Random Thoughts

The Stone Gods Rock!

Right now I’m rocking out here at work to the Stone Gods “Silver Spoons & Broken Bones” cd and I do mean rocking out! There are some killer riffs and hooks on this cd. In case you asking yourself just who this band is it’s basically The Darkness without singer Justin Hawkins who quit to form the strangely moniquered band Hot Legs. They don’t miss him and his falsetto a bit and have gone to a heavier and rougher sound that suites them quite well. The only negative thing I can say at this time is the over-indulgence in cursing but in my experience that does seem to be a given with youngish rock bands from the U.K. All in all it’s a fine debut album that I look forward to listening to in greater detail soon.

Outsourced

Last night I watched a very good movie that I checked out from the library called “Outsourced.” Todd Anderson manages a customer call center in Seattle and is told that his company is outsourcing all of their calls to India. They send him there to train his replacement and he struggles with the culture shock and feelings of betrayal until he takes some friendly advice and learns about India and stops trying to do things the American way. By doing so he learns a lot about himself and even finds some romance along the way. Everything about this movie was well done. My wife thought this would be a full on “Bollywood” movie and was disappointed when she learned it wasn’t so she went to bed. Too bad for her because she missed a wonderfully written, directed and acted movie.


Blood In The Cage; Mixed Martial Arts, Pat Militich, and the Furious Rise of The UFC by L. Jon Wertheim

Let me tell you, I love mixed martial arts in general and submission grappling in particular so every chance I get to read about them I grab as quickly as possible. I believe I was the first person to request this book at my library and it’s been a fairly quick read. A lot of the information contained in the book about the history of mixed martial arts and the UFC I pretty much already knew. However what I didn’t really know about was the history of Pat Militich. I knew that he had fought in the earlier UFC events and had been the welterweight champion but I had no idea about his past and what made him into the man he is today. This part of the book was fascinating and inspirational to me. He went from a rough background, suffered through personal setbacks that many others would allow them to give up on life, yet still turned himself from an extremely poor, angry street fighter into a martial artist, an elite fighter, a champion and a trainer of champions. Pat Militich is to be commended for showing that sheer perseverance in the face of life’s difficulties can not only help to overcome them but can destroy them. Sure there are some nit-picky discrepancies about a few details bit overall this was a great read. I recommend it if you want to find out more information on mixed martial arts, The UFC and most definitely Pat Militich.