April 28, 2006

25 Fantastic, but Long, Songs

Been on massive deadline, but I’m doin a list today, dammit. I don’t care if you’re still at work or not.

So I was sittin here the other day listening to Jimi’s “1983,” and it dawned on me how amazing it is that he manages to hold the listener’s attention for like 13 minutes. I have a hard enough time sitting still during sitcoms, let alone for that.

The list this week will be of songs over 6 minutes long that are still fiyah. To me, going over 6 minutes on a song is like going over 150 minutes for a movie–you only do so for great reason (that’s Bill Simmons’ theory, not mine, but he’s right).

Let’s roll…
Continue reading 25 Fantastic, but Long, Songs…

April 26, 2006

Oh Yeah, This Is Funny…

So I’m insanely busy today, but check this out.

Man, what’s really hood? Did you have the sound on? If you didn’t, watch it again.

Right in the snot locker, man. How did that lady not bleed?

But did you hear the conversation that led to this? If you didn’t, watch it again.

Times like these are when I turn to my man Sneaky Pete, who had the most interesting response to that.

(23:25:10) Sneaky Pete: that lady was snitchin
(23:25:13) Sneaky Pete: had to be shut up
(23:25:43) Sneaky Pete: what a great blow she throws though
(23:25:53) Sneaky Pete: directly to the fuckin face

Enjoy your day, even if I don’t do the same.

April 25, 2006

Oh Buddy, Why Is Math So Hard?

People are generally averse to math. I’ve never quite understood why, but they are. The toughest thing about math to most folks, methinks, is that it requires people to be able to do the same thing over and over again. Even though we humans are creatures of habit, it doesn’t turn out well when numbers are involved.

But the bigger problem? People aren’t quite sure what to do with math. Even a grip of the nerds in high school can take a derivative or perform some other piece of calculus without knowing what those things are for. Which makes the math itself nothing more than a parlor trick.

And sometimes, people get the math right and just do something utterly silly with it. Check this from the AP piece on the differences in prize monies for men and women at Wimbledon.

The All England Club announced Tuesday that the men’s winner this year will receive $1.170 million and the women’s champion $1.117 million, a difference of $53,000. It’s a 4 percent increase in British currency.

So help me out–dollars are British currency now? But as for math, wouldn’t it be a four percent increase in any currency? Numbers add up differently in different countries?

Maybe I don’t know math as well as I thought.

April 24, 2006

New Piece

Business…here’s a bit of a novelty item on folks being inducted into Halls of Fame in sports other than those for which they are famous. Enjoy, but you gotta go through Page 2 to get to it..

Crazy busy today. More tomorrow, hopefully.

April 21, 2006

25 Moments I’ll Never Forget

Self-explanatory, right? In no particular order…

College Graduation Day. For all the talk I gave about not caring whether I walked or not–and I meant it–I was waaaay too hapy about walking the stage. My brother can best describe what it sounded like when I called him on the cell to let him know I was about to hit the stage.

The moment I found out Biggie died. I’m still not sure why it shook me, but I was on the way to work on Sunday morning when I heard the news on the radio. I expected Pac to get shot. I didn’t see this one coming. And I feared it was behind something stupid and industry related. That hypothesis remains viable, which is really, really sad.

First trip to the mall during freshman year. The day I met some of the closest friends I’ll ever have. And the day me and Spark Blizzy convinced a boy to buy a PlayStation game, even though he didn’t have a PlayStation in his room. Since Spark Blizzy did, we got a game for free. Even used to tell the cat he couldn’t play his own game.

Musicology Tour 2004. Finally got to see Prince live. The most memorable moment–him playing an acoustic version of “Little Red Corvette” with a purple guitar with red lights all over the RBC Center. That night, I was able to cross off one thing on my list of things to do before I die.

The day my old man got in a car wreck. Nothing like fully realizing that, one day, I’ll have to let go of the parents. Wasn’t ready to deal with that then, though. Still ain’t, really.

Closing day for the Estate. Because it was hell on earth getting it straight.

The moment I got off the plane in California. I landed in Ontario and went outside to get a cab. I remember looking up in the sky, seeing an eerie purplish hue and thinking, “whoa, this ain’t Atlanta.” And trust me–it was not.

First time I dunked a basketball. After my knees made it clear that playing lots of ball would hurt a lot, I became the basketballl manager. So one of the cats saw me grab the rim while I was in the gym and told me to try to dunk. So I did. Next thing you knew, I’d thrown it down with the left hand, much to the surprise of people that remembered when i was a 5′1″ freshman. Much better being a 5′10″ junior.

Seeing the godson for the first time. He still doesn’t like me that much, but an adorable fella he is. It was amazing to see him and realize that, in a way, this is my kid. This is someone I’ll be looking after for the rest of my life. That’s somethin, lemme tell ya.

First time I heard Southernplayalisticadillacmusik. Still the most excited I’ve been listening to a record.

Going to buy Wu-Tang Forever. Still the most excited I’ve been to buy a record. It’s better than many give it credit for being, btw.

The first query from ESPN.com. I thought it was a joke. The best part–it was at the recommendation of Ralph Wiley, and I had no idea he was going to do that. I’d actually shot some angles at him that I thought would help him write about it, if he chose to. And he passed it on to me. That’s generosity, jack.

Finding out RW died. Last thing I told him was that I got a column with AOL and I thanked him for all his help. Glad I got to do that, just in time.

When the Accord caught on fire. Imagine getting a call saying your car caught on fire. Then, imagine having to tell your father. Yeah man. I wish I could forget this one.

First time a woman said she loved me. Made me a bit uncomfortable, but it worked in that case. Still throws me off when people get on that kick, though.

Finding out the godson got shot. He’s doing great now, though. Well, considering.

Winning the 2000 HCASC Championship. Yes, I’m a quiz bowl nerd. In fact, I’m a Hall of Fame Quiz Bowl nerd.

When Vince Young scored the winning touchdown in the Rose Bowl. Watched the game at my boy’s crib, in the room with this chick that kept rooting loudly for USC because her friend’s dad went there or some dumb shit like that. Either way, I stayed silent. She didn’t, even after I said we should meet in the middle and be quiet. So Vince scores the touchdown, and I got up and let loose a stream of expletives, all said in joy. I was nice, though. Didn’t say a word to that girl. I wish I could say some things now, though.

When Sid slid. ‘92 NLCS, Game 7. If you don’t know, I can’t explain it.

Atlanta Braves, 1995 World Champions. For all the years I spent watching them cats when they were dreadful, I still think Ted Turner owes me a ring.

The Artest Brawl. I stayed up til 5am watching that. Then I woke up at 8 and started all over again. I still can’t take my eyes off that.

My first pay check from Fuddrucker’s. I was so proud to just have a job that I’d gotten for myself and all of that. First time I’d really felt grown.

First paycheck I got when I worked at Coke. I looked at the total, looked at my father and said, “now I see how people sell out.”

The moment I realized I was leaving graduate school. Should have felt bad. But it didn’t. And it’s been a blast since. That was like gettin out of the Army.

4.18.2000. Still miss that kid to death.

April 19, 2006

Nut Shot Confessions

First, some SSP–if you want to see the clip from 4 Quarters yesterday, please send me an email to first name at domain name dot com. Gotta have QuickTime 7, though. I also have it in iPod compatible format. Again, thanks for that goes to Rex.

(And it went better this time than last. Most importantly–my gear is fly as fuck, pimpin.)

Been busy the last few days, but here’s some of the priceless mail from the piece on nut shots.

The first is from Joseph. Try not to cringe.

I wrestled for 6 years and by the time I graduated i had caught my share of shots. Most wrestlers wear a jock and i even wore compression shorts to try to keep everything as pulled up as possible. Since you are grappling it’s a given that you will get hit/grabbed a few times if you’re around long enough. Most wrestlers though operate on the system of do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Example: you’re in a match and someone grabs you just go “you got me” real quick and the other guy knows what happenned and usually lets go. My senior at the region tournament i had a guy defy these rules on me. I was seeded first and the favorite to win the tourny and i was beating my opponent handily in the semi’s and he happenned to grab me. I was on top of him so i leaned forward and let him know he had me and needed to let go. The dude squeezed tighter! This is not the right move when you are loosing as bad as he was in the match. I got pissed and apparently my adrenaline was ahead of the pain and i leaned forward and i remember saying this, “you’re going to die motherf—–” I put him in a move that had been just been made legal again and about broke his ribs while he cried to the ref but i made sure that he would never again grab another man’s jewels again.

This is from Bryan in Alabama.

Loved your article. Don’t know if you’ll read this or not but in high school football one of my teammates was playing cornerback. He got steamrolled by a fullback on a sweep then got stepped on by the halfback. Who was about 200 pounds. And wearing cleats. My buddy actually was able to finish the game only missing one series (this was a small school, we all played iron man ball so he was also a flanker). After the game he walked up to the coach and said, “They’re swollen, coach.” In a scene right out of some sports comedy movie our 70 year old coach said, “Really? Let me see. Well I’ll be….” To the hospital he went and the rest of the team went to Wal-Mart to purchase the proper protective gear. He managed to recover in time for basketball season (where he was the only basketball player wearing a cup), but he was lucky. The doctors thought that they would have to do surgery.

Sean was more level about things. Or he’s just a sucker. One of the two.

Bomani,
I play soccer at a University and personally i think that crotch shots are part of the game. Unintentional ones that is. The intentional shots are inexcusable and i agree with you. The unintentional shots should be called as a foul but nothing more. Everyone cant keep control of their limbs at all times. The punishments should only be during the run of the game, these punishments that you have are too harsh and wont help people to keep from having unintentional crotch shots.
Thank You

Here’s Barry in Arkansas.

Sure enjoyed this column with some very personal interest. I was unlucky enought to receive two of
these shots [one unintentional and the other very intentional] in a two year period. Both were sorta
sports related as one occured during a military forced swim session and the other during an altercation after
an inter-unit baseball game. I can sum it up by saying your penalties may be a bit too light and nowhere near draconian. If you aint been there then you really cant know how debilitating such a blow can be. Loved the line about not having the strength to heave. Dead on accurate for sure. thanx again for a great column. Look forward to the
next one.

Again, join the movement, folks. Stop nut punching where it starts–in the hearts of suckas that shouldn’t be allowed to roam free.

April 18, 2006

Six years already

Business…check this column on the Duke lacrosse situation at the BSN.

More business, I’ll be back on the D1 Network at 5:25 EDT.

Even more business–I’ll be on ESPNews’ 4 Quarters talking about Duke lacrosse. I’m waiting to hear when I’ll be on, and I’ll let you know when I know.

EDIT–I’ll be on at 7:30pm EDT

***

“I ain’t doin this for no sympathy, nigga. This is loyalty, nigga. I guess you can kinda call me a dead man walkin’ cuz everytime they see me, they think of you, nigga.” –Block.

Six years to the day since Jon passed away. Improbable though I may find it, days like this make me almost certain I got somebody out there lookin’ out for me. And even if that ain’t the case, I’m surely lookin’ out for someone up there.

Rest in peace, my man.

April 17, 2006

More Radio Today

Yo, I’ll be back on the D1 Sports Network today around 5:45 EDT. Check it out at www.d1sports.net/acc.

Also, I did a show with Dave Smith in Los Angeles Friday evening. I didnt’ have a chance to link that, but I figure I’d let me know.

(Yes, me know. I use this to record the apperances I’ve done and all of that, so forgive me for having you listen to my record keeping.)

Personal recommendation–use IE, not Firefox, to hear the stream.

April 17, 2006

Hip Hop Hates Sobriety

Business…Page 2 has a feature on the worst teams in sports and I contributed quick ones about the Lions, Hawks, and Trail Blazers. Fun stuff for all.

Moving on, I’m a bit busy today keeping track of the Duke lacrosse stuff, but here’s something you can talk about.

Apparently, rap drives people to drink. Not insecurity or hard times or poverty…rap.

Y’okay.

April 14, 2006

25 People I Want to Meet Before I Die

Title says it all, right. Let’s go.
Continue reading 25 People I Want to Meet Before I Die…