Song of the Week - Obadiah Parker

Obadiah Parker - Hey Ya

(Written by André Benjamin, aka. André 3000. Originally peformed by Outkast)

Album: Obadiah Parker Live

Obadiah Parker is a little known folk group from Arizona, most well known for their acoustic cover of the famous hip-hop song Hey Ya, written by Andre 3000 from the group Outkast. The group currently has only 2 self-produced albums, with a third CD soon to arrive in early 2011.
For those who enjoy cover songs or wonderful relatively unknown folk talent, be sure to check them out.

(And if you're one of those who always prefers the original: Outkast - Hey Ya).

Expanding on the Ryder Cup Tradition

To start off October this year, golf fans were treated to their closest version of a World Cup, the Ryder Cup, an event allowing the best golfers of the United States to fare against Europe's best. While golf is typically seen as a sport for individual accolades, with stars such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson owning most of the headlines, this tournament is a pleasant change of pace where players team up with each other, providing more than one sole winner at the end of the weekend. The Ryder Cup features 12 men from each team, in which golfers match up against one another over 3 days in both foursome and singles matches, while trying to earn points for either USA or Europe with every individual/team victory. This year, fans were treated to Team Europe regaining the Ryder Cup in a 1-point victory over Team USA and bringing the trophy home for the 9th time over the past 13 competitions. 

There is much vested interest in this tournament for both the Americans and Europeans (mostly British), and for good reason.  It seems golf fans love nothing more than history, and this tournament has a rich history since its inception in 1927 where it started as U.S.A. versus Great Britain. As the fans and players alike look forward to the next Ryder Cup to be held on U.S. soil in two years time, perhaps it's time fully expand on this tournament idea and let golf greats like Ernie Els, the 10th best golfer in the world according to World Golf Rankings, join this illustrious tournament. You see, the unfortunate Mr. Els is not permitted to partake in this tournament simply because his nation of South Africa, a nation with a rich golfing history in its own right, is not part of this highly exclusive tournament.  Other continents, such as Asia and Australia, are also producing plenty of competitive talent on the PGA Tour (Professional Golfers' Association), but still find their nations absent from a highly publicized world tournament. It is time for the PGA to look past the exclusionary nature the tournament provides and instead flourish into a highly competitive worldwide tournament, where all nations and continents finally get to compete against one another as teams.  Let's finally have a tournament where the main focus isn't "U.S.A. versus Golfing Conglomerate X".

Answering the Difficult Questions: Salt

I always love a movie poster that really challenges its audience.

Angelina Jolie is... SALT.    Who is Salt?

.... are you serious? You just told us:
Angelina Jolie.

Mystery solved.

Song of the Week - Ryan Bingham

Ryan Bingham - The Weary Kind

Album: Crazy Heart (Soundtrack)

This is the Academy Award winning title track from the movie "Crazy Heart": the story of Bad Black (in an Academy Award winning performance from Jeff Bridges); an old and fading, dysfunctional country legend. As country music has changed its style too much for himself to make a comeback, Bad Blake eventually writes this song for his one-time protege, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), one of the few in the scene who's still "real" country. The same can be said of Ryan Bingham and this song. Enjoy it folks: real country.

The End of the Jays(' Season)

Once upon a time, 1992-1993 to be exact, the sky was the limit for Toronto baseball fans. Sitting within the appropriately named SkyDome, Blue Jays fans could bask in the sunshine and look up at their next door neighbour the CN Tower, the World's tallest building, before watching their baseball team spoil them with back-to-back World Series Championships. Today, the CN Tower has conceded defeat to another building half way across the planet, while the Blue Jays team has had its fans quietly move them into a modest retirement home, the Rogers Centre, where the team can always recite old stories of the glory days. This past Sunday, the Toronto Blue Jays ended their 2010 season with a goodbye to a legend, a fair bit of disappointment on the field, some promise for future talent, but, ultimately, not a lot of hope of there being any meaningful interest from fans in Canada's last remaining Major League team.

Brandon Morrow pitches for the dwindling Blue Jays faithful

"SUPER"? Or A Story Heard Several Times Before

Although the stories of Spider-Man and Batman remain as popular as ever, there has been a new movement towards the 'everyday superhero': the man without any special powers, no special gadgetry, fighting evil with primitive weapons and a plethora of courage. The newest installment of this Superhero genre is James Gunn's SUPER, which recently made its debut at this year Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Midnight Madness program. SUPER follows the story of Frank, played by Rainn Wilson of 'The Office' fame, a middle aged burger flipper, who decides to take up being a superhero to fight all forms of wrong no matter how big or small. Some days his actions are as noble as attacking small time drug dealers in the street and other days the battle is as insignificant as beating up those who butt in line at the movies. While these small time heroics help "The Crimson Bolt," his Superhero alter ego (pictured above), create local fame, Frank's ultimate goal remains the same: defeating the town's main druglord (Kevin Bacon), a man who stole Frank's wife (Liv Tyler) away from him by subjecting her to drugs after years of her attempts at a recovery. Along the way Frank meets Lilly (Ellen Page), a comic book shop clerk, who Frank uses as a resource tool in creating his costumed hero, which helps her grow into eventual role of The Crimson Bolt's sidekick, Bolty. The movie offers many moments of pleasure, from the the silliness of the homemade outfits being worn, to the pure excitement in Lilly's eyes (and the audiences) when she finally beats up the bully who keyed her friend's car. But one cannot help but feel that the story of 'The Crimson Bolt' is one that we've all heard before.

Song of the Week - Fatboy Slim & David Byrne

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim - Here Lies Love (Feat. Florence Welch)

Album: Here Lies Love