Here are some short reviews of albums I've picked up recently.

All Else Failed -- This Never Happened relates a deeper, more subtle and personal evil, one of broken trust and betrayal. The music is hard to classify. The lyrics are as ugly and personally oppressive as I've ever seen. "To whom it may concern" makes Henry Rollins look well adjusted. Sort of new Philadelphia hardcore with a little Dillinger Escape Plan mixed in, but some of the songs are surprisingly
tender despite the subject matter. Best songs -- To Whom it May Concern, Character Actor.

A Life Once Lost -- A Great Artist. Another one that's hard to classify. A little like later Meshuggah but not as complex. Got a little Philly hardcore in there too.

Mastodon -- Leviathan (plus live audio DVD). Heavy, catchy, and subtly complex. Blood and Thunder is the best song on the album.

Heaven Shall Burn -- Antigone. Epic Euro metal. Best songs -- The Weapon They Fear, The Only Truth. When it hit the 0:14 mark on The Only Truth, I thought at first "oh shit, the whole ALBUM is gonna be like this!" A bit of guitar wanking but they don't overdo it too much.

Nasum -- Shift. Grindcore with lots of short fast songs. Heavy as hell and very intense. Sadly their singer/guitarist died in the tsunami. Best song -- Wrath.

Strapping Young Lad -- Alien. Strapping Young Lad is coming out with a new album. I was a little underwhelmed at their last album, which sounded like they'd been touring with (and influenced by) death metal bands too much lately. I got a promo CD, and it sounds like Devin is off his meds, which is a good thing. It sounds closer to his best album, the brutal manic-depressive City. I'm gonna grab this album soon.

I live just outside the Fairfax, VA city limits, and two sides of my lot border a small park. The upside of this (is there a down side? maybe the twelve tons of leaves that fall on my yard every year) is that a lot of animals stroll through or even make a home right in my backyard. I've seen ducks, deer, frogs, snakes, a hawk, many small birds, chipmunks, squirrels, woodpeckers, a groundhog that lived under my front porch for a while, and our current fixation, several foxes.

My girlfriend is blogging about the foxes. There probably will be pictures soon (we have them, just a matter of hosting and posting).

Last year my neighbor pointed out that he could see under my deck, and that a fox had made a home for her kits there. We keep our eyes open, and now it is rare for a day to go by that we don't see a fox. Usually we see the pups at dusk, and sometimes the mother when it gets darker. I'm not totally sure the "juvenile" and the mother are separate foxes, though I've read that sometimes "helper" foxes from one litter stay to help with the next.

The kits are very cute, they look very much like puppies. We look out the rear windows and watch them play. We almost never see them during the day. They come out at dusk and are active at night. But all foxes are very skittish of people. One was hiding in some bushes when my girlfriend went outside, and it ran off in the opposite direction very fast. Sometimes when I'm outside I look underneath the deck to see some eyes glowing at me. They bark and run away if they can. We try not to disturb them when we know they're out there.

Sometimes it's sad though, I recently found a dead pup by our little pond. It looked a little wet and had a little blood coming from its mouth. I don't know how it died. Could it have drowned? If it did, how did it get out? Would the mother have grabbed it from the water? The bigger pups play pretty rough, and the mother frequently isn't around. I put a piece of wood in the water so if they fall in they can climb out easier.

Out of the four pups we saw, two were much larger. Were they separate litters, or did the mother mate twice and have some pups fertilized later? Or were the other two just runts? One of the runts was the dead one I found. The other runt might have something wrong with an eye, it was hard to tell. The two bigger pups ran into the woods at separate times, and we're not totally sure they returned. We only saw one pup last night. One site said that of the 5-6 pups in a litter, usually only 2-3 reach maturity. I hope the others are OK.

Whoa.

I finally got around to tivoing the March 9th edition of Headbanger's Ball. Usually there's enough repeat videos that I've seen before, and enough songs turn me off in the first 30 seconds that I zip through the show pretty quickly. The very last video of the night started out with a simple riff and an unattractive clown. There's not much that turns me off quicker these days than guitar wanking, and this one almost did it. I'm glad I was patient.

Very rarely do I see a video that really captures the uncontrollable fury and mayhem of the heavy metal mosh pit. This one does: Blood and Thunder on Mastodon: Leviathan. (It's a 10MB download, but worth it if you're a metal fan.) I hope I like this as much in the morning as I do now.

Warning: clowns will eat you.

Pretty incredible story about the guy who first caught Saddam Hussein in his hideout.

Dave Leitao is in Charlottesville. I'd say it's about 98% likely he'll be hired as the new Virginia men's basketball coach.

I don't watch much TV (outside of Virginia sports of course). But one show that I'm regularly tivoing is Battlestar Galactica. It's damn good, possibly the best science fiction show ever. Some called the first five minutes of the two part season one finale "the best five minutes of television ever". The second part of the finale ended with a tremendous out of nowhere cliffhanger.

(I saw a spoiler image of that cliffhanger prior to the showing, but fortunately got so wrapped up in the episode that I forgot all about it until it happened.)

What's going to happen next? My own speculation (and hopes) follow. (There's also an article here with similar intentions. I haven't read it thoroughly yet.)

EDIT: Here is a better interview of the writers who wrote the first episode in season 2. Mild season 2 spoilers.


!!!!! WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT !!!!!
(though I assume you already saw the episode and understand what I'm talking about)











At the end of the last episode, you might have thought the writers took advice from Knots' Landing. Shoot/maim everybody at the end of the season, and if any of the actors get uppity in contract negotiations, kill their character off!

• President Roslin is in the brig on orders from Adama.
  
• Vice President Baltar is stranded and wandering on Kobol after a crash landing.
  
• Commander Adama is either gravely wounded or dead (haha, you won't get off that easy, Olmos!).
  
• Apollo is in handcuffs and probably sent to the brig.
  
• Starbuck is AWOL with the captured raider on Caprica.
  
• Boomer(Galactica) just shot Adama and will be sent to the brig.
  
• Boomer(Caprica) is pregnant and has been shot by Helo.
  
• Helo is on Caprica, holding B(C) hostage, and just ran into Starbuck.
  
• Tyrol is stranded on Kobol.
  
• Six... well... that's complicated.
  

Tigh is the senior officer on board now. He throws Apollo in the brig for mutiny (and oh yeah, that little business of pointing a gun at Tigh's head). Adama goes to be operated on and is clinging to life. Security throws Boomer(Galactica) in the brig, and immediately there is an uproar over who might have ordered the assassination. Some believe that she was acting on behalf of President Roslin. (After all, Gaius Baltar's detector showed she wasn't a Cylon....)

The press is in an uproar over the "coup" and demands an audience. Tigh meets with them and after a tense, confrontational press conference, throws them off Galacitca (and into a shuttle if they're lucky). He is not the man for this job. He starts drinking again.

There is an obvious leadership void. Who else would take the opportunity for a power grab but Tom Zarek. He has support in the senate and no one to hold him in check.

Starbuck, Helo, and Boomer(Caprica) have the Arrow of Apollo to take back to Galactica, but all three of them won't fit in the Cylon Raider. What to do? Starbuck won't trust the Cylon B(C). If they don't find another way off Caprica, I'll bet somebody, probably Helo, dies.

Starbuck will make it back just in time for Tigh to throw her in the brig, too. Charge: insubordination, jumping back to Caprica during the Raider tests. She somehow gets the Arrow to the President.

Adama regains consciousness and tells Tigh to stay in charge for now. This galvanizes Tigh a bit and steels his determination. He lets Apollo and Starbuck out because he needs the help, or perhaps the cylons attack again. B(G) is court martialed for the assassination attempt. Eventually she is found guilty and spaced.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I really can't predict much further. Ronald D. Moore does a great job of keeping things both interesting, surprising, and believable. While not every episode was great, and sometimes minor plot points go somewhere and disappear, I became a dedicated watcher, and was on the edge of my seat for the final episode.

He says the Cylons have a plan. I hope he does as well.

Our insider says that the hire will be Leitao. If true, based on recent news articles and postings it looks like we did take a big long swipe at Tubby, and after some consideration he declined.

It's a bit of a risky hire. Of the likely candidates, I knew the least about him. All I know is he's relatively young and had mostly positive success at Depaul. I hope he's up to the rebuilding job required. One guy on the Sabre, usually with reasonable expectations, said yesterday that he thought we could be an NCAA team in two years. I don't know about that. We have a severely depleted roster, especially inside, and few or no scholarships to give. I don't envy the new hire's task.

There was a lot of speculation considering Littlepage's sealed lips. But the only interesting rumor with any weight to it was that there was a "stealth candidate". The name might come to light in the future. At present the best guess I saw was Kelvin Sampson of Oklahoma.

This article is the best I can find with any indications Leitao might have been hired. Confirmation that UVa asked to speak with him, and a UVa plane that went to Chicago are two fairly strong hints.

Greg Doyel really wants some attention. Just make some fart noises in class next time, Greg.

Right now, there are two likely candidates for the Virginia basketball head coach position (Dave "I'd like to buy a vowel" Leitao and Dave Odom), and two unlikely ones (Tubby Smith and Marc Iavaroni). Yoco has a good summary of recent stories. Jerry Ratcliffe also explores what we do and don't know about the search.

Odom was interviewed in South Carolina and was evasive and indirect to their questions. I think Yoco's idea that Odom is UVa's backup candidate is right.

Leitao is rumored to be visiting Virginia today. Assuming the Leitao report is correct and he is in Charlottesville today, I believe he is the most likely candidate for the job.

EDIT: 12:10 pm, Now am hearing that Leitao is NOT in Charlottesville. Does that mean the only possibilities are Tubby and Odom as the fallback?

Kentucky admitted that UVa had asked to speak with Tubby, which wouldn't have happened without at least some interest on his part. (But if it was clear he would accept, we would not be interviewing other candidates.) Iavaroni is rumored to be the next Portland Trail Blazer's head coach, and no one has linked him to Littlepage or Casteen recently.

Casteen and Littlepage will make one big play for Tubby (if they haven't already). If he passes, it comes down to Leitao or Odom. If Leitao interviews well and shows high interest, he might get an official offer as soon as tonight. If not, Odom clearly has pulled up stakes at USC. He would not be an instant fan favorite, but is certainly a capable coach.

The speculation on Dave Odom appears to be false. A couple of reliable sources are saying that UVa president Casteen has met with a candidate, and it is NOT Odom.

Odom has released a statement saying he had spoken on the phone with UVa AD Littlepage, partly about SEC schools in the NCAA tournament, and partly about Virginia basketball in general. My interpretation of his statement was that Craig was gauging Dave's interest (and vice versa). The end result being that Odom will not be offered the job.

Who could it be? A lot of UVa fans (not me) were pretty unhappy with Odom's candidacy. The A-list candidates don't seem to be interested. The B+ list probably includes Dave Laitao and Marc Iavaroni. Laitao has a decent resume, except for a 4-24 season his second year at Northeastern. Mulligan, anyone? Plus he is black, and Casteen has the biggest case of jungle fever this side of Julia Stiles. He made Gillen hire a black assistant, and crowed about hiring the first black AD in the ACC in Littlepage. (Just forget about that Kevin White business.) All joking aside, Littlepage has done fairly well and made a couple good hires in lesser sports. But the men's basketball position will define his tenure. Miss badly with another single NCAA bid in seven years, and he will be the first black AD fired in ACC history.

Iavaroni on the other hand has a long coaching career, but in the pros, a much different game. He does have the advantage of being an alum (and the interest in the job). But he would have to recruit and schmooze. Hopefully any interview with Littlepage and/or Casteen would clear up his skill and interest in those areas.

The third most likely candidate at present seems to be Mike Brey at Notre Dame. He has a decent record but his teams look to have regressed in his five years there.

If a bunch of people come out of the woodwork to declare their NON interest in the UVa job in the next couple days, that means an offer has been made and accepted. If Dick Vitale gets on TV and starts shouting about how great the Virginia job is, that means a former Dukie got the job, probably Brey.