This weekend I made my way up to NC to catch some SWA (Southern Wrestling Association) action with our very own Jeff Lewis Neal opening the show with his match against Chris Hamrick.

Before and after the show I hung out with Miles from The Wicked Needle in Rutherfordton, NC, his wife Melissa and some of their friends and family before heading back to Greenville.

On Sunday, I had an old friend from York, SC named Heather come down and see me since we hadn’t seen each other in at least four years.  Outside of that, that was about it!

Right now I am wrestling with something of a different sort….the lusts of the flesh!  I’m 33 and I’ve never been married so, technically, I can do whatever I want with whomever I want.  However, after 11 years in radio and hitting on almost every female caller I’ve ever had, it’s just really sad.  It’s not professional and, no, it’s not moral!  No wonder I’ve never met the right woman!  How can I find Ms. Right when I’m constantly chasing Ms. Right NOW!

Over the years, my frustration has been steadily mounting and I have vowed numerous times to stop but to no avail.  This is why I am writing about this rather personal matter because it helps me to share my problems with others without forcing them upon people.  So, if you’re reading this, feel free to comment with some encouraging words and, by all means, pray if you are one to do so!

Well last weekend was Super Bowl Weekend with the New Orleans Saints winning their first ever Super Bowl as they defeated Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts at Super Bowl XLIV!

Kicking off the weekend, I went to a movie with Rebecca since she was in town as we saw The Lovely Bones directed by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.  The film is a very surrealistic look at the afterlife of a teenage girl who was murdered and how she tries to reach out to her family after her death.  Not a bad film that has some very touching moments.  A good alternative to a chick flick for a date movie.

The Lovely Bones  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Saturday I met up with Danielle (P1 Yellbell) and her friend Brittany who were in town from Union to celebrate Brittany’s 20th birthday.  We met and had dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse and then ran to Toys “R” Us to get a gift for Danielle’s son Gavin for his second birthday which was the next day.

I then had to leave the ladies to continue their celebration without the grace of my presence as I had a prior engagement as a judge of Mauldin High School’s Battle of the Bands.  I normally don’t agree to judge battle of the bands competitions because I don’t like to show any sort of favoritism since I host Upstate Unsigned and a lot of them end up being popularity contests but I gotta say there were some pretty impressive musicians in the competition including young acoustic guitar prodigy Dakota Burwell and alternative rock groups THE RIGHTEOUS and SING SING 76.

I slept in Sunday (again!) because I was just starting to fight off some sinus trouble which I am still dealing with as I am writing this though it hasn’t been as bad as it could have been.  I stayed in until around 5 as I went to Joshua Scott’s house for a great Mardi Gras styled Super Bowl party.  Being an unofficial company party, many Entercom employees came bringing goodies including our GM John Burkavage with his homemade chili and Chase Murphy with his famous cheese dip.  Granted this was on top of the Cajun styled food prepared by Mr. Scott including gumbo and roast beef po’ boys!  Yeah I gained several pounds I am sure!

Needless to say, a majority of the party attendees were rooting for the Saints as the second half of the game (especially the fourth quarter) was a bit of a riot!  Joshua even broke out some very good champagne as even I enjoyed it not being a fan of champagne myself.

So the Saints took their very first Super Bowl as I got a little emotional as it was a Cinderella story of sorts for the franchise based out of New Orleans, a city still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.

And I am also relieved and pleased to announce that I just found out this morning that I will not be required to have surgery on the hernia I have developed in the past year or so!  Thank God!  I HATE hospitals!

Well I am finally starting to pick up the pieces from 2009 and I am feverishly rebuilding my empire for the new year!  Thursday I got my renter’s insurance check in the mail so on Friday I went and picked up a new PS3, Blu-ray remote and HDMI cable to replace the ones that were stolen during the break-in last month.

After work that night I went to the Handlebar to catch NOXIOUS’ return to the Upstate with special guests KELEN HELLER and DOGFIGHT.  I ended up tuckering out rather early that night since I had to head up to NC first thing Saturday.  P1 QuickKart31 had not only invited me up to catch another night of SWA (Southern Wrestling Association) but also to fix my Jeep Compass which had several war wounds from being both scraped and keyed in late ‘09.

When I got into town, he met me and led me to his dad’s shop, 3D Kustoms and Restorations in Ellenboro, NC to drop my car off.  QuickKart and I then ran to grab some lunch and went to the Forest City National Guard Armory where I ’helped’ set up the ring for that night’s wrestling event.  By the time we got back to the shop, my car was done but still drying so I rode with QuickKart back to the armory so he could get ready for his THREE matches that night – ALL of which he won (under the name Kendall Slayer) with one of the matches being the main event cage match!

After the event was over, everyone gathered at the wrestler Wicked’s house for some after party drinks and continued mayhem as I got fairly tanked (yes, that’s me holding the belt and drinking pineapple juice and vodka out of a HUGE Mason jar)!

I ended up catching a ride with QuickKart’s two brothers Mark and Justin and crashed at their place after making a much needed stop at Waffle House!

The next morning I caught a ride with their dad, Will who did most of the awesome work on my car and rode with him back to the shop to pick up my car and head back home to catch the last two playoff games of the weekend.  I kept up with the first two by checking the scores on my BlackBerry and was pleased to see New Orleans venture on to the NFC Championship as they will be taking on Minnesota who slaughtered Dallas!  I was disappointed that Baltimore got taken out by Indianapolis and that my Super Bowl pick San Diego lost to the New York Jets.  This weekend should be great as I am torn between the Vikings and the Saints for the NFC title.

Monday morning I went to the dentist to have him look at what seemed to be a piece of tooth protruding from my gum where my last pulled wisdom tooth was.  As it turns out, it was actually my jaw which had healed with an angular rough edge that was cutting through my gum so he grinded it down and smoothed it out a bit.

After leaving the dentist’s office I went to the doctor to get a physical and have them look at my suspected herniated area.  Indeed, I have a hernia so I will be making an appointment with a surgeon in the near future to get that taken car of (JOY!).  Since I had breakfast that morning, the doctor told me to return the next morning after fasting for at least 12 hours so I could get some bloodwork done.  She did, however, have me go ahead and get a Tetanus shot (I HATE those!  My arm STILL hurts!).

After getting my physical, I treated myself to a movie and let my curiosity get the better of me as I broke down and went to go see Avatar and see what all the hype was about.  And I’ve gotta say I was actually quite impressed!  I admit the plot wasn’t entirely original as our webmistress, Tracy pointed out, it’s basically FernGulley: The Last Rainforest just live action and on another planet.  And just like Aliens (which James Cameron also directed) this one features Sigourney Weaver as a strong-willed protagonist facing off against a greedy corporation and working with futuristic Marines one of whom is a badass Hispanic tomboy.  But, despite the film’s lack of originality, it’s eye candy is spectacular and almost worth the hype if you go see it in 3D at a movie theater.

Avatar  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m

Yesterday morning I got up early and went straight to the doctor to get my bloodwork done then came home and showered and got ready for work.  At about one (my usual lunchtime) I had my replacement TV delievered to my apartment so I took a few minutes to get it set back up and hook my PS3 up to it and made sure everything worked fine. 

Now my living room is at least functional as it once was before my apartment was broken into….and my car looks like it did the day I bought it (or it WILL after I give it a BATH)!

After getting off work Friday night I went home and grabbed a bite to eat to save my broke ass some money and then headed out to the Handlebar to catch TREND KILL OMEGA, GHOST IN THE MACHINE and WAITING FOR AIR.  When I got there I found out that, instead of three bands, six bands were playing as the openers SHARP SHOOTER had already played.  WAITING FOR AIR was next followed by SECOND TO NONE and FROM TOMORROW.  GHOST IN THE MACHINE took the stage next and then TKO wrapped up the show.

I had fun with a bunch of local musicians and then joined Mark and Eddie from KELEN HELLER at IHOP for a late night bite which Mark’s girlfriend graciously treated my underfunded self to.

The rest of the weekend I stayed at home watching the NFL Wild Card games as New York defeated Cincinnati which will send the Jets into San Diego to face the Chargers this Sunday.  Unfortunately I had to witness Dallas dominate Philadelphia but the Cowboys will surely not fare quite as well when they face the Vikings in Minnesota this Sunday….or so I hope not!

Sunday’s games went much more to my liking as it turned out to be the Day of the Bird as Baltimore pummeled the Patriots IN New England allowing the Ravens to advance on to face the Colts in Indianapolis this Saturday.  I just hope they can keep up Poe’s poetic prose and send a message to the former undefeated AFC team, “Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”!

You couldn’t get any more of a knockdown-dragout fight than watching the Arizona Cardinals and the Green Bay Packers go back and forth during the second half of the game as neither team’s defense could stop the other team’s offense.  Then Arizona missed what would have been the game-winning field goal and then lost the coin toss at the beginning of overtime.  Things were not going well for the Cards when, all of a sudden, the Packers’ had the ball pop up and into the hands of Arizona defensive linebacker Karlos Dansby who ran 17 yards to score the winning touchdown and solidified a date with the Saints in New Orleans on Saturday.

I can’t wait for THIS weekend!

I started thinking about the pre season college football polls today. You have TCU at #4 and Boise St. At #6, but I have to think Boise St. could be in that spot if not for a pre-season poll that put TCU arbitrarily ahead of them. That all only really matters is FSU manages to beat Florida and Auburn manages to beat Alabama. It’d be even better if my (drawn out of a hat) Texas Longhorns drop a game and you wind up with some combination of TCU/Cincinnati/Pittsburgh/Boise St. playing in the championship game. Basically I always want what’s worst for the BCS and this year gives us a very good chance at that if some of these shaky-looking top 3 teams will only stumble before the bowls are set.
As it stands, though, its bad for the BCS when you’re looking at 5 undefeated teams and a once-beaten SEC runner-up who only lost to the unbeaten #1 ranked SEC champion.

Otherwise, I’m going to have to get Modern Warfare 2 just because people will not stop telling me how incredibly great it is. And I’m personally really excited for Left 4 Dead 2. You know me and zombies. It’s a match made in purgatory. That’s an undead, not-really-alive-but-obviously-not-dead joke. And a strong one.

I did the photo shoot for the Neato Mosquito poster this past Saturday. It was fun and it went really well. We had a green screen in a suburban garage and that was the setting for what hopefully helps sell the movie to people. There’s a ton of pressure on my goofy face and a biscuit. We’ll see. Either way, it’s exciting to see what’s going to happen with this little piece of film.

I’m one of the few people left who like boxing and Saturday night convinced me that Floyd Mayweather Vs Manny Pacquiao is not that big a fight. It will be if it happens. Two million people will buy it on pay per view for 60 bucks a pop, people will pay thousands for good ringside seats, and it’ll be a huge event on a Saturday night. But the fight isn’t something you want to see if you like Mayweather and you saw what Pac Man did to Miguel Cotto on Saturday night.
Miguel Cotto is a perfectly game fighter with good speed and good power, but he couldn’t keep up, defend, counter, or hurt Manny Pacquiao.
Manny truly has everything you’d need to be the best fighter in the world. Anyone who beats him will have to slickly defend against his tenacity and relentless power punching, but also counter effectively enough to win on points. So you have to survive 12 rounds against his power, and find enough offense to win at least 7 of those rounds on points. Against a fast, slick fighter who can hardly be countered by anything. This is not going to be easy, not for Floyd Mayweather, and not even for someone like Sugar Ray Lewis or Marvin Hagler. It’s a fight built to suit Sugary Ray Robinson, but he’s dead and can’t very well take the fight in 2009.

I have an admission to make while I’m at it. I really, really hope I wind up with some Cirque du Soleil tickets for this weekend at the Bi-Lo Center. I’ve heard this Allegria show is very good and involves lots of high acts. And by high acts, I mean acts taking place many feet above the floor of the arena. Not stoned acts, at least as far as I know.

There is news that Brock Lesnar might never fight again due to some mysterious intestinal disorder that has him hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic and facing major surgery. I’m sure details will come out, though it all seems a little mysterious at the moment. What sucks is, that Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin fight may never happen and UFC might be stuck putting up another interim championship in the heavyweight division. That’s too bad. The best possible outcome in the short term is a four-man tournament with Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and Minotauro Nogueira. Then they’re gonna need a whole lot more heavyweights so I’d say it’s the right time to have all these monsters in the house on The Ultimate Fighter.
All in all, UFC is having a tough run of it right now. Even if Lesnar were healthy right now, Carwin would be out of the November 21st fight for sure and probably the January 2nd makeup date due to his MCL injury. Minotauro is out at the moment with yet another staph infection (don’t hang out in dirty Brazilian bath houses) and there’s still no one around to offer a legit challenge for the welterweight or middleweight titles. But they still have a slew of talented 205-pound fighters and some 155-pound fighters. But not much in between, or beyond 205.

Strikeforce, on the other hand, has managed to pick up the top heavyweight, a couple of top-tier light heavyweights like Gegard Mousasi, and even a couple of middlweights who’d be nice to see in the cage with Anderson Silva. And good for Strikeforce. I’m happy to have another game in town, as long as Dana White has better luck over the next few months and gets back to the quality shows he was putting on for the first 9 months of 2009.

We’ll start our 28-hour Big Ass Broadcast on Thursday. That’s an adventure in itself. I’m thinking we’re going to surprise a bunch of people this year and raise a huge total for Toys for Tots. And it’s all about the numbers where we’re concerned. That’s our pride as a P1 Family, but more importantly, it’s toys for kids to play with and not many things are more important to childhood than having toys to distract you from all the grown-up worries the rest of us are consumed by. I wish I could play Connect Four to get away sometimes. Or Hungry Hungry Hippos. I sort of want to roll around on the rug playing with some G.I. Joe’s right now. We could finally see who wins when G.I. Joe meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and exactly which side the Ghostbusters are really on.
See how much fun that is? That’s precisely why everyone who ever hears the Toys For Tots broadcast should be moved to stop by, say hello, and drop off at least one of those delightful new, unwrapped toys. Nothing you do all year will make you feel better.

Finally, a guy who never made NASCAR because he struggles with tight turns has managed to sling his weight around and get out of jail, though probably not for free.
John Ludwig, of crashing-his-Maserati-through-a-house-and-killing-the-homeowner-while-he-watched-TV-on-his-couch fame was sentenced today to a five-year suspended sentence (the most worthless thing possible) along with 3 years of probation (the second-most worthless thing possible) and 1000 hours of community service (hopefully cleaning septic tanks) while successfully avoiding any jail time beyond the 21 days he served when a reasonably sane judge rescinded bail and considered Ludwig a flight risk.
WYFF News 4 spoke to Thirteeth Circuit Public Defender John Mauldin:
“I believe that poor people have the right to be surprised, to complain and to question the handling of this case. There is an appearance that the type of justice that people get is different for rich and powerful people than it is for poor and disenfranchised people. It is critical that people have confidence in our system and that justice be equal.”

WYFF.com story on John Ludwig case and verdict.

If any one word could describe this past weekend, it would be CRAZY!!!  Friday night when I got off the air I went to do some shopping at the Haywood Mall since I had just got paid the day before.  I went to Hot Topic to check out what they had in clearance only to discover they had no clearance since they had to make room for Halloween items.  Disappointed, I continued to roam the mall hitting stores here and there but coming up empty.

After stopping by GameStop, I remembered I had a $5 Reward Zone certificate for Best Buy so I hauled ass over there before they closed since it was already 8:40.  I got there just in time and picked a copy of Lego Batman for PS3 since I have both Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones.  I sat up late playing the game and crashed on the couch only to wake up and head to bed around 5 am.

When I got up later Saturday morning I just sat around playing my new game until it was time to get ready to go announce at the Upstate Roller Girl Evolution invitational PIRATES vs. NINJAS.  I met Ogre there and we teamed up as announcers for the event.  I had announced for the Reedy River Roller Girls a couple of years before but Ogre was new to the game but we played off each other as we usually do on Upstate Unsigned.  It was fun and we both look forward to announcing future bouts.

After the bout, Rebecca met up with me and we stopped by the URGE after party at the Caddy Shack on Haywood Rd then went and grabbed dinner at Beef O’Brady’s.

The next day Rebecca and I went to Hollywood 20 for a matinee double feature.  We first caught the new underground horror sensation Paranormal Activity which was made for 15 thousand dollars and is reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project.  This film, however, centers around a couple who is stalked by a demon in their own house.  Like Blair Witch, the entire film is shot from a camera purchased by the guy and captures absolutely terrifying footage as it is left running in the bedroom while the couple sleeps.  Honestly, there are images from the movie I cannot get out of my head as I am writing this and will, undoubtedly, make sleeping alone difficult for a while!

Paranormal Activity  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

To help ward off the effects of the fear instilled in us from the first film, we went to see Zombieland, the dark horror comedy starring Woody Harrelson as a badass who ‘leads’ a band of survivors in a zombie apocalypse.  The film wasn’t quite what I was expecting but then again what else could I have expected?  It was a fun ride with little plot to choke on and even a tragic encounter with Bill Murray….as himself!  Interesting to say the very least!

Zombieland  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

After the double feature, Rebecca and I had to take off for Charlotte to see METALLICA at the Time Warner Cable Arena.  We got there just in time for LAMB OF GOD to hit the stage and do their thing before the heaviest band in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame took over for the rest of the evening.

METALLICA started up shortly after 9 and played a couple of songs off their new disc Death Magnetic and then ran through songs from their first four albums.  They played for nearly two and a half hours covering a lot of ground including obscure songs such as “Phantom Lord” from Kill ‘Em All and even a MOTORHEAD cover.  I also don’t recall them playing anything from Load, Reload or St. Anger which is NOT a complaint in the slightest!

At the end of the set they finished with “Seek and Destroy” while huge black beach balls with their logo on them fell from the ceiling.  They then began throwing out sticks and picks and I nabbed a James Hetfield autographed pick that Kirk Hammett was tossing into the audience.

We didn’t hit the road until about midnight and didn’t get home until about 3 am after making a pit stop at a Denny’s Diner along the way.  Which means my ass is beat and I’m ready to go home!

CAROLINA GAMECOCKS  28

KENTUCKY WILDCATS  26

- AND -

CAROLINA PANTHERS  20

WASHINGTON REDSKINS  17

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