PicoBlog

Leave a comment No, actually I’m probably closer to 5’2”, as I come from a long-line of shorties who shrink as they age. I’m praying that 30-plus years of yoga and daily hanging from a pull-up bar have slowed that inevitable progression (regression?). It’s likely only lengthened my arms, hastening the transition back to my simian origins. Back in November, I wrote about how I was born with a “tail,” along with an exploration of three versions of the song “Monkey Man.

Hello and welcome to a new edition of Rank Your Records on REPLY ALT. In case you’re new here and have no idea what the hell any of those words mean, REPLY ALT is the only and therefore best email newsletter about music in the entire world, written by me, noted dipshit Dan Ozzi. (You can subscribe for free!) Rank Your Records is a longform interview series in which I force an artist to list their own albums in order of personal preference and let me interview them about it.

Halloween Ends is the latest entry in the Halloween franchise that dates back to 1978. It purports to tell the final chapter in the saga of masked killer Michael Myers and ultimate “final girl” Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). I am obviously doubtful of the claim that this is the final Halloween movie considering you can’t kill the boogeyman when he’s this profitable (this is the twelfth entry in the franchise featuring Michael Myers and grossed over $40M at the domestic box office this weekend).

If you know me, you know that I am incredibly indecisive and I hate ranking things. More importantly, I love chips, and especially trying unique flavors of chips. This dedicated hobby really took off last year, so here’s a painstaking ranking of some chips I’ve tried in the past 12 or so months. No rubric, just vibes. Chile, tomato, and lime. This was the only World Cup special flavor that I tried.

In this first-ever Too Deep Mailbag, we tackle the tough questions, including: Why NFL teams stink at evaluating rookie quarterbacks; What Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore might mean for Nick Sirianni; Whether Drake Maye – or any rookie quarterback – would benefit from a redshirt year; Peer pressure in draft analysis? I dunno; my buddies told me I shouldn’t answer this one; Whether it’s a good idea to play Civilization VI while loaded;

Over the last two off-seasons (2021 & 2022) I’ve ranked my top 15 at each position on the O-line (top 75). This helps me process the landscape of starters entering a season and breaks up players into broader groups of ability that crystallize where certain guys fall in the pecking order relative to their peers. The order within tiers is more malleable and can be debated while the cut-off points between tiers are more of a concrete way of stacking players.

Welcome everyone to the second annual ranking of the top 40 (25 edge/15 interior) defensive linemen in the NFL. As I’m studying every game of the season focused primarily on the offensive line, I take notes on what I see from their opponents across the line of scrimmage and have cataloged my findings over the last seven or so years, particularly for the annual OL Masterminds summit. This all works together to maintain a knowledge-base on which players are the best, knowing how they win (pass-rush plan, run-defense, etc.

I didn’t want to have to write another post about this, but it seems to be necessary. I’d like to begin with Chanel Miller, who is an author. Miller came to public attention as the anonymous sexual assault victim of Brock Turner at Stanford University. In her memoir Know My Name, she writes: “The judge had given Brock something that would never be extended to me: empathy. My pain was never more valuable than his potential.

It’s weird to think it, but there was a time when rap educated its listeners and we didn’t have to document it as if it was a rarity. Here we are though. With that said, Ransom’s new song, “They Live” off his recent project, Director’s Cut 4, is a desperately needed analysis of how social media empowers us to hate people and ignore their humanity in the process. Focusing on two of society’s largest black sheep, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Samuels, Ransom paints a picture of the men before the fame, explaining their views in a simple and relatable manner over the track, while also showing how they were attacked by people in their community.