Deep Six

I thought that catchy metal music died with System of a Down, but apparently Marilyn Manson did not get the memo. His latest release "The Pale Emperor," especially the song "Deep Six" and a few others were quite catchy, rhythmic and aurally pleasing. I recommend a listen if you were a fan of hard rock/metal in the 2000s or of Manson.

Anyways, I am very busy with the winter sports season, and will be lucky enough to attend the Cleveland Cavs/Minnesota TWolves game Saturday night, thanks to Little Falls High School. I'll be down on Friday to the cities to take in some seminars in conjunction with the Minnesota Newspaper Association conference. Saturday I will head to Target Center to cover Little Falls vs. St. Cloud Apollo in boys basketball. Then Lebron, Kevin Love and Andrew Wiggins.

I have many pictures to share from Jan. 15-20.

Little Falls student and Brainerd-Little Falls girls hockey player Sydney Berg faces off against Sartell-Sauk Rapids' Kaelyn Szymanski Thursday, Jan. 15 in Sartell.

Ally Smith prepares to fire a shot at the net.

Senior Mariah Lennander blocks out a defender to keep the puck in zone Jan. 15.

No. 17 Brooke Watland corrals a bouncing puck as Storm'N Sabres defender Megan Cook defends.

Berg chases a puck behind the net after it was kept out of the goal by SSR's Clare Minnerath.

Little Falls student and BLF forward Ellie Riitters rockets a shot past Szymanski.

Upsala's Kiley Smieja goes up for two as Swanville senior Stephanie Koetter defends Jan. 16 in Upsala.

Brooke Westrich of Upsala passes out of a quadruple team by (from left): Brooklyn Thieschafer, Madison Beseman, Koetter and Haleigh Sales.

Pierz senior guard Nick Herold passes to the corner Jan. 19 against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle.

The Pioneers' Michael Meyer (No. 1) boxes out an opponent as Noah Boser shoots for two.

Boser puts up a floater.

Adam Ripplinger (No. 55) defends as Holdingford's Grant Bullert goes to the hoop Jan. 20.

Upsala senior Kyle Soltis attempts to drive by the Huskers' Matt Hellmann.

Senior Keith Ripplinger has the ball stripped as Holdingford's Joe Meier (No. 50) defends.

Holdingford's Matt Vasilj tries to keep up with Upsala's Myron Ripplinger.

Upsala senior Jeffrey Halverson shoots over Bullert in the second half.

Upsala senior Aidan Guthrie tries to drive past Vasilj.

Vasilj blocks Upsala's Soltis.

Novocaine

I imagine you've heard Fall Out Boy's latest smash "Centuries." The song has been inescapable the past months, as it has played in the background of every sports montage or pregame package this fall. Well, the album that contains the hit, "American Beauty/American Psycho" came out today. Overall, the album was not spectacular, but was solidly FOB. The best track is probably the angry, aggressive "Novocaine."

Quite an improbable victory by Seattle Sunday night, eh? I'm pretty excited for the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 actually.

I have several pictures from the past week or so. Enjoy.

Pierz' Kolton Eischens takes down Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale's Ethan Kimber.

Eischens gets near fall points.

Wyatt Lillemoe wraps up Dan Nordean.

Jalen Jensen struggles to break out of a hold.

Senior Hailey Claseman does a jump on the balance beam.

Claseman prepares for a jump.

Little  Falls junior Sarah Stout prepares to flip on the uneven parallel bars.

Suzy Smith prepares to transfer to the upper bar.

Stout vaults early in the meet, Jan. 13 against Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted.

Title

Meghan Trainor's expected-to-be strong album "Title" came out today, and after a listen on Spotify, I have to say I'm quite disappointed. The hits, "All About That Bass" and "Lips Are Movin" are great, which I'm sure is why they were released as singles, but most of the rest of the album was unsatisfactory, unsavory and unusual. Several songs were very hip/hop-oriented, which was strange from a strong pop star. Others were slow, sappy ballads that were often throwback in nature, which made my ears feel sick. Even the pop-like songs on "Title" were blah. The title-track "Title" was very good, but it was honestly the only other song I enjoyed apart from the hits, and I'm usually really easy to please.

My final playoff hope from my preseason picks has officially been eliminated (Broncos) and the Packers stole a win from the Cowboys thanks to Dez Bryant's (non)catch, and I'm not even going to get into that. I will say that my pre-playoff pick in New England is certainly looking better now that Denver is out of the way, and they survived the curse of Baltimore game.

I unfortunately have but one photo from last week thanks to the New Years holiday, and the need to use the majority of the photos from the Royalton/Swanville girls and Upsala/Swanville boys games in the paper. I also had but one half from each to photograph too, which did not help either.

Swanville's Stephanie Koetter goes up for two as Royalton's Haley Olson, front, and Brooke Tschida, right, try to defend her, Jan. 6 in Swanville.

Rockin' the Suburbs

There have been very few album releases lately, so I'm going with a the classic Ben Folds track "Rockin' the Suburbs." The term has come big time into the Sportscenter vocabulary, and is one of my favorite of Ben Folds' tracks. He should be way more popular than he is, because he is crazy talented and makes great music.

I totally forgot to post my playoff picks for the year, and where they looked compared to my preseason favorites (brutal). Anyway, whether you believe this or not is up to you, but I did pick Dallas, Baltimore, Indy and Carolina all to win last week. This week I have Dallas to upset Green Bay, New England to walk all over Baltimore, Seattle to beat Carolina comfortably and Denver to sneak one out against Luck and the Colts.

OK, OK, I know you want to be reminded of how terrible my preseason picks were. Let's just say this, I only correctly predicted one team in the NFC that made the playoffs, and that was Arizona, who was worthless by the time playoff time actually came. In the AFC I had four, but also predicted Tennessee would make the playoffs and they finished 2-14. However, my Super Bowl winner is still alive in Denver, so there's that.

I have several pictures from between Dec. 29-31. Enjoy.

Little Falls junior Jordan Schuett rocks the new gray uniforms, and looks for somebody to pass to Monday, Dec. 29 against Apollo.

Teammates celebrate with Hunter Swanson (No. 4) Dec. 29 against Mound-Westonka.

Upsala's Kyle Soltis loses possession of the ball on a fastbreak as a Hutchinson defender closes in.

Flyers junior Mikayla Burns is blocked by an Apollo defender. 

Sarah Gold tries to shake off Apollo's Emily Eiynck in the Flyers' first win of the season, Dec. 29.

Gold smiles as Little Falls leads by double digits.

Gold to the hoop.

Kristin Stewart drives by Apollo defender Calli Lynch.

Pierz sophomore Brianna Meyer flies down the court against Crosby-Ironton, Dec. 30.

Talyre Boser shovels a pass to a teammate on a fast break.

Boser prepares to shoot.

Boser flings a pass up court.

Kacy Broschofsky (No. 25) fights for a ball with Abby Gindorff (No. 40) and others.

Becca Athman strides to the basket with Lauren Peterson on her tail.

Jeremy Halverson has the ball knocked away after he was fouled by Nathan Schimpp.

Pierz junior Aaron Weber goes to the hoop for two Dec. 31 against Melrose in the championship of the Cathedral Christmas Classic. The Pioneers beat two former No. 1 ranked teams to get to the title game, but lost 82-44 to Melrose.

Jonny Kasper throws a pass to Weber.