The Royce Files

I couldn't believe my ears. A Spiderman musical? What more can they think of to market this wallcrawling, webslinging, freak of super hero? However you can do nearly anything on Broadway these days. I think they had a helicopter actually take off in Miss Saigon a decade ago. So making a guy fling himself unto walls and building is not very far fetched. Indeed this will be a blockbuster of a show if it gets off. And if the idea of the musical doesn't rock you then hear this: Bono and the Edge are attached to it. No, not by webbing but apparently there have been whispers that these Irish blokes will be writing the music. Nothing new to Broadway since Abba has made a fortune writing musicals. I'd find it unusual to hear Spiderman singing a U2esque song but I really enjoyed the only other super hero cannonized on Broadway: Superman. Superman made his Broadway debut well before Richard Donner came along with his movies. It's the 1960s and "It's a Bird, It's a P...

I am about to dissect the strange and bizarre term- buttload . A friend of mine used this term quite frequently until her significant other convinced her to give it up (for lent?). Much thanks, however, goes out to James the researcher on this topic at the Royce Files. James has been indispensible with wit, wisdom, and a wealth of knowledge. He is certainly giving Phil a run for pith and particular prattle that pricks my interest. Now you might think I am going to pontificate on the gross product elminated from the posterior. Well, that's a load of crap! Quite surprisingly a buttload has nothing to do with elimination or the buttocks. A buttload is an actual quantifiable measure of volume, albeit rather archaic. So just how much is in a buttload? After much research, James came across the answer to this: a butt apparently is a close-bodied cart. A butt-load is about six seams. A seam is a traditional unit of volume. A seam of grain was 8 bushels: this would be equivalent to 281....

This weekend past I got pulled into going to a karaoke night at a bar a few miles out of the Go. I anticapated a hole in the wall saloon somewhere in the boondocks. However, I was wrong. The Mainliner is a rather pleasant drinking establishment in a town with a name you only can whine: Downer. For a Saturday night the place appeared rather empty. Most were sitting near the bar or in fornt of the large screen television. The karaoke started slowly. Most selections were countryesque with the exception of my friend's 70's ballads. I think she may have sung something by the Captain & Tennille. Out of the 10 or so "performers" for the night my friend performered significantly better than most. Characters are attracted to karaoke I surmise. I find it surprising that inebriated individuals get a kick out of singing poorly in public. There was one particular female duo who went up 3 times and each time they were weirder and weirder (or possibly drunker and drunker). The w...

M y intramural glory is faded glory if you look at it from merely the scoreline. The company soccer squad has yet to win a match and we haven't scored in over a month. However we have improved. For instance we have less own goals now. Unfortunately the scoreline continues to be 11-0 each Wednesday. I suppose you could call it consistency. Other improvements involve our defensive set-up. We are more organized at the back. The irony is that we still let the goals trickle in. What we lack is a natural playmaker. Somebody who can pierce through the defenses and give us some shot on goal. In the previous game I had 2 opportunities to score. However, my instincts were not attuned to the goal and play. Instinct is necessary to be good in the game. Without it your team will struggle to inflict offensive damage on the opposition. Playing together more has helped but practice would certainly improve it. Nevertheless, it has been a lot of fun despite the occassional aches the stiffness that f...

I have had a hunch that you cannot outsmart rejection. No matter how well we placate the masses, we will assured get a portion of rejection. And this comes up in the relationship nearly all the time. Here's an excerpt from a book about its relationship to relationships. Whether I am at the point to say rejection is an art, I am unsure.

In Intramural Glory Episode 5 we meet their arch rivals, Team UnglaubHass, who are their former teammates. In this episode we see Team U players from the heroic 2006 championship team- Alan, Justin, Polish and a few unrecognized players - give the current Team U a run for their money. Before the game Coach McCue and Rob deconstruct Team Unglaubhass while Cougar still is confused about biting players. It seems Rob channels George Clooney in a this Ocean's Eleven like scene. Hands down one of the best scenes of the entire series. Unfortunately for those looking for some pure basketball game turned into "Hack a Polish." The whistles kept blowing and Unglaubhass kept scoring. However do take note of a phenomenal basket by The Ledge. I nearly missed it but he makes a sort of under the basket backward lay-up for 2. A decent episode except nary any glory. Now for this the kudos: Best Emerging Actor: Cougar. Has he been getting lessons or watching the likes of Hoosiers, Teen Wol...

I knew about it the night before but for some reason I assumed it would only be 3 inches and some wind. Therefore I removed my studded snow tire the night before thinking that I would hit more pavement than snow pack. I was wrong. Crazy wrong. I looked out the window in the morning and saw no snow. I must have imagined I saw no snow because when I leave the apartment there is a good 4 inch cover of snow and no plowing has been done. I battle my way to work falling once but almost falling again numerous occasions. I regret removing the snow tire. I have hardly any traction. I try not to turn green and take out my rage on the city, who has lifted not a finger to remove snow in the streets much less any sidewalks. (At the time of the writing of this I have yet to notice a plow beyond the private contractors.) So it's April and spring has been with us for about 2 weeks. Blizzards like this should only happen in March not April. However, I have no hard facts as to the probability of ...