"The Roots Present 'A Sonic Event'" due out tomorrow. Includes performances from The Legendary, plus perormances by Jean Grae, Mobb Deep, Dice Raw, and others. Enjoy!


http://http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808624215&cf=info&intl=us

UPDATE: Not suprisingly, the DVD is straight fire. Sound quality is A++. This is the same concert that was on MTV (or maybe MTV2?) right when The Tipping Point dropped. Anyways, make sure to pick it up!

In my opinion, clearly the most important aspect of this blog, aside from all of the other topics will be the open sharing of ideas for our independent film, Hosewater.

More on this to come.....

Jim Hendry, General Manager for the Chicago Cubs. Despite most people (including me) thinking it wouldn't happen, Jimmy finally got rid of SamME Sosa. I honestly don't know what Peter Angelos of Baltimore is thinking, but I also don't care.

Needless to say, Sammy had to go. There was just no way that he was going to be able to co-exist with that clubhouse. Everyone was totally sick of the guy. He was like the tough guy at the party: while he is there, everyone is slightly uptight, and afraid of saying something dumb in fear of being made fun of and/or him starting something. However, when Tough Guy leaves, the party relaxes and good times ensue. I think that is what is going to happen with the Cubs. The clubhouse just relaxed exponentially. And seeing this is Dusty Baker's managerial style, it should only help.

Now, that being said, there is definately some production missing from last year. In particular, there are about 70 home runs and 190-200 RBI's missing now that Sammy and Alou are gone. Where is that going to come from? According to WGN radio in Chicago this weekend, there is a workout planned for Magglio Ordonez this week sometime, so we'll see where that goes. There are also rumors about a pending trade for Aubrey Huff, which would just make happier than a...whatever, it would make me happy.

On the flipside, it is a bit scary hearing the continued rumors of signing Jeromy Burnitz, and still thinking about trading for Cliff Floyd. However, I think Hendry is way, way better than that. He'll come through.

All I know is, regardless what the price, the Cubs will be a better team without the cork, diminishing body/skills, and Whitney Houston blaring before games. I mean, I would play like garbage if all I had before games was Whitney Houston.

At what point is it OK for me to give up on the Royals. The Brilliant Allen Baird is stating again for the second straight year that he is working on cutting the team salary by 10 million. Why would a GM ever want to cut payroll by a quarter to a team that lost 100+ games. This youth movement excuse that I have been promoting for the past 3 years is wearing thin, who the hell are these guys, and why is it once the new talent starts to shine, KC is more than willing to dump them for a Jake Buck, or Juan Gone. And now we have Sweeney starting to cry. . .note to Sweeney don't bitch about playing on a losing team where it is questionable if you are even on the team (125 games over three years) It is almost February and the Royals are already out of the horrible AL Central Race, and since the loss of Randa this offseason, I can only think of three reason to watch to 2005 campaign the first being Greinke, this kid will have more demons then John Daily by the end of the season, the triumphant return of Lima Time to the K, the last is a the guilty pleasure of watching Ken "Hollywood High" Harvey I love everything about the guy, from his TJ-esque back side to his over exaggerated swing. Yes 2005 is shaping up to be a bad season, but if you don't have your humor what do you have.

I wanted to start with some different sports stories that have been particularly important to me as of late. However, it is impossible to overlook a major world event from yesterday--the Iraqi Elections. The turnout was stunning: it is being estimated that 60 percent of registered voters in Iraq voted. This would come out to be 8,400,000 voters in Iraq! And while there were threats of the streets being run in "voters' blood" by terrorist groups, only 27 are believed to be dead. Sure, there is a lot of work ahead, one thing is to be certain: they were dancing in the streets. Grown men openly wept. Yesterday was truely a glorious day for the Iraqi people.

However, what is not stunning is what John "I'm still mad!" Kerry said:

"...no one in the United States...should try to over-hype this election...What the administration does in these next few days will decide the outcome of Iraq. And this is...the last chance for the president to get it right."

Really? I want to know what hasn't been "gotten right" in regards to this election. All the way leading up to the election, Kerry and other Dems were going on and on about how Iraq was nowhere near ready for elections, turnout would be terrible, thousands would die, etc etc etc.

No one, even the most optimistic supporter of the effort in Iraq, imagined that turnout would be this amazingly high. Yet for John Kerry to even give the Bush Administration even a sliver of credit due to them is simply too much to ask. Pretty sad.

I also wanted to mention this--the people who will be writing for this blog have very diverse viewpoints. If you find this post off-base or totally wrong, don't worry--there's at least two people who will be writing that feel the same as you. And I am sure you'll be hearing from them soon...

Just what the world needed...another blog!

You know what, though? I feel justified in this. I have lots of blogs I visit rather requently, and they all have parts I really like about them. However, I'm making about 10 different visits to catch up with all the stuff that is important to me. Plus, not too many of the blogs (the ones I read, anyways) are written from the perspective of someone in their mid-20's. And if they are, I am impressed: y'all are way more mature than me.

So what are we trying to do here at Heavy Soul? I don't know, really. I guess we're trying to make it a one-stop shop for all your internet needs. Internet favorites like...

Politics
Music
Sports
Technology (read: iPod)
Fountain Soda / Other drinks
Other life happenings

We hope that it is also a place that can generate positive discussions (we'll have viewpoints from all over the spectrum). We hope it is a place where you can find out cool stuff that you usually only find by surfing and reading 10,000 posts on a message board really fast.

Who knows? The thing that we definately hope it is not is a totally definable blog. We'll always throw our two cents (and then some) in on just about any topic. And we want you to, too. So, enjoy--we hope this blog grows. And of course, becomes cool enough for at least just one person to bookmark it. Then we know we've hit it big.

The name of the blog, "Heavy Soul," is actually the name of a song by Akron, Ohio's The Black Keys. The song is great, and can be found on their roll-around-in-the-mud dirty blues rock debut The Big Come Up.

The funny thing about the Black Keys is that they inevitably get compared to another "blues" rock group that features a guitar player and a drummer--The White Stripes. Their names are even similar. The problem is, see, they shouldn't be compared: The Black Keys are way better than The White Stripes.

(That statement might fire up a person or two...)

I also meant to include a couple of specific sports topics that will probably be discussed a lot:

Chicago Cubs / Kansas City Royals / Oakland A's / Atlanta Braves Baseball
Kentucky Basketball / College basketball
Nebraska Football / College football