The President's Podcast Will be Lame & More Predictions for 2013

For me personally, 2012 has been a great year and I find myself miles away from where I was a year ago…and I mean this both literally and figuratively. It is time to look forward, though. What does 2013 have in store for us?

The Officially Official Giddy Up, America List of Predictions for the year 2013…

It’ll be all about salsa, the condiment, not the dance.

The HBO movie about the Fiscal Cliff negotiations will be better than you think.

The series finale of The Office  will make you cry at least once.

Stupid gas prices.

Spotify will use your music preferences in commercials and we will spend a week and a half wondering if that really is a bad thing before being distracted by a new Myspace reboot, this time featuring Justin Beiber.

Game of Thrones will make the leap.

This part of the Celtics’ season will seem like a weird, distant memory come playoff time.

Stupid weather.

Dudes still won’t want to talk on the phone to another dude.

The Patriots will win the Super Bowl by beating the 49ers.

Razor blades won’t get any cheaper.

We’ll all get bigger televisions.

Stupid politicians.

148 Rihanna-induced head shakes of confusion.

The Green Day shows when Billie Joe gets out of rehab will be real ball busters.

There will be a White House petition to save Parks and Recreation.

Phil Jackson to the Nets.

Amar’e to the Nets.

Eric Cantor will make us laugh, but not on purpose.

Tough year to be a Philly sports fan, especially once Chip Kelly turns down the Eagles’ job.

Stupid taxes.

Newspapers still around.

Still no change in gun laws unfortunately.

Kanye will make us laugh but will continue to release music better than almost everyone else.

You’ll run out of milk. Twice.

We’ll wonder, does being a mystery novelist pay well?

Crying Boehner will be a massively unpopular Christmas present.

Tea still won’t be better than coffee.

Don’t expect CD’s to come back.

Taylor Swift still won’t find love and yes, it’ll still be a national bummer.

We all agree that Gaslight Anthem should be more popular than they are.

The President’s podcast will be lame.

There will be a tragedy in England and when it’s time for a benefit concert (like the 12.12.12 concert) we’ll thank them for lending us their rock gods for the 12.12.12 show by sending them some of ours: Dave Matthews Band, Grateful Dead, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Green Day. Playing the female lead will be Adele and playing the role of Kanye will be Jay Z, who for some reason will show up to this one.

The Heat will win the NBA Championship and literally no one will be cool with how it happened.

A frustrated Al Gore agrees to rename Global Warming, but never fully gets on board with the new name- Weather Be Crazy, Yo.

Jon Gruden will stay with ESPN.

The only Oscar Lincoln doesn’t win is Tommy Lee Jones for Best Supporting Actor, but that’s only because everyone thinks he was wearing a wig.

Kim & I will go to Italy. You know, for the sushi.

The Dodgers won’t make it to the World Series.

TV show addiction will become an acknowledged affliction by the American Medical Association, but come on, marijuana should still be legalized.

Andy Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs.

In honor of Uncle Ken’s Celebrity Death Pool, Lindsay Lohan probably won’t make it through the year. However, this won’t surprise anyone.

Here’s to a great 2013!

12 Thoughts for 2012: coffee mugs, lars ulrich, game of thrones & more.

Here’s twelve random and largely un-connected thoughts for 2012…

1. I’ve grown tired of the Republican Death Race for the Presidential nomination. Although I do appreciate Newt Gingrich employing the best and most massive BUT in recent memory when he said that he won’t go negative and won’t start throwing out attack ads…but (and that’s it) he does reserve the right to tell the truth. The translation: oh I’m going to get negative and it’s going to be awesome. Buckle up Mitt, Newt’s about to go nuclear on your Mormon ass!

2. I usually disagree with Sports Illustrated’s predictions about anything, but Peter King predicting a Saints over Patriots Super Bowl makes total sense to me. However, I do disagree with their use of regional covers. I don’t like them, especially because I don’t currently live in the region of the teams I’m a fan of. I live in Philly and get stuck with Pennsylvania-centric covers (no thanks Big Ben) and unless it’s a member of the Phillies, I could care less. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this. And it pains me that in the Colorado area, Sports Illustrated possibly had their third Tebow cover in the last five issues.

3. Van Halen played a club show in New York City last night and I watched two clips on YouTube. This led to me spending 15 minutes watching videos of drummers. The highlights- a four minute clip of Lars Ulrich awkwardly trying to find a drum beat for a fairly generic Metallica song and James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett trying not to shit on Ulrich, but at the same time, growing frustrated with his inability to get something together. I hate Lars Ulrich. Sit down you nancy boy. Drummers shouldn’t stand up unless they are coming or going. Have you ever seen Questlove stand up? No. Case closed.

4. I haven’t watched the NBA since Christmas day. There’s too much going on right now. But it’s nice to see the Celtics start to get some wins- albeit against some terrible teams. You know how the NBA can be saved? It’s easy, dude. Contract 4 teams…Sacramento, Charlotte, Milwaukee, and Toronto and move Memphis’ team to Chicago with that team getting first dibs on Charlotte and Milwaukee’s four best players. Boom. Two teams in Chicago would be great- the Chicago Grizzlies. That sounds like a winner.

5. An underrated awesome present for a man like me for Christmas? A new travel coffee mug. I got one and it’s awesome. It’s too early to say it might change my life, but there is a damn good chance.

6. It’s hard to pinpoint a new season of a show I’ve been more excited for that rivals my excitement for season two of Game of Thrones. The only show that could be considered would be the Wire season five, but that was for different reasons. I love the idea of six seasons of Game of Thrones and that this will only be the second. Of course if someone docks and union workers and dead Eastern European hookers are involved, we might have an issue.

7. I can teach you how to write a good email. I can also teach you how to parallel park.

8. It’s No Beer-uary with the only exceptions being Patriots playoff games and this Saturday if we go see See-I, a reggae band from DC, at Union Transfer in Philly.

9. I think we need a holiday in late February or early March. I’m not sure if it should be a gift-giving holiday or a big-eating holiday or a costume-up & booze-up holiday, but we need something to break up this dangerous stretch of time we’re about to embark on. Either that or we could just get rid of March as a whole and with respect to people with March birthdays, we give them their choice of either moving their birthday to February or April and then we move St. Patrick’s Day to mid-August where it can then serve as one big throwdown before the summer ends. This allows for a more relaxing Labor Day weekend where we can concentrate on important things like bar-be-ques and fantasy football.

10. Following regular bands, not popular mainstream bands, but bands out there just trying to string together shows and get people out, listening and buying their shit, on Twitter makes them step out from behind the curtain. This part of a band’s ascension is no longer a mystery and I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I feel one bad thing about it is that it can fool a band into thinking people actually give a shit about what they’re doing when they’re not playing shows- which for the most part, people don’t care. Although this could be part of a larger problem I have with Twitter- unless you’re reporting news, then I really could care less about what you think or what you’re doing…unless it affects or involves me of course.

11. After Christmas I made the switch back to straight razors after a couple month relationship with an electric razor. Although I’m keeping the electric razor still in my life like Jameson because I don’t do shots of Jameson as much as I used too, but I’m still up for one if the right situation presents itself. The situations where a electric razor proves useful are weekday mornings when I’m begrudgingly awake and face the possible danger of cutting my face open. Plus this will help me conserve razor blades because really, why the hell are replacement blades so freaking expensive? Everywhere- they’re the same price. It doesn’t matter what kind of store it is; you cannot find four replacement razor blades for under $14 bucks. That seems crazy to me. I feel like coffee should be cheaper too.

12. I never thought that I would A) ever eat swordfish meatballs and B) really enjoy said swordfish meatballs. But both happened and it was glorious.

Top 5 1/2 Albums of 2011

I don’t buy as much new music as I used too. For years, I made weekly trips to Bull Moose in Portland to pick up a CD or two- sometimes three. Then I got into I-tunes and for a spell, foolishly bought more than I should simply based on the relative ease it took to do so. But in the past year or so, I’ve scaled back- spending money on fun things like student loans, car payments and keeping the lights on instead. Life is pretty awesome that way.

The year is coming to an end and because this is a blog and blogs follow and comment on trends, I’ve decided to rock out a list of the best 5 ½ albums that were released this year.

These are listed in no particular order, but if they were, El Camino by the Black Keys would be number one because let’s be honest, that album rocks and as a country, society and modern civilization- we need albums that rock.

1. The Black Keys El Camino. This album gets the award for the Most Anticipated Album of the Year. I couldn’t wait for it to come out and have already had to take a break from it- something that usually happens at least three weeks after buying an album. “Lonely Boy” is great and so is “Gold on the Ceiling.” Come on, every song is awesome. This album is awesome. It could be re-named El Awesome and I wouldn't think twice.

2. My Morning Jacket Circuital. Is Southern Prog Rock a certified musical genre? If so, My Morning Jacket are the kings. If not, then they are the originators. This is one of those rare albums that just gets better the more you listen to it. I don’t promise much, but I can promise that I’ll never get sick of the song “Holdin on to Black Metal.”

3. The Roots undun. I feel like a damn fool. After the first listen of this album I told Drewnami it was good, but not great. He was disappointed. He should be more disappointed in my ability to rate music because dude, I was very wrong. Very wrong. The only way I could be more wrong about something was if I told you that there isn’t a better cereal in terms of bang for your buck than Honey Nut Cheerios. undun is a complete, solid and pretty much perfect album. The flow is undeniably flawless. We should feel like idiots for being concerned that the Roots were on the slow road to Sell Out Town when they signed on to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band.

4. Kanye West & Jay Z Watch the Throne. This is the kind of album I think we all hoped Chinese Democracy by Guns n Roses would be- an album that truly lived up to the hype. I should mention that I feel very strongly that Axl Rose is to rock music as Kanye is to hip hop. But that’s also another discussion. Watch the Throne is why we buy albums and why we pay to hear musicians apply their trade. It’s an album that is the result of two superstar dudes just totally going for it. It’s admirable, astonishing and admittedly humbling.

5. Max Tannone Ghostfunk. Tannone is a DJ from New York who has previously mashed up Mos Def and reggae as well as Jay Z and Radiohead. On this album he mashed up Ghostface Killah and afrobeat. The final product is a sometimes clumsy, but all the time rad collection of party jams. I will happily download anything Tannone comes out with now and thanks to Twitter, I was able to tell him that and then have a quick conversation about Game of Thrones. Thanks Internet!

And the ½ goes to my dear friends Paranoid Social Club and their album Axis VI. Why the ½? Well for a couple reasons:

- Terrible album cover. It looks like someone threw up on it.
- “Count on Me” is one of the best songs of the year, but also accompanied by one of the worst videos of the year.
- There are maybe 6 or 7 super strong songs on the album. The rest are forgettable.
- I wish the songs were lined up differently. The album doesn’t really have a definable flow to it.

I’m sure there albums that in someone’s opinion, and maybe even mine, that were better than the five and ½ listed here. But that my friend is what 2012 is for.

Thankfully Thankful & Full to the Brim.

Future Wife and I embarked on three…count them, one, two, three Thanksgivings this year and yes sir- we rocked them all. Early highlights seem to be Erin’s sweet potatoes, Kim’s apple pie, and fleece sweatpants. It was my first Thanksgiving not in Maine and there were twinges of regret when missing out on Wednesday night's Bay Lines' reunion. But this has been a year that is all about changing things up for the O’Connell family and Thanksgiving was no different. The folks have moved, Erin is preggers and Kim and I are getting closer and closer to making our relationship official…officially awesome.

Now it’s Monday and I had my first leftover turkey sandwich for lunch. It was delicious. And because the weather is so freakin’ nice today, I ate it outside at the old picnic table out in the parking lot. It’s Cyber Monday for office drones and a chance for those people not tough or crazy enough to tackle Black Friday to cash in on deals. But if you do your shopping on-line, how will you get pepper-sprayed? That seems lame. There is not even a chance you could get trampled. Where is the fun in that? We need to inject some danger into Cyber Monday and no, I don’t think identity fraud will cut it.

But today is also a day to reflect and look forward. The year is coming to a close and Christmas is coming in hot. We just spent a long weekend zeroing in on what we are thankful for and now we’ll spend four weeks thinking about funny things to put in our loved one’s stocking. It’s time for buying Christmas trees, dropping hints about what kind of gifts you want, and hoping none of your fantasy football studs gets hurt with the playoffs starting in a couple weeks.

It’s a fun time of year.

Here are some things I’m thankful for, listed in no particular order.

Kim- because what I have with her is what I’ve always wanted.

My parents moving closer and being healthy.

Erin having a bun in the oven.

The Black Keys- because they’re fun to listen and instantly make me want to play drums.

Darren Sproles, Johnny Knox, Ray Rice- for helping get me through my fantasy football season. Special thanks to Jeff for agreeing to trade Rice.

Not being bald and having all of my teeth- I just don’t want to lose either hair or teeth. Call me vain, but it’s the truth.

Having a job is pretty awesome.

Gas prices in the suburbs.

The NBA lockout being over.

Marly and Zach for lending us Madmen so we could finish season four. But now that we finished it, what do we watch next?

HBO for making both Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones.

Herman Cain for being so gosh darn funny.

Herman Cain for also not being a viable presidential candidate.

WXPN in Philadelphia.

November having an extra Friday, resulting in an extra pay check.

Refurbished I-phones.

There is more that I'm thankful for, but in the end, I'm just thankful. I can't go so far as to say life is good, because there are still bumps in the road and kinks that need to be worked out. But life is happening and that alone is something to be thankful for.

Go Celtics.

The Thursday Boom Boom Room: Quick Hits for the start of September.

Batteries and bottled water won’t be a problem the next time a hurricane comes around. Kim and I seem to be all set on that front. However, if Comcast doesn’t put more shows Ondemand, then we’ll have a problem. How do you have the entire season of Game of Thrones available except for the first episode? And really, you’re only going to give us three random episodes of season two of Madmen?

Shouldn’t Dick Cheney be answering questions about war crimes and not about his new book? Either way, he shouldn’t be allowed on TV before noon. Seeing his face is no way to start a day.

I’m pretty certain Rick Perry scares the bejesus out of me. And as far as Michelle Bachman goes- she has already entered the Not Even Funny Anymore Zone, a zone already occupied by George W. Bush’s presidency, steroids in baseball and Sarah Palin.

I still think it will be the Phillies versus the Red Sox in the World Series, but after watching last night’s Sox/Yankees game, I’m very excited for an American League Championship series featuring the two.

Pandora is out, Last FM is in. Grooveshark may be up next.

Since seeing My Morning Jacket last week, they are all I want to listen too. I’ve had to install a temporary ban on them in attempt to prevent myself from over-listening to them. Previous bans have been placed on Rogue Wave, the new Beastie Boys album, Local Natives and Rustic Overtones.

Restaurant Impossible is my new favorite show on TV. It’s amazing on some many levels. I love the devotion and passion of Robert Irvin, as well as his brutal honesty. The last five minutes of the show isn’t even the best part of me. I love the “come to Jesus” moment he seems to have with each restaurant owner at some point of the show and I have mad respect for Tom, his construction virtuoso.

Tucked in polo shirts are bothering me less, but not to the extent that I will wear them once summer is over. They are purely functional. I don’t necessarily feel like less of a tool when I wear one, but I at least feel a little more comfortable.

In the end, I miss flip flops the most.

I’m not sure the US is really in the position to be telling other countries (i.e. Libya) how to run their country.

Television has taught me one thing lately- I need to find some old valuable shit to sell. We watched this show, Buried Treasure, last night, where these two kind of creepy, kind of nice twins drive around in Land Rover and appraise random things people find in their attics and basements. Last night’s episode had them checking out old comic books (not worth as much as the nerdy owner hoped,) a violin (not an original and hence not worth a million dollars, only $300) and the prized possessions of a hoarder with a foul-mouthed daughter (sitting on shit worth almost $150,000.) We took one thing away from the show and that was that someone needs to leave us something that is old and worth money. We looked around the apartment and couldn’t find anything that fit that description and I don’t think I have the patience to go antiquing. Inheriting seems to be our only option.

I can’t wait to get married.

Trying to figure out what you want in life and how to get whatever that is might be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to figure out- even harder than deciding what kind of cereal to buy.

A pitcher should only be in the running for MVP if they flat out carry a team like C.C. Sabathia did a few years ago after being traded to the Brewers. If not, then they a just the Cy Young winner, not the MVP. I’m sorry Justin Verlander. You’ve pitched 200 innings and your team has played almost 1,500. That just doesn’t add up. It pains me to say it, but Curtis Granderson is having a hell of a year. I think the winner will be determined in the second half of September. I also wonder if we are looking at co-Cy Young winners in the National League with Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee splitting the award.

Still have concerns about Burnsy’s Dumpster Fire, my one fantasy team that matters. It’s the thin bench that concerns me. My other two teams, teams I put together just for kicks, look much better. That’s kind of a bummer.

Love the Pats this year, but the Steelers still scare me. I think the Jets will take a step back, the Chargers will be dangerous and the Packers will repeat in the NFC with the Eagles just getting to ten wins. My Superbowl winner? Probably nachos.

Hard to believe MTV can still have Video Music awards considering they don’t show videos anymore.

When the Red Sox inevitably build a statue of Jason Varitek outside of Fenway Park, it should be a hundred feet tall.