I cannot stop listening to this Abandoned Pools song "Armed to the Teeth". Tommy Walter ... he's a one man band and songwriter, he writes brilliant alternative rock hooks, and he's from Stockton. What more could you ask for? The title track of his second album boasts an enthralling chorus ("armed to the teeth, i'm ready, go out and spend your money, giants of industry, come on come on and try and eat me") ... alright, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense but Walter has a perfect sense of melody and integrates his lyrics seamlessly with his guitar charge.

The World Cup draw was today ... and anyone who is happy that the U.S. got grouped with Italy, the Czech Republic, and Ghana is insane. Any one of those teams has the talent to throttle us. Italy, no question. The Czechs haven't played to their potential lately but their roster is still head and shoulders above ours ... do we have anyone with the sublime skills of Pavel Nedved? Even a Nedved at 75%, as he's been in recent memory? Ghana is a wild card, but they topped their qualifying group in Africa and with the likes of Chelsea midfield kingpin Michael Essien in their squad can easily give us yanks a tough match. In fact, our group is as daunting as the widely acknowledged "group of death" featuring Argentina, the Ivory Coast, Serbia and Montenegro, and the Netherlands. The Americans are going to need some strong performances and perhaps some underperforming by their rivals to get into the knockout stages. Last time it took a completely underwhelming performance by Portugal to get us through, and i don't think we can count on charity again.