English guitarist Guthrie Govan plays a 5 minute solo in the styles of 20 famous guitarists. And look, someone has added a picture of each of them. Don’t scroll down if you want to see if you can name them all. Guthrie’s playing is so good, you might be able to tell with your eyes closed.

Eric Johnson, James Taylor, Pete Townshend, The Edge, B.B. King, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Albert Lee, Edward Van Halen, Al di Meola, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Zakk Wylde, Tom Morello, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Sonny Landreth, Jeff Beck, John Scofield, Jimi Hendrix.

Here’s an article by ma boi that was written a few days after the attempted attack on an airplane on Christmas day, 2009.  I had meant to post this earlier, but I just get so busy around Jesus’ birthday.  VonChris, in my opinion, makes some great points about airplane (and, more importantly, airport) security.  I finished his book, God is Not Great, and found it to be awesome (and great).  I’m currently poking around in another of his titles, The Portable Atheist, which is a collection of essential readings for the nonbeliever by writers from Lucretius [De Rerum Natura] to Ayaan Hirsi Ali [How (and Why) I Became an Infidel], selected and introduced by Hitchens.  It’s a big one, but it should prove worthy.

Another point on the security issue: I saw a gentleman on TV making the point that if a terrorist sang “Mary Had a Little Lamb” before blowing up an airplane, the TSA would ban singing on airplanes.  But if I were a terrorist, I wouldn’t pay attention to the no-singing rule (or the no-getting-up rule or the no-explosives-on-planes rule).

Also worth mentioning is that I love the use of the word “expectorate”.

P.S. One more month.

While at the 4th Quarter tonight, El Meester and I were discussing going to a shooting range to practice our murkin’ skills, you know, for the impending Armageddon/Everyone-for-themselves all-out-war that’s soon to be upon us. I came home to check out the latest on Slate.com magazine and found this frightfully timely Explainer article.

Q: Why do rappers hold their guns sideways?

A: Because it looks so Hollywood.

And for you gamers out there, here is the most serious article I’ve every read about a video game (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2)

Will Nirvana’s fans buy their new material? I don’t know.

Will these things be legal by February, 2010? Probably not, but soon.  (Well maybe the Cuba thing.)

How does he do that? The same way D-Go dunks.  (In his imagination.)

And here is a great performance of a greater song by John Hiatt.  I re-heard the song after buying the 3 seasons of Arrested Development on DVD.

AD uses the song in a hilarious scene in which Gob realizes he’s “made a huge mistake” about working things out with his super-hot Spanish TV star girlfriend, Marta. I couldn’t find the scene, though, so here’s one introducing him in the show.  And here’s another good one.

And this article leads me to only one conclusion: Dem David Dem should be a school teacher.

And check this one out.

• Boise State and Cincinnati are both ranked in the top 10. We’re talking about the Mountain West and the Big East here. ACC, step your game up. Big 10, you too.

• USF is 5-0. I don’t really feel like they’ve played any quality opponents yet (yes, that includes FSU) hence their modest #21 ranking so we’ll see how they handle #8 Cincinnati this Thursday and Miami after Thanksgiving. PS. FSU/UF is simply NOT worth watching anymore so spare yourselves and hope Miami @ USF is more exciting even though I hate them both. Also, this Big Four crap is retarded.

• Miami is 4-1. This is an incredible start for their ridiculous opening schedule (excluding FAMU — sorry Rattlers), which many predicted for them to start 0-4.

• Florida is 5-0. The Gators are showing ZERO signs of even coming close to losing a game this season except for maybe in the SEC title game against Alabama. They haven’t even trailed by a single point in the 3 legitimate games they’ve played so far on their schedule.

• And Florida State is 2-4. Really? It’s come to this now? And that 2-4 could have easily been 1-5 if the Noles hadn’t pulled off a last minute win in the 4th quarter against Jacksonville State at home.  The only game where the Noles looked semi-good this year was on Versus against the Fighting Mormons.

At least the Marching Chiefs are still representing with pride:

I thought I’d never see the day where we would depend more on our offense to win us games rather than our defense. I am conceding all hopes for anything this season. Getting 6 wins for a bid to the Turd Bowl would be a victory at this point assuming the NCAA even allows us since one of our wins is against 1AA Jacksonville State who almost beat us at home anyway. I just hope this upcoming off-season is completely bondernuts for the Noles. And yes, I realize that I’m once again looking forward to next year already when we’re only halfway through the current season.

Additional Linkage:

The Bizarro Jerry

Kramer – TCB (Taking care of business)

Kramer – Fired (doesn’t even work there)

Dave Chappelle – He Made Thriller

Michael Jackson – Thriller (original)

More FSU Marching Chief Videos from SwaggerToothVideo

On a more serious note, this is the kind of thing I’ve been talking about, SwaggerToothers.  Now you won’t be able to smoke OUTSIDE. It’s a slippery slope.  Ugh, I’ll let you intelligent people out there decide for yourselves.

Here’s a related article about the Mommy Mayor up in NYC.  I love the John Stuart Mill quote, “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”  Good stuff.

Go ‘Noles!

SPORTS

Football is officially back on the collegiate and professional level.  The biggest headlines in college have been:

• Sam Bradford’s season-threatening injury in Oklahoma’s season opening loss to BYU
• True freshman QB Matt Barkley leading USC to victory over Ohio State in the “Horseshoe”
• Michigan vs. Notre Dame in a match-up of two “hot seat” coaches in “must win” situations

Biggest NFL Week 1 headlines:

• Eagles QB McNabb breaks a rib in victory over Panthers.  Vick STARTING a lot sooner than we expected?  Side note, Panthers QB Delhomme throws 4 (four!) INTs and tosses in 1 lost fumble.
• FARVIN!  Vikings win comfortably over Browns as Adrian Peterson runs for 180 yards/3 TD and Percy Harvin scores his first professional TD.
• Denver wins in Cincinnati on a miracle tipped pass for a TD, courtesy of Brandon Stokely, in what was overall a horrible game.  According to NFL:  It was the longest game-winning play from scrimmage in the final minute of the fourth quarter in NFL history.

TRIOS & ORCHESTRAS

Two albums that El Meester has been recently listening to are Phish’s 14th studio offering Joy and Jay-Z’s latest effort The Blueprint 3.  Joy is produced by well-respected and accomplished producer Steve Lillywhite, who has produced some of El Meester’s absolute all-time favorite albums such as Dave Matthews Band’s Before These Crowded Streets, Talking Heads’ Naked, and Phish’s Billy Breathes.  The Blueprint 3, as one would expect, features production work from hip-hop’s finest such as Kanye West, No I.D., Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, and The Neptunes.  Both are solid albums that will continue to receive many listens and are SwaggerTooth-recommended.  El Meester’s favorite Joy tracks:  “Backwards Down the Number Line”, “Sugar Shack”, “Ocelot”, “Kill Devil Falls”, and “Time Turns Elastic”.  Favorite Blueprint 3 tracks:  “Empire State of Mind”, “Off That”, “Venus vs. Mars”, and “Reminder”.