giggle pop

JACK BAUER! no no not Kiefer, this is all about the one and only Jack Bauer. As many know I have an obsession with 24 and anything said or done by this man. He is a family man, never waivers in his principles, hates terrorists, and looks damn sexy while doing all of the above.
Jack has quite the resume, former Delta Force, former CIA, former head of CTU, died and came back to life-- twice, saved the world from nuclear threat at least twice, been awesome a million times, excellent skills with a hacksaw, etc.

He can save the world on his own with the help of his trusty gun.

Jack does not trust many people, but he does trust his also sexy side-kick Tony Almeida

Jack is so secure in his manly manly manhood that he rocks a man bag and rocks it good.



Click for more information on Jack

Okay here are my thoughts on a few more of the songs from "No Line on the Horizon"

Stand-Up Comedy

This is another favorite from the album. I love the music and I love the lyrics. This is one of the songs on the album where the Dylan influence is heard, especially in Bono’s vocals. The song is done almost spoken word style. It is a song that just makes me happy, not much else I can say about it.
Lyrically I think it is brilliant, it is hard to pinpoint my favorite lines because there are so many. It reminds me of songs like “Love and Peace or Else” it has a political message behind it but filled with a lot of optimism and joy. This song is in a way more comical than songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” “Seconds” and other songs in that vein, but it has the same almost naïve but beautiful optimism behind it. In many ways this song and “Love and Peace” are a bit more grown up, not as serious by any means, but more grown up and realistic in their approach.

Lyric that stands out the most to me: “I can stand up for hope, faith, love But while I’m getting over certainty. Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady.”
Song it reminds me the most of: Love and Peace or Else—How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) and Seconds—War (1983)

Breathe

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan that is all I thought the first time I heard this song. It was like Bono took on the task of recreating “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with his voice and signature on it. I will not go so far as to blaspheme myself and say he succeeded, because that just is not possible. I don’t think success at recreating it was Bono’s goal, but rather just something to pay tribute. However, I think this was a noble attempt at trying his hand at a sort of stream on consciousness song. Another great song that is interesting both musically and lyrically. Of all the songs on this album every time I hear this one I end up replaying it three or four times, it is just addicting.
I know I keep saying “this song is one of my favorites” but yes this song is another absolute favorite on the album. I am going to keep my comments on this short because if I don’t I will end up on a never ending tangent on Bob. When I listen to the first verse of this song it really reminds me of the version of “Bullet the Blue Sky” that is on Rattle and Hum. I keep hearing the influence of Dylan and Rattle and Hum on this album, and this is not surprising because the two go hand in hand in the catalogue of U2 for me. Rattle and Hum was essentially their tribute to America and they even did a song with Dylan on it called “Love Rescue Me” it is a great song check it out. There is a certain element of American music and culture the boys tapped into on Rattle and Hum and it is the same element that was the basis of Dylan’s music. I can’t put my finger on it, but its there.

Lyric that stands out the most to me: “I found grace inside a sound, I found grace it’s all I found” (this is actually probably my favorite moment on the entire album).
Songs it reminds me the most of: Bullet the Blue Sky—Rattle and Hum version (1989), God Part II—Rattle and Hum (1989), Window in the Skies U218 (2007)

I figured I needed a weekly installment on my blog, so here it is and it will be called “Monday Manmeat.” I will feature a little profile and some pictures of my favorite hottie of the week. I would have chosen a day other than Monday for manmeat fun, but it was the only day that started with M. I hope you enjoy, and if you have a man you want to see on here let me know! Now for my first installment…Jason Statham.

This lovely hunk of action hero manmeat wandered into my life many years ago as “Bacon” in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and “Turkish” in Snatch.

I will be honest he eluded me for years after by staring in a series of bad action movies like the Transporter Trilogy, Crank, etc. However, I started watching some of those bad action movies when I remembered just how ridiculously hot this man is.


Okay well I only watched about 20 minutes of “The Transporter 2” but there was a brilliant moment when he takes off his suit jacket and his button-down shirt is conveniently missing a sleeve exposing his bulging bicep. Now THAT was brilliant filmage. I am now planning on seeing as many of these movies as I can.

all pics from photobucket
I am not going to lie, I am seriously tempted to go see “Crank 2” in the theater, I have not seen “Crank” but I am a smart girl and I figure I can piece together its umm highly complicated and intricate plot via wikipedia and imdb.

Real quick because I am lazy tonight.
Chelsea in teh FA cup final!!!! We beat Arsenal 2-1 on saturday and it was just plain awesome. I cannot comment too much on the game itself because i could not actually watch it, though did get great play by play from the blues babes in chat. We will be playing Everton who beat ManU on penalties today.
A few quick thoughts on the game, glad I missed the first 100 minutes or so, and got to see the best part, I am 94% certain Dimitar Berbatov actually is Count Chocula, Ben Foster is just too hot for his own good and should leave ManU imediately. and Tim Howard is the man! An all blue final!!

Real Madrid won, and played in the black kits and looked as hot as ever. Iker is finally sorted out his hair and is just wow. Marcello got the only goal of the game from a great pass from my boy Fernando Gago. Mmmmmm Gago. (sorry he makes my mind wander). Really Hot Madrid is still in the LaLiga title race and on an Epic 16 game unbeaten streak and I believe 15 of those were outright wins. However, Barca just does not want to lose. El Classico is in a few weeks eeeek!

Thats about it, there was some tennis and golf this weekend but nothing big. I did not get a chance to watch or look up results.

As many of you know I live in the middle of frickin nowhere, and many of you also may know that one of my favorite activities is distance running. Living in the country has its down sides, but one major upside is endless deserted roads to run forever and ever on. While the road I live on has “highway” in the name, it is a damn road, and I run on it a lot. While running on my road I see lots of interesting things and I figured I would share a few of them with you.

Dashing Deer—this area is overrun with them, they are everywhere. I like them in my yard, at a distance, but not when I am out alone on the road. The other day two ran right in front of me, and when I say right in front of me I mean I could have reached out and touched them. If they ran out into the road about thirty seconds later I would have been crushed by a herd of deer, which would not be a surprising death for me. Another fun fact about me—I often get attacked by animals. To name a few instances…when I was younger a pig chewed on me, I got stalked and attacked by a baby ram at a petting zoo, and then there was that horse at Mardi Gras.

Creepy Corner—Recently I started getting more motivated and finally decided to run up the big hill at the end of the road and see what was up around the bend. Well I discovered that the bend is pretty damn creepy. The nice paved road turns to dirt, which is nice on the knees for running so I kept going. I discovered a “farm.” Well it looks like a farm, but all they seem to be growing on the farm is three or four cows and a crap load of rusty cars. This should have been m first signal to turn around, but running through creepy places at dusk is just too much fun so I kept going. Next up on creepy corner is a little shack/house that paint and everything else is falling off of. I am about 76% sure there are some lampshades in there made out of people.

Fernando the Fox—There is a spot on the road I hit in the middle of my run (usually around 6:30pm if you want to stalk me) and in that spot there is almost always a fox sitting there. I named him Fernando. Just so you know it is after Fernando Gago NOT Fernando Torres. Nothing too exciting about Fernando the Fox other than he is super duper cute and has not attacked me yet. It is not everyday you see a fox so I think he is pretty cool.

Cobra Kai—Yesterday morning I was dragging my fat lazy dog on a walk and I saw someone walking in the distance. I slowly got closer and realized this person was dressed in all white, and as I got even closer I realized it was a man. I thought it was odd to see a man dressed in all white, well in this area it is. While living in New Orleans I am sure I saw a few in all white linen or white suits. Anyways as he got closer I realized he was in a full karate outfit. Let me reiterate I live on a back country road, the closest thing that is not a bar is about ten miles away. I have no idea where he was going or why he was dressed like that. I was tempted to yell out “how’s it hanging Cobra Kai?” but I was worried he may roundhouse kick me in the face.

The other direction—I have only ran one direction from my house, some day I will venture the other direction. I have driven that way a bit and know the road forks. One fork leads to a place called “big timber” I have no idea what it is, but it has a fancy brown sign, so must be cool. I hope it is a giant tree. The other fork goes to the bar. Both pretty awesome destinations.

< I know, I know… I have been doing all sports posts lately, but I have not had time to work on anything else. I do have some interesting things planned for the next few weeks on blog, but I am still organizing so stay tuned.

Football I
Whew big big weekend in sports. I managed to go the whole weekend without watching any football. It was not really by choice, I was visiting family who do not have sports packages on their cable, silly them. Anyways both Chelsea and Real Madrid won. I saw a bit of the replay of the Chelsea game, it was crazy up 4 goals and then conceded 3, but still won.

Golf
I did get to watch a bit of the masters. Angel Cabrera won, it was a three-way sudden death…pretty exciting stuff. Bendy McBenderson, Camilo Villegas finished tied for 12th (I think, too lazy to go back and look it up). Other exciting golf news, the tour championship is coming to Minnesota and I am about 94% sure I have tickets lined up, sooooo excited!!!

Football II
Now the real excitement, the Champions League!! The semi-finals are set Chelsea v. Barca and ManU v. Arsenal. The second leg of the annual Chelsea/Liverpool game was a thriller to say the least. 4-4 on the night and Chels won 7-5 on aggregate. I had a great time chatting with some of the blues babes on twitter during the game. I think my heart stopped about 6 times and I passed out from holding my breath another 4-5 times. It was a great great nerve wracking game but Chelsea won in the end and that is all that matters. Now as you know I do not have the highest opinion on ‘Pool but you gotta respect the fighting spirit they came to the bridge with, but Chelsea was just not going to let themselves lose the game. There was a great link up goal between Anelka and Drogba, two brilliant goals from Super Frankie Lampard, and an excellent goal off of a free kick by Alex. I am just so proud of the boys in blue right now, and there is a potential of a rematch of last years final with ManU. However, to get there we must go through Barcelona, who as I have mentioned many times on here, is playing ridiculously good this season. I could go on and on about my thoughts on the Barca tie, which I am sure I will at a later date.

That’s all for now, and as I said I will have some more new things going on in here once I get myself settled and organized after a long weekend of far too much drinking.

Okay I am going to begin this with a little rant. Unless you watch American football, and even then, ESPN has to be one of the worst sports networks on the planet. The powers that be should stop these idiots from getting the rights to ANY sporting event. I am not going to even begin to talk about their champions league coverage, all I can say is THANK-GOD Fox has the rights for next year and PLEASE do better, not that it would be hard.
I am sitting here 11:00 on the first day of the masters, and there is golf being played. Am I seeing ANY of it, NOOOO? Nope, ESPN thinks they should just replay sportscenter fifteen times and start showing the masters when the day is almost done at 2:00pm. OH they are also showing NFL live, ummm WTF didn’t throwball end months ago? ESPN has about 10 channels they could show it on, but nope ALL are replaying their crappy shows. I am currently getting all my updates on the leaderboard (ESPN is not even showing that!) on the golf channel. Btw I think the golf channel has great coverage, and if they had the rights to the first few days of the masters (like they do with most tournaments) I would be watching live golf right now. Sorry had to get that out. AM I wrong on this, or is ESPN the WORST sports network imaginable?

On to happier stuff—FOOTBALL!!
Arsenal drew with Villareal and ManU drew with Porto in the first legs of their champions league quarterfinals. Barca dominated Bayern 4-0, and now I am praying for a miraculous Bayern recovery in the next leg. On one hand the longer Barca stays in the CL the more tired they will be in La Liga and the better it is for Real Madrid. On the other hand I do not want Chelsea to have to face Barca in the next round of the CL, and well I am also cheering for Bayern for the prospect of a naked Luca Toni, mmmm.

But the real excitement?!?! CHELSEA beat Liverpool 3-1 ATTTTTT anfield. I get happy chills even saying it. Fernando Torres scored in the first 6 minutes, but then it was one way traffic from the Blues. Two headers from Ivanovic, I cannot describe my love of him right now. Didi put a pretty one in as well, and also had a few other nice chances. Captain JT got a bs yellow card, and since he had one from a previous game so he is out for the return leg at the Bridge. Ricardo Carvalho *sigh* should finally be back, so he can help hold down the back line, and Frankie will captain (I assume). I can’t say I won’t enjoy Frank Lampard in the armband. Anyways, it was a great performance from the boys in blue, and I am beyond proud of them. It has been a tough season and they deserved this!!

The masters started today. I have not seen any of it yet (see above). I am of course cheering for Camilo, I bet he looks good in green, and he is my favorite to watch. However, I think above all I am cheering for Sergio Garcia, I want to see him win a major one of these days, and am sad I have not been seeing much of him lately.
Oh and I recently found out the tour championship is being played in Minnesota!! I am working on getting tickets. If I do, Camilo, Sergio, Adam, etc…prepare to be ogled. Mmmmm.

Chelsea won 3-1 in the first leg of the champions league against Liverpool. As you can guess I am in a state of euphoria right now. I am going to post a more in depth run down of the game tomorrow, I am just too excited and tired to do it now.

Oh and Barca destroyed Bayern...that means Baraca won (bad) and Luca Toni remains clothed (badder).

Annnd the masters starts tomorrow...so stay tuned!

This has been a work in progress, trying to select the perfect pics. I know I have mentioned him on here a few times before, but I figured my dear readers need a proper introduction to the man who currently has my heart. There are many athletes I love-- Gago, Roger, Iker, Joey Cole, and a few others, but this man has a place above them all. His name is Camilo Villegas, he is 27, from Columbia, they call him “Spiderman,” and is a pro golfer. I could go on and on and on about his talent. Won a few events last year, had a few strong finishes already this season. Still quite young for a golfer, and tons of potential. Okay enough talk, because really pictures tell the story much better than I can.

He comes equipped with a South American accent, always matches his belt with his shoes, does not shy away from tight white pants (which he never, ever gets a spot on) and looks like this.

He is one of the fittest players on the tour, take a good look at those arms, they are hypnotic.



And if you wondered why they call him “spiderman” this is why. He seems to quite enjoy doing this, and I quite enjoy it when he does. Bendy bend, lawn crawler, bendy bend.

And throwing in this pic because I have a serious thing for guys who wear argyle.

pictures from daylife.com

All in all he is a talented athlete, South American, and bendy, all qualities I quite like in a man. How about you, dear readers, what do you think? Oh and ladies, you can look but no touchy, he is all mine ;-)

Basketball—
Michigan State and North Carolina are in the final game. I am cheering for UNC

Tennis—
Sony Erickson Open was this week. I did not see any of it sadly. It was Djokovic and Murray in the final, neither of which I like. Murray won, which I would say is the much lesser of the two evils. Fed made it to the semi’s and I think Rafa went out in the quarters. Roddick did fairly well too

Golf—
There is a tournament in Houston this week. It is in the final round, Fred Couples is winning as of right now, but it is still going on. I have been watching a bit, but there has been a disturbing lack of Camilo air-time, so my interest faded a bit. I think I am going to do a whole post dedicated to Mr. Villegas at some point this week, my love for him just keeps growing, and I have been bulking up (no pun intended) my photo collection of him so expect some spider man manliness this week. I did discover a newbie hottie. His names is James Nitties, I think this is his first year on the pro tour, he is 25ish, cute and Australian. According to NBC commentators lists “Clubbing” and “Women” as some of his interests, mmmm Aussie man-whore golfer, he gets my stamp of approval. The masters starts on Thursday, I am excited to see who gets the green jacket!! (btw I do know more about golf than I let on, I am just to lazy to write about anything of substance.)

Football-
Waaaahooo Chelsea and Real Madrid won!!!! Unfortunately so did Barca, ManU and Liverpool ugh ugh ugh.
Another great chat this week for the Chelsea game with some of the kickettes. The blues took on Newcastle who are temporarily being led by the adorable toon legend Alan Shearer. First half was pretty miserable, but the boys picked it up in the second half, won 2-0 and had a lot more chances. I was kind of sad to see Newcastle lose, I would really hate to see a club like that relegated, and would have maybe even cheered for a tie, because they are in a lot of danger this season, if Chels did not need the points so badly. Especially since I have now discovered Newcastle is full of dirty-hot players that are impossible not to like, and after seeing some of Shearers hilarious comments in post-match interviews. I think I may adopt them as my second EPL team that I cheer for if Chelsea is not on.
Champions League game against Liverpool this week. I would be lying if I said I was not nervous. Then again Blues are playing well, and Liverpool had to scrape out an injury time win against Fulham, granted they controlled most of the game. However, it was not any of that 15-0 bs they have been busting out lately. COME ON YOU BLUES!!

I have not watched the Real Madrid game yet, looks like the scraped out a 1-0 win over Malaga with a goal from Gonzo. Gol TV is finally showing the match later today. I missed most Serie A games because I was in church and running errands. Since this has been my first year really following the league, I am still team shopping in Serie A, I am hoping to have a final decision for the team I support by the end of the season.

Oh and I managed to poke myself in the eye with the palm leaf at church, and surprisingly this is the first time that has happened. Another example of my graceful nature.

I am having some serious love of Higuain lately. and I thought I would celebrate the return of La Liga this week and Real Madrid's final push at an epic come back in the title race with some love for my (second) favorite Argentine. I really hope he gets the call up soon for Argentina (especially after whatever the hell that was against Boliva this week). I really have nothing new to write about him right now. He is adorable, crazy talented, and way too young. One of the top scorers for Real Madrid this season, and I hope he adds a few more to his total tomorrow. Basically I just wanted an excuse to put of this scruffalicious picture of him.



and this cute one of him running with that adorable Javi...*double sigh*

both from realmadrid.com

HALA MADRID!

It’s been about a month since the album came out, I have written about a billion ideas on it, but I have not been able to make anything coherent, but that seems to be the story of my life right now. I figured the easiest way to do this would be to go song by song. So periodically over the next week or so I will be posting my thoughts on a song or two a day.

No Line on the Horizon
I figure I might as well do this in order. This song is by far one of my favorites on the album, so far. It is a bit of a different sound, I cannot pin my finger on it. There is a grittiness to it, and a sort of desperation. One of the things that has always drawn me to U2 is the fact that sometimes Bono’s lyrics hit such a personal spot with me, sometimes to a point that I could not begin to explain. Whenever I listen to this song I get a certain feeling that I also find hard to explain. It reminds me of a time when I was listening to “Rattle and Hum” over and over again one very hot summer day about 10 years ago. Something about it just grabbed me, and the same goes with this song, just seems to fit in better on a cold day. It reminds me of songs like “Desire” “Hawkmoon 269” and “Heartland.” They are songs I never quite grabbed onto what they were really about just loved, just as I cannot quite put my finger on the meaning of this one. One thing I have learned for sure is when I go back and listen to the above mentioned “Rattle and Hum” songs they make a lot more sense to me with ten years of life behind me than they did when I first heard them. Right now I am kind of wishing I could go back to my 16 year old confused and lonely self and see how I would have reacted to this song.

Lyric that stands out the most to me: “The songs in your head are now on my mind. You put me on pause, I’m Trying to rewind and replay”
Song it reminds me the most of: Hawkmoon 269, Rattle and Hum (1989)

Magnificent
The first time I listened to this song for some reason I instantly thought of the Pop album. Now looking back I am not sure why I heard that, but still think it is there. Now with about 500 more listens it seems straight out of some of the b-sides to “All that you can’t Leave Behind” like “Summer Rain” and “Electrical Storm” and the intro really reminds me of the guitar work on “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.” I love this song, another favorite from the album, and probably my favorite vocals on the album. There is an airy, ethereal quality to it, almost like it is being sung from the bottom of a hole. I think maybe that is the quality I was picking up that reminded me of the “Pop” album. Lyrics wise it is classic U2, a song that can be used to inspire grandeur or remind you of the simplest joys in life. It is one of those songs that is lyrically transcendent and at a moments turning in life can go from just a fun song you like to sing along with to one that will carry you a life shaking moment.

Lyric that stands out the most to me: “My first cry, it was a joyful noise”
Song it reminds me most of: Musically—Summer Rain, b-side to Beautiful Day (2001) . Lyrically—Wire, Unforgettable Fire (1985)

I should have the next couple songs up in a day or two.

Apparently there is more than one breed of squirrel, I guess I knew some looked different than others, but I am told some are worse than others. I once saw a flying squirrel, now that was pretty cool. Anyways, there is a cute breed of squirrels who live in my yard, people say they are bad because they chew on houses or something. I always thought they were misunderstood with adorable little ears…until one made things personal. Anyone who knows me, knows I often have battles with animals and/or inanimate objects, and now I have been entirely outsmarted by a squirrel.

We have a few different bird feeders in the yard, and bird feeders can be pretty high tech, especially when you have many who want to eat the bird feed that are not birds i.e. bears, deer, squirrels. One of our bird feeders is especially tricky and I have never figured out how to open it. This bird house/feeder is designed to be super-duper anti-squirrel. It is on top of a long slipper pole, has a slippery roof, and the part you eat out of closes if something heavier than a bird on it. This feeder/house is also anti-giggle pop because it has some weird latch thing to open it that I cannot figure out how to open. Somehow one of the squirrels managed to climb onto the house/feeder, unlatch it and get inside. Now it sits in there eating the bird seed and every once in a while popping his head up and mocking me. I still cannot figure out how he gets in there and I still cannot figure out how to get in there myself.

The crafty squirrel at work...

Big smiles after a great day of world cup qualifiers. Both England and Spain came back to win with last minute goals! Crouchie scored first for England, and of course celebrated with an awesomly awkward Crouchie dance. And our fearless captain JT!!!! scored the winning goal, so so proud.

Altidore got a hat trick for the USMNT, love love LOVING the red, white, and blue right now!!

Now trying to figure out what the hell happened to Argentina today. Don't really cheer for Argentina, but I just can't handle seeing Gago all sad. *sigh*

As some of you know, I am making a big effort to support the USA NT lately. I have been an England supporter for as long as I can remember, and my love of the three lions has not faded a bit, I am just trying to be more supportive of my own country. I also cheer for the Germans and occasionally France (if England is not around). I also have a transient love of the Spanish NT. I am not so much a fan of the Spanish team itself, but I am a huge fan of pretty much every player currently playing, with the exception of Xabi Alonso, so I cheer them on...and the same goes for Argentina. So I figured I should write a blog on some of the hotties on the USMNT.

I just have to start with my favorite, our fearless captain America-- Carlos Bocanegra. He plays for Rennes in France now, used to play for Fulham, and is always just too darn cute.

I am pretty sure I found this pick at The Offside

Another favorite is forward Brian Ching. He plays for Houston Dynamo, and I just discovered, after looking him up on wikipedia, that he used to play for Gonzaga. So he is a fellow Zag annnnd looks like this, need I say more.


I had never found Clint Dempsey particularly attractive, but for some reason I have been finding him cute lately. Though I am not ready to forgive him for scoring against Chelsea earlier this season, I am getting close. Oh and he plays for Fulham.


And Heath Pearce, another one who I am finding more and more attractive lately. I t hink he plays somewhere in Germany.



So there you go, the boys of the Red, White and Blue. I am now a supporter, unless they are playing England (bad I know).