Let me set the scene....My evening plans didn't pan out, so I'm sitting here listening to tunes, waiting for SNL to begin and playing a $10 one-table Sit 'N Go as a warm-up to the $10 "Midnight Madness" tournament on Full Tilt.
Now I should tell you that I did something in the last 72 hours that I likely have not done in close to a half-decade. Then I repeated it again just four hours ago.
That is, I bought CDs.
Real ones! With cases and liner notes and everything!
Five new discs. All spun at least once by now, but I'm going to start a couple again. Between this and the cards and the Bon Jovi SNL - which just started with a funny sketch of Bon Jovi appearing to Amy Pohler circa 1989 to tell her to focus on acting and she'd make it to SNL someday - I figure now is as good as anytime to do a running commentary. Haven't done one in awhile.
(On a bad note, I was just busted out of the Sit 'N Go on the bubble. Thanks to a dude hitting a two-outer. Bad karma. I was bounced from an earlier tourney with A-A vs. A-J and buddy hit one jester on the flop, another on the turn.
Third time's the charm, right?)
Anyhow, Midnight Madness starts in twenty (674 players and counting). Bon Jovi is singing, not making with the funny, so to escape his latest, let's begin with disc number one....
* * * * * * *
The Arcade Fire -
Neon Bible*presses play*10:41 pm - "Black Mirror"So why this CD? Why not?
I've been a fan of The Arcade Fire since
Funeral and was wanting to grab their sophomore effort for awhile. Their show at the Burt in 2005 is a Top Ten show for me. (Though interestingly enough, not the best of 2005 as Pearl Jam at the MTS Centre grabs that year's honours.)
I'll get to the other albums bought, but I'll mention this one now because I definitely won't get to it tonight.
Velvet Revolver -
Libertad A buddy hooked me up with cheap tickets for a show I was tempted to pay full price for last month. Figured I would like to get a taste for what to expect, so wanted to pick it up. Currently in the CD player of my car. Given it a couple of spins already and gotta say, I like it a lot. Especially "
She Builds Quick Machines" and "
The Last Fight". After listening to it, I'm even more jacked about the show.
11:01 pm -
"Neon Bible"The tournament has begun. 1,564 players. Need to last until 216th to get any money. Bad start on the first hand. On the big blind I flop middle pair and a strong straight draw. Called the flop, but folded on the turn when one guy went all-in. Lost about a third of my stack.
11:06 pm -
"Intervention"I made it four hands. With pocket jacks, I raise a 100 chip pot to 200. One caller. The guy who went all-in before. Flop is 2c-7c-5d. The caller bets about two-thirds the pot and I push my final chips in, knowing that I could be calling a set, but not believing that he has it.
He doesn't. Instead I'm up against a club draw. Playing out exactly as earlier hands have gone, he makes his flush and I'm bounced.
I've now lost three games tonight. All when I'm ahead as my money goes into the pot. This whole "You-have-to-feel-okay-about-making-the-'right'-plays" thing is getting tiring. I'm not content to leave my evening like this, so I'm going to join a $10 multi-table SnG and hope to get a little balance coming from the poker gods.
11:17 pm -
"Weekend Update" (SNL break)
Just started a 18-player SnG. First hand A-K, but couldn't make it count for anything.
11:26 pm -
"The Pretender" (SNL musical guest Foo Fighters break)
The only joke worth nothing on Update was this: "Research shows that strippers earn more tips in the week prior to menstruation, which begs the question: Who gave Dirty Lou a research grant?"
Been a tepid SNL from what I've seen thus far. Even a rock out performance from The Foo can't be saving it.
11:34 pm - "
Windowsill"
I'm struggling....Some bad flops to good hands have left me with less than half my original stack and in 13th of 13 players remaining. Going to get into aggressive mode right away and hope for some luck.
Like this song a lot. It and the next (and final) two on the album "
No Cars Go" and "
My Body Is A Cage" all show how great The Arcade Fire is at producing mood.
MBiaC especially. It's destined to appear on a television drama some time, if it hasn't already.
I'm at the final table, but in terrible shape. Less than three hundred chips, though blinds are still a reasonable 30/60. I figure I can be patient and wait for a solid pushing hand sometimes in the next dozen hands or so.
11:49 pm -
"My Body Is A Cage" ~Set my spirit free, set my spirit free, set my body free....~Yes, I hit repeat to give 'er another listen. The organ dragging it out in the background...The no-lies-in-advertising-here, truly haunting vocals, the crescendo finish...Pretty sweet says me.
With 170 chips remaining, I made my final stand with 10-9 suited when it became apparent I wasn't catching anything better. Lucked into a ten on the flop and tripled up to just over 500. Down to 410 with 120/60 blinds, so I'm not out of the woods or anything. Seven remaining. Only four spots pay.
Time for a new disc....
* * * * *
The Weakerthans -
Reunion Tour11:54 pm - "
Civil Twilight"
The most recently released purchase of the last few days, I'd been meaning to search out and find the newest Weakerthans release. For a band that slowly and methodically climbed up the list of my favorite bands, I had yet to buy a single album. It was long over due and this album is thus far, as good as anything I've heard from them before, even if nothing is leaping to
One Great City or
Aside catchiness yet.
11:59 pm - "
Relative Surplus Value"
The poker gods once again extract their vengence upon me. In the big blind with eight hundred chips and pocket 5's, everyone folds to the small blind, who pushes three hundred and fifty of his 3,700 chip stack. I figure he figures I'm shooting on a draw, push all-in and get a slight hesitation before he calls with pocket 3's.
I've been bested three times tonight with the best hand, so why not another they say, right? He rivered and I'm left here just into the fresh new day, $45 less in my poker stake and choked to no end. This is the second weekend in a row I've been getting a rough ride on the tables and my Full Tilt account is looking pretty shabby at the moment.
12:05 am - "
Tournament of Hearts"
Before joining one last table in the hopes of getting at least one victory on an otherwise disappointing night, I have to discuss this song.
Yes Johnny and Jenny Canucks....A Weakerthans song called
Tournament of Hearts is about exactly what you would think it would be.
Sample Lyrics:
~Now the lounge is full of farmers for the 7:30 draw. Teammates all left before they had to buy a round. When they pull the 50/50 and I've lost again, I'll go.~Thank you Mr John K. Samson. Canada now has a rock song about the roaring game. If I understand the song correctly, it's even a love story. Or a lack of love story.
Premise: Curler sits in lounge nursing a beer, but really stalling because he can't find the words to tell his love what he really wants to say to her.
Bravo! I'll never be able to look at the guys at
the Assiniboine quite the same way now that they'll have a theme song playing in my head, but no matter. I love the song.
More lyrics:
~So Elvera brings my bottle, I hold it up
and let it bend the figures of two rinks battling an extra end. And I'm peeling off the label as they peel a corner guard
and dance down the sheet to the tune of "Hurry! Hurry hard!"~Great tune.
12:17 am -
"Sun in an Empty Room"Great pick me up tune. I need it. In a likely vain effort to recoup some losses, I've sat down at a $20 one table SnG. Middle of the pack with seven remaining.
12:38 am - "
Utilities"
Just watched the end of the ballgame. If you hadn't heard by time you are read this, the Cleveland Indians lit up embattled Boston closer Canadian Eric Gagne. This was in the fourteenth inning.
The Tribe ended up taking 7 runs on the Sox in the inning, eventually winning the game and tying the series before returning to Cleveland. It was a spectacular defeat for the Sox.
Anyone who follows baseball has to be thinking that the Gagne trade deadline deal as one of the worst in history. Has any new player ever hurt his team this way? We're not just talking about under performance here, where a player simply doesn't match the expectations....No, Gagne inflicts so much pain to his own team that you make jokes about "sleeper agents" and wrestling-style "heel turns".
The latter is my favorite of course, because I can't get the idea of Gagne ripping off his jersey to reveal an Indian one underneath out of my head. Boos would reign down and Fox announcer Joe Buck up in the box would go nuclear. It would be one of the most memorable moments in sports' history and would earn Gagne death threats from Red Sox nation. The only way such a moment could be topped would be if it happened in Game Seven of the World Series instead of just the ALCS.
I'm telling ya, it should happen. If not baseball, some other sport. The heel turn is needed!
* * * * * *
Time for a new disc...
Amy Winehouse -
"Frank"12:54 am - "
Stronger Than Me"I've only heard bits and pieces of Winehouse's songs, almost never recognizing them quick enough to pay attention when I stumble upon one on the radio. Saw this one from 2003 - her debut - while picking up the Velvet Revolver on Thursday, so grabbed it as well.
I've probably listened to it at least four times since then. Absolutely sold. Who cares if she's a drugged out crazy lady.....In fact, now that I think about it, maybe that's why the music is so kick ass.
Her voice is so distinct yet classic. Sexy yet slightly grungy as well.
I can only hope the the latest personal endeavor of becoming a gym rat and eating healthy pays off and I manage to trick a girl into coming over for dinner or something like that. If I do, it'll be Ms. Winehouse's music setting the mood.
1:06 am - "
F**k Me Pumps"
Just busted out again. On the bubble. This time the defeat is self-inflicted. I misplayed a hand three or four hands earlier, left myself in bad position stack size-wise and had to push with K-J off in the big blind. Small blind called with A-3 off, but neither of us improved and he took the pot.
This has been - by far - my worst online poker night since I started playing for cash after coming back from Vegas in March. Still playing on the original $200 I put in then, but after some big swings up and down, I think tonight might be it's Waterloo.
I've only got one more in me, so let's fire up a $10 single table SnG and see how it goes.
1:13 am -
"In My Bed"Hire this woman to sing the next James Bond theme like RIGHT NOW.
1:29 am - "
Help Yourself"
I'm in a dog fight here. 4th of 5 with 3 paying, but it's wide open right now and chips are moving around. Just have to be patient and not make any fatal mistakes like I did the last time. If the messages are getting shorter it's because it's later and I'm tired of focusing on cards. Running out of juice.
1:33 am -
"Amy, Amy, Amy"My favorite song on the disc and possibly my favorite of the weekend. Winehouse wails about how worked up she gets around a certain guy. Horns, back up singers, wicked baseline...This is a money song here. I kinda wished my name was Amy so I could use this as a theme song.
Okay, maybe not, but it's still a great song.
I've worked my way up to second place, but the gap between richest and poorest is less than a thousand so it's basically a tie situation.
1:42 am - Fifth place just left. I'm in a tie situation with second at just over three thousand chips. The leader has 5,400ish and the fourth place dude has around 1,500.
Time for the final new album of the weekend:
* * * * * * * *
Amy Winehouse -
"Back To Black"Yes, that's right! I bought both her albums this weekend. I loved the first one so much that I made a trip special to pick up the second one today (that's when I also grabbed The Weakerthans and The Arcade Fire).
This is only my second go-around with
Back To Black and my initial thoughts are that I don't enjoy it as much as
Frank, but that it will also make for great listening when just hanging out. Maybe with a glass of wine.
1:50 am - "
You Know I'm No Good"
Or a bottle.
1:58 am -
"Back To Black" (title track)
Yes, I know that joke works better with the song "Rehab", but YKING was playing and I'm sticking to the shtick.
Sitting fourth now. Small stack around 1,800 while the others are all in the mid-3,000s. I need a nice hand or two to help out.
2:16 am -
*silence*How appropriate. I bust out in third place taking a stab at the big stack and the CD comes to a stop.
Maybe I could have been a little more patient for a better pushing hand than K-10 suited, but we were playing three-handed for a long time and I felt I needed to make a move if I was going to give myself a chance at the win.
That being said, it took all night, but I finally moneyed and took $18 for my efforts in that one. barely puts a dint in the damage my account took tonight, but I'm saying goodnight on a moral victory.
Hopefully today's football wagers go better for me.
Night.
I'm off to dreams of Amy Winehouse crooning in a place where 95% favorites hold out.
