The Band You Love to Hate is an easy target. They're insanely popular, having sold something in the region of a gazillion albums around the world, but there's also a certain cache to the Nickelbacklash. The fact 55,000 people in Detroit signed a petition to block the band from playing the halftime show during the Lions' Thanksgiving game was picked up by every media outlet with a chuckle. Of course, it didn't dent the Alberta-bred band's album sales any.
This is all to say that Chad & Co. are an easy target. Or at least they seemed like one. Atlanta Braves relif pitcher Peter Moylan certainly thought so when he decided to call the band out on Twitter, suggesting they take some performance lessons from the Foo Fighters. The band, or whomever does its tweeting, then unexpectedly came right back with a question of their own, asking Moylan, who played just 13 games in 2011, if watching fellow Braves hurler Craig Kimbrel was better on the bench or on TV. Ohhh, NickelBUUUUUUUUURRRRNNN!
Now the question is whether this outburst of awesome will change any Nickelback haters' minds or make them hate the band even more for forcing them into like territory for a brief second. Tough call. Oh, and just in case you haven't decided yet, there's this.
Okay, it's May. We're probably not thinking about snowboarding, winter or anything remotely cold anymore and instead we're setting our sights on the possibilities of golf, patio BBQs and some much-needed heat and sunshine.
Put yourself back to winter, just for a few minutes.
Last year when Canada proudly hosted the Olympics in Vancouver, a new anthem took hold of the country. It, too, was dubbed 'Oh... Canada', but the anthem we love and sort of know all the words to was spliced and diced in to a rapping tribute to all things we adore that are truly Canadian: from UFC's GSP to poutine and Kids in the Hall to Jim Carrey. The man at the centre of the musical montage was Nova Scotian rapper Classified, who proudly declared his love for his country.
How fitting it is that Classified returned to the slopes of Whistler where his song echoed over the course of the Olympics, inducing a legion of patriotic fans to sing along. Luckily, the East Coaster agreed to hit the slopes and let us follow him as he attempted to navigate down the tricky hills. He even let his body be a ramp for snowboarding pro Cory Gallon to fly off of. He's not just a great sport, he's a brave one to boot.
Almost a year and a half later, it's pretty awesome to think back to what an amazing time it was for Canada and the pride that just oozed from our pores as we showed off to the world what we're made of. I hear the words of the song and I'm just pretty damn proud to be Canadian. Very awesome, indeed.
For the full post by Push.ca, check out the blog here.
A rowdy crowd of fight fans packed the Bell Center in Montreal today for the UFC 124 weigh-ins. When Georges St-Pierre, the Canadian welterweight champion hit the scale it was almost deafening, and the stadium was only a quarter full. I haven’t seen the champ this fired up for a fight in a long time. Usually GSP is all business, but as he and Koscheck faced off, they had some words, and appeared ready to fight right then and there.
All of the fighters made weight, including Thiago Alves, who has had difficulty in the past making the 171 pound welterweight limit.
Thiago Alves (171 lbs) vs. John Howard (171 lbs) Joe Stevenson (155.5 lbs) vs. Mac Danzig (156 lbs) Jim Miller (155 lbs) vs. Charles Oliveira (153.5 lbs) Stefan Struve (253 lbs) vs. Sean McCorkle (264 lbs) Georges St. Pierre (170 lbs) vs. Josh Koscheck (169 lbs)
As with all MMA fights, regardless of the betting lines and crowd favourites, there is no sure-thing, on fight night two men step into the cage, and anything can happen. Be sure to watch UFC 124 LIVE on Pay-Per-View tomorrow, Saturday December 11th – 10PM ET, and check back Sunday for a full event recap and analysis.
This is a couple of days old... but! still! Worth passing on to you if you haven't yet been privy to an email with the subject line "OMG! Neil Peart f*&in' kills the hockey theme" or "that dude from rush and a hockey jingle" ...
There's certainly a lot going on here. Mr. Peart -- he of Rock Drumming God-status -- has decorated his 436-piece drum set with logos of the NHL teams, the most prominent being the Toronto Maple Leafs. There's also a beret hat situation. OK, we might as well admit that we may hold the distinct status of being the only over-30, white Canadian male that doesn't like Rush. I can recognize and respect the skins skills of Mr. Peart, but Geddy Lee's voice has always had the tendency to make my ears bleed. Also, that hair and little round glasses make him look like a creepy wizard. And not like the ones in Harry Potter. More like the ones who live in their car and wear a cloak that smells of old deli meat. That said, this would've been a bit cooler if they had Mr. Lee singing the melody in that falsetto rock scream of his -- "WAAH! WAAH! WAAH! WAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAH!"
