Most popular iPod playlists

Currently most played on our iPod

1. Garden State sound track
2. Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams
3. Kenny Chesney's When the Sun Goes Down
4. Kenny Chesney's No Shoes No Shirt No Problem
5. Counting Crows' Greatest Hits Films About Ghosts

And a mix with various singles including Modest Mouse, Ben Folds and Dashboard.

Reality starved?

Now that Survivor and The Amazing Race are over for the season, are you jonesing for new reality TV fare as much as we are?

Check out the new show on Bravo, Sports Kids Moms & Dads (from the Bravo website):

Bravo took viewers backstage for Showbiz Moms & Dads, then dove into the dog show arena for Showdog Moms & Dads and now Bravo is headed to the rinks, fields, courts, and sidelines of America's young, aspiring athletes in Sports Kids Moms & Dads. This new series follows five families' daily struggles and conflicts as their child athletes strive to excel in the highly stressful, competitive, "win at all costs" world of sports. Tracy Austin, the youngest player ever inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame, will narrate the series and lend her own perspective as a former child sports star.

We think that Showdogs was hilarious (a la Best in Show) and at times seems less real than the Christopher Guest film.

We strongly recommend the new effort. Check it out June 1st at 10pm

It's about time...

Jr. tries to shake up his luck and fires his crew chief.

Rondeau out, Hmiel in.

Maybe now the #8 Bud Chevy can bring home the checkered flag this season...since he's only led a total of 5 LAPS all year.

Coca-Cola Preview

Jimmie Johnson is the obvious favorite for this weekend's race, considering his recent performance at the Charlotte track.

Mock Modest prediction: Tony Stewart #20

Maybe it's a good deal if every side is complaining

The deal made by the gang of 14 (7 each Repubs and Demos) to avoid the so-called 'nuclear option' in the US Senate is being called a bad deal by both sides.

Maybe that means it was a good compromise? Who knows...

Apparently it's about being in the right place at the right time

Had it happened in Manhattan, on the US government's 'creativity' ear-marked dollar, it would have been celebrated as 'art' by those in-the-know, no?

But even if it did not happen in Cuba, on the US government's military ear-marked dollar, Newsweak will still report it as scandalous truth without fact-checking its sources.

Eh, it's only 17 dead and scores more injured. Why should a few casualties get in the way of using unsourced (inaccurate) information if it can help sully a Republican administration and its so-called war?

Urine-soaked crucifix; Koran in the toilet: Which one is 'art'? Which one may not have happened? Which one incites violence? Which one is celebrated as courageous?

Confabulation across the nation

A reader sends this appropriate news article related to non-words.

They clearly forgot facetiate (fah-see-shah-TAY), among others.

Mock Modest Clarification

Some of our readers seem to believe that we are explicitly referencing Aristotle's The Nichomachean Ethics, as evidenced by excerpted passage below.

While this fits nicely with our intent, it was unknown at the time; as we are neither students of Aristotle nor ethics. The first instance we had heard of the phrase is referenced in the inaugural post of this blog, an AP news article about NFL players at HBS for a special business program.

The boastful man, then, is thought to be apt to claim the things that bring glory, when he has not got them, or to claim more of them than he has, and the mock-modest man on the other hand to disclaim what he has or belittle it, while the man who observes the mean is one who calls a thing by its own name, being truthful both in life and in word, owning to what he has, and neither more nor less. [Book IV, Chapter 7]

Freakonomics blog

The authors of one of the books we are currently reading have a blog.

So that's when they'll allow an up or down vote on judges...

Heh.

Reading list

We are currently reading:

• Freakonomics (Levitt)
• Sunday Money (MacGregor)
• Snapshots from Hell (Robinson)
• Privilege (Douthat)
• Trading Up (Silverstein & Fiske)

We hope to be reading soon:

• Haunted (Palahniuk)
• Stranger Than Fiction (Palahniuk)
• Year One (Reid)
• The Normals (Gilbert)
• Competitive Strategy (Porter)

TiVo love

Top 10 of our Season Pass list as of today...

1. Fox and Friends First (FNC)
2. Six Feet Under (HBO)
3. The Wonder Years (FAM)
4. NASCAR Drivers 360 (FX) - new ones
5. NASCAR Drivers 360 (FSN) - re-runs
6. The Apprentice (NBC)
7. The O.C. (Fox)
8. Lost (ABC)
9. Jack & Bobby (WB)
10. Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

2008: HRC v. George Allen

Bob Novak reports the pulse of insiders for the 2008 Whitehouse race, despite the 'darkhorse' weekend musings...

GOSH!

Check out the Napoleon Dynamite sounds page on albino blacksheep.

IDIOT!

GROSS!

Best reality show on TV

We are huge fans of reality TV here at Mock Modesty. Survivor (CBS), The Apprentice (NBC), and other 'reality' shows are by far more popular than NASCAR Drivers 360 (FX), but ratings don't equal quality.

The most entertaining and interesting TV show on today, in its second season, follows multiple NASCAR Nextel Cup (and some Busch Series) drivers throughout a week of their lives both at the track and relaxing with family and friends. Every week the drivers change slightly -- the most entertaining being Kenny Wallace (all-around goof embarrassing his children in the St. Louis suburbs) and Kevin Harvick (highlights include his young nieces putting make-up on his face).

The first episode of season 2 (premiering this past week) featured Kasey Kahne (by chance the same week he secured his first Cup win), Rusty Wallace (in his final Cup season) and Kurt Busch (coming off of the 2004 Cup Championship). Look for it on re-runs, as well as the entirety of Season 1 re-runs on the Fox Sports Network.

#9 reels in #1

Kasey Kahne in the #9 Dodge Charger reeled in his first NNC victory under the lights Saturday night in Richmond, VA. Riding from the pole, he traded the lead a few times with Tony Stewart, but ulitmately led the majority of laps and brought home the most important one -- the last one -- and the checkered flag.

Now Kahne qualifies to race next weekend in the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge in Concord, NC, and should move up in points from the 19th to at least the 16th spot overall in Cup standing.

O how we long for ten years hence

Don't you find it the least bit ironic that the latest offering from Dave Matthews Band was released on 5-10-05 -- precisely ten years after one of their best (short) performances ever (at Yoshi's in SanFran). Check that bootleg out for the best version of song #40 ever recorded.

We were unimpressed by Stand Up, the new studio album. You know it is sad when the b-side CD has received more airplay (on our iPod) than the main release.

We enjoy the second half tracks much more than the first. For the "bombing" track is the fourth (of fifteen total). As if the lyrics of "American Baby" weren't blatant enough, the quintuple from Virginia must supplement them with the sounds of gunfire, explosions and other morbid war 'noise' as intro to the song that reminds us "Nobody's laughing now/ God's grace lost and the devil is proud." Thanks for the reinforcement.

A few of the tracks are redundantly repetitive. Even more than a typical chorus-refrain framework. The title track repeats the phrase "stand up" a mere 67 times in 4:13. And we thought "Stay" was repetitive! It reminds us of a revival of english as a second language christians on public television. Repeating a phrase over and over doesn't make it any more clever, Dave. "Everybody Wake Up," three tracks after the lyrical masterpiece "Stand Up" reminds us of another 'up' action. Waking up. A Pulitzer Prize these lyrics shall not win.

The highlight of the album for us is track 10, "Louisiana Bayou." A very catchy tune that we hope to hear at Blossom on June 15th. The following cut, an ambling, reminiscent of "Little Thing" from the Dave & Tim shows of the past effort is "Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd."

Be sure purchase the dual disc and enjoy the b-sides (a mesmerizing "Joyride") as well as the live cuts from the 2004 tour including a chilling "Typical Situation."

If only we could hear Carter's tom toms and a younger, undamaged Dave voice a la 1995. But, alas, we are stuck with a few bearable tunes interspersed with repetitive bombs (literally & figuratively).

2.5 stars (out of 5)

Vegas, baby.

We're heading to las vegas next Thursday (5/19) for a friend's wedding. Should be a raucuous good time. Staying at Bally's and partying at Hard Rock Hotel.

Not big blackjack fans here, mostly pai gow poker and cheapskate roulette (quarter chips). And an occasional game of 'let it ride.'

Photos and post-trip recaps sure to come, be on the lookout....

'Insurgents' elected as Dartmouth Trustees

Great news from the College on the Hill. Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88 have been elected to serve as Alumni Trustees at Dartmouth College.

The two were deemed 'insurgents' since they were petition candidates and were not nominated by the 'all-powerful' alumni council. We congratulate them both and wish them luck in steering the Big Green ship in the right (yes, pun intended) direction.