Last American Exit

After an exhausting day in NYC I am 35 minutes from boarding Virgin Atlantic Flight 10 to Heathrow London! The day started early at 4 am with a little breakfast, a goodbye to my Father and a ride with Momma to the Buffalo Airport. The Jet Blue flight was bumpier than usual but the TV's always take care of that. I landed at JFK and had to lug all my bags around to have them stored for the day. The price was $48. I took the Airtrain into Jamaica and hopped on the LIRR to Penn Station. When I got to Madison Square Garden, the security guard gave me a day pass without asking a single question. That will come in handy next time I want to sneak in a game. I ran into a few people who I worked with such as Bobby Mills and Mike Breen. I had a ton of time to kill so I took a nap in the LIRR waiting room while Annie finished up her work. I met her on 44th street as she treated me to the new Broadway musical "Lennon". I must say the show was good but I'm not sure John would approve of his masterpieces sang is such Broadway gaydom, or flair as Annie called it. After the show we jumped across the street to John's restaurant and had some Italian. She got a call from work and had to bounce so I met Casey Moore at bar for a beer. After that I was so tired, so I took the E train to Jamaica/Sutphin Blvd. to catch the AirTrain. That brings me to the Virgin Atlantic desk and to the terminal. This Internet is costing me $7.95 for an hour but you know me and my habits. I am honestly nervous, but that may be due to my lack of sleep and amount of sweat released throughout the day. I want to thank everyone who shared words of encouragement because it really means a lot to me. I hope to get a post up tomorrow explaining how bad it's gonna suck for me to get my bags all over the British Isles! At least I'm not in Louisiana!

Where's Annie??? My good friend Annie Gillies, who is a producer at MTV, was working at the Video Music Awards last night, and got caught in some paparazzi pics. I'll award a cookie to anyone who can spot her. Hint: she's wearing a striped shirt just like Waldo!!!

It's Party Time, It's Excellent! Thanks to all who came, I appreciate it. I'll let the pictures tell the story.Watch out for the screen door

We Are The Champions...My FriendsJeff Criddle, Mark Hajnos, Kevin Hajnos and I are officially the St. Stephen's 2005 Hoopla champs in the 18-25 division. I know what you're thinking...I'm 26 and Criddle's 35, but the rules stated that you play in the division of your youngest player. Thanks to the 20 year old Kevin it was a cakewalk. Although there were only three other teams, we swept the competition. I can't wait to defend the title next summer!

Hedge Fund Homies

The first Brand Knew's fan club has been formed in the MBA program at Binghamton University. Their president, Tim Smith has been an admirer of mine for years. Keep studying kids...you're probably going to be counting my cash someday! There's a pic of them at their last Brand Knew club meeting

Thanks For The Send-off Sam

Ra, Rags and I attended the Thursday at the Square performance by the mighty Sam Roberts Band. A good time was had by all, maybe even too good of a time. Sam ran through his classics and a few new tune. The highlights were Taj Mahal", "Brother Down", and the new single, "Road to Nowhere". The lowlight of the show was when he invited Matt Mays and El Torpedo (the opening act) on stage to jam for at least 10 minutes. I would have never thought I would ever leave a Sam Roberts show early, but we needed to get downtown and begin getting crazy. My boy Jonathan Steele who is joining me in Europe was leaving the next day to attend St. Louis University in Madrid Spain. Everyone was out in full force...even the JB bros.

Up Yours Casio

I finally got a new film watch. I think it was like $30 on eBay. It's not as nice as the original but Casio finally sent it back to me so I have some time to try and fix it. They expect me to send them the replacement they sent, but not until they send me back my $20

Broken Social Scene's New Self-Titled LP Leaked to the Internet

I was reading the Arts & Crafts message board and all the fellow indie nerds were buzzing about the new album being leaked. Within mere seconds I was on Soulseek downloading it from one of the many that I trade music with. I will refrain from reviewing the album because I've only had it for 2 days and it took me 2 years to completely wrap my brain around You Forgot It In People, their last release. I will though, add a statement from lead singer Kevin Drew. I can review this and to me it seems that it really doesn't matter to him. He is though calling out nerds like myself and I completely agree with him. If I didn't have a wicked bad case of ADD I probably could have waited until October 4th to pick it up. On the other hand, I will buy the album when it arrives even though I have already heard it. Considering the amount of CD's bought from multiple artists tied to BSS, concerts attended, and recommendations to my friends I can't say I feel any remorse for grabbing the album. If you click on the pic it will expand so you can read it!

DJ Dave Steals the Show

I attended the DeLoreto-Mancini wedding at The Buffalo Convention Center this Saturday night. A great time was had by all but the icing on the cake was getting to see Dave Martino, the groom's brother in law, in nothing but a tuxedo vest. He is a gentlemen who loves the 80's more than VH1, so this attire was not foreign to him. Please feel free to download this pic, print it and fax it to anyone you know.

MY COUSIN IS FREE

No jail for US soldier in Afghan abuse

A US military jury has spared an army reservist jail time but reduced his rank for assaulting a prisoner who later died at a detention centre in Afghanistan. Prosecutors had asked that Private First Class Willie V Brand, 27, be sent to a military prison for 10 years with a dishonourable discharge for the 2002 beating. Instead, the panel on Thursday reduced his rank to private, the lowest pay grade in the army. Brand sighed in relief and hugged his lawyer.

Aljazeera Article

'DOG' CALLS IT QUITSI'll "Chunk the Deuce" right back atcha kid!

SEA BLOCK

Thanks J.Y.D. Although only a Knick for 1 year 8 months and 2 weeks, Jerome "Junkyard Dog" Williams was easily one of my all-time favorites to wear the Orange and Blue. Jerome was released by the team today under the league's new amnesty rule. The irony to it all is that the media has dubbed it the "Allan Houston" rule. Team owner James Dolan said that Allan will stay on the team. Jerome earned his nickname by sacrificing every inch of himself for the team. The quintessential play came this past season on March 13th against Seattle. The Supersonics guard Ronald Murray was chasing down a loose ball in his own backcourt when out nowhere JYD dives in front to collect the ball dishing from his back to a cutting Jamal Crawford for a dunk. Thanks again Jerome, I know there's a place for you in this league I just wish the Knicks salary cap wasn't such a mess so you could stay on the team. As we see money hungry athletes like T.O. redundantly blabbing about the cash he deserves, Jerome was the type of player that earned every cent of his salary.

Brand Knew's Local Celebrity Obsession Part Two: Kent Hull

Buffalo Bills Wall of Famer Kent Hull was hanging out at Doctor's Pizza in South Buffalo last night. In an earlier article I explained my obsession with local celebs. It was around 4:30 AM when Ten, Wolf, Cole Slaw, and I were chatting him up outside on the patio. This human being was massive. He was about 6-5 300lbs. He was in town for Jim Kelly's son Hunter's funeral, and was letting off a little weekend steam. Considering some of the retarded questions thrown his way, he was very respectful and answered a lot of our questions. Here's a few tidbits from our conversation:

• He was a QB until his Junior year in high school
• He thinks he still has an apartment in Buffalo but does not remember
• When OJ was interviewing players for NBC and Thurman and Cornelius put their arms around Nicole he gave them a dead-eye stare
• The SuperBowl teams were much closer than the media led us to believe
• Cornelius Bennett has a penis the size of his arm
• Jim Kelly knew 1/4 of the playbook while Frank Reich new what every position was to do on every play
• He was undrafted out of Mississippi State
• No one partied the night before the Super Bowl
• He insisted on calling J.P. Losman P.J. and thinks he's too cocky

Rich Kellman Goes to Hall of Fame

Holla at cha boy Ricky!

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

NEW SINGLE

FREE

The equation that creates the sum that is the Broken Social Scene is beautiful. Most members of this so-called "collective" are in other bands simultaneously. Most of the members seem to be encouraged to concentrate on their main work, while having BSS be the happy-hour pub. In my opinion this band connects so well because the steam they let off for fun sounds better than the work that each of them is crafting to live. The kids who make up BSS also comprise some or all of the parts of Stars, Metric, Apostle of Hustle, Do Make Say Think, Jason Collett, and of course my personal favorite, Feist. They're blithe attempt at a supergroup has sort of backfired to where BSS has forcefully become a top priority. Either two things will happen. Broken Social Scene will vaporize due to lack of cohesion, or the exterior groups will fade away and BSS will become the blue-print for the carefree attitude that is required for music. There is a revolution in Toronto and it will be shared.

Here's some links to explain the rambling:

Broken Social Scene Bio on Allmusic.com

Arts & Crafts : The label that is home to most of these artists

The controversial Pitchfork review that launched BSS into the indie lexicon

I went to the Beaneater and all I got was this lousy T-shirt

The 5th annual Beaneater lacrosse tournament was this past Saturday. Considering the money lost in last years event, it didn't look like it was going happen this year, until Brand Knew stepped in. Of course much respect has to be hurled at my SB counterparts, Greg Nice, Bobby Scooter and BC. The tournament had some great talent including a good amount of division 1 lacrosse players. The Grand Island team had a pretty good showing. After going down 1-5 to South Buffalo in the first game we stormed back to win 6-5. Another year of bragging rights for this guy! In the finals was Frank Resatarits Southtown club vs. the always tough Auburn squad. Considering I was the only volunteer official still around the officiating was horrible but the gameplay was good. Faceoffs told the story as Southtowns won 3/4 of them. Unfortunately we made a new rule where the food and drinks weren't to be served until after the championship game. Last year the winning team only got 2 pitchers worth. This year all the losers besides my team went home early. Everyone did pay the same amount but it would have been nice to have a bigger party. We learn from our mistakes so hopefully we can adjust things to accommodate everyone. Circle August 5, 2006 on your calendar for the 6th annual Beaneater!

Sir Michael J.P. Brand vs Casio Corporation LLC

About 8 months ago I decided I wanted a vintage Casio watch, maybe even a calculator version, to project my retro/nerd side and to possibly tell me the time. After looking through the listings with our friends at eBay, I found what was called a Film Watch. I had never seen one before and it looked very unique. I still to this day have not made the correlation with the word "Film" and the watch, but I decided to buy it anyways. After the purchase I was a bit skeptical about whether or not I would like the watch and when it came I was completely shocked to find myself in love with it.

It kind of looked like that but with a silver band.

I began to wear the watch everywhere I went, which was something that I have never done, at least not since I have had a cellphone that also told me the time. I even wore it times when I should have not, like lacrosse practice where I got slashed in the watch which broke the band.

My first stop was Watch World next to Krispy Kreme, where considering their name they should have been able to help me. I think they might want to change their name to Watch Country or even Watch State because the gentlemen recommended I go to the casio website to try and find service. After digging through that HTML mine field I got to the Casio service center. I wrote an e-mail and was given a response in a few days. "Ship the watch to us with $20 and will replace the band and ship it back to you," Casio says.

I do as they request and wait, that was July 6th. Today, August 8th, I receive a package in the mail from Dover New Jersey. IT'S A WATCH! I open the package like Ralphie unwrapping his BB gun. It's a shitty 2005 "Night Manager at Denny's" watch with a note attached saying that they don't make parts for this watch any longer. Within 10 minutes I was on the phone with a representative who assured me her supervisor would be calling me to resolve this issue.

Why couldn't they send me back the broken watch so I could at aleast attempt to MacGyver it?

Why don't they have parts for the watch that they make?

Why am I so mad about a measly digital watch?

I WILL DELIVER COMEUPPANCE!

In the meantime I have sought out some replacements on eBay. Pleaser take a look at both and tell me which one you like.

My boy Casey Moore has a blog now! He and I became friends at the Ivy-league junior college Herkimer CCC. He is of the nomadic carefree mold of such intellectual icons as Lebowski, Fletch, or Buster Poindexter. Unlike myself this guy is never in a foul mood. He is a free-lancer in the television industry in New York City, which could not be further from the glamorous lifestyle you are envisioning. Sneak a peek at his blog for me and holla at him.

I read an article in the NY Post today about a teacher in Albany who was banging her students. The article mentioned how many students had commented on her attractiveness on RateMyTeacher.com. That gave me the idea to research all the friends who were teachers across the country. I then came across a friend of mine who I haven't seen in years. Mike Mann is now a Phys Ed teacher at a 9th and 10th grade high school in Plano Texas. Here's a pic from the website.