After a nice long break, the Piffcast is back! It’s been a month, so Mike and TJ had some catching up to do…
– Developing a Kris Bryant’s up-to-bat Alert App
– Comic-Con Trailer Roundup
– TJ’s movie homework (including some Mark Ruffalo recommendations)
– What we’re watching on TV (Stranger Things, The Night Of)
– The Pokemon around Mike’s house (don’t go looking)
– Coldplay at Soldier Field and K-Pop ‘farms’
– A special thank you to awesome people
…and much more!
Justin Timberlake’s new single has some serious “Song of Summer” potential. It’s upbeat, fun, has some funk, and will be pulling you to every dance floor you encounter.
Timberlake released the video for Can’t Stop The Feeling Friday at Midnight ET (11 PM CT). It features Gwen Stefani, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Kunal Nayyar, Ron Funches, Icona Pop, and the cast of Dreamwork’s Trolls, which Timberlake is voicing in.
Can’t Stop The Feeling! is available on…
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/CSTFi?IQid=yt
Spotify:http://smarturl.it/CSTFsp?IQid=yt
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/CSTFamz?IQid=yt
Google Play: http://smarturl.it/CSTFgp?IQid=yt
…and it will likely get plenty of play on your favorite Top 40’s station all weekend long. Timberlake’s new album will be following soon, but details on its release have yet to be divulged.
It’s Draft Week in Chicago and Eric Edholm (Shutdown Corner on Yahoo! Sports) joins the Piffcast to preview it. We talk about his process in preparing for the draft, the best overall player, trading up for the “Big 2” quarterbacks and who will be available later. We discuss who could slide as well, and what the draft experience is like in Chicago. (31:30 mark, if you want to jump ahead)
TJ and I also go back and forth on Chicago baseball (he’s a Cubs fan, I’m a White Sox fan), moving to the city, some ideas we have for the show, and how we want to promote the things our listeners are doing. We want to hear from you! Let us know if you’re working on anything cool!
10 years ago today, some guy named Jack sent the first ever tweet.
“Jack” is Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter. He also set the standard for grammar on social media, apparently.
Do you remember your first tweet? I guess I had Brian Scalabrine and Carmelo on the mind when I wrote mine…
With the help of Twitter’s Discover feature, I was able to dig up some maiden voyage thoughts as people in Sports and Entertainment got setup on their “favorite” Social Media platform.
Monday morning, CBS Sports staff writer Matt Norlander helped us all get to know the coaches who will be patrolling the sidelines for the next few weeks during March Madness. I think musical taste could say a lot about a person, and Norlander asked each of the coaches who their favorite band or artist was.
While I have Xavier making a deep run, I might be questioning it more based on head coach Chris Mack’s answer. There is a lot of Eagles and Bob Marley love among the field. I do enjoy Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobson mentioning his dad’s band. John Calipari’s is NOT Drake. And of course Mike Krzyzewski was the only one not to answer back…
…so Norlander designated Beyonce to Coach K.
Here are the answers the rest of the coaches gave from each region. I hope this totally influences how you fill out your brackets if you haven’t already.
There are 83 categories for this year’s GRAMMY Awards. Believe it or not, that’s more than 20 less than they presented in 2011.
While the broadcast of the awards show doesn’t start until 7:00 PM CT on CBS, awards were being handed out nearly 5 hours before the show. To keep you posted on the “Who Wins What”, we’ll continuously update this page with announcements and winners.
Winning the first award of the night is…
Tonight’s the night…
(5:30 PM CT for kickoff, to be exact)
A week (and a year) of hype for the 50th installment of THE BIGGEST SPORTING EVENT IN THE WORLD. All caps necessary.
Here on MichaelPiff.com we did everything we could to get you prepared for the “Big Game”.
From the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach to the combination of tonight’s victor and our next President, listed HERE.
We brought back the show just in time for Super Bowl 50! Don’t forget to post your Super Bowl Party spread to Facebook or Twitter. The tastiest looking pic wins the first Piffcast Prize Pack. One of the things included is mentioned early in the show, so listen up!
For your Super Bowl party, check out the music from the artists we listed in the “Denver vs. Carolina: Everything But Football” breakdown…and the Halftime acts too.
Like the 2016 NFL Bad Lip Reading videos…Parts I
…and II.
By now, nearly storyline and angle for the Broncos and Panthers have been hashed out going into the Super Bowl. The Prop Bets are available to keep the non-football fan interested, which include wagers on things like how long Lady Gaga will sing the anthem, which song Coldplay will play first, and what color the Gatorade is that will be dumped on the winning coach. Even the commercials are getting leaked early (although I think that takes some of the fun out of it).
The Denver Post and The Charlotte Observer are also in on the game with their own friendly bets. If the Broncos win, the Post will receive “No. 1 IPA beer in the country” Hop, Drop and Roll (brewed in Charlotte) as well as some World Famous barbecue. If the Panthers win, the Observer will receive a broad selection of Colorado craft beer and bison steaks.
A tradition that we began here a year ago was to go beyond the teams playing the game, and compare the regions they’re from in EVERYTHING BUT FOOTBALL. Last year, New England had the edge over Seattle in our game here and eventually won the Big Game itself.
So for the fans (and newspapers) of each team, lets see how they stack up.
John Denver, Ginger Baker (drummer), Earth Wind & Fire, Flobots, The Fray, India.Arie, The Lumineers, Glenn Miller (Jazz), Neutral Milk Hotel, OneRepublic, Pretty Lights, Big Gigantic, Judy Collins, The String Cheese Incident, and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.
James Taylor, Tori Amos, George Clinton, K-Ci & JoJo, Anthony Hamilton, John Coltrane, Ben Folds, Petey Pablo, Fred Durst, The Avett Brothers and Ryan Adams.
This may be the toughest call, considering how subjective music is for everyone. However I’m taking quality over quantity here. Fred Durst and the EDM of Denver cancel each other out for things I’m good without. There are more pop acts in Denver, if The Fray and OneRepublic are your thing. Both regions bring the Funk with George Clinton and Earth Wind and Fire. But I’ll take the Carolina singer songwriters (Taylor, Adams and Folds) over John Denver *skypoint*.
Bonus Points too for my favorite school slow dance song ever, “All My Life” by K-Ci & JoJo.
South Park, Community, Diagnosis: Murder, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Nikita, Stargate SG-1, The Real World: Denver, The Man in the High Castle, Dynasty and Mork & Mindy.
East Bound and Down, Dawson’s Creek, The Famous Jett Jackson, One Tree Hill, The Andy Griffith Show.
There isn’t too much programming set in either region. Community and East Bound and Down duke it out pretty well for comedies. I do love Andy Griffith and that whistling will be stuck in my head for the rest of the month, but 19 seasons of South Park is too many to pass on. Sorry, One Tree Hill fans.
The A-Team, About Schmidt, Aliens vs. Predators: Requieum, Beerfest, The Big Short, Blades of Glory, City Slickers, Cliffhanger, Interstellar, Misery, Phantoms, The Prestige, The Shining, Stargate, WarGames, and Dumb and Dumber
Cape Fear, Carrie, Cold Mountain, The Descent, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Kiss The Girls, Maximum Overdrive, Pitch Perfect, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Tin Cup, A Walk To Remember, and Bull Durham.
Carolina makes a case with solid Kevin Costner sports movies. But Denver has two amazing Christopher Nolan films (Interstellar and The Prestige) the better Stephen King horror flick between The Shining and Carrie…and Dumb and Dumber.
It was a tough call, but I drooled the most researching all that southern comfort awesomeness.
Both seem perfect if you love the outdoors. I think if you love skiing/snowboarding and weed, you’ll probably lean toward Denver. The idea of mountains, beaches, and some college sports staples have me wanting to visit Carolina first. Red Rocks is a hard venue to pass up though.
This one is depends on your tastebuds, but I’ve always been partial to Colorado beer. Carolina seems to be on its way though.
The two Stanley Cups won by the Colorado Avalanche are admirable, but 12 Men’s Basketball National Championships won by Duke (5), North Carolina (5), and North Carolina State (2) are a bit more impressive…
…plus the fact that state produced the greatest player in NBA history.
Big thank you to Dago Cordova, Mike Kvackay, Jennifer Witkowski and Donald Moenning for help with firsthand research.
For everyone who has followed along or checked in over the last year and a half, thank you so much for doing so. If people didn’t read, I wouldn’t write…Your encouragement for me to to keep doing so is more appreciated than you know.
The plan in 2016 is to continue covering everything in movies, music, sports, TV and food, but to generate more and more fun and entertaining content for all the topics this blog has become known for. Below is a list of things I look forward to featuring on the site and hope to get your input on. I am also always open to ideas and collaboration, so please feel free to reach out on Facebook, Twitter, or email me at piff.michael@gmail.com. I would like to include guest posts as well, so PLEASE let me know if you’re interested.
Just like the Pizza Challenge a year ago, I’m looking for the Chicago area’s best burger! So far I have visited 10 burger joints and plan to have 40 ranked before summer. Above are some of the awesome items that I’ve tried and I’m always looking for recommendations. Follow along on Twitter and Instagram as the list grows, and let me know if you’d like to team up for an upcoming burger adventure.
Note: A Wings Challenge has been suggested as the next project. Stay tuned for that.
An annual tradition for those who have followed my work for the past few years, I’ve conducted a multi-week bracket tournament for both TV shows and movies. In the spirit of the NCAA Tournament, we list 68 competitors and break them up by region with appropriate seedings. Readers vote round-by-round on the winners of each matchup. The madness happens in March, but stay tuned to see if you’ll be voting on movies or TV shows this year.
Something I look for when visiting stadiums across the country is a unique and awesome food item I can’t get anywhere else. Starting this Spring, I’ll be reaching out to Major League Baseball organizations to see what baseball fans can look forward to at the concession stands for the 2016 season. I’ll be checking out as many ballparks as possible but if you happen to find something yourself, please send a photo my way on Twitter with the hashtag #BallparkFoodie and I’ll feature it here!
I wrote up a few lists regarding my favorite TV Shows and movies from the past year (The 2015 Movie List will be complete after The Revenant finally hits theaters). Rather than wait months at a time for new lists, I’ll have an updated Power Rankings for new movies and favorite TV shows as I watch them every couple weeks. Look forward to how Batman v Superman stacks up against Captain America: Civil War, and House of Cards with Game of Thrones…There will also be a pre-season 6 ranking of all surviving (or speculated to be surviving) Thrones characters.
ESPN’s Todd McShay and Mel Kiper will be updating their NFL Draft boards up until the first pick is called…I’ll be doing the same this year with all Fantasy Football positions. If you’re like me, you’re already thinking about your first round pick for next year’s Fantasy draft. From the end of this season until draft time next year, I’ll have a regularly updated version of my Fantasy “Cheat Sheet” for you to prepare.
The college radio DJ in me LOVES sharing music and giving people a look into what I’m listening nowadays. It also encourages me to check out new artists and tracks and see if they’re worth including in upcoming playlists. Here are the mixtapes from 2015, and lookout for what’s to come in 2016. Maybe we’ll finally get new Radiohead and Tool that we keep hearing about.
In 2015, I started a new tradition of keeping a list of my favorite follows on Twitter. I plan to update the list every year with new accounts and some of old reliables that make Twitter fun to be on. If you recommend anyone to follow or would like to nominate yourself for consideration, just say so here!
When I started writing this blog, I fully intended to relaunch my podcast and feature it here. This year I’m fully committed to bringing it back, discussing all the topics I write about here, getting YOUR thoughts and opinions on-air, interviews with people and experts who know way more than I do, etc. If you’re interested in contributing to the podcast or would like to even sponsor it, contact me via Facebook, Twitter or email me at piff.michael@gmail.com
I don’t know about you, but I am just basking in the glory that is Star Wars Week worldwide. I’ll be seeing Episode VII: The Force Awakens on Thursday and drinking galactic themed drinks at a bar that’s turning itself into the Mos Eisley Cantina from A New Hope. Yep, I have no shame in my Star Wars geekdom.
Even Spotify is getting in on the game, matching users with Star Wars characters by their taste in music. I’m not totally thrilled being Anakin, but I do love me plenty of punk rock.
I dig the lightsaber on the bottom, not so much the new Fall Out Boy they included.
Since it all finally set in that this movie is happening and I’m actually going to see it (so since Saturday night), I’ve been surfing Spotify for Star Wars appropriate music. Not just the epic John Williams masterpieces, but songs about space and intergalactic awesomeness. So why not put it all into one easily accessible playlist that my friends and likeminded individuals to enjoy?
Album: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, 1972
Album: North, 2003
Album: Return to the Moon, 2015
Album: The College Dropout, 2004
Album: Kona Town, 2003
Album: Dude Ranch, 1997
Album: Sound and Color, 2015
Album: Clerks Original Soundtrack, 1994
Album: Empire Strikes First, 2004
Album: Star Wars, 2015
Album: Machine Head, 1972
Album: Both Sides of the Gun, 2006
Album: The Blueprint 3, 2009
Album: Evil Empire, 1996
Album: Hello Nasty, 1998
Album: Automatic For The People, 1992
Album: Honky Chateau, 1972
Album: Girls Le Disko, 2009
Album: Funeral, 2004
Album: Day & Age, 2008
The Full Spotify Playlist
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