hoop dreams 09 edition

I started blogging on March 23 of last year and eventually, like many bloggers, fizzled out after several months. I'd like to get back into it since there is a lot happening on the lot these days ... brackets, Phish, baseball, monkeys ...

My very first post was about how my NCAA tourney brackets were causing me grief. I'm in a few tourney pools this year, but the only one I'm taking seriously is Desiree Koh's Rack'em and Wreck'em Bracketology. I love this one cuz Des provides a regular recap of how the contestants' brackets are fairing with her particular blend of sports mania, humor and journalism.

Currently, I'm rockin and rollin with the potential to get 14 of 16 correct for the Sweet 16 (and I picked Western Kentucky over Gonzaga folks)! My only other flub is that I picked Utah over Cleveland State, except the underwhelming Arizona beat the Utes. If CSU can pull off another upset over the Wildcats, then that will neutralize anybody else that might have called for Arizona to enter the Sweet 16.

An observation: isn't it refreshing to have a tournament without Billy Packer!?! My whole life I've been forced to listen that yahoo. I forget what he did last year to get him fired, but I'm glad he did it.

Interesting fact: I saw Phish on a snowy, December night in 1995 at Cleveland State's basketball arena - the CSU Convocation Center.

get snuggie dot com

Phish's Diamond Anniversary

When I was a kid, I remember the 25th Anniversary season of the Dallas Cowboys (we lived in Dallas at the time) and how they had diamonds on their shoulder pad logo.

I'm not expecting Fishman to don some cruelty-free studs on his dress when the band returns in March, but in honor of the band's diamond anniversary, Relix posted their original review of Phish on its Web site. Check it out here.

Mixed pheelings*

Earlier this week Phish announced that they will play three shows in Virginia’s legendary bush-league arena known as Hampton Coliseum come March 6, 7 and 8, 2009. These will be the first concerts by the band since the ‘farewell’ at Coventry, Vt., in August 2004.

From 1993 to 2004, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing this quartet over 140 times in places throughout the Northern Hemisphere – from Washington State to across the pond for a European tour in ’97. I lived and breathed Phish when they were on tour. I knew all the songs, all the words and all the jams. I knew all the inside jokes between the band and its audience. I was clued to Internet after shows to read the setlists. I knew what to expect and what not to expect.

I also knew how work the scene. I knew the shortcuts to the parking lots. I knew how to get good seats. I knew how to score a room at the close hotels. This list goes on…

And perhaps it’s this closeness—borderline obsession—that leaves me with mixed feelings about Phish’s return. No longer will I be able to see Phish through the lens of a recent college graduate with no girlfriend, a crappy job and no idea what he wants to do with his life. And no longer can I place the costs of seeing multiple shows as a priority.

Back in 1998, my idea of a vacation was sharing a dingy hotel room with a dozen friends at the Hampton Inn in the middle of November for two shows at Hampton. I spent vacations freezing my rear off in places like Boston and Worcester, Mass. waiting for friends to meet other friends. Now, my idea of a vacation is a tropical beach with my beautiful wife, day trips through rainforests, surfing lessons, etc.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, “I’ve done that.”

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Phish. I love Phish music – it’s my favorite and I’m pretty sure it always will be. I love reliving shows that I’ve seen when I listen to a live show recording.

I miss seeing good live music—music that makes we boogie like a wild man. I miss the reunion of friends as we converged in memorable settings like the Gorge, Red Rocks, Alpine, Deer Creek and MSG.

But on the other hand, I don’t miss the wasted kidz on tour, the Phishier-than-thou tourhead who demands their space in your seat, the clapping fratboy and puking teenager at his ‘first show.’ Yes, there are many, many more good people at Phish shows than bad. Unfortunately, I have a hard time tuning out the bad.

I also have reached a point in my life where I’m not very excited to applaud and pay money to a group of guys that I don’t really respect how they’ve lived their lives. The heavy drug use is well documented. The failed marriages, the ‘open’ marriages, the infidelity, the drunkenness, the arrests, the arrogance, etc. Call me a goody-goody if you like, but I’m trying to think of anyone I know besides a rock star who can call themselves successful in life and who has the reputation of some members of Phish (note: Mike Gordon seems to have been the straightest of the four despite his oddities and I really have no problems with him that I’m aware of).

I was one who rarely left a Phish show disappointed, but maybe I was partying just as hard as the rest of the scene and was too out of it to notice the flubs, missed transitions and botched solos. I listen to some shows from the 2000-2004 era and I don’t hear things worth paying to see. I’m confident that Phish will come back as sharp and rehearsed as ever. They know full well that they can’t take the stage and sound like crap.

So, I won’t go so far as to say “I won’t” see or do this or that, but I won’t be reliving my 20s on the lot or at some abandoned air force base. But I will hope for local shows and multi-night runs. I will try to go to New Year’s shows because frankly, all other New Year’s plans suck. I will relish the rendezvous of friends who are spread over the country.

Who knows? I must just go to Hampton anyway. I placed my ticket request on Thursday.

Here’s to a 3, 4 or 5-night run at Deer Creek this summer!!!

* I’ve always hated the use of “PH” for “F” but I had to do it.

Sarah, Meet Hamid.

And now, here is the actual conversation the media were not allowed access to between Gov. Sarah Palin and Afghani President Hamid Karzai.

Palin: "Wow, so you're right next to Russia too?!? It's like we're kindred spirits! What's it like to have so much foreign policy experience?"

Karzai: "Forget about that. Let's talk about you. I like your glasses. Where did you get them? Have you seen my fancy hats?"

Staffer: "OK Governor Palin, your 30 seconds are up. It's time to go flirt with Mr. Kissinger."

Does Palin wear 'mom jeans' ?

When I first heard about the Republican Party, er John McCain, giving the VP nod to Sarah Palin, I thought it was a silly tactic to lure women voters who have supported Hillary. I thought that sounded about as strategic as the Guiliani campaign. However, the more I learn about her, it appears that she has been selected mostly to appeal to the hard-core conservatives. It is a shrewd, strategeric move. It's a move to get conservatives to visit the polls in November who would otherwise stay home because McCain is too moderate for their tastes.

She is there to appeal to the "right to bear arms" crowd, the pro-lifers, abstinence-only sex education backers and the drill-for-more-oil-because-global-warming-doesn't-exist folks. You know, the people who think the real problems in this country are for them to be able to carry a gun, not access to health care, the economy, the environment, war, etc. The same people who believe they have the right to decide their morals for you. The same people who want you to butt out of Bristol Palin's life but were happy to make a national fiasco out of the life of Terry Schiavo a few years ago.

"She's a breath of fresh air," is a common phrase heard from convention floor. Yeah, that's because she doesn't wear mom jeans. She's a breath of fresh air for one reason and one reason only - because she's a woman. Can anyone honestly believe this would be the VP pick if the credentials were identical but she was a man?

But in the spirit of open-mindedness I can't wait to hear her speak tonight. I can't wait for the former Miss Wasilla to put her oratory skills on display and read the teleprompter like she's reporting hockey scores during her local sportscaster days!

Remember, Country First (isn't that a failed tag line for a country/western radio station?)

Quayle 2.0

John McCain has got to be kidding me. By choosing a relatively unknown VP running mate and definitely a candidate very short on experience, I'd give him negative points for his choice of Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin.

This choice smacks of picking a candidate solely to appear to certain voters segments and not as an adviser to the president. (By the way, to anyone who says the VP isn't important and is virtually powerless, let me remind you a guy named Dick Cheney.) Frankly, I'm offended the McCain campaign thinks it can win over conservative Democrat women who pulled for Hillary Clinton simply by picking a woman.

More troubling is that one of the main arguments McCain and others have used against Obama is his short experience--that he is untested and not fit to run the United States. Palin is beyond short on experience. She has been governor for approximately 20 months in one of the most backwards states of the union.

I've been saying this for a long time, but at 72-years-old, McCain's age worries me. He is one more temper-tantrum away from a heart attack and if he's elected, the former small-town beauty queen will be the President of the United States. In my opinion, this is a huge reason not to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

In the photo above, Palin does her best Katie Couric impersonation seated on a grizzly sofa.
(Photo by Stephen Nowers/Anchorage Daily News/MCT)