[Grades] Grades v. Nuggets 1/1/11

Favorite Pop Song of 2010?

  • Tik Tok -- Kesha

    Votes: 3 7.1%
  • California Gurls -- Katy Perry

    Votes: 5 11.9%
  • Hey, Soul Sister -- Train

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Love the Way You Lie -- Eminem feat. Rihanna

    Votes: 8 19.0%
  • I Gotta Feeling -- Black Eyed Peas

    Votes: 9 21.4%
  • Fireflies -- Owl City

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Alehandro -- Lady Gaga

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • All the Right Moves -- One Republic

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • You Belong With Me -- Taylor Swift

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • You call that crap music? Bahumbug!

    Votes: 12 28.6%

  • Total voters
    42

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Way to crush any mounting enthusiasm guys. Did a certain group of wealthy young men perhaps stay up partying late into the night I wonder? Hmm...

However thanks for your best efforts on our behalf Melo -- was very excited to learn that you and Pooh had apparently switched teams via trade before the game.

Theme will be 90s one hit wonders. Actually its going to be 90s One Hit Wonders Pt I since so many ideas came to me for the theme that I've got at least 2 grade threads worth of songs to share. Should be more fun than the debacle on court.

Official Boxscore

Melo ( A ) -- came out with a vengeance in this one for us, using the tragedy in his family (sister died) and his own festering desire to folow in LeBron's hallowed footsteps and stab his franchise in the back to get off to a powerful 1-14 start from the field, and that was only the half of it. NOt only were the shots just ridiculously off, but he looked like he had regressed to grade school level play, fumbled every ball, turned it over, committed stupid fouls, and just generaly wandering aorund out there in a haze. Lost the "+" to his A however by lurching to semi-life late in this one, and by allowing our own scrubby little piece of Pooh to outsuck him in the end. Still a better effort than we got from anybody on our own roster.
Epic -- Faith No More (1990) -- a rather significant song actually, as it was a huge hit back in 1990 and is often cited as a prototype and one of the big influences on the development of the rap-rock/rap-metal movement. As an aside, the question of what qualifies a a 1-hit wonder came up several times in this list of songs, and I have decided to keep this U.S. oriented. Faith No More went on to have some success overseas after this song, but never had another significant score in the U.S.

Garcia ( C- ) -- I know he may find it unfair, and maybe it is, but right or wrogn the general expectation placed upon players labeled as "shooters" is that they should in fact be able to shoot, and tonight Cisco failed abysmally at that. Not only was he 1-6 from downtown on a night when the whole team was just dire from outside fo 5 feet, but I would say 2/3 of them were open looks. Finally hit one in the early third to cut the lead to 6 as the NUggets just put the game on a platter for us and tried to out stink us, but followed it wiht tow more bricks, the last of which was just flat wide open, and a few little 2ptrs as the game got out of control in no way made up for it. Of course Melo was just horrid on the night, and normally you would say yay Ciso! for stopping one of the league's highest scorers. But Cisco had very little to do wiht that -- none of our guys except Donte actually made Melo miss much of anything. He did his sucking on his own.
Nothing Compares 2 U -- Sinead O'Connor (1990) -- one of the most famous 1 hit wonders of all time, and this video helped make it the hit it was. Of course as it turned out the pretty expressive young woman with the shaved head and beautiful voice turned out to be more political activist than singer, and once the venom and anger started spilling out there could never be a repeat of this success. Beautiful song though.

Thompson ( B- ) -- basically ineffective in the furst half and minutes were limited again. Did not look remotely good in the 3rd but able to get a few little hustle plays as we hung close while the Nuggets shared our struggles. Almost all of his best on the team numbers came after the game seemed to get out of control in the 4th, and I have to discount appropriately. It was like a light switch suddenly flipped on, and the uncoordinated goof runnign around in Jason's jersey suddenly started using his size to wade to the front of the rim and finish again and again. Like a completely difernt player than we saw for the first 3/4. Unfortunately since the game was lost in those first 3/4 -- and a game that looked like it was winnable during that time too -- this has to be marked down significantly.
sir-mix-a-lotta-lovage.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY84MRnxVzo
Baby Got Back -- Sir Mix-a-Lot (1992) -- its truly shocking that a song entirely dedicated to this guy's love of women with big butts would not launch a major longlasting career, but that was what happened. The famous video has to be seen to be believed, but seemed too offensive to actually post on the board, so I just left the link instead.

Cousins ( B- ) -- picked right up offensively from where he left off against Memphis, scoring inside and out in the early going, but was not able to control Nene on the other end. Took some tough shots, fadeaways, stepaways etc., but got some of them to go. Play began to deteriorate as this one went along and he possibly tired in the altitude. Racked up his customary 5 fouls, and seemed to be taking a step back as far as his composure reacting to calls. Picked up his 4th in the early 4th with his same stupid trying to draw a charge thing, and after the fast start, seemed to have checked out mentally by the end of his stints. Still racked up a solid 16 and 8 on 50%+ shooting, but was not a factor ater the first 18 minutes or so.
I'm Too Sexy -- Bricklayer (1992) -- and again here, Right Said Fred actually went on to have a little success in Europe, but this was the only time anybody in the States was blessed with their incredible sexiness.
 
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Udrih ( D+ ) -- this game will no doubt be conveniently forgotten about by tommorow so that Jerry can continue bleating about how Beno is so consistent that he never has an off game, but guess what, Beno had an off game. Never had the offense going at any point, and all those little pullup jumpers somehow looked ragged rather than sweet. Did make one nice defensive play breaking up a fast break that was unfortunately cancelled when he went to save the resulting loose ball and threw it back in to the Niuggets for an open shot. Finaly hit a three in the md third after a terrible stretch of ball for both teams, but it didn't spark anything, either for the team or Beno himself. Made Chauncey look young again when that was the matchup (Billups has been playing better of late), but what really hurt in this one was just bricked jumper after bricked jumper as he, Cisco and Casspi, the entire shooting corps, were just awful from out there on shots they normaly hit. Made for one hell of an ugly game.
Whats Up -- 4 Non Blondes (1993) -- for whatever reason one of those songs that everybody either loved or loathed, with virtually no people on the fence. I think it may have been the hat topping history's absolute worst fashion ensemble. Girl had a helluva voice though.

Evans ( C- ) -- this game actually did not start out badly for Reke, as in the early going we actually had three guys going pretty well -- Reke, Cousins, and Landry. And was doing it on both ends as he made some really nice defensive plays in the early going getting his hands on balls to nab steals and break up break opportunities. Twice slashed inside and and finsihed for what should have been +1s, but missed both of the finishing FTs. In fact on the first one he actually airballed the FT. Drew a fooul on the break and airballed the +1. And then the game deteriorated again into a long series of missed jumpers and getting stripped or blocked when going inside. Somehow it felt lioke there was more of a plan thn in some of the worst games of this type we have seen in the past few months, but it was very much the smae fast start...sore feet? or whatever? fade that has plagued him, and us, for much fo the year. Looked a bit gassed at altitude too. Drew several fouls in the early 4th to help turn the foul situation in our favor, but again like every other positive sign in this one it didn't lead to anything either for him or the team. I'm going to bump him up half a grade abocve where this maybe deserved for the 4stls and 2blks hustle on defense.
Here Comes the Hotstepper -- Ini Kamoze (1994) -- 40 year old guy suddenly pops up with a #1 worldwide hit, puts together a video that looks like it was shot for $4.99, and then promptly disappears back into reggaefusion obscurity.

Bench

Dalembert ( INC ) -- apparently feelign a little under trhe weather, which would have sounded better if the whole team wasn't playing like it had partid till dawn and was still hungover. Hit a long jumper, not much else, and couldn't go after half, which caused us considerable difficulty.
Breakfast at Tiffany's -- Deep Blue Something (1996) -- so a gradeschool English teacher puts together a band and suddenly pops up with a big hit in 1996 about an old Audrey Hepburn movie. I was dating a theater major when this song was huge, and she hated this song, was basically ofended by its lack of artisitc merit. She's also the reason that Joan Osbourne did not make my first list with One of Us -- she loved Joan Osbourne to the point of performing one of her songs on stage in the performing arts cetner, and I got to know her songs so well its hard for me to think of her as a one hit wonder. Chunks of this video BTW were filmed out on the street about a block down from my first office in New York.

Landry ( B- ) -- started out this game well, working inside on open court and scramble plays, and efficiently putting up points in the early going. Came up with a big reverse dunk right in Birdman's mug. Then forgot what he was doing well and started settling for jumpers, and when he did go inside began to get evertyhign stripped or knocked away in postup isos. In our wisdom we waited forever to bring him back in the third despite our complete offensive collapse, but maybe there was wisdom there afterall as he did nothgi after returning, again getting stripped everytime he tried to do anything in the post. Rebounding was as per usual on a ngiht when we got crushed on the boards -- which is to ay Carl was helping the crushers not the crushees. Gets his grade for the early work.
Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand -- Primitive Radio Gods (1996) -- one of those ultimate 1 hit wonders, these guys were a failed high school band in the late 1980s, they finally gave up and everybody shuffled off to day jobs and normal life until one of the guys finds an old box in his garage years later with their old tapes and decides as a final act to send them off to all the major labels. And amazingly one totally unique song draws attention and boom, goes on to become a huge hit. And then just as suddenly its back to working at McDonald's.
 
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Casspi ( D ) -- so so fugly. Some hustle on defense but the offense was ragged to say the least. Was missing everythign, and actually airballed an open 16 footer from the angle. Came back in in the third and missed a corner three because that's what we do. Finally hit a lone three too late to matter in the 4th. Like Cisco, was more spectator than contributor to Melo's struggles. Would somebody on this team mind hitting a damn shot?
The Freshman -- The Verve Pipe (1997) -- my favorite one hitter of the decade, and really up there as one of my favorite songs from the decade. But its another one that has always seemed to inspire either love/hatred, perhaps because of its topic. How we could go lyrically from this to Mmm Bop in the space of one summer is mind boggling.

Jeter ( D- ) -- Pooh...played like poo. Stinky poo. And our usage of him in this game was nearly inexplicable. Ran around with Lawson during his first few minutes, did not accomplish much, and you thought that would be it. But no, we simply refused to take him off the floor, and started running absolutely stupid smallball lineups with he, Beno and reke out there together, at one point Donte at PF next to them etc. And gee, we fell apart, and waht a shocker that was. Pooh was doing absolutely nothing to deserve those minutes, but the real blame belonged on the sidelines as Pooh ran the whoel quarter while our promising start dissipated and we got slaughtered. Came back in the second half and was no better, missing everything, coming up with a loose double dribble in the early 4th and throwing a pass to somebody in the stands on the break. I gave him a charity gump above an F here for a nice pass to Jason on a 4th quarter break, and because I feel sorry for him having to grow up with a nickname that just invites being picked on.
Flagpole Sitta -- Harvey Danger (1998) -- big loud fun...and led to nothing. Note that the song is apparently owned by a label adverse to publicity who wastes its time trying to stomp out its band's music on youtube, so who knows if the video above will stay active for any time.

Taylor ( C ) -- got to see more of the kid and, well, not awful, moves well and looks to have potential as a defender, but he's not going to save us. Had some adventures out there, but competed and at least looked like he blonged. Missed a wide open shortie from the left basline set up on the break, but then came back to can a three. Hard take to the hoop in the late 3d and nearly got beheaded by a pack of Nuggts. Ran a terrible looking play for our final shot of the 3rd, dribbling dribling dribbling, driving into 3 guys with no chance, and then surprising at the last second by wrapping a nice pass to a slashing Darnell Jackson for the dunk. Missed almsot all his shots as guys tried to set him up only to find he's not a shooter.
Sex And Candy -- Marcy's Playground (1998) -- always liked this song, but it has one of the most random videos in history. Saw it used much better as backgound music in an HBO biopic about an aging stripper trying to hang on and find work on the strip...

Greene ( INC ) -- got two short first half stints during which time he used his length on defense, smothering Melo and blocking 3 shots in 3 minutes. Oh and forcing a shot against the shotclock, which apparently was enough to end his night in the face of the awesome offensive fireworks put up by Cisco and Casspi. I swear at this point if reports leaked out that Donte had walked up to Coach after the game and slapped him, I would say good show!
Steal My Sunshine -- Len (1999) -- just a fun summer song with a video shot on a $100,000 budget down in Florida on Spring Break, with most of the budget being spent on alcohol, and the video shoots taking place in the afternoons so that they could all recover from their hangovers in the morning.
 
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Jackson ( C+ ) -- his complete lack of rebounding has become troubling, epecially on nights like this when we get whipped, but oherwise just filled in late as the game got out of control and gave us a couple of good moments. Got in in the third for the first time with everybody in foul trouble or sick, and immediately picked up a foul guarding Nene. On the court at the end of the third again with Cousins' foul trouble, and moved to the hoop on a wild Taylor drive for the catch and dunk off the nice pass. Smushed a Nuggets scrub in the garbagetime, sending him to the floor with a body block. Don't think it was a dirty play, but even if it had been the Nuggets had some fo their freakin' starters in the game right until the bitter end of this 20 point blowout, so smash away D-block.
Beth Hart -- LA Song (1999) -- wasn't able to find the official video of this one, but this live one actually fits the story anyway. The story = former Starsearch champion (old 80s/90s predecessor of American Idol basically) fights through the wilderness of the LA music market for 10 years, finally springs up with a heartbreaking singer songwriter piano based hit in 1999, and promptly has a mental breakdown over her success. Drug problems abound. And she never has another hit of course. Note that there is language in this video as she is pretty wired on something.
 
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Is it fair to say that the majority of our offense should go through Cousins? If he is in foul trouble we are pretty much screwed. This was one of the most ugliest Kings games I've watched so far, and there have been a couple.
 
I Gotta Feeling was released in 2009. Their new remake of "I Had the Time of my Life" (dirty bit) is pretty cool, though. Oh, and Usher's OMG would be my choice if you had it on your poll.
 
What ever happened to actually needing to be talented to become a mega pop star?

I'm sure you wouldn't mind the millions of dollars that come with being a pop star, so go ahead and attempt to become one if you really think it's that easy...
 
I think we undervalue Beno's contributions to the team. Tyreke pretty much played the same way he's been playing all season, but without Beno to bail him out the offense looks way worse. I wish Cousins would save that 2 seconds he spends with his head down whenever things don't go his way and just get back into play quicker.

Tyreke can't create his own offense, and when Beno/Omri are missing shots everything just falls apart.
 
I'm not sure if I should be more concerned that this thread has gotten more replies due to people's interest on music or how terrible the team looked tonight... :confused:
 
Well, so much for the hope that the SHOT was gonna revive the team. Denver was trying to give them the game and The Kings didn't seem to want it. Pretty disappointing.
 
One thing i did not like seeing was the Denver players just walking through for open dunks and then clowning and laughing on the way back up the court.

erugh.
 
I'm sure you wouldn't mind the millions of dollars that come with being a pop star, so go ahead and attempt to become one if you really think it's that easy...

What on earth are you talking about? Aren't you a music teacher? So you should be able to notice how record labels use computers, auto tune, and marketing to blow up some non talented artist who they think has a certain image that will attract kids and teenagers in order to make millions of sales. You wanna sit there and tell me that Ke$h** and Britney spears have talent? How bout Lindsay lohan? Soldier boy? There are countless artists who should have no business accumulating the amount of money that the actually talented artists are producing.
 
What on earth are you talking about? Aren't you a music teacher? So you should be able to notice how record labels use computers, auto tune, and marketing to blow up some non talented artist who they think has a certain image that will attract kids and teenagers in order to make millions of sales. You wanna sit there and tell me that Ke$h** and Britney spears have talent? How bout Lindsay lohan? Soldier boy? There are countless artists who should have no business accumulating the amount of money that the actually talented artists are producing.

Funny, the same things you say about today's pop stars were commonly said about this group of talentless egomaniacs who destroyed America's youth, let me see if I can remember their name.... oh wait.. it's the Beatles!

Also, Beethoven's piano sonatas were said by critics to sound like "rabid dogs" and one notable composer walked out on the premiere of Stravinski's Rite of Spring because "that's not how you write for bassoon"...

People need to understand that music changes over the years, and the requirements for success today are different than they were yesterday. Computers are part of what gives us countless new possibilities for new sounds. I don't see any reason not to use them just because some people are hung up on sounds of the past. If that attitude was adopted throughout history, the only thing we would be hearing on the radio today was Gregorian chants.

And yes, Britney Spears, Kesha, and Soulja Boy are immensely talented because they manage to successfully communicate their songs to a very large audience, something that a lot of self-proclaimed more talented aspiring "stars" are unable to do. Lindsay Lohan is an actress who got a chance to record an album because she was famous. I would hardly call her a pop star.
 
What on earth are you talking about? Aren't you a music teacher? So you should be able to notice how record labels use computers, auto tune, and marketing to blow up some non talented artist who they think has a certain image that will attract kids and teenagers in order to make millions of sales. You wanna sit there and tell me that Ke$h** and Britney spears have talent? How bout Lindsay lohan? Soldier boy? There are countless artists who should have no business accumulating the amount of money that the actually talented artists are producing.

I'll give you Ke$ha, that girl has no ( musical ) talent. Her 'music' is her reading in rhythm to some music. More like a poetry read than a song.

I think Britney actually has a lot of talent. She can sing, and back when she was younger she was a fantastic dancer. She is still good, but she was really, really good 10 or so years ago. And in a lot of ways she 'paved' the way for a lot of Pop artists.

And Lohan is an actress. Sure, she tried to dip into music, but you are right .. she wasnt any good. She has talent as an actress though.. especially when she was younger. The Parent Trap is still a great movie.

Also, everyone uses some sort of autune/editing/whatever when it comes to recording. Just like every model uses photoshop/airbrushing and all that. Its just how it is now. Pop music is an easy target, but honestly every band in every genre uses some sort of technology to 'clean up' or alter their music. It doesnt mean they dont have talent.
 
There's a difference in how record labels use computers for the talented and the non talented. Talented artists use it to Fine tune their voices so the album sounds as best as possible. For the non talented artists the computers are used to create a voice. Big difference. Listen to these artists live and you will see the difference in talent. The non talented artists will usually lip sync their songs on stage or if they tried to actually sing it will sound like crap.
 
I like how this thread is all about music. The game last night was so ugly to watch it's not even worth discussing, laugh out loud.
 
There's a difference in how record labels use computers for the talented and the non talented. Talented artists use it to Fine tune their voices so the album sounds as best as possible. For the non talented artists the computers are used to create a voice. Big difference. Listen to these artists live and you will see the difference in talent. The non talented artists will usually lip sync their songs on stage or if they tried to actually sing it will sound like crap.

I think you're relying on fake viral videos that claimed they had recordings of Britney when her mic was"accidetly on". FYI, that was NOT her voice. It was a stupid attempt by gossip media people to create a buzz using a fake video. As for the lipsync thing, any singer who also dances on stage lipsyncs. It's impossible to maintain breathing that is satisfactory for singing when your body is engaged in this type of physical activity.

Bottom line, if these people you claim are talentless were indeed talentless, they would not be where they are. If it was just looks/image those music producers were looking for, they would not waste their time on Britney or Kesha because there are literally MILLIONS of girls who are prettier/sexier/you name it than these two. The criteria for what it takes may change, so it might be harder for people to recognise talent when they are used to judging it by different terms, but some who lacks talent will never stay on top of a multi-billion dollar industry for over a decade.
 
I like how this thread is all about music. The game last night was so ugly to watch it's not even worth discussing, laugh out loud.

Yea, at first I felt a little bad about hijacking this thread, again... but really, it's more interesting than beating that dead horse again and again (our players suck, our coach sicks, lowest payroll, trade Landry, etc...).
 
I don't know what video of Britney you're talking about. All I'm saying is that when I hear her music her voice sounds digitally altered.
 
Yea, at first I felt a little bad about hijacking this thread, again... but really, it's more interesting than beating that dead horse again and again (our players suck, our coach sicks, lowest payroll, trade Landry, etc...).

Absolutely agree. It really does get old after awhile.
 
Talented artists use it to Fine tune their voices so the album sounds as best as possible. For the non talented artists the computers are used to create a voice.

Sorry but that is just pure nonsense. You can only "polish a turd" to a certain extent. No amount of computer technology, effects, etc. is going to make someone with no vocal ability sound like a good singer. Auto-tune, is just an effect. A tool in a producer's toolbox that is used to polish, alter, or enhance someone's vocals (to an extent). In that regard, it's no different in principle from other effects such as reverb, chorus, delay, harmonizers, etc. None are substitutions for talent/skill.
 
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