No Safety In Numbers Or Anything Else And Arnim Zola

Is thirty thousand hits anything to get excited over? I don’t really know. It’s kind of neat that my silly little blog about inconsequential matters has been clicked on about 29000 times in the last 3 months. One thousand for the first three and then:”Whoosh!” I’ve gotten 15000 in the last month alone which is half the total. It’s kinda’ freaky.

In honor of the 30000th hit, here’s a drawing I did of the one android/clone/transferred consiousness thing that is Arnim Zola, one of the goofiest villains in all of comic-dom. He fits right in here.

In other Crash! news, Sunday morning will mark the halfway point of waiting to hear back from—, well, I don’t want to mention the ‘Z’ word.  I need to get back to work. Thanks for checking out my cartoon art or reviews or anything else that I’ve posted here.

Frozen Radio Dinners – Hudsonville… Michigan

‘Hudsonville… Michigan’ is the debut album from the indie rock band Frozen Radio Dinners. Is it indie or alternative? I don’t really get those connotations other than that they’re outside the giant record labels… But some indie bands are part of large record labels and there are a plethora of alternative bands that have major label record deals. I don’t get it. Anyway. This band sounds more alternative than indie to me.  For me, indie means ‘the new commercial’ which doesn’t really mean indie does it? Commercially viable?  I am a very small creature trying to understand the intricacies of a massive and seemingly impenetrable complex world…. Cue the Flaming Lips song… Wait. Review! That’s what I was doing….

The lyrics of FRD don’t have a whole lot of depth to them, but lead singer ‘Jani’ seems to have a whole lot of fun screaming them out. Her singing style is similar to the lead singer  of the early 90s band ‘Baby Animals’. She had a very husky voice (and was really, REALLY hot. Judging from the pics on the liner notes, so is ‘Jani’. She too, has a husky voice but she screams a whole lot more. Much. Much. More. I’m not saying she has a bad voice; she doesn’t. She should just use it more…

The rest of the band are listenable enough, but they are one of those bands that have ‘a sound’ and go with it. There are some really good bands that do that (the Toadies come to mind, the Ramones, etc), but sometimes the songs all start running together. I think these songs are best taken one at a time, because they are all pretty good as long as they’re not played in sequence. Maybe that’s just me, though. Their best song is the last one on their album and their longest. ‘Moose and rabbit’ is a little different from the rest of the album, in that there is a long moody intro and the song takes several minutes to build to critical mass. It’s an instrumental except for a few moans from Jani (which were actually pretty nice) and I kind of want more of the last song when it ends.

Not the most creative band, but if you just want straight rock (with a girl singer), then you’ll probably like this . Even though I liked this album for the most part  I’m predicting that I’ll have forgotten that I own this album a year from now. It has promise, though, so maybe their next effort will be a bit more polished and have some better ‘hooks’ to remember them by.

Crash! Landen’s Week 9 College Football Picks

Doing this quick….

#1 Florida vs Georgia in Jacksonville Crash! Picks: Florida

#3 Texas @ Oklahoma State Crash! Picks: Texas

#4 Iowa vs Indiana Crash! Picks: Iowa

#5 USC @ #10 Oregon Crash! Picks: Oregon ( I picked this before the year started and I still believe in the pick).

#6 TCU vs UNLV Crash! Picks: TCU

#7 Boise State  vs San Jose State Crash! Picks: Boise State

#8 Cincinatti at Syracuse Crash! Picks: Cincinatti

#9 LSU @ Tulane Crash! Picks: LSU

#11 Georgia Tech @ Vanderbilt Crash! Picks: Georgia Tech

#12 Penn State @ Northwestern Crash! Picks: Penn State

#13 Virginia Tech vs North Carolina Crash! Picks: Virginia Tech

#16 Utah vs Wyoming Crash! Picks: Utah

#17 Ohio State vs New Mexico State Crash! Picks: Ohio State

#18 Houston vs Southern Miss Crash! Picks: Houston

#19 Miami @ Wake Forest Crash! Picks: Miami

#21 West Virginia @ South Florida Crash! Picks: South Florida (against the Gut)

#22 South Carolina @ Tennessee Crash! Picks: South Carolina (Against The Gut)

#23 Notre Dame vs Washington State Crash! Picks: Notre Dame

#24 Cal @ Arizona State Crash! Picks: Cal (Flip a coin)

#25 Ole Miss @ Auburn Crash! Picks: Auburn

Other Notable Games…

FSU vs NC State Crash! Picks: FSU (I’m glad I didn’t have to cut some eyeholes out a paper bag this week before saying this… Go Saint Bobby! Go ‘Noles!

Duke @ Virginia Crash! Picks: Virginia (You can’t trust UVA, but they’re still playing Duke and they’re playing @ home, so….)

Kansas @ Texas Tech Crash! Picks: Texas Tech

Mississippi State @ Kentucky Crash! Picks: MSU

Boston College vs Central Michigan Crash! Picks: Boston College

Clemson vs Coastal Carolina Crash! Picks: Clemson (Having a bye week like this may give Clemson a bit of an edge against FSU)…

#2 Alabama & #20 Arizona are off on Halloween… And of course… Go ‘Noles!

Week 9 Crash! Landen Top 25 Poll – Bound By Logic

The AP poll has flip-flopped again on the their top 2 and 4 of their Top 10 while my Top 11 hasn’t changed. The really funny thing to me is that they had Georgia Tech at #11. Yesterday they manhandle Virginia and they remain at #11 while formerly #12 Oregon skips over them. I guess next week they’ll get jumped by  Penn State sitting at #12 at the moment. They also have Oklahioma with 3 LOSSES ahead of BYU (2 losses) who beat Oklahoma AT HOME. Journalists aren’t bound by logic.

And I just read poor Sam Bradford is going to have the shoulder surgery and going pro. I guess he won’t be poor next year… On with the Top 25!

#1 Florida (7-0)

#2 Texas (7-0)

#3 Alabama (8-0)

#4 Iowa (8-0)

#5 Cincinatti (7-0)

#6 TCU (7-0)

#7 Oklahoma State (6-1)

#8 LSU (6-1)

#9 Boise State (7-0)

#10 Georgia Tech (7-1)

#11 USC (6-1)

#12 Oregon  (6-1)

#13 Penn State  (7-1)

#14 Virginia Tech (5-2)

#15 Pittsburgh (7-1)

#16 Utah (6-1)

#17 Houston (6-1)

#18 Ohio State (6-2)

#19 South Carolina (6-2)

#20 Notre Dame (5-2)

#21 West Virginia (6-1)

#22 Miami (5-2)

#23 Arizona (5-2)

#24 Ole Miss  (5-2)

#25 BYU  (6-2)

And FSU is waiting in the wings! By the time they get to the Florida game they will be ready to enter the Top 25 again! Go ‘Noles!

Calendar Of Saints – You Yourself Have Altered

This isn’t REALLY going to be a review. More of a recommendation. Just seek this album out at the record store or iTunes or wherever you can find it.

You Yourself Have Altered is the sophomore full album from Calendar of Saints, a band out of New South Wales, Australia. The 5 member band’s sound can be described as industrial metal set to dance beats. I didn’t think that I would like that combination, but the tunes were catchy enough. The first 3 songs especially, have great hooks. ‘Rare’ starts off the album in agressive fashion with Dimebag Darrell-esque Pantera-like chords and rythms. Ken Herzog, the Saints’ frontman sounds a bit like a cross between the singer from the Gandharvas and a young Scott Weiland; going wildly out of tune and off note on the high notes and sounding angrily raw on the lower octaves. His and guitarist Lou Seneca’s lyrics bounce between darkly serious and tongue-in-cheek.  Herzog belts out serious verses about “owning yourself” on ‘Momentum’, but the band immediately switches gears on the next song ‘Agnes Grey’ and the singer rants about the “foul smells of dark places”. I’ll leave what he’s ranting about to your imagination. If you really want to know, you’ll get the album, I guess.

All in all, it’s a fairly satisfying album that harkens back to albums like White Zombie’s last (not Rob’s) and the industrial joys of KMFDM. Aggressive metal crunchiness with great looping hooks.

Week 8 Aftermath

‘Noles win! ‘Noles win! ‘Noles win! ‘Noles win!… Sorry. It’s been a while. Yes the ‘Noles come back from 18 down on the road to get a win. The defense started to look a little better in the 2nd half, but I’m cautioned by the fact that NC runs an offense that is tailor made for FSU. A weak offense at that. Ponder continues to play well, along with the O-Line for the most part. The crazy thing is with 4 losses (3 in conference) FSU can STILL WIN THE ACC!!!

Clemson surprised Miami in Ot, but it wasn’t a shocking surprise. Clemson may have the best player in college football with CJ Spiller. Cincinatti continues to impress me, as does Georgia Tech. I would love to see FSU have another crack at them, although Mickey Andrews and FSU’s defense may not want to see them again. TCU beating BYU by 28 was impressive. The Horned Frogs are doing their part to crash the party. If they beat Utah, there’s no stopping them. Wow, if Boise State, Cincinatti, Iowa AND TCU finish unbeaten… That will be an ugly mess at the end, BCS or no BCS.

Florida was in a bit of a struggle (and got the benefit of yet ANOTHER SEC game blown call), but not nearly as much as Alabama was. Typical, traditional, defensive, smashmouth, ugly, block the kick to preserve the National Championship hopes kind of Alabama win. They love these kinds of games. They probably LET Tennessee get the fumble, TD and the onside kick at the end in order to HAVE that ugly of a win. Saban was inwardly happy thanks to those last 3 minutes. Lots for him to complain about… I like Nick Saban.

Notre Dame having to eek another one out was a little of a surprise to me. I know they were coming off the emotional game last week, but c’mon… Clausen will probably go pro after this year and they have a lot of seniors on that team. Even if they finish strong, the future still doesn’t look bright for Charlie Weiss. Next year, his team may resemble the team they had with Clausen as a Freshman. A struggling team. Poor Charlie.

The Iowa/Michigan State game was a classic. I knew that one would be close, but not THAT close. Iowa wins throwing it into the endzone on 4th and goal with time expiring to preserve their undefeated season. It’s mindboggling that Iowa has never been 8-0. NEVER. Haven’t they been playing for a hundred years or so? Unbelievable. This team is definitely overachieving.

And my Preseason pick keeps chugging along… Texas keeps winning in nonchalant fashion. Sure they blow out Missouri, but it was a pedestrian blowout. Colt McCoy still hasn’t played his best game. He’s played really good, but he still hasn’t looked like he did last year when they SHOULD HAVE been playing for the title. Right now, I still think ‘Bama is playing the best. Even with the squeaker, today, against a very strong Tennessee defense in a rivalry game. Right now I would pick them to beat Texas, but there’s still a long way to go.

Okay, the totals coming in to this week….
Totals: 109-30 in Top 25 Picks. 30-20 in ‘Other Notable Games. Against Evil FSU Hatin’ ACC Blogger Heather Dinich (in ACC picks) I am 39-18 to her 39-18. And I’m 1-8 vs ‘The Gut’.

#1 Florida 29 Mississippi State 19 Crash! Picked: Florida

#2 Alabama 12 Tennessee 10 Crash! Picked: Alabama

#3 Texas 41 Missouri 7 Crash! Picked: Texas

#4 Boise State 54 Hawaii 9 Crash! Picked: Boise State

#5 Cincinatti 41 Louisville 10 Crash! Picked: Cincinatti

#6 Iowa 15 Michigan State 13 Crash! Picked: Iowa

#7 USC 42 Oregon State 36 Crash! Picked: USC

#8 TCU 38 BYU 7 Crash! Picked: BYU (Crash! and Burn)

#9 LSU 31 Auburn 10 Crash! Picked: LSU

#10 Miami 37 Clemson 40 Crash! Picked: Miami (Clemson wins in OT)

#11 Oregon 43 Washington 19 Crash! Picked: Oregon

#12 Georgia Tech 34 Virginia 9 Crash! Picked: Georgia Tech

#13 Penn State 35 Michigan 10 Crash! Picked: Michigan (Crash! and Burn)

#15 Oklahoma State 34 Baylor 7 Crash! Picked: OSU

#17 Houston 38 Southern Methodist 15 Crash! Picked: Houston

#18 Utah 23 Air Force 6 Crash! Picked: Air Force (against the gut…of course)

#19 Ohio State 38 Minnesota 15 Crash! Picked: OSU

#20 Pitt 41 South Florida 14 Crash! Picked: Pitt

#22 Arizona 27 UCLA 13 Crash! Picked: Arizona

#23 West Virginia 28 UConn 24 Crash! Picked: UConn

#24 South Carolina 14 Vanderbilt 10 Crash! Picked: SCU

#25 Kansas 13 Oklahoma 35 Crash! Picked: Oklahoma (Kansas blew it against Colorado… They may not win another game with the exception of their instate rival.)

Sooooo 17-5 there, which isn’t too bad. 0-1 vs the Gut. I was picking the UConn game sentimentally, also. It would’ve made a good story after the stabbing death last Saturday of their Cornerback Jasper Howard.

Other Notable Games:

FSU 30 North Carolina 27 Crash! Picked: FSU (Was there ever a doubt?!)

Boston College 16 Notre Dame 20 Crash! Picked: Notre Dame

Wake Forest 10 Navy 13 Crash! Picked: Wake Forest in a defensive struggle…

Maryland 13 Duke 17 Crash! Picked: Duke (against the gut)

Arkansas 17 Mississippi 30 Crash! Picked: Arkansas

Texas A&M 52 Texas Tech 30 Crash! Picked: Texas Tech (Wow. Crash & Burn…)

Arizona State 14 Stanford 33 Crash! Picked: Stanford!

Evil FSU Hatin’ ACC Blogger Heather Dinich went 3-3 in her ACC picks. I went 4-2, so I’m back up and feeling better. I’ll widen the gap next week.
Overall in the ‘Other Notable Games’ picks I was 4-3. Still bloody awful.
On a side note, Dinich noted on her blog that “Miami is now looking rather ordinary in the ACC”. She then gave Clemson accolades for beating the #10 team in the country. So is it impressive to beat a rather ordinary looking ACC team? Which is it, Spinach? Your logic is baffling. This was after she criticized the Clemson coach for kicking the tying field goal to send it to overtime instead of “going for the win”. Typical of her blogs.

The Totals: 126-35 in Top 25 Picks. 34-23 in ‘Other Notable Games’ (Still awful). Against Evil FSU Hatin’ ACC Blogger Heather Dinich (in ACC picks) I’m 43-20 to her 42-21. And 1-9 vs ‘the gut’.
More great games next week! Georgia/Florida, Texas/Oklahoma State, USC/Oregon and the creme de la creme(for me anyway) FSU/NC State. Go ‘Noles!

ShockPopTerror! Novel

I found this while going through the paperback section at Hawsey’s, one of Pensacola’s used book stores. I wasn’t aware that one of Zuda’s entries this month ‘ShockPopTerror!’ was already serialized in book form, so I bought it along with a few other books.

Here’s a better scan of the cover with a couple of other books that I bought to read.

Okay, so I didn’t really find this and I know I didn’t fool anyone. Forgive me for being a nerd…. Did it look passable, though?

Jean-Michel Ringuet’s ShockPopTerror! is one of several entries that I liked this month on the Zuda site ( the ongoing monthly webcomic competition and an offshoot of DC Comics). I started doodling this during the FSU/NCU game last night. It was just one of those standard full character drawings. I wasn’t planning on going any further with it, but it carried over into today. After scanning the inked version, I went into Full On Emulation Mode and colored it and all of the other things. Not trying to rip Jean-Michel’s thing. Just wanted tom try doing something like that myself, because it’s so cool visually. Anyway, this is what I ended up with (a slightly bigger version)….

I had fun doing it and I think it turned out fairly decent with all of the type and distressed stuff.

Well…. That’s all I got for now… Thanks for taking the time to give it a look.

Week 8 Crash! Landen College Football Picks

 

Ummm.... Go 'Noles?

#1 Florida @ Mississippi State Crash! Picked: Florida

#2 Alabama vs Tennessee Crash! Picked: Alabama

#3 Texas @ Missouri Crash! Picked: Texas

#4 Boise State @ Hawaii Crash! Picked: Boise State

#5 Cincinatti vs Louisville Crash! Picked: Cincinatti

#6 Iowa @ Michigan State Crash! Picked: Iowa (Iowa better be on Upset Alert)

#7 USC vs Oregon State Crash! Picked: USC

#8 TCU @ BYU Crash! Picked: BYU

#9 LSU vs Auburn Crash! Picked: LSU

#10 Miami vs Clemson Crash! Picked: Miami

#11 Oregon @ Washington Crash! Picked: Oregon

#12 Georgia Tech @ Virginia Crash! Picked: Georgia Tech

#13 Penn State @ Michigan Crash! Picked: Michigan

#15 Oklahoma State @ Baylor Crash! Picked: OSU

#17 Houston vs Southern Methodist Crash! Picked: Houston

#18 Utah vs Air Force Crash! Picked: Air Force (against the gut)

#19 Ohio State vs Minnesota Crash! Picked: OSU

#20 Pitt vs South Florida Crash! Picked: Pitt

#22 Arizona vs UCLA Crash! Picked: Arizona (and why is UCLA ranked this high?)

#23 West Virginia vs UConn Crash! Picked: UConn (Will be an emotional game for UConn after the stabbing death of their CB)

#24 South Carolina vs Vanderbilt Crash! Picked: SCU

#25 Kansas vs Oklahoma Crash! Picked: Oklahoma (Kansas blew it against Colorado… They may not win another game with the exception of their instate rival.)

Other Notable Games:

FSU @ North Carolina …. I don’t know if I can watch… FSU can still have a good season, but it starts here. Crash! Picked: FSU (sigh)

Boston College @ Notre Dame Crash! Picked: Notre Dame in another squeaker

Wake Forest @ Navy Crash! Picked: Wake Forest in a defensive struggle

Maryland @ Duke Crash! Picked: Duke (against the gut)

Arkansas @ Mississippi Crash! Picked: Arkansas

Texas A&M @ Texas Tech Crash! Picked: Texas Tech

Arizona State @ Stanford Crash! Picked: Stanford?

 

Of course, the Most Important Game Of The Week  is tonight on ESPN. Don’t embarrass yorselves, ‘Noles!… I mean… GO ‘NOLES!

Week 8 Crash! Landen Top 25 College Football Poll

This week, the AP voters moved Alabama to number 1, which makes absolutely no sense. Florida won, they’re number one… until they lose. Maybe the sports writers are just trying to stir it up a little or give a little extra motivation to the Gators for when they have to actually play ‘Bama, which looks to me like they will be meeting each other in the SEC title game, probably both being undefeated (forgive me Seminole Nation). Texas didn’t look great against OSU,either, but they still won. USC has some really tough conference games coming up. I expect them to lose when they go to Oregon.

#1 Florida (6-0)

#2 Texas (6-0)

#3 Alabama (7-0)

#4 Iowa (7-0)

#5 Cincinatti (6-0)

#6 TCU (6-0) 

#7 Oklahoma State (5-1)

#8 LSU (5-1)

#9 Boise State (6-0)

#10 Georgia Tech (6-1)

#11 USC (5-1)

#12 Miami (5-1)

#13 Oregon  (5-1)

#14 Penn State  (6-1)

#15 Virginia Tech (5-2)

#16 BYU  (6-1)

#17 Pittsburgh (6-1)

#18 Utah (5-1)

#19 Houston (5-1) 

#20 Ohio State (5-2)

#21 Texas Tech (5-2)

#22 South Carolina (5-2)

#23 Notre Dame (4-2)

#24 West Virginia (5-1)

#25 South Florida (5-1)

Well, there it is.

Week 7 Aftermath

The slump continues…. There were a few upsets which is what college football is all about really. Ohio State, Nebraska, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech…. Florida survived. So did USC.  I think Notre Dame did well enough against them that Charlie will probably retain his job if the Irish keep winning. He’ll be sweating it the rest of the way, though. Texas did just enough to beat Oklahoma. Putting Bradford out of the game again, didn’t hurt. Poor guy.

96-26 in Top 25 Picks. 29-15 in ‘Other Notable Games’ . Against Evil FSU Hatin’ ACC Blogger Heather Dinich (in ACC picks) I am 36-16 to her 36-16. And 0-7 vs ‘the gut’.

Top 25 Picks

#1 Florida 23 Arkansas 20 Crash! Picked: Florida 

#2 Alabama 20 #22 South Carolina 6 Crash! Picked: BAMA

#3 Texas 16 #20 Oklahoma 13 Crash! Picked: UT

#4 Virginia Tech 23 #19 Georgia Tech 28 Crash! Picked: Georgia Tech (Against the gut, even…)

#5 BSU 28 Tulsa 21 (Didn’t get this one in in time.)

#6 USC 34 #25 Notre Dame Crash! 27 Picked: Notre Dame

#7 Ohio State 18 Purdue 26 Crash! Picked: OSU

#8 Cincinnati  34  #21 South Florida 17 Crash! Picked: Cincinnati

#9 Miami 27  UCF 7 Crash! Picked: Miami

#11 Iowa 20 Wisconsin 10 Crash! Picked: Iowa

#12 TCU 44 Colorado State 6 Crash! Picked: TCU

#14 Penn State 20 vs Minnesota 0 Crash! Picked: Penn State

#15 Nebraska 10 vs Texas Tech 31 Crash! Picked: Nebraska (Also against the gut…)

#16 Okie State 33 vs Missouri 17 Crash! Picked: OSU

#17 Kansas 30 Colorado 34 Crash! Picked: Kansas 

#18 BYU 38 San Diego State 28 Crash! Picked: BYU

#23 Houston 44  Tulane 16 Crash! Picked: Houston

#24 Utah 35 UNLV 15 Crash! Picked: Utah

In Other Notable Games:

Wake Forest 3 Clemson 38 Crash! Picked: Wake Forest (Crash! & Burn…)

Boston College 52 NC State 20 Crash! Picked: NC State (Crash! & Burn…)

Virginia 20 Maryland  9 Crash! Picked: Virginia (who suddenly looks like an ACC contender after being on life support)

The beloved ‘Noles, along with Duke and North Carolina are off. FSU plays @ Carolina next Thursday….

Cal 45 @ UCLA 26 Crash! Picked: UCLA (Crash! & Burn…)

Kentucky 21 Auburn 14 Crash! Picked: Auburn 

Washington 17 Arizona State 24 Crash! Picked: Washington

Top 25: 13-4. Other Games:1-5 (wow.) Against Evil FSU Hatin’ ACC Blogger Heather Dinich (in ACC picks): We both were 3-2. Still tied. Ugh…

Totals: 109-30 in Top 25 Picks. 30-20 in ‘Other Notable Games’ (a failing grade). Against Evil FSU Hatin’ ACC Blogger Heather Dinich (in ACC picks) I am 39-18 to her 39-18. And 1-8 vs ‘the gut’. The Gut is not perfect, it seems. Next week! The slump ends next week!