Is This Thing On? Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
Umm, yeah, so the updates have been kinda sparse here lately.
Last night I was rocking the company loge for the Indians baseball game. Better times could not have been had and the nausea that I had this morning from the food that I ate was proof enough.
I went WAY off the diet at the ballgame, (and over the holiday weekend with bbq’s) but I am back on as of right now!
The spread at Jacob’s Field was quite awesome. The rolling hot dog dispenser that they have at 7-11 was overflowing with oversized ballpark dogs. There were toppings like onions, shredded cheese, and more than a variety of mustards.
Next to that there was a tray of ginormous hamburgers with just as many toppings. Three different types of sliced cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and sandwich topper dill pickles.
Next to that, there were chicken fingers in all their crusty, deep-fried, goodness with an assortment of sauces.
But it didn’t stop there . . .
There was a heated tray of taco beef, and nacho cheese surrounded by more toppings like salsa and guacamole and more nacho chips than you could possibly imagine.
After basically living on a vegetarian diet for the last 2 months, I can’t say that this did nice things to my oh-so-fragile stomach. I really thought I was going to ralph this morning. But it was so good to have a little bit of that tasty, unhealthy food.
Oh, and CC Sabathia won the game for the Tribe who finally got some relief pitching and some timely hitting.
The Company Line at The Symposium on June 3rd
All you Clevelanders should come on out to the show. Should be a good time. We are debuting two brand new songs for the first time!
Jerking in Cleveland Libraries
After seeing this porn-stachio’d dude, I can’t say that this surprises me. Getting nailed on the news is not good. Make sure you pay attention to the end of the video when this kid’s dad attacks the reporter and his camera man.
How About a Real Surprise Ending for Lost?
Why not REALLY surprise everyone with the final episode of the second season? Answer ALL the questions and end the franchise with some of the strongest material in an unprecedented move of going out on top that the television world has (n)ever seen? They wrap it up with a tidy little bow and leave the viewers with one of the greatest shows of all time when it is still riding high at its artistic peak. As much as I love the show, how could you begrudge the producers for just finishing it before they risk losing the audience?
How many shows do we remember that were good and then kind of went off into obscurity as they continued to dilute the shows with cast changes, storyline stretches and other problems? (Boston Public, Beverly Hills 90210, NYPD Blue, The X Files, and others)
Just once it would be great to see a show go out on top and blow everyone away in the process.
We all know why the content makers in television world never do that. The rewards for having a show run enough episodes to break into syndication are substantial. If a show can end up running five times a day on different channels like Cheers, Seinfeld and The Simpsons have done in the past, the windfall is enormous.
But for every one of those shows, there are at least ten others that hang on too long and end up diluting the quality that allowed for multiple seasons in the first place.
Anyway, I know that it is a veritable impossibility that anyone would have the stones to do this, but it was a thought that I had and I would have considered it one of the coolest, most brilliant moments in television history.
There Are No Moral Victories
Now it is officially over. The Cavaliers were suffocated right off the basketball court at the Palace in Detroit yesterday.
You could see it coming after the Cavs failed to clinch the series in a two point loss on Friday on their home court. This Pistons team is not the type to be beaten in a game 7 on their home court. And they weren’t.
They suffocated the Cavs in the second half holding them to only 23 points in the final two quarters. That, and the Cavs helped by shooting very poorly. But either way, the Pistons won. They were able to ward off what nearly was a huge choke job. The team that clearly dominated the regular season didn’t want to be shut down by a conference rival in round two. And they weren’t.
The majority of this team will be back next season. Lebron, Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao and others. Hopefully Lebron signs the max 5-year $75 million extension to stick with the Cavs until he is 26 years old. The key to the deal is that nobody can offer him more money under the rules of the NBA, and hopefully this year’s run showed enough commitment from the organization that they will try everything to win in Cleveland.
While I don’t believe in moral victories, this has been about as close to one as I can imagine. It clearly isn’t good enough to make it into the playoffs and past the first round only. I want a team that will challenge for titles year in and year out. At the same time, you can’t help but feel like this first trip to the playoffs since 1998 was a clear step forward. The Cavs beat the Wizards in a heavily contested game 7. They got smashed two games in a row and then showed some heart in ripping three straight from the team that is arguably the best team left in the entire playoffs. That doesn’t mean I will be celebrating or anything, but it does help fuel the hunger for the beginning of the next NBA season.
Lebron and the Cavs, Playing With House Money
I can remember my first trip to a casino like it was yesterday. As a freshman at Boston U I had never really gambled before. Back in high school in Cleveland, we spent our time going to rock shows or just hanging out in parking lots, but we never thought to have a poker night. In college, all that changed. One friend in particular was well-versed in the various forms of gambling, and he also happened to have a car. So, on a Friday, five of us hopped in an Isuzu Rodeo and headed for the middle of nowhere. Where? Upstate New York. Verona. Home of the Oneida Indian nation, just east of Syracuse.
It sucked getting there. I think it was just under a five hour drive. While spacious, the Isuzu liked to broadcast each bump in the road directly to your backside while sitting in the back seat. Regardless of the discomforts, our excitement couldn’t be calmed. For most of us this was our first jaunt into the world of legalized gambling. We pegged our driver with question after question about the finer points of playing blackjack.
“What if you have two 9’s and the dealer has a 6 showing?”
“What if you have two aces and the dealer is showing a face card?”
No number of questions and answers could have prepared us for that realization that we got when sitting at the table for the first time. Our fingers were shaking and the sweat started to form in places that only expel sweat from nervousness.
You are thinking, “I have five dollars on the table and it could be gone in a matter of seconds.”
Little did we know then that a five dollar table was rare due to the fact that most places consider that an extremely low level of play.
But once we all sat down at our first table and got those first few nervous hands out of the way, we learned to ride it out. We would lose and then we would win. All we had to do is recognize streaks and capitalize more on the winning ones than to explode on the losing ones.
Sure, we were all blown away at first.
Sure, some people didn’t ever find their way back from that first bad run of cards.
But there I was. I had started with $50 and I now had $250 sitting in front of me. I was now playing with house money. What should I do? Should I walk away and take a very valuable $200 of profit with me? Should I keep playing and hope to turn that into $500? Should I set a limit guaranteeing myself that I would walk away with at least $100 of the casino’s money?
This, my friends, is the position that the Cleveland Cavaliers are in right now in their series with the Detroit Pistons after going up 3-2 last night.
Don’t you remember your first gambling experience? Let me remind you.
You sit down at the table. You experience the initial shock of putting money on the table. You are dealt a 16, hit it, and bust with 26. These cards are cringeworthy. Maybe I am not cut out for gambling. Is everyone watching me? Is it hot in here?
(Game 1 Cavs lose by 27 points to go down 0-1.)
The cards start to turn and you make a little run. You get a 19 to the dealer’s 18, you push on a Blackjack and lose on a dealer 5 card draw of 21. Hey wait a minute did that guy just play those cards wrong?
(Game 2 Cavs lose by 6 with a nice comeback, but are down 0-2.)
The cards start to flow your way and you feel a little beginner’s luck coming on. You get a string of face cards and win two out of three with 20’s each time. When you get good cards, this game is much easier.
(Cavs win at home by 9 to bring series to 1-2.)
The streak continues, but the house appears to be gaining strength. You are still getting cards, but the house is matching you. You are pushing a lot, but just eek out the percentage of hands. I need more of those blackjacks.
(Cavs win by 2 in a nailbiter to tie series 2-2.)
You split 8’s against the dealer’s 10 and the dealer busts. You played the right way, but you could totally see yourself losing. For whatever reason, you won the hand. And then, BLACKJACK! I like those. They pay 3-2 odds!
(Cavs win by 2 in Detroit to take series lead 3-2.)
And that’s where the Cavs find themselves. The Cavs are up to $250 after bringing $50 to the table.
The one difference is that they aren’t allowed to get up and walk away.
The Cavs have to keep playing until the engine starts back up in that Isuzu and it is time to go home. They are playing with the house money. For now. As most gamblers find out, the trips to the casino beating the house are few and far between. The reason they put blackjack tables and slot machines in grandiose buildings is casinos bank a whole lot more money than they ever pay out.
So, the Cavs will keep plopping chips on the table. They are up right now, but it remains to be seen whether they can escape the big bad casino with their current bankroll intact.
For the record, I made it out of Turning Stone Casino up a couple hundred bucks on my first ever gambling trip. We will soon find out if Lebron and Company are so lucky.
Alleged Rapist Lookalike Contest
So, there is another guy who has now been charged in the Duke Lacrosse stripper rape case. (Who would have thought you would get to read those words here on this blog 6 months ago?)
I was reading the case and I found that he kinda looks like a lot of people. Here is one example.
Cavs vs. Pistons – Game 4 Tonight – Series Update
I had some thoughts about the series going forward and what has happened so far.
- At half-time of Game 3 when Lebron only had 2 points, the commentators were kind of critical saying that he needed to be more involved. That first half, Lebron was being double-teamed and pretty much every Piston on the court was watching him and leaning toward him in order to play help defense. Lebron saw this and had seven assists. This was the perfect way to play against a defense like that and all critical comments were unfounded.
- Rasheed Wallace has guaranteed a victory in game 4. This isn’t football and for whatever reason nobody in the NBA cares about bulletin board material. This statement doesn’t really give me any feelings on the game either way.
- The Cavs played well on Saturday, but as I said previously, they needed the Pistons’ help. While the Cavs played good defense, they can’t get all the credit for Detroit’s poor shooting. Give the Cavs credit for some of that and some of the turnovers and count the rest toward the Pistons beating themselves.
- As I said earlier the Pistons won’t shoot almost 60% from three for the whole series. They also probably won’t repeat the poor shooting performance from Saturday. They have too many weapons to let that happen in back to back games. Expect them to pick it up offensively in tonight’s game.
- This series has been defined by the Pistons being the aggressors and then it is just a matter of how well the Cavs react and change. It will be interesting to see what look the Pistons have tonight on defense and whether or not it will keep Lebron’s scoring quiet for another first half.
- Damn you Adelphia, for not having TNT HD in your cable package. Tonight I will be watching the stretched screen version of the game. I am addicted to HD programming and I really wish you had TNT’s HD channel. ARGH!
- I want the Cavs obviously, but if I had to bet on tonight’s game, straight up, I would assuredly take the Pistons. Anyone who says anything else, is a much bigger homer than I am quite optimistic about my teams even sometimes without enough good reasons.
Watch the Clerks 2 Trailer
You may not have liked Jersey Girl, but Kevin Smith is back with Clerks II. By the way, bonus points to those who can place the opening song that Jay is dancing to in this video. It gave me a riotous fit of laughter.
Chris Daughtry Erased From American Idol
I wrote that long article yesterday and posted it multiple places. At the end you will notice that I made a crack about Katharine winning votes if she showed more cleavage. I posted this article not only here at FilteringCraig.com but also at Blogcritics.org where I took a pounding from some of the AI fans for including looks in a “singing contest.”
I couldn’t possibly have disagreed with them more about this being an actual singing competition. I have plenty of things to point to from this season. Pickler got enough votes after stinking up the joint to stick around for an extra week even though her performance was horrendous and filled with mistakes. Ace’s tenure on the show should have been enough to tell everyone that this thing wasn’t just about singing.
Well, after last night, I feel completely and totally vindicated. (I realize a lot of you are sitting out there and going, “Well, duh! Of course it isn’t about the singing!” but trust me when I say that this needs to be said.) Chris Daughtry doesn’t receive enough votes and that portly, pitchy, cleavage monster with no adequate voice control named Katharine gets to continue. This doesn’t have much to do with singing talent.
And those of you who want to point to Taylor as a reason that it is about singing and not about personality and looks, I would ask you this question. Is Taylor kind of a popular guy because he doesn’t look like anyone else? Have you ever heard of an anti-hero? He is popular because of his grey hair and the lack of pop sensibilities when he is onstage. He is like the clean-cut anti Justin Timberlake. It is kind of a reverse philosophy, but I would guess that has as much to do with his success as his actual singing.
As for Elliott, I really don’t have an explanation yet. I mean his singing is really good, but I can’t figure out where the rest of his votes are coming from.
Anyway, the show will be far less entertaining for me without Chris Daughtry, but it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. I can’t imagine that Katharine is going to survive another week, but then again, I couldn’t have imagined that she would outlast Chris.
So, again, I throw my hands up in the air.
