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Malik (11/2/10)

I am on vacation from reality right now.  At least I'd like to say so.  In this world that I'd like to be in, the Seahawks are winning and I am subjected to no responsibilities...only Fable 3, Rock Band 3, and rest.  Reality can be a bitch.

The truth of the matter is that I'm facing a few too many responsibilities right now.  I have a resume I want to dust off and get sent out to potential employers, I have a broken door bell to fix, a hole that needs fully fixed in the ceiling of my basement, and a car that needs some maintenance.  In other words, reality and fantasy are way too separate right now.

Most of all, I'd love to be riding the high feeling of knowing how good the Seahawks are.  However, the truth of the matter is that Sunday's game against Oakland may have been the worst Seahawks game I've even seen.  It's one thing to only have single digit points.  It's another to only have single digit points when the opposition picks up quite a few touch downs and makes one realize that it wasn't a defensive match.  The game was just a sad team, with a good QB, playing against a real NFL team that seems to be trying to turn around their bad luck.

Hasselbeck did play well.  I'd even say he did great.  Unfortunately, while a team suffers with no skill at QB, it can suffer even worse with no skill outside of the QB position.  Hasselbeck was under constant pressure the entire game, but still could get off some wonderful long passes to receivers without too much coverage on them.  That's when the 'Hawk receivers went to crap in a hurry.  I've never seen so many of Hasselbeck's bombs hit receivers square in the hands, chest, or face without any receiver actually trying to maintain possession.  If the receivers would have played like they did in Chicago a few weeks ago, this would have been a flat out shooting match of a game.  Instead, Seattle let a lot of opportunities slip away and made Hasselbeck look as bad as he probably is, but not as good as he actually played.

The season isn't over by any means.  When you play in the NFC West, you have very little to worry about.  At least when it comes to a few loses.  Now the Seahawks do need to worry about St. Louis and Arizona, but that's better than the 49er's have it.  Hell, Seattle is in first, despite playing worse than San Francisco.  Even Buffalo played better this weekend than Seattle did.

I don't know the solution to the woes that the Seahawks are facing.  However, I do know that the woes never are static.  One week Hasselbeck cannot throw a ball to save his life or gets to antsy in the pocket.  The next week, the defense is not applying any pressure.  Then you have the entire receiving corps falling to rubble for no good reason.  It only gets worse when Okung, who I think must be a good luck charm for Seattle, out injured.  I think this season has been a weird crap shoot for the entire NFL.  In the end, I think most divisions will not become clear until the dust of week 15 or 16 settles.

Malik

Malik (11/4/10)

I think I saw the equivalent to Sasquatch last night.  At least it's up there in the rarity of seeing Big Foot.  I saw a sober (or well medicated, instead of destructively medicated) Scott Wieland last night.

I have a list, unofficially, of bands I think I need to see at least once.  Stone Temple Pilots is definitely a member of that list.  In my younger days, seeing STP was next to impossible.  Any time STP was coming around Seattle, the show was practically guaranteed to be canceled.  I mean the tour would start with Seattle being one of the last stops.  Then a few weeks into the current tour, Wieland would either end up in rehab or in jail on drug charges.  It was bad enough that buying tickets to see STP was nothing more than a joke since it was paying money to only get it refunded, with no interest, a month or so later.  Most times it wouldn't even get that far.  The tickets would never reach the date of sale before the tour was canceled.

I've heard many recent shows have been pretty bad since it sounds like Wieland has been performing while in his own state of mind.  Still, with STP coming to Kent (a suburb or Seattle which just got a nice new small arena in the last couple of years), I had to take the chance and try to see them, even if the show had a major chance of being one of great instrumental work featured with some inebriated vocals.

Well, I don't know what a wasted Wieland sounds like live, but I know what a sober (or well medicated) Wieland now sounds like.  He has not lost a step, both in his showmanship and in his vocal work.  His voice is still crisp with the same great range you can hear on an STP album.  Without a doubt, when they are on their A game, STP has to be one of the best concerts I've ever experienced.  I'd put them, in terms of pure awesomeness, right up there with Metallica (in the long hair days) live.  The music is fast and frantic, the sound is perfect (unless you count any use of a phaser style pedal in a hockey arena causing a some noise canceling due to reverb), and the energy is just amazing.  It's hard to see STP last night and think that this band has been around for a couple of decades.  While one show is not indicative of who a band is, especially with plenty of recent reviews talking about a wasted front man, what I saw made me think of something like Social Distortion, with how a band can be around so long but still keep the energy up and the show going strong.

Malik

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