Posts by Daniel Marsh

What do you get if you mix Shawn Kemp, Vince Carter, and Dominique Wilkins, then throw them into Kennan Ivory Wayans’ body? Watch the third video on this page to see the answer.

Holy cow, eh? Dude is throwing down dunks that I had to watch five times to comprehend.

Thanks Evin for sending me the link.

Oh yes, and what do you guys think about the NBA’s idea to add four amateur dunkers to their all-star weekend dunk competition? I like it, as long as we also get four NBA players.

Trying to post a slideshow from www.danielspictures.com -
my new and improved photo website . Didn’t work.

My obsession to keep up with new music is still as strong as ever, and paying off. I’ve thrown many of my favorite songs into an iTunes playlist called “JttM - D’s Favorite Music From 2009,” which you can access after you install Simplify Media’s free program (read previous post).

Here are some highlights:
Dark Was The Night Compilation
Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast
The Felice Brothers’ Yonder Is The Clock
The Maccabees’ Wall Of Arms
Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Dan Auerbach’s Keep It Hid
DM Stith’s Heavy Ghost
Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest
The Veils’ Sun Gangs
… and many more.

If you like the tracks I’ve picked out for the playlist, you can also use Simplify Media to access my whole library and listen to entire albums.

Please enjoy the benefits of my months of reading, searching, sampling, purchasing, and listening.

A revolution in music sharing is here - Simplify Media. After you’ve installed the FREE Simplify Media program, just add up to 30 friends, then view each friend’s entire music library over the internet through iTunes. I am Darman27. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I have made a special playlist called “JttM - D’s favorite music from 2009.” I will be posting about this playlist next.

Joel asked.

1) Joe Johnson
Ronnie Brewer
Steve Nash
Amare Stoudemire
Lebron James
Leandro Barbosa
Josh Smith
Tony Parker
Dwight Howard
Anderson Varejao
Birdman (Chris Anderson)
J.R. Smith

I created an NBA playoff bracket competition for us. I tried to email all of you, but if I missed you, please send me an email and I’ll send you an invite. The playoffs start on Saturday.

League name = JttM
password = Joe (or maybe it’s “joe,” not sure about the capital letter)

Arcade Fire made many millions of dollars on Funeral, and they invested it wisely in a church studio, orchestral arrangements, instruments to smash, a second album, and they produced a film about Neon Bible - Miroir Noir. I have not made millions of dollars, but I have invested my money wisely by watching Miroir Noir on Pitchfork TV for free. It’s only on there for a week, so hurry. I’m not giving a summary because any Arcade Fire fan should just watch it… with their headphones on. If you miss the one-week window, buy it. If you are low on time and want to experience what it’s like to see Arcade Fire live, watch part 6. … Neon God, thank you.

Our days of NBA fantasy leagues may be over, but I’m catching NBA fever again.

With less than 10 games left in the regular season, the Lakers have locked in the top spot in the Western conference and will almost certainly pound Mark Cuban’s Dallas squad in the first round. The six other Western-conference playoff-bound teams - Spurs, Nuggets, Rockets, Trailblazers, Jazz, and Hornets - are only separated by two games in the loss column. While all of them would love to have the two seed, they should be careful not to get the fifth seed, which would mean not having home-court advantage in the first round and then getting the Lakers in round two. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if some teams start eyeing the sixth and seventh seed, where they give up home-court advantage in the first round, but then miss the Lakers in round two.

The Lakers are the clear favorite, but there are three other contenders: Spurs, Jazz, and Hornets. The Spurs look as good as they ever have. Parker now has a reliable jumper that makes him unguardable, and Tim Duncan is still Tim Duncan. The Spurs are one of the few teams that haven’t been showing their full hand during the regular season. Even with injury problems this season, the Jazz have the second best record against teams in the Western conference, and they have the second best home record. The Hornets have Chris Paul, who is the best point guard in the league and one hell-a-smart competitor (although he’s not giving me credit for his new moves).

The East is no longer the push-over conference it has been recently, although it is easy to miss this fact. Do not focus on Phoenix, whose record could get them a 5 or 6 seed in the East, but isn’t good enough to even get them into the playoffs in the West. Instead, focus on the following: the East has a winning record against the West this season; the West doesn’t have a middle, i.e. teams are either good or they are bad; the East is almost all middle; last year’s NBA champs, the Boston Celtics, needed seven games to get out of the first and second round last year, and only six games to beat the Lakers in the finals.

Team Lebron looks close to earning home-court advantage through the entire playoffs. The other seeds are still up for grabs. Quite incredibly, only one team in the Eastern conference is mathematically out of the playoff race. The Celtics are hoping that Garnett can get back on his horse soon, so that they can steal the 2 seed away from Orlando. Atanta, who almost upset the Celtics in the first round last year, are in position to get the 4th seed, but their upcoming games will be tough and they are missing Marvin Williams, who is hoping to be back by the Playoffs. It doesn’t help the Hawks that Dwayne Wade’s Heat are on their backs.

Even as a Hawks fan, I must say that there are really only three contenders in the East: Cavs, Celtics, and Magic. I don’t know that the Dwight Howard is mentally ready to win four playoff series. He can really stink it up when he gets frustrated. The Celtics are almost unbeatable with Garnett, and about a .500 squad without Garnett. He’s still missing games with knee pain, so I’m thinking he won’t be in championship shape in time to make a playoff run. That leaves one clear favorite: Team Lebron. What’s scary about the Cavs is that Lebron is playing fewer minutes per game than ever before, and he usually doesn’t start putting the pedal to the metal until the fourth quarter. Anyone who has witnessed his playoff wizardry in the past knows that he can go full blast for four quarters and beat teams practically one-on-five. The Cavs have only lost one game at home this entire season, but it was to the Lakers, who swept their series with the Cavs this season.

My championship prediction: Hawks over Jazz!
Back-up prediction: Cavs over Lakers in 7

March is here, and the madness is too is in the rear-view mirror. Holy moly!

If you missed it, here’s what you will need to tell your grandkids:
- rivals (UConn and Syracuse)
- two Hall-of-Fame coaches
- two top-25 teams (#4 UConn vs. #20)
- conference tournament game
- in Madison Square Garden and on ESPN
- UConn tied the game with 1.1 seconds left in regulation
- Syracuse heaved the ball down the entire court and a player nailed a three at the buzzer… but despite his victory dance on the scorer’s table (see picture), his shot was called off after the refs reviewed the video and determined that he released the ball 1/10 of a second after the buzzer.
- The first overtime was followed by a second, which was followed by a third, which was followed by a fourth, which was followed by a fifth, which was followed by a sixth.
- Every period except for the sixth overtime came down to a last-second shot.
- The game was 70 minutes long, almost as long as two games, and Syracuse’s star played all but three of those minutes. He said he couldn’t feel his legs after the game.
- Eight players fouled out.
- Syracuse had to call upon a walk-on who had only played 21 minutes in the entire regular season.
- Syracuse, the underdog, never lead in overtime until they took the lead in the sixth overtime, almost four hours after the game started.
- At 1:22 am, Syracuse upset UConn 127-117.

The only thing this game didn’t have was Matt Jones.

Here’s a detailed video.

Check out these eight cars and pick a favorite. I’ll take the Nissan Pivo 2 so that I would never have to worry about my coffee spilling out in the g-force-less ride, unless I just spill it on myself.

Delta Spirit - Ode to Sunshine
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Pale Young Gentlemen - Black Forest
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
DeVotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling

Lebron is so nasty. Check out the top ten from yesterday, in particular play #4… holy moly.

Joe Johnson and the Hawks are undefeated at 4-0.

Iverson and C. Billups have swapped teams.

Amare Stoudemire is back at 100% and throwing 49 points down on teams like the Pacers.

Dwight Howard might actually be Superman.

You can purchase it here.

Many of you know DJ Murphy, so I’m posting a link to a YouTube video of his band’s first single. I’m also posting it because it’s good. It will be on sale at iTunes starting Oct. 13th.

Heypenny’s Parade.

Also, check out TV on the Radio’s new album - Dear Science. It’s floating towards the top of this year’s top-albums list.

One good thing I can say about McCain is that he’d probably be a better President than me, or at least for the next year or two. I can’t say this about Palin. This video demonstrates just how average and uninformed she really is - she doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is and she resorts to painfully poor political mumbo jumbo.

If you see this guy, Tony Jaa, don’t fight him. If you missed his first big movie, Ong Bak, check out the highlights here. Then check out the promo for Ong Bak 2, which is coming in December. I’ve heard he’ll beat you up if you don’t watch these videos right now. Need more?

The first weekend of NFL football ends tonight (Monday, Sept. 8th) with a BANG - McFadden in black. The Raiders host the Broncos at 10:15E on ESPN.

Here’s what I expect to see from these two extremely similar teams:

These are two wear-them-down run-oriented offenses; and with both teams possessing excellent pass-defenses (check out those four cornerbacks), mediocre receivers, and new offensive lines that lack the necessary cohesiveness for pass blocking, I expect run, after run, after run.

Both teams will start with the same game plan:
1) run the ball with some success
2) protect the ball (win the turnover battle)
3) good special teams play - good punts, good returns, make FGs
4) get ahead and force the other team into passing situations
5) run the clock out against fatigued defenders

The difference between the two teams will probably be that the home-town Raiders have the better running backs. The Raiders rushing attack starts with Justin Fargas, not McFadden. Fargas gets the veteran nod after a strong season last year in the same offensive scheme. Kiffin, who has been extremely impressed with Darren and plans on utilizing all of his gifts before the season is over, says that tonight will not be The McFadden Show. He says he’s worried that the pressure might be too much, since it is his first NFL game and it’s Monday Night Football. (This would be The McFadden Show if I were the coach, since Darren usually plays his best in high pressure games. I’m wondering if Kiffin is bluffing). The Raiders have another stud RB right behind McFadden - the young, big, fast, shifty, and soft-handed Michael Bush. The biggest potential downfall of this crew is a lack of depth at the fullback position, since they lost their best blocking fullback to a career-threatening injury last week.

If the Raiders have a large lead, I highly doubt that the Broncos can pass their way back into the game, or break off long runs. If the Broncos have a large lead, the Raiders will look to big TE Zach Miller down field, or hopefully they will give McFadden chances to break some long ones.

(Did you catch Felix’s first game yesterday? He took his first carry into the endzone from 11 yards out and finished the game with nine carries for 62 yards and 1 TD.)

If you haven’t visited www.ted.com, now is the time. The site offers tons of “inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers.”

Here’s their quick self-summary:

“TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week.”

This one, is far from the most interesting, but there’s an incredibly amazing octopus at the end that I think everyone needs to see.

least skip to the end where an octopus will blow you away.

While it’s not top-to-bottom superb, Sigur Rós’ new album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, has plenty to offer. There are six songs that could have descended from the heavens: Fljótavík; Suð í eyrum; ; Ára bátur; Góðan daginn; Festival; Við spilum endalaust. Where they would have wailed on the guitars on previous albums, they chose to go for a poppy sound here, e.g. Við spilum endalaust (great), Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (good), and Gobbledigook (not good, but the popular download choice on iTunes). Another impressive piece to the Sigur Rós puzzle.

Professors from Duke University are trying to explain to Americans why we should stop using “miles per gallon,” and instead use “gallons per 100 miles” (or something similar). I’m convinced. Try their short, but effective, interactive quiz. The New York Times is reporting on it too.

Here’s the gist:

Let’s say you own a Lamborghini that gets 5 m.p.g. and a Hummer that gets 10 m.p.g. You’d like to replace one of your cars so that you’re spending less money on gas. Your two options are: (A) trade in your Lamborghini (5 m.p.g.) for a Ferrari that gets 10 m.p.g.; (B) to trade in your Hummer (10 m.p.g.) for a hybrid one-seater that gets an amazing 100 m.p.g..

The “obvious choice” seems to be (B), but some simple division will show us that we’re stupid.

Let’s assume that you drive each car 100 miles per week:
Option (A): Instead of using 20 gallons (100/5 = 20) a week in your Lamborghini, you’d only be using 10 gallons (100/10 = 10) in your Ferrari, thus you would save 10 gallons a week.
Option (B): Instead of using 10 gallons a week in your Hummer, you’d only be using 1 gallon in your fancy new solo-man hybrid, thus saving 9 gallons a week.

Conclusion: You will save more gas/money by replacing your Lamborghini with a Ferrari rather than replacing your Hummer with a single-seater super hybrid.

Now let’s tell the story with “gallons per 100 miles.”
Option (A): Replace your Lamborghini that uses 20 g.p.100 miles with a Ferrari that uses 10 g.p.100 miles.
Option (B): Replace your Hummer that uses 10 g.p.100 miles with a hybrid that uses 1 g.p.100 miles.

Isn’t this phrasing much better?