When I was a kid, I would spend summers at my grandparents' farm in Benton Harbor, Michigan. When we would go in from the fields, the TV was the only source of entertainment. My grandma would watch her soaps. My uncle would watch the news. My grandpa--he would watch the Cubs.
I never really understood why he was a fan of the Chicago Cubs. They were a mediocre team. Their wins and losses seemed to be bad for his heart. I found the game to be boring to watch--a real snooze fest.
Last night, the Chicago Cubs won the National League Championship Series. From what I understand, it is a feat that has not happened since 1945. The move on now to face the American League Champions-the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. The Cubs have not won that since 1908.
The buzz around here is a electric--at least on facebook. A lot of my friends that are into sports are talking about it. Even some that don't really care but live in or around Chicago are getting into the mood. I wish my grandpa was here to experience it.
The Opening Ceremony in Rio is currently playing on NBC. I am in bed not watching it. I had been earlier but the amount of commercials is ridiculous. I'm sure someone out there has the ratio of coverage to commercials. Just when you get settled into watching the ceremony, NBC puts in another set of commercials to watch. After a while, I said fuck it, I'll watch it some other time. I don't think I am missing much anyways. What I did see wasn't that impressive. I was FaceTiming with Dad at one point and he told me that it was because Rio is broke. They can't afford to be awesome. I am afraid that Beijing has set a bar that has yet to be met.
I went to a baseball game at the Cove this past Sunday. It's been a few years since the last time I went with Erin. The improvements to the facility since I saw it last have been remarkable. It does not surprise me then when I hear that attendance has been up.
As always, click on the picture to enlarge.
If taller than 6', get an isle seat!
It was a double header this day. After the first game ended, there was an intermission and the audience was invited out onto the field to catch marshmallows being thrown out of a helicopter. It was for a chance to win prizes. Unfortunately, not many people had patience or follow directions.
I just had put away my summer shorts. Now it’s warm and again and I’ve got to drag them back out. Believe me, that’s not a complaint!
As I put the shorts away, I went shopping for some thermal underwear. There harder to find than I thought. Meijer didn’t have any. (They don’t have much of anything for men.) Then I tried the tractor and supply store and they had plenty of thermal outerwear but not what I was looking for. I checked out Dick’s and they did have some—for $30 a piece. No way. Even though the Wal-mart website said that my local store didn’t carry them, it turns out it does for $6 a piece.
…Yeah, you’re not gonna see a picture of that.
Since I mentioned Walmart, I have just recently found out the term for a group of people that I look down upon: University of Michigan fans that have no connection whatsoever to the school. They’re called Walmart Wolverines. Check this out:
h/t to Forgazi for putting up (and creating?) this video.
That was a parody for the Pure Michigan ads that have been running for the past few years. If I remember right, there was an article that came out that said the money spent on these ads have been a good investment. That is, if you can say the tourism money that came to this state really is because of ads? Who really knows how much of it was would have ended up here anyways. But in any event, I do like the campaign.
Only days away to the elections and the races are tightening and the ads are maddening. I’ve got Jackie Walorski ads popping up not only on the TV and radio but also on facebook and YouTube. Ugh. I don’t even live in the district she’s running for. It's not just her, but I'm gonna be glad when the campaign season ends.
According to my friend Adam, the 1-1 tie between England and the United States is the reason why he can’t get into soccer. How can anyone tolerate a game that ends in a draw? Someone’s gotta win! In addition, it’s strange how a tie can be a “win” for one side *cough*USA*cough* and a loss for another.
I was curious to see how Vancouver would follow up the spectacular opening ceremonies that Beijing put on. I couldn’t even imagine that they would even try. There was no way that Canada could put up that kind of money and manpower. From what was reported, Vancouver’s opening ceremony cost was one tenth the size of Beijing. For the amount they spent, it had the potential to be just as great as Beijing’s.
The ceremony started out great. Vancouver used an array of projectors that along with three dimensional objects created some stunning visuals. The stories that these visuals were trying to capture seemed interesting and relevant. They had a strong start but the presentation started to peter out. When they got to section covering the prairie provinces using Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, I was bored—almost to sleep. Really, though, that wasn’t the big problem.
The most painful and awkward moment was during the lighting of the stadium cauldron. The plan was to have four pillars come out from the stadium floor. They would then tilt until they touched together around a central main column. Four torch bearers would then light the four columns simultaneously which would then cause the central and main cauldron to ignite. Unfortunately one of the columns failed. After a few minutes, I guess they decided to go ahead with their three functioning ones.
Some other things:
Unlike the summer Olympics, the parade of nations comes at the beginning. Personally, I think that this is a better idea. If I was an athlete, I’d want to be in the stadium watching the show rather than milling around in a parking lot somewhere.
The Queen of Canada didn’t make herself available to open the games, leaving it to her Governor General, Michaelle Jean. I know Queen Elizabeth II will probably do so for the London games, but c’mon, I think that’s a royal snub for a realm she rarely visits in the first place.
The ceremonies also called attention to Georgian competitor, Nodar Kumaritashvili who died earlier in the day on a luge training run.
I haven’t heard any music from Sarah McLachlan since the 90s. It was nice to hear her perform once again.
Capt. L. sent me an email about a week or so ago asking me to join him on Facebook on a page dedicated to protesting the new Spartan logo.
Current logo on the left. Proposed logo on the right.
I got the email the day the news broke about the new logo and immediately joined. I like my old familiar logo and I am not a fan of the new one. From what I have read, MSU teamed up with Nike to “update” the logo for $ome reason.
The majority of the people commenting on the State News, and all of the alumni that I talked to, do not like the new logo. A few did, though, concede that change is good. After all, MSU has gone through many different logos. Still, this isn’t the change that many of us would support.
One supporter, though, is men’s basketball coach, Tom Izzo. In an article that I read today, Mr. Izzo seemed “disappointed” over how much of a fuss the logo change is causing. In that article and elsewhere, it is suggested that what Tom Izzo wants should be what Tom Izzo gets. Basketball is MSU’s sport and Izzo is our beloved coach but why should we feel like we’re hostages to what the administration and athletics department ants? Now, to be fair, I didn’t get the feeling that the coach was going to leave if the logo gets dropped but I am finding it very disturbing when people are suggesting that we have to do everything we can to keep him happy. Sorry to say it but I’d be happy to see anyone go if they are working against the MSU community. It may be just another logo to people out there, but for many of us, it’s our indentifying logo.
In a gut-stopping game (even if I couldn't see it), the Spartans beat the other team down the road 26-20 in overtime. This win is sweet considering the embarrassing defeat to Central and heart-breaking loss to Notre Dame. It sure is a confusing start to the season but as always, I hope that the Spartans keep marching to victory.
Rio has been selected as the city to host the 2016 Olympics. In a stunning turn of events, Chicago was eliminated in the first round. That wasn’t just losing a vote. That was a bitch slap of humiliating devastation.
It sure made for some interesting talk this afternoon as analysis began on why we lost.
First we have geopolitics. We’re getting the blame for the global financial crisis plus there are two unpopular wars we’re fighting. Then there are those who go farther saying that this is just more evidence of anti-Americanism. Republicans are making light of this saying that the IOC are a bunch of racists—a reference to themselves being tarred and feathered with this accusation because they don’t support Obama.
There is also the “why-not-Rio” factor. There’s the fact that the Olympics haven’t gone to South America and as President Lula mentioned in his speech, bringing the games to Rio opens the games to the masses down there (well at least the ones that can afford it).
Perception of the city was also being brought up. Given the fact that Chicago residents are about evenly split in support of the games, and the recent beatings that have been played in the news, might have scared off some votes. While I could entertain the first, I’m not sure the “crime wave” has much to do with it. I mean just look at the murder stats: a few hundred in Chicago versus thousands in Rio annually.
It’s tough not to take this personally. I suppose the silver lining is that we’re not going to be on the hook for cost overruns and the Chicago political elite are going to have to dip into some other people’s pockets for their money. Still, having the games would have been beautiful. And as Roe said, now we’re going to have world class competitions in a place where you can’t even flush down toilet paper!
There was a bit of exciting news that I saw today. Michigan State is setting up their future football seasons to regularly play either Western, Central, and Eastern every year beginning in 2011 for ten seasons. It’s not unusual to play one of these schools but they aren’t played regularly and they always come to Spartan Stadium. I always feel sorry for them. I mean, what team wants to take a beating at the start of their football season? That’s not to say that they don’t have a chance of beating State. Ask a Wolverine. Ah, forget it. Ask a Mountaineer. Quite honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if, say, Western gave us a good pasting. I do think that this is a good thing for our schools and our state. If this series works out well maybe it will even be extended.
Man, it seems like I just can’t catch a break! I’m just now getting back to normal cripple mode as the flu that I’ve been suffering under has broken. Hell, apart from remembering that I woke up at 1400 to use the bathroom, I don’t remember anything of Saturday.
There were a couple of things that I remember on the news that I thought, “I’m going to blog on that.” Then a few minutes later I was probably knocked out. Pain pills are good for that. But here are a few that I remember in no particular order:
President Obama gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod containing, among other things, recordings of his speeches. Are we trying to guide her to the grave? You would think that one of his advisors would have told the President that she’s already got one. Even I know that she’s got an iPod. But then again, what do you get for a person who has practically everything?
President Obama also spoke of his support for Turkey’s entrance into the EU. Just shut-up please! We are not in the EU so what business is it of ours? Well… we do have strategic interests—but you shouldn’t be making our views known Mr. President! French President Sarkozy was right and should have bitch slapped him.
North Korea launched its Kae-godda Dong 2 missile over Japan. They say they put a satellite into space. We say their shit landed in the Pacific. Oh who am I to believe? (Let me say sorry in advance to Lee before I go on.) Just let them die already. Quit giving them fuel. Quit giving them food. Quit letting them play us against the Russians and Chinese. I’m willing to say this: let them fire the first shot. Once that’s over and done with… go in and fuck them up. Tell everyone that. This isn’t a MAD situation it’s TAD.
It looks like some banks aren’t being allowed to repay the TARP money (thus getting out from under the government). Oh the government apologists say that allowing banks to pay back the money would reveal which banks were the ones in real danger and would cause a run on them. Sure…
MSU lost to North Carolina last night in the championship game. Gotta give it to those Tar Heels. They played awesome last night and completely dominated the Spartans. The turnovers and bad shots on our part just sunk us and we could never recover to get back into striking range. My hat is off for the Spartans though. They beat two #1 seeded teams and last year’s champions. They had a helluva season. And I want Tom Izzo bald now!
As a person who doesn’t appreciate performance art as much as I should, I must say that I was blown away by the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics. The scope, choreography, symbolism, and beauty were incredible and something I have never seen before. As impressed as I was watching it on television, I can only imagine how incredible it must have been to see it in real life.
The presentation was divided into two parts: Historical China and Modern China. I was much more impressed with the first half—Historical China. I thought that the symbolism and artistic quality was much more evident. Don’t get me wrong, the second part was impressive but it seemed to be too interpretive.
The parts with the moving printing blocks and the naval exploration were my favorite parts. Both used massive amounts of participants creating an awe inspiring show. The blocks had a surprise twist at the end and the maritime show had a great score that made me feel how big China is. Zhan Yimou, China, and company have raised the bar and it wouldn’t surprise me that a ceremony comparable to this may not come for a while yet. I don’t see London and Vancouver as being capable of competing. And if the Brits put as much effort into their ceremony as they did into their Olympic logo, we all might cry from the disappointment and visual pain.
It's Superbowl Sunday! Yaaa...er... oh, that's right, I don't watch pro football.
Superbowl XLII puts the New England Patriots against the New York Giants. I pay scant attention to the Patriots but only because they are "giants" in in the world of football. The come into the Superbowl undefeated which I hear hasn't occured since the 70's by the Miami Dolphins. As for the New York Giants, they only come on my radar because of Eli Manning.
I don't really have any interest in either the Patriots or the Giants. And until last night, I wasn't going to root for either one of them. Superbowl Sunday would just be an excuse to overeat and laugh at commercials. However, last night I had a dream: Eli and I know each other. Not in the buddy-buddy, always hanging out way but in a distant confidant way. We are old buddies that now live in different parts of the country but we keep in contact. I got a letter from him and in it he detailed some of the problems he is currently going through. (Don't worry Eli, I'm not going to tell them) His soul-baring letter made him less of a super-athlete and more of a human being. I was touched.
Okay back to real life. I really don't know much about Eli Manning (pictured on the left) but from what I do know, I like him. His brother, Peyton (on the right) is like a sports god around these parts because he QBs for the Colts. It's safe to say that I like both of them. I don't feel that way for Tom Brady who QBs for the Patriots. Although a stellar athlete, the fact that he played for Michigan pretty much kills it for me.
So because a dream and the fact that the Patriots are a bunch of favored smug asshats, I am putting all my support (so much as it is) behind the Giants.
* * *
Around these parts, if you watch pro-football you are likely to fall into two camps: the Chicago Bears or the Indianapolis Colts. Of course you've got your weirdos that go for the Green Bay Packers or the Detroit Lions but they are relatively few. If I was to say that I "fan" of any of them, I'd have to say "Da Bears." But I'm a college football watcher so it's probably an insult to real Bears fans. I did, though, have to show the Superbowl Shuffle:
I am glad that OSU won last weekend against Michigan. I am also saddened to learn of Lloyd Carr's decision to leave. As much crap that I give Michigan and their football team, I do have a respect for them and their coach.
It's like one in the morning and I'm up from a six hour nap. Yikes, I didn't know I was that tired. I've been up doing stuff since five in the morning and had been prepping for the until 11 the previous night so I guess, it's not terribly surprising. You see, today (actually, yesterday) was the Michigan-Notre Dame game which is a big deal around these parts. Notre Dame is only minutes away but you know how die-hard many Michiganders are about UofM. I took off early from work. I justified it saying that working on the weekend is optional anyways.
I got there to see the last quarter of the Michigan State-Pittsburgh game. What a butt clincher that was. State has the problem of being a really good team--until they decide to fuck it up towards the end. Pittsburgh had a few minutes at the end to make a touchdown and squeak out a victory and I almost lost my cookies the couple times a long pass was successfully thrown. But State managed to come out on top, 17-13.
Now for Michigan and Notre Dame which were both coming into today's game with 0-2 records. When asked, I predicted that Michigan was going to win. I didn't realize they were going to fuck them up. 38-0. Out of the whole crowd, only Carrie and I were cheering for Notre Dame. (Well, this was before the game started. They didn't give us much to cheer about once it did.) But the house was rockin' by fans desperate for a win. Poor Linus (Erin's cat) was so stressed out. When the fourth quarter rolled around, I decided to call it quits. It wasn't even a game anymore. Plus, I was tired and I wanted to get a nap in just in case we were going out that night. Ed was supposed to give me a call if they did but he didn't. By the looks of it, we all weren't really keen on going out anyways. Not with two cases of beer and like 50 jello shots to take care of first.
BTW, cherry jello made with cherry vodka makes me want to vomit. The shit smells like medicine.
Ohio State won over Washington.
When did Wisconsin become bad asses? That snucked up on me.
Michigan lost to Oregon 7 to 39. ESPN says it's the most lopsided loss since 1968. I am actually concerned. As much as you can hate a family member, you don't want them to be killed. Anyone in need of a football coach?
