(There's nothing like a good book)

Some books are so enjoyable that you have to read them more than once. Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, a novel set during India's transition from post-independence to their Emergency period, is one of those novels.

The cover is ridiculous!

A wo[MAN]'s best friend...

The Nike MS78 LE. This colorway is sick!

This colorway will also work just fine.



I HAVE to get these. And they're only $64.99?!

And the winner is...

Only a few weeks until the start of the Premier League season! Looking at the list of teams, you will have the usual teams fighting it out for the four Champion's League spots. Each team has their share of weaknesses:
Manchester United (still haven't found a creative midfielder & over-reliance on Rooney)
Manchester City (more money, more problems)
Arsenal (major goalkeeping issue, reliable goalscorer)
Liverpool (huge problems if/when Torres gets injured, need for a solid left back)
Chelsea (not getting any younger)
Tottenham (struggle to win both in the league and Champion's league this year & defensive injury worries)
Aston Villa (the strain of playing so many games with such a small squad)


Realistically, Aston Villa's squad is far too small to compete over an entire season. Too much strain is placed on Ashley Young and Gabriel Abonglahor. - 7th (at best)

6th - Tottenham had a great year last season. They were solid defensively and Ledley King played his way into a starting berth for the national team before getting injured. I just feel injuries will catch up to them defensively this year. They have more than enough talent to finish in the top three; it just won't happen.

5th - Liverpool (my team) just finished the purchase of Joe Cole and added Milan Jovanovic earlier this summer. Without a great deal of money to spend, they stil need a good left back and another forward. Not having much money, however, they will probably settle for a subpar left back (Konchesky) and depend on Kuyt (he secretly wants to be a defender) and Babel (talented but far too lazy to ever be great) as backups.

4th - Manchester United (the team I hate) at this point have done nothing in the transfer market (not that they can afford to). They are in dire need of a creative midfielder and reliable striker. As much as Sir Alex can talk about it, there is no way Rooney is scoring that many goals again. Unless Valencia and Nani have great seasons and Berbatov plays really well (+15 goals), this might be their most disappointing season in some time.

3rd - Arsenal, for all of their injuries and their poor start to last season, finished the year extremely strong. They tried to shore up their defense this summer with the purchase of Laurent Koscielny, who quite simply won't make the impact Thomas Vermaelen made last year. I think Marouane Chamakh could be a huge purchase for them, especially considering he comes on a free transfer.

If injuries never happened in soccer, I might give Arsenal the title. But the nature of the Premier League always leads to multiple injuries. In their defense, their injury list surely can't be worse than last year. I'm looking for van Persie, Theo Walcott, Arshavin and co. to have big years. Just not big enough for first.

2nd - Chelsea is an OLD team. There's no getting around that. With the likes of Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Malouda and Cole, they're too good to struggle. But they absolutely need the likes of John Obi Mikel, Essien and the already mentioned Drogba to stay healthy. If Drogba is out for an extended period, Anelka and Kalou won't get it done as a duo. Benayoun is a great pickup, and he'll be used plenty this season with their injury worries that are surely to come.


(get used to this, Chelsea fans)

1st - Manchester City?! They have made far too many moves these past two summers NOT to challenge the entire season. If they manage to get Balotelli (less than 50%) and the left back Kolarov (very likely), then there is no excuse if Roberto Mancini can't bring the title to Eastlands.

Their squad depth is ridiculous. Just check out their depth for defensive/engine-room midfield:
1st string - Yaya Toure
2nd string - Nigel de Jong
3rd string - Gareth Barry
4th string - Patrick Vieira (*When Vieira, even at his age, is 4th string, your squad is sick!)

Just for the sake of things, let's assume they get those two players. This could be their potential squad:

Balotelli Tevez

Silva

G. Barry Y. Toure Johnson


Kolarov Kompany K. Toure J. Boateng

Even without Balotelli, they still have Adebayor and perhaps, even Robinho.

Either way, we'll know how serious their title aspirations are after their first two games of the season:
away to Tottenham
home to Liverpool

Jams of the Week...

Jam of the Week



Ol' School Jam[s] of the Week (tie)

Naughty By Nature - "Jamboree"



Noreaga and Carl Thomas - "I Love My Life"

I just came across this clip of an Emmitt Smith roast. I don't know what precipitated this, but Jamie definitely killed this comedian's night.