Chill But Real

Quigley Article and My Thoughts

2007-07-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

I posted the article -- http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2007/07/article-how-to-destroy-african-american.html and made some basic observations, now my thoughts (note: it probably helps to read the article or have it open in another window):

Step 6: definitely key, create an unsafe environment where even sensible people have no legal means to live or just survive. Then portray good folks who are just trying to survive as uncivilized. Then allow criminals to take over the city and get outraged when criminals do things criminals do.

Step 8: ain’t that a b….

Step 10: make it appear that government dependents are the only ones getting FEMA money. There were a lot of white and black folks with big houses and hefty savings accounts who got money. Hell, there were even out-of-state trust fund Tulane and Loyola kids who go hooked up from FEMA (fyi…not saying all Tulane and Loyola undergrad are out-of-state trust fund kids, just some, well maybe most)

Step 13: of course this was due to the locality of flooding and levee breaches, but when you see folks back home with electric and water while there are roadblocks in front your hood, that does something to you.

Step 14: I actually think Blanco did a decent job in the immediately hours, days, and weeks after the storm. However Road Home and LRA is all her fault. That’s the reason why Jindal would have destroyed her had she tried to see re-election (fyi…not saying Jindal is a lock to become governor, but Blanco couldn’t beat him)

Step 15 & 17: I don’t know, as of today New Orleans has something like 35 different school systems presiding over 50 schools (just my estimates). Public education in the city was generally horrible before Katrina, only way to go is up. A la Richard Pryor I gotta ask, “which way is up?”, charter schools? The state (of Louisiana) taking over the schools?

Step 19: need to add change zoning ordinances to prohibit multi-family housing

Step 20: the lack of adequate public transport amazes me. No, dawdling, slow, streetcars don’t count as adequate.

Step 22: still wondering (along with a number of people and the courts) is this is even legal?

Step 25: never though of this before but definitely right on

Step 28: boy this one hurts bad because I’ve had some involvement with a few of these processes and plans. You hope planners are making things better. You hope?

Step 32: New Orleans is a city defined by its legacy of race.

Just my thoughts.

Article: How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty-Three Steps - Lessons From Katrina

2007-07-12T18:45:00.000-05:00

I know this article is two weeks old; however I believe it provides depth and perspective respecting this post-Katrina city where I reside.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907N.shtml

Just a few initial thoughts; First, I had to think for a second whether New Orleans is truly an African-American city. Demographically, New Orleans was close to 65% black before the storm; best recent estimates I’ve heard currently place the figure around 50% (although it seemed about 90% last week during the wonderful homecoming of the Essence Festival). But is that enough to categorically identify New Orleans as an African-American city? Does having a black mayor give you bonus points? By the same definition is Los Angeles a Hispanic-American city since Hispanics make up the largest segment of the population and the mayor is also Hispanic? I don’t know, but its splitting hairs so let me get on.

I just don’t understand why there seems to be no true sense of urgency in dealing with the aftermath of Katrina and the widespread levee failures which lead to most of the devastation in the city. Blame it on the president, governor, mayor, our increasing shady congressional delegation, whomever; it’s amazingly frustrating to see the lack of governmental progress. I say this all the freakin time - In my opinion almost every bit of progress that has been made in New Orleans since Katrina is due to the efforts of grassroots organizations, local neighborhood groups, non-profits, philanthropic foundations, non-local volunteers (especially students), and hardworking resident of New Orleans who returned no matter what challenges awaited them.

I always have more to say, but definitely read the article first.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907N.shtml

On Homers, Ken Griffey and Talking Heads

2007-07-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar07/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2932438

Admitidly I'm not a huge baseball guy. I watch it every now and again. I've become more of a fan since I've moved to baseball towns (Kansas City and now Atlanta). So I watched a bit of the Home Run Derby Monday night and some of the All Star Game last night. Here are my thoughts:

Home Run Derby: Gets pretty monotonous after the first 30 minutes of a 3 hour competition that should really only last about an hour or so. Vlad Guerrero was awesome, but by the end of the Finals it's always a let down. The other guy Reyes jusrt ran out of gas. Plus ESPN showing Vlad's boys as much as they show Eva Longorio at a Spurs game wasn't cool at all...at least Eva's cuter. They need to do something about that.

Griffey: Really glad to see Griffey playing well again. I don't care what anyone says. He's my all-time favorite baseball player and probably would have been the best to play this game if not for bad luck and awful Reds teams.

Talking Heads: I don't like Joe Buck in the first place. I think he's full of himself and seems to bring his personal feelings into his commentary too much. But he was ok last night. I just wish that for one night they would have remained silent on steroids. We get it. Steroids were a big part of the late 90's and early 00's. We understand Bonds might have used along with tons of other guys. There was no need to rehash an already overplayed story. Let the All-Star game be about the players and leave the Roids out of it.

Just my Thoughts.

Supreme Court Blues

2007-06-28T11:35:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/28/scotus.race/index.html ... i.e. "diversity ain't cool"

Obviously I don't agree with the decision but I won't comment further on the case because I need to find out more information. But I don't have the blues b/c of the case, this quote from the brother you love to hate is what gave me the blues today:

And [Justice Clarence] Thomas said, "Simply putting students together under the same roof does not necessarily mean that the students will learn together or even interact. Furthermore, it is unclear whether increased interracial contact improves racial attitudes and relations."

What does improve racial attitudes and relations, maybe watching enough "reality tv"? This just makes me feel sad.

Scared in the NBA

2007-03-01T17:32:00.000-06:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2783624

I'm about a week late writing on this but I can't just let it go. This is getting ridiculous. If you listen to these NBA cats you might think post-Katrina New Orleans is being run by Tony Montoya, Nino Brown, Marcellous Wallace, and that Brad Pitt character from Fight Club. Now there are some legitimate concerns about New Orleans hosting NBA all-star weekend next year. But those concerns are economically, politically, and socially linked to the (in)effectiveness of the ongoing recovery effort, not the safety of NBA ballers. New Orleans has never had trouble policing people coming into the city for major events and policing the major tourist areas (CBD, French Quarter, St. Charles Ave, etc). Mardi Gras, Jazzfest, NFL playoff games, Sugar Bowl, these are huge, nationally attended events. Furthermore the Essence Festival (coming back the summer) and the Bayou Classic (back last fall) are black urban showcase events with somewhat similar clientele to that of all star weekend. And I’ve not heard one complaint from visitors feeling unsafe. Now some visitors are shocked when they see certain areas of the city that lie untouched since Katrina, but that’s another issue.

Any safety issues in the city are related to the premise that New Orleans can't seem to figure out how to deal with people already living in certain areas of the city and undertaking certain criminal behaviors. But it was like that pre-Katrina also. And every city has its marginalized areas where most crime occurs. But again I doubt you'll see too many all-star parties in Central City so visitors coming to the city should have few worries.

There are other issues in play, the demonification (I made that word up) of hip-hop culture, race issues, even NBA league issues. But to suggest that New Orleans can’t handle this event because the city is inherently unsafe is ignorant. I mean I could understand if all-star weekend was in hurricane season…….

Yes New Orleans has crime. So does LA, Vegas, NYC, Boston, Miami, etc. Grow up, come visit first before making off- the-cuff judgments and most of all leave Pacman Jones at home next year.

Misdemeanor Murder

2007-02-08T17:16:00.000-06:00

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1170920125129720.xml&coll=1

That’s pretty much what it seems like right now, Misdemeanor Murder. Yep, fits right in with crimes like public intoxication, disturbing the peace, and interfering with a police investigation. But at least they can issue bench warrants for those crimes if you don’t pay the fine, with murder the odds are in your favorite for receiving a free pass.

This is crazy. According to this graphic from the Times-Picayune (not always the most accurate newspaper to be fair, but I assume this has to be at least somewhat legit), 162 people were killed in my current city of residence last year. I’m not worried about the 2 trials and 1 conviction right now, I’m sure some murder cases take a while to make trial. But only 47 arrests, that’s just stupid. Is it the police force, the DA’s office, the mayor, FEMA, I need someone to blame. So if my logic is right....if you want to kill someone in New Orleans you better watch your back, not for the police, but for somebody to roll up on you and “clear you by exception”.

I live in a pretty safe area and also understand that murders are highly correlated to certain illicit activities and behavioral patterns, so it’s not on my mind every second of the day. But I’m not gonna lie, I check to make sure my car doors are locked and always glace over my shoulder when getting out. Just to be safe, you know.

Along the same lines I don’t even know what to say about this.

Teen shot to death after mom tells son to seek revenge

WHO DAT!

2007-01-19T16:46:00.000-06:00

Yeah its been a long time, but I just gotta say it:

WHO DAT say they gonna beat them Saints!!!!

Been following the Black and Gold a long time, don’t let me down now.

Commentary on Pac and Biggie

2006-10-11T10:57:00.000-05:00

I've been reading after this guy for awhile, here is a good reason why:

How Long Will They Mourn Me?

What's New

2006-10-10T19:20:00.000-05:00

I need to get back on this blogger thing, got so much to do and talk about, just not enough time to get it all in. So:

Work is good, grad school is busy, but fun.
Watching LSU screw up all over the field and give a game away on Saturday was not fun.
What’s happening to my Jags, I leave BR and they lose to Prairie View and others. At least from what I hear the Human Jukebox has more members now and is better than ever.
Family gatherings are a lot of fun, even with a crazy family. Too bad as you get older they seem to occur less and less.
New Orleans is still a tale of two cities, where I live really cool, other places not so cool. Speaking of the city, I’ve attended a decent number of planning meetings since I’ve been here. My conclusion, a lot of people are investing a lot of time and effort into rebuilding, but it has to start at the top. And that is where the problem is, a lot of the neighborhoods have their stuff together. Speaking of those at the top………
Nagin (don’t get mad, I would still vote for the man today and I’m willing to give him a chance) I know you gotta play the political game, “you help me, I help you”, that sorta thing, but endorsing Dollar Bill, I just don’t know.
In Jefferson’s defense, he has done a lot of great things for New Orleans, he hasn’t been charged yet, and there was a lot of craziness surrounding the search of his office. But the fridge, the fridge, I just can’t get over all that cash in the fridge. But what do I know, not as much as I think, and I find this out daily.

Let's Go Saints

2006-09-25T12:50:00.000-05:00

I've been a Saints fan forever but I said I wouldn't let the game get to me, I mean its just football, and I'm not really even from New Orleans, and I got class so I'm not even going to the dome tonight, I mean I got thru August 29th ok. But if people feel like I do right now the tears will be flowing tonight.

This is a great read:
Michael Smith ESPN Article

I couldn't find any pictures from the last Saints game in the dome (sometime in 2004) I went to, but this is still one of my favorite all time pics, only in the dome do brass bands roam the halls.

I Know Some Incredible People

2006-09-13T21:11:00.000-05:00

While running this afternoon I saw a three-legged dog. No lie, but that is all I got for today. A few of you (that’s all who reads this) have let me know I should update my blog more often. But this brother’s been hella busy the past few weeks. I’m gonna get back on it soon, I promise.

Until then if you want something awesome to read check out the blog of my friends, Tamara and Laura; we were in the same LSU Ambassador class and did all kinds of stuff in the good ole days (campus leadership and service, Slinky's, The Chimes way too much, etc, etc). Now they are both medical doctors who just left for Africa to work with AIDS patients. You gotta read their story, I’m not sure if I’ve ever been more proud of any of my friends. I also added the blog to links sections.

http://blogs.chron.com/intoafrica/

Katrina, I tried to forget about you.......

2006-08-29T16:44:00.000-05:00

So it’s been a year, huh. At least for me I don’t quite know how to feel, I could barely get anything done at work today and I’m not sure how I’ll pay attention in class. Just to compare and contrast, on August 29, 2005 I was living in Baton Rouge, working for a large telecommunications company, undecided about going back to school, getting ready for football season, and sleeping most of that day because you really can’t do much without electricity. Oh, also believing the news reports I saw early that morning that New Orleans would be ok.

On August 29th of this year I’m now an Uptown New Orleans resident, working for one of the coolest non-profits in the city, matriculating in a remarkable graduate program that will give me the chance to work hands-on in the rebuilding effort, waiting to see Reggie Bush play in the Superdome, and generally thankful for the opportunities I’m blessed to have.

I would like to think I’m in a better position now than one year ago. I understand most residents of New Orleans cannot say that today. Hopefully I can help to change things so that next year more people can look back and say things are better than they were a year ago.

Katrina, I tried to forget you, but it hasn’t quite worked out yet.

Things I wrote about Katrina last year

2006-08-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

If only I knew what was coming. Or maybe better said if only I knew how crappy those FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LEEVES were.

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/hurricane-katrina.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/louisiana-hurricane-season-notes.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/we-survived-katrina.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/09/keeping-things-in-perspective.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/09/letting-it-out.html

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/09/report-from-new-orleans.html

Football Time

2006-08-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

Almost time for football again. Just to reminisce:

http://chillbutreal.blogspot.com/2005/08/its-football-season-lets-go-crazy.html

I Get Around

2006-08-21T16:44:00.000-05:00

It’s been awhile but I’m back at it. In the past three weeks I’ve left one job after 4 and half years, started a new job, moved to a new city, an in about one hour I’m starting grad school. Now I’ve done all of the above at one time or another in my life, but never in a time frame of three weeks. Needless to say life is busy.

I still consider myself very blessed. For one thing my new job is awesome. It is almost the total opposite of my previous hustle, before I was working for a big company with hundreds of other employees. Now I’m working for a small non-profit with only 6 other employees. I used to have a 50 mile roundtrip to work, now it's about 7 miles. At my old job the emphasis though not directly stated was “don’t do anything to lose us money or customers, or get use sued.” Now it’s more like let's try and do things to help people and do good things. I don’t have any truly bad memories from my old job, I just like this better.

As for moving there is a lot to say and at the same time not a lot to say. I just moved to a city that was nearly completely mowed down by Hurricane Katrina almost one year ago. I got a decent spot to live at a great price in a good area, but even where I live the evidence of the storm (now that I’ve moved people here don’t say the name much anymore, just the storm or other more derogatory terms) is everywhere and still overwhelming.

And school, and school, and school. Mainly I’m excited to be in a cool grad program. It’s really crazy to think 10 or so years ago I was just starting college out of high school, trying to walk around campus all cool and chill, you know impress some ladies. Man now I get out of my car and I all I care about is getting out of the freaking sun and South Louisiana heat. My how things change.

Rising Tide NOLA Conference - New Orleans

2006-07-25T10:09:00.000-05:00

http://thinknola.com/wiki/Rising_Tide_Conference

From the website:

August 25-27, 2006, there will be a convention for all people who care about New Orleans.

The Rising Tide Conference will be a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita). We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a "real life" demonstration of internet activism as the nation prepares to mark the one year anniversary of a massive natural disaster followed by governmental failures on a similar scale

I’m really digging this conference and since I’ll be a New Orleans resident in a few weeks I definitely want to check this out. Another plus, these guys and gals even had the great foresight to schedule the event before LSU football season starts. Ok that might not have been a consideration but still the timing works out great. I look forward to meeting a few of these people and hopefully hearing progressive ideas for the city of New Orleans. More on my move later.

Tiger You Had Me Tearing

2006-07-24T14:19:00.000-05:00

Yeah Tiger you had me tearing too.

I walked in the house a little after 12, just getting home from a good Sunday morning church service and turned on the TV just in time to catch Tiger Woods teeing off from the 18th hole of the British Open with a 2 shot lead. Now any non-Tiger related golf tournament I’ll rarely watch, mainly cause I’m just not a TV golf fan. In fact I’m barely a playing golf fan although maybe that will change the first time I ever break 100 over 18 holes. But anyhow the inevitable happens, Tiger wins, and all is good in the world. But then my man started to cry, actually it was past crying, he was sobbing. And I understood why, I can’t say I knew how he felt, but I could understand why. I’m still blessed to have a living father, sometimes I don’t realize how much of a blessing this really is.

I can’t imagine how Tiger felt after winning yesterday, but I would imagine he would give back all of the $60 million he has earned in his career to share it with pops.

When Educated Folks Go Off On Hip-Hop

2006-07-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

I’ve seen this article floating around the web for about two weeks now. I feel the need to comment because I can, and also because he referenced Paul Lawrence Dunbar who was an amazing brother. Check him out, I've enjoyed almost every work of his I’ve read over the years.

I will qualify my remarks by noting that I’m an old-school hip-hop head that has been retired for a while now. I haven’t watched a music video on MTV or BET in years, rarely listen to Urban radio, and I probably can’t identify more than 2 or 3 songs on the Billboard Top 10 Rap Chart. Also I used the word “Nigga” in conversation like 3 times a year. So maybe my comments on current hip-hop artist might not be the most relevant unless we’re talking about the likes of The Roots or Outkast. Anyway my thoughts…

While a powerful read I don’t believe we can blame rappers for all of the nihilism in black communities today. Not to underestimate the influence of music (this would be an injustice to songs like Billy Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”) but most music is made to titillate and entertain which I really got no problem with. I’m all for musicians who take on a mantle of social responsibility in our neglected communities, but if Luda or Ice Cube is the best black American got to speak for us we have some inherently deeper issues to confront. I hope we ain’t waiting for a rapper to lead the revolution. That being said………..

I must admit Dr. Cobb brings it hard and heavy with his assessment of many of the so-called gangsta rappers of today and their attitudes. I love this part:

Of all their claims, the charge that Oprah sold out to win points with
her white audience is the most tragically laughable. The truth is that
her audience's white middle-class kids exert waaay more influence over
50 and Cube than their parents do over Oprah. I long ago tired of
Cube, a thirty-something successful director, entrepreneur and married
father of three children making records about his aged recollections
of a thug's life. The gangsta theme went cliché eons ago, but Cube, 50
and a whole array of their musical peers lack either the freedom or
the vision to talk about any broader element of our lives. The reality
is that the major labels and their majority white fan base will not
accept anything else from them.

Just read the whole thing. Should make you think a little.

ARTICLE

Voices

2006-07-11T13:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I ran the 4 mile loop around the lake near LSU, starting and finishing at the Baton Rouge Beach. Now this is a beach in name only which is a shame considering the lake boarders campus. However, if I was in charge of LSU I would turn all of sorority row into general student housing, tear up the road running in front of the sorority houses, and turn that entire area into a sandy beach for general student use. Of course if anyone tried this they would be probably be assassinated by a sniper team composed of angry Tri-Delts, DZ’s, Chi-O’s, and Kappa Kappa Gammas. If I learned anything from my student government days at LSU it was not to F… with the sororities. Anyway, I had an average run though way slower than I planned for 2 reasons. First, a little more than 2 miles into the run I ran into an old friend from college I had not seen in years walking the other way. She was actually an old girlfriend of one of my good friends. We chatted for about 5 minutes then headed our separate ways. Second, about a mile later I spent almost 3 minutes stretching and trying to pound out a massive cramp in my left quadriceps.

Anyhow I finished, stretched a little more, then headed back to my car when I heard this voice from a distance, an unmistakable voice I hadn’t heard in years but I recognized it right away.

Digressing for a second, it’s amazing to me how a human being can identify another individual human being just by the sound of their voice. Of course family and close friends are easy to identify most of the time, as well as those with distinctive voices. I imagine if I was walking down the street and heard Barry White singing behind me I would recognize his voice almost immediately. Of course if it was actually Barry White I would then take off running the other way (or maybe join in if he was singing My First, My Last, My Everything, that’s an all-time jam). And I have a few professors whose voices I could probably identify too.

Anyway this voice I heard belonged to one of my old high school track coaches. He works at another school now and had some of his runners out at the beach for practice. I went and spoke for a few minutes, exchanged normal pleasantries, etc. I’ll always remember his voice as well as the voices of my other two other coaches from high school, the most palpable explanation being when someone yells at you for an hour each day its hard to forgot their voices. Coach had aged and looked different, but even if he underwent a Michael Jackson level physical transformation I would always be able to recognize that voice.

How Cool Is This Video

2006-07-04T10:38:00.000-05:00

Enough about Jazzfest I know, but during Lionel Richie’s set he broke out with this song; I knew the Commodores sang it but I hadn’t heard it in a long time. For some reason it was one of my favorite songs as a little kid. Well I had never seen the video until now but thanks to youtube my destiny has been fulfilled. Watching the video reminds me of looking at college pictures of my mom and dad. Also I love soccer, but where did that come from? Wow again. Youtube is awesome; I’m actually hoping they block it at my job so I can get work done.

The Commodores - Lady (You Bring Me Up) - 1981

Why Me?

2006-06-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

Intro: Last Thursday I planned on going to a Jazz concert at my alma mater with this really cool girl I’ve been seeing, however she found out early that afternoon she would have to work late and wouldn’t get off in time to make the concert. I almost decided to stay home and watch game 1 of the NBA Finals, however since I already had tickets I decided to go to the show. After trying for a quick minute to contact a few friends to see if anyone wanted the other ticket finally I just decided to leave it at the box office for some lucky random jazz-loving soul.

I arrive about 20 minutes prior to the concert, pick up my ticket and leave the extra one at the box office. Now the fun begins…..seating is general admission and the place is already packed with old, mostly very wealthy, white folks. Now I did expect the crowd to be older and whiter than let’s say a Showtime at the Apollo crowd so I’m not too surprised. But there is something slightly disconcerting about being in a room with 300 old, rich, white dudes (OWD) and ladies (OWL) and like 5 (counting the drummer) black folks, plus another brother who was probably just a student worker taking tickets at the door. After checking out the room I find two seats on the end of last row of the middle section. I ask an OWD if the two seats are available, they are so I sit down leaving one empty isle seat beside me. A few minutes later some other old couple walks up and starts talking to the old couple sitting beside me. I guess the two couples want to sit together cause OWD beside me decides to ask if I would mind moving to an empty seat (which did have a much better view) two rows in front. I’m naturally a pretty nice and laid back brother by nature, but I’m also in no mood to get up and change seats. However I think my mind is clouded from being around all those old, rich, white folks because after a few seconds I made sure the seat was unused, then against my better judgement decide to move. So here’s where it gets all (the more) gully. I’m maneuvering to the middle of row to the empty seat, of course saying excuse me as I walk past people. As I past one OWD I hear him say out loud I guess to his wife or whoever wes sitting beside him, “Oh that is the guy that was working at the door, I guess he is coming to watch the show to.”

Now I’ve learned from experience at times you gotta let some inappropriate s..t people say slide, but I’m not feeling that at the moment. My most immediate realization is that OWD is sitting at the perfect height for me to put a Nintendo Double Dragon “Knee Drop” right on his head. In case you don’t know......

To jump and give a powerful knee kick at the same time, wait until the precise moment you've landed from a jump or just as you're getting up from a fall. Then immediately push the CONTROL PAD ARROW in the same direction as the enemy, and press both ATTACK BUTTONS simultaneously.

Well I make a split second decision the knee drop is probably not the most effective way to deal with the situation considering my surroundings. So without stopping or even looking at ole boy I said to him, “No, I brought a ticket and I’m here for the concert.” Then I took my seat, by then in a pretty foul mood and trying my best not to shoot murderous looks at everyone else there. Now you would think all the other white folks would see this brother looking really mad (I guess I don’t pull that look off really well) and leave me alone. But no, during the rest of the short wait before the concert and during intermission people are asking me questions, I assume trying to be nice but I’m not in the mood (note: real question but not my real answers, just what I felt like saying):

ORWL #1: Have you seen any of these performers before?
ME: Yeah and they are pretty good, but you know in the past month I’ve seen Tone Loc and Big Daddy Kane in concert, heard of them before?

ORWL #2: Where did you get that shirt, it’s best looking shirt here?
ME: You cause all these OWD’s can’t dress worth a damn.

ORWL #1: Are you a musician too?
ME: Yes, but I stopping playing the viola in 9th grade to concentrate on my budding gangsta rap career (one part of the statement is actually true).

ORWL #2: The lady can really sing, don’t you think?
ME: Yes, but if I was up there I could sing and dance for you too, got any blackface?

So yeah I was not really cool with my surroundings but thankfully the music was good enough where I could focus on that; the cat on the tenor sax was blowing hard, the pianist looked kinda goofy but he could play, string bass was laying some tight grooves, and the drummer was off the chain. After the first song the vocalist, a rather physically and vocally stunning woman, came out and they performed well together. Even after the comment and all the questions I didn’t feel like answering I ended up enjoying a good show. If I’m listening to jazz I like it upbeat and slightly funky which encompassed many of their musical selections. They also played some Duke Ellington and Count Bassie and they ended the concert with an amazing second line style version of Sweet Georgia Brown.

Overall impressions, yeah I was pissed but the music was ok. I would love to go back to one of the Philip Manuel concert in July. Just gotta get all my boys to ride out there with me, I’m bringing a posse next time.

The Great Chocolate Hope

2006-05-22T15:18:00.000-05:00

It’s not what I want to write about but earlier today I saw CNN Headline News running a story about New Orleans with the following byline, “Levee System Full of Holes?” Again, tell me something I don’t f..... know.

Now on to business; I’ve officially given up trying to figure out elections in Louisiana. Over the past 2 months I had the chance to solicit thoughts from various people about the New Orleans mayoral election. Almost to a person (male, female, liberal, conservative, criminal, musician, professional athlete, etc.) everyone told me Ray-Ray was doomed. The Chocolate City speech would do him in. Just to recap....

"I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be."

Well I thought he pissed off too many people like my friend Scott who happens to be a white Uptown homeowner to win. But lo and freakin behold on Saturday Ray Nagin defeated Mitch Landrieu to win a second term as mayor. I’m still not sure how exactly he won; maybe God liked the Chocolate City speech better than most? The most common explanation I’ve heard was the great support Nagin drew from the black community and a high number of “crossover” voters, crossover in this race apparently meaning white folks who have a strong dislike for any member of the Landrieu family running for public office.

But all and all it fits in perfectly with many of the crazy and altogether unpredictable Louisiana elections I’ve witnessed. KKK man David Duke hung around for way too long, getting over 40% of the vote in a 1990 U.S. senate race and almost 40% in his 1991 attempt to become governor. There were the two Mary Landrieu senate races in which the Democrats worked their New Orleans “vote farm” to perfection. And how can I forget the 2003 governor’s race where Kathleen Blanco defeated my fellow Baton Rouge High School alum “Bobby” Jindal. It’s amazing how many conservative white folks I heard complain about other conservative white folks who wouldn’t vote for Jindal because he has some “dark skin” or because they thought be looking like a Middle Eastern friend of that Osama guy. I found this long, but very good commentary on that election.....

So briefly back to Nagin, congrats on the great win. Dude I wish you all the best, you’re gonna need it.

I'm Mad

2006-05-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

You probably couldn’t tell by looking at me cause I’m generally smiling but I’m mad; mad at the government (aka GW), mad at the world, but mainly mad at myself. The primary basis for my state of being is the city of New Orleans and the post-Katrina landscape of devastation. I mean I’ve been in the city at least 10 times, probably closer to 15 or 20 times since the storm and it’s still crazy. While riding with my college buddy KP heading to Jazzfest from the airport around noon Saturday a few weeks ago I observed how normal everything looked from the interstate. Of course when you leave the relative sanctity of the freeway and move into the neighborhoods the world changes quickly. It’s still ugly in a lot of places, I could be more descriptive, but ugly is an adjective that will have to suffice for today.

Maybe I’m just upset it doesn’t burn me up inside anymore. Like I’ve come to expect that it’s normal to see a city block with only 3 houses occupied. Like it’s normal to drive and not be able to see the sidewalks due to trash and debris. Like it’s normal to avoid side streets full of roofing nails and super-size potholes. Like it’s normal to drive down major thoroughfares and not see street signs or working stoplights. Like it’s normal to drive in large city after dark and not see any open restaurants, gas stations, or liquor stores on major streets. Like it’s becoming normal, that’s what pisses me off. Like uptown is referred to as an area of town that’s back to normal but you know what it was before and you see what it is now and you still can’t quite believe how everything went down. I’m also mad Slick Rick didn’t show up for his Jazzfest set but I can live with that. However it’s getting harder and harder to live with what I’ve seen in New Orleans. Like its ok that mostly white and affluent Lakeview is being put back together again while mostly black and working class 9th Ward still looks like a nuclear test zone.

Maybe Mitch (Landrieu) will make it better, not saying I would vote for him but enough people with enough money who didn’t have to go halfway across the country after Katrina will vote for him that he should have no problem winning. I actually like Mitch, but if we gave Bush as second term after he screwed up Iraq why can’t Nagin get a 2nd chance after his chocolate city remarks. Of course it won’t really matter who the mayor is till they fix the levees. Maybe I’m also just mad I got back to my car on the last Sunday of Jazzfest and found a parking ticket on my windshield. Maybe I’m just mad cause for most current residents of New Orleans getting a parking ticket in the city would be least of their worries.

I needed to write this. I feel like I didn’t write it well, but it’s done.

A Glorious Weekend

2006-05-08T10:47:00.000-05:00

This morning I was listening to NPR while driving to work when they aired a short piece on Jazzfest. I got chills just hearing them talk about it, in fact if I was one of those emotional-type dudes I woulda probably shed a tear or two. Needless to say it was an amazing weekend in the Big Easy.

It felt good enjoying 30+ hours of music in two days on 4 hours of sleep. Of course work today doesn’t feel so nice, but I’ll recover. Like I said before having Jazzfest doesn’t mean the city is back but it does mean the spirit and music of New Orleans will never leave.

Now I get to spend all day reminiscing about the fest and checking MSN’s Jazzfest video for some of the great acts I missed. Thanks to all my friends who helped to make the past weekend a lot of fun. Can’t say yet what was the best act I witnessed the past weekend, I mean Robert Randolph got his steel slide guitar boogie on, the Ohio Players dooled out some serious old school funk, Jimmy Buffett was Jimmy Buffett, saw some good gospel, Big Daddy Kane was hot, Nicole Ritchie’s pops blew the place up, plus I can’t forget all the great Jazz, Blues, Brass and Zydeco I heard. Gonna have to get back to that question later.

More Pictures:
Saturday, May 6th
Sunday, May 7th

Jazzfest In This Post-Katrina World

2006-05-02T16:05:00.000-05:00

I had an amazing time at Jazzfest on Saturday. Saw some great Jazz, Gospel, Latin, Blues, Funk, Zydeco, and Brass music. Hugh Masekela played an amazing set. Etta James rocked the house. Got pictures of Juvenile’s tour bus. Just a good day all around.

Jazzfest Album 1
Jazzfest Album 2

I do have one concern; Jazzfest seems to be getting a lot of well deserved national attention this year. I’m glad this is happening and I’m glad the lineup has some great “non-New Orleans” acts like Dave Matthews, Paul Simon, Springsteen, Buffet, etc., along with many great local artists. However I’m just slightly afraid some people will witness the headlines and assume New Orleans is back to normal. All one has to do is walk in the neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds to see this is not the case at all. For me Jazzfest did supply a period of Big Easy enjoyment and normalcy, but it’s still not quite the same. Now I don’t agree with those who argue Jazzfest shouldn’t happen until the city gets back together, those people are stupid (for lack of a better term). New Orleans as a city has always supported itself by providing entertainment for locals and visitors alike. Many locals need Jazzfest to provide a financial boost and nearly all the profit from the festival stay in New Orleans. I’m even paying $10 extra to buy tickets at the gate for each of the 3 days I’ll attend because I want the fest to do well and I would rather not give Ticketmaster any extra money. Despite being only 80 miles away I find myself sometimes thinking things are almost back to normal. However each time I venture down I-10 I realize how much remaining devastation there is in and around New Orleans. Done preaching, I had a great time Saturday, can’t wait to go back down this Saturday and Sunday.

Jazzfest Plans for Saturday

2006-04-27T15:01:00.000-05:00

I will be making an appearance at Jazzfest this Saturday (April 29th), next Saturday (May 6th), and Sunday (May 7th). I always try and put together a good plan about all the acts I definitely want to see each day. These things are never set in stone and always change, but for this weekend:

April 29th, 2006 -- see MY CUBES for list of acts

8:00am (maybe)
Leave Baton Rouge between 8 and 9 in the morning, depending on the time stop and eat a big breakfast consisting of grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and coffee at Kelly’s Bakery in Gonzales. Hopefully arrive in New Orleans between 10 and 11, find a parking spot, head towards the fairgrounds.

11:00 – 11:30
Enter the fairgrounds, find a spot in the Congo Square area not too close to the stage but near the marketplace booths, throw down a blanket, chill.

11:30 - 1:30ish
Relax, maybe take a nap, enjoy the music on the Congo Square stage, attempt to locate various friends, maybe grab a bite to eat and walk around for a while.

1:45
Head to Acura stage to check out Galactic for about 25 minutes.

2:30
Arrive at gospel tent, enjoy the Lighthouse Gospel Singers.

3:20
Stop by Jazz tent for about 20 minutes, hear end of Jhelisa’s Tribute to Nina Simone.

3:40 – 4:15
Chill for a bit, reconnect with friends if possible, grab some eats and a cup of Strawberry Lemonade, depending on how I feel check out The Subdudes at the Acura stage, head back to Congo Square.

4:15
Hugh Masekala on Congo Square stage

5:30
Head to the SoCo Blues stage and see Etta James…notice no Dave Matthews Band (seen DMB before at Jazzfest, too crowded and too much of a frat boy crowd for me) or Juvenile (5 years and 400 Degreez ago I would have been there with my “Solja Rag”, now I would rather hear Etta).

7:00 – until late
Leave fairgrounds, find some good eats somewhere in the city, at some point head to my friends crib, change and shower, go out in the quarter for awhile.

Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz

2006-04-25T13:48:00.000-05:00

Don’t know why I chose that A Tribe Called Quest lyric for the title of this post, I guess it just sounds cool, at least to me. It’s been awhile since I’ve hit up this blog thing. Since I posted last:

Gas has gone wild....I almost spent $30 filling up my Honda Civic the other day. That just ain’t right.

Despite more than half of the citizens being displaced New Orleans had some elections....the mayoral run-off should be quit an interesting event.

Got some more clarity on the Grad School issue, I think….

I’m playing softball again, this time on two teams, one Men’s league, the other Co-ed. Our men’s team is really good this year (Praise the Lord), and while the co-ed team hasn’t been as successful on the field we have an enjoyable time when we play and that’s the most important thing....right. Another good thing about the co-ed team, (guy moment coming up here) we have by far the hottest women in the entire league on our team, absolutely by far.

Live After Five finally re-commenced in downtown Baton Rouge. They had a very impressive Cajun band last Friday. I tried to Cajun dance, it’s not really hard but it ain’t really easy. I would still much rather try Cajun dancing than do that retarded “Laffy Taffy” dance.

On Easter Saturday I joined about 17,000 other people for the Crescent City Classic 10K. It was a pleasant day, kinda humid, a little hot, but still relatively good running weather. The course route was awesome…start at Jackson Square, then to Poydras, back to Rampart around the edge of the French Quarter, then all the way to City Park on Esplanade and a great post-race party in Tad Gormley Stadium. Didn’t run really fast but didn’t really care, I had a great time. Next year I’m thinking I may actually train and try to finish in the top 500 which generally means running about 45 or 46 minutes. That’s not exactly blazing (especially compared to the Kenyans who normally win these things) but still a very decent pace. Physically I’m capable and I’ve run that fast before, whether I’m willing to put in the extra work to get in that type of shape remains unknown.

Extremely overpriced race picture, trust me I may look it but I’m not going that fast…..

Jazzfest starts up this weekend…I’m ready to party.

The Final Four, Time to Second Line!

2006-03-30T13:01:00.000-06:00

I’m not sure how I made it all the way to Thursday without writing about the LSU Tigers men’s and women’s basketball teams making it to their respective Final Fours. Back in undergrad I was a basketball nut. I even skipped multiple days of class to take road trips for basketball games and the SEC tournament. Even during the late 90’s-Lester Earl induced NCAA probation years I went to most of the games. Some of those teams had so little talent the best intramural teams on campus could have hung with them. But John Brady’s teams eventually improved, made NCAA tourneys, and blew up this year. However this was the first season since probably middle school I didn’t attend at least one men’s (or women’s) basketball game. I was too busy, too tired, too worn out from football season, too much dealing with post-Katrina stuff traffic jams, too much other stuff going on, and all those good excuses. Boy did I miss out. Since a lot of the men’s and women’s games were televised and I still followed both teams closely thru the media and internet, but I never saw them in person. In my defense I did pick both teams to win the national title.

This season has been so extraordinary especially for the men’s team (everyone expected great things from Semoine and the women). See I feel like I know these dudes. Sure I’ve balled with a few of them in the rec before, but I don’t really know them except for Garrett Temple (an NCAA version of Bruce Bowen on D). I would see Garrett Temple 10 years ago as a little homie in the rec shooting but I actually know his dad (who figured into this championship run way before John Brady came in the picture - story), and his older brother, former LSU player Collis Temple III (btw with his defense and ball handling if Garrett could get close to his brothers career averages of 10+ ppg and 37% from 3 pt range he would have an NBA shot) much better than I do him. For one thing growing up in the same city makes it much easier to identify with these players. Also I enjoy the way they play. Unlike some of Brady’s earlier teams this team seems to enjoy playing the game. An even with only 1 senior on the team, for lack of a better word, the play “cool”.

Watching the women beat Stanford Monday evening was awesome. Watching the men beat Texas Saturday afternoon was amazing. As soon as the game was over I left to go to a Mary Mary/Kirk Franklin concert at Southern so I missed the post game party. From what I read and saw later I missed one of the best second line performances I’ll ever see, well at least until Jazzfest next month. Wait, I’m gonna take back that statement, I hope to see an encore performance Monday night and Tuesday night. Good luck Tigers, I wish I could be in Indy and Boston, make it a great weekend for me. As the song says....Do What Ya Wanna (fyi, I love the LSU Band but they can’t blow it like Rebirth). And Big Baby, do ya thing, I’ll be second lining with you (minus the yellow boa though, don’t know if I can rock that).

My First Adventure Race

2006-03-22T11:56:00.000-06:00

My best investment for this race was a pair of $15 socks. And that’s all you really need to know.

Picture Album

But if you want more (sorry this is so long, I got kinda carried away):
Saturday morning I woke up at 6:20 which was about 20 minutes later than I planned. No biggie, I showered, got dressed, picked up Lauren (just going as a spectator, she was supposed to be our navigator but she had a hairline fracture in her foot), stopped to buy a tarp, grabbed some grits from McDonalds, arrived at Hooper Road Park about 7:45, and met up with my teammates, Erryca and Megan (who replaced Lauren on 2 days notice).

We had 3 main goals for the race: 1) finish, 2) try to avoid catastrophic injury, and 3) just on general principle beat Team Brokeback (motto: We keep our butts busy).

At 9 am the race started; for the first 150 meters or so we had to carry one person. This wasn’t too bad, Erryca got the free ride. First were 2 running checkpoints (CPs) which we found pretty easily (mainly because we could follow other teams and not get lost). The total run was close to 2 miles before we made it back to the TA where we grabbed our gear and bikes and hit the trails. We rode a few minutes till we hit a trail split; we stopped, pulled out the map, and tried to figure out which trail to take (this became a recurring theme of our race…ride a few minutes, stop, realize we are lost, then proceed to go the wrong way and get even more lost). Thankfully 20 seconds later two teams who looked like they knew which way to go (we quickly learned teams with fancy outfits and gear generally take the right trails) came riding by us and we just followed them. We hit CP3 and CP4 with no trouble, at this point the trail was still pretty fast, just a little mud and not too technical, not sure if we even had to get off the bikes up to this point. We soon crossed the canal and rode the connection trail to Comite trails. At this point we felt great, spirits were pretty high, and we were making good time. Megan was probably the best biker so she led the way. After 15 or 20 minutes we realized we missed CP5 which was the easiest checkpoint to find on the ENTIRE course, it was right along the trail but we apparently rode right by it. We did eventually hit CP5, and then spent probably 45 minutes looking for CP6. By this time we were extremely frustrated, some of the track was very technical (at least for us) so we had to get off the bikes a few times and the map didn’t seem to help. Finally after hitting the same cross-trail again we had the extremely amazing idea to use the compass. It’s absolutely incredible how helpful the magnetic poles of the earth can be when trying to navigate. With brief use of the compass we decided to ride north and found CP6 in two minutes. There was more biking and more disorientation before we finally hit CP7, CP8, and CP9. I think there was a good chance we rode close to twice the distance needed to actually hit all of these points. This time is a good point to make the following observation; all the teams we ran into on the trails were really cool and everyone would earnestly try to help each other along and give advice. Also a big shout out to “Luscious Las Chicas”, we ran into these ladies a few times, they were troopers.

We finally made it to TA2 and a mystery challenge; we had to navigate a short obstacle course. Seems easy right, they also gave us two balloons which we had to hold with just our heads. If either of the balloons fell or touched anyone’s shoulder we had to start over. Kinda cute actually, less cute when there is a 12 inch difference in height between the tallest and shortest team members. We made it about the 4th try I think. This is also good time to mention the winning team, Team Backpacker, was probably finishing the race this point.

On to the canoeing section; good news, there was no way possible we could get lost here. And that was pretty much all the good news. First we had to port the canoe I would guess almost ¼ mile before we could put it in water, and I use the term water charitably because in most places the river depth was only 1 to 2 feet. We took off our shoes, threw them in the canoe, and proceeded to start walking down the river. Most of the teams we saw just walked it while one person pulled the canoe thru the water. Megan and Erryca were able to canoe/float probably 2/3 of the distance downstream (a little more than a mile total). I walked alongside, pulling the canoe out when it got stuck. At some point I managed to step in hole on the river bottom and fall face first into the water. It didn’t but hurt but it was outrageously funny. Coming back the 1 ½ miles upstream Megan and I pulled the canoe. That was not very fun at all. The only good thing about the canoe-walk was being able to devour some energy bars and drink some water. One other positive for me, my $15 socks still felt great even after wearing them during the canoe-walk.

We carried the canoe back to the drop spot, next were 4 running CPs (12-15). We actually didn’t do too badly here (relatively speaking). I would guess it was probably close to 3 miles to hit all the CPs, but we may have added close to an extra mile to this distance. On the plus side I don’t think we ever ran in the completely wrong direction. At one point Erryca hit a root and twisted her ankle, but she walked it off and kept going. My knee I dislocated a few years ago also started talking to me but I ignored it and kept going. We also kept running into this one team. They were generally looking for the same CPs as we were, we would take off running and 2 to 3 minutes later we would run back into them. It was really quite amusing at first although it got old rather quickly.

We finally got back on the bikes, only 3 CPs left. By this point my goals were to stay on the tracks, not run into my teammates, and to avoid hitting trees or going otb. We missed the correct trail again but only took a few minutes to right our way and hit the connection trail back to Hooper. Erryca took a pretty nasty spill here, but again she was a trooper and kept going. We hit CP16 and crossed the canal back over to the Hooper trails. On the way to CP17 and back to the TA we hit a little technical section of track but it wasn’t too bad and a few minutes later we were back at the TA.

There was one more CP to hit, this last one on foot. We jogged back up the trail and reached the canal. At that point there was a trail on the other side but no bridge. Another team in front of us waded across the canal which was probably close to 12ft across at that point. Thinking out loud I said, “Back in the day I coulda jumped that.” Megan and Erryca basically agreed there was no way. I figured what the hell if I miss I’ll just get wet again. It was about a 3ft drop-off before the canal so I could only take one long step before jumping (fyi, there was a bridge about 150 meters or so away, but who needs bridges). Well I nailed the freakin jump, landed in mud but still nailed it (I even had the triple jump leg kick working, my old coaches would have been proud). If one of the mystery challenges is creek jumping next time we’re set. At that point I thought, “cool, hit this trail, find CP18, 2 minutes back over the creek and we’re done.” 15 minutes later and still looking we find another trail (and another bridge) a little further down the canal. At this point I’m walking (brother needed a break) behind another co-ed team. I did hear the best line of the day; one team member asked their point person why she lost track of the guy from another team ahead of them. Her response, “It’s not my fault the little bastard started running.” Another 5 minutes and CP18 was conquered; crossed back over canal, jogged back to the TA and turned in our passport -- finishing time: 5 hours, 38 minutes, and a little change in seconds. I think we finished 38 or 39th out of 50 something teams; I think there were a few teams that didn’t finish and a few more that didn’t hit all the checkpoints. Other than our navigation issues I thought we did well for first timers. By my best guess we probably biked 17-20 miles (supposed to be 12) and trekked 6-7 miles (supposed to be 5), and canoe-walked 3 miles.

My only itty, bitty, tiny, complaint with the race; at the finish line they served pizza, salad, water, cold drinks. Well the pizza was cold. Don’t get me wrong I was very thankful but I just wished the pizza was warm. Now if someone reads this and thinks something akin to, “If you want hot food finish faster”; to you I say with love, kiss my #@#. However the race director redeemed himself for this slight oversight; during the race Lauren locked my keys in the car. Apparently race director Dave got a coat-hanger and broke into my car to get the keys out. Pretty impressive, I wonder if that was a mystery challenge during one of his adventure races. I also lost my sunglasses somewhere, but I didn’t bring my expensive ones so wasn’t upset.

Thanks to the following people: my teammates Erryca and Megan (especially thanks to Megan thanks for doing it on short notice, sorry if we bitched at each other some), Pat for letting me tear up his bike, Lauren for hanging out despite not being able to race, Joselyn for coming out to watch (even though she arrived AFTER we finished, she did have a good excuse…something about tax season and being a CPA), Kristi of Team Backpacker (who won the race with an insane time of 2 hours and 30 minutes) for all the great advice, Jay from Third Row for the invite to the crawfish boil, and Darrel Mitchell Jr. for making that monster shot against the Aggies to send LSU to the sweet sixteen. Also thanks to my friends who wished us luck and those who thought I was (and still am) crazy.

10 Things I learned from this race:
Maps are made for a reason, and they work well with a compass
Having one person handle the navigation could be a good idea
If given the chance it’s a good idea to ride and learn the trails before the race
It’s about time I invested in cycling shoes
Patience is a virtue
Braking doesn’t hurt, trees do hurt
Growing a beard may seem more rugged for guys in beer commercials, but it didn’t seem to help my adventuring racing skills
Boiled crawfish is great post race food
Buy good socks and it will be all good
I like adventure racing

Overall it was an awesome experience, the people were great and I’ll definitely do it again.

More race pictures -- Snapfish Album

It's ON

2006-03-17T15:35:00.000-06:00

I’m tried of talking about the ADVENTURE RACE, I just want to get it over with. I do think it will be fun, and once we finish I’ll indulge myself with about 10 pounds of boiled crawfish and spend the rest of the afternoon watching college basketball. I also have a secret weapon, I’m growing a beard so I can feel more rugged and ready. Hope it works.

Favorite Days of the Year

2006-03-16T08:36:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favorite days of the year, you get 12 hours of college baksetball in one day, win or go home. I've actually taken off this Thursday the past 3 years, but today I gotta suck it up and work, poor me. Since I'm not busy at the moment and I need to waste some time till 11 when the games start (one perk of my job, I can watch TV while sitting at my desk) I decided to make a list of other days I really enjoy each year.

Fourth of July -- Always a good family bbq day.
The Day of LSU's First Home Football Game
Dr. Martin Luther King Federal Holiday -- May not really mean much to a lot people anymore but it does to me
Jazzfest Weekends -- best music day(s) of the year for me
Beginning of the NCAA Basketball Tourney -- Today
New Year's Day -- Eating and college football galore, although not quite as cool since the BCS started
Christmas -- since its not really Jesus's birthday I'll go with good food and family

I know there are a few more but that's a pretty good list for now.

Running Tales

2006-03-11T19:07:00.000-06:00

Most of the time I like running, sprints and middle distance preferred. Today I ran a 5K Breast Cancer fundraiser with probably two thousand people running/walking. I was determined to run well, as a freshman in college I could do these things in less than 20 minutes. Today I ran nowhere near 20 minutes, my first mile was decent but when you add 2 minutes on the next mile and 2 additional minutes on the third mile, something just ain’t right. Thursday evening I biked for about 2 hours, at least a third of it into a 10-15 mph headwind. My legs didn’t really like that, and they let me know it about a half mile into the race today. I thought I would be ok since I wasn’t too sore Friday. Well I was wrong, the last half of the race was run (well actually jogged) in significant pain which I expect will last for the next few days. I only recall feeling worse twice during a race.

My junior year in high school I ran a 500 (on 200 meter track, 2 turn stagger) indoors at a McNeese State University meet. 400 meters into the race I was in 3rd place in my heat behind some guy and one of my teammates. At that point my teammate started to stumble and he fell right in front of me. Being only 2 steps behind him and sprinting (in theory) there was not enough time to run around him. So I took one more step, hurdled my fallen teammate, walked down the other guy, won the heat and basked in my glory. Anyway since coach didn’t have me on the mile relay after my race I walked across campus to McDonalds with a few teammates to grab some food. After I came back to the arena 45 minutes later snacking on my burger my coach walked up to me and casually told me I was running on the mile relay in 15 minutes, replacing my teammate who fell earlier. I actually ran a pretty good split, but my stomach was killing me the last 150 meters of my leg. I barely found a bathroom in time, it was rough.

In college one year I ran a 5K, the Corporate Cup. I was actually running with my dad for his company’s team. At the time I was taking a sabbatical from running and focusing on partying. I ran the race completely dehydrated with only 3 hours of sleep after going out the previous night. I ran about 24 minutes, actually pretty decent considering, but about halfway through the race I began to crash. Not sure how I even finished, the rest of that morning and afternoon was spent alternately between my bed and bathroom.

Thankfully today didn’t quite approach those levels of torture. And despite my pain it was a good time, thank you Lauren (who completely smoked me), Lisa, and Jesse for coming out and running. Now just gotta get ready for next weekend and the big Adventure Race.

Don't Know Why Anyone Would Read This Unless You're Bored

2006-03-09T10:16:00.000-06:00

I tried to organize some thoughts, but it just came out completely random, so here I go:

I spent my Friday evening partaking in wedding festivities (not mine). It was a great night and the band was pretty good. However if you’re the above band what makes you say, “I think we should break out some Outkast in the middle of this reception.” Now it wasn’t too bad, the sound was good but the lyrical delivery didn’t work at all, I wonder why. Anyhow people continued to dance and get drunk so I guess it was ok. Personally if I’m at a wedding and the band sticks to cuts from the Animal House soundtrack and the Motown catalog it should be a good reception.

Maybe I just switched to VH1 Soul at a good time but Saturday over a span of 20 minutes I saw videos by Heavy D, Al B Sure, CeCe Peniston, MC Lyte, and Dana Dane. I assume they don’t play that rotation everyday, in fact I checked wikipedia and my suspicions were confirmed.

Unrelated but kinda related, Lionel Richie will be performing at Jazzfest the same day as Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, and Special Ed. The time schedule isn’t out yet but it’s gonna be hard to make that work, also have Fats Domino, Paul Simon, and Irma Thomas on that day. Should be a good day of music.

Saturday in the a.m. I turned on the TV while attempting to roll out of bed. It just so happened Boat Trip with Cuba Gooding Jr. was showing on TBS. I had never seen the movie and it took a few minutes to figure out what I was watching. Even gratuitous shots of the lovely Roselyn Sanchez weren’t enough to make me watch more than 20 minutes. I’m sure I’m not the first to make this observation.

Working a half day today, planning on taking the bike out on the trails then getting in a long run, of course we have almost perfect weather for 2 weeks, then when I’m ready to spend the afternoon outside it storms. Just my luck.

It hurt to read this, not as much for the Hornets and Saints, I mean of all people I understand the mitigating economic factors professional sports franchises deal with. I just feel for the people.

To end on a brighter note I had my first boiled crawfish of the year Saturday at my cousin’s birthday party. Boiled three sacks, the crawfish were kinda small, but still good.

Next time I write maybe I’ll try to write something with a purpose, or it could just be more of this.

Monday Thoughts Including Oscars

2006-03-06T09:20:00.000-06:00

I didn’t watch the Oscars last night. I caught the new episode of The Boondocks, then a syndicated episode of ER from Season 4, quite possibly the best season of 39 or so it seems like they’ve aired now. Anyway, while driving to work this morning listening to NPR I heard Crash (check out this brief but not very good Review I wrote this past summer) won best picture at the Oscars. I was completely floored, what a great honor. I also heard Three Six Mafia in Hustle and Flow (brief Review) won an Oscar leading to horribly annoying headlines like this one “Hip-Hoppers ‘Pimp’ the Oscars”. Sometimes you wonder why Chuck D couldn’t grab an Oscar instead of a group like Three Six Mafia, Joey I hear what ya saying. Anyway I’m still happy for the brothers.

One more thing, congratulations to MC for getting into a Phd program at Harvard, it’s a well deserved honor.

Rolling With Urban Assault

2006-02-28T09:13:00.000-06:00

Yep, it’s been awhile since I’ve written. I have a number of excuses that I won’t get into, but I really like writing on my blog. In some ways it’s very refreshing. Anyway....

Due to an event I will undertake in less than three weeks, I’ve been trying to spend at least 2 days a week doing some type of biking activity (which explains this ). While attempting to find people to ride with I came across a local biking group who meet either downtown or at LSU one night a week. I knew nothing about the group other than their name, Urban Assault (keep that name in mind). This description of the ride was given on the local mountain biking association forum:

Boost your riding skills under the lights with some of the best progressive riders tonight in down town, B.R. We meet up in front of the state capitol at 7:30PM and leave the parking lot by 8:00PM. All riders and abilities welcome. We usually ride till 9:30 or 10:00, some times later. Helmets are required. Learn in a relaxed environment!

Progressive riders, right; but I’m always up for trying new things and I figured best case scenario the group does a good 12 to 20 mile ride around downtown, just what I’m looking for.
Well last Wednesday night I met the group (ended up about 14 riders that night) in front of the State Capital about 10 minutes before they start to ride. A few things told me right away this wasn’t gonna be what I quite expected...

1) A few guys were wearing any combination of jeans, cut-off t-shirts, and do-rags (no helmets); from my experience with serious road riders everyone generally wears combinations of brightly colored and horribly mismatched spandex outfits and shirts,
2) Most of the other guys who did wear helmets were also wearing elbow, arm, and leg pads; made me wonder a bit, and
3) Some of these guys looked slightly crazy (just my observation).

I could ramble on but this statement probably sums it up best; what the “And 1 Streetball Tour” is to the National Basketball Association (NBA), these guys (Urban Assault) are to Mountain Biking. Now 4 or 5 of the guys were very accomplished mountain bikers, but apparently when they get together on these nights all they do is practice insane bike maneuvers like attempting to ride up the rails of interstate on-ramps, jumping concrete barriers, riding down flights of steps, and bunny hopping concrete benches. Now I can hop a curve ok, and I’m learning to bunny hop (basically jumping obstacles with the bike) better, but I have no interest in doing crazy stunts on concrete at the moment. Also, if you mess up and fall that can cause extreme physical discomfort.

My highlight of the night, after an hour or so we ended up on the levee where a small ramp was pulled out which some of the guys used to jump these concrete flower beds while landing on the down side of the levee. There is also a nice sidewalk with a number of benches on the top of the levee where people go to walk, make out, smoke pot, etc. I’m standing off to the side with a few of the other riders not willing to risk their nuts doing a jump with a 10 ft drop on the other side when this random guy holding a beer and a smoke and his girl walk slowly towards us. The guy, who I’ll refer to as “Random Brotha Man” walked up to me and we had this brief conversation:

Random Brotha Man: “I know you’re not gonna do that”

Me (laughing): “Nah, cool, I’m just trying to get in some riding practice, besides I’m not trying to go home with a broken arm or nuthing like that”

Random Brotha Man: “Yes, cause you know we wasn’t made to do that type of sh..”

It’s weird but I kinda understood where he was coming from. Anyway I didn’t have a bad time with those guys and they seemed like generally good people. That being said I probably won’t ride with them again, but if anyone hears something like this, “Fred is in the hospital, I heard he broke his leg on his bike trying to use a homemade bike ramp to jump over the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. downtown”, look for those guys, they can probably tell you how it went down.

I Wish I Were Less Busy

2006-02-13T13:38:00.000-06:00

I will be back blogging soon, but work and school stuff (yes I said school, I'll explain later stuff) is gonna keep me away from wasting time on the internet till sometime next week. I hope all my East Coast friends are doing ok, that looked like a pretty crazy storm, well at least it did on TV, don't get much snow here so it can be hard to tell.

Of course if I wanted to yell and scream I could write about this .... Report: Katrina response a 'failure of leadership' .... but I knew this s... back in September. I wonder how the folks on the hill gonna play this one.

Just to leave on a bit of good news about New Orleans:

It's Carnival Time

Jazzfest 2006 is on, can't wait.

Birthdays and Bush

2006-02-01T11:00:00.000-06:00

It’s my birthday today, still in the 20’s age group but 30 is creeping up closer and closer. My friends have been asking me what I’m doing for my birthday, the answer is nothing really. I’ve never been a big fan of the birthday bash crazy celebration. I tend to keep it low key, dinner with the family, things like that. So my plans, attempt to be productive at work (including a huge fried catfish dinner for lunch), after work gonna go for a run and short workout, then just relax the rest of the evening.

I didn’t waste too much of my time watching the State of the Union address. Only got one real comment, dude only spent 43 seconds talking about Hurricane Katrina. Of course that wasn’t one of his administration’s finest moments, but act like ya care.

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe

2006-01-23T09:56:00.000-06:00

(every sports/NBA head is blogging about it, so why shouldn't I?)

I’m tired this morning, was planning on getting a little more rest last night, but I stayed up kinda late watching TV. I watched the beginning of Ghostbusters 2 on Spike (can’t really explain this so I won’t try) but I was really waiting for the 12:40 showing of NBA Fastbreak on ESPN. I generally don’t wait up for it but I had to see the highlight of the year, Kobe scoring 81 points in one game. His performance ranks right up there with the most ridiculous sports performances I have ever seen. Like Kobe or not, call him a rapist or not, blame him or blame Shaq, the man can ball with the best of all time.

I had Kobe on one of my two NBA fantasy basketball teams this season. But I traded him for Dwayne Wade and an un-named generic big man who gives me about 12 and 10 each game with a block or 2. At the time it was not a bad trade and Wade has been fantasy money this year too. I even thought the only way I would regret this trade is if Kobe goes on to average about 40 points a game the rest of the year. Well Kobe in January is scoring about 45 plus points a game. Good news for him, and the guy I traded him to who is in first place now, while I linger around the middle of the pack. Thank God for Gilbert Arenas or my fantasy team would be dead.

They Spinning N...., They Spinning

2006-01-19T11:24:00.000-06:00

Ok I’m not talking about the type of Spinning Chris Rock was referring to in his comedy special Never Scared, I just like that line.

Last Thursday I decided to try a “Spinning” class at the gym. While appreciating the physical benefits of Spinning, I always thought it was kinda cheesy, sitting in a dark room on a bike with some bitchy instructor yelling at you over bad techno music. Why not just go ride a real bike outside or go for a freakin run. Digressing for a sec, I miss my post-track college days when going to ball at the Rec Center 3 or 4 times a week and intramural flag football kept me in more than good enough physical condition (just to clarify ball defined by me as: playing 5 on 5 full court basketball games, first team to 12 wins and stays on the court, no deuce, call your own fouls, all shots are 1’s, no 2’s or 3’s). So I got my friend Evelyn (she had done it a few times before) to come along and I spun. It was actually fun, a good workout, and once I got adjusted to the bike not really that bad. Yeah the music could have been a little better although she did throw some “Golddigger” in the mix. Maybe I can get Straight Bangin to put together a spinning mix, also wondering if I can just burn a CD for the instructor. I’m thinking I could turn the class out, throw in some New Orleans Bounce, a few soul cuts, add some early 90’s rap (thinking Eric B and Rakim, Too Short, Tribe Called Quest, etc) and R&B (Jodeci, Mint Condition). For the near future I’m gonna try and do it each Thursday, so after work today I’ll be spinning, just gotta grab some padded biking shorts…those seats are no joke.

Happy Dr. King Day

2006-01-16T11:13:00.000-06:00

This is my favorite Dr. King speech. Every time I hear this speech it gives me chill bumps and almost moves me to tears. What a great man, lived a great life, not rich in worldly goods (many people don’t realized he basically died broke and left his family nothing but his writings) but rich in life and love for all people.

I've Been to the Mountaintop

Having a Good Time in New Orleans

2006-01-11T16:34:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I had the chance to go to New Orleans to have fun for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. I had made 2 previous trips to see the damage which was/is still unbelievable. I don’t want to dwell on that, but the city has a long way to go.

I had an awesome time and much of the credit goes to Kat, Lauren, and Thumper (real name Lauren). Initially I planned to go with this girl I was kinda dating, but since that wasn’t happening anymore hanging out with 3 attractive and fun women is never a bad choice. We went to a block party in the arts district area of the warehouse district. Three highlights of the evening:

I had some of the best gumbo ever, it was just amazing.

While hanging out at Lucy’s on St. Peters we met Mark, a contractor from Virginia, a Harley man, and a huge Washington Redskins fan. We got him to try out some Abita beer and he bought some rounds of Patron for us. Needless to say everyone was in a good mood.

Rebirth Brass Band, if you never, ever, ever get to hear any other band from New Orleans, you have to experience some Rebirth. Jazzy, soulful, funky, swingy, its all that and more. If you don’t wanna dance when you hear Rebirth, you just ain’t got it (yes that is me in the brown jacket).

Also I need mention this. Our little group moved towards the front of the crowd at the CAC to get a better view for Rebirth. I asked this woman standing behind us to take a picture of me and the ladies with my camera. For some unknown reason she snapped a picture of her and her friend first, testing it out I guess. Anyway she finally got a crappy picture of us. Before I reached to the get the camera back another girl with them told me “you need to go talk to my friend (the girl who took the picture, dark hair in the picture below), she likes EXOTIC guys.”

I’ve been called a lot things by women in my life, but I don’t recall exotic. I didn’t ask her why; I just took it as a compliment from a clueless white chick. Besides at least she didn’t do this; at my friends wedding reception 2 weeks ago some girl supposedly said to me, “You’re the whitest black guy I’ve ever seen.” I didn’t actually hear the girl say it, or even really remember this girl. I guess that is probably good thing since I would have said something to her and she would have got all mad (not that I’ve ever done that to a white person who attempts to make not funny racial commentary at my expense). Anyhow I had a good time at the reception and did other white boy stuff like the line dance to Footloose and sing “Call Me By My Name” by David Allen Coe with my buddies.

Anyway I did talk to exotic-men-liking-girl for a few minutes, then I left to go dance and enjoy some Rebirth. It was a great night, Exotic Brother Man here, I’m out.

More "One-Pete"

2006-01-09T16:18:00.000-06:00

I'll let it go soon, but I gotta have some fun after 2 years plus of the USC - media lovefest.

http://www.onepete.com/

Hope For Tomorrow

2006-01-09T13:03:00.000-06:00

Writing about football again.....My 2006 Louisiana Saints (gotta start clarifying the year now, just in case they move) have the 2nd pick in the 2006 NFL draft. Despite my most positive proclamations for next season there is not one player available in the draft that the currently head coachless Saints could select that would help them end their season at the Super Bowl in 2007 (well short of a hybrid Lawrence Taylor/Barry Sanders/Ronnie Lott/John Elway combo guy with the ability to play QB, RB, LB, and SS at the same time). Maybe the smart move would be to trade down in the drafts for additional picks, with good front office personnel this is never a bad strategy. But with the Saints front office.....all I can hope for is not to screw up. So if Reggie Bush goes No. 1 as expected, right now it looks like No. 2 will be former USC QB Matt Leinart or former Texas QB Vince Young.

Me, I would take Young, no offense to Leinart. I just like what Young brings to table, good arm, amazingly mobile, a big play guy waiting to happen. Can he do it in the NFL; I’m not sure but I’m willing to give him a shot. My favorite Young characteristic, he is a great leader, you can tell his teammates would kill themselves for this guy. I always supported current Saints QB Aaron Brooks, himself a QB with very prodigious football talents. But Brooks was never a team leader, never that guy who could take charge and lead the team through the good and bad. I believe and hope Vince Young can be that guy. Believe and hope, just like the city of New Orleans itself, you gotta start somewhere.

Why USC Never Could "Three-Pete"

2006-01-05T15:36:00.000-06:00

Great game Texas; Vince Young, go pro, my Saints need you with the number two pick in the draft. This is for you, Pete Carrol.

Temp Post

2005-12-29T11:23:00.000-06:00

Just needed to post a picture for my profile.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-23T17:21:00.000-06:00

I'm too lazy to write much, but I'm bouncing out for a few days. I hope all my friends and enemies (if I have any) have a very good Christmas and New Years. I may be back before then if the white boy LSU has playing at QB next week has a bad game. Hopefully not, I can't be sitting in the back of the church next Friday night at Scott and Shelley's wedding with my walkman in my ear listening to Miami (I refuse to call them the U) beat up on LSU.

The Case of Corey Maye

2005-12-14T13:39:00.000-06:00

First, I made a few changes to the blog. I changed the color of some of the headings; I just chose a random HTML color code I though looked ok, now I got some inadvertent LSU purple and gold action going. I also added a few links included one for “The Boondocks”, my new favorite TV show, and one for a blog, “The Agitator”.

Speaking of, I sent this to a few people by email, wanted to post it up here also:

I hope some of you are familiar with this case, I was not until yesterday. I can't even describe how reading this makes me feel. I don't know all the details, just what I read here, but from what I gather this man, Corey Maye, is on death row for defending his home. Like Nathan McCall wrote, "Makes You Wanna Hollar".

http://www.theagitator.com/archives/025962.php#025962

The Agitator has many updates on his case right now.

Stanley Williams and the Death Penalty

2005-12-12T15:57:00.000-06:00

I wasn’t planning on it, but I sit here now writing a few words about Stanley Williams, who as of this moment, will probably be executed by the state of California in a few hours. If I was the governor I would commute his sentence to life in prison.

In a roundabout way The Underdog and I shared on the topic on this post a while back. In very, very, limited circumstances (which I can barely think of), I do not disagree with the application of the death penalty. I personally think such a situation would have to first include an indisputable preponderance of evidence showing malice intent and guilt. Of course the argument can be made that the legal and judicial systems do not require this, all an individual is legally entitled to have is a fair trial and competent defense. I believe for the sentence of death by the hands of the state to be given, the standard should be much higher than just a fair trial. If even one innocent person is murdered by the state, the entire system has failed, and I refuse to believe in the infallibility of death sentences handed out in the country. So until you can prove to me there has never been an innocent individual killed, I really cannot support the death penalty. I heard a preacher recently talk about the application of the death penalty in the Mosaic Law (which I think serves as the basis of much of the law today). He said in crimes where the sentence of death could be given, there had to be at least two eyewitnesses to the event in question. If this was not the case death was not an option. Now all that being stated, I would not pardon Mr. Wilson based on my doubt in the death penalty. I would commute his sentence based on grace and mercy, hopefully the same grace and mercy God has afforded to me many times.

To be honest I always feel a mixture of emotions at times like this. I’m not going into a lot of detail, but my grandfather, an 80 year old African Methodist Episcopalian Minister was brutally murdered. The man who did this is in prison, but I couldn’t imagine the man being sentenced to death. For our family it was a lot easier to forgive and pray for the man than wish for his death. Mr. Stanley Williams I’ll do the same for you, may God rest your soul. I can't condone the evil things you have done, but I do applaude the positive steps you have taken in remodeling your life to become among the best of humanity. Again may God rest your soul.

You're Stupider Than I Am

2005-12-08T09:48:00.000-06:00

My last post was about a pretty cool woman. This brief post is about a not pretty cool lady. Now I’m all for free speech and I think the audience should have been more respectful, but I can’t say reading this didn’t cause me to smile a little this morning.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/08/coulter.row.ap/index.html

While chatting on IM about this with Megan, I wrote the following, “I know some say it but I don’t think she is even really hot" (sorry, total guy observation, like that has anything to do with the inanity and lunacy of some her statements). Megan made a tremendous observation about Ms. Coulter I can’t help but agree with, “all that ugliness inside comes through on her face”. I’m not trying to be mean, but I think that observation is right on point.

Susan Tedeschi

2005-11-30T14:13:00.000-06:00

http://www.susantedeschi.com/

Heard about this lady on NPR this morning, I mean she can sing, has an outrageous voice. I hate to say it, but when I first heard her sing I thought, “Can’t be a white woman blowing like this.” As one of the kids I tutor from time to time would say, “she put some stank on it.” Well white and from New England, you would think at least she would hail from down south somewhere; she even plays a mean electric guitar. I missed some of the interview when I stopped to grab some breakfast, but the lady was very, very cool. I think I may have to check out her new album, she covers some great songs. Maybe during the return of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival they could have her perform, she would fit in perfectly, anywhere from the Sprint Stage to Congo Square to the Gospel Tent. Good Stuff.

View From The Roof

2005-11-29T15:32:00.000-06:00

I mean to write more on this blog thing, but just haven’t quite found the time or motivation lately. I should just write down things that pop in my head so I can expound on them here, I may get to that at some point. I guess I could just write about random things.

On a political tip I could write about the Bush war in Iraq, or about the stumbling and bumbling of this administration, or about the trifling response to the hurricanes down here on both the state and federal level.

In sports I could write about the bull…. that is the BCS, Southern getting killed by a 458lb quarterback in the Bayou Classic, my Saints finally winning a game, LSU winning the SEC West and hopefully the conference championship game in the ATL this weekend, or even my two disparate performance so far in the NBA fantasy leagues I am in (first and almost last).

I could write about the fun I’ve had the past few months getting to see a lot of friends and making some new ones. I could also mention how much I enjoyed Thanksgiving and how valuable those moments are I was able to spend that day with my family (not counting the two hour and half naps I took).

I could also mention how this past Friday I woke up at 6:30 to tailgate, then maybe 3 hours after the game somehow I ended up on the roof of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center with some friends. We had an absolutely great time, that is until LSUPD found us, and they were not nearly as amused. So after a little small talk while they called in our info, the cops told the old, graduated, ones among us we were banned from campus. Now before I could launch into my “…..all the money I’ve given this school, all the sporting events I’ve paid for (wait, a lot of those I went to free), all of the student organizations I was involved in and the service I’ve put in helping the university, not to mention my degree(s), I’m even in one of the recruiting videos LSU produced, and you wanna tell me I can’t ……” diatribe one of the 10 LSUPD officers present said we could be on campus as long as we had a legitimate reason, like class, attending an event, meeting someone, etc. However late night explorations of closed campus buildings are over. I guess I can live with that.

And last I could write about the Roger Federer level a..whooping Chris put on me in tennis last night at the LSU Rec Center. But I’m just gonna pretend that never happened.

Bayou Classic

2005-11-22T13:23:00.000-06:00

Katrina and Rita have changed a lot of thing around here. But it really hits home this week, over something very insignificant in the big picture, but for Louisiana a reminder of how different things are. The week before Thanksgiving is always a big football week in South Louisiana; my beloved and #3 ranked LSU Tigers play Arkansas Friday for the “Boot” and a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship, high school football playoffs quarterfinals, and last, but not least, the Bayou Classic, aka the Black College Super Bowl; other than Mardi Gras the wildest weekend of the year in New Orleans. Except this year the game is being played in Houston, TX, not New Orleans.

Attending the Bayou Classic was a childhood ritual for me, although I admit I have not made the trip to New Orleans for the game in probably 5 years. But it was always fun, especially considering my family is split fairly evenly between SU and Grambling grads and fans (although the past 5 years I’ve had probably 8 cousins attend Grambling). This year ESPN College Gameday will broadcast live from Houston. Now that has to be a first, Gameday broadcasting from a HBCU game. On this LSU message board I occasionally peruse there was a thread with a lot of booing and sarcastic (borderline racist) comments about this. Screw them people, I love it. Chris, Lee, and Kirk (the crew) are gonna have a great time, see some fly females, hot step show, amazing band performances. And Desmond Howard (another crew member of UMichigan heisman fame) will probably get so wild he will lose his mind. Too bad I’ll have to watch from home this year. Just make it back to the NOLA next year with Gameday again and I’ll be cool.

Softball Update

2005-11-11T15:18:00.000-06:00

Right now I’m sitting here at work drinking tons of water and trying to overmedicate myself with anything from the medicine cabinet that looks like it could remotely help with a cold. On top of that I’m kinda sore, sliding into bases and diving for balls was easy as a kid, now it sucks. But on the bright side, Second String softball club, still down a player, pulled out the win last night, overcoming an 18-6 deficit in the top of final inning to take a 19-18 lead, then keeping the other team from scoring the game winning run when they had bases loaded and no outs. We then scored 5 runs in the extra inning to win 24-19. Amazing game, we all had a great time. Plus we had a great group of fans out there last night, and the post game trip to Bennigans was fun as well. So if any of the 3.34 people who read this blog doesn’t have plans for next Thursday night about 6:30, drive out across town and come watch us play. I can’t guarantee we’ll always win, but we will definitely be entertaining.

Still My Team

2005-11-08T14:48:00.000-06:00

Just to say it, the ribs from Saturday were amazing.

I think I’m catching a cold; apparently that is what watching the New Orleans/Baton Rouge/San Antonio Saints in person can do to you. And Tom Benson still sucks.

I missed the Miami-Nick Saban return game last week, but I did make it out to see the Saints lose to the Chicago Bears. Despite the small crowd I had a good time, and got to see a really good halftime performance by Southern University’s famed marching band, The Human Jukebox.

Someone asked me how it felt to watch the Saints play in Tiger Stadium. It felt like watching football. But one thing was different, at LSU games 95% + of the crowd is composed of white folks. Not saying anything is wrong with this, most of LSU’s alumni are white, which means most of the season ticket holders will be white. And though black students attend games on the same, if not better percentage than white students, from what I see I would have to image a very small percentage of LSU’s black alumni become season ticket holders after college (including myself, and I tailgate for almost every game and until this year attended most). Saints games in the Superdome always drew a very diverse crowd, a lot due to the demographics of the city I’m sure. Generally at Saints games the crowd is 30-40% black folks, maybe even higher, as was the crowd in Tiger Stadium Sunday. Again I’m not complaining about LSU’s crowd, LSU could fill the stadium with delegates from the National Redneck Convention and I probably wouldn’t mind if LSU beat everyone they played by 30, but it was good to see some black folks in the good seats in Tiger Stadium.

Other stuff, when I walked up to the tailgating spot Sunday one of the guys brought a Nintendo out and we were playing Mike Tyson’s Punchout. We remembered to code to get to Tyson, but no one there could beat him. I couldn’t even make one round. I think when I was 12 I beat the game once. Anyway we decided to have a little fun and we made the following sign (notice the fine print). Even had two challengers, but alas, they both fell short.

More game pics

Softball, Ribs, and Saints

2005-11-04T13:58:00.000-06:00

This is a picture (Little League Style with the bats crossed in front) of the great diamond warriors know as Second String. We played with only 8 players last night which in slow pitch softball is generally not a good recipe for winning games, but we probably had our best hitting game of the year. And everyone had a good time, actually looking forward to playing next week. Thankfully I’m getting over the injury bug, I hope.

The beginnings of some good eats for Saturday. Give em a day a half to marinate, by Saturday should be good and tender. Last real tailgate of the year, should be good times for all.

And last, New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson is a punk (read here) In fact he has probably passed up Dick Cheney, Tom Delay, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter (work with me here) as the old white guy I dislike the most. I would and could say more, but I’ll just leave it at that, and this picture taken outside Tiger Stadium. More news from the alma mater, maybe not racist, but definitely not funny. (read here)

And, "Boondocks", definitely funny, premiere this weekend. (read here)

Have a good weekend, I will.

Online Quiz

2005-11-02T12:09:00.000-06:00

I normally don’t fill this crap out, generally it takes too long and most people don’t really care to know extra stuff about their friends, but I had some free time today, so here ya go.

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
001. headliner
002. fastfreddy
003. fanjr77

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
001. smile
002. body
003. my height

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
001. my left knee (doesn’t want to work right lately)
002. my right hamstring (pulled it playing softball)
003. nothing else

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:

(I cheated here a little, I just chose my religion heritage)
001. Missonary Baptist
002. African Methodist Episcopalian
003. United Methodist

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
001. email
002. food
003. exercise

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
001. 10 year old doc martins
002. grey cargo pants
003. navy blue boxer briefs

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS [at the moment]:
001. Stevie Wonder
002. Rebirth Brass Band
003. Earth, Wind, and Fire

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS [at the moment]:
001. Do What Ya Wanna – Rebirth Brass Band
002. Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight
003. Amazing Grace

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
001. Honesty
002. Excitement
003. :Love

TWO TRUTHS & A LIE [in no particular order]:
001. I love sports
002. I sing out loud a lot
003. My favorite professional sports teams are good

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
001. Smile
002. Legs
003. Eyes

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
001. Running
002. Reading
003. Going to hear live music

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
001. leave work
002. go eat
003. start tailgating for Saturday

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
001. public servant
002. proffessor
003. politician

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
001. somewhere in the Caribbean
002. New York City
003. Southern California

THREE KID'S NAMES:
001. Fred III
002. David
003. Janelle

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
001. live a life pleasing to God
002. Have a family
003. Watch the New Orleans Saints win a Super Bowl

THREE WAYS I AM STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
001. I hate shopping
002. I’m extremely competitive, especially with sports
003. I can watch football all day

THREE WAYS I AM STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
001. I have a lot of clothes I never wear
002. I like to take long baths
003. I pack way too much stuff when I travel

THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
001. Halle Berry
002. Gabrielle Union
003. Mariah Carey (1990-1998 only)

Becoming An "Old Guy"

2005-10-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

I’m now officially one of those “old guys”. When I used to run a lot of pickup basketball games in college at the Rec center, there were always a number of older guys who would play. Now in most cases they weren’t really old, they just were past college age (except for Mr. Henry, who plays softball on the same night I do but in a different league, he has to be at least 65, but he told me he still plays basketball in the rec 3 or 4 nights a week, I hope I’m like that when I get that old). Two things stood out about this group of guys; first, they were cool to play with. They didn’t call fouls every time someone blew on them, and real biggie here, they didn’t throw fits and hold up games for 10 minutes at a time because they felt someone made a bad call. Nothing ruins a pickup game faster than some idiot screaming at everyone on the court and refusing to give the ball to the other team over a dumb call. Second, all these guys wore either ankle or knees braces, or they had other body parts bandaged or wrapped. Consequence of getting old and staying active I figured, well…

One night this past week I played tennis, I looked like on of those old guys (and I’m only in my 20’s). On my left knee I had a brace for my knee that doesn’t want to act right. I had my right thigh wrapped due to a hamstring injury. And I had an elbow support on my left arm. And I actually needed them all. I guess I’m learning there is no shame in that, besides I’m thankful I can still be active and athletic.

Small stuff:

Good thing football teams don’t lose points for ugly uniforms, because if they did Virginia Tech couldn’t score enough to beat a pop-warner team of 10 year olds.
picture link

On the Purple and Gold Confederate Flag issue from earlier (here), very good to hear some of the players speak out (here). Often times we stereotype college athletes as dumb jocks, but in most cases they are as intelligent and well-spoken as everyone else, basketball and football players included.

Now facebook has picture albums. They must be trying to get me fired, between emailing friends and facebook they will have to pay me overtime to get all my job stuff done.

Going to watch LSU and the Saints this weekend, LSU has an easy game, the Saints play the Miami Dolphins, St. Nick’s return to Tiger Stadium (article). Should be interesting to say the least.

Speaking Up Cause I Can't Stay Quiet

2005-10-24T14:32:00.000-05:00

http://www.lsureveille.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/24/435c4d3a8ba3c

I gotta speak out on this. Way back in 1999 when this flag first started to appear I wrote what as far as I knew was the first letter to the editor in the student newspaper about the purple and gold confederate flag. Now it’s a yearly debate on campus, and it seems to get hotter each year. If you check the article this past Saturday the LSU chapter of the NAACP led a march around campus before the game for the purpose of encouraging LSU to ban the flag from campus. I definitely applaud the effort.

I have this debate with myself yearly during football season, is it worth it to go to the games when I invariably observe some stupid redneck behavior (waving purple and gold confederate flags qualifies) that infuriates me to no end. But I always come to this conclusion; I have just as much, if not more of a right to go to campus on Saturday, tailgate, and watch my alma mater play football. I’ve also learned most of those knuckleheads aren’t alums; they just come out to drink beer and watch football.

A few points:

My comments only refer to the “Purple and Gold” flag unless otherwise stated. I don’t like the original confederate battle flag, but fly it if you want; it’s your world…

But in my perfect world no one would be ignorant enough to fly this stupid purple and gold flag, and the also the New Orleans Saints would be a good football team. Well obviously we don’t live in that world. LSU is notorious for dragging its feet in racial matters (like most Southern institutions), but they have taken a stand against this particular flag by stating the university does not endorse it and also by punishing any retailer who would try and sell the flag by prohibiting them from selling authorized merchandise. In fact, short of bootleg sidewalk stands you can’t walk into any store around here and buy it. And if you find a store selling it let me know the name of the establishment, I got some connections, it will be stopped.

Now I would love to see LSU ban that flag from the stadium, I think that could be done, a la Ole Piss, um I mean Ole Miss. But I’m not sure if LSU can legally ban this flag from campus. I would like to see the chancellor and athletic and school administrations have a press conference repeating the school's policy and condemnation of the flag. If that happens, count me as happy.

As far as the debate about the original confederate battle flag, talk about heritage all you want, no one flew the damn flag in the south till 1954 and Brown vs. Board of Education, that’s all I need to say.

Big Wes, keep up the good work LINK raising hell on campus is the best thing you can do (and its pretty fun also). I do have to admit instead of joining I stood by watching and eating a hamburger. But in my time I fought my battles, now it it’s your turn. Keep trying to bring LSU up.

One more note on the whole thing, I won’t kick your a.. for flying a confederate flag, but I would kick you a.. for doing something like this to the Alpha house. LINK If you don’t know Alpha Phi Alpha is the oldest historically black fraternity and the only one with a house on campus.

Boy the joys of living in the South never end, but I still love it here, my people, we just gotta keep moving up. Now that I’ve said my peace I can get to talking about football and other stuff.

Crazy Football Fall Saturdays

2005-10-18T14:20:00.000-05:00

Saturday was one of those crazy fall football days, woke up at 6:45, eating Krispy Kreme donuts and tailgating by 8:30, getting ready for a 2:30 game.
After tailgating all morning I was walking to the stadium with a friend, Mike. I acquired a student guest ticket, Mike’s ticket was in the North end zone, we figured we would probably meet up later, most likely in the student section, because generally the student section is more fun and has hot college chicks. Now I had 2 ziplock bags filled with, ummm, stuff, in the cargo pockets of my shorts. At the student gates there are normally a fleet of police officers searching mostly innocent students for intoxicating beverages. I walked by them with no hesitation, because they are looking for obviously drunk, polo-wearing, white frats boys and sorority girls with their pearls and Louis Vuitton purses to check for alcohol. Yes, I’ve found the one spot where a brother can get by without getting harassed by the police, walking into the student section in Tiger Stadium, ok moving on…..The Tiger Stadium student section for big games is a standing room only, packed, mass of loud, crazy, young folks. Right as I walk into the lower section I run into some old friends, Jen and Beth, like me old, graduated, but still fabulous. After a happy reunion we stood together in one of the aisles as the game begin. Well the Tigers start off great, early TD, the crowd is really in the game, and my ziplock bag starts to leak. Generally that means time to get a coke and get to mixing. So I come back with coke, and Jen reveals her hidden stash.

Despite the lubrication, I managed to pay attention to the game pretty well. With about 6 mins left in the 1st half, Jen and Beth went to get another coke and to the bathroom. Twenty-five mins later (its halftime now) still no Jen and Beth. So instead of going to look for them (the sober thing to do), I decide to go find my friend Ashley who was sitting in the next section over. I walk over to the section she is sitting in, still don’t see her, but I do run into Jeremy H. Talk to him for a bit, ask if he knows where Ashley is sitting, he says, “Fred, you don’t see that girl with the curly hair sitting over there, are you drunk.” Of course not, Jeremy, so I refocus and rebalance, spot Ashley, walk down the row, stumble over some random white folks, go talk to Ashley for a minute. I then see Jen and Beth in the aisle, apparently lost. So get up, stumble over the same random white folks again, go get them and find the 2 seats on the other aisle we were using for 4 people. Mix some more drinks, cheer, yell, scream, etc. Yep, good times all around, by midway thru the 4^th quarter we emptied the flask, my ziplock bag, and mike’s ziplock bag. LSU did try to give the freakin game away, but the Tigers pull out the win at the end. Good game, waited about 15 minutes after the game, sang the alma mater, headed back to the tailgate spot.

Random Notes:
Mary Lou Retton was at the game, I don’t know why that was cool (probably because I was drunk) but she was still kinda cute, would be even cuter if she was taller than 3 ft 8 in.

Becky from Florida graced us with her presence, she was much hotter than Mary Lou Retton, (I bet she has never gotton that compliment before). Becky was a great sport before and after the game, if more gator fans (and LSU fans too) were like her the world would be a better place.

When I got back to the tailgate spot some had thrown the dominos all over the place. But that’s my bad, I shoulda packed them up before the game. Hopefully they found them all before leaving.

I think “Midnight Train To Georgia” is gonna become one of our official tailgating sing along songs. Jeremy, Cesar, and myself are gonna get it together and bring it even stronger next week.

The dart board is a great idea, however after “losing” the board late Friday night off Nicholson Rd, the stand needs a few physical repairs. Should be ready to go for Auburn.

Sunday night I watched a lot of the Southern – Jackson St. game replay. Southern won, 20-7, played a good game. However when SU and J-State get together everyone knows the big event is the battle of the bands between the Human Jukebox and the The Sonic Boom. I think the Jukebox got em’ this time, breaking out the “Tha Ratchet” and “marching like J-State” put them over the top.

About 10 am Sat, I’m throwing bones……for anyone with no clue what I just said we were playing the game called Dominos…….with Cesar and Joslyn, who is just learning how to play. At some point Joslyn asked if her “tile” was placed correctly. “TILE”, I’ve been playing dominos since I could walk and I have never, ever, heard anyone call a domino a “tile”. I could just imagine slapping down your bone and yelling out “tile, m…. f…..”, that just doesn’t work. It was her first time though, if we were playing with my uncles they would have probably made her leave the table. But you live and learn.

Overall it was good game, but can’t want till next Saturday, finally get a night game in Tiger Stadium, should be wilder.

Putting My Foot In My Mouth

2005-10-14T10:19:00.000-05:00

I have a friend, Margaret, who I met at a music and arts festival in May at City Park in New Orleans (see here). She was in town for a dance performance, then she was going home to Kansas City. About a month or so later she emailed me, she was planning on moving to New Orleans in August/September. In July she emailed me the following:

....i'm so excited to

move to new orleans, lil nervous for the hot and humid

weather, and the hurricanes, but i'll deal.

A few days later I wrote back the following:

.....I'm happy for you, I could tell you really wanted to

move to New Orleans, its great you have an opportunity

to do it.  Don't worry about the heat or hurricanes,

the great food makes up for it.

Boy did I miss it big time. I did hear back from Margaret, she is doing well, was in Chicago at the moment and planning on moving to New Orleans in January. I do still believe in the future the awesome food (and people, music, culture, etc.) will make up for all Katrina has taken from us.

Night Out On the Town

2005-10-13T13:55:00.000-05:00

Last night I was planning on going out to meet a few people at this restaurant/bar in town, Champs, to get some food, maybe a beverage also. On the way there about 8:30 I called one of my friends who had planned on going, well it turned out she wasn’t really feeling like going out so she decided to stay at home. No biggie there, I definitely understood how she felt; in fact I wasn’t really excited about going myself. If I would have called her before leaving I probably would have decided to stay at home also. However I was already on the road (I had to stop back by the gym, forgot my pants in the locker room which had my pass-card to get around the building at work) and I was only 5 minutes from the place. I did know a number of people who would be there, most of them astoundingly cool including some fellow members of the best slow pitch softball team around, Second String. But I just didn’t feel like going to Champs last night. Maybe it was the fact of it being karaoke night, I didn’t really feel like hearing the croonings of the talented (like Ebony who totally blew the roof off the place last week with The Fugees version of “Killing Me Softly”), or in most cases the entertaining but untalented.

My decision, since I was already out, I was going to try and call up someone to go out and grab a bite to eat somewhere else in town. So I pulled out my cell phone with probably 200+ numbers in it, and pondered for a minute who I should call. And just to clarify it wasn’t a booty call type of night, I was just going to try and call someone to hang for an hour or so, grab some food and beverage. Back in undergrad, even for a few years later, this would have been no problem, I have a decently large friend set and in college people are always up, out, and looking for something to do. But now, it’s a lot harder, I go thru names in my phone and I see: friends who don’t go out past 7:30 on a weeknight, friends who live in other places now, friends who are married, friends who are not married but act like they are, somewhat undependable friends who would say they would meet me, then show up 2 hours later, and a few crazy chicks whose numbers I have but I would never call under any circumstances minus lack of sobriety. After making a few unsuccessful calls, I ended up going home, probably the best decision for that night. A few years back I would have probably despaired, but as I get older I realize its no big deal, can’t be out every night anyway. Besides I need to rest up for the weekend, starting Friday afternoon, it will be crazy, Live After Five, a friend’s going away dinner, very brief appearance at Natty Night, a planned 8 am (if not earlier) tailgating start, LSU-Florida at 2:30 in Tiger Stadium, then after party at the tailgating spot. Should be fun.

Good Music, Good Times

2005-10-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

If you don’t like New Orleans music, you may not like Deacon John. If you don’t like good music in general, then you probably won’t like the music of Deacon John. If you don’t like dancing and having a good time, you probably won’t like going to a show by Deacon John. Baton Rouge has these concerts downtown on Friday afternoons in the fall and spring called Live After Five. In my opinion there is no better way to start the weekend than getting together with a few friends at a street party with great music. I even forgot about my pulled hamstring and got my boogie on. Of course my hamstring felt horrible the next day, but it was worth it.

Deacon John's Website if your interested.

I Still Believe

2005-10-10T15:41:00.000-05:00

I’m back to writing about football for a quick minute. I took a few weeks off, had some other things to focus on like actually doing work at work. But I’m back to goofing off, here are my thoughts on my favorite NFL team, the sort of New Orleans Saints. One clarification here, these were my thoughts up to 2 pm today.

The Saints remind me of this cat that I used to run track with in high school. He was very talented, easily one of the most talented guys on the team. But you never knew what he was going to do, would he come to practice? Would he run hard? Would he show up for the meets? Would he run hard thru the exchange zones on relays? He ran some very good times, but he also dogged it just as much. When he was on he looked great (in a totally heterosexual way) flying around the track. But when he didn’t feel like running it was bad. That is my New Orleans Saints this year. When they are playing well they look great, so good your start to think, “Man, if this team can keep it together they’ll cause some damage and if they make the playoffs, watch out.” A good example of this is the last 4 games of last year, and game one of this season against the Panthers. But when they are bad….. you get 52-3 Green Bay or Peyton Manning throwing 6 TD’s against them in the dome. My prediction for Saints next 11 games, of those 11, 8 will be “who knows” games. Either the Saints will come out and dominate, or they will get blown out. I think they will go 4 and 4 in those games. The other 3 will be the key games. These will actually be regular games where the Saints play ok and the game is decided in the 4^th quarter. If the Saints can win 2 of those 3, they end up at 9-7 and probably make the playoffs in NFC.

Now…. I just found out running back Deuce McAllister is out for the year with a torn ACL (Link). My initial reaction, 3-13, season over. But after thinking about it for a few minutes, I changed my mind. I still have faith in the Saints, but only if they do the following …….. go to the Run & Shoot the rest of the season. I mean the old school, Jerry Glanville, Run & Shoot I learned from Tecmo Super Bowl. All the Saints need to do is get Aaron Brooks to channel Warren Moon for a season. Maybe they could find the same witch doctor that put that three year spell on Kurt Warner when he was lighting up the league with the Rams a few years ago (or maybe just trade for a 28 year old Marshall Faulk). Screw the defense, they won’t stop anyone, let’s just try to outscore everyone else. The key is Joe Horn, if he can stay healthy it could work. Just my idea. But if it doesn’t work, I already gave the Saints a pass for this year. Too much going on, I have no real expectations. I gotta get back to work, Brandon I may expound on this later. Also good to see LSU play some defense again this weekend.

Motown Remixed

2005-10-07T15:58:00.000-05:00

So I brought this new CD, Motown Remixed (you can listen to songs on the website). I heard about it listening to NPR driving to work one day this past week. I had not purchased a new CD in probably 2 years for myself. I used to be a self proclaimed hip-hop head, but since about 1998 my interest in the genre has steadily declined. I still consider myself part of the hip-hop generation, but to be honest I relate more to cats like EPMD than I do to Lil John. But my love of 60’s and 70’s R&B has never waned cold. Given a choice I would rather go see the Gap Band than I would any current R&B group. I know Gladys Knight and the Pips would sing and perform circles around Destiny’s Childrens. And I love the classics, especially the Motown songs. That being said I really like the Motown Remixed CD. A lot of the songs have a very jazzy and bluesy feeling. A few of the songs seem to lose too much of their original feeling in the remixes, but overall I enjoyed the project.

Falling Apart

2005-10-07T11:05:00.000-05:00

Physically, this has been a rather painful past few months. I hurt me left knee again in June. In August I had a blister on my toe that caused my entire right foot it to swell about twice its normal size. My elbow has also been bothering me lately; I probably have a little “tennis elbow”, although I wouldn’t mind this as much if I could actually play tennis better than I do currently. And yesterday while attempting to play softball I pulled my hamstring. But I played the rest of the game and I made it to work today, on pure willpower and Advil. I feel like the habitually injured but always effectual Tennessee Titan’s OB Steve “Air” McNair. Of course when he goes to work hurt he makes six figures a week, needless to say I don't make that much. A few of my fellow Saints fans at work have made a few Donte Stallworth hamstring jokes, but I won’t go there because he has been playing well so far this season. Anyway it’s still good day, I just gotta make it to 5, then I’m going downtown to hear some good music, courtesy of the great New Orleans music man, Deacon John.

August Wilson

2005-10-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/10/02/wilson.obit.ap/index.html

I direct this first statement to a dear friend of mine; see today is a Monday and I am capable of writing about things other than football. On Sunday August Wilson, arguably the greatest Black American playwright of the 21^st century, passed away. Although I can’t claim to be much of a connoisseur of theatrical works I attended a number of performances during my college years and later, mainly to watch friends perform. I remember attending two of his plays performed by professional companies, “Fences”, and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. Both plays were amazing experiences, not just for the acting which was superb on its own, but mainly the quality of the plays. I also remember reading part of Fences in an African-American Literature Class (I also remember this really fine young woman who I would sit next to in class, we would talk sometimes after class but we never really did more than that, I think I was halfway dating someone else at the time, but man, if I would see her now I would ask her out in second, no doubt). Getting back on subject I just wanted to take a short moment out of a busy day to salute the great August Wilson, thank you for your work and your life which has inspired many including myself.

Hurricane Les

2005-09-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

First, thanks to Straight Bangin' for the shout out.

No I didn't write this, but I nearly feel out of my non-leather chair at work laughing, and crying.

Hurricane Les continues to strengthen over the LSU campus. This is an extremely dangerous storm. As of 10 amcdt Les has strengthened to a Category 5 and his winds are affecting almost every part of the state. The storm is stationary at this time but is expected to make a northeast turn Saturday morning. Although the storm will be centered over the Starkville the damage will likely be done to Baton Rouge. This hurricane has already destroyed most of what has been built in the last 5 years and horrified 90,000+ that were trapped in Tiger Stadium as the storm strengthened.
To make maters worse Hurricane Les is accompanied by Tropical Storm Bo. The future path of these storms is uncertain at this time. It appears they will continue to cause widespread damage to southern Louisiana. Without a steering current and the fact that neither one of these storms have a clue they could cause widespread destruction for the next 9 weeks. The longterm forecast has the hurricane centered over Nashville in 2 weeks before looping back to Baton Rouge. There is no high in site to get rid of these lows.A tropical depression has also appeared over the LSU campus.......If it becomes a storm the name will be Skip.

Public Enemy and Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-29T09:38:00.000-05:00

I need to write more, but work has been wild lately, LSU is down (but hopefully not out), and my email buddy from NYC has been taking up the rest of work BS time.

Check out Public Enemy’s new song about Hurricane Katrina (click on the album cover):

http://www.shutemdown.com/

This is what I’m talking about, Public Enemy, back with a vengeance. About time they came out with something new, I like the song. Of course I’ve always been a Public Enemy fan, even at their wildest. Will this song change anything, probably not, but it needs to be said, and who better to say it than Chuck D, the voice of conviction.

Disappointment

2005-09-27T11:48:00.000-05:00

Tennesse 30 - LSU 27

I feel for the fans mostly, but I throw the players in there too. They are the ones who are on the field battling for 60 minutes, although in this case more like 30. But mostly for the fans. Fans that have craved a home football game in Death Valley for weeks now. Fans that lifted there heads from wreckage left by the storms hoping to have their spirits lifted for at least a short time. And they did I guess. For a half, 30 game minutes, about 2 hours real-time, they were on top of the world. Then reality set in. The final 30 minutes were played and people went back home to their dishoveled lifes heartbroken, angry and disappointed. Will victory come again? Yeah, probably next week in Mississippi. But this one will linger. I hope it lingers as a reminder: To the team, you don't want to feel like this again. To the fans, make sure your priorities are straight. There are too many ups and downs in things you cannot control. Make sure your life is good and the pain will only linger for a short while. Until you get something to eat and prepare for bed. Until you watch two episodes of Alias to get over the pain (that's what I did). Until you talk yourself dry until the next game. Disappointment may draw near, but victory will come again.

Black Head Coaches

2005-09-21T13:19:00.000-05:00

I need to write about more than football, I will at some point, but…

Monday I wrote this in regards to UCLA, “Plus I also rooted for UCLA because their coach is a brother”. Currently there are three black head coaches in Division I football. Over half of the players are black. I could give you all the grisly details, but if you have the time read this: http://www.bcasports.org/- Black Coaches Association Hiring Report Card.

I’m fairly certain I’m not the first to say this, probably someone has written some fancy graduate thesis on it, but in my own words I’ll call it the “Jesse Jackson/Marion Berry Corollary”. I think to some degree black folks have the utmost respect for any black person who can succeed in any venue traditionally limited to white folks, especially when qualified blacks get passed over and over again for the same position (note: I would put OJ in there, I mean he did get away with killing white folks, but nah, most black folks think he is a quack). If you examine the numbers, or just look on the sidelines this Saturday, head football coach of a major D1 program or NFL head coach is basically limited to white folks. So according to the corollary, yes, I’m gonna cheer for any brother who is a head coach and is doing a good job with his team. Now I won’t go as far as to condone cheating, running a program with academic problems, or a lack of discipline, i.e. the 1980’s thug units of Oklahoma and Miami. Throwing in a LSU reference, the main thing I like about Saban was that his players stayed out of trouble and performed in the classroom. Winning helps, but off the field matters just as much in my opinion. (PS. If any of my tailgate buddies read that last sentence, no I haven’t lost my mind).

On the positive I guess progress is being made on some fronts, I remember back in the day when Randall Cunningham, Warren Moon, and Doug Williams were the only brothers throwing the rock. Just off the top of my head there have to be at least 10 starting black QB’s in the NFL. It used to be said that blacks didn’t have the mental aptitude or leadership abilities to manage the game from the QB position. Well obviously that has been proven wrong. Maybe I’m just impatient but I’m getting a little tired of waiting to see some more Black head coaches on the sideline.

Addendum to Monday Football Musings - 9/19

2005-09-20T11:23:00.000-05:00

Saints
Song – Don’t Take It Personal - Monica

“Just one of those days, that a team goes thru…..”, yep thats about it. I really don’t want to discuss the game; basically the Saints just didn’t play well. It happens in the NFL at times. And considering the circumstances the Saints are playing under it will probably happen again this year. However I was getting tired of the NFL shenanigans about this being a Saints home game, who cares if you painted the field or had N.O. musicians play before the game or even if the crowd cheered for the Saints when they came out, it was still a NFL road game for the Saints. Aaron Brooks said it best I think,

“People are making [decisions] and we don't have no say so. We didn't want to come out here. Don't get me wrong. They beat our [butts]. But who the hell in our organization would agree to a home game in New York?....I hope they raised enough money for the city and the evacuees. But don't patronize us though, try to make us feel good. Don't do that. That's all it was about. It was a bigger stage than the Super Bowl damn near. We start that game, 60,000 people rooting for the Giants. Don't get it twisted."

Good stuff Aaron, I’m even gonna let those 3 interceptions and that horrible fumble slide, at least for this week.

Also, the Sunday Night ESPN crew that worked the game is horrible. We’ve all known this for years but I just wanted to state the fact again. Actually there is one exception, I think Suzy Kolber is pretty good and she’s really cute, just ask Joe Nameth.

Monday Football Musings - 9/19

2005-09-19T15:21:00.000-05:00

I was debating whether to wait until Tuesday, but I’ll go for it anyway.

Saints – playing a home game tonight against the New York Football Giants. I’m picking the Saints, because, well I always do.

LSU - off this past week, big home game against the U of Tennessee this week. Should be fun, can’t wait to tailgate. ESPN College Gameday is coming, hopefully this new storm, Rita won’t head this way. I hate to sound selfish and insensitive to those caught in Katrina’s vast matrix of destruction, but I need some LSU football in Tiger Stadium, ASAP.

Southern – (game recap) I was going to attend this game, but the combo of having to work all day Saturday and shady weather kept me from making it across town to the yard to catch the game. Besides, they were playing Prairie View, they have not beaten SU in about 30 years, well actually they haven’t beaten a lot of people in a long time. But they are getting better, so they say. Anyway the score was 3-0 at halftime. Now SU did finally win 38-0 and I’m happy they won but I do have 3 concerns: 1) At home you generally should be able to drop more than 3 points in one half on a school like Prairie View, 2) only running for 51 yards on PV isn’t very good, combined with 30 yards last week and the running game has to get better, and 3) Apparently Grambling just got facebook, my cousin out there sent me a message…so when is Southern gonna get hooked up with facebook, ok so its not related to Southern football but I just felt like putting it here. On the good side, sophomore QB J.C. Lewis had a good game.
song: because I've been working my butt off today and I'm freakin tired, same song from last week, come on Jags, "Let's Straighten It Out"

Random Football Notes:
I watched about half of the Florida St. – Boston College game. BC showed out well in their first ACC game, I’ll attribute the loss to “growing pains”. This week is gonna be hectic but I may write more about it later. BC right now reminds me a little of LSU’s 1996 and 1997 teams under Dinardo and the 2000 team under Saban.

I don’t like USC, but dayymmee, they put it down on the Razorbacks, dropped 70 on ‘em. 28-0 like three minutes into the game, that’s nasty.

I checked out a little OU-UCLA. OU’s gonna struggle this year. I know he caught a lotta hell for bad championship game performances vs. LSU and USC in consecutive years, but I bet most OU fans would love to have no-knees Jason White back. As far as UCLA, beat USC this year and I’m on the boat. Plus I also rooted for UCLA because their coach is a brother. Is that good or bad? I need to write more on this at some point.

Didn’t get to watch much NFL this week, but gonna try to catch both games tonight.

AstroWorld, I'll Miss You

2005-09-14T13:12:00.000-05:00

"Now after 37 years, the landmark Six Flags AstroWorld theme park will close at the end of this season, the victim of rising land values that overshadow its worth as an entertainment venue."
rest of article

Most folks will yawn at this, but AstroWorld/WaterWorld in Houston is closing this year. Other than a horrifying experience as a 5 year old on Space Mountain in Disneyland (I had to use the bathroom and I was told to get to all of the restrooms you had to get on the ride), AstroWorld is where I really started to love riding roller coasters. I admit it was a little run down, but it was still fun. We would normally go on a weekday when it wasn’t crowded, on days like that the longest line was only about 15 minutes, some coasters you could ride over and over again with basically no wait. I could probably navigate the park with my eyes closed if needed. I would say Greased Lightning (sp) and the Texas Cyclone were my two favorite old coasters; I was also partial to the Batman coaster. Growing up I probably made at least one trip there each summer. When I was a little kid I also liked Looney Toons Land. We would normally stay in the Marriot, now Sheraton across the street, then catch the shuttle to the park. Going to Houston, AstroWorld and maybe WaterWorld, then if the Astros were in town catching a baseball game in the Astrodome was pretty much a summer ritual. I’ll miss that old park right off I-610. Maybe there will be a silver lining in this, if the New Orleans Six Flags ever reopens maybe they could move some of the AstroWorld rides there.

Monday Football Musings

2005-09-12T14:47:00.000-05:00

I’m gonna try and start doing this each Monday, write a little bit about each of the three football teams I constantly follow and maybe a few other random bits. At the end I’ll put a song that I think about when writing for each team. I my even name this piece of writing if I can think of something snappy.

LSU – first off, I hate watching games like this, they seem to take years off your life. That being said, it was a great win. Now a lot of LSU fans were upset about the game, but I look at it this way, less than a week before the game LSU found out they had to travel 1400 miles for a home game, then they were playing a top 15 team (which I think Arizona St. proved they are) basically on the road, who was actually the favorite. I don’t have the time to look it up but I would imagine when higher ranked teams (LSU was #5) who are underdogs according the line play top 15 teams on the road, the higher ranked team normally loses. Adding into the mix this was LSU’s first game of the season, it was a great win. Yeah the defense got lit up, but I prefer to focus on the positives, really good special teams play, great effort throughout and a really good game by the young QB, Russell.
Song: I Won’t Complain – Rev. Paul Jones

Southern – Almost similar situation to LSU, SU was the better team, but they were playing on the road after their opener was postponed. SU played Mississippi Valley State U., in Itty Bitty, Mississippi, well actually in Itta Bena, Mississippi, but Itta Bena, Mississippi is a very Itty Bitty city in Mississippi, so I call Itta Bena, Mississippi, Itty Bitty, Mississippi. (try saying that sentence 5 times fast). Now I didn’t see the game (ESPN generally doesn’t generally jump to cover black college football) and I missed the replay. I did catch about a quarter on the radio. And like LSU, this was a close game, but the Jags came up short in the end. MVSU’s QB is as Miss St. transfer, very talented, and he had an amazing game. That was the difference; SU couldn’t stop him when it mattered. PS. I’m sure Southern’s band, the “Human Jukebox” showed up, they always bring it.
Song: Let’s Straighten It Out – Kenny Latimore although I think BB King broke it out first

Saints – yep, they did da thang on Sunday. Not only did they win, but they looked going doing it. Deuce ran hard, Aaron was very consistent and he made plays when had too. That’s all I ask, play hard, and make plays when you can. I don’t want to get too high on them yet, I’ve been through this drill before, but they beat a good team (Carolina) on the road. Much love to the Saints. Just keep it up fellas.
Song: They All Ask For You - Meters

Random Thoughts:
-Good job Miami and Nick Saban, although we miss you in the Purple and Gold.
-Texas played a good game in beating Ohio State, but you gotta beat Oklahoma before I get excited.
-Speaking of Ohio State, Big 10 is not looking very good, the 3 best teams in the conference all get beat, all basically playing at home, not good.
-Tamara, your Browns are gonna be ok, just give’em some time. I promise.
-UMichigan, great performance against Notre Dame, keep this up I'm and I 'm gonna jump off the 20 year Maize and Blue bandwagon I've been on.

Letting It Out

2005-09-06T15:53:00.000-05:00

I will preface this post by saying I truly have nothing to complain about compared to many of my South Louisiana brethren without shelter, food, employment, or loved ones. But I must say this storm has profoundly affected my life. I normally don’t write all personal like this, it makes me feel too self-conscious. But here I go, just me, no humor (not that there ever is much anyway):

- I’ve felt like breaking down and crying a number of times the past week, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed, I feel for those displaced and I love the city of New Orleans, at times it feels like I’ve lost a family member…
- I had to stop watching most of the news stories about New Orleans. I still keep up in the paper and online, but the images started to affect me too much…
- Volunteering at an evacuee shelter is a great idea and very appreciated by those in need, on other hand it is a gut-wrenching scene that stays with you……
- On the same note its weird watching people who have been culturally sheltered deal with trying to help those who are in need, but at least they try…
- With the BR population exploding in the past week I now have to get up earlier to deal with traffic, its insane, I feel like I’m in Houston or ATL all of a sudden…
- Work has been good and bad. With all of the relocated people here we will have a lot of new business; in turn I have worked everyday since last Tuesday and some days 10, 11, and 12 hours. I generally like my job but I’ve been here too much…
- I’m still trying to get by the gym when I can and I’ve managed to play tennis a few times the past week, but I seem to wake up always feeling tired and moopish…
- My most recent romantic adventure has ended, it was a very amicable split, but it leaves me wondering if I’m capable of dating any women for more than a few weeks…
- The main way I know things are different is that I’m not into football season yet. I live for this time of year (see here), but I just can’t get into it so far. It doesn’t help that LSU has not played yet and doesn’t have a home game until maybe September 24^th(well technically this weekend is a home game, just 1400 miles from campus) . On top of that I can’t even tell you who made the Saints final roster. Maybe it just takes time, I’m sure I’ll get back on the boat soon…
- And last, I’m making it ok, God is good, I have a great life and some awesome friends – you know who you are

Report From New Orleans

2005-09-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

I received this email from my friend Stacy, who is a LSU Medical School graduate and is in residency in New Orleans. Quite an amazing report, great job Stacey.

hey all.
very exhausted this afternoon after my first good sleep in 6 days.
i had the privilege of taking care of my patients at university hospital during the hurricane and that was truly an unforgettable experience. after 4 days without A/C and 3 days without running water, I can gladly say it is good to be home.

we delivered babies by flashlight and sat around watching the helicopters pass us by as we comforted new moms and held newborn babies to keep them warm.

supplies got low, antibiotics ran out, but somehow we finally got everyone out on Friday. The most scary experience I have ever been through...thankful to be alive.

University and Charity Hospitals are a disaster...an island in the middle of a sewer about 9 feet high. The campus is just destroyed....it was an unbelievable site to see as I was carried out by airboat on friday.

will keep all of you posted. please stay in touch and keep everyone who lost homes and lives in your prayers. John and I's house survived and we are very thankful. we look forward to seeing any of your faces in the coming weeks as the relief effort in BR and surrounding areas will be a tough one.

miss all of you-
stacey

Keeping Things In Perspective

2005-09-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

Good Afternoon, I feel ok today. Not great, but ok is more than good enough considering the circumstances. First, if anyone around the BR reads this, go to LSU to volunteer at the shelters. From what we are hearing they can use all the help they can get.

Now, I was in a horribly foul mood yesterday. I rarely, rarely ever get this way. But the circumstances were just too much. The disaster scene in New Orleans, working 11 and 12 hours days only taking trouble calls, not having electrical power at home, worrying about friends, it just can pile up. And I was extremely aggravated, I would actually say pissed about the news coverage of events in New Orleans. I know a lot of people are still in the city and there is some crime and looting going on, but those people are only a small minority of the people left in the city. Most are just trying to do whatever they need to do to survive. But the media is scaring people with the images they constantly show. And this suggestion some people chose not to leave so they could loot afterwards, yeah there may have been a few, but most who stayed did so because they had no means of transportation to leave, or they had nowhere to go. There are some serious social and economical paradigms that have been at work over the past 50 years in New Orleans that have to be considered in this situation. Basically what I am saying is most of the people still there are law- abiding citizens, they are just scared and upset because they are trapped. We need to understand this. Now I am in not way justifying shooting at cops or even looting, but these people are trying to stay alive. What would you do in the same situation? Nuff ranting for now.

By the time yesterday afternoon rolled around after 10 hours of work I was worn out. I have two friends I generally email at least once and day and another I exchange IM’s with, but I didn’t even feel like writing these individuals, I was in such a negative mood. About 5:30, I get a call from one of our customers from New Orleans, a woman from Ohio who worked conventions in the city. Apparently the only possessions she was able to bring with her were a purse and cell phone that didn’t work. She was staying with some friends in Baton Rouge who were still out of power and she had not been able to contact her family. I could tell she was about to breakdown, technically I shouldn’t have done this, but I got with my boss, used some top secret stuff :) to find her aunt’s phone number in Ohio. I then called her aunt in Ohio, then put them in a conference call and let them talk. It was the first time that she had any contact with her family since the hurricane. I’m generally not an emotional dude, but they were crying and I started to tear up at first. I didn’t stay in the conference to listen, that may have opened the gates. I know it was only one small thing, but after than all my negativity just washed away. The smile was back. And about 10 minutes later I found out my power was back on. Its amazing how one event can turn a crappy day around. The rest of my evening was much better, went to the gym, worked out for bit, then got on the bike and checked out this one girl with the most amazing legs and another girl that is a promo model for Budweiser (I’m a guy, I should have this liberty every so often, and I know both of them so that helps). Then I went and played tennis with a friend. Lastly went home, with power and AC finally. I’m blessed, still mad about some things and still saddened about the hurricane, but still blessed. Oh, pretty much all of my friends from the N.O. area are safe as are most of their families. I’ll say it one last time, I’m blessed.

Good Site for New Orleans Updates

2005-08-31T17:17:00.000-05:00

I added a new link under other blogs for a New Orleans Metroblog. Metroblogging seems like a good concept, if you look on the site they have links to blogs for other cities. After reading some of the post a few are kinda negative and harsh, but the information and updates are better than anything on FoxNews, CNN, and most of the local stations.

http://neworleans.metblogs.com/

In Death Valley

2005-08-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

Don't tell anyone about this photo, it was taken about 12:45 am Monday morning.

New Orleans, Where Are You

2005-08-30T16:56:00.000-05:00

This is becoming sickening. I’m almost getting the feeling the New Orleans I’ve grown to love is disappearing before my eyes. We’re also hearing reports Grand Isle has vanished. I guess all we can do is pray. I was going to write about my exploits from Sunday night, but just not in the mood at the moment. Work has been hell also today. I’m gonna work about 11 ½ hours today, need to stop by the gym after work, blow off some steam. And prepare for another night without AC. But at least I do have a roof over my head and dry ground to walk on. Thats enough to help me work out a little smile.

We Survived Katrina

2005-08-30T09:18:00.000-05:00

My family and I are ok. I lost power about 10 am yesterday, but that’s just a minor inconvenience right now compared to a lot of people along the gulf coast from Mobile to New Orleans. My heart aches for the people of South Louisiana and the city of New Orleans. I’ve lived there, I still visit the city often, and many of my friends and their families reside there. It will take a while for the city to dry out, but in the long run the city will recover. The resiliency of the people here will amaze you. What they show on TV is complete devastation, but people will pull thru.

When I have time I will try to relate some of my experiences over the past few days.

Hurricane Katrina Update

2005-08-28T23:51:00.000-05:00

It's windy, rained some earlier but no rain at the moment. Of course I really don't care. I would guess one hurricane drink, a six pack of beer, a shot of Patron, a shot called a New York M..... F....., and a shot called a Scobie something will do that to you (not saying I did all that, but if by chance I did). I'm about to go to Tiger Stadium. No reason why, just meeting some people there. Have a great day.

Louisiana Hurricane Season Notes

2005-08-28T16:28:00.000-05:00

And now a little humor, if anyone knows who wrote this let know and I will give them credit.

To ex-Louisianaians, present Louisianaians, and future Louisianaians:

We're about to enter the peak of the hurricane season. Any day now, you're going to turn on the TV and see a weather person pointing to some radar blob out in the Gulf of Mexico and making two basic meteorological points:
(1) There is no need to panic.
(2) We could all be killed.
Yes, hurricane season is an exciting time to be in Louisiana. If you're new to the area, you're probably wondering what you need to do to prepare for the possibility that we'll get hit by "the big one.''
Based on our experiences, we recommend that you follow this simple three-step hurricane preparedness plan:
STEP 1. Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.
STEP 2. Put these supplies into your car.
STEP 3. Drive to Nebraska and remain there until Halloween.
Unfortunately, statistics show that most people will not follow this sensible plan. Most people will foolishly stay here in Louisiana. We'll start with one of the most important hurricane preparedness items:

HOMEOWNERS' INSURANCE: If you own a home, you must have hurricane insurance. Fortunately, this insurance is cheap and easy to get, as long as your home meets two basic requirements:
(1) It is reasonably well-built, and
(2) It is located in Nebraska.
Unfortunately, if your home is located in South Louisiana, or any other area that might actually be hit by a hurricane, most insurance companies would prefer not to sell you hurricane insurance, because then they might be required to pay YOU money, and that is certainly not why they got into the insurance business in the first place. So you'll have to scrounge around for an insurance company, which will charge you an annual premium roughly equal to the replacement value of your house. At any moment, this company can drop you like used dental floss. Since Hurricane George, I have had an estimated 27 different home-insurance companies. This week, I'm covered by the Bob and Big Stan Insurance Company, under a policy which states that, in addition to my premium, Bob and Big Stan are entitled, on demand, to my kidneys.

SHUTTERS: Your house should have hurricane shutters on all the windows, all the doors, and -- if it's a major hurricane -- all the toilets. There are several types of shutters, with advantages and disadvantages:
Plywood shutters: The advantage is that, because you make them yourself, they're cheap. The disadvantage is that, because you make them yourself, they will fall off.
Sheet-metal shutters: The advantage is that these work well, once you get them all up. The disadvantage is that once you get them all up, your hands will be useless bleeding stumps, and it will be December.
Roll-down shutters: The advantages are that they're very easy to use, and will definitely protect your house. The disadvantage is that you will have to sell your house to pay for them. "Hurricane-proof'' windows: These are the newest wrinkle in hurricane protection: They look like ordinary windows, but they can withstand hurricane winds! You can be sure of this, because the salesman says so. He lives in Nebraska.
Hurricane Proofing Your Property: As the hurricane approaches, check your yard for movable objects like barbecue grills, planters, patio furniture, visiting relatives, etc.. You should, as a precaution, throw these items into your swimming pool (if you don't have a swimming pool, you should have one built immediately). Otherwise, the hurricane winds will turn these objects into deadly missiles.

EVACUATION ROUTE: If you live in a low-lying area, you should have an evacuation route planned out. (To determine whether you live in a low-lying area, look at your driver's license; if it says ``Louisiana,'' you live in a low-lying area.) The purpose of having an evacuation route is to avoid being trapped in your home when a major storm hits. Instead, you will be trapped in a gigantic traffic jam several miles from your home, along with two hundred thousand other evacuees. So, as a bonus, you will not be lonely.

HURRICANE SUPPLIES: If you don't evacuate, you will need a mess of supplies. Do not buy them now! Louisiana tradition requires that you wait until the last possible minute, then go to the supermarket and get into vicious fights with strangers over who get the last can of SPAM. In addition to food and water, you will need the following supplies:
23 flashlights
At least $167 worth of batteries that turn out, when the power goes off, to be the wrong size for the flashlights.
Bleach. (No, I don't know what the bleach is for. NOBODY knows what the bleach is for, but it's traditional, so GET some!)
A 55-gallon drum of underarm deodorant.
A big knife that you can strap to your leg. (This will be useless in a hurricane, but it looks cool.)
A large quantity of raw chicken, to placate the alligators. (Ask anybody who went through Camille; after the hurricane, there WILL be irate alligators.)
$35,000 in cash or diamonds so that, after the hurricane passes, you can buy a generator from a man with no discernible teeth.

Of course these are just basic precautions. As the hurricane draws near, it is vitally important that you keep abreast of the situation by turning on your television and watching TV reporters in rain slickers stand right next to the ocean and tell you over and over how vitally important it is for everybody to stay away from the ocean. Good luck, and remember: It's great living in Paradise!

Hurricane Katrina

2005-08-28T16:10:00.000-05:00

Right now it’s about 4 pm on Sunday in Baton Rouge. The weather is sunny, hot, and extremely humid; pretty much your normal August afternoon in the South. Except today there is a monster storm out in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina, she looks like a bad mamma jamma. In fact on TV and radio I heard words like catastrophic and devastating. While I will admit the storm is awe-inspiring, this one is one of the few I would ever use the word “scary” to describe it.

I’ve been thru a number of storms living in South Louisiana, Hurricane Andrew about 13 or 14 years ago was probably the worst storm I’ve experienced. Thankfully we didn’t suffer much property damage other than our backyard fence getting blown away but we were out of power for 5 days. I’m hoping if/when we lose power it won’t take as long to fix it. I also hope New Orleans comes out ok; it could be pretty nasty there next week. And work (I work for a telecommunications company) will be pretty much hell on earth too. I don’t know if I will be back Tuesday or later, but I’m not looking forward to it. But all you can do is pray the damage is minimal. Of course, I can’t lose of track of the one really important thing, hoping that Tiger Stadium is ok for next Saturday, people here can tolerate a big storm, but if LSU can’t start their season on Saturday, you know it will get hot here quick :).

I hope to take some pictures, should be an interesting few days. Gonna try and get in some tennis this afternoon if the rain holds out. Oh if anyone emails or calls me give me a few days to get back at ya.

Random Thoughts for a Wednesday

2005-08-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

Gas is really expensive…Makes me love my Civic…Makes me hate my 50 mile round trip commute to work….Makes me appreciate that I don’t have a 150 mile round trip commute like some people I know living elsewhere….Makes me want to live somewhere I don’t have to drive to get to work

Partying with law school students can be fun, especially hot female law students.

It’s almost football season, which is a great thing.

Generally college bars are not my thing anymore. Drunk frat guys, snobby sorority chicks, way too crowded, not any good dance music, not my scene. I’m starting to become more of a piano bar type of person (don’t laugh). Of course I spend all my time in church nowadays.

Why do shot girls have to pin stickers and flashy lights on you? All that can do is get you in trouble with the girlfriend/wife when get home and forget to take it off (especially if you told her you were just going out to eat and grab a beer). And speaking of shots, who invented the Jell-O shot and why? And why did we never see Bill Cosby throw down a few of those in the old Jell-O commercials?

I need to take vacations like the President. I’m not saying he shouldn’t go to his ranch (thats another issue), but I just want to live like that, take weeks off at a time, head to the country, invite all my friends, and just chill out, drinking pink lemonade (yes I do).

"Midnight Train to Georgia" is a great song, and its really fun to sing harmony with Gladys while sitting in the car. However it's not a great karaoke song unless you can really sing and have great range (or being really drunk is a good substitute).

Pictures From the Shaw Center Roof

2005-08-17T14:53:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures I took last night from the roof of the Shaw Center. I put a link for the Center over in my links section. It is fast becoming my favorite place in BR to hang out. If you look really close behind the pictures of the old state capital you can see Tiger Stadium and my old dorm, good ole Kirby-Smith.

Air Jordans and Starter Jackets

2005-08-16T16:06:00.000-05:00

I was looking thru the most recent Eastbay catalog last night. Back when I actually needed to buy specialty athletic equipment, especially track spikes, Eastbay was the bomb. There were 3 items that caught my eye. First, they still sell strength shoes. I used those torture devices in high school for a while. They actually worked pretty well back then although in my present condition my vertical jump is more of a vertical hop. Second, they now have a decent selection of soccer jerseys. Of course you have the mandatory Adu D.C. United jersey and also Beckham & Ronaldo’s Real Madrid jerseys, but I really liked Thierry Henry Arsenal jersey. If I find some spare change in the car or under my bed I may pick that up. Last, they now have about 25 different Air Jordan shoes. The even have Air Jordan sandals. I remember back in the day when they came out with one new pair about every 7 or 8 months if that. What happened to those days? My parents wouldn’t let me get them because they were afraid someone would shoot me and take my shoes. Remember back in the day if you had new Jordans and a Starter jacket old folks thought you were dealing. In fact I didn’t get my first and only pair of Jordan’s until after he retired the first time. And I still have my first starter jacket somewhere. It does not even get that cold here, but I remember back in middle school, if it dropped below 60 degree, we were pulling out the starters. Who started that fad?

Typical New Orleans Saints

2005-08-16T10:10:00.000-05:00

Yes these are my 2005 New Orleans Saints. I know its only preseaon but still, in case you can't tell #5 is the QB, not # 41, which means McPherson got his hands in the wrong big guy's butt. But again, its only preseason, no need to worry? Right?

Random Ramblings and Barry White

2005-08-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

I had a very enjoyable weekend, three things stood out, 1) the excruciating 35 minutes pool game with Kat, Rachel, and Tamara and Mike (yes we had 5 people playing at one point), 2) Saturday night at Slinky’s and my new hat (speaking of, Brandon, I know your gonna read this, do you still have your red Wild Turkey hat from Mike’s birthday down in N.O. that night, I think everyone else has lost theirs), and also the following. I was listening to KBRH Saturday afternoon, one of the two radio stations that is run by my old high school. The format is generally jazz, but on Saturday they have different theme shows, the show which I was listening to at the time featured music from the 60’s and 70’s, mainly soul, R&B, and pop. The DJ’s were playing some songs from 1975, that’s a little before my time but I was digging it. I digress for a sec, I went out with this girl, I guess it’s been awhile ago now, at some point we started talking about music. We talked for awhile, and then later went out dancing and other stuff. We had someone similar musical taste, at one point she told me she thought I had the soul of someone from the 70’s. She meant it as a compliment although I would consider myself more of a 80’s and 90’s hip-hop head, but I love to hear music from my parents generations which would included the 1960’s and 1970’s. Ok, back on point now. Just as I’m driving into the parking lot at the gym they played a song by the late Barry White, “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything.” It must have been mood I was in, I just let go for few minutes. I parked, rolled down the window, and started singing harmony with Barry. Two girls and this older man walked by and happened to see me singing. I didn’t care, I mean I know I can’t blow like Barry, and I didn’t know a few of the words, but it was refreshing, relaxing, rehabilitating. That song put me in good mood all day. I believe that is the power of good music, and singing along to good music. I had an email discussion with a friend talking about karaoke last week, I’m gonna list my favorite karaoke songs at some later date.

Hustle and Flow

2005-08-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

I had Thursday afternoon off, I went to lunch with an old college buddy, then went to CC’s to drink some coffee, and then I decided to head to the movies to catch a matinee by myself. First, whatever happened to the days when you could take $5 to the movies, get a ticket and a candy bar (or stop by Wendy’s before and get Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger to sneak in, not saying I ever did that.) The movie was nearly $6, and they wonder why Hollywood folks complain about people not going to the movies as much. Now I don’t actually think price is the main issue, the product generally hasn’t been that good lately. Stop doing crappy remakes of old movies, tired and clichéd sequels, and remakes of old TV shows and people may go out to the movie more. Said my peace on that.

Back to topic, I watched Hustle and Flow yesterday. It was actually pretty good. I gotta give Terrance Howard (DJay) a shout out, he did a good job. His character was smart, articulate, and thoughtful, though if given a professional title he would be called a drug-dealing pimp. Needless to say he was not a saint, but I did manage to feel for his character at times. And although the movie was driven by DJay the women in the movie played very integral parts, in fact his rap dreams coming true depended as much on his ho’s as it did his ability to spit lyrics. The way the movie unfolded really kept me interested in all of the characters and their interactions with each other.

Two things I really dug, One, I loved the scenery in the movie. It just felt authentic to me, especially the scenes driving through the hood and the shotgun houses. Two, I also really dug the music, not really the rap but the more the blues and r&b mixed in during many scenes. Overall it was a very good flick, I enjoyed it.

It's Football Season - Let's Go Crazy

2005-08-04T12:43:00.000-05:00

Note: this is why I like blogs, people like me can write stuff like this:

Yes it is finally August. During the past 2 months occasionally I will hear comments like "it’s getting close to football season" or on a cooler day something like "it’s starting to feel like football weather." I honestly try to not talk too much about football until August but now its football time. And I am a football fanatic, I feel like I lose my mind slightly each year when this time rolls around. I have 3 main teams I root for -- the LSU Tigers, Southern Jaguars, New Orleans Saints, and I also am partial to few others -- Michigan Wolverines, the defending Super Bowl Champs - LSU at Cape Cod (in honor of Kev, Ro, Jarvis, Randall, Marquise, Eric) and maybe also the Cleveland Browns, aka the Kellen Winslow Soldiers (that’s for you Tamara). My whole routine changes once August begins. At work I read LSU message boards all the time looking for a bit of gossip or inside info. While in the car instead of listening to NPR or some music I’ll listen to some fat white guys talk about LSU, the Saints, or even occasionally Southern (but only if the bands get in a fight at halftime, one of the whites guy on the team messes up, a player from LSU transfers there, the coach gets fired, or its Bayou Classic week). I start to plan my weekends around tailgating and watching football. I’ll stay outside all day in a thunderstorm to watch a game with 92,000+ other crazy people. I tailgate with some more crazy people who call ourselves the “Pirates of Death Valley”. I occasionally tailgate with some guys whose tailgating group is named after a bench in the stadium. But I love it. And that is just Saturday. On Sunday morning (if I’m not going to the Dome) at church even if the preacher is preaching good and everybody is shouting and getting happy sometimes I’ll check my watch about 11:45 and start to think, “Preacher, your doing good but let’s wrap this up, kickoff is at 12:05 and I want to catch at least half of the first quarter, your supposed to be preaching on the 10 commandments but you ain’t even crossed the Red Sea yet” (like none of you have done this in church). And I won’t even get into fantasy football and gambling other than to say I don’t gamble, I learned my lesson in elementary school when I bet my friend $5 Denver would beat Washington in the Super Bowl, that was 1987 I think, but some people out there can’t wait to bet on their teams or any team (including one of my friends which I won’t name, we went to the New Orleans Bowl last year to watch North Texas and Southern Miss, he kept cheering for each team on defense, apparently he bet (and won) on the over-under for total yards… go figure).

I was trying to think of something to compare the way I think of football season so being the music lover I am I figured I would find a song to use. This song immediately popped into my head, Let’s Go Crazy by Prince. If you listen to the words its pretty weird, but it’s a great dance song with a cool beat and rock and roll sound, but still carries a lot of funk.

August is like the opening of Let’s Go Crazy, you know the creepy first part of the song with the organ and Prince talking about weird stuff. You can’t really dance to that part so you and the girl you asked to dance just have to stand there and wait. See in August all you have is fall camp and crappy preseason games, you know it’s gonna get fun once the season starts, just need some real games to get you started.

Then the guitar part comes in your ready to get down. Now you can finally dance. Even if you’re not a good dancer you and this girl get out there and let it go. See now you finally have games, tailgating, football parties, life is good and even if your team sucks at this point in the season they still have a chance.

Now it’s getting to the middle of the song where the groove is really kicking in. You still have no clue what Prince is talking about but you’re dancing, singing, hopefully having a good time with this girl. Or you’re ready to run. It’s the middle of the season now, your still enjoying football season, and hopefully your team is playing well. If not at least you still have hope for a mid-season turnaround. Or it could be bad news like your star QB or RB just got hurt, or even worse Josh Booty has 2 guys wide, I mean wide open in the end zone but instead he tries to jump into the end zone from the 10 yard line with 10 seconds left and gets stopped against Alabama (no, I’m not still mad). Then it sucks.

Finally you reach the end of the song; you know the part where the rhythm slows and the songs turns all bluesy. By this point it is near the end of season, November/December for college, December/January for NFL. There are 3 possible scenarios at this point.

1) You’re tired, you can’t help but think the song is too long, you don’t really like the girl you’re dancing with, you just want the song to be over so you can move on to something else. By now your team is playing out the string after a bad season so you start watching more basketball or waiting for baseball season (i.e. pretty much all my years as a Saints fan...edit until 2006, Sean Payton is King).

2) The girl you’re dancing with is kinda cute, you’re having a relatively good time, you think there maybe potential, you don’t want to get your hopes up but your thinking maybe its something you can work on. See your team still has chance to make it a good year, they may need a few big wins or some other teams to lose a game or two but they’re still in it for now.
You don’t have a lot of hope but you’re a die hard fan and you have to still believe -- the ultimate tease team -- (i.e. the rest of my years as a Saints fan, for example 2002 – start the season 6-1, start December at 9-4 needing to win one game to get in the playoffs, win 2 or 3 and you have a home playoff game, your last 3 opponents combined records for that year, 15 wins, 33 loses, guess what happened (btw I didn’t Google this info, I vividly remember, and I can tell you the 3 teams and generally how they lost each game), or

3) you’re dancing with a really hot chick who you actually have a shot with, and you get to hold her close now that the songs slows down, you wish the song would never end, but when it does your sure the next song will be even better and the whole night can’t help but get better. See now your team is bowling (hopefully BCS) on New Year’s Day or you rolling through the playoff with an eye on the big game (i.e. LSU in 2003, I think a National Championship will do it).

My expectations this year, LSU a #3, Southern a good #2, the Saints – oh man I know it won’t happen, but I’m a die hard, #3 baby. Still don’t know what Prince is talking but – “are we gonna let de elevator bring us down, Oh no let’s go, go crazy”

Crash

2005-07-30T20:37:00.000-05:00

I wanted to go see Crash at the movies, but unfortunately it wasn’t showing around here anymore so I had to watch a bootleg DVD from the internet. Anyway Friday night I got together with a few friends and watched the movie. I would very much recommend it to anyone. The movie is very powerful. At times I did think there was too much going on and the scenes would change too often, but it was still entertaining and extremely thought provoking. It is probably not the type of movie you would want to watch after drinking a six pack of Abita Amber, but they type of movie you rather watch, they go get a cup of coffee and talk about it with your friends.

Among the many strengths of this movie is an amazing cast including Don Cheadle (btw, I know he was good in this movie, Hotel Rwanda, Oceans 11 and Traffic, but I think his best performance was the doctor on ER with Parkinson’s, give the brother an Emmy already), Sandra Bullock, Terrance Howard, Thania Newton, Matt Dillon, Brendon Fraser, plus many others. But the one actor who stood out the most to me was Chris Bridges, better known as Ludacris. I’m not a big fan of the current crop of rappers turned actors, but Luda impressed me. And his speech in the car where he talks about what is wrong with black folks then goes on a diatribe about how rap has damaged the community was amazing. This is coming from an artist known for lyrics such as “move bitch, get out tha way” and “I got ho’s in different area codes”. In the scene he is in essence lampooning his own music (ok, maybe I look too much into this stuff). Some of the other dialogue and images from the movie were also amazing. I thought the Dillon’s and Howard’s characters were a little over the top, but everything else was on point. I won’t write too much right now, I know I’ll watch it again in the next few days and probably write more, it seems like the type of movie that each time you watch it you will pick up something new. Go see it if you have the chance.

My Foot

2005-07-26T21:05:00.000-05:00

I have nothing important to write about at the moment other than my foot. Yep, my swollen right foot. I have a rather huge and painful blister between the 2nd and 3rd toe of my right foot. I think it started with a fire ant bite or something. I even went to the doctor, got some antibiotics to prevent infection and i'll be hooked on Advil for another few days. Unfortunately since I'm limping around in pain I probably won't be doing any running for a few days or playing tennis. But life is still good. May even get up and go workout tomorrow morning. If you see the guy hoping around on one foot, yep thats me.

Shockingly Awful

2005-07-20T10:37:00.000-05:00

Short message...

I was listening to a new Master P track today. I had heard a couple others before. I think i had been fooling myself into thinking Silk the Shocker was getting better as a rapper. But not so much though. Same ol Silk.

Eyes On The Prize

2005-07-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

http://pbsvideodb.pbs.org/resources/eyes/

I’m sure most people have at least seen one part of this amazing series, if not, they should. Apparently it is really hard to get a hold of which is a shame. I’ve found some info, but I would like to buy the whole series, especially if it comes out on DVD.

http://www.eyesontheprize.info/

I’ve said when I have kids once they get old enough I would sit down with them every few years and watch the whole series. Just a reminder of how far America has come and how far we still have left to go. So even though it won’t be anytime soon, if you wanna get me a good wedding gift grab this series for me, hopefully it will out on DVD by then (wait we're talking about me, it will be, or even on the next generation of media).

Showtime At The Apollo (late 80’s/early 90’s)

2005-07-11T20:01:00.000-05:00

I generally don’t watch a lot of TV. Especially right now since football season hasn’t started yet. I’m probably one the few people in America who has never watched a whole episode of any reality TV show other than a few random late 90’s episodes of Real World. But I have a new favorite TV show. The past few weeks I’ve been watching it at 12:30 am Saturday night (yes, I know back in the day I was just warming up the club at 12:30 Saturday night, how things change). One station here has been showing replays of Showtime at The Apollo from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Why do I like it:
GREAT HOST – nothing against Steve Harvey and Mo’nique (they did, are doing a great job), but nothing beats Sinbad with crazy outfits and Mark Curry (always Mr. Cooper). I’ve just always liked those cats. On Sinbad, still waiting for the A Different World reunion, easily one of my top 10 (another topic) sitcoms of all time
GREAT CROWD – I can’t say I’ve watched a lot of the newer shows, but when I have the crowd just doesn’t really seem in it. Not like back in the day when everyone would rush the front of the stage and people would just go wild.
GREAT PERFORMERS – In the past 3 weeks I’ve seen: Biz Markie, Eric B. and Rakim (yeah boy they tore it up), Maxi Priest, Das Efx, 20 year old Chris Tucker, Bill Bellamy, Living Colour, among others.
WILDER AMATUER HOUR – Lately it seems like they only have 1 or even no bad acts that get booed off. But one show Sandman got the first 3 performers. Seems like a nicer crowd now. Also had Kiki Shepard before she got some upgrades and sold out to start her own show.
LESS GIMMICKS – I like it the original way, no kids amateur hour (ain’t no fun if you can’t boo, I don’t care if they are 9….don’t step on the stage if you ain’t good), no dance contest, just music, amateur hour, comedians, I like that formula.
WILD FASHION – I can’t say enough about this, green and yellow suits, polka dots, wild colors, I wouldn’t wear any of that stuff now but I don’t mind seeing others do
GREAT HAIR – J-curls, flattops, big hair, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, also saw a few of these - remember the 2 color fades, bottom was black, top was brown, can’t beat that

About a month or two ago on NPR they had a discussion about the history of the Apollo and a book that was written about it. I just ordered a copy, should be great reading.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-05-28/music_roundup10.html

"Being" Ghetto

2005-07-11T10:07:00.000-05:00

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/weathersbee707

I recently watched the reality Being Bobby Brown on Bravo. After watching Bobby and Whitney's antics on TV, i truly realize they are deserving of each other. Maybe it's acting on TV, maybe it's real, I'm not sure, but those two are a match made in the ghetto. I was very surprised at the way Whitney was acting. I realized she's just as ghetto as Bobby. Plus she's rail then and sort of unattractive. Those two were just cutting up. At dinner, they ordered the entire menu it seems like. Bobby asked her if he could "impregnate her tonight" and Whitney replied, "you've been doing that every night," or something like that. This is over dinner. A preview of the next show showed them arguing and Bobby talking about being drunk or something. This show does nothing to positively depict black folks at all. It shows that our well to do folks are just as stereotypically bad as our poorer folks are portrayed. I know the purpose of reality TV isn't to fight for the cause of the race or anything, but "Being BB" is a step in the wrong direction. Of all people, why Bobby Brown. He's trying to get his career back? Whiney's career? This isn't going to help. Showing how they flaunt her wealth isn't cool to me. There's enough reality shows with rich white folks doing that. I don't need to see our reckless abuse of money.

I've only watched one episode, but hopefully I won't have the time or "good fortune" to watch another. The above article talks about another episode where Bobby spends time in jail. Pretty good.

Good Songs, Good Luck MC, & Hurricane Parties

2005-07-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

Underdog started this up over there, good topic.

http://politicalkarma.blogspot.com/2005/07/all-time-songs.html

Also totally unrelated, MC good luck in your triathlon Sunday.

And last, again totally unrelated, if Hurricane Dennis turns west Sunday we may be begging for many a hurricane party to occur.

NFL Best

2005-07-07T00:04:00.000-05:00

http://alltimesports.blogspot.com/2005/07/nfl-bests.html