Spurs Scoreboard Suns

Growing up as a Houston Astros fan, I had to compensate for my team’s lack of championships by pointing to the fact that they lost the two most exciting National League Championship Series ever played (1980 to the Philadelphia Phillies and 1986 to the New York Mets). So, in a sense, I feel kind of bad for fans of the Phoenix Suns, who now can only compensate for their team’s lack of championships by pointing to the fact that they have now lost the two most exciting playoff games in NBA history.

Yesterday’s double-overtime loss to the defending champion San Antonio Spurs (who now are only 15 victories from claiming their fifth title) had to be eerily reminiscent of Phoenix’s triple-overtime loss to the eventual champion Boston Celtics in the 1976 NBA Finals.

Tim Duncan was absolutely phenomenal, capping his 40-point 15-rebound performance with his first three-pointer of the year to save the day for the Spurs and send the game to a second OT before Manu Ginobili won it with one of his patented whirling dervish drives.

Of course as a lifelong Spurs fan who doesn’t really care about baseball anymore, thanks to living in Texas Rangers country, the Astros don’t mean anything to me anymore and I shan’t be shedding any tears for Suns fans.  EPIC FAIL LOL.

GO SPURS GO!!!

WordCamp Dallas 2008

I’m not yet advanced enough to take this blog self-hosted using the customizable platform downloaded from WordPress.org, but I’m definitely a huge WordPress fan and do my best to closely monitor all related news and updates, which includes subscribing to Matt Mullenweg’s blog.  In fact, it was from a Photo Matt RSS update that I learned about WordCamp Dallas 2008.  I was intrigued, because I live in a suburb 30 miles north of Dallas, so imagine my surprise when I went to look up the details and discovered it’s actually being held IN MY VERY SUBURB!

It’s always dicey trying to find the right opportunity to peel away from the wife and kids for any sort of solo venture on the weekend, but should circumstances allow, I would love to try and swing by WordCamp Dallas 2008 to check things out.  Hope to see you there, but if I can’t make it, welcome to my humble little burg!

The Genius of Sawyer

One of the greatest things about TV’s Lost is all of the hilarious nicknames Sawyer peppers all of his fellow castaways with whenever the mood hits him (which is almost always). Thanks to YouTube, we can now bask in Sawyer’s genius, as three seasons worth of “Freckles,” “Hoss,” and all the rest are condensed into this single clip. I still think the best one is, “Union trouble down at the sand factory, Norma Rae?” Classic!

Thanks For a Great Leap Day, Dick Pepperfield!

Up until Friday, this was quite possibly one of, if not THE, worst week of my life.  I was getting slammed at work, both figuratively and literally, and was staring down the barrel of a sudden return to the unemployment line, where I spent a miserable five months during the last half of 2007.  But thanks to nothing short of divine intervention, this disaster of a week did a complete 180 on Friday.

While work had been an absolute disaster from Monday through Thursday, I managed to bail enough water out of my sinking ship to completely resurface.  My boss was even so pleased with my effort and the progress I made that she rewarded me with an early trip home…minus the long-anticpated pink slip.

So, to capitalize on that hard-earned reward, I treated myself to a movie.  Me and a couple of buddies (Big Dave and Mexican Junior, for those in the know) went to go see the new Will Ferrell ABA comedy, Semi-Pro.  We had been anticipating this for a while, as we love both the ABA and wacky “Frat Pack” comedies.  The movie was even funnier than I expected, but not because of Ferrell, who’s really falling into a bit of a one-note rut.  The guy who really stole this movie was Andrew Daly, who portrayed the hilariously understated straight-arrow Dick Pepperfield, the play-by-play man for Ferrell’s team, the Flint Tropics.

I went to his IMDB page to see if I had seen him before, but just didn’t realize it, and the only role of his I remembered was a one-episode stint on NBC’s The Office as a Ben Franklin impersonator.  Apparently, he spent a couple of seasons on Fox’s Mad TV several years ago, but you honestly can’t blame me for not knowing that.

Me and Big Dave both agreed after the movie that Dick Pepperfield (that’s one of those names you always have to say in its entirety) was definitely the best thing about Semi-Pro, due to both his brilliant delivery of comedic gems and his potential for starring as the lead in The Gordon Solie Story.  If that flick ain’t in the works, it needs to be!

Bob’s Sideshow - Episode 1

Barack Obama Speaks Before 18,000 in Dallas

Here is some video taken at yesterday’s Barack Obama rally here in Dallas at Reunion Arena. An estimated 18,000 were in attendance, with another 1,000-2,000 stuck in line outside unable to get in, because the arena was already at maximum capacity. Meanwhile, across town, Chelsea Clinton spoke to a handful of undecidededs (as in, their major) at the UTD Student Union.

I Was Once Published in a Magazine

Several years ago, I submitted an entry to CMJ’s New Music Monthly magazine, to be considered for the “Geek Love” column that ran at the end of every issue. Each installment of “Geek Love” was a first-hand account by the writer of his/her first favorite band, one which would typically be very uncool to admit liking. I always found it to be an enjoyable slice of life, and decided I’d like to give it a try, even though they really weren’t officially accepting submissions.

My first attempt was a rather bizarre reminiscence of my Devo devotion. The editor didn’t think it was quite suitable for printing content-wise, but liked my writing style enough to suggest I give it another shot. So, I went even further into the wayback machine and wrote this piece on Grand Funk. My dad had passed away a year or two earlier, and a lot of the emotions I felt at the time were still pretty raw, which becomes evident rather quickly upon reading this piece. I feel kind of bad about that aspect of it, in retrospect, but I can’t go back and change things. Like Todd Rundgren once sang, “Time heals the wounds that no one can see.”

Newspaper Columns I Wrote in College

I spent the majority of one semester in college as the Sports Editor for my campus newspaper.  I recently unearthed three of the columns I wrote, and have posted them here.

10 years since hardliners.com (My first site/blog)

It’s now been 10 years since I first started blogging (though it wasn’t referred to as such back then), and I’ve recently become a bit nostalgic for those days. The website was called hardliners.com (no longer in existence) and was focused entirely on the very popular afternoon drive sports talk show called “The HardLine,” which aired (and still does) on SportsRadio 1310 “The Ticket” (KTCK AM) in Dallas.

There have been some notable changes to the show since then, but co-host Mike Rhyner (actually, call him “Rhynes,” because “Rhyner is dead”) still holds forth every afternoon from 4-7. I loved the show then and still do today. In 1997, I began looking into trying to start an unofficial website dedicated to both that show and the station in general, because they did not really even have an official station website back then. With some tremendous help from Joe Lopez and Mike Boles, we soon were able to launch the site.

Both the passage of time and a hard drive crash have resulted in very little evidence of hardliners.com remaining to chronicle those days, but I was recently able to locate most of my weekly blog entries from back then. One thing about these “columns” as I called them then is they are absolutely jam-packed with jargon and terminology that was prevalent at the station in those days. Unless you listened back then and have a mind like a steel trap, a lot of this is going to seem very incoherent and bizarre taken out of context. But it’s still a fun trip down memory lane for those of us who were there.

So, without further ado, I proudly introduce The “Sideshow Sez” Archives.

Super Tuesday Was Super Fascinating

For the first time in a long, long time, I am absolutely fascinated with the presidential campaign.  As the results poured in to CNN’s Land of 10,000 Plasmas last night, I simply could not turn away.  The Republicans have a fairly interesting three-way battle in progress, but it seems fairly certain that despite the random state upsets by Huckabee and Romney, McCain will eventually emerge as the GOP nominee.  The outcome on the Democratic side is much more difficult to forecast.

Last night, Obama won more states (and not just a couple more) than Hillary, but she won the big ones.  Most surprising to me was the fact that the endorsements of every Kennedy short of the Ouija-ed visage of JFK, Jr. not only failed to give Obama a win in Massachusetts, but didn’t even keep him from being routed.  And perhaps even more shocking was how poorly Obama did with Hispanic and Asian voters, most notably in California, where Hillary also left him in the dust.

I would think Obama and his supporters, while encouraged by his overall showing on Super Tuesday and current neck-and-neck status with Hillary, might be more than just a little worried that the biggest remaining prize - Texas - is largely Hispanic.  It’s difficult to imagine Obama being able to overtake Hillary without winning Texas, and after last night, it’s difficult to imagine him winning Texas…unless they can somehow manage to get the primary date changed to Cinco de Mayo.

Bob’s One-Song Show: Episode #9

Mobile post sent by bobsixtysix using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Album of the Month: Wussy - “Left For Dead”

Rock has seen quite a few bands fronted by male-female duos over the years, but none has truly captured so many of the qualities of their predecessors as Cincinnati’s Wussy. Deftly mixing the unhinged intensity of X with the irreverent quirkiness of Timbuk 3, Wussy’s sound is both familiar and unique all at once. Led by Chuck Cleaver (of the now-defunct Ass Ponys) and Lisa Walker, Wussy’s new album, Left For Dead, is a marked improvement over their 2005 debut, Funeral Dress, which was solid in its own right.

To hear Wussy for yourself, stay tuned for the next episode of Bob’s One-Song Show, which should be online in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here’s my current ranking of 2008 albums to date:

1. Wussy - Left For Dead
2. Hayden - In Field and Town
3. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
4. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
5. Chris Walla - Field Manual
6. Marah - Angels of Destruction
7. Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams
8. Cat Power - Jukebox
9. Nada Surf - Lucky
10. Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash

Finding Long Lost Friends

Last May, I found a childhood friend I hadn’t seen or even spoken to in almost 30 years. I wrote about it on my blog at the time, and have met this friend for lunch a couple of times since. It was such a wonderful experience, that I have made several subsequent attempts to track down other long lost friends from years past. Over the past couple of weeks, I located two, but the results have been perplexingly different.

One of these old friends, while pleasant, has been somewhat brief and even oddly distant in his replies to the e-mails we’ve exchanged since reconnecting. Meanwhile, communication with the other friend has picked up right where it left off, as if we had seen each other only days earlier, instead of many years prior. I’ve been trying to figure out why there has been such a drastic difference in how each of the two responded to my reaching out, but can’t really put my finger on it.

I guess it just has a lot to do with the fact that we all deal with situations differently, not to mention all of the possible variables which may be contributing factors to a certain reaction, such as how good/bad things are going on their end, etc. Anyway, I hope to keep finding friends from my past, even if they don’t all share my level of enthusiasm once they are found.

Point Taken Regarding Heath Ledger

I’ve received several notes from various folks regarding the fact that it has not yet been officially determined whether or not Heath Ledger’s death was the result of a drug overdose, which is true. It will not be until the autopsy results are made public that we will learn exactly what caused his death. I based my “Self-Destructive Celebs” post on what was being reported by multiple media outlets, publications and sources at the time, without taking a moment to realize how much speculation might be taking the place of fact.

So, for those of you who have called me to task, I understand where you are coming from and just wanted to formally acknowledge such here on my blog.

Bob’s One-Song Show: Episode #8

Mobile post sent by bobsixtysix using Utterz. Replies. mp3

B.O.S.S. Tomorrow

I was hoping to get the latest episode of B.O.S.S. posted today, but got too busy to get it finished. Hopefully, I should have it ready to roll tomorrow.

Self-Destructive Celebs

So, Heath Ledger dies of a drug overdose mere days after fellow twentysomething actor Brad Renfro dies of a drug overdose, while twentysomething singer Amy Winehouse managed to squeeze in a how-to video on smoking crack in between those two deaths. Huh…

Not to come off too self-righteous or judgemental or anything, but am I really the only one who’s finding it increasingly harder to drum up any sympathy for these self-destructive celebrities? I mean, if you keep playing with fire, you are eventually going to get burned, if not completely incinerated.

To me, the entirety of the phenomenon is much more tragic than any specific incidents. The really sad thing is these deaths almost always end up being in vain, because nobody ever seems to learn from them. What a shame!

Bob’s One-Song Show: Episode #7

A very special tribute in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Mobile post sent by bobsixtysix using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Kindergarten Pesci

During a family outing to the dog park this afternoon, my five-year-old son shocked us all when he very clearly blurted out the non-acronym version of “WTF??”

My first thought was, “Why in the world would his Kindergarten class be putting on a school play production of GoodFellas?!?” I mean, just because my son’s already the same height as Joe Pesci doesn’t mean he should possess the same vocabulary.

But then, I realized that what really IS advanced is my son’s ability to navigate the Internet beyond the Nick Jr. website. Instead of watching clips of Dora The Explorer counting snakes in the jungle, he’s been watching clips of Samuel L. Jackson cussing at snakes on a plane.

My main concern is that people are going to think I walk around the house screaming expletives at the top of my lungs, because logic generally dictates that when kids do say the darndest things, they pick it up from their parents. Well, as much as I hate to shoot holes in the brilliant theory put forth by Art Linkletter after all those years he spent in the lab, I can promise you that neither me nor my wife are interested in staging our own non-televised version of Lucky Louie.

For now, all we can do is try and redirect both his web surfing habits and dialogue choices. If he’s so intent on quoting Samuel L. Jackson, perhaps we should get him the DVD of Amos & Andrew. Of course, then we’d probably be facing child cruelty charges for forcing him to sit through that dreck, so I guess we need to come up with a better solution.

There’s Plenty of Crimson in Cloverfield

So, last night me and four of my buddies went down to the local googolplex to see just how far out of whack the bang-to-hype ratio for Cloverfield really is. According to the impromptu exit poll I conducted within my own personal focus group upon exiting the theater, I ended up being the only one among us who deemed it worthy of all the pre-release buzz. Never before have I so closely identified with that dentist who refused to recommend Trident gum to his patients.

I think what really bugs me the most about their quadruple thumbs-down is it was based almost completely upon their trumped-up claims of motion sickness resulting from the frenetic hand-held filming. They all cried “Blair Witch” ripoff, which I immediately shot down by virtue of the fact that unlike TBWP, Cloverfield actually DOES have a payoff at the end - and frequently throughout.

And though it will undoubtedly sound perverse, getting to watch vapid overpriviledged twentysomethings flee for their self-important lives added an extra element of thrill to the proceedings for me. This is one of the few times I’ve ever openly rooted for the monster/alien/creature, and I must admit doing so made for a much more liberating filmgoing experience than I’ve enjoyed in quite some time.

The only way this movie could have been better is if it had been an actual documentary starring the Hiltons, Kardashians and Olsens.

Blogged with Flock