Behold the latest cash grab alternate road unis for the Washington Wizards. I vote Fugly. meh.

We Are Scientists are playing the Black Cat in December. I missed them last time around, so maybe I'll go check out this gig.

Jarvis Cocker takes over as guest editor for the Observer and initiates a round table discussion with Nick Cave, Beth Orton and others. Highlights:

Nick Cave: People have been married to my music ... and I just don't think it would be very cool for them to switch on the TV and "The Ship Song" comes on a Cornetto ad or something.

Paul Morley: All those things we thought were important ... they've been co-opted by the capitalist world to give what it has to sell the illusion of hipness and cool, so that the whole world feels as if they're in on the revolution and that they're hip and they're cool. But the meaning of it has been sucked dry. I blame Busted. Before Busted there was no guitar music anywhere; it had been wiped away by pop groups and by Pop Idol ...

Nick Cave [quietly, to Beth Orton]: Who are Busted?

I got a copy of the new Wowee Zowee reissue last night (and in the interest of full disclosure, Beggars/Matador, unbenkowknst to me, bought an ad on my site for said CD this morning) and am really loving it. I was going to post some MP3's for everyone to download, but Pitchfork has done it for me. P4K, good for MP3's, not so good for photos or puncutation. Head over there to download a live version of "Fight This Generation," (my fave song by Pavement), a live version of "Heckler Spray/In the Mouth of a Desert" as well as "Rattled By The Rush." Sweet! And of course, click on the ad for more info.

Ooh, I almost forgot. I interviewed Matt from The National yesterday and we had a great conversation. I learned why they hate Washington D.C. (they don't) and we talked about their new record and that tour with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I'll have it up next week.

Cool it now! This Celtics shirt over at Undr Crwn is just about the hottest thing I've ever seen. I must have it. I also like this Celtics shirt and this Bullets tee. Some good stuff here for everyone, like all you Kobe haters.

That said, what's up with giving these losers their own shirt. What about Bobby, Grant, Christian, Thomas and Brian? Or Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike and that other guy?

Even if he doesn't exactly like Paul Pierce. In any case, Esquire's interview with Gilbert Arenas is pure gold.

It's my first year, and I'm finally starting to play. I'm getting comfortable. I'm averaging, as a starter, sixteen, six, and six. And then I run up against Gary Payton. First time in my career I'm happy to get subbed out of a game. That's when he was still the Glove, and he's just doing everything, anything. He's posting up our big. He's grabbing and pulling the ball. Any time he gets close to me, I'm picking the ball up. He's just got me screwed up. So he has eighteen points in the first period. And he comes up to me, he's like, "Rookie, you're lucky I'm not an A. I. type of player or I'd have forty on you." And coach subs me out. Woo! I run off the court and I'm like, "Oh, my God. Eighteen points! I'm glad I'm out. All right, Bobby Sura. Go get 'em, tiger." I never said one word to G. P. But now, after that game, I got him every time. I think it's something in my mind about what he did to me that first year. He embarrassed me so bad. As soon as he thinks about sticking me, I go at him. I know he's slower than me, so I have to take advantage of that. That's my mentality: This is your chance.

Also...

The subject is playing NBA 2K6 on Xbox 360 in the players' lounge at the Verizon Center before going in for yet another off-season shooting session. He's come an hour before the gym opens, as usual, and in these moments he will take on all comers at Xbox. He won't just beat you. He will beat you by as many points as you want. Just name the amount. He treats it like a golf handicap. For this game, he's giving away two hundred points to his friend John, who has flown in from L. A. for a visit. It's the Cavs versus the Wizards all over again, except this time Gilbert has the Cavs. He knows every kink of NBA 2K6—and how to exploit it. He has shifted LeBron to guard and put his team in a game-long full-court press. He is playing against his video-game self and doesn't like the way John is using him. "You gotta get me square to the basket," he says as the Game Gilbert misses a shot from twelve feet. "You gotta get two point guards in there." There's a minute and a half left, and Real Gilbert is up by 191. Then Game Gilbert gets a steal and throws a long pass—only to have LeBron pick it off. "Sorry, Gilbert," says Gilbert. "You can't stop the King." As the game ticks down, the Cavs and Gilbert—Real Gilbert—are up by 201. John has the ball and is running the clock down for the final shot. At the last second, Antawn Jamison flips in a layup that makes it 331–132. John screams, circling the room, knocking magazines here and there. The man just got beat by 199 points and is ecstatic. Gilbert shakes his head.

On Getting Paid...

I never look at my check. I learned that lesson my first year. I got my first stub, and it said $16,000. And I'm like, "That's what I'm talking about! I'm rich!" And I'm dancing and having fun, and then something told me to look over at Antawn Jamison's stub. It said $360,000. I look back at mine: sixteen. Three hundred and sixty thousand?! That's my whole year right there—in one check! So I asked Bobby Sura, "Man, how much you make?" Bobby Sura said, "Mine says $5 million. I get mine up front." I'm like, Whoa. I never looked again. Not once. Not even tried.

On getting drafted in the second round...

The subject steps out of his dressing closet holding a list he keeps there of every player in the 2001 NBA draft who was selected ahead of him. All thirty. He runs his fingers down the page. He has scratched out each player who is no longer in the league. "Hmpff," he says, pausing on a name. "I got to get the pencil out. Utah. Raul Lopez? Ain't seen him much lately."

More over at DCist. The brilliant Wizznutzz also weight in here and here.

If it's the NBA pre-season, the Celtics must be making a trade. Danny sent little used Dwayne Jones to the Land of Cleve for the rotting corpse of Luke Jackson today. I would wager another deal is in the works. We have like 6 SF/SG's.

When Idolator started, I thought they were going to do more posts like this, not post lame MP3's and write about Danzing. For her part, Jen strikes back and calls out that cozy Gawker / Curbed relationship. Booyakasha!

Not to be outdone, Brandon Flowers wants you to know that the Killers are a much better representation of America than Green Day is. At least Brandon's finally picking on someone his own size. Now let's all sit back and watch Tre Cool beat his lilly-livered ass.

Air America files for Chapter 11.

Caught the next to last regular season game at RFK on Saturday night. United controlled the first half but gave up a goal in the first 90 seconds in the second half and never recovered, losing 2-1. I'm sick of them acting like babies when they don't get the calls from the refs. They'll be playing well and then the ref will miss one call and they spend the rest of the match complaining. Just play the game.

The Revs have a pretty good squad. Clint Dempsey, footballer of the year, is a TOTAL BADASS. He was far and away the best player on the pitch on Saturday. Some English team is going to pick him up after the season (MLS has already denied him a transfer, but I believe his contract is up) and he's going to flourish in the EPL. Dude has skillz. He did this insane bicycle kick in his own penalty box, clearing the ball after a United corner kick. Later in the game, while he was working his way down field, Dempsey flicked the ball over the guy that was guarding him and just went on his way towards the goal. It was bananas. So yeah, he's good.

On the United front, it was good to see Alecko back in action. I shot photos from the opposite endline I usually use and the United subs were warming up all around me in the 2nd half. At one point I looked to my right and Alecko was right beside me, stretching. He's no taller (although he's much bigger) than me, which totally blows my mind.

More coverage over at DCist (with more photos by yours truly) and The DCenters. See all of my match photographs here.

More than one friend has accused me of turning into a D.C. United groupie. Yeah, and what of it? I took in Saturday night's game since I wanted to see Landon Donovan up close.

As you can see, I got much better photos this time around even though I'm an idiot and had my camera on the wrong ISO setting the entire time. Still, I was much happier with the results. This lens is worth every penny, which means I won't be able to afford one for quite a while.

Even though the score wasn't close, it was an exciting game. Donovan was taking an insane amount of abuse from thefans. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. He deserves credit though, he played very well, scoring twice and having a hand in the other three goals. But it makes me wonder, where exactly was that type of play in Germany?

The game got really chippy in the second half, as you can see from the pictures here. One of Galaxy's defenders broke Dominic Mediate's leg on a tackle and NO CALL WAS MADE. Good lord. There was lots of pushing and shoving and 6 yellow cards issued in all. Good times!

Head over to Flickr for my photoset from the game. The DCenters have the complete match round up.