I told you all (or at least, those of you on Facebook) that I would be generally unavailable this week, as I had two fantasy football drafts, including my main league (Iron Sheik). So obviously, it was a big, big week. In Iron Sheik, I picked 9th out of 10. We start QB-QB-WR-WR-WR-RB-RB-WR/RB-TE-K-DEF, standard scoring, no PPR. Here’s my team, with the round I got the player in parentheses:

QB Kurt Warner (4)
QB David Garrard (7)
WR Randy Moss (1)
WR Larry Fitzgerald (2)
WR Lance Moore (10)
RB Ryan Grant (3)
RB Knowshon Moreno (8)
WR/RB Donald Driver (10)
TE Antonio Gates (5)

Bench Marshawn Lynch (6)
Bench Beanie Wells (9)
Bench Laveranues Coles (12)
Bench LeSean McCoy (13)
Bench Chester Taylor (14)
Bench Mark Bulger (15) (since dropped for Cadillac Williams)

K Nate Kaeding (17)
DEF New York Jets (16)

What do I think? Meh. This is a very different team for me – two WRs first, only one RB in the first five rounds – but I’m willing to try it out. I’m not thrilled with Kurt Warner – I wanted a more marquee QB1 – but in a two starting QB league, he lasted all the way until the 4th round, which is pretty good value. Also I think Garrard, with an improved O-line and a real-live WR, will be better this year.

The WRs, I do like: Moss and Fitzgerald combined could put put up in the range of 2600-3000 yards and 24-30 TDs, which, I think, are better than two RBs I could have taken at 9 and 12 overall. I can make a solid WR3 out of Moore, Driver and Coles, who are basically the same to me.

I like Ryan Grant this year (love the whole GB offense, really) and I do, indeed, love Knowshon – despite the mess that is Denver, hey, they have a good O-line. One thing worth noting in this league is that 8 of the 10 teams make the playoffs, so I’ll be rolling out Grant-Lynch-Knowshon starting Week 4. Throw in the preseason stud Beanie and the handcuffs of LeSean and Taylor and while I’d like another stud RB, not bad for, again, taking one RB in the first five picks.

I never get a marquee TE but when Gates was sitting there in the 5th, I had to take it – couple him with Moss and Fitz and those three are pretty terrific. I don’t care about kickers or defenses, but am happy with Kaeding (good weather, high-scoring offense) and NYJ (Rex Ryan is a defense-minded coach who imported leader Bart Scott, etc).

So all in all, I’m ok with this very-different-for-me team. However, I don’t like saying, “The key to my season is Kurt Warner.” If he does something like last year, I’m cool. If he goes down…when does baseball start?

Therefore, after a week of heavy duty research (fifth and final draft next week), I only gots music for you.

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Six Songs

“Wild Mountain Nation” Blitzen Trapper
Let’s see, how can I put this? How about: “Holy crap, this song is totally fucking awesome.” For real, I nearly shit myself when I first heard it; rock me to my very bowels, it did. It’s kinda like if the Raconteurs joined forces with Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, and were co-produced by Jimmy Page and a heavily-under-the-influence God. Great, kick-ass stuff.

“Let’s Stick Together” Roxy Music
Oh boy – here’s another one that demands that the volume be turned up. I was introduced to this one by my buddy Brian after I wrote about how Roxy Music is a guilty pleasure of mine. He sent me an email with the subject “Roxy Music” that read:

“Let’s Stick Together”

It will not disappoint.

And yes, Brian was right. This is now threatening to take the number one position on my “Dance, Hipster, Dance!” playlist. Impossible not to love it.

“Songbirds” Marah
Marah is so fucking perfect that, even though I love them, it almost makes me angry. This is one of the few bands where I’ll buy an album of theirs, decide which songs I like, which are ok, and which I don’t like, and then slowly, over time, return to those songs that fell into the “meh” or “don’t like” categories and grow to love them. I’ve had this song on my iPod for over a year. How is it that only now I’m realizing how great it is?

“Mimizan” Beirut
I have a playlist called “Weird Music” without which I could not have written the book. It’s filled with songs by Beirut, Midlake, Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, My Morning Jacket, and other quirky artists and songs that I can’t think of right now (I don’t have the playlist in front of me). Basically, I did 90% of my book writing at my aunt and uncle’s house on the Jersey shore in the dead of winter. This is how my days went:

- Noon: Wake up

- Noon – 1pm: eat breakfast (CCB with tater tots) at Star Diner and read the paper

- 1pm – 2pm: read in the shower

- 2pm – 5pm: nap

- 5pm – 6pm: read in the shower, actually shower

- 6pm – 7pm: watch the news

- 7pm – 10pm: go out for dinner and beers

- 10pm – 11pm: read in the shower

- 11pm – midnight: pre-game with drinks, dick around on the computer, begin to think about writing

- midnight – 6am: drink, listen to music, and write until too drunk to properly operate keyboard

Also, there was usually a sundae (Breyer’s cherry vanilla ice cream, microwaved for 22 seconds, with a 2:1 ice cream: whipped cream ratio) somewhere in there.

The key in this whole process (well, besides the booze) was the “Weird Music” playlist. In order to write and think properly, you need music that is good without being engaging, one that creates an atmosphere that is conducive to creativity without being intrusive. What better way to get in a creative mindset than by listening to music that goes well beyond the realm of three-chord rock and rhyming couplets?

(And bear in mind: I am fully aware that what I do/did is not really “writing.” We’re not talking about Vladimir Nabokov sitting down at a manual typewriter to produce something beautiful and perfect, but rather a chubby guy with a beard more or less falling half-drunk into a kitchen chair to type sentences like: “While love is trafedy [sic] and tragedy love, love is the best, the most, the everything – the lite [sic] and the world, much like Jesus, God’s only son, so far as we understand curently [sic].” Just as there’s nothing worse than comedians trying to deconstruct what is “funny,” there are few things worse than a someone with an internet diary talking about his/her writing process. So I know this, even if I did just went ahead and talked about mine. Sorry.)

So anyway, it’s a good song, and particularly inspiring if you deal in run-on sentences and curse words.

“Book of Love” Fleetwood Mac
This song represents either everything that is right with Fleetwood Mac or everything that is wrong with Fleetwood Mac. Listen to it, and this statement will make perfect sense. Beautiful soaring harmonies; complete and total pomposity. But do you listen to it every time it comes on? I know I do.

“Worried About You” The Rolling Stones
I know I wrote about “Tattoo You” recently, but if there’s one song I’d recommend checking out (and subsequently getting bombed alone to), it’s this one. Early 80’s falsetto Mick is really terrific, and I love the slow/smooth starts interspersed with bouts of yelling and the fast middle part. The whole album could be a complete soundtrack, but I promise you that if I ever write a movie (which will never, ever happen), I will use this song somewhere in the soundtrack, likely in a scene in which the protagonist – me, played by whoever Meatloaf’s son is, due to the (likely) striking resemblance – is sitting at a dusty bar, drinking whiskey, and – let’s face it – masturbating under his jacket on his lap. As a matter of fact, that might be the whole movie: 5:17 of this song and Meatloaf’s son as me, getting drunk and secretly beating off at a bar. You’d pay $8 to watch that, right?

[Have a good weekend.]