^^^ Excellent.

Already having second thoughts...chalk picks never go 100% in the NFL. There is always an upset or two along the way. But who? I am fairly confident in my Dallas (don't ask me why, given Romo's playoff no-go's) and Pittsburgh picks. That leaves the Arizona @ Carolina and Cincy @ Indy games. I may end up changing one or both of these picks. But peril abounds for such a course of action. For one thing, changing my pick to Cincinnati involves putting faith in Marvin Lewis to not be out-coached in a playoff game...a dicey proposition at best, even in the regular season. It also means counting on a ginger to lead his team to victory...ugh, that's verging on Lourdes-like faith. Arizona though, may be the safer upset pick. I mean, I know the 7-9 Seahawks beat New Orleans in a playoff game several years ago, so Carolina's sub-.500 record shouldn't be a deterrent against a team playing its third-string quarterback. Still...any team that struggles to win six games in today's NFL has some serious issues. Much more serious than a team missing its starting quarterback. Arizona may be lacking quarterbacks, but their defense still is relatively intact. I did not watch the Carolina-Atlanta NFC South-clinching game, but the lopsided score was surprising to me...it suggests that Atlanta tanked or quit on their coach/themselves. From what I have seen of Arizona, they are made of sterner stuff than the Sadlanta Frauds. But they will be on the road...and west teams going to the east coast are at a disadvantage.

^^^ I like both versions...they are equally great in my estimation, even though their musical aims are different.

All alone at work today...get to play what I want...first five discs up in the CD carousel today: 1. Velvet Underground "Velvet Underground"...the third album in a 45th Anniversary deluxe 6-disc edition with mono mix and a live show and a book. One of my Christmas gifts this year. Disc 1: The Val Valentin Mix... 2. Steve Hillage "L" http://youtu.be/u1rxFoREQqc 3. "Music From the Films of Audrey Hepburn": 4. "Ennio Morricone: The Legendary Italian Westerns" soundtrack: 5. Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto "Getz/Gilberto":

If Jimmy is saving all the good stuff for Coda, it's going to be a 20-disc set.

Drum rollllll.... :cheer: Hooray for jb126! Winner for the second consecutive year and winner of the inaugural PottedPlant Memorial NFL Pool. ebk and Strider won the final week with 13-3 records. Winner of the "Little Engine That Could" award is zepscoda, who although in last place for most of the season, kept plugging along and never gave up...and lo and behold, he passed LedZeppfan77 in the last week to rise out of last place. Which means LedZeppfan77 gets the "penthouse to the cellar" award for going from first place in Week 1 to the bottom in Week 17. Everyone won at least one week during the season...yes, even you mack! I forgot to credit you with a weekly win when you tied with Anjin-san in Week 5 at 13-2. The top 4 finishers of the season all won at least 4 weeks. Anjin-san was tops with 5 weeks won. jabe, mack, and paul carruthers were the singular week winners. zepscoda had both the best and the worst weekly record of the entire pool...a season high 14-2 record in Week 15 and a season-low 3-13 in Week 2. Only two participants managed to avoid any sub-.500 weeks the entire season: jb126 and mack. The best week of the pool was Week 15, when we were all a collective 152-56. The worst week was Week 2, with a dismal 95-113 total. jb126 and Strider tied for the most weeks with double-digit wins (10 or more), with 12 weeks each. LedZeppfan77 had the fewest weeks of 10 or more wins...only 4 weeks. Week 17 Results ebk: 13-3* Strider: 13-3* Anjin-san: 12-4 in_the_evening: 12-4 jb126: 12-4 paul carruthers: 12-4 Walter: 11-5 zepscoda: 11-5 apantherfrommd: 10-6 Bong-Man: 10-6 jabe: 10-6 mack: 9-7 LedZeppfan77: 8-8 Final Season Standings After 256 Games (Ranking...name...record...weeks won...win percentage...best record...worst record...weeks with 10+ wins...weeks under .500) 1. jb126: 177-78-1**** .693...13-3 (Week 15)...8-8 (Week 2)...12 weeks 10+ wins...no sub-.500 weeks. 2. Walter: 171-84-1**** .669...13-3 (Week 15)...6-8 (Week 11)...11 weeks 10+ wins...1 sub-.500 week. 3. Anjin-san: 169-86-1***** .662...13-2 (Week 5)...5-11 (Week 2)...10 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 4. Strider: 168-87-1**** .658...13-3 (Week 14 and 17)...6-10 (Week 2)...12 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 5. paul carruthers: 164-91-1* .642...13-3 (Week 15)...7-9 (Week 2)...9 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 6. apantherfrommd: 163-92-1*** .638...12-2-1 (Week 6)...6-10 (Week 1)...8 weeks 10+ wins...1 sub-.500 week. 7. ebk: 160-95-1*** .626...13-3 (Week 15 and 17)...6-10 (Week 1)...7 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 8. Bong-Man: 160-95-1** .626...13-3 (Week 14)...5-9 (Week 11)...8 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 9. in_the_evening: 156-99-1** .611...12-4 (Week 13 and 17)...4-12 (Week 16)...10 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 10. mack: 153-100-1* .599...13-2 (Week 5)...7-7-1 (Week 6)...5 weeks 10+ wins...no sub-.500 weeks. 11. jabe: 152-103-1* .595...12-4 (Week 14)...5-8 (Week 4)...7 weeks 10+ wins...3 sub-.500 weeks. 12. zepscoda: 150-104-1** .587...14-2 (Week 15)...3-13 (Week 2)...8 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. 13. LedZeppfan77: 149-106-1** .583...12-3 (Week 12)...5-8 (Week 4)...4 weeks 10+ wins...2 sub-.500 weeks. Thank you for participating. Hope to see everyone back again next season...along with some new faces. Come on down redrum and Sathington! Now, everyone over to paul's playoff pool thread.

Thanks Paul for taking the reins on this one. Carolina Pittsburgh Indianapolis Dallas

One of my faves...anything with Barbara Stanwyck is worth watching. Love that dame. Not familiar with this one...please clue me in when you get a chance?

The movie is alright but the book is far better. The movie spends far too much time on red herrings (is he a spy? his being gay) and not enough on the nuts and bolts of how they cracked the code and the far-reaching implications of the machine he created. Good cast for sure...Cumberbatch good as always, and Kiera Knightly hasn't been this good in ages. But Matthew Goode stole the show for me...he was outstanding.

An absolute favourite is kind of hard to pick off the top of my head...plus, there are still some films from this year I have yet to see: "American Sniper", "Big Eyes", "The Gambler", "Foxcatcher". But a quick Top 10 list of movies from this past year would look like this: "Only Lovers Left Alive", "Interstellar", "Fury", "Locke", "Under the Skin", "The Theory of Everything", "We Are the Best!", "Birdman", "Gone Girl", "Boyhood". "Wild", "Whiplash", "Nightcrawler", "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies", and "Guardians of the Galaxy" are all bubbling under the top 10...and might have even made the list if I had made it another day. I have nothing against Johnny Depp, Debbie...he has been great in the past from "Edward Scissorhands" to "Benny & Joon" to "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" to "Ed Wood" to "Dead Man" to "Nick of Time" to "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" to "Finding Neverland". But starting with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels he has shown a distressing trend of portraying the same Tim Burton-esque freaks. "Dark Shadows"..."Lone Ranger"...the Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland". It is like he won't do a role if he can't put on make-up and wear a weird hat, and his performances are all full of the same tics and mannerisms so that one role bleeds into the other so it is like he is doing the same schtick over and over. Bring back the old Johnny Depp and I'll be happy to watch him. But sad to say, while he wasn't bad as The Wolf in "Into the Woods", it still was too much of the 'same old, same old' that he has been doing lately...the two Princes were far more interesting as characters and their songs were better. I would rather have had Rob Marshall restore the missing scenes involving the Princes that were in the original musical.

It is all over but the shouting. Doesn't matter what happens in the afternoon games...there is no way anybody can catch jb126 now. Sooooo.... CONGRATULATIONS TO jb126!!!! Winner for the second year in a row...she's kicking our arses, fellas! Brett "pottedplant" would be proud...and her Saints won their last game of the season to end on an up-note. Final numbers and tallies to come later.

^^^ Don't wait until after the New Year? You guys are tough, haha.

I almost made a cheap joke...but thought better of it.

jb126, Walter, Bong-Man...GET YOUR PICKS IN BEFORE 1:00p.m. EST Sunday! Hard to believe the season is over already. Sunday Dec. 28 Baltimore Dallas Indianapolis Houston Kansas City New York Jets Minnesota Buffalo New York Giants New Orleans Atlanta Green Bay Oakland San Francisco Seattle Pittsburgh

Kings feasted on shark meat tonight.

I enjoyed it for the most part...especially the first two-thirds. Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, and Chris Pine were top-notch. The "Agony Song" duet by Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen was the comic highlight of the film. Christine Baranski and Tracey Ullman lended their usual talents. But Director Rob Marshall made some crucial cuts to the musical that I feel hurt the film in the long run, sapping the ending and the point of the musical. His directing style needs to settle down...it is too busy and distracting. According to the credits, here are the songs from Sondheim's original musical that were cut for the film adaptation: "I Guess This Is Goodbye" "Maybe They're Magic" "Our Little World" "Maybe They're Magic (Reprise)" "First Midnight" "A Very Nice Prince (Reprise)" "Second Midnight" "Act One Finale (Part 3)" "Act 1 Finale (Part 4)Ever After"(Instrumental heard in film) "Act Two Opening (So Happy)" "Agony" (Reprise) "Any Moment (Part 2)" "No More" (Instrumental heard in film) "Act Two Finale (Part 1)" It doesn't wreck the movie completely, but it could have been so much better, in my opinion, if he had trusted the source material more...and given us more Chris Pine and less Johnny Depp. It seems I am not alone...this was in the Washington Post yesterday: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/12/26/how-disney-wrecked-into-the-woods/

Happy Birthday Tanya! May you hit a bulls-eye with your presents today. Best birthday wishes and cheers to you!

Or as we called it in the Army, S.O.S. One of my Christmas presents: Sweenor's Chocolates from Rhode Island...

Saw my #199 ("Inherent Vice") and #200 ("Into the Woods") movies of the year this past week. Going to see "American Sniper" tonight and "Big Eyes" and "The Interview" sometime this weekend or next week.

It seems to have quietly passed notice here, but the 46th Anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first U.S. show December 26, 1968 in Denver was yesterday and Billboard magazine published an article noting the event...filled with some of the usual errors and generalizations that sometimes plague Led Zeppelin articles. http://www.billboard.com/articles/6415124/led-zeppelin-first-us-tour-1968-anniversary Led Zeppelin Kicked Off First U.S. Tour 46 Years Ago Today By Leslie Richin December 26, 2014 2:50 PM EST On this day (Dec. 26) in 1968, Led Zeppelin (not to be confused with "Len Zefflin") kicked off their first North American tour opening for psychedelic hard rock band Vanilla Fudge at Denver Auditorium in Colorado. A ticket to see them play would only set you back $5 and the setlist included a surprising eight covers and only a few original tracks off the band's forthcoming self-titled debut album, which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1969. Legendary promoter Barry Fey recalled the band's first U.S. show in his 2011 autobiography, Backstage Past: "The night of the concert, I get on stage to make the announcement to open the show. “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome, direct from England for their North America debut, Led Zeppelin!” There was a smattering of polite applause. Then, Robert Plant let it rip and everybody in the audience was stunned. You didn’t have to be a genius to know Zeppelin was going to be a smash. Oh, my God. People were going crazy!" Let’s check out where the collection of songs on the band's U.S. tour setlist originated: 1. "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (cover) "Don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?" Before becoming the infamous rock track on Zeppelin's debut album, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" began as a folk song written by Anne Bredon in the '50s. It was recorded by Joan Baez on her 1962 album, Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1. 2. "I Can't Quit You Baby" (cover) "I can't quit you, baby, so I'm gonna put you down for a while" "I Can't Quit You Baby" was written by the immensely influential Willie Dixon and first recorded by Chicago artist Otis Rush in 1956. Listen to Rush sing the blues and then follow with Zeppelin's bluesy-rock version. Regardless of which version you prefer, there's no denying that both Rush and Plant deliver the vocals. 3. "Dazed and Confused" (cover) "Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true" "Dazed and Confused" was written and performed by Jake Holmes in 1967, two years before appearing on Zeppelin's debut album. It was also covered by Jimmy Page's previous band, The Yardbirds, who Holmes opened for. Listen to Holmes' psychedelic version and follow with the rendition that's been known to melt a few faces. 4. "You Shook Me" (cover) "You shook me so hard, baby, you shook me all night long." "You Shook Me" began as a blues song recorded by Chicago blues artist Muddy Waters in 1962, co-written by Willie Dixon. It was then recorded by the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on vocals in 1968, before being recorded for Zeppelin's debut album in 1969. Zeppelin's harmonica-turned-guitar solo (at 3:05) is in part responsible for the phrase "getting the Led out." 5. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" (cover) "I said, train kept a-rollin' all night long" First recorded by American jazz and R&B musician Tiny Bradshaw in 1951, "Train Kept A-Rollin'" was yet another song popularized by The Yardbirds (and Jeff Beck) before it was added to Zeppelin's setlist. It was also previously covered by American rockabilly musician Johnny Burnette in 1956. Interestingly enough, Led Zeppelin's version left the smallest digital footprint of all -- perhaps because it wasn't until 1974 that Aerosmith, not Zeppelin, brought the song into the hard rock mainstream. 6. "As Long As I Have You" (cover) "Give me mountains to crumble and I'll turn them to sand" An extended version of Garnet Mimms' 1964 song "As Long As I Have You" was performed during both Zeppelin's U.S. and U.K. tours. Although Mimms version is notably underrated, Zeppelin took the song to another level entirely at the Fillmore West in San Francisco during the band's second U.S. tour in 1969. 7. "For Your Love" (cover) "I'd give the moon if it were mine to give." To continue the trend of songs performed live by Led Zeppelin post The Yardbirds, here's "For Your Love," originally written by Graham Gouldman (later of 10cc) in 1965. Although The Yardbird's version became their highest charting single in the U.S. (peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100), Zeppelin delivered the goods during the band's performance at Hollywood's world famous Whisky a Go Go in 1969. 8. "Killing Floor" (cover) "I should've quit you, babe, long time ago" Prior to making its way onto Zeppelin's setlist, "Killing Floor" was written by American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Howlin' Wolf in 1964 and performed live by Jimi Hendrix. Eventually the song title (as well as the tempo and some of the lyrics) was changed to "The Lemon Song" (included on Led Zeppelin II) after legal action was taken by Howlin' Wolf's publisher. 9. "How Many More Times" "I can't get through to her 'cause it doesn't permit, but I'm gonna give her everything I've got to give" "How Many More Times" was often Zeppelin's closing number. At 8:29 minutes in length, it's the longest song on the band's debut album. 10. "Communication Breakdown" "I'm having a nervous breakdown, drive me insane" Usually a tour opener or an encore song, this classic track is one of the few songs on which Page sang a backing vocal. 11. "Moby Dick" (aka "Pat's Delight") During their first U.S. tour, Zeppelin drummer John Bonham would sometimes solo for upwards of 30 minutes on this instrumental. The original song title was named for Bonham's wife. (I call bullshit on this...I have yet to come across a 30-minute drum solo on any of my 1968-69 bootlegs. I hate when reporters generalize like this.) 12. "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" Another instrumental, but this time Jimmy Page took the spotlight. During the band's first U.S. tour, "Black Mountain Side" was combined with The Yardbirds song "White Summer," which translated into an epic 9-minute solo for Page. Listen to both songs together during Zeppelin's 1969 show in Paris.

Sarah McLachlan majestic cover of Joni Mitchell's "River"...listen at the end for a musical quote you might be familiar with.

Sarah McLachlan's "Wintersong" album is another modern Christmas classic...with a beautiful take on "What Child Is This?"