20-10 Visions: Don't Let the Aughts go for Naught

A decade of decadence. A span of spam-filled E-mails from Nigeria. A quest for queries that made little difference to the malaise of life. A cadre of crass-filled, celeb-ME! quirky shows that made you vomit, or you ogled them more intently in utter disbelief. A boom-bust cycle for bankers from Bali to Bombay to Boston. A gaggle of whatcha-think-of-this websites where Google reigned surpeme.

Oh yes, the Aughts were a fun-filled, debt-laden, country-screwed-up-on-celebrity time. The Roarin' Twenties Redux?

As 2010 hits you in the face, with the problem of writing the date right, unless you have that all automated in your life, now, we hope again that the New Year brings hope and answers. Normally, it is a time to tighten up, get on swole, and flip da scrip, without blaming others for your flab, drab, and shabby life. (Another facet of the Aughts: language is changin' fast and TTYL, LOL, ROFL, BRB and POS borrowed from the acronym-laden computer field.)

From Lily Allen's The Fear:

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear

‘ Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear

People fear A LOT these days. Governments. Economic Woe. The Loss of Community while being sucked into the rabbit hole of the internet via Google and Facebook. 2012...

Yet, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" to worry about.

The days and decade ahead should be one of fantastic visions filled with some version of what we want to become as people. And how we should figure out and live on the best path to a environmentally friendly, economically-beneficial and everyone-is-included situation? Clean up our act. Spend wisely. Think about future ramifications.

Of course, some will deny any changes need to be made at all, even after some of the more drastic events of the past decade. (Katrina & New Orleans, A Multi-Trillion-dollar banking meltdown, Oil price fluxuations, costly guerrilla wars in the Middle East, and BRIC's rise in economic dominance.)

So what can we do? What should we do to make the aughts lessons leap forward into the teens?

Self-improvement. Ben Franklin had his method for getting the most out of his life. He spent 2 years (approximately) working on these things. (from mysimplerlife.com):

1.TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

If we can do these things half as good as Franklin, we probably will be a much better person to be around. We aught to do better in life.

My personal resolution: Start a Publishing business by forming an LLC. (In process.) It will center around sports and personal stories related to sports endeavors, at first. Hopefully, it will also take advantage of green technologies, like Kindle, instead of printing more books than are really needed. Downloadable files instead of a printed copy. Audio books in the near future. And whatever else seems to work.

For others: Maybe you have a hidden talent or a penchant for certain things or ideas. Utilize them more. Create something. Innovate it. Make America (I am an American) better in the teens. The world has gotten our Capitalistic message loud and clear. And they are doing things elsewhere we seemingly could never dream of. Education is a key too.We need to promote it, fund it and find a way to get those eager youths coming up with amazing technology that will annoy the best of us - and freak out the narrow minded amongst us. No matter. We need those things.

Happy New Year and Decade!!! 2010!!!

Yahoo!!! (Ok, they are so 1990s...)

The Lie of the Tiger: Don't Quit Golf Because of a Lie

If I were advising Tiger Woods, I would tell him to stick to golfing and forget the wife. (Not the kids.)

Direct Conversation Style
"Mr. Woods. Look we all know (now) you had a cadre of classless concubines which is par for the course, of course, in infidelity. It took little imagination to round up the usual suspects in the 'I gotta have some companionship' while your wife and mother-in-law were getting on your very last nerve. The fact you did not get caught for several years while laying The Wood to these lucky ladies for an evening is to your credit, and shame.

Now, though, it is time to look forward instead of at the behinds you were waxing along the way to being the best golfer in the world. The world is not going to stop. Money can be remade. And it does zero good to stay in a loveless marriage.

How can I say loveless? Mr. Woods you must have married for the convenience of having a wife and kids. People in your circle - friends, you will say, but mostly parasitic playas - deemed it appropriate to have said wife. Need quality and breeding though, no bimbos need apply. So you did it - with zero committment to the plan. I can almost hear you say, after the honeymoon, "Now what?"

Aside from the game of golf, what have you ever excel at? You are very intelligent no doubt, but how does one get good at something that takes real work, communication, time, committment to succeed at? (Marriage not golf.)

Elin is now laying the wood to your life. Making demands. Give the "I'll leave, or else" order. Forget that. You have to see things for what they are. It's been a sham and a shameful expression of love on your part, but it will be a holy nightmare to stay with her now. You are not going to repair something that did not work all that well to begin with.

You got two young kids, very young, so young they won't know until they internet search these posts years from now. By then, you can be happier, married again (or not) and Elin can share the burden while sucking on your wallet until both kids are grown.

You can repair your image with tell-all books (and book deals) and Oprah appearances, etc. You can be the best playa on and off the course. That's up to you.

Or, you can be a miserable, imprisoned fool that will be reminded of your sins (transgressions) until St. Peter comes knocking.

I think you can still be a great man. It won't be with Elin around. But people forgive that don't have to know anything or do anything for you.

Think about it. Don't throw your club away for keeping a bent-out-of-shape wife. She is not worth the tournament of a lifetime."

Christmas Wishes: Love, Actually....Not So Easy

When we come to the crossroads of Christmas & New Years Eve Avenue, the thoughts spinning in our minds have shifted many times, and in many ways. The shopping, the search for gifts for friends (and foes) alike, and the preparations to make it the best of Christmases have all circled our minds for a solid month. (Talk about time suck...)

For the single souls, the idea of making a love, actually connection also flies in for a weekender. The idea of a soulmate popping up in our busiest season when all people are rushing about for the hot games to play on the Xbox (I could go on some porn rant here, but I won't) seems a bit too Love, Are You Kidding Me?

I happened to be in the single DNA pool during the season. We all know why. No need to rush to that therapy couch, or dig up some old photos, or talk to someone that knew me from high school. It's obvious - and I've talked enough about it to give Dr. Phil/Dr. Oz brain cancer via auditory violations of their senses.

What I do know is I have substituted for love the various parts of interaction that constitute a relationship. For example, my interaction with girl #1 (Rita) typically is about education, books and whatever popular media is cooking up for our consumption. Woman #2 (Laura, sexism learned) is about sports & drinking and whatever her latest conquest is going to do for her. Woman, Chastity a.k.a. numbero tres, is a hottie that knows it, flaunts it, and wants a guy to pay for it - alimony I assume is in her tarot readings.

There are more, but you get the point. The pheromones attract me to bits and pieces of a ideal woman, the ones with scents of lilacs in their hair, or sweat-kissed lips that must send out a 50,000 watt signal to my turbocharger to rev up to 10,000 RPM. What I find is someone unavailable for future engagement.

I learned this tact from the Oakland A's. Substitute parts of a really killer team with Frankenstein parts of other orgs that don't fit into their team direction. This worked for them from 2001-2006. Now, however, they are trying to make a monster via trades and minors grooming....but anyways...you understand the philosophy, now to what I want for Christmas.

The soulmate would be funny, love sports, read and know what the hell is going on in Africa, Australia and Asia, like to travel, love sex, dreams and does what she dreams, and can stand me. (The last one is the deal killer, I know.)

She'd be attractive, not dolled up like some porcelain knock-off with hooker traits that you'd find in the West End. No, she'd be a girl (um, woman) I would think jeans, a white t-shirt without a boulder holder on, would suffice to pretty her up. And no, I ain't making this a sexual...thang.

We all like certain ideas - or as a classic rant from Bull Durham stated:

Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back,
the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are
self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I
believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the
designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening
your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long,
slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.

Amen brother. (Sontag, right)

To wit, we all have our wishes and dreams that can rarely be satisfied, especially during a Holiday season. They all spin around like some bad, old 45 in our heads. (I'm thinking: Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House.) And they continue to spin because I really don't know what I have to offer to make the spinning game a exciting and fruitful and multiplying love life.

Oh, well Love actually isn't very easy.

In fact, it damn hard.

Happy Holidays!

Song I can't find online:

Just Jack, 'Smoke'. ( I like the sax playing...)

Facebook link to Phil Garant Mix is all I've found and ilike.

Manic Monday: Writing, Reading, Running, Mobbing & Etc.

Wouldn't you know it, but it's harder than ever to focus on just one task. Sure, I'm not a dad/Mr. Mom, but I do my fair share. Cleaned out a garage/shed area, rode my bike 10 miles (busted the sprocket though, I knew it was going), read about 150 pages on great baseball managers, trying to keep up with all that social media stuff. (And reading Accidental Billionaires a.k.a. The Story of Facebook.)

And work. And write. (And go to the sports bar to check out the games, and hopefully, make miss bartender into Mrs. Powers. We all do it...the flirting.)

Meanwhile, America seems pretty complacent and complaining about the role of government. In 1946, when we were running the world cart blanche, no one complained about the size or scope of government. You expected roads, schools, law enforcement and protection from the wild bunch that is Wall Street.

Today, after 30 years of ignoring infrastructure, eroding educational systems, health care costs rising and the Wall Street fiasco, we must either turn to government (and fix it internally) or just let it fall apart. Because that is what is going on.

We all need to get busy on other things. Create something of value. Innovate. Invent. Optimize. Draw upon that American bullheaded nature - but to make not destroy.

I know more about NOT doing things right that most others ever will. Its not braggin', it is the plain simplistic truth. I have become more aware in the past few years of that gnawing in the belly feeling that I am not living up to whatever was suppose to be my calling. That every Manic Monday I ask, "What did I do this past week? What am I gonna do?"

These are questions I hope to answer sooner than later.

America needs to do that too.

Predictable Irrational: Good for Starters, Demand More

Never took a course in behavioral economics, but this book gives you a starter into that arena. After seeing the stock market and America's mortgage market, crash-n-burn, binge-n-purge, or spin out of control like a bipolar hurricane, you got to try to understand the hidden forces behind it all.

Predictably Irrational attempts to layout out premises along the line that we are neither very rational nor can we predict with much regularity what we will ultimately do. That our motivators often are irrational; that we can make distorted decisions based on erroneous concepts. (FREE for example is never really FREE.)

Ariely puts forth several experiments tested on MIT students and others that reflect we can be seen doing very strange things under certain heightened pressures. That we can take rational, normal persons and turn them into less-than-moral, far-from-societal pillars. (Remind you of the Wall Street?)

It's an interesting read; but it does not dwell or delve greatly into the current malaise. Instead, it picks out specific ideas of why we all are prone to irrational, and predictably so, decisions. That said, while I got something out of the book - it still left me less that satiated. It didn't meet my demands.

No Rest in Fantasy Baseball: Cash for Clunkers, Fines for Plunkers, and Punk'd Moves

Shortly after my last post, Kevin Youkilis decided that a bean ball war needed his escalation. I can understand the need to flex one’s muscles and show that you not gonna be anyone’s Pedro Martinez’s “punk bitch,” but Youk got five games as a pine warmer. (1/10 of Manny "not 100%Manny" Ramirez's suspension for the worst offense we currently rail against…steroids.)

The opposing pitcher Rick Porcello got 5 games, one start out of the rotation. So the punk is on Youk. (bottom of the picture.)

Recently, the cash for clunkers program has taken off. The idea of giving an incentive/rebate to get a hunk of junk and gas-addicted vehicle off the bridge to nowhere has boded well. Baseball teams often take a scrap heap worthy player and rebuild him to his old, not-so- clunkerish form. At least in theory.

And so, the Phillies recently gave cash to a clunker pitcher in Pedro “Punk” Martinez. (I call him one because he threw down a septuagenarian…ex-Bo Sox manager, Don Zimmer.)

But Pedro had a better day than Notre Dame WR/wannabe starter Jeff Samardzija who, along with Sean Marshall, got punked out of the ballpark by the Phillies power quartet: Howard, Utley, Rollins and Ibanez. And another punk in the stands let The Flying Hawaiian, Shane Victorino, have some alcoholic fruit punch to go along with his uniform without a Wailuku Lei.

No Luaus for Mr. Victorino are planned in Chicago. He’ll be happy to sue that bleacher dude, without the surfboard, and whomever feels spry enough to take over ownership of the Cubs this season. Bummer.

Meanwhile, Rich Harden gets cheated by the rain Gods (not in Hawaii) on Sunday, God’s day of rest. My pitching seems more contented to rest – no wins, dead last and a growing gap – than to pitch to victory.

God created the world in six days…then he rested because it was good. Well, in my case, there is no rest for the wicked, wacky, and winless warriors on my punk'd pitching staff. (Aside from Roy Halladay… he got royally punked over.)

All in a day’s work – this punk is over.

(JP currently is running first! in a Yahoo! fantasy baseball league. Just took over that spot today.)

New: Appropo Song by Cage The Elephant: Ain't No Rest For the Wicked



Classic Live Version: Tracy Chapman, Fast Car

Conan O'Brien: BLOW up my Car!!!

I submitted to Conan's contest to blow up a car on the Tonight Show. I believe I should win because:
1) My car indeed sucks, even if it were just a point A to point B ride
2) Using it to do papers, it sucks even MORE - I have to make sure I don't lock myself out while driving nearly 27,000 miles per year.
3) Winter time is coming and it REALLY BLOWS - therefore, blow it up.

Here's my 120 word submission:

I’ve delivered stale daily newspapers in MY TANK for 15 months. It has NO
power steering but provides good exercise cheaply. The front windows don't come
down, NO A/C , and the child locks refuse to be disabled. Driver's door unlocks
only from inside. Houdini would scratch his head.

The radio has only FM - but I love sports talk on AM. It uses a quart of
oil per week and gets 16 MPG at a cost of $400 per month. The TANK is
desperately seeking a suicide - give it what it wants. My livelihood depends on
a death trap: I can't afford to replace it, but it’s killing me
financially. BLOW IT UP, PLEASE!!!

I believe it is BLOW UP WORTHY. What do you think?

Library of Congress: Home to Our History, A National Treasure

I've never been to the Library of Congress. The idea appeals beyond the massive size and scope of the collections they have - (the research one can do!) - and the history one can lose one's self in during a visit, hopefully, prolonged.

In doing a baseball book, I know there are plenty of resources for books and images. The images that are older (sans copyright) are a special treat to find. To shape a story about the history of the sport, you have to include the quirky past to understand how it evolved into the sport where $1.5 Billion stadiums rise out of dirt to pay homage to men in tight uniforms. (And to think guys would play for free - nearly - back in the 1850-1860's.)

The Library of Congress though holds much more than the baseball game.

It holds our nation's treasured past, its foilables, its great expansion, and its bloodiest moments. The dreams of ordinary citizens, the lines of poets and playwrights and the hallowed words of Presidents long since gone. It is the written essence of our country - that which Thomas Jefferson sold his vast personal collection of books to keep alive after the War of 1812. (The Brits burned down the original Library of Congress.)

Jefferson's collection doubled the Library's existing volumes to that date. He offered: "I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from this collection . . . there is in fact no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."

Jefferson, who would pass away in serious indebtness ($200,000+ in then 1826 dollars), was a knowledge hound. Much more than most of our politicians and scholars are even in today's information age. He read, in Latin, the classics. Adored Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) a Roman philosopher, orator, and statesman. Indeed, he saw a usage for all books - and organized them by subject matter - thus paving the way for various classification systems utilized by the Library of Congress, and also, under the Dewey Decimal System.

Researchers owe their debts to Jefferson for adding his collection to the Library, his understanding of how knowledge is organized, and later, the ability to find millions of volumes in this Library today. While I have never been to Library of Congress , the libraries in America are stocked with the impetuses of Jefferson (and Franklin). They themselves are National Treasures - but their ideas gave us the most tangible assets we need to hold steadfast in our most trying times.

(This Post was written from the Lowell Public Library, Lowell, Indiana.)

Double Platinum, 2-Disc Tribute: MJ's Top 10 & The Big 80s

With his departure, Michael Jackson leaves behind an enormously vast legacy to be remembered and dissected in countless future interviews on Music history and his life. He falls into the esteemed category alongside Elvis, Dylan, Hendrix, Cash, Lennon and McCartney, as people you can never leave out when talking about Rock & Roll's growth and dissemination to us, the masses.

MJ brought the seismic change in video design and creativity. All of his videos were the gold standard of the 1980's - where many, many others tried to dethrone the King of Pop on a weekly basis on MTV. His was a personality fit for the Big 80s: big hair, fashion (glove, parachute pants), big money (Wall Street obscene) and eccentricity to an art form (the monkey comes to mind.)

So what are MJ greatest hits, with video expertise included, or as an additional weight on the greatness of the track? (An opinion, not a musical verity.)

1. Billy Jean
2. Thriller
3. Beat It (Youtube)
4. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Youtube)
5. Bad
6. Dirty Diana
7. PYT
8. Smooth Criminal (Youtube)
9. Wanna To Be Startin' Something
10. Rock With You

Here's His entire catalog


The best of the rest in the 80's musical game that put out the best music and/or videos are:


Madonna - Vogue (technically, 1990, but we know it was made in 1989.)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer from SO (guy was so freaky, Genesis cut him loose after he dressed up as a grape and couldn't get a mike next to his mouth.)
Genesis - Land of Confusion (Reagan at his best.)
Pink Floyd - The Wall - the groundbreakers for the weird. Amongst the All-time in sales next to Thriller.
Metallica - One - a hellish existence on video. Really the best heavy metal band.
Bon Jovi - Dead or Alive - a karokee favorite.
The Police - Wrapped Around Your Finger. You were expecting Every Breath You Take?
Prince - Little Red Corvette. With Madonna, amongst the next legends to be mourned.
Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf. They could put out vids.
Aerosmith (featuring Run DMC) - Walk This Way. (Collaboration classic.)

SO, that's the double platinum album. That MJ passed does not mean we should not treasure all the good he produced. There will be plenty of bad revisited by those prone to dwell on the worst.

FROM SO -Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer

WANT TO TOUCH THE HINEY!!!

Reprise of an old blog: The Ugly, The Bad and The Good (July 25, 2005)

The Ugly
With the recent Kenny Rogers’ Incident involving tossing cameras and abuse of the news media, I thought back to one of the worst incidents in baseball history, involving two HOF pitchers, a lifetime .250 hitting catcher and two bitter rivals in the Dodgers and Giants. (Left)


From the HOF archives
Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez (born October 20, 1937 in Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic), better known as Juan Marichal, was a Major League Baseball starting pitcher known for his high leg kick and dominating stuff, and his intimidation tactics, which included aiming pitches directly at the opposing batters' helmets.

The high-kicking Juan Marichal, AKA the 'Dominican Dandy' or 'Manito', already had pinpoint control of his curve, slider, screwball, and blinding fastball, all thrown with a variety of motions. Some commented he had 16 different pitches, throwing his 4 pitches from either an overhand, 3/4, sidearm or submarine deliveries. His lifetime stats:

Led League in wins 1963 and 1968
Led League in ERA 1969
All-Star in 1962-69, 71
Elected to Hall Of Fame in 1983

IP: 3507.1
W-L; 243-142
ERA: 2.89

But with all that success came the unfortunate incident most remembered in his elite career. It happened on August 22, 1965.

That day, Marichal faced Sandy Koufax at Candlestick Park in the heat of a tight pennant race. The Giants and Dodgers had come close to a brawl two days earlier over catcher's interference calls. Los Angeles's Maury Wills had allegedly tipped Tom Haller's mitt with his bat on purpose, and Marichal's best friend, Matty Alou, retaliated by tipping John Roseboro's face mask.

Roseboro nearly beaned Alou with his return throw to the mound. In the August 22 game, Marichal had flattened Maury Wills and Ron Fairly with pitches when Roseboro purportedly asked Koufax to hit Marichal. When Koufax refused, Roseboro's return throw came close to Marichal's head. Name-calling ensued, until Roseboro suddenly ripped off his mask and stood up. Marichal rapped the catcher on the head with his bat. What followed was one of the most violent brawls in major league history.

Willie Mays led away Roseboro, who had suffered a concussion, while Dodger Bob Miller tackled Marichal, Alou slugged Miller, and Tito Fuentes menaced the Dodgers with his bat. Roseboro sued Marichal, but eventually dropped the $110,000 suit.

NL president Warren Giles suspended Marichal for eight games and fined him $1,750. He also forbid Marichal from traveling to Los Angeles for the final Giants-Dodgers series of the season.
Marichal, not to be outdone, had another memorable game:

On July 2, 1963 , he went the distance beating the winningest HOF lefthander in Warren Spahn and the Braves 1-0 in 16 innings. Warren pitched only 15 1/3 innings in the loss!

The Bad
John Roseboro was a 'good' left-hand hitting catcher in an era that had the likes of Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, Joe Torre, Tim McCarver, Bill Freehan and Elston Howard around catching.

According to Bill James, he is considered the 27th best catcher in MLB history. Though his .249 BA is not considered HOF worthy, two points should be made:

1) The 1960's was the worst offensive era for ALL hitters due to the mound height and strike zone expansion in 1963
2) Dodger Stadium was not a friendly hitter's ballpark like the ones today in Denver, Arlington and Houston, among others. Dodger stadium has always been a negative park for hitting homeruns, especially at night.

So, to properly rate Roseboro, we could do it in a better time (the 1990's or present day), and his offensive numbers would be much, much better. Also, his 'real' numbers assisted quite a bit given the scarcity of runs in the 1960's.

His defensive skills and game calling probably rate him a top 10-15 catcher all-time. (Caught Drysdale, Koufax, Sutton, Osteen, and Podres which ranks up there among the best pitching staffs all-time.)

All and all, he could have been a HOF catcher with a little more pop at the plate and not playing in the most restrictive era for hitters.

The Good
Sandy (Sanford) Koufax. The name is synonymous with great pitching. His lifetime stats:
Led League in wins 1963, 65-66
Led League in era 1962-66
Led League in strikeouts 1961, 63, 65-66
All-Star in 1961-66
Most Valuable Player Award in 1963
Hall Of Fame in 1972
IP: 2324
W-L: 165-87
ERA: 2.76
In World Series play
IP: 57
W-L: 4-3
ERA: 0.95
Books and articles about Sandy Koufax

His first few seasons in the ‘Bigs’ were not successful, but showed enough promise, given his wildness (sometimes overstated, sometimes understated) and the fact he didn’t get much support from manager, Walter Alston, in pitching out of jams.

But for 6 years, 1961-1966, he pitched better than ANYONE ever dreamed imaginable. Yogi Berra said in 1963, "I can see how he won 25 games. What I don't understand is how he lost five."

His legacy was cut short by a circulatory ailment that caused swelling in his arm unlike anything you would hear of in modern sports. With the right medical (and managerial) advice given, he could have pitched many years more. And what would have been? As it turned out, he made the HOF in 1972, six years after retiring.

Not bad, Lefty. Not bad at all.
Sandy Pitching in splendor - watch those curves!

R.I.P.: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon & The golden TV era

I wish I had the appropriate words to express what is necessarily a difficult time for those who love and adored Farrah Fawcett , Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson. Their life was apart of Americana; they were a memorable part of the art form that was the ubiquitous TV land.

As members of the Greatest Generation and the Boomers fade out into just the lasting individual memories, outlandish laughs and smiles, and quirky classic videos and sounds, it brings to mind how quick it all goes away.

The fame and fortunes - Ed McMahon was in foreclosure and Michael Jackson was nearly broke- the looks and usual health - Fawcett inspiring battle against cancer decimated her - can be taken so fast. So fast.

Most remember Christopher Reeve's struggles and strength after his paralysis. And it is a reminder how uncertain it all is: life.

We can wake up, plan stuff, get the family involved (or no) and take the day by the horns. Then, it finally happens - a tragedy - and we don't wake up anymore. Others, such as Fawcett knew the odds were stacked against her - and yet she fought well - and acquired the greatest gift: The value of the time and friends and love, while here.

The hardest lesson will ever learn is the end of life - as we finally learn the secrets to it all - we have to take that lesson to beyond and to those we all ready missed.

Those of us left behind have the ubiquitous TV, a mountain climb, a clear sandy beach, a perfect corn field, a hustling and bustling downtown, a mountain lake, or a song, to remind us of you, the departed.

So here's a song for them all:
The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody

Good Bye Friends.

Michael Jackson's Bad (my favorite)

A Second Constitutional Convention: Constitutional Reformation in the 21st Century

I hope that my desire to fix America does not mean that what I write and why I write it is called into question. We have a serious problem and serious solutions are needed. (Not the inane discussions on Letterman.)

I have proposed this in a document on DocStoc: Constitutional Reformation in the 21st Century.

It is my firm belief that we have to sit down for a prolonged period of time and figure out America. It can not be of a half-hearted, hen-pecked, small-victory design. It has to be a grand ideal, much like the dream and reality that is America.

So I hope you read the links and download the document. We need debate and the time has to be now.

Surpreme Comic Controversy: Palin v. Letterman v. A-Rod v. Roberts, 666 U.S. (2009)

It would nice if pols really understood comedy -or, er, the nature of the craft.

Letterman took to throwing around barbs at Sarah Palin's family, who will not got back to Alaska - and fight those pesky Ruskies. Now, picking on a 18-yr old unwed mother is a bit much. But who brought it on themselves?: Palin.

When you seek a grand stage, be prepare for the slips and jibes at yourself, family and anything you deem a cause, because that is what is going to happen. (Ask former Ms. California Carrie Prejean (above) about such attention via her less than stellar answer - granted, her free speech - but the consequences of such speech.)

For Dave's part (who I have not watched in God knows when), he backhanded an apology. He was not condoning the sexual deviance toward Palin's younger daughter. (He just didn't remember - or his writers got lazy - with her name. (The legal one.) But this is just fluffy way to retort on Palin's part.)

The biting lines from Yahoo! TV:

His Top Ten list featured "Highlights of Sarah Palin's Trip," and included: "Bought makeup at Bloomingdale's to update her 'slutty flight attendant' look."
But the diciest joke centered on the family attending a Yankees baseball game.
Letterman said "an awkward moment" occurred for Palin when, "during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by (Yankee third baseman) Alex Rodriguez."

I actually feel more sorry for A-Rod, since the miserably-selling tell-all book of Selena Roberts was just a ultra-feminist taking any jabs at the man she could from the get go. (And his two-faced persona. Like we don't know successful & spoiled people have such flaws. Really - that is all the book was.)

This off-the-beaten-path detour comes because that author, Ms. Roberts, has shown a pattern of behavior in advocating on behalf of victim - the Duke Lacrosse case - without actually having the facts in evidence. As it turned out, the case was not supportable, and the men accused, were innocent. (They were Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans.)

Quick judgments are a pandemic of our society - feed forcefully by gerrymandering journalists they are more worried about being scooped, and sent to the dustbin of journalism, where hatching, at best, second-rate tripe about third-rate fame and frivolity. So they slant - taking hard stances, even when dead wrong, or just lack the sensitivity to actually do the story right.

(A-Rod can be called a 'me' ballplayer. However, compared to many, many others, he is just vanilla - and was not worth the time Ms. Roberts spent in staking the claim to such a story. So, he did steroids? And then what? Did he beat up on others? How bad did he really treat his wife? Did his $252 million contract come without the owners being able to do their own background research, like you did, Ms. Roberts?)

Going back to Letterman, Palin jumped up like a mama bear to defend her cub. Too bad she did not teach her cub how to comport herself as the potential second family of the United States.

Palin on Today, Friday

The fact Letterman made a off-color joke is not a surprise. Reacting to it (as Palin did and has), with a lack of understanding who the really parties involved were: A-Rod and Bristol, is undoubtedly the bigger goof. Where she indeed VP, where were her sensitivities compel her to respond? And how much trouble could she have caused as a heartbeat away?

Like Selena Roberts found out, writing a tell-all about the richest baseball player does not guarantee success. In fact, it might be that quality of the analysis of baseball itself lacked. (It did.) True fans know that the game is not clean; or hasn't had its flaws and flawed players.

But both women can learn that you need your facts straight and presented in an entertaining manner, in order to succeed. And let stupid talk - slide, especially when posited by a two-bit talk show host that talks about your daughter, the older one, carelessly. (When that one is politically active and made a life-altering decision, and is being obviously watched for future goofs.)

The conservatives are just itching for a fight...about something, anything other than their policies.

The American Dream: What's Good For GM

Who would have believed 25 years ago, that GM and Chrysler (well, maybe not them) would see bankruptcy within 60 days of each other.

In 1984, GM was the 7th largest entity on the face of the Earth. With a global reach well before that term - globalization - really had the teeth it does today. Now dragging into court to say, "help me! help me!" But the signs of this failure were long in the making.

From the NYT:

Auto workers took in the news that G.M. would shutter plants in Michigan,
Indiana, Ohio and Delaware, and plants in Tennessee and elsewhere in Michigan
were put on standby.

President Obama, speaking at the White House, emphasized that investing
more billions of taxpayer dollars in G.M. was not something he wanted to do, but
something he felt the government had to do to avert a financial calamity that
would hurt millions of people.
“We are acting as reluctant shareholders,
because that is the only way to help G.M. succeed,” Mr. Obama said, asserting
that the government’s backing, coupled with the painful restructuring that the
once mighty company is undergoing, “will give this iconic American company a
chance to rise again.”

In its
bankruptcy petition, G.M. said it had $82.3 billion in assets and $172.8
billion in debts. Its largest creditors were the Wilmington
Trust Company, representing a group of bondholders holding $22.8 billion in
debts, and affiliates of the United
Auto Workers union, representing nearly $20.6 billion in employee
obligations.

Wow.

At one time the saying went: "What is good for GM is good for America." Well, it certainly took after the US in running up debt.

Lizzer & DocStoc: New Online Services with Pep, Next Step for me

My new baseball book cover

I still feel a bit lost in the malaise that is the Web 2.0 (or 2.2 or 3.0). I found useful these sites:

DocStoc provides a nice upload/download service that generates cash for all the documents you place online that are downloaded. ($.10 per download.) It offers many features - browsing items, html code insertions into blogs & homepages. It really is a slick site.

From their site:

Docstoc is the premier online community to find and share professional
documents. Docstoc provides the platform for users and businesses to upload and
share their documents with all the world, and serves as a vast repository of
documents in variety of categories including legal, business, financial,
technology, educational, and creative. All documents on docstoc can be easily
searched, previewed and downloaded for free.

Docstoc also provides technology through various APIs and Widgets to
help facilitate the sharing and promotion of documents across the web. The site
has popularized the use of embedding documents throughout the blogosphere and
mainstream media. You can learn more about embedding documents here: http://blog.docstoc.com/embed-documents-on-docstoc-into-your-blog-or-webiste.html

Lizzer seems a way to put Google, Blogger, Youtube, Docstoc on your websites. I haven't done much yet, just got the account yesterday, but I will attempt it later.

As time marches, I find myself hoping these services last beyond 2009.

I am no longer going to ignore promotion, SEO and other techniques to generate the almighty dollar. While it was nice to stay above the fray, trying to make engaging blogs and content, what I did not do was go out of my way to promo things I did do.

Somehow that was considered pure and free of deplorable shilling of my stuff. Well, those days are coming to a halt.

To anyone who is doing well in this recession, I need new techniques to make money. Any suggested outlets?

I will likely spend next week on two things: reorganizing my online presence and research on a book.
I will post at best once a week.

What I think of Love: Question and Answer section

DR. K.C. posted about Love using a Biblical quote from – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

1. “Love is patient, love is kind.”


2. “It does not envy. It does not boast.”


3. “It is not proud. It is not rude.”


4. “It is not self-seeking.”


5. “It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”


6. “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.”

She adds her comments on each, then asks, "Love is there for you…it WILL find you when you least expect it. Believe…How do you define love?"

So here goes:

Love defined for me is in the enjoyments I have: music (currently, http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/videos), movies (Star Trek relaunch), books (baseball & biographies & history) and writing (when I don't get distracted.)

The interpersonal relationships are fraught with potholes, hairpin turns, drunk drivers while I've moved my cargo of feelings along an interstate that has too many greasy spoons packed with dirty customers, shrill waitresses and sloppy, ex-felon cooks. While it is easy to be ever the optimist - reading positive thinking books - the stark reality hits like a 110 degree sauna in 'Zona without any H-2-O to quench that thrist for the kind of relationship you described, biblically.

I've never experienced any of that - from anyone - in my life. Family members have been selfish since I was born. (I feel I was meant to be halved by my family.)

Since they did not teach non-toxic skills, I've had trouble. And because of that, I am my own best friend. (And that does sometimes get lonely.)

In the few meaningful relationships I've had, though I can take 100% the blame for whatever happened or fell apart, the other side had their choices too. And made them. (And apologizing never solved or salved it either.)

They likely haven't looked back much - I am forgettable enough, most days. When I do, hindsight has only pointed to my flaws and somehow forgiven theirs. (Which sucks, really.) But they did have flaws; just theirs don't matter, and mine did.

And while it is not our American society's fault, it has become more negative for those that are not interconnected well, or at all. The internet has helped (and hurt) certainly when it comes to finding a friend/acquaintance.

But that's the problem: the deeper connections we search for do not exist. Twittering won't solve this, except in some 1 in 100,000 dice throw.

People are too afraid all around. They stick to what they know. Getting to know anyone is a chore most avoid. (Oh, and for many, outward appearances, aka money & power, seem to be the attractor.) Once again, not a strong suit. Gotta play off-trump cards.

I am outgoing and have no problem talking to anyone about anything. But the presentation likely needs some zip and the package needs a better bow and wrapping. But then what? (I've posted my sit. before - no need to revisit.)

Point is: often, the people in need of such advice and uplift are not very likely to get such benefits. Maybe it's karma or poor timing, or something else more concrete, but firm is the wall standing in front of them.

I often think I'd like to talk to that loud ceiling guy (the man upstairs) and say, "why the f--k did you make this world so blessed screwed up? Why can't we all have enough of whatever - and quit fighting over land, people "we love", and You, for instance? What did I ever do to you? [Avoiding that whole killed your son topic.]"

In love, I think we've got no real choices. Some fall into it like being at a summer pool party where every bikini and swim trunk is packed with a great bod and everyone is smiling bigger than a beauty queen doing her spinderella walk.

If I find a woman EVER and we both LOVE each other - that would be like Noah sinking his ARC. A-Rod being a baseball 'saint.' The Donald being humble. Or Obama being able to balance the budget in 4 years, get us out of two (three) wars, and get us back to full employment. Or me getting on The NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list.

Shit like that doesn't happen.

Love (for me) is mirage in the Mohave and Miracles are still in the Bible.

New Rock Music Videos and a Leftover Copy: U2, The Airborne Toxic Event

The defining band of the 1980's EuroRock:U2
Magnificent by U2 (Live from the BBC on a ROOF!)



Heard this song for the first time two days ago, and said: "Damn! I gotta get something up on them." The Airborne Toxic Event has a 1st album out, #1 on the new artist chart, but they have been together for a while. Well, here's to a persistence and success!!! (Good Luck and don't F-ed it up!!!)
Sometime Around Midnight (May 1st Video on their site)

Lastly, it is strange to post something left from another user. Not really, the library offers these weird occurences often. So, because it seems harmless, because it is indicative of the times we live in, and it includes a British flav, I posted it. Not too personal - more conversational than anything. They obviously won't mind...

Left Over Copy & Paste from the last user:

If it makes you feel any better, I have gone thru this many many times before
and I'm still getting by. Look on the bright side, now you can get a new
job....maybe even in Munich! Wouldn't that make a lot of people happy. Want to
go on Holiday? Do you get seasick? The Islands are LOVELY this time of year. On
a more somber note, I'm still waiting for a job for this season. It's quite late
in coming and I'm begining to think they are trying to tell me something.
Although it would NOT be in my best interest right now, I guess I could retire.
Hey, while you're looking for your job, keep an eye out for me too. If I do have
to retire I will still want to get a few more years of income. Of course, I
could just moore at the base of Tower Bridge and have dinner at Browns on a
regular bases. That's really not a bad thought.

Stiff upper lip and all
that rot

Love Ya

Da

Star Trek: The New Frontier, the New Franchise

Last night, Star Trek opened in Lansing, IL to a sparse crowd. I mean sparse...like 25 people. However, the area is not known for being receptive to this sort of movie.

J.J. Abrams has taken over the Enterprise (NCC-1701) and the franchise that is Star Trek. With that weighty responsibility (for the Trekkies) Abrams exploits the one fundamental ingredient in Sci-Fi that is the most malleable to all these adeventures: Time.

Copious amounts of stories can be written, and undone, with the modification of the space-time line. Change of events, change of results. Like rolling a 1,000,000 sided dice to get a different outcome.

The Enterprise crew is everyone from the original series launched in the 1960s. This is an origin story, at first, but soon sets up the future events for the new director of the course of the Enterprise's adventures.

Cast

John Cho as Hikaru Sulu
Ben Cross as Sarek
Bruce Greenwood as Capt. Christopher Pike
Simon Pegg as Scotty
Chris Pine as James T. Kirk
Zachary Quinto as a young Spock
Winona Ryder as Amanda Grayson
Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura
Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov
Eric Bana as villian Nero
Leonard Nimoy as Old Spock

Now, everything can be seen as far-fetched and difficult to understand in this origination story line. Roger Ebert, not always in his right mind, was playing his critiquing games on this classic. Which is always why it is annoying to please critics. They pick. They look for gaffs. They conjecture about what is wrong instead of what is RIGHT.

The cast pulled off an admirable job in framing this close enough to the 1960s characters while adding in the small amount of personal lives and new ticks that can be explored and elaborated on in future films.

And that is what I liked.

Technology is catching up to the Star Trek dream. Even the gritty scenes of the inside of the Enterprise seem a bit out of step with what is suppose to be happening in the 23rd century.

But it is the adventure of movies that makes a place like a Star Trek movie go where no movie has gone before...we hope.

Saturday Dance Vids: Unforgivable, Begging, My First, My Last, My Everything

I listen to Dance Factory a LOT out of the Chi. (That's Chicago for the uninitiated.)
Armin van Buuren feat. Jaren - Unforgivable


The mixes are pretty decent. Repetitive. Sometimes whacked. But overall, I can get my blood pumping while missing racoons, skunks, deers and whabbits. One has to, or else, the boring task will overwhelm you - not in thought - but in the fact, you can do more but have to settle (right now) for less.

I do that a LOT too. Settle. There comes a point where you have to risk comfortable mediocrity for unknown successes (or failures.) What do I want and more to the point, what do I value?

We value what we put the most efforts towards. What gets us up and hopeful, not what makes us sad and forgettable and dull.

But most always personal sacrifice and what we are willing to give up in life (family, friendships, status, etc.) is the the caveat to such dreams. Lately, I have pondered signficantly how much can I give up (in my unhappy life) to go elsewhere and do whatever. (Let's say write and eek out a living doing something mundane to pay rent and for food.)

Madcon Frankie Valli - Beggin (Remix)

It is not the basic will to do it. I have that much.

But it's the unknown. I have no real friends. And convicts that move to other places don't get hired easily. (In a deepc recession - likely worse.) Can I find a job and place to stay? Where I want to be?

I believe I have a modicum of ability, but it will take years to complete, or publish anything that could lead to better things. (Even then, it might just be a piped dream.)

But can I leave on a whim? Without resources? That's the deal with me.

While Chicago pumps out that music every night, I want to be in tropics, writing a Ludlum thriller, or John Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, winner of the 2009 Pultizer Prize. Undoubtedly, they wanted something different too - at some point. They found subject matter and made it their first, their last, their everything.

You Are The First, My Last, My Everything (Barry White)

The 2009-2010 Chicago Bears: The Greatest Show on Field Turf?

It would be nice if the Bears did go to field turf. The grass is all-natural, like many of the women I would like to date, but for playing in the 21st century, an offense-friendly system that assists these millionaires in slobber knocking the visiting team's defense makes sense.

But today's psychic vision is one of joy as Lovie & Co. drafted potentially a pass-happy group of players in the mold of Air Coryell and Mike Martz.

Lovie Smith knows what the Greatest Show on Turf looks like. He coached the defense of the 2001 St. Louis Rams (Super Bowl losers by a hair), when QB Kurt Warner went from the cute grocery bagger to 1st-team chick magnet (but married) in the span of two years in the late 1990s.

Kurt got the MVP hardware too. Imagine a Chicago QB with that...

So what about that team and this team? Why are the Bears prepared to be the 'Midway terrific offensive attack' instead of the brutish Monsters of the Carnival?

Since off-season moves and the draft count essentially together, here's the breakdown:

• Traded for all-pro QB Jay Cutler, who has a great arm to go deep always with


• Snatched up LOT Orlando Pace - a familar cog in the St. Louis Ram system


• Drafted WRs Juaquin Iglesias and Johnny Knox(right). Iglesias is more of a possession style receiver with 4.54 speed but a solid West Coast material. Meanwhile, Knox is a burner at 4.34 with agility and hands.

This goes along with RB Matt Forte's agility to catch the ball tremendously well out of the backfield (64 rec) and WR Devin Hester's home run ability. Meanwhile, TE Greg Olsen is a matchup headache for anyone.

Pass protection is critical to the success of this scenario because at least two of the five receivers will run a deep in, skinny post, comeback, speed out, or shallow cross. (Hester and Knox seemed to be suited for this.) This system was mastered by Mike Martz in St. Louis but gives props to Sid Gillman and the ultimate refinement by NFL coach Don Coryell. (With QB Dan Fouts, John Jefferson , Wes Chandler Kellen Winslow, Charlie Joiner doing the on-the-field stuff, that's all.)

The Bears have the needed players:

1. QB with ability to throw for over 4,000 yards accurately
2. Running back versatile enough to catch 60-70 balls and run for 1,200 yards and block
3. 2 WRs with sub 4.35 speed. Hester, with work, can become a lethal deep ball man. Knox smells of being that special deep-in guy.
4. Olsen gives them a proven TE that creates the headache in out routes or down the middle.
5. O-line of LOT Pace, C Kruetz, ROT Shaffer (another acquisition) and Chris Williams (from Vandy, Cutler's alma mater) should be able to execute this blocking scheme.
6. Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner certainly can open up the playbook - brother Norv Turner might even help.

That's my prediction. Let's see what transpires.

4 wide outs, weapons galore!!

250th Post: Last in Smallville(Lowell)...Indiana???

For several years and several reasons, I've been stuck in the non-urban, country town a.k.a. 'Hicksville' that is Lowell, Indiana. It is a deplorable place filled with ultra-conservative, FOX- watching, bible-thumping, tobacco chewing and smoking fools that just do not get the 21st century or the implications of the last thirty seasons of discontent. Responsibility for the United States demise does not compute in their minds. Oh, they blame perceived social ills like gay marriage, abortion and crime for the deterioration of the American Dream. Thinking Reagan got something right. Meanwhile, the magnitude of the real problem steems from economic problems triggered by their GOD, Reagan, and his disciples, BUSH I and II, and Clinton's less-than-liberal leaning economic path.

But that is not the reason I write this 250th post.

Rather, my fuel comes from a volatile home situation that is no longer worth saving. In numerous posts prior, I have basically stated why my family is as backward and unchanging as those conservatives, while, at least pretending to be liberal about some issues. (Mother votes DEMO; aunt does not vote at all.)

The economic problems at home are torturous. They are unyielding to reason, logic, mild irritation, anger and threats to leave. The last is my only option.

Now, I have made my mistakes -documented in many, many posts - and I pay (paid) for them just to see that in my efforts to get turned around, they are unable to make the same concessions and efforts.

So, as I am at least free to report that I haven't been convicted of a crime in 7 years - I have to leave them behind. Let them do the paper route I've done (on their behalf) for 4+ years while garnering less than a minimum wage for myself. That would not bother me, IF, IF, they would pay their bills right, get decent transportation and show some learning about finances. My mother just cleared her 1st bankruptcy, yet, she does not get it.

But it is her unconditional love for her sister that is the final straw. She allows her to make dumb decision after dumb decision - car rentals for 7 weeks (of $1,500) while her minivan had a $100 problem - and covers for her, like she just is not capable of better. Her sister has enough intellect and controlling behavior to do the right thing, but she does not.

Instead she (my aunt) does it to annoy and infuriate me. (She compares me to my father. A terrible and horrible guy - and I am not him. Yet, that's the damage being done to me.)

So, it is time to leave Lowell. I never liked it - nor did I have good reason to stay with these jokers called my family. My mother and I are no longer a rewarding relationship. She picked her sister over me - and more to the point - she chooses to allow her to do whatever she wants.

I'll have a bus ticket, $250 and a bag full of clothes and the book I am writing on baseball. That's it. I have no real friends; that can help. The ticket is to Baltimore, but I need to change it to further South or somewhere else.

I made this plan in January rashly. But now, it just behooves me to escape for good.

Smallville has held me back - and after living elsewhere, it does not have to be SIN CITY to please. I just can not stay the course of insanity to please my mother. AND I don't ever think (now) that she cared at all for me. Tolerated is all am to her.

Castle & Cupid: ABC Hits Bulls Eye With Love And Crime

One is a writer searching for godly inspiration for his new pulp fiction character, Nikki Heat. The other is a God playfully mixing and matching us mortals in order to please his fellow immortals once again.

Those would be short blurbs to describe ABC’s new hit comedies – with serious subjects – Castle and Cupid.

The leading men have their leading ladies panties in a bunch (if we drop the P.C for a second) over what these amorous, ornery and witty god-men decide is right in their pursuits.

Castle (Nathan Fillion, right) takes over where the Moonlighting series left off that ABC ran over twenty years ago. While the guy is slightly more controlled, has a charming young daughter and is much, much more successful, his partner, is more urban, East Coast-educated and refined, than the Cybill Shepherd model character ever was. Castle is playing cop – vicariously acting out his latent, if crude and unvarnished, detective ability stored in his prior novels – while driving the hard-boiled lady cop (Stana Katic)bonkers with his antics. “Children are so hard to control,” she thinks every time Castle interrupts any train of thought she has, yet she likes the child and man in him.

Will Castle’s inspiration like his future Nikki Heat version of her? Will the flames reach season two?

And with the arrow – he hits the mark. Cupid. Eros. The God of Erotic Love. A ‘Stimulus Package’ for your recession love life.

Just what America needs.

Charm and creativity is the name of the love game. Friction can be attractive. Unforeseen happenstance becomes Cupid’s (Bobby Cannavale) target and objective. Vocations in conflict become harmony in the bedroom. Only there’s a problem: Female psychiatrist(Sarah Paulson) thinks he’s crazy, and destroying people’s chances at ‘true love.’

Through Cupid’s imagination and rough-cut plan and her responsible actions and look-before-you-leap intervention, so far, the couples come home cheery. And only 98 more to go before he goes home to Olympus.

It’s Hitch on TV – and the psych lady has a thang for her Cupid – and the God has to fall for ‘Psyche’ sometime.

ABC put these male-female characters at odds, with the men providing the slapstick comedy and the women at the ready to shutdown their whims. It’s fun; and keeps one from dwelling on the recession. Or turning to just ‘reality TV’ that is not in any way reality.

These hour-long forays into the romantic comedies are nicely written and show potential for a 3-4 season run if given their head.

Cubs & Yankees: Destine To Meet in The 2009 World Series?

It would be nice to see those Cubs get back to the place where they belong. (Ok, so they have not belong to the World Series since my great-great -grandpa was watching Ty Cobb lace them up.)

But with opening up of the $1.5 Billion House-that-A-Rod-financed-through-Public- Steroids a.k.a. the new Yankee Stadium, and the Cubs making a cameo in April, I think it only fitting that the Wrigley wonders and new digs be home to the 2009 World Series.

Wrigley is going to be a historic landmark that sees less usage by 2016-17. Why you may wonder? The 2016 Olympics makes it a hope they build a brand new baseball stadium with a Chicago heart of Wrigley Field pumping inside of it. It seems far fetched, but with the stadium renovations becoming a yearly task, a new building with the ivy character and internet modernization would be snappy. (Assuming the Olympics, else, no go.)

But looking at the present, 101 seasons and the Yankees. The Yankees doubled down like a gambling addict in spending three times as much as those AIG executives got in bonuses. So with all that cash, it's a lock to be in the playoffs. Right?Well not so fast there, partner. You better get a blackjack dealer that isn't called Doc. (Or hope C.C. is enough medicine for your ailing pitching. And A.J. is more a Jack-Ass when it comes to getting his meds after injuries.)
The Cubs are hoping Fukudome does not Fuk themout of a playoff run. Or that Harden, Dempster, and/or Big Z fail miserably to repeat last season's pitching excellence. Or that Milton Bradley does not break the Boardwalk (or bat) in showing he cares so much about his performance for those lovable Cubbies. Geovany needs to keep his head. That's all. That's all...???

When it's all said, and written about, the Cubs can go far in the weak NL Central. Then on to Philly, NYC or LA, or maybe Florida Sunshine in October. The Yankees have two teams in Boston and Tampa now that can play Yankee ball better than the Yankees. More talent in the minors too.

I don't count them damn Yankees out - but unless they are going to buy every fantasy star in MLB, I have my doubts.

24 Hours...to live: What would you do?

Awhile back, about 2 years ago, I posted to a renunion site (now Mylife.com) what I would do with 24 hours to live. Here's my 10 things:

Do all the things I never have done due to fear or some hang up externally or internally.

1) anything enjoyable
2) tell people off that deserve it
3) Go skydiving
4) Make [wild] love
5) Eat great seafood
6) Say goodbye to a few friends
7) Watch a sunset by the ocean
8) Fly a plane
9) Give all my money remaining to a down on his luck person
10) Kiss the woman I love before I die

Amendments:

11) Swim with sharks - A great white would be thrill, in a cage of course.

12) Taking batting practice at Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park.

As you notice, there is some unfinished business in my life. Flying a plane, making passionate love (not necessarily to the true love, though, that would be special) and skydiving - risky tasks for some, ordinary for others.

I is hard to pack a lifetime of missed opportunities into one day. Flying will cure some of that. You can get pretty much anywhere in the United States in 2-3 hours. But to have to do all that - then die. Boy, that would surely suck.

So why wait?

What usually keeps me from enjoyment such as this is routine and required responsibility. My paper delivery route is a nightly routine. Cannot go anywhere with significant cash.

I wished recently that a superhot woman (say eliza dushku above) would want me for a night companion. But it would be like 2AM and I would have to decide whether to blow off (heh heh) my route or make love to eliza. Now, of course, the animalistic male say, "SCORE BABY!" While the responsible, she's-just-not-gonna-be-that-in-to-you-after-your-performance-baby says, "Wait for true love. You have to pay (your mother and aunt's) home equity and eat in the future."

You can't afford to get fired. The angel with no brains reflects.

But then after watching Dollhouse, I must say I gotta be a major tool not to have such reckless abandon.

So that's the world in which I inhabit.

Today, for example, the car I drive got another brake job (eight months since the last one) for $238. Now, I DO NOT drive reckless or ride my brake. But had other problems (steering column broke) that could explain that. Meanwhile, the auntie after a $700 fucking on Monday, has a transmission leak that caused a no go vehicle. (So that's my life - I live at home. LOSER!!!)

I hope you last 24 hours post can reveal the sadness of the life you lead.

GOOD LUCK!

Saturday Vids: Lovers in Japan, Poker Face, Pjanoo

Coldplay has a real catchy dittie: Lovers in Japan. The last minute is a climatic piece of art. (Live At The BBC 6/18/08)


By now, if you haven't heard Just Dance, then Poker Face will be no big whoop to you. Come out from under the rock you live under and live a little. (Link)

Eric Prydz Pjanoo is purely instrumental fun. Just a simple piano sequence repeated over and over, but gets the blood moving if you are inclined to such flights of dance fantasy. Indians dancing is pretty cool too.



Eric Prydz vs. Pink Floyd. Prydz wins because we do need PROPER EDUCATION!!! (You can't have any pudding!!!) (Check out the moves of these kids!!! I get hurt watching them.)


Enjoy your Saturday!!!