Holy shit holy shit holy shit.

No Led Zep Tour 'Til September
January 28, 2008

If a Led Zeppelin reunion tour does indeed take place, it won't happen until at least September, according to Jimmy Page. Page announced at a press conference this morning in Tokyo that if the band were to reunite for a large-scale world tour, it wouldn’t happen until at least September, since Robert Plant will be busy touring with Allison Krauss in support of their Raising Sand album.

"Robert Plant also had a parallel project running and he’s really busy with that project, certainly until September, so I can’t give you any news," Page told reporters while promoting Led Zeppelin's new greatest hits package, Mothership. He added that, "I can assure you the amount of work that we put into the [London reunion concert], for ourselves rehearsing and the staging of it, was probably what you put into a world tour."

Yes, I realize that this is in no way any sort of formal announcement of a tour BUT if you read into what Jimmy Page is saying, you have to infer that there has been some discussion and consideration of Robert Plant's prior commitments right? And then the line about the amount of work that went into that one show seems almost too much work to do for JUST one show? Sold. Zeppelin 08/09, book it (please?).

What kind of greeting is 'Hey guy?'. Seriously. Some random stranger just came into the office and began his conversation with me by saying 'Hey guy...'. Its not even like this guy was young and hip or whatever (is 'hey guy' even a young hip term? I don't know, but kids seem to have all kinds of stupid sayings these days), he had to be about 40! Is it that difficult to just say hello? Or even how are you? How you doin'? Those I could accept...but hey guy? Drives me nuts.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up Guitar Hero 3. That game is so much fun. I've always pretty much limited myself to sports games on the 360 but wow, its great. The only real complaint is there doesn't seem to be as much downloadable content as there is for Rock Band.

So, I decided to take the plunge and pick up Rock Band with the drums and mic and all. Holy shit, it is absolutely amazing. The gameplay is identical to Guitar Hero, but being able to play drums is just fucking unbelievable. At one point I was on drums, one of my sisters was on guitar and the other sister on bass with my nephew singing. Terrific. As if that wasn't enough, I started going through the downloadable songs and the selection is terrific. My first download? The Metallica pack featuring Ride the Lightning, And Justice For All and Blackened! Hell yes! I only got it yesterday and played it for 4 hours straight.

As has been expected for what seems like forever the Leafs today have fired GM John Ferguson Jr. There is no doubt he's made some questionable decisions such as Tucker and McCabe contracts, trading Tuuka Rask for Raycroft, keeping Andy Wozniewski on the roster etc. But you really do have to wonder how much of his failure is tied into the completely bizarre goings on by the Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment board runs the team.

Leading up to his firing, news reports started coming out saying he was basically told to give washed up Tie Domi a contract basically because he's friends with board member Larry Tannenbaum. There was a report that JFJ had a plan to start rebuilding the Leafs a couple of years but that was nixed by the board in favour of sticking with the status quo and trying to bring in aging veterans.

Then the kicker was Scotty Bowman's revelation on Hockey Night in Canada a couple weeks ago that he was fully prepared to take over control of the Leafs hockey operations prior to this season (similar to what Brian Colangelo has done with the Raptors), told the Leafs as much, but after meeting with both Tannenbaum and Richard Peddie those idiots told Scotty they had decided to stick with what they had. That's right, they turned down arguably the greatest hockey mind out there, a guy who lives and breathes hockey...to keep the GM they just fired.

So, who have they replaced JFJ with? Did they realize the error of their ways and go back to Scotty Bowman with their hats in hand and offer him the job they should have given him in August? Of course not. That would make sense. Nope, instead they've gone and dug up Cliff Fletcher. Yes, the same Cliff Fletcher who famously said 'draft schmaft' is now in charge of the Leafs when what they need to do is re-build through the draft. The same Cliff Fletcher who was pretty much run out of Phoenix and look how much better they are doing now.

Really shouldn't be surprising I guess. For years the Leafs have time and time again brought back players past their prime like Wendel Clark (don't get me wrong, I love him but he was done), Gilmour, etc. So why not bring back Fletcher? Jesus Christ, what the fuck are they thinking? In the end though, whether it was Fletcher or pretty much anyone else, until the idiots on the MLSE board get it through their thick heads that they don't know how to run a winning hockey team things will just remain the same.

They need to hire someone who knows what he's doing, give the guy a budget and then leave him alone to run the hockey team. Let him hire/fire the coach, make trades, negotiate contracts and do everything else. They may be fine businessmen but the people on the MLSE board have proven over and over again that they don't seem to be capable of running a hockey team. In short, they need to butt the fuck out.

In preparation for our upcoming move (which is so unbelievably horribly organized, big shock) the Stupid Receptionist has been tasked with calling customers to ask them to come and pick up their finished orders now instead of in the spring so we don't have to move them. Pretty simple task right? Just call, leave a message that your order is ready, we'd appreciate it if you could pick it up, give us a call if you have questions.

Oh no, not her. I just timed a message she left for someone (yes I know I could probably be doing more productive things), it came in at ONE MINUTE AND 36 SECONDS! She's rambling about 'maybe you heard we're moving', 'you can call me if you want the pricing', 'your stuff will be upstairs but you can go downstairs', blah blah blah. I just timed myself and was able to get across all the pertinent information in 20 seconds. I mean, if I came home and heard a long rambling message from some wheezy old bitch I would seriously be annoyed.

UPDATE: She just broke her record, with a voice mail that lasted 1:39!!!!! WOOO!

So the Super Bowl match up is set - the plucky underdog Giants against the Patriots' Evil Empire. I hear the opening line on the game has the Patriots 17 point favourites. I guess the G-men winning 10 straight road games including knocking off the #1 and #2 seeds in consecutive weeks doesn't count for much. Oh well, I have (some) faith in you Giants. Shock the world and put an end to the Patriots perfect season push. Really though, I'm just thankful that it didn't end up a Pats/Packers Super Bowl because the media would have exploded with a thousand orgasms over the Favre vs. Brady match up.

Both games were pretty good yesterday. Brady had a pretty bad game (by his standards) yet the Chargers could only get field goals instead of touchdowns and that was the difference. It does seem that if you can get and sustain pressure on Brady that it will definitely throw them off their game. And the Giants have one of the best pass rushes in football, just not sure how their secondary will hold up.

The Giants and Packers game was excellent, mostly because it resulted in the Packers losing. Eli Manning once again played a pretty good game and didn't make mistakes. Plaxico had a huge day too. However the Giants really looked they were going to blow it after missing two field goals that could have won it. After the Packers won the toss in OT I'm sure pretty much everyone assumed they were going to take it. But thanks to good ol' number 4 and his pesky habit of throwing poorly timed interceptions the Giants got it back and their kicker redeemed himself by kicking a perfect field goal to win it.

It will be interesting to see how the big game plays out. I am pretty much resigned to the fact that more than likely the Pats will win and go undefeated and we will be bombarded by 'perfect' talk which while nauseating will, I can admit, be deserved because we're pretty much watching one of the greatest teams of all time. I just hate that Pats so much that it is especially hard to stomach.

Though all that said I still do think there is a glimmer of hope for the Giants to pull off what would be a HUGE upset. They can run the ball very well, they have an excellent pass rush and a generally good defense. As long as Eli can keep playing at the same level they should at least be able to keep it close, and that's really all you need.

So, in closing, GO GIANTS!

Dammit. I just found out Hayden is doing a few shows coming up soon and of course the show in Toronto is already sold out. He's playing a show in Kitchener which isn't that far, but I'm not going to go all that way to see a show by myself. Were it in Toronto maybe, but not out in Kitchener. Unfortunately the only other person I know who would have any interest in seeing him has dropped off the face of the earth. Guess I'll have to cross my fingers and hope that a second Toronto date gets added.

I find that's one drawback to listening exclusively to satellite radio, I miss out on local concert listings (not that anyone would necessarily have mentioned Hayden anyways). Like those shows Neil Young did at Massey Hall not too long ago, I had absolutely no idea those were going on until a couple weeks after tickets went on sale. Guess I'll have to start combing over local concert listings online on a regular basis.

I'm used to Leafs collapses but last night was something else. 3 goals in less than a minute is a sight you never really expect to see in an NHL game...yet there it was last night! It would be easy to peg it on Clemmensen, the 3rd string goalie but really, he had absolutely no help from anyone.

This season is quickly going from mildly annoying to downright depressing. I am usually on the optimistic side when it comes to the Leafs. I'm usually the one trying to convince people they aren't as bad as they seem, that they are on the verge of getting it together, etc. But even I am struggling to see any bright side.

Toskala's play was stellar for a good stretch...but then he hurt his groin and with a goalie who knows how he'll bounce back from that? Antropov came out of the gates on fire, but has since practically disappeared. I guess Colaiacovo has looked pretty good since he came back...but its only been a couple of games and you can't blame me for assuming he will be hurt again soon enough.

The saddest thing is that I really can't see any way they get better any time soon. I'm pretty sure Ferguson is gone sooner than later, maybe Maurice too. But unless the bigwigs at MLSE step aside, turn over entire control of the team to a hockey guy (perhaps Scotty Bowman? Please????) and stop meddling, stop infighting, things are just going to likely continue being the mess that they are now and have been for years and years.

sigh.

Well, here we are on New Years Day. Didn't really do all that much tonight, just went over toa friend's, had some beers, then came home. Some look at New Year's as a day of reflection on the year past, some as a look ahead on the year to come. Me, I usually just look at it as another day. But...if I had to do some reflection, it would go as follows:

2007 was shaping up to be pretty much the same as 2006 and most of the years that proceeded it. Then one day in April I received an e-mail that pretty much changed my life. Its hard to explain how or why this change happened, and it wasn't without its almost non-happening (my fault)...but it did happen. And since it has, I have been lucky enough to meet the most amazing person I have ever had the chance to meet.

And its a meeting that in my twisted logic had no chance of happening. But somehow we did meet in person which is something I never ever would have thought this blog would have resulted in. As a result of our meetings (yes, there have been more than one) I probably feel better about myself and my life than I have ever felt before. This woman is simply incredible. She is so uplifting, so reassuring, so fucking sexy too...well, suffice it to say she's just so perfectly amazing that whenever we are together I can't help but wonder what the hell she's doing hanging about with me. Sadly there is an issue of distance between us that limits meetings to once a month if we're lucky...but in a way that just serves to make what little time we get to spend together that much more special.

Regardless she is with me and for that I will forever remember 2007 as one amazing year. And I will look forward to 2008 with an unbridled optimism that I really can't remember ever having. Yeah, there's loads of uncertainty at work and what have you...but thanks to her I have no fear that everything will turn out alright.