Snowblind

Down here, where we're at
The weather changes, that's the way it goes
Sometimes it snows, when everything's wrong
Sometimes it snows, but when it does, it doesn't last long
-Uncle Tupelo, "Screen Door"

Lots of Uncle Tupelo for me lately, and this song feels especially poignant with this massive storm we're having, coming after weeks of unseasonably warm weather (two weeks ago it was about 65). Except this snow seems like it will last forever - it began at about 4 p.m. and shows no signs of letting up. It's thick, mixed with ice and sleet. Good snowball fight snow, if I had anyone to exchange volleys with.

***

Lots of Tupelo, to be sure (they're St. Louis' greatest musical export after Chuck Berry, and even though they're from the Illinois side of the river I can now identify the places they mention in their songs), but also lots of Animal Collective. The new album has songs titled "In The Flowers" and "Summertime Clothes," but to my ears there's no better wintertime album.

It's positively ethereal, haunting and comforting at the same time. I listened to it as I spent 15 minutes attempting to drive out of the parking lot of the newspaper office. See, everything in these Ozark towns is built on hills. Either that, or the roads are on the hills and the homes and businesses are sort of sunken in around them. Makes for scenic driving in peak conditions, but that also means that its nigh impossible to go anywhere when it snows. I had a bear of a time getting up one of those steep inclines, as our office in St. Robert is thusly sunken in. I got out, but it took me forever because I could only really turn left.

***

I gave a woman a ride home. She was walking, as she usually does, but she said "It's kind of stupid to do it in the winter, I guess."

Ya think?

When I saw her she was in the middle of Old Route 66 in St. Robert, bundled up in sweats, a hoodie and a parka. I almost hesitated but she looked harmless enough. She was. We talked about how people don't know how to drive in the snow around here because all the soldiers come from Texas and Georgia. Then some guy in front of us, with Florida plates (naturally), fishtailed as he was going around the giant hill that divides Waynesville and St. Bob (the same one where the frog resides). We chuckled.

She told me that before I got her the police stopped her once and told her to get off the road and walk on the sidewalk to be safe.

"I told them that I thought I was still on the sidewalk. You couldn't tell what was what."

While they were talking, a snowplow whizzed passed them. She got blasted. The officer, still in the car, did not. They didn't offer her a ride.

SportsTime

Despite the terrible header (which we're getting rid of, thank God), I like today's sports page. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I wrote 80 inches of copy tonight. What can I say? I'm proud of the fruits of my labor. And my game story (on the Waynesville-Lebanon game) is probably the best I've done since I got here. Check it (full story online here):



Here's a bit of that game story - the beginning, anyway:

Jack Hittinger, Daily Guide
WAYNESVILLE--Going into Friday night’s tussle with Ozark Conference and district foe Lebanon, Waynesville head basketball coach Tim Bildner knew his team would have to be ready to defend the three. His team prepared accordingly.
He didn’t, however, prepare for this: a 68-66 “barn burner” that saw the Waynesville Tigers (13-3, 2-0 Ozark Conference) come back from an eight-point deficit, lead by nine, and then win by two. All of this, mind you, took place in a span of eight minutes in the third and fourth quarters.
“I’m glad to survive that one,” Bildner said while sitting on the bleachers after the game.
He needed the rest. The visiting Yellowjackets (8-7, 0-3) made 13 three-pointers out of 26 attempts–a 50 percent clip.
“We can’t even get that on two-pointers,” Bildner said, shaking his head.

The rest of the story, as I said, will be online Monday. So you'll have to wait. But here are some pictures, if you are so inclined: BJ Ray dunking; Kendall Lewis (this one would be sweet if he wasn't blurry); Donald Perry (need to figure out how to edit so the flash from another camera doesn't look so obvious); Brandyn Preston; Preston dunking.

Sure Shot

Don't know how long this will be up, so watch it now (and never mnd the fact that the video is too large for my damn blog): Marshall's Markel Humphrey drains a 75-foot three to beat SMU.

Watch more ESPN videos on AOL Video

Mostly I like the interview; he seems like a nice kid and he's honest about it:

Interviewer: If we give you 100 tries to make that shot in that same situation, how many times do you make that shot?
Humphrey: Out of a hundred, I'd probably have to say...zero. That's just a lucky shot, man, I just threw it up there.

I love my job because I can watch this video, at full volume on full screen if I so desired, and nobody would bat an eye. Yes, that's right. Just one of the many perks of being a sportswriter (which also include working from 11 a.m. to about 12 p.m. every night and driving to obscure little high school gymnasiums in small towns to watch a wrestling meet. Awesome).

Best albums in 2008

Not of, mind you. IN. Because I didn't exactly listen to every new album this year. Or even all of the ones I was "supposed" to listen to. So it's a mix: new albums from this year that I liked, but also albums that are actually old but are new to me. No particular order on any of these, except Portishead and the Walkmen are probabaly 1 and 2. Album name links to review, song name to YouTube sample.

Superlatives:
Portishead, Third ("The Rip")
Walkmen, You & Me ("In The New Year")
Q-Tip, The Renaissance ("Move" / "Renaissance Rap", this is one track on the album but I think they work better as separate songs)
Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours ("Feel The Love")
Times New Viking, Rip It Off ("The End of All Things")
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig! (listen to MP3 in review)
Spiritualized, Songs in A&E ("You Lie You Cheat")
Black Mountain, In the Future ("Angels", "Tyrants")
Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend (scroll down for Christgau's take)
Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing (listen to MP3)

Darn good:
Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea ("Aloyisius, Bluegrass Drummer")
R.E.M., Accelerate ("Man Sized Wreath")
Los Campesinos!, Hold On Now, Youngster ("Death to Los Campesinos!", but their Pavement cover is the best thing they've ever recorded, unfortunately it's only on the EP)
Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell ("Tessellate")
Dungen, 4
Black Milk, Tronic ("Give the Drummer Sum")
Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords ("Ladies of the World"...the only reason why this album isn't great is because they fucked up some of the songs from their stand up and overproduced them...except this one...seriously, I want a whole album of nothing but songs like this and I'd enjoy it...even if they weren't being ironic, I think I'd love it...that fadeout thing at the end is brilliant, I could chill out for hours to stuff like this)
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash
Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark ("The Man I Shot")
Black Keys, Attack and Release ("Psychotic Girl")

Older albums I got into/ back into (only a smattering, these are the notable ones):
Chavez, Better Days Will Haunt You
A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Maradurs
Uncle Tupelo, Anodyne, Still Feel Gone, No Depression
Wilco, Summerteeth, Being There
Son Volt, Trace
At The Drive-In, The Relationship of Command
Drive-By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera
Nas, Illmatic
Galaxie 500, The Peel Sessions
Superchunk, Here's Where the Strings Come In
Guided By Voices, Do the Collapse

I didn't listen to:
Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer
The Dirtbombs, We Have You Surrounded
The Kills, Midnight Boom
Presidents of the USA, These are the Good Times, People
Local H, Twelve Angry Months
Tapes 'n Tapes, Walk It Off
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes (and not sure I want to in this case)

Anything else I forgot about. Which means that I didn't care enough to listen to it or didn't remember enough about it to remember it came out this year. Or I'm just retarded and forgot something good. Damnit.