Jaimoe

The deal was for the two young pitchers. Incarnacion was more of a throw-in bonus.

Heroes is by no means my favourite returning show. Rescue Me is only getting better (and it already is one of the best shows ever), True Blood is fantastic, but for my money, Supernatural beats everything right now as non-conventional dramas go. I haven't seen The Wire... yet.

I was close to bailing on the show, but they killed off a few annoying characters and got rid of the confusing and pointless subplots near last season's mid point. Now, with Robert Knepper, aka T-Bag from Prison Break, joining the cast, I'm at least hopeful for a good season of shows.

The last 6 episodes weren't silly.

The HD antenna route will end in the next year or two. I find Rogers the better of the evil cable empires. The TV signals are more reliable and the packages are superior (but all have their quirks). I could get a Bell discount if I switched, but their TV signal is unreliable during storms, and we get lots of storms in this country. One thing is for sure is that Rogers home phone sucks ass.

I saved the final 6 episodes of last season on my PVR and plowed through them last month. I was reluctant to watch them given the spottiness of Season III. However, they were all good and I'm looking forward to watching Season IV.

I'm assuming you are staying in Manhattan? To save some money, you may look into parking in Hoeboken NJ, and taking the train to Manhattan. I stayed at the famous Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan last year. It's a colourful place with an interesting pop culture related history and recommended: http://www.hotelchelsea.com/ Also, most of Manhattan is safe - even Harlem, but not including the Bronx - and my favourite sections are Greenwich Village and Soho. Times Square is interesting, but is an overload of the senses and grossly expensive.

Primeau was on The Fan today and spoke of the pride he takes in being a good faceoff man and penalty killer. Given that the Leafs were a brutal PK team last year, adding Primeau will be a plus to the new-look Leafs since they'll be spending lots of time killing penalties.

ROUGH SKELETONS CD RELEASE PARTY A band I've been hyping for a few years (and for good reason), Toronto's Rough Skeletons , are releasing their latest effort, Experimental Redneck, this Thursday, July 30 at Sneaky Dees (upstairs), located at College & Bathurst in Toronto's west end. Thursday's lineup also includes House of Lancaster and Antler . Show at 10pm Cost: $5.00 Rough Skeletons consists of madman singer, guitarist Owen Marchildon (also from Purple Hill and past band From Fiction) and guitarist, sound effects lunatic Paul Shepherd. Given it's just the two of them making all these wonderful Velvet Underground influenced garage rock with splashes of revisionist folk and just the right amount of trippy dream pop, their sound has more layers than you'd expect. They are an excellent band and well worth checking out. Here's a recent review of Experimental Redneck . Here's links to my Jambands.ca review of their preivious self-titled debut: http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showtopic.php?tid/243565/

Vernon Forrest died too (murdered). He was one of the best of the last 20 years and one of the nice guys in sports.

What's the deal here Brian?

That's because JFJ was a giant twat. I never cared for him, but I don't hate him. MLSE hired JFJ and I despise MLSE (the Leaf business side) with an unwavering white-hot intensity.

They won't score at all, but with Exelby cruising around looking for borderline open-ice hits, the Leaf games next season - especially when going up against the Habs, Bruins and Sens - should be far more fun and rough-and-tumble. I hated the Leaf teams of the past 5 years or more.

He's never been much of a fighter, unlike his more talented brother. Wayne plays hard but clean. Good checker, but not a hard-hitting checker. Great a faceoffs - one of the best in the league. Excellent as a penalty killer. Respected teammate. Solid pickup for the Leafs, but nothing earth-shattering.

Primeau isn't a goon. He's a solid defensive forward and depth guy. Thanks for playing.

I found out about Mark's death on Saturday. This is really sad. Mark won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympics, losing the light-welterweight gold medal bout to a Cuban.I briefly sparred with him when I trained at the Kingston Boxing Club. My dad was a friend of Mark's. They met when my dad was a carpenter at the Collins Bay Pen; Mark was an inmate. Leduc didn't have a knockout punch (he put together really good combos), but he was fearless and was always in superior shape. He had a rock chin too. I admire how he overcame adversity on several occassions and became a role model. 47 is far too young. R.I.P. This is well worth reading. http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/steve_buffery/2009/07/24/10243001-sun.html

Shainhouse sucks... no wait

I noticed that too. He would stengthen (or lessen) his argument if he did.

Ipp makes some good points, although he sounds like he learned the business while "on the job". But did Ipp enter into the business thinking he would get grants? If so, he's a fool. Our government is notoriously unpredictable when it comes to cultural grants, and music is notoriously nasty business. It doesn't suprise me at all that the government plays it safe. It always does. The writer's personal axe to grind with Metric (a good band that is by no way overly big) also diminishes his argument. I read a story in a recent Star article about a guy who started a Canadian indie label, but found he couldn't make a go of it, so he took it on-line. He established a PayPal account and offered downloads through, I believe, iTunes (or something similar). The website acts like CBC Radio 3 and plays all genres of Canadian music, but all featured acts have to be indie. Well, the site is a success, without I believe, the use of grants.

Roger Ebert has fought this cancer for a number of years. He can't talk anymore. Let's hope Adam beats this and doesn't miss a beat.

Their debut album smokes. Get it.

This coming from a guy that endorses and loves both a Genesis cover band and the new Beverly Hills 90210.

Incidently, Crash's lead singer, Michelle McAdorey, is the niece of the late Bob McAdorey of Global TV fame. I used to love Bob's banter back in the day.

Smoke:

Crash Vegas was a good band. I love their version of "Pocahontas".