Pauleywood

It's been a long time coming but finally I have a cool blog that I can call my own. Most people reading will already know who I am. Discussions of hip hop and life will usually take place here when I have things to talk about.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Some Music to enjoy.


It's a Shame was one of a few hit's that Motown group the Detroit Spinners had in the 60's and early 70's. Probably their biggest hit and also an early indication of the songwriting talent of Stevie Wonder who wrote the song for the group with then-fiance Syreeta Wright. Some more info on the song can be found here.

Moving into Sports, it is interested to look at the attendance figures for NHL and compare them across the board with NBA games. In Vancouver we hear no end of talk about how bad the NHL is doing against the other big sports in the U.S.A. Well if you look at the numbers between the NHL and NBA (the closest thing to compare to) the NHL looks pretty good. In the NBA the Bulls are averaging 21,500 fans a game through the first 30 games or so. At the bottom we have the Nets averaging around 13,000. In the NHL we have the Canadiens averaging 21,200 with the NYI (who are wose than dirt) at 10,000. In the NHL we have 12 teams operating at 100% (or over) for Capacity with another 7 teams at 95% or higher. In the NBA only 7 teams reach the magic 100% with 7 teams hitting in and around the 95% mark. Now this doesn't go into the Television ratings or ticket prices and such, but it's a encouraging sign to see, particularly in a lot of U.S. markets like Chicago, Philly, and Minnesota that the NHL is beating it's NBA cousins. Keep up the good work. This article appeared about a month ago on the yahoo blog.

Looking Back on 2010

As a Canadian and especially as a Vancouverite, 2010 was memorable for the obvious little function that happened in February. The 2010 Winter Olympics were here in Vancouver and Canada proceeded to do what they never could do before....Win! That's right, Canadian athletes not only won gold on home soil for the first time ever (a long time embarassment for us) but proceeded to win a record 14 Gold medals for a single Winter Olympics. That's pretty good. Now I know Canada didn't win the most medals overall, but the debate starts with how do you judge a victor? I think the benchmark is total Gold not medals, not to mention the Americans have 10 times as many people as us.

Canada brought it in music too. You may not like these artists or you may love em, the fact is Canada tore it up on a lot of levels. Call it the Candian invasion.....we had some critically aclaimed acts make international inroads this year like Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Shad, and Caribou. K-Os and K'Naan were pretty large this year, with K'Naan's Wavin Flag becoming the official song for the Fifa World Cup. Drake was one of the biggest mainstream artists in any genre to drop all year. The Arcarde Fire hit #1 on the Billboard Charts and continued to cement their critical legacy with the Suburbs hitting most of the best of lists for the year. Michael Buble is still holding it down for the wet coast. Deadmaus, was the year's electronic sensation. It's not hard to say that in just about every genre of music Canada held it's own and more on the international stage. And of course there is Justin Beiber......love him or hate him he was everywhere for teen girls to oggle over. Definitely not my steez but little girls need there cute sex symbols just like guys need their Playboy magazines....or something like that. Either way Canada rocked in whatever you wanted....we provided. Your Welcome.

Which brings me to my little rant and it's about a month too late. The Grey Cup in this country had BTO perform at the halftime show. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't they play there a few years ago, and didn't the Guess Who also play not too long ago. With all the talent Canada is serving up do we really have to drag out these old fossils for the official party. Some variety would be nice....heck even Rush would be a welcome change. It seems that if we decide to do anything offical its BTO, Spirit of the West, Blue Rodeo (whom I quite like) and Loverboy. Give us K-Os, give us the Arcade Fire, give us the Tragically Hip, give us K'Naan, Rush, and Shad.....let's give the old horses a rest. and no we don't want Simple Plan or Hedley either....I'd rather take 48 hours in an isolation chamber with Nickelback cranked to 11 than have them represent my country at one of these events. Peace...til next time. Happy 2011.......long life for all and the end of the 15 minutes for Kesha and Gaga.