there's something about indiana pro sports teams. they get better every year, have superstar players like reggie miller (now retired) and peyton manning, and generate tons of buzz. but they always choke when they get to the playoffs. last year the pacers made it as far as the eastern conference finals before getting shut down (the pacers made it to the nba finals once but have never won the big one since moving to the nba). and this year, the colts were supposed to be the anointed ones, major contenders for the super bowl, but lost in the first round of playoffs.

i was unable to avoid football this weekend and ended up watching parts of three playoff games: first watching the colts' perennial rival, the patriots, get squashed on friday night. then, while i didn't have to watch the humiliating first three quarters of the colts game, i watched the fourth quarter, where the colts finally caught up and had every chance to win, only to blow it all and lose. then i even ended up watching the end of the panthers-bears game while waiting for the first part of the 24 premiere (which was damned exciting... i didn't know how they could live up to their hype about how "the first 10 minutes will change everything" but two major deaths before the first commerical break, including the one character you would've thought could never die? [other than jack. they really should've killed him off a couple seasons ago.] that was a pretty big surprise).

but i had a good weekend despite all the football. virago & i went to a party and tasted exotic cocktails, had a few nice meals, and found silly sounds boohbahs on clearance for $3! at first i tried to resist, but in the end i couldn't resist the charms of the $3 boohbah. we were actually looking for the "1935 first edition" of monopoly, which i saw multiple places before xmas but has seemingly disappeared since. it's supposed to be a replica of the first edition of the game that parker bros put out in 1935, with community chest cards like "we're off the gold standard!" (of course, that wasn't the true first edition, as the game's legendary "inventor" charles darrow didn't invent it at all; rather he took the idea from an older game called the landlord's game and patented it. still, i'd love to see those depression-era cards.)

and then i got today off for martin luther king jr day. that gave me extra time to catch up on battlestar galactica and fullmetal alchemist as well as to go to indy cd & vinyl to spend the $20 gift certificate that virago gave me for xmas. i lucked into finding a copy of jason forrest's lady fantasy ep used for $5.97, got kevin blechdom's eat my heart out, kool keith's dr. octagon II, and a couple other hip-hop things, including taking a chance on something called the story of sampling by someone called pablo. it could be crap, but i just couldn't resist that title.

haven't had time to listen to much of the new stuff, other than dr. octagon II. and it truly does not live up to the dr. octagon name in any way. the first, real dr. octagon was a magical combination of keith, dan the automator, and dj qbert, and was possibly the peak of kool keith's career, no matter what he thinks. but for dr. octagon II, keith thinks he can do it all by himself, producing his own tracks. as a producer he's not awful, but he's nothing special either. and this record has more high points than some of his other recent releases (with the exception of diesel truckers), but calling it "dr. octagon II" (after killing off the dr. octagon character in dr. dooom first come first served) begs comparison to the original. they say the sequel is never as good as the original, and this is definitely true for dr. octagon II. not recommended except for kool keith completists.¶

i'm definitely not a kool keith completist, but i've listened to enough that i can at leats bob my head in agreement when you say that the first octagon album was the best of his career. i don't know if i ever thanked you for introducing me to him, and to that album in particular. that is, thanks! ¶