Getting Drafty

This weekend we had our second annual Milwaukee’s Best fantasy draft. Our league is a collection of spares that involves many of the usual suspects. New to our league is Luke, who recently has been making his presence, felt on this site. For those of you who don't know, Luke was our personal waiter at Plucker's until he got fired a few months ago, now he's part of our group; only he no longer gets us beer and hot wings. And that sucks. Come to think of it, he doesn't contribute much anymore. Anyways, Luke seems like a legitimate threat to take my crown as champion this year.

(I gave myself last year's title after the real champion left our league this year. He beat me in the championship last year, so I'm just gonna go ahead and make my claim. There it's done. I'm last years champ. Anyone gonna argue? Didn't think so. Let's move on.)

Anyways, I'll save you the details of the draft being as they would only be funny to a few, but I will mention a few things:

--Two buddies did not draft their teams, but let the autopick do it. Consequently, they have Donte Stalworth, Jamal Lewis, and Duece McAllister on their teams. This is what happens when you have a real life and don't devote your Sundays to fictitious football teams. You lose.

--No one caught more grief than my buddy Conway for selecting two defenses. Leading to the running joke of waiting for his next turn and saying, "And with the 36th pick, Conway selects Drew Henson" or "Conway selects "pass." Needless to say we were rolling.

--Nothing is more fun than drafting a team while another manager is fifteen feet away in your apartment. Hearing my roommate yell "Dammit, Hunter!" after nearly all of Hunter's picks. Never got old. Not even once.

--Along the same lines, this also allowed for the uncomfortable situation where I was eyeing Plaxico Buress and Chad yells from his room, "Should I take Reggie Wayne or Plaxico Buress?" I was dead silent for his entire time on the clock before he panicked and took Jake Delhomme. Two picks later I took Buress only to hear, "Ass hole!" and what I think was his keyboard flying across the room.

--At one point my girlfriend walks into the room and looks at the screen and all smack talk we are writing to each other in the chat box. I straighten up and try to explain all the aspects of the draft, but end up sounding a bit too giddy about the whole thing, prompting her to make an unimpressed facial expression and walk back to the living room without saying a word. Gotta love fantasy football.

--I picked Tom Brady in the second (I know that was too high) as my QB even though I pretty much hate his existence with every strand of my body. Now I have to root for him. Why do I hate him? Plain and simple, he's better than me.

--My roommate came to me on Friday asking me to move the draft time to 3 pm because of prior engagements. After listening to his story, I kindly explained to him that having to go to cheer practice is not a reasonable excuse for missing a fantasy draft. In fact, I am ashamed that this conversation ever happened. Kind of like when the Marlins beat the Indians in the World Series in 1997, (another low moment for Chad) we would like to all just pretend this never happened.

OutKast and Idlewild: No, I didn't see the movie, but I did buy the album. Some people have criticized the album, but you have to expect that after Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Idlewild doesn't have as many strong tunes as their previous album, but there is a lot of quality to it. If you like OutKast than you'll like this. It seems a bit strange for OutKast to be making albums together after they attempted break apart into solo careers with the aforementioned album, but you never can predict what OutKast is going to do next.

Going deeper, this album proves that Big Boi is far more talented than Andre 3000. If you really listened to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below than you saw this coming a few years ago. Besides Hey Ya! and Roses, there wasn't much to The Love Below, but Big Boi's Speakerboxxx contained a number of tracks that showcased him and his Purple Ribbon crew. This album is very much the same in that respect, highlighted by Big Boi's The Train. You can also tell that Andre and Big Boi are growing apart both musically and personally, rarely do they collaborate and seem to have developed an even greater gap in their styles. Big Boi has developed his own style of rap, while Andre seems to still be searching for where his vocals fit in the world of OutKast. Even the tracks Big Boi does not lend his vocals to, but only produces, such as Mutron Angel out shine what Andre has. Personally, I think Andre needs to come back towards the middle, he is getting a bit out there for my tastes.

The group seems to be together begrudgingly, but still find the chemistry that made them who they are. Overall, both give strong performances, but its Big Boi's show from start to finish.

Beerfest: If you liked Super Troopers go check this out. Hilarious, I can't review it without giving away the jokes, so I won't try. Yeah, it's stupid. Yeah, you'll laugh. You're just gonna have to trust me on this one.