. Who the bleep was that at the door on Veronica Mars?

3. How the bleep are those crazy kids on the O.C. getting out of the whole shooting Trey mess?

2. What is Luke gonna say to Lorelei’s proposal on Gilmore Girls and is Rory really bleepin’ dropping out?

1. What the bleep’ is in that bleepin’ hatch on Lost?

MUSIC YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO:

Death Cab For Cutie – Plans

So yeah, this just came out yesterday. I’ve already listened to it 3 times. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a CD the day it came out but after falling in love with this band from their Transatlanticism album and frontman Ben Gibbards lyrics and vocals on the Postal Service album, I was really looking forward to this. And it didn’t disappoint. It’s good. It’s really good. The opening track Marching in Manhattan is a great catchy number which sounds like it could’ve come right off Transatlanticism. Soul Meets Body is there first single which kicks things up a little bit. Summer Skin is classic Death Cab with the soulful piano and melancholy yet poetic lyrics. Different Names For The Same Thing sees a little Postal Service coming out in the album between the use of the synths and beat. I will Follow You Into The Dark is a totally acoustic guitar number with Gibbards voice jumping front and center with his depressing yet ultimately sweet lyrics. It reminds me a lot of Iron & Wine’s cover of Such Great Heights but with Gibbard singing his own song. I could keep going on but let’s just say Death Cab (or to be a total mark: DCFC) continues to impress me with they’re work and while I don’t know if this album surpasses Transatlanticism (nor should it have to) it definitely belongs up there in their catalogue. One thing is for sure, while this is their first album on a major label, the band isn’t changing their tone or “selling out” musically. Thank God for that.

News and Notes:

Saw the 2 hour premiere of Prison Break. Not too bad. Sure a whole lot of things happening dependent on pure luck but it’s TV. The show, if nothing else, is entertaining and as such it’s earned at least a couple more viewing.

Charlize Theron on Arrested Development this season? Dear God people why aren’t you watching this show?

Episode 5 getting a lot of love this week.

I really want to see the Constant Gardener. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in a movie by the guy who did City of God? Sweet.

Awesome new Harry Potter trailer here (trailer 2 in the trailer section). The music alone in this has me hugely excited to see it.

Until next time:

“Don't you always say "family first"?”

“Yes, but that is not a family. It's a bunch of greedy, selfish people who have our nose. And Aunt Lindsay”

“She's not really my aunt?”

“No, it's not a real nose. I have a picture of her when she was 14 in a bathing cap and she looks like a falcon.”

When I held that gun in my hand, I felt a surge of power ... like God must feel when he's holding a gun.

Irony: I actually don’t like mustard. Think about it.

Props to Tom for a great time this weekend even if I did actually end up watching Guess Who and did actually end up laughing at it. Even Ashton Kutcher isn’t enough to stop Bernie Mac from being funny as hell.

Ok, so strange double post today. I actually wrote the below post last week but then realized that very few of the 3 or 4 people who read this blog would actually care. So I figured I’d save it and just post another more general entry along with it this week. But should you care to read it I have one additional entry: the game Metroid Hunters for the Nintendo DS which was also supposed to be a HUGE launch for that system this fall/holiday season has also been delayed til 2006. Ouch.

Ok, no more video game stuff.

The Mets are rockin’ the suburbs these days having won 8 of 10 (including a CRUSHING of Arizona two nights in a row) and are now only 1.5 games out of the wildcard. Granted that puts them in with 4 other teams trying to win it but still, no one would have seen them at this point at the beginning of the season. Can’t wait to hit another game when they come into town at the end of September.

The Rangers have still yet to do anything big in the free agent market. Yeah, the signed Steve Rucchin which isn't a bad deal but they need some new blood. They don't need another superstar just a couple more solid players. At this rate the only team who will have done less will be the Washington Capitals. Good lord, nothing there. I’ll just have to make sure to go pick the Caps games I go to based on their opponent.

If you’re not watching Entourage, wow, you’re missing out. Caught a 4 episode marathon last week and then went back and watched every other episode this season (yay HBO on demand!). The show is hysterical and has jumped up to my new favorite show (yes, it’s summer where there’s not a whole lot of competition but still). I mean any show with the line: “Dude, did you just get cock-blocked by Bob Sagat?” is a show that has to be genius.

Two weeks til Fox premiere week. Prison Break, while seriously annoying the crap out of me with the commercials running every 5 minutes on Fox, is getting some really good buzz so I’m looking forward to checking it out. The Simpsons is premiering normally on the 11^th! No word yet on whether it’ll be the Treehouse of Horror kicking it off as usual or if they’ll have a normal episode and save that one for Halloween. O.C. is also returning and yeah, I’m now just a full on convert. It’s just too damn funny and I feel no guilt anymore over watching it. Speaking of the O.C….

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Music from the O.C. Volume 1 and 4:

Yeah, I know the 1 and 4 are random but I have half the songs on the 2^nd album (not that I wouldn’t recommend it, I just already have the Killers, Death Cab, the Thrills and Keane) and the 3^rd album is the Chrismakuh one which it’s just not the holiday season quite yet. But I recommend these albums for anyone who liked the Garden State or Scrubs soundtracks. Just great music on here you normally won’t here on the radio.

Volume One is little more straight forward. The Way We Get By by Spoon has a little bit of a funky early Ben Folds feel to it. We Used to Be Friends by the Dandy Warhols is actually theme song for Veronica Mars and is just really catchy. The beautifully acoustic Orange Sky was actually in the movie Garden State but was left off that soundtrack because it was already on this one. And of course the O.C. theme song California by Phantom Planet is the easiest song in the world to get stuck in your head.

Volume Four gets a little more eclectic starting off Decent Days and Nights by the Futureheads which has a Clash-esque feel to it. Goodnight and Go by Imogen Heap will remind you of Let Go by Frou Frou especially because Imogen Heap is in fact one half of Frou Frou. To Be Alone With You by Sufjan Stevens has a nice acoustic Iron & Wine sound. Things then ratchet up a notch with Scarecrow and The View off the latest Beck and Modest Mouse albums. Finally the album end on a great cover of Champagne Supernova by matt pond PA.

News and Notes:

We’ve hit the 2 month mark. Wow, October will be here before you know it. Then Greece!

Heading back up to NY this weekend and finally will have a little time at the lake. It’s been way too long.

ND football! One week!

Weekly shameless strip plug!

Until next time:

“This is where you should be living, Vince. In a kingdom, like a prince.”

“Don't you mean in a kingdom like a king, you idiot?”

“Nah, E. Everyone wants to kill the king. But the prince, he just sails along telling all the ladies, "One day I'm gonna be king."

Look, the thing about my family is there's five of us. Marge, Bart, Girl Bart, the one who doesn't talk, and the fat guy. How I loathe him!

And we’re back with another edition of that crazy, sexy, cool blog, the Mustard.

It’s rant time:

So Nintendo has officially screwed themselves. The announced today that the new Zelda game for the Gamecube which was supposed to be out in November for the Christmas season has been pushed back til at least the 2^nd quarter of ’06. This delay was necessary to make improvements to the game. Now while I’m all for high quality games and Zelda has never let me down before, this is next to death for Nintendo. Right now they don’t have a major holiday release to put out. Zelda was HUGE. Especially a realistic one which looked more in line with the Ocarina of Time of N64 (which was one of, if not the best game of all time) rather than the cartoony Wind Waker for Gamecube (which was still a good game but the cell shaded look turned a lot of people off). This Zelda game by itself could have held off the ridiculous onslaught that is going to be the release of the Xbox360. I’m not saying it would’ve stopped the success of the new Xbox. But it could have plugged a major leak in the Nintendo ship as people who are more than disappointed with the Gamecube jump onto the Xbox bandwagon. And I’m sure PS2 is gonna have some big games out in time for the holidays.

Nintendo has nothing left. Zelda was it. It was they’re last big hurrah before the new system comes out next year. As of now it, it may end up that this new Zelda game doesn’t come out until after both the Xbox360 and PS3 come out.

Nintendo has to get their arrogant heads out of their asses. They’re not infallible anymore. This isn’t the Nintendo of the SNES and early N64 age. They don’t have the market lead anymore. And all those loyal Nintendo fans are getting to their wits end, myself included. They’re sick and tired of sticking with a company who seems to believe that their users will never leave no matter how many times Nintendo drops the ball. They’re sick of seeing amazing games like Halo and Ninja Gaiden and God of War and Final Fantasy come out on other systems and having to settle for Mario Party 67 and a Mario title in every sport. We didn’t even get a real Mario game except for the early Mario Sunshine release which no one bought!!!

Zelda was going the only real thing we Nintendo fans could get really excited for especially considering how stingy the company has been about revealing details of the new system. We don’t know anything about why it’s going to be a “Revolution”. We do know that it won’t play HD DVD’s because Nintendo doesn’t think we want them. The same way they thought we wouldn’t want the Gamecube to play regular DVDs. The same way they thought we wouldn’t want the Gamecube to allow for online play (ironically now Nintendo is hailing the wi-fi capabilities that are going to included in the Revolution console and acting like online play was their idea to begin with). Nintendo just keeps saying oh, it’s going to be huge but right now we can’t tell you anything about it. That only works for so long before people get tired of waiting and instead look at the ridiculously cool looking games coming out for the other new consoles.

So it’s a little hard for a Nintendo fan to get excited for a new Zelda release when by that time all focus is going to be on the next generation consoles. What Nintendo should have done was develop this game for the new Revolution console and have it launch with that. That would’ve been amazing. Every Nintendo fan in the world would have waited for that. A new console AND a new Zelda game? Sign me up. But instead we’re going to be getting a Zelda game on an old system (albeit probably a great Zelda game) while everyone is oohing and awwing about the new Xbox and Playstation.

Right now Nintendo is a bad bad position and unless they’re going to pull out the Holy Grail with their new gaming system and blow everyone out of the water, we could be singing goodbye by the time the next generation consoles reach the end of their lives.

Ok, sorry. Ridiculously long rant there. To the new and notes:

Strip back and running. I’m trying to get those updates out as quick as possible to make up for my time off.

Looking forward to moving next month. The new place is looking very cool. I mean it has a view of the National Mall from the new gym built on the roof of the 20 story building. Right next to the rooftop pool. Sweeeeeeet.

Little over 2 weeks until Irish Football starts up. Damn DC alumni club moved the game watch. It was really nice having it like 4 blocks from my apartment. Now I’ll have to take the metro while being slightly inebriated. Let’s see if Charlie Weiss is the answer to all ND alumni prayers.

Anyone else think Terrell Owens just needs to have his legs broken? God, the whining never stops. You signed the damned contract!!!! Deal with it!!! I’m sure you’re family will be able to feed itself with the $7 million dollars you’re making this season. Somehow I manage to not go hungry. I’m confident in your ability to provide. Wanker.

Until next time:

"Lisa, would you like a donut?"
"No thanks. Do you have any fruit?"
"This has purple in it. Purple's a fruit."

It's so damn hot! Milk was a bad choice.

Wow, I remember this blog. Mustard something, right? Alright, so I took a little time off from both the blog and strip. I needed a little down time. Plus I wasn’t around for most of it thereby not allowing me any updates.

First off: Shout out to the L.A. boys (and Crowley) for making my bachelor weekend freakin’ terrific. You guys are awesome and despite the fact that I’ve been in detox for two weeks now, it was an incredible time that won’t soon be forgotten…. mostly cause Crowley posted up all the quotes on his blog. Read at your own peril. Or the peril of those who actually said the quotes. Snow’s been to L.A.!

Uber-quick trip up to Saratoga last weekend was also a fine time. I actually won money at the track! Go me! Granted the winnings were just enough to cover the tolls on the way home but positive gains are what really matter.

I’ll give this to the NHL: they’re making the pre-season pretty darn interesting. With the free-agent craze going on now there isn’t going to be one team that looks the same come October. As far as the Rangers go: will you do something already! I mean come on! Jagr isn’t someone who’s going to last forever. He’s already stated this might be his last year (yeah, it’s not going to be but still). They need to bring in someone to build a team around. I mean the Blackhawks at least went out and go Khabibulin and that’s the friggin’ Blackhawks!

Mets are only 3 games out of the wildcard right now. Not to shabby. Too bad the Nats are in a freefall. I mean they’ve lost 12 games by one run since the All-Star break. Where’s the clutch play?

Music You Should Be Listening To:

Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman

A little more laid back than his last album, Rockin’ The Suburbs (which criminally only had the title track as a single, the album was amazing.), Folds’ piano takes center stage even more so here. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Landed has an early Billy Joel-esque sound to it though the lyrics are total Ben Folds. Gracie is a beautifully sweet lullabye to his daughter. The emotional Late is Ben Folds goodbye to Elliot Smith and is absolutely heartbreaking to listen to. Honestly, I’m loving Ben Folds solo efforts more than his earlier group work.

Dispatch – Bang Bang

Like a combination of the simple yet catchy hooks of Guster and the ska beat of Sublime, this album is a little more focused in its sound than Silent Steeples. Bats in the Belfry is a catchy, high tempo number that’ll stick with you. The General has always been a favorite of mine, very simple number that’s just infinitely catchy. Two Coins is another standout number that’s completely acoustic, relying on the strength of the vocals to carry the song. It's really a shame this group didn't keep together as they had a whole lot of potential, at least a helluva lot more than the schlock you normally find on the radio these days.

New and Notes:

Booter hooked on Serenity. It was only a matter of time.

Scrubs Season 2: November 15^th. Sweet.

One month til the fall schedule starts up. The Simpsons is actually starting before November this year!!!

Until next time:

"What in the hell’s diversity?"

"Well, I could be wrong, but I believe diversity is an old wooden ship that was used during the civil war era."