Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on Today at 06:09:17 PMI have a hard time ranking anyone above Stevie Nicks, but that's probably due to how much I like Fleetwood Mac, and I would be the first to say that Fleetwood Mac was never about just one band member.

I put Stevie high on my list of best rocker female. Lately, she's been palling up with Taylor Swift and some country music stars. She wrote a poem for Taylor Swift in her last album released a week ago and Stevie said Taylor's song, "You're on Your Own Now Kid", helped her deal with the loss of her close friend Christine McVie...hence, the poem Nicks wrote for Swift. They sang together at the Grammy's and to be honest, it wasn't good LOL. However, they've become close. Stevie looks and sounds her age. Aging is such a cruel bitch https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/10/03/stevie-nicks-references-taylor-swift-as-she-discusses-the-future-of-fleetwood-mac/?sh=92def8d2f249

Anyway, I didn't include (or didn't mean to) country music in the rock genre, but there's a lot of crossover going on these days. Guess who the number one country music singer is right now...drum roll please...Beyoncé! Go figure. And recently, Stevie Nicks and country singer Ingrid Andress teamed up to sing a country duet

Regardless, supposedly country music is the hardest genre of music for women to get into. And if you make it, you tend to go really big. It's how Taylor Swift got her start before switching to pop. And now we have Beyoncé switching to country...makes my head spin keeping up with this stuff LOL

Can't make this stuff up! Who's next? Cher?

I have to admit, Shania puts a lot of energy and theatrics in her performances. It's just her personality...very upbeat in performances and can't stand still...it's who she is. She's definitely not the stand at the mike and sing type. She has a great story though. Grew up in Canada in extreme poverty. Her father left her mother and Shania and her two younger sisters. Her mother married a full-blooded Cree, and he raised her like a father would. They were so poor that Shania would pretend to eat at school because she was afraid Social Services would take her and her sisters due to lack of food. At 8-years old, she would sing in bars late at night after alcohol was no longer served. She would make about 20.00 a night doing that and give it to her parents so they could have food. In her teen years she joined a kid's band and got recognized for her songwriting and singing as was courted by big producers (similar to child star Swift), but Shania's mother and step-father were killed in a car accident about the same time she graduated from H.S. So she put music on the back burner to raise her younger sisters until the youngest graduated. After that, she went all out into music and only sold over 100 million records, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time and the best-selling female artist in country music history. A rags-to-riches story if there ever was one. She's called the "Queen of Country Pop". But as I was trying to point out, I don't think of her as a "rocker", just a country girl having fun performing

Let's hope   

Quote from: Ed Vette on Today at 02:27:22 PMI loved Karen Carpenter and Mama Cass.

I agree they had great voices (Mama Cass was in a league all her own), but I didn't think of them as "rockers". My list wasn't "complete" as I pointed out. Completely forgot about Ronstadt...loved her. she should be on the list. The others mentioned aren't really my idea of "rocker" differs from others

I mean, Shania Twain rocks more than Karen Carpenter by a thousand miles...and I didn't include her because even though she rocks the house down...I don't think of her as a "rocker", but she is cool 

And believe me, if you've never been to a country concert and compared them with a rock concert, country tends to be louder and rockier at concerts

Quote from: B1GBLUE on Today at 10:15:14 AMproblem is they are HUGE drops. 50 yard perfect throws for easy td drops. they stand out more than an 7 yard out route

I hear ya...it's just that every good WR does the same thing and no one concentrates on that...only Slayton because a pundit pointed it out, and it stuck on everyone's mind. When Justin Jefferson or DeVonte Adams drops an easy catch, fans just say it's all part of the game. But when you are expecting it, you look for verification of your mindset. As I pointed out earlier, Slayton doesn't even make the top 25 NFL receivers in dropped catch percentage...nowhere near the percentage of Stefon Diggs or Garrett Wilson drops. Yet fans of those guys, take a sip of their beer, brush it off, and say "we'll get them next pass". I've seen OBJ drop perfect passes when he's wide open. The response, "he took a peak to see where he was going before the ball was in his grip"...xxxx happens. Not so with Slayton. Fans want him to drop passes so they can say, "I told you so...cuz I'm smarter than you"

And the reason Hyatt hasn't overtaken Slayton is that Slayton runs better routes. Hyatt is catching up, but not there yet. I just hope some pundit doesn't say that "Hyatt drops too many balls", or it will become the gospel of the NFL, just like the pundits who have claimed DJ throws too many interceptions. Hard to shake a mindset once a player has been accused of something by a talking head or an anonymous typer on the internet

My advice,"trust the coaches and ignore the bloviating chatter", they know far more than fans about statistics and the reality of what goes on inside the game

I like the mix up of Singletary, Tracy, and whoever wins the other RB...probably Gray IMO. It's always advantageous to have a variety of skill sets among those who are going to carry the ball. With Barkley, we were pretty much one-dimensional, not to mention every team we faced schemed for him whenever he was on the field. And we know Tracy can catch a ball and will probably be used like that quite a bit. Should be an exciting year to watch the youngsters get their feet wet on the big game board

We are now entering the dead zone of football talk, although I expect some interesting conversations during training camp. But for now, the board is just not that exciting.

We've talked a lot about rock bands and many other things concerning music, but I don't think we've ever talked about favorite female singers of the "Rock" genre. So...I'm not talking about Taylor Swift, or Gwen Stefani, or Shania Twain. I'm talking real "rockers". I've put together an incomplete list of female rockers who I like, and I'll rank them in my order later, should this thread takes off. Looking for the "Top Three Female Rockers". Of course, it's all subjective as people like what they like. A heads-up, I like unique voices. I didn't use the YouTube button in order to keep this post shorter, but you can click it and it takes two seconds longer

Gracie Slick – I saw her in concert on a surprise free concert on the beach when I was in Ocean City, MD. She (with Jefferson Airplane) was one of the undercards for the Beach Boys. She is the only woman rocker I've ever seen in concert...which actually surprises me. Interesting sub-story. Gracie and her husband moved to a nice house in a cul-de-sac in California. She changed her name in order to live incognito. She was friends with all the women in the neighborhood who had no idea who she was. Anyway, Gracie found out her husband was cheating on her, and she chased him down the street firing a shotgun over his head. She was arrested and made headlines for a famous person getting arrested...shocking all the women who thought they knew her...LOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEDnnT88A3w

Stevie Nicks Everyone knows Stevie as she had a lot of hits...probably "Edge of Seventeen" being the biggest, but she had a lot of big ones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwS9BIqbffU

Joan Jett – Her big hit was bastardized for Sunday Night Football...I will see her this summer at the NYS Fair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNw7jYkbVc

Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes) – one of my favorite female singers of all time. I got tickets to an Aerosmith concert in Binghamton years ago, and she was the undercard. Unfortunately, she couldn't make it because she blew out her vocal cords the week before after being named "Best Musician Newcomer" to San Francisco. She didn't take professional singing lessons and sang with her throat rather than resonating volume against the roof of her mouth. She never sang again,  Only Elvis was able to sing from the throat and survive a lifetime (well a partial lifetime) of singing. Linda now writes music for Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, etc. Very talented woman and I like her a lot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXnxTNIWkc

Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde)  - here she is singing "Joey", a great song (tune-wise and singing-wise) but the song is extremely melancholy as she sings about a man who is overcome with alcoholism and in a battle for his life against the bottle. Kind of hits home as a good friend of mine who started drinking the hard stuff from morning til night...he died at 42 yrs old on Christmas morning a couple of years ago. His wife is still having problems dealing with something where she just couldn't help him. I would never play this song when she is present...nosiree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ

Debbie Harry (Blondie) – not sure if she fits in the group of "rockers", but some people think so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU

Bonnie Tyler – grittiest voice among all women. Her best known song was played more times last month than in the last 40 years, as people waited for the full eclipse LOL  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcOxhH8N3Bo

Pat Benatar – genuine rocker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vppgaVcnfS0

Amy Winehouse – unique voice and I add her to the list mostly because she died at the same age of 27 a drug overdose and joined the "27 Club" with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain. This song is pretty dang melancholy, but shows off her chops. They blank out the word "blow", for which the guy died of (fentanyl laced nose candy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8

Janis Joplin – the queen of rockers, but a little rough around the edges, one might say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRhHdFRFBAs

Ann Williams (Heart) – often confused with Beach Boys, Brian Wilson's daughter(s) Wendy and Carna who teamed up with Chyna Phillips (daughter of Michele Phillips of the Mamas and Papas) and started the group "Wilson Phillips". Heart comprised sisters' Ann and Nancy Williams who got into a huge fight forcing the band to break up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZjEC4WhCvg

Quote from: Sem on May 05, 2024, 05:52:41 PMLOL. No, but that would have made a way cooler story.
Our paperboy was busy playing school sports so his parents would deliver for him. One winter late at night we had an inch or so of snow, and his mother apparently slipped stepping off our one-step front patio. She broke her ankle, or so her lawyer said. He also said she laid there screaming in agony for 30 minutes, (strange, our bedroom window was about 12 feet away and we didn't hear a sound). In fact we had no idea this even happened until about 3 months later when we got a letter from her lawyer advising us we were being sued, and to contact our insurance company. My agent told me their lawyer was a known ambulance-chaser. They paid without questions, and I canceled my subscription. End of story.

Wow...what a story! Sorry to hear

Quote from: Rosehill Jimmy on May 03, 2024, 05:11:13 PMAgree with most said here about DS. If there is a reasonable $ number for a guy that still drops too many passes for my liking, go for it

He's gotten better over time. The thing is, once you get tagged with the moniker "drops passes", every drop is magnified a thousand times so fans can reaffirm their belief and boast that "they knew it" and "they told you so". Yet Slayton actually had fewer drops (percentage wise) than most of the WRs in the league, including J. Smith-Njigba, S. Diggs, M. Evans, G. Wilson...and in fact, didn't even make the top 25 players in the NFL for drop percentage. Last season, Slayton had 3 drops and 50 catches https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/stats?category=receiving&season=2023&seasonType=reg&sort=rec_drops&sortOrder=desc

It's sorta like DJ and turnovers. In 2022, when he was called a "turnover machine", he was ridiculed incessantly for a turnover as it verified fans' negative opinions of him. Yet, he only had 8 turnovers in 17 games. Compare that with Dak who had 16 TOs in 12 games, or compared with Josh Allen's 19 TOs etc. Yet, every turnover by DJ brings out the haters who say, "see what I told you???". Meanwhile, Dak is being touted as a "franchise QB" by the media

Once something gets stuck in a fan's mind, they watch for, and keep track of, and magnify every fault to confirm their staunch beliefs. Fans can be brutal...especially when vying to prove they know more than others about the game and team

Quote from: uconnjack8 on May 03, 2024, 06:39:32 PMWish the Giants had the problem of too many draft picks they wanted to re-sign that would command huge salaries.  Although, somehow, with the worst record in the NFC for the last decade they are still up against cap wise

One of the things a lot of people forget, Schoen inherited a "cap hell" situation, which delays a rebuild if you stay focused on fixing the cap. And it seems, Schoen has done a decent job of getting it into reasonable shape

Interesting. His proprietary "risk formula" should be able to be figured out using historical data. Otherwise, the only way to get it is to hire him, and he's probably had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so even that might not work. I would think if the Giants read, or already know, this, they'd have a few of their math/stats gurus working on a similar risk assessment analysis and apply it. It seems to work

Quote from: Sem on May 03, 2024, 11:08:10 PMRic can relate. Growing up near Binghamton as a youth we had two daily papers. The Sun Bulletin, which was delivered in the early mornings, and The Binghamton Evening Press, which was delivered around 4pm every day. I used to like reading the Sun Bulletin's sports pages in the morning before heading off to school. But they never had the west coast baseball scores. No internet then, so I had to wait until I got home to check the late scores in the evening paper. At some point the two papers merged and became The Press & Sun Bulletin, which was delivered in the mornings. Some time around 2008(?) I canceled the paper though when our "paperboy" sued us for $50,000. I haven't subscribed to a physical paper since.

What'd you do? Steal his parent's BMW? LOL

Quote from: MightyGiants on May 03, 2024, 03:30:27 PMI am going to add an observation I think is reasonably on topic. What is a really great driver of an offense is a long-time pairing of a receiver (WR or TE) with a quarterback. I think the longer the pair works together, the better they get.

I was thinking along that line when considering whether or not to bring Slayton back. He's worked a long time with DJ and has done a bit better than average because of it. The two know exactly how to work together

To add to the Tom Brady conversation, not only did he do a lot of dink and dunk, he usually had two great TEs to take the ball further down the field. Not wanting to take anything away from Brady, but he wasn't without some pretty good receivers to help out

I think we hit this year with Theo and Tracy...time will tell 

Pearls before Swine is one of favorite comic strips, Steve Pastis is hilarious

I love reading a real newspaper, but I can't afford them. The Binghamton Press used to be 3 or 4 sections with about 30 pages of news for 50 cents. Now it's 2.50, 1 section, 8 pages (3 are obits) and the rest basically taken from the USA Today. Awful

Syracuse Post only prints a paper a couple of times a week, plus weekends, and the Cortland Standard (1.75) every other day, not including Sunday

I now get my news off the internet Binghamton Press, Syracuse Post, NJ.com and NY Post. A lot cheaper and more content. I particularly miss "local news" that used to be the bulk of local newspapers. I suspect the day will come when there are no more printed newspapers