Cool Stuff Now!

Two killer items were officially released today: the new Evel Knievel biography by Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville (above), and the Rolling Stones' The Singles: 1971-2006 box set (below)...

First impressions: the Evel bio is twice as long as mine, though I'm pleased to see that Montville still found room for a shout-out:

I seemed to refer often to Evel Incarnate, a fine book by Steve Mandich that lays out the grid of the famous daredevil's life. Mandich also has a website, SteveMandich.com, that contains all things Knievel. Highly recommended.

Sweet. I'm also glad that Montville didn't perpetuate Evel's bullshit coma story, which has been erroneously repeated by The New York Times and pretty much every other major news outlet. Especially nice that he credited this very blog with its debunking...

Knievel biographer Steve Mandich noted in his SteveMandich.com blog that within two years [of Evel's Caesars Palace crash] a story appeared in the September 1969 issue of Science and Mechanics claiming that Knievel "suffered a severe brain concussion." The statement quickly grew from there to an almost routine Knievel reponse that he had been in a coma for twenty-nine days after the Caesars Palace crash. A basic part of his story, totally bogus, was that he landed in Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital in a coma and woke up twenty-nine days later and was famous.

I'll post a full review of the book once I've read it.

As for the Stones box, I already own most of the stuff on there, but there are still a bunch of B-sides I haven't heard (as well as, um, eight different mixes of "Out of Control," a tune that wasn't so hot to begin with). Also, I'm a sucker for the nifty packaging. So there.

Lastly, the Canucks finally vanquished the longstanding burr in their playoff saddle, the Chicago Blackhawks, in tonight's thrilling game seven overtime win. Alex Burrows (below) netted both Vancouver goals.

The 'Nucks dodged a fucking bullet. Next up: the Nashville Sexual Predators.
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