Clare Easdown vs. Marcus DiPaola: The World Is Crazy Enough as It Is

 

The Hot Violinist vs. Kim Davis: The REAL Bowling Green Massacre

 

Stephanie Vaquer from WWE vs. Aaron Lewis from Staind: Low-Stakes Flirtation Lost in Translation

 

"Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk! Hey, Garrison! Why does Aaron Lewis look like Joe Rogan?"

Must you ask?

Billy Corgan vs. Father James Mitchell: Are You High?

 

Getting kicked off The CW has caused Mr. Corgan some...Melancholy and Infinite Sadness.

Jane's Addiction X Jane Goodall: She's Addicted to Kindness

 

R.E.M. vs. Russell Brand: Losing My Religion

 

Ray Charles vs. CJ Pearson: At Least Ray Didn't Choose to Be Blind

 

Slipknot X The Streets: Dry Your Duality

 

The Slipknot song is "Duality" and the song from The Streets is "Dry Your Eyes". Ha...ha...ha...

Sting (the musician, not the wrestler)

 

Serj Tankian from System of a Down vs. Kid Rock

 

Mick Thomson from Slipknot vs. Anti-Prophet

 

Break Me Down

VERSE 1

You could play the guitar like a rock god superstar

Tackle dudes in football, smash them through the walls

Write the greatest novels while fucking supermodels

Sing like a birdie, like you’re sexy and flirty

Make video essays about the politics of death rays

Paint a pretty picture of the Grand Canyon’s fissure

Shoot three-point shots from across the parking lot

It doesn’t mean a damn thing if it’s fascism you bring

 

CHORUS 1

If you try to break me down

You lose the right to wear your crown

I’ve got no respect

For boots on necks

Take a look around

I’m not the only one making this sound

 

VERSE 2

You could make enough money to buy and sell the world

Pay for you and your friends to fuck little baby girls

Fly around the globe in your smog-spewing jet

Relax on your yacht, make some MMA bets

Hold positions in the government you don’t deserve

Commit genocide on the people that you serve

Turn yourself into a Dunning-Kruger chart

Take a nice big whiff of your flowery farts

 

CHORUS 2

Don’t try to break me down

I don’t care what my scale says in pounds

I don’t give a fuck

About your tanks and trucks

Take a look around

The whole world thinks that you’re a clown

 

CHORUS 3

Why’re you trying to break me down?

You’re not where the greatness is found

Meritocracy

Makes no sense to me

Take a look around

The rising tides will make sure that you’ll drown

But let’s lift the boats and turn them into GOATs

"A Street Cat Named Bob" by James Bowen

BOOK TITLE: A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life
AUTHOR: James Bowen
YEAR: 2012
GENRE: Nonfiction
SUBGENRE: Cat Memoir
GRADE: Pass


James Bowen has been down on his luck in London, England for a whole decade. He was estranged from his family in Australia and used heroin to cope with his raw emotions. He lived on the streets in cardboard boxes until he was finally able to qualify for public housing. Ever since making an effort to get clean, he became a street musician begging for handouts, which came few and for between and often came with aggressive attitudes toward the poor.

Mr. Bowen’s luck started to change when he found a ginger tomcat he named Bob curled up in his apartment building. He nursed the kitty back to health with the intention of sending the little guy back on the streets. When Bob started following him to work, however, Mr. Bowen attracted more money and more friendly attention. It was a long process, but with a cute cuddly feline in his life, James slowly began to put his life back together.

The biggest upsides to this book are the tale of redemption and the cuteness of Bob that goes along with it. It’s amazing what a simple thing like love can do for a person’s life. James Bowen is an animal lover by nature, so taking the little orange sweetheart into his life was easy. It’s what these two did for each other afterwards that makes their relationship special to the reader. I found myself wanting James Bowen to get clean and have a stable income despite all of the nasty things he’d done with his life prior to this point. If nothing else, this book teaches a valuable lesson in being too quick to judge a person by his past. Bob isn’t judgmental in the least bit. Animal cuties rarely are.

The writing style is exactly what I’d expect from someone who’s writing his first memoir: fast-paced, simple, and clean. It’s a no-nonsense style that gets the reader from place to place while still allowing the reader to peer into James Bowen’s innermost thoughts. Those thoughts can be anything from the fear of losing Bob to the flashbacks of withdrawing from heroin, all of which can be emotionally heart wrenching. I have to admit, though, there were parts where I zoned out as I was reading it. Maybe it’s not the flashiest book ever written, but it’s one I can get through and enjoy the journey along the way.

I’ve often heard the phrase that a story doesn’t end at the final page, but at where the author chooses to stop. The story does stop at a happy place in James and Bob’s lives, but I’m not telling you how it happens; you’ll have to buy the book and read for yourself. I will say this, though: the ending feels a little open-ended, meaning I still fear for the author and his cat’s safety while they’re out on the street doing their thing. In hindsight, the fear is probably a good thing since that makes the two main characters sympathetic and heroic to the reader.

If you like stories about redemption, cute and cuddly animals, and the power of altruistic love, be sure to pick up a copy of “A Street Cat Named Bob” by James Bowen. It’s a rough ride all throughout the book since people on the streets are oftentimes mean and aggressive towards James and Bob, but the cuteness factor and the sense of triumph is there nonetheless. It would probably be worth it to fly all the way out to England on an airplane just to meet the little orange sweetie pie and his wonderful caretaker. But since air travel is a pain in the rear-end (as James Bowen will attest to in the latter half of the book), you can always follow this victorious pair on Twitter and Face Book. They’d love to hear from you!