Friday, June 28, 2002

I'm off to California for a family reunion. The dozens and dozens of you reading this will just have to wait until Monday for something new.
Just downloaded the newest copy of BearShare and it runs very nicely. They did a nice job in upgrading from previous versions. Of course, there are probably tons of bugs and I'll still be downloading numerous versions over time.

Maybe the Expos are making one last run at a pennant before going to wherever by acquiring Bartolo Colon from the Indians. I guess Cleveland is throwing in the towel for this year. Jim Thome, you're next. Other people think Montreal is trying to dismantle the team now for one last gasp before they go away. Either way, it's nice to see them actually do something for now, instead of later. Or like the Reds, who keep harping on the 2003 date because of their new park. (Ya know, they should've kept their mouth shut on that. Cleveland built up the team over a number of years looking forward to the opening of Jacobs Field. They just weren't that open about it. It's not that refreshing when a team says in 2000 or 2001 that they're playing for 2003.)

You've already seen my draft screed, but here's King Kaufman's take on the festivities. I agree with most of his player analysis, but he's a bit off on the draft proceedings. Yes, the NFL Draft can be a tedious bore at times (and I've spent the last three drafts working with Pat Kirwan analyzing the top picks). But I think fans know more about the players in the football draft than the basketball draft, especially these days with all the high school and international players going early. Also, many of the players taken early these days are projects that will take a couple of years to mature into a major contributor. It's almost an upset to find a seasoned college player ready to contribute now. Plus, the NBA Draft has been in New York the past couple of years, but it's been in Vancouver, Indiana and a handful of other outposts, but it's usually pretty antiseptic and boring. Besides, with the Knicks as bad as they are these days, there's a huge entertainment value to see angry New York fans rip a draft pick. There's got to be a bunch of Jets fans who are also Knicks fans.

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

NBA Draft thoughts
I'm sure Bill Simmons will have a great breakdown of the draft, but here are some of my thoughts ...

Yao Ming. Yadda yadda yadda. Who knows what will happen with him. Go with "upside" or whatever, maybe he's Shawn Bradley. I don't know.

I'm more pumped about Jay Williams, although a lot of that comes from the fact that he went to my high school (and we don't produce lots of well-known athletic talent). He'll be a nice fit on the Peja Stojakovic and Pau Gasol have people looking to international players a lot more than before. Who knows if that will be a good thing. It definitely makes the draft a lot less TV friendly since we won't have heard of most of these guys (think the NHL Draft). It makes for some hilarious moments when David Stern has to say the name. Some of the guys on TV made good points that the international players can come in and do more sooner because they're in a more professional environment there, as opposed to the strict rules on the college level. But that still doesn't answer the fact that tons of these guys don't do a whole lot for a while (if that).

Caron Butler is a steal at No. 10 to the Heat, if Pat Riley will actually play him. He could be Paul Pierce (down to the slide to No. 10). Juan Dixon makes for a nice homer pick, although who knows what he'll do, if he can play point, great, but who knows. I guess he's one of those players whose size overwhelms the talent. Curtis Borchardt goes to Utah to replace Greg Ostertag as big goofy white center. He'll play for 10 years because he's big and white.

It's nice to see Casey Jacobsen get drafted reasonably high. It was funnier seeing everyone drool over his girlfriend. Hey Sager, you've got your own trophy blonde.

The Hawks finally did something right by picking up Dan Dickau. This after drafting and trading away Jamaal Tinsley last year.

There was a stretch, starting with Dickau, where I'd actually heard of all of these guys from college. Then the Hawks and Jets fans at the NFL Draft as they ripped into Scott Layden. However, they did OK in getting Antonio McDyess and Frank Williams (a head case but can be very good) for Marcus Camby (always hurt), Mark Jackson (old) and Nene Hilario (nice to see Denver stock up the international guys; they'll get more in the lottery next year).

Denver is holding open tryouts and guaranteeing someone a spot on the roster. Is the team that bad that they have to do that? Why don't they just go to the local Y and point at a couple of folks. Hmm, maybe Juwanna Mann and Lil' Bow Wow will be there.

Charles, Kenny and EJ were all in midseason form (even though EJ is probably beat having to make the trip from Wimbledon) and Hubie Brown is odd but entertaining. Poor Quin Snyder took forever to get into the swing of things. He probably was overwhelmed by the crew, plus the fact that he hardly saw any of these first rounders. He added a little more later on as the draft wore on, but he was very disappointing. Of course, I kept on asking myself "When did Andrew McCarthy change his hairstyle?" (I'd think Alyson would also be disappointed in Quin's effort.)

Craig wondered if the Hornets didn't pick so they wouldn't have to show off whatever they've done with the logo in New Orleans.

It's too bad this is Turner's last year of showing the draft. The question is: Will Mel Kiper Jr. show up on ESPN's coverage next year? Hopefully they won't drag it out like they do the NFL one. This one was pretty time efficient, but then again, the NBA always has been around draft time.

With all of these really young players (not necessarily high schoolers, at least not this year) and international guys coming in, it's getting harder and harder to really enjoy the draft. Being someone who watches his share of college hoops (especially in March), the draft always becomes interesting when figuring out which star players can move his game up to another level and which others get lost in the shuffle for one reason or another (usually size, but other reasons as well). It's also funny to see teams take risks on talented folks who never really hit their stride in college, then eventually fade (Luther Wright, Yinka Dare). It's sad to see who you think were good players stumble in the pros (Bobby Hurley, Bo Kimble). It's also aggravating to see good players slip in the draft mainly because they were good in college and scouts couldn't figure out why. You know they don't watch too much college hoops and have to rely on workouts to improve their status (John Salmons, anyone? I hardly remember him on a decent Miami team last season).

Oh well, it's one hell of a spectacle to say the least, even if it seems to be slipping in relevancy every year.
My friend Sean out in Des Moines took a slightly different tact in tackling the football/Title IX issue. One thing he brings up (and I've always wondered) is how NFL teams can get by with 53 active players per week while college teams regularly have 60-70 active players. Granted, NFL teams can cut and replace players a bit easier than colleges, but it's still an interesting question, especially if carrying an extra 10-12 scholarships could mean the difference between keeping or eliminating something like a swimming, wrestling or gymnastics program.

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Are some of us just too plugged in for our own good?
Taste? What's that?
I'm a proud owner of the Have a Nice Decade boxed set -- seven CDs of '70s hits from the good people at Rhino Records. While there are some gems in there, there's also a lot of crap that seems destined only for the sick and twisted trivia minds out there (like myself). It doesn't help that they didn't get rights from a lot of top artists (fat Elvis screams out for one) and instead we get our fair share of "Disco Duck."

Anyways, I bring that up because Rhino is coming out with an '80s version of that boxed set and it looks like it will be short on great artists (REM, U2, the Police, Madonna, Beastie Boys) and full of everything else. The folks at Slate debate the merits of the boxed set and '80s music in general and it makes for some interesting reading. I'm a child of the '80s and ate up all of the music and pop culture from the decade, so I don't think I'll be turning up my nose at the collection, but rather get a big chuckle out of it. The question remains if I'll buy it. I probably own a good chunk of it on CD or MP3 already, as well as a fair share on 45 (which was going out of style even back in the early '80s).

On a similar tangent with 45s, it seems like record companies aren't releasing as many singles as they used to be. Instead, they're coming up with intricate systems of payola to get stuff on the radio and then trying to make up some of that difference by forcing people to buy albums, even for just one or two good songs plus lots of crap. And the companies wonder why Napster and the other file-swapping things took off. The crazy sales numbers for the U.S. version of Now That's What I Call Music show how much fans want their top hits in a more attractive way.

Monday, June 24, 2002

Figured I'd dive into my little-used Hotmail account after reading a cool Salon piece about open-source spam busting programs. In about a month, I ended up seeing 200 pieces of e-mail in my inbox, even though I haven't given out that address to anyone I know in eons. I think it's still on a CNNSI.com list while testing out some fantasy stuff, but that's it. Oh yeah, 9 messages ended up in the Junk Mail folder thanks to the sophisticated filtering they've got over there. I suppose if I actually used that account, I'd be well beyond 200 spam messages, like it seems with both my home and work accounts.
Anna Kournikova may have lost in the first round at Wimbledon (shocking very few), but she didn't leave without providing what will likely be the best photo of the fortnight.
Some people complain about not going out on dates. Some blog it. Some people do something about it. This guy is trying to do something about it and blogging it. It's an interesting project to say the least and probably something I'll try to follow. I probably fall in that first category, although I'm not sure what I'm up to these days in that search for a girlfriend (or even a date), so I can't even call it complaining. Just a state of indifference, I guess.

Sunday, June 23, 2002

The death of Darryl Kile is obviously a shock to everyone, and it seems to be exacerbated even more by the somewhat mysterious circumstances surrounding it. (I won't get into the sausage factory details of how we got everything packaged together online, though.) It's hard to believe, I guess, that it's the first in-season death (i.e. not spring training) of an active major league player since Thurman Munson back in 1979. Condolences go out to his family, the Cardinals and all of baseball.

Going in another direction, it was amusing seeing Luis Castillo looking forlorn because his hit streak ended with him on deck but the Marlins scoring the winning run. It's Rick Manning-Paul Molitor all over again, except replace Manning with Tim Raines, of all people. I suppose it's good that the Florida fans didn't boo. The Marlins put on one nice comeback in the ninth inning to win the game. Then again, there were only a few thousand there anyways, so there probably weren't enough of the smart-asses around.

Saturday, June 22, 2002

Fiction becomes fact
Kevin Smith has started up an entertainment site Movie Poop Shoot News. If it sounds familiar, it's because it was the name of the fictional Web site in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I suppose too many people were looking for that site after the movie came out, so why not spin it off into something useful.

Friday, June 21, 2002

Jim Caple's advice to the Class of 2002 is slightly amusing, and, I suppose, an OK takeoff of Mary Schmich's column later turned into a hit by Baz Luhrmann. I still remember hearing the hubbub about the Luhrmann song and the mistaken attribution to Kurt Vonnegut, then realizing that I had actually posted the original column online during my internship at the Chicago Tribune just before my own graduation (and not thinking much of it than a cute diversion for the Sunday paper). Just my brush with pop music history/pop folklore.
Atlanta has often been criticized as a bad sports town, especially with the fickle fans. However, it's nice to see some teams down here try to make an effort to attract fans using the old tried and true trick -- lower ticket prices. The Hawks are making a money-back guarantee to season ticket holders if they don't make the playoffs while the Falcons, already with some of the lowest ticket prices in the NFL, are cutting ticket prices even more. Nice steps, now the teams have to make it work on the field to make the cost-cutting worth it.
You gotta love those fish-n-chip folks. Batter anything and dip it in oil, and you've got a masterpiece. How else to explain the newest phenomenon -- fried Twinkies.
In the wake of the upcoming releases of the hoops farces Juwanna Mann and Like Mike, one has to wonder, have there been any good basketball comedies? There have been decent basketball dramas like Hoosiers, Hoop Dreams, and Love and Basketball(which I stumbled across on TV last night and turned out to be a solid picture), but there isn't much that can't be considered ridiculous. Unfortunately there are too many movies like The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh and not enough White Men Can't Jump.

Thursday, June 20, 2002

"I guess the humidor is broken"
Great quote from Clint Hurdle after another wacky shootout at Coors Field. Put a Yankees team now hitting homers in Denver and, yikes. Of course, the Yankees didn't have much in terms of real middle relief (Mike Thurman? Randy Choate? yikes) and it bit them at the end since I didn't think Karsay had much left in a second inning.

Wednesday, June 19, 2002

Assorted sports ramblings
The Italians were complaining, and rightfully so, for getting jobbed by the officials in their loss to South Korea, but isn't sacking the Korean player who scored the winning goal from an Italian club just a bit much?

There were some decent if unspectacular choices for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Unfortunately I can't see Bernie Federko's name with thinking "Adam Oates for Bernie Federko, my ass!"

Seeing ex-NBA players and coaches coaching WNBA teams is one thing. And then there's Bill Laimbeer coaching the Detroit Shock. Was he not making enough from those IBM ads or that godawful video game from years ago.
If I can have a column ...
OK, which is a worse hire for a supposedly reputable publication: This one or this one?
Pick a sound, any sound. I dare you! I'm still waiting for him to use those lines as Mace Windu. "Don't Jedi me, OK!"
I remember the original story of the Krispy Kreme robber, although I'd love to have seen the chase there as it could've compared favorably with the L.A. chase of a Frito-Lay truck in the early morning. Anyways, it looks like they've caught the guy and ends the stakeout that cops didn't want to end.

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

Nice to see he's found some new work. I guess this is on par with Pras shilling for 1-800-YES-CREDIT or Erik Estrada serving as a spokesman for Smoke Signals -- phone service for those with credit problems.
It's not a surprise that Jesse Ventura decided not to run for re-election. In fact, wasn't it considered an April Fool's Joke when he told reporters he would seek re-election? Pegging his decision not to run on his son's partying at the mansion seems a bit suspicious, though. It didn't look like he'd win re-election anyways and his act had worn a bit thin. But maybe he'll make another appearance or two in the WWE once his term is up.

Monday, June 17, 2002

Assorted sports ramblings
After having to deal with an extra huge day at work a little more than a week ago, there was a bunch more stuff going on (and this is supposed to be a quiet period) ...

I was half awake for most of that thrilling U.S. win over Mexico, and I was at least moderately coherent for both goals. The U.S. still hasn't looked good for an entire game, and that might eventually catch up with them against the Germans. One major thing that bothers me is Jack Edwards' trying to make up that closing line for the big win. I guess he's using that delay to come up with the lines. Jack, just let it flow.

Both the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals turned out to be very anticlimactic, but as Salon's King Kaufman notes, the Red Wings at least looked happy doing it. And there seemed to be something special about Scotty Bowman going out on top and all of those future Hall of Famers getting the Cup. The Rangers also bought a bunch of stars but were on the golf course at this time of year.

There was some talk of reseeding teams in the final four after the West proved to be far superior this year. Forget all of that. Things go in cycles. Some years, the East rules, other times, the West rules. Sometimes it's a draw. Take it another way, should we also reseed in the NFL? You probably don't get the Patriots winning the Super Bowl that way. Leave things alone.

While the KobeShaq juggernaut often looks tedious, Tiger Woods makes his domination look fun -- and I'm not just talking about his girlfriend. His U.S. Open win was fun, and it helped that the New York crowd was a lot of fun. Other thoughts: Sure, Bethpage Black is a public course, but it doesn't look like the public courses I've seen. Also, Phil Mickelson will get a major soon. Maybe he'll spoil Tiger's slam bid later this summer.

Saturday, June 15, 2002

By sheer luck, I discovered that American Adobo was playing at the Tara (artsy theater around the corner from me) this weekend, so my brother and I went to see it before I dropped him off at the airport.

It's another one of a series of movies that incorporates food (adobo is a popular Filipino dish consisting of braised meat and spices) into the lives of a group of people tied together by their heritage. In this case, it's five Filipino-Americans (primarily in their 30s and 40s) going through a very rocky and eventful year in New York City. Honestly, if this movie wasn't focused on Filipinos, I probably wouldn't have watched it. It's almost like an Asian version of The Big Chill or any number of "coming of age" movies among a group of friends. In this movie, the main characters went to college together in the Philippines in the '70s (thus, they're a few years younger than my parents and their friends). It also reminds me a lot of The Joy Luck Club, at least the scenes involving the younger American-raised women (i.e. not the concubine stuff).

The movie itself has a soap-opera feel to it, and the characters don't have much nuance to them, although the acting is reasonably done. I could see myself trying to picture different friends/relatives/etc. who most closely resembled the ones in the film. I didn't mind the dialogue, although it was clunky at times. But the script was pretty genuine as it had the characters freely switching between Tagalog and English during their conversations. (My parents and their friends do this all the time, although I was raised primarily on English, so Tagalog is actually very foreign to me. It makes me feel awkward, though, when I see people do the free transition around me. They do hit upon this briefly in the film during the cookout scene where there are a couple of non-Filipinos in the group.)

There are themes of the power of friendship, people finding their place in the world and the right person for them. All of those ideas were done adequately enough. Thankfully, there were a few good scenes where you could see the influence of Filipino culture and social mores on the lives of the characters. Those really helped the movie along (in my opinion) and something that would get non-Filipinos thinking about what motivates their behavior. Among the ideas thrown about: Filipinos are often complacent (thus not challenging what's around them, no matter how good or bad -- "That's why Marcos ruled for 20 years and the Spaniards for 300 years); white people seem to treat Filipinos in America better than fellow Filipinos (as seen in the relationship between a wealthy Filipino woman and her cousin who works as a maid in a New York hotel); the influence of religion (especially Catholicism).

The movie does have its moments, and the tone of the film swings wildly from melodramatic to farcical to touching. It had its holes and it really seemed formulaic, but there's enough of the Filipino flavor to make it unique and entertaining enough. The film's official Web site does a good job pretty much giving away most of the plot plus lots of additional stuff, including an adobo recipe.
Back from the sun
I had the laptop with me the whole time, but figured, I'm on vacation, what's the point of logging on and doing all of this stuff. Sorry for leaving the dozens and dozens of you wanting more. Anyways, here's the rundown of the vacation with my brother ...

We left Tuesday morning for the approximately seven-hour trip to Orlando. From Atlanta, it's pretty much a straight shot down I-75 to the Ronald Reagan (nee Florida's) Turnpike. It was a reasonably uneventful drive, thankfully, powered primarily with my MP3 CDs. We left about 10:30 a.m. and got into town around 5:30-6 p.m. If there's ever been an area that screams tourist, it's International Drive in Orlando (where we eventually stayed). Lots of bright signs, hotels of all price ranges, assorted malls catering to the tourist, mini golf, almost every moderately priced chain restaurant, a variety of tacky souvenir shops and shady discount ticket brokers.

We ended up at Pleasure Island, a bunch of clubs over at the Downtown Disney part of the Disney Industrial Complex. The places were OK -- nothing spectacular, although the improv group was decent. The people watching aspect was so-so -- a bunch of parents ready to let off steam after dealing with the kiddies all day, plus some folks like us wanting to do something without having to dodge all the kids.

On Wednesday, we hit Universal Studios Florida, a nice, if inferior park compared to the original in California. Oddly enough, the most thrilling rides involved thrill-ride seats but with the action taking place on large screens in front of us (Back to the Future and the Hannah Barbera ride). The visual effects plus the jarring of the seats made it feel more real compared to the King Kong, Earthquake (and to a lesser extent, Jaws) rides. The Men in Black ride had a nice interactive element -- shooting the aliens across the ride. It was still pretty much the same, all in all, when I was there for the Citrus Bowl during my senior year of college. The one new twist was City Walk, which is Universal's series of clubs, bars, etc. It was cool that they brought in a version of Pat O'Brien's, the famous New Orleans hangout. This area seemed to bring out more people who made it a nighttime destination -- there are decent dinner deals, and the price to get in everywhere was cheaper than Pleasure Island. The whole Universal thing looks pretty good, although we didn't have time for Islands of Adventure.

We ended bypassing the rest of the Disney Universe, since we just didn't have the time. I guess I'll be back in due time. On Thursday, our return trip started at the Kennedy Space Center. I was always pretty interested in all of the space exploration stuff, and I enjoyed it when I was here as a kid. It seemed much improved and still just as entertaining now. We found our way to the VIP tour, and it seemed to be worth the extra price since we got closer to the shuttle launch pads and landing strip, plus had a couple of cool guides (as opposed to a guide who often just played a video). We wished we had more time there, but it wasn't the case. But, we did get the infamous freeze dried astronaut ice cream. (I guess that goes on the display bookshelf for a while).

We went the long way back to Atlanta to handle some other business. Thus, we traveled up I-95 to see our family's lot in Palm Coast (between Daytona and St. Augustine). The development is full of smallish houses, perfect for people to move to upon retirement, or as a summer home. There were some houses on our street, but thankfully, ours wasn't the only lot not developed. After that, we found our way to Savannah where my brother could visit the weightlifting center there. Eventually, we tackled traffic from there Friday back home and in time for the Red Sox-Braves game at Turner Field (oddly enough, my first game there this year).

It was a good vacation, although as with any family vacation, there were the occasional jangled nerves and arguments. But I guess we survived reasonably well.

I suppose there could be more details, but I've written more than my fair share here.

Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Goin' South
Well, with my brother in town, we're doing the road trip thing, leaving tomorrow for Orlando and hitting a couple of the crazy theme park places and who knows what else. It looks like I will be bringing the laptop down with me. I guess I'm a geek, but I can also do some travelogue stuff along the way.
Different perspectives
Before heading over to the show, I ended having dinner with my friend Lenny, who got the tickets, plus some other friends, including a handful of people I work with (or used to) but hardly ever acknowledged. These are some of the people that just kind of fade into the background since I hardly worked with them or connected with them. But in the midst of our conversation about all sorts of stuff, the topic went briefly to "her" (I've yet to mention her name for a few reasons, although I hope she's reading this and knows I am talking about her -- and thus might respond.) A couple of the folks worked with her, and they weren't saying anything flattering. I wasn't too sure how to react to this, so I just clammed up. All I know is that I really like her, and I guess I'm one of very few who genuinely feel the way. I suppose I really should do something about it, and I guess there isn't much competition.
Get the 'F' out ...
Got to see yet another Monday Night Raw show at Philips Arena, my first live event since changing the name to WWE. It definitely didn't have the "Oh my god" moment like the last time I went, when the ECW guys came onto the scene, but it had its moments -- although the Ric Flair-Vince McMahon match was somewhat anticlimactic. The good thing about it was giving a push to Brock Lesnar, who ran in at the end of the match to give Vinny Mac the win.

Shawn Michaels had an OK interview back, and we now have an official face turn by Booker T after he got kicked out the NWO, which shouldn't have happened to begin with. Too much down time altogether, and the action was pretty average, plus no Stone Cold. We did have great seats, though (first row of seats behind the hockey boards at one corner of the ring). There was much amusement with a Goldberg lookalike (musclebound guy with a bald head and goatee).

I've been to better shows, but this was OK since I went with my brother and a former co-worker who's just as rabid a wrestling fan as I.

Sunday, June 09, 2002

Reality bites
Well, so much for the Nets in the NBA Finals. That thud you hear is much of the New York area jumping off the bandwagon.
Warning to those of you playing fantasy football leagues, if you rely on those magazines as your sole source on information, you're screwed. Those things were written in April and May and published by early June. I know since you can now see my face in Fantasy Sports magazine, doing a mock draft for football.
Interesting to see how many dead links and sites I've discovered while cleaning out my bookmarks. I guess I've seen how the Internet has risen and fallen, especially among fledgling sites.
The sports night from hell went reasonably well once we were cleared to watch Lennox Lewis pummel Mike Tyson after much confusion during the night that we wouldn't be able to see it. Nice to see who has the power to get stuff in -- it ain't us.

Of course, the hockey game had to throw a nice monkey wrench into the proceedings by having a requisite triple-OT game. But it was fun and kept things interesting once the fight was over -- even if it meant not getting out of the office until about a quarter to 5. It's still a bit weird to come home from work and seeing the morning newspaper on your doorstep. It's even weirder that you know the paper isn't going to have some of the stuff you just worked on. But, hey, I got a head start at tackling the Sunday paper. Still need to go over all of the advertisements and inserts.

Saturday, June 08, 2002

Well, I guess I was still in a blogging mood while catching the second half of one of the crappier World Cup games, which means I'll get to bed once I'm done with this -- maybe.

The Vent section in the AJC is always a lot of fun. But I have this sneaking suspicion one of them on Friday is aimed at me (the vents have since cycled out since the original post). I haven't been able to prove it, but I did see a copy of the newspaper next to the person in question this evening. Yes, I do think I'm an idiot. (Anyone wanting to know what it is can ask me.)

And on a similar note, a blog from another of my quizbowl colleagues had this interesting link. It's very intriguing and unintentionally hilarious, and at the same time I can't help but think of the guidelines to appreciate poetry from Dead Poets Society.

Friday, June 07, 2002

Nice to see I play golf as well as Jamie Sale.
There were already too many people taking The Onion too seriously. Now a Chinese newspaper has cribbed directly from the paper. Good to see we're believing everything we read on the Internet.
You want fun? You pay for it
Atlanta has been trying its best over the years to attract big events downtown and not abandon it at 5 p.m. Sure, there are the sporting venues, but there has to be something else, right? Well tonight (and for most of the summer), there are two free concerts downtown. Now that seems a bit much, especially with stages just a few hundred feet away from each other. Of course, all of the hassle and fear of crap happening will depend on the artists playing -- and I can already see that it may not matter much on some weekends. All I know is that I've got to drive through some of that traffic on Fridays -- great.

And somewhat related, a parks official is recommending banning major festivals like Music Midtown or the Atlanta Jazz Festival from city parks because of damage done during the festivals. It may make sense since the city has few parks to begin with. "If we build it, please don't come!" The official suggests the Lakewood Fairgrounds. Not a bad idea, except that it's kind of in the middle of nowhere -- although at least MARTA goes there, sorta. It seems like no one knows how to get free, large-scale events in the city without massively screwing it up.

Thursday, June 06, 2002

Don't hate her because she's beautiful
If you believed this article from the Chicago Sun-Times about the changes at "60 Minutes II" -- specifically the replacing Chicago TV reporter extraordinaire Carol Marin with Lara Logan as a correspondent, you'd think CBS just hired one of Hef's Playmates for the job.

Looking at Logan's bio from GMTV in England, it looks like she's a very accomplished reporter. She's spent time with CNN, ITN, BBC and ABC, and also spent time on the front lines in Afghanistan. Oh yeah, she is very, very attractive, and she spent time as a model in her earlier days (and then there are a couple of cheesecake paparazzi shots floating around thanks to the British tabs). As long as she's got the credentials, it shouldn't be a problem unlike Andrea Thompson's situation last year.
Heaven help us
The stories have been coming out for years about sexual abuse among clergy, so I guess I wasn't as shocked when it became such a huge scandal. I just know it wasn't going on at my church (or any near me, as far as I could tell), although I suppose I should've been a bit more concerned. This article seems to get into the guts of why it took so long for it to become a scandal, including questions of tackling the Catholic hierarchy as well as the comfortability of tackling sexual issues. Being more open about such topics today has many repercussions. It's also odd to think that lawyers are coming out like "good guys" in this case.
And there's also some NFL Europe, too
It's turning out to be a ridiculously busy sports weekend (which in turn means a hellish existence for me, although I'd rather not have the ultimate boredom of last Saturday and the second head growing out of Hasim Rahman's temple).

Let's see, Friday night has the start of interleague play (including Barry Bonds at Yankee Stadium) and Game 2 of the Nets-Lakers NBA Finals. There's also some World Cup (which I'll eventually stay up late/get up early for), then the Williams sisters slugging it out for the French Open title, Pedro-Schilling at Fenway. Then comes War Emblem going for the Triple Crown (and seems to have a better shot than the other three that have done it in the past five years), Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, then the potential train wreck that is Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson followed by more World Cup.

Yup, it's just another one of those weekends. And I go on vacation right after that. What a fun way to head into that.

Wednesday, June 05, 2002

And sources say Shaquille O'Neal will miss a free throw tonight
Ironically for a sport that helped spawn the "Just Do It" slogan, basketball never seems to actually do anything. It's reported and pondered about to death that when something actually happens, it's irrelevant. And you wonder why people think NBA games/series are fixed. They can't even handle awards ceremonies right. There was plenty of hand-wringing over the Tim Duncan vs. Jason Kidd MVP fiasco. Problem was, the award wasn't announced yet when the debate started. We all wanted the announcement to come so we could end the debate -- not begin it. And today, there were "reports" that Larry Brown was selected to the Hall of Fame -- never mind, the full announcement was coming within hours. What's the rush to be first for something like this?

For all the heat baseball gets for its sometimes archaic voting process for the major awards and the Hall of Fame, at least the announcements can keep you guessing until the time they release the results. Then you can argue. Same goes with the other major sports. The AP handles many of the NFL awards, and the Hall of Fame is handled by a council of elders emerging from their semi-secret gathering during Super Bowl weekend proclaiming their choices. The NHL has its Oscars-like ceremony for the awards. Using hockey as an example, could you imagine a report saying "Sources say Denzel Washington will win the Oscar"? Thanks, NBA. Can you tell me the lotto numbers, too?
Will the Juice Box work as a nickname?
The Enron Field name went away this spring, now to be replaced by Minute Maid Park. It just doesn't work as well as Tropicana Field, mainly because Minute Maid sounds like a corporate name; Tropicana sounds like a real name (I still remember the Atlantic City casino with the moniker). But I guess it's fine that a more "tangible" name is being used as a sponsor.
While rearranging some stuff around the apartment, I stumbled across a whole bunch of old books, letters, etc. from summers past -- some as old as 11 years old, and yet it feels almost like yesterday that I did some of that stuff. And I guess it's a bit odd to think that a lot of my fondest memories from my high school days were from my summers -- time spent with new and interesting people who may or may not have had more in common with me than my classmates. Of course, some of that could be that most of my good friends from those summers were women (I guess I had a better idea of what to do back then ... bizarre).

I also realize how much communication has changed over the years. While I can instant message or e-mail all sorts of people, I was very much a letter writer back in the day. That's because most of my closest friends lived miles away and wasn't doing the e-mail thing at that point (despite being very technologically adept). As much as I e-mail people, it's definitely not the same as writing letters. I've saved a ton of e-mails from people, and lost as many as well. However, it feels a bit better looking through old letters (the paper, the penmanship, the occasional goofy drawings, etc.) than a screen of old e-mails. Granted, I hardly do any letter writing myself these days (outside of some jottings in Christmas or birthday cards), but then again, I hardly have anyone to write to since I know mostly e-mail addresses. And I guess to be brutally honest, there are only a couple of people I feel I would actually put pen to paper to write a letter these days.

Monday, June 03, 2002

More reasons to feel old
The '80s nostalgia stuff is pretty cool, and then you realize some of the songs are now 18-20 years old. But then again, I was only in grade school at the time and I was a bit ahead of the curve in getting into pop music. However, now it's really hitting me in the face when the alt-rock station here in Atlanta played The Breeders' "Cannonball" during their lunch hour retro show. That came out in the early '90s and that song was played to death on Chicago's alt-rock station during my freshman year of college. At least now I'm getting an idea what kids today might consider "old" for quizbowl purposes.

Saturday, June 01, 2002

Good to see someone agrees with me about the demise of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? I suppose fans who were contestants or knew people who were contestants under the old format have a better understanding of this.
Damn New Jersey-centric media
I guess all of those New York-phobic sports fans can continue gnashing their teeth as the nearby New Jersey Nets are in the NBA Finals! OK, so the Nets are to New York like Cousin Oliver was to the Brady Bunch, but it's still fun to see the Nets finally getting some respect. They're actually getting me to watch the NBA again -- a very remarkable feat. All I need is a t-shirt or hat with the old logo with the map of New Jersey, and I'm set.
Make me laugh
It's often weird what things you discover about people you know. For instance, I know of at least three people who have dabbled in stand-up comedy. One of my classmates at Northwestern went into the business right after graduation, although I'm not sure what he's up to now (the fact that he could pass as a young version of Michael Richards probably helped his cause). Recently, my friend Steve has been doing regular gigs in New York City when he's not miserable at his day job. From what I've heard, he's pretty decent -- although that doesn't surprise me. The oddest of the three is chronicled here -- a journalism professor that really helped me get interested in the business even before high school.