• Les Claypool – Mushroom Men – Of Fungi and Foe
• Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City – Appetite For Destruction
• Yo-Yo Ma – Gigue – Suite No. 1 in G Major – The Cello Suites: Inspired By Bach
• Audioslave – Light My Way – (self-titled)
• The Offspring – Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) – Americana
• Foo Fighters – Enough Space – The Colour and the Shape
• The Flaming Lips – Haven’t Got a Clue – At War with the Mystics
• The Verve Pipe – Freshmen – Villains
• The Rolling Stones – Shine a Light – Exile on Main Street
• The Mars Volta – Cygnus….Vismund Cygnus – Frances the Mute

Back at my childhood home, so all the posts are on autopilot this weekend.  Drop your list if you like, and get back to your turkey day recovery.

MINNESOTA v. BOSTON

MRS MAK -Why don’t you get any comments on your hockey posts?

BIG MAK – Probably because the Wild stink.

MRS MAK – But so do your predictions, maybe if those were better the Wild would be better.

Well, there it is.  A challenge, pitting my predictions versus Wild performance.  Starting now.

Bold prediction – The Bruins don’t score a power play goal in this one (Bruins power play is at 15.2% and falling on the year).

Yesterday the Wild traded Benoit Pouliot to the Montreal Canadiens for winger Guilluame Latendresse.

Faceoffs at shoulder height?  He’s your man.

According to Behind the Net, Latendresse has had a bit of an offensive outage this season.  The Canadiens score at a rate of 1.0 G/60 with him on the ice in 5 on 5 situations (opposed to 2.2 G/60 when he’s on the bench).  Part of that is sample size, and part is playing with the bottom line, so it will be interesting to see where he ends up playing for Minnesota.  Last season, with more quality teammates surrounding him, Latendresse was much better in this regard (2.6 G/60 on the ice, 2.1 G/60 off the ice).

Using the Corsi rating system (again from Behind the Net, Corsi considers shots on goal instead of only goals), Latendresse has been one of the top 3 or 4 wingers on Montreal in the past two seasons with more consistency than with the straight G/60 numbers.  It seems like he could be a solid winger, but probably not going to be a pure scorer (the one goal so far this season is another indicator in that direction).

With the trade of Pouliot the Wild have let all of the top 5 picks in franchise history (2 – Gaborik and Pouliot) go since the end of last season. Overall I have this move as a push or a slight win for the Wild, but man it hurts when you have so few high picks to not have them turn into anything other than second or third line wingers.

I’ve been listening to a lot of cello music lately, and I was considering throwing my hat in the ring for a week of guest DJing at the WGOM featuring some cello music, but then I realized I have my own website, and I could just have my own cello week. So rather than competing with the WGOM music video of the day, think of this as a complement.

Portland Cello Project plays a lot of concerts with local musicians.  This one is a cover of a classic, with the original thrown in.  Thus concludes Cello Week.  Enjoy.

Video after the jump.

Portland Cello Project

Original Version

Cello Week:

Saturday – Portland Cello Project – If Moon Was Cookie
Friday – Osvaldo Golijov – Mariel (2003)
Thursday – Györgi Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello (1953)
Wednesday – Michael Gordon – Industry (1992)
Tuesday – Erik Friedlander – Night White (2007)
Monday – Zoë Keating – Escape Artist (2009)
Sunday – Steve Reich – Cello Counterpoint (2003)

MINNESOTA v. NEW YORK ISLANDERS

The Islanders have 10 overtime games and 7 overtime losses in 21 games.  On the road they’ve had more overtime games (7) than not (5).  So get ready for some bonus hockey tonight.

Bold Prediction – OK, so it looks like last place in the division for now. I have to say my batting average is pretty poor on these things. So the Wild are going to lose. They are going to lose by a lot.  (But wait, what about the bonus hockey, you say? – They’re going to lose by a lot in overtime.  I’m sticking to my guns.  Even the directly contradictory guns.)

If you haven’t been following along, here’s your chance to check out the craziness that has been Cello Week.  We’ve had six videos so far this week and there’s one more coming tomorrow, so take a minute (or a few minutes) and watch some pretty cool performances.

Saturday – Portland Cello Project – If Moon Was Cookie
Friday – Osvaldo Golijov – Mariel (2003)
Thursday – Györgi Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello (1953)
Wednesday – Michael Gordon – Industry (1992)
Tuesday – Erik Friedlander – Night White (2007)
Monday – Zoë Keating – Escape Artist (2009)
Sunday – Steve Reich – Cello Counterpoint (2003)

Random 10 –

• Tony’s Theme – Pixies – Surfer Rosa
• Mourning this Morning – Dredg – The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion
• Stack Shot Billy – Black Keys – Rubber Factory
• I Cry Alone – Black Keys – Thickfreakness
• Call – Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – Oceana (Golijov)
• Would? – Alice in Chains – MTV Unplugged
• Circa Mea Pectora – Carl Orff – Carmina Burana
• Needles – System of a Down – Toxicity
• Hey Joni – Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
• In My Eyes – Rage Against the Machine – Renegades

Tony, Billy, Joni, the gang’s all here!

Or… are they?

Jane says, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth? I can’t get these radios to work.  Lookout Joe! Hey Joe! Anybody else coming?”

He doesn’t answer, instead Anna begins running through the guest list.  “Floyd the Barber, Judith, Maria, Polly…. Oh, George will come.  Gary’s got a boner just thinking about Molly’s lips, so he’ll definitely stay if she shows.  That leaves only sweet Virgina, Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts.”  Just then Lily (my one and only) appears, and running as fast as the wind, cries “Mary!  Psycho boy Jack is at Maggie’s farm, and he’s got Margaret in captivity!”

“Hey, Johnny Park! You’ve got to get there fast, Jerry was a race car driver, so let him drive and you two boogie with Stu. Once my Michelle finds wings for Marie, we’ll be right behind you and Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle.”

That’s 25 more nomenclaturally-themed song titles for those who are counting.

I’ve been listening to a lot of cello music lately, and I was considering throwing my hat in the ring for a week of guest DJing at the WGOM featuring some cello music, but then I realized I have my own website, and I could just have my own cello week. So rather than competing with the WGOM music video of the day, think of this as a complement.

Osvaldo Golijov is the composer that started this recent interest in modern orchestral music. We went to an outdoor concert at Ravinia in Chicago where Yo-Yo Ma played a Golijov piece, “Azul”, which was really cool. Unfortunately, I can’t find a recording or video of that piece, but here’s another Golijov cello piece. “Mariel is for cello and 7 recorded cellos. The cellist here is Maya Beiser. Enjoy.

Video after the jump.

Cello Week:

Saturday – Portland Cello Project – If Moon Was Cookie
Friday – Osvaldo Golijov – Mariel (2003)
Thursday – Györgi Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello (1953)
Wednesday – Michael Gordon – Industry (1992)
Tuesday – Erik Friedlander – Night White (2007)
Monday – Zoë Keating – Escape Artist (2009)
Sunday – Steve Reich – Cello Counterpoint (2003)

I’ve been listening to a lot of cello music lately, and I was considering throwing my hat in the ring for a week of guest DJing at the WGOM featuring some cello music, but then I realized I have my own website, and I could just have my own cello week. So rather than competing with the WGOM music video of the day, think of this as a complement.

Matt Haimovitz is one of the really great cellists out there right now.  I wanted to be sure to include him in this week, so here he is playing Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello.

Video after the jump.

Part One

Part Two

Cello Week:

Saturday – Portland Cello Project – If Moon Was Cookie
Friday – Osvaldo Golijov – Mariel (2003)
Thursday – Györgi Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello (1953)
Wednesday – Michael Gordon – Industry (1992)
Tuesday – Erik Friedlander – Night White (2007)
Monday – Zoë Keating – Escape Artist (2009)
Sunday – Steve Reich – Cello Counterpoint (2003)

MINNESOTA v. PHOENIX

The second quarter of the season starts now.  The Wild have dominated Phoenix in the past, and both teams are .500 over the last 10 games.  These are the games that the Wild need to start winning if they are going to pull out of the hole they dug in the first quarter of the season.

Bold Prediction – The first of four games at home for the Wild, by the end of this stretch the Wild will no longer be in last place in their division (currently – Wild 16 pts – Oilers 19 pts)

I’ve been listening to a lot of cello music lately, and I was considering throwing my hat in the ring for a week of guest DJing at the WGOM featuring some cello music, but then I realized I have my own website, and I could just have my own cello week. So rather than competing with the WGOM music video of the day, think of this as a complement.

Composer Michael Gordon:

I had this vision of a 100-foot cello made out of steel suspended from the sky, a cello the size of a football field, and, in the piece, the cello becomes a hugely distorted sound.

That about sums it up. The first time I listened to this, I wasn’t a huge fan, but I kept coming back to it, so I’d be interested to hear what people think of this one. The cellist in the video is Jeff Zeigler (perhaps better known as the cellist of the Kronos Quartet).

Video after the jump.

Cello Week:

Saturday – Portland Cello Project – If Moon Was Cookie
Friday – Osvaldo Golijov – Mariel (2003)
Thursday – Györgi Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello (1953)
Wednesday – Michael Gordon – Industry (1992)
Tuesday – Erik Friedlander – Night White (2007)
Monday – Zoë Keating – Escape Artist (2009)
Sunday – Steve Reich – Cello Counterpoint (2003)