God Damn

Avenged Sevenfold, one of the few hard rock bands that I listen to with regularity recently released their seventh studio album, "The Stage." I listened to the album on Spotify today and it was pretty good. In my listening experience, Avenged Sevenfold has like 3-5 good songs on each album, and the rest kind of blend together in a listenable, but seemingly dull slur. One of the best songs that is within the top 5 songs on the album is the track "God Damn." I really enjoyed the bridge especially.

The fantasy football championship week recently concluded, and while I was in the title game in dynasty, I unfortunately ran into the juggernaut that is Todd Gurley, and fell by 25. In the other league that I made the playoffs, I ended up losing in the third place match, so I took fourth place. Lastly, I won the ninth place game, avoiding the cellar in my main redraft league. Thanks for reading, and I took an early look at my predictions from earlier this fall, and they weren't too bad. :)

Anyways, I have several photos in an album to share from Little Falls wrestling against Foley, Dec. 14, an Upsala/Holdingford boys and girls basketball doubleheader from Dec. 16 and a Royalton boys/girls basketball doubleheader from Dec. 19.

You can see those photos here.

Offended

Though as an album it was a mixed bag, the latest Eminem effort, "Revival" was better than I expected. After his "freestyle" and the single "Untouchable" (see last week's post), I was skeptical that the album could contain anything good. However, it had a few really great things, a couple of creative tracks and some duds as well. "Offended" was insane, and really showed Eminem's talent. Some of his creative sampling that was on display, like "In Your Head" was pretty great. Though some samples also didn't work at all, like in "Reminde Me." That song did not do what he wanted. Other good tracks included: "Chloraseptic," "Nowhere Fast," and "Castle." Certainly worth a listen for Eminem's biggest fans, but the only must listen is "Offended."

The fantasy playoffs continued last week, and I won the entrance exam to the championship in my dynasty league. My biggest rival is up this week in the title, fingers crossed. I lost in my other semifinal and will be playing for third place this week. In my final league, I'm trying to avoid the cellar in the ninth place game this week.

I have a massive amount of photos (88) to share including my first foray into Dance. Check all those photos and more out here.

Untouchable

Here is a very short review of Eminem's latest single, "Untouchable."

Eminem, you're not black.

The end.

As for my fantasy football teams, I'm on to the semifinals in both my dynasty league and one of my re-draft leagues. I'm in the consolation (toilet bowl) semis in my main re-draft league after going 4-9 in the regular season (4-1 in the final five weeks). Hopefully I'll be bearing news of championship possibilities next week.

As for photos, I have a bunch of them from my first foray to a Little Falls boys hockey game, Nov. 30; the Royalton/Holdingford boys basketball opener, Dec. 1 and Little Falls wrestling at Albany, Dec. 5. You can so those here. 

Don't Blame Me

There appear to be a lot of parallels that one can draw in the careers of Taylor Swift and Britney Spears. Both have five No. 1 hits and more than 10 top 10s. Both have success despite not being in the dominant genre of their time. Britney topped all the boy bands, while Taylor rules over hip-hop. Perhaps that's why when I recently decided to listen to Swift's latest release, "reputation," that I felt some flashbacks to Spears' fifth studio album, "Blackout." It was a dark turn for Spears, but just another step in her evolution as an artist. I think that "reputation" is a similar foray into the dark arts for Swift. I mean there are still a bit of bubbly popness in the album, but if you listen close enough, you might see the hurt. A lot of people will negatively review this album, and they're not wrong. However, if you take the album in the big picture of Swift's career, it is a necessary step to keep her career heading where it needs to go.

As far as fantasy football for TO this week, the week isn't over yet, because I'm writing this a day early, but returns have me losing in dynasty for the first time six weeks. I appear to have closed out the regular season in my redraft league with a win, which finishes me at 4-9. I have a better team that a lot of the league at this point with Alvin Kamara and Kirk Cousins, but my team just took too long to flesh out. As for my other redraft league, I appeared to have clinched a playoff spot, unless the Steelers have a big night tonight. A win would clinch a playoff spot, and possibly push me up to as high as fifth place. A loss, and I might not make the playoffs, or I would drop to eighth place and barely get in.

Anyhow, here are the some photos from the Pierz Football team's Prep Bowl victory and the GBB opener.