Item:
(For the first time ever, we don't)...want to be like Mike. What should have been the crowning moment of the greatest career in basketball history devolved into a spiteful, bitter diatribe by a guy who just can't let go.
Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame induction speech was a train wreck. Calling out your high school coach for cutting you? AND the dude he picked over you? Really?
Many have given MJ a pass on this, chalking the whole thing up to "legendary competitiveness". We disagree. As a player, Jordan had no peer when it came to desire to win. As we have said in the past iteration of this blog, "It could be a Tuesday night in January -- in Vancouver. Mike still wants to drop a double nickel on you". But that competitiveness has not followed him into the front office in either Washington or Charlotte. And it stands to reason that success has equally eluded His Airness.
We always admired Michal for never holding out, never bitching about money and never giving a halfhearted effort. For respecting the game. But now it's time for him to respect himself. His speech at the induction ceremony was an embarrassment.
Let it go Mike. You won.
~~~
Item:
Here's some food for thought. It's a New York Times Op-Ed column by David Brooks and speaks of the culture of self-aggrandizement we live in.
Click here.
~~~
Fare thee well, Patrick, we'll see you on the Other Side. Save us a dance at Kellerman's, a stool at the Road House and a pottery wheel.
Patrick Swayze fought the good fight and we admire his working right up until the end. The tabloids had a field day with his illness, posting weekly predictions of his imminent demise. And they surely will turn right around this week and lavish praise over him for his heroic fight. The parasites. But there's a valuable lesson for us all to learn in Swayze's story. By never quitting, by continuing to fight until his last breath, he gave us an excellent example of what we should be doing as well. For are we all not foolishly making plans, in the face of certain death?
By the by, it's not just a high-casualty year in the homo sapian division of the celebrity set. We have a second celebrity animal death to report -- Geoffrey the Toys 'R Us giraffe has died. Death One of the animal trifecta was Sydney the Taco Bell Chihuahua. The Snuggle teddy bear is reportedly fearing for his life until another animal drops.
~~~
Item:
Michael Meissner was arrested last week in Arlington, Texas on seven felony counts – including possession or promotion of child pornography, promotion of prostitution and engaging in organized crime. Bad, but sadly not shocking in this day and age. Until you learn that Meissner was most recently the Police Chief of the town of Little River-Academy, Texas. Still, not anything we've never heard of, right?
Well, turns out Meissner had worked for 17 small-town police agencies in the past 18 years, according to the Texas Commission on Law and Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. No, that is not a typo. 17 jobs in 18 years, in stints ranging from three weeks to two years. This begs the question, just what standards are this commission charged to uphold?
~~~
Quote of the Week:
“But if I really say it, the radio won't play it
Unless I lay it between the lines."
--Peter, Paul and Mary, in I Dig Rock and Roll Music, 1967
Fare thee well, Mary. Save us a Puff.
~~~
Internet Video of the Week:
Here.
Looks bogus to us, (the ball movement looks too jerky), but still a well-done video.
~~~
Idiot of the Week:
Mark Whicker, sports columnist for the Orange County Register. Wow. Just...wow.
The "What You Have Missed" piece is a staple of the columnist repertoire. It provides an opportunity to fill some inches without having to actually be very creative. Much like the e-mail that floats around telling you all the "necessities" that did not exist when you were born, only to tell you at the end that you'd only be 23 or so for all that preceded it to be so, this type of column can be informative, entertaining and interesting.
But it's all about the premise. In the sports world, there are many of these opportunities. For instance, "If you were born when Julio Franco debuted in the Major Leagues, you would have seen..." would be a good column. (the end of WWII, the fall of Saigon, Smurfs...). Whicker went another route in his column of 7 September 2009, entitled, "Many odd things have happened in sports the past 18 years".
But before we blast the guy, we do want to point out one positive from the piece. If we don't do this now, you won't want to hear it later. Trust us.
Wicker makes a great point as regards how we treat professional athletes, when he notes, "...some baseball players began taking drugs in order to hit more home runs and throw faster fastballs. Football players, who had cornered the market on most of their drugs, began driving drunk, slapping their wives, selling drugs, and killing people. The baseball players caught more grief."
Unfortunately, that truth was completely lost in the premise of the column: what kidnap, rape and false imprisonment victim Jaycee Dugard had missed in the sports world during the nearly twenty years she was locked in a shed in the back yard of Phillip Garrido's home.
And it's not like it was a good column that was borne of an unfortunate choice of framing. No -- the thing started out offensive as hell and only got worse, as it opened with, "It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page."
Gee Mark, ya think?!?
After a brief, perfunctorily-sensitive summation of what happened to Dugard, Wicker provides a pretty interesting list of events and trends that have taken place and evolved since June of 1991.
But that premise -- there is just no way around it. So Wicker apparently decided to go all in. The closing of the piece read, "And ballplayers...came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate. Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard."
Wow.
The original piece, the apology from the idiot who wrote it and another from the irresponsible editors who let it go to print can be found here.
~~~
Vintage Album Review of the Week:
Scarecrow
1985
-Rain on the Scarecrow (5:21)*
-Grandma's Theme (:56)
-Small Town (3:42)*
-Minutes to Memories (4:11)
-Lonely Ol' Night (3:45)*
-The Face of the Nation (3:14)
-Justice and Independence 85 (3:32)
-Between a Laugh and a Tear (4:32)
-Rumbleseat (2:58)*
-You've Got to Stand for Somethin' (4:33)
-R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60's Rock) (2:54)*
-The Kind of Fella I Am (2:55)**
* - singles
** - Was not on original LP, only the cassette.
What Michael Jackson was to USA for Africa and Live Aid, John Mellencamp has been to Farm Aid. At the recording session for We Are the World, Mellencamp met Bob Dylan and Neil Young. The former was quoted as saying, "I hope...they can just take a little bit of [the money]...and use it...to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, [who] owe to the banks...."). The three got together and staged the first Live Aid concert, benefiting United States farmers. There has been a concert every year since.
The seeds for this endeavor were planted firmly in Scarecrow. Mellencamp had gone from Johnny Cougar to John Cougar Mellencamp, gravitating away from pop poster boy, toward serious artist. He would record one more album as John Cougar Mellencamp, before ditching the stage name altogether.
This album ended up being the best-selling of his career and for good reason. Every song on it is a solid piece of craftsmanship, with tight instrumentation, excellent timing and superb lyrics. Mellencamp covers a lot of territory here in his depiction of Middle America in the last quarter of the American Century, dealing with life, love, spirituality and the crushing financial realities of Reaganomics.
The themes that run through the album are timeless. When the protagonist tells the man he called to come auction off his farm, "Calling it your job, 'ole Haas sure don't make it right, but if you want I'll say a prayer for your soul tonight", on the title track, he could just as easily be a current day unemployed dot-commer in suburban Los Angeles.
And that is what makes this album work. The straightforward production, topical lyrics and solid vocals, particularly by backup singer Crystal Taliafero, keep the work sounding as fresh in 2009 as it did in 1985. What we derisively though of as "a bunch of songs about farms" is in reality a prescient look into the soul of the heartland.
Music: 4 (of 5)
Lyrics: 5 (of 5)
Authorship: 4 (of 4)
Production: 3 (of 3)
Packaging: 2 (of 2)
First Blush: 1 (of 2)
Aging: 3 (of 3)
Videos: 1 (of 1)
Total: 23
Stars: 4.6 (of 5)
~~~
Parting shots:
Super-big props to Carolyn Savage on doing the right thing. More on her next time...Can the Jets be as good as they look?...The Magic Number for the Defending World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies is 5...The results of last week's poll are in and the Pittsburgh Steelers are our readers' pick to win the Super Bowl, pulling in 26% of the vote, with the Cowboys and Other coming in second, with 20% each, followed by the Chargers at 13% and the Pats, G-Men and Eagles each pulling in 6%. This week's poll is at the bottom of this page.
And with that, we bid you adieu.
Until next time,
Keep the Faith
.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment