FAVES OF 2003: The Songs

After a long holiday layoff, it's time to get back on the blog beat. And what better way to do so than with a series of Best of 2003 lists. I'll kick things off with my favorite songs of the year. To keep things simple, I'm only including songs from albums released in 2003 (which is why "The Scientist" isn't on here). The finest 15:

15. Jack Johnson- The Horizon Has Been Defeated
14. Linkin Park- Faint
13. 50 Cent f/Snoop & G-Unit- P.I.M.P. Remix
12. The Darkness- I Believe In a Thing Called Love
11. Outkast- Unhappy
10. Nas- Made You Look
9. Eminem, 50 Cent & The Notorious B.I.G.- The Realest Niggas (Remix)
8. Jay-Z- La La La
7. Radiohead- Sit Down.Stand Up
6. Joe Budden- Pump It Up

5. Liz Phair- Why Can't I
I dunno- why can't I keep myself from singing along to this song's soaring chorus?

4. Ludacris- Stand Up!
The best bassline of the year. Luda does the best job of making mainstream rap songs without sounding like he's watered down.

3. 50 Cent- Heat
This gleefully malicious track is the best song on 50's album, and it's a shame that it's too violent for radio. Just when you think Dr. Dre has started to repeat himself as a producer, he comes up with the idea to use the sound of a gun cocking as the beat for an entire song. And it actually works!

2. Outkast- Hey Ya!
By far the most original song of the last decade. What's so fascinating about this song is that it's appeal is so broad (it's on every radio station, regardless of genre) yet it sounds so different from every other song there is. The only thing keeping "Hey Ya!" from the top of this list is that it gets a tad repetetive by the end of the song.

1. The Roots- The Seed 2.0
Every time I hear this song it feels as good as it did the first time. "The Seed 2.0" is a perfect blend of rock, hip-hop and R&B. You want to dance to it. You want to sing along to it. You want all songs to make you feel this great.

 
The Best, No Questions Asked

There's something that's really been irritating me during this whole A-Rod-to-the-Red Sox saga. Nearly every columnist, pundit and talk show host has been referring to Alex Rodriguez as "the game's best player." While there's no doubt that he's beeen steallar the last few years, there's a little something preventing him from being baseball's best. That something is Barry Bonds. This is a man who's won three consecutive MVP awards and literally changes the way the game is played when he's in the lineup. The home run record, the batting title, the NL pennant, the countless walk-off homeruns... and Barry's reward is to be instantly ignored whenever the name of Rodriguez is brought up.

This is similar to what happened in the NBA from about 1998 up until last spring. Shaq was always called the "most dominant" player, or the "most overpowering" player, but never "the best." That honor usually went to Kobe or Tracy McGrady (and now deserves to go to Tim Duncan), when everyone should have gotten their heads out of the sand and appreciated Shaq for what he is: a great basketball player. It's time people stop looking at guys like Bonds and Shaq as freaks of nature, and start realizing that not every young player deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with them.

 
Digesting a Season Completed, Part II

Given my miserable prognostication track-record on this blog, I must take a moment to give myself some faint praise. My college football preseason predictions turned out to be pretty on-point. I correctly guessed five out of the eight BCS slots and if Georgia had prevailed yesterday I would have been batting a cool .750. All right, so my grand prediction of a national title for Texas was a bit off. But how was I supposed to know that Chance Mock would be on the verge of transferring after getting supplanted at QB by a freshman? Oh well-- they're called bold predictions for a reason.

But the biggest reason I'm patting myself on the back today is because I correctly predicted that there would be no undefeated teams at the end of the regular season. The parity which has swept through college basketball is now reaching football too, as the nation's talent is spreading across the country. Combined with the longer schedule this season (most teams had a 12th game and thus an extra chance to lose this year) and tougher non-conference games, the nation's powerhouses could not sustain perfection for a full season. Look for this trend to continue in the future--one day, we may even see a two-loss team in the national title game.

 
Digesting a Season Completed, Part I

For the first time since it's inception, the BCS has the problem of having three teams with identical records atop the polls. In the past, I've defended the BCS on the principle that it was much, much better than the bowl system preceding it (if this were 1997, Oklahoma would be playing in the Orange Bowl, USC in the Rose, and LSU in the Sugar). But now we have legitmate travesty: a team that's #1 in both polls will not get to play in the national title game. I think the BCS is well-intentioned, but should only be used as a tiebreaker. The BCS should only be implemented when the top two teams in the AP and Coaches polls don't match. If I were a USC fan I'd be outraged, but I do take solace in realizing that there are a few factors that prevent this from being a complete sham:

1. USC didn't win all its games. It would be different if this were a situation like the one 12-0 Penn St. faced in 1994, when they had to watch 13-0 Nebraska win both national titles. But the old rule would have been true this year: if USC had gone undefeated, they wouldn't have had to rely on polls and computers.

2. The Trojans may not even deserve their number 1 rankings. One of the things I hate about the way polls are conducted is that an early-season loss is forgivable while a late loss isn't. People always claim that momentum should be important, but what would have happened if USC had had their Cal game scheduled yesterday instead of in October? For all we know, Oklahoma and LSU may in fact be the two best teams in college football.

3. The Trojans can still win the AP national title. The writers poll has always been the one that I've recognized as the true rankings. The coaches poll isn't as objective as the AP, since coaches are biased towards teams on their schedule and in their conference.

4. We're back to a traditional Rose Bowl matchup. The Big 10 champ facing the Pac 10 champ on New Year's Day: just as it should always be.

5. All of this will be forgotten if and when the Wolverines win. Let's not forget that in the end, Southern Cal will have to beat a pretty damn good Michigan team in order for any of this to be relevant. Go Blue!

 
How to Embarass the Prez

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Type in "miserable failure"
3. Hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button
4. Laugh

Amazingly, this is not the result of any kind of hacking into the search engine or into the White House website. It's merely the result of clever bloggers who are taking advantage of Google's search algorithms to make a political statement. If you would like to participate in the Miserable Failure Project, just create as many miserable failure links as you can and spread them throughout your blog or web site. Enjoy!