2004-11-24 - 10:34 a.m.
Come Go With Me
I was listening to my beloved little mini Ipod this morning when Expose came on. It made me so please to be able to listen to this in the car on my way to work. No one else has any physical evidence that I am a huge Expose fan thanks to the Ipod. No CDs, no records, and no cassette tapes. Thanks Apple!
It also reminded me of the time I signed all the members' names to the back of their LP (which I proudly owned about a million years ago) and convinced my little sister that I had met them and they had really signed it. She was young, so she believed me for at least a week or two.
To normal people, this would seem like a weird thing to do, but I have always been partial to the casual irreverent prank. My poor sister was always the target. I tortured her in the name of bizarro hilarity several times. In a similar vein, I took a Polaroid close-up of a Johnny Depp Tiger Beat photo spread and told her that I came across Johnny in the woods during my camping trip. She didn't really believe that one.
Once I cut the hair off her Jem doll in order to make her look like the butch fellow werewolf college professor in Teen Wolf Too. Jenny didn't like that much.
There was also the time I crossed out "Mike Schmidt" on her baseball card and wrote in "Chuck Norris." To justify it, I told her that you never see Mike Schmidt and Chuck Norris at the same time, do you? And they look very similar, so they must be the same person. I think that's when she learned the proper usage of the term "Bitch."
Yeah, I'm pretty much going to hell.
On that familicious note, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
2004-11-22 - 3:18 p.m.
Rock The Vote Part Deux
Someone just gave me a bunch of "Rock the Vote" special edition Smarties for no discernible reason. While I normally hate being reminded of the whole election thing, one thing is for certain. Democracy DOES go hand in hand with sweet candy! Yay voting! Woohoo!
I should be crashing from this sugar-high in, oh, about ten minutes.
2004-11-22 - 12:47 p.m.
Fisticuffs
Yeah, I saw the big fight. As an NBA fan, I could help but watch in stunned horror as the events unfolded. It was so unsettling that my hands were literally shaking. Sure, that probably makes me a nut, but I couldn't help but react that way to what I saw as a defining moment in professional sports.
Was Artest wrong? Sure. Was Wallace overreacting? Definitely. But I think that in an effort to set a policy and continue drawing plenty of money from fans in the future, David Stern has sold out his players. I'm not arguing that Artest is not a loose cannon. I just think that the severity of the punishment is off, as it effectively punishes the entire team and Pacers ticketholders for the actions of a few key players. There's plenty of blame to go around in this situation, and no one comes out smelling like roses. Least of all, the belligerent fans.
I think society in general has become more uncivilized. While you see that on the court, you see more of it in the stands. Sure, razzing the opposing team is a traditional fan thing, but hecklers have reached a new low. Talking smack about players' families (including one instance of mocking a player whose baby was stillborn)? These guys take a lot of abuse, and the fact that something on this scale hasn't happened before is amazing. Should they turn the other cheek to comments? Yes. But once the physical barriers break down and fans are approaching players on the court or throwing beers at them, all bets are off. These players are human beings, not Christ or Ghandi. If someone enters their personal space, they should be dealt with. Security should be there to expel people from the game who act up like that. Ron Artest shouldn't have gone into the stands, but a cop should have gotten the guy who threw a beer and arrested him on the spot.
Why are these incidents escalating? A lot of factors are at work here, spurring the negativity on. Huge salaries in the face of a widening gap between the haves and have nots. A general cheapening of values. A culture that punishes sexuality but rewards displays of violence. And most of all: alcohol. It's amazing how quickly a few beers can turn a jerk into a monster. The fans who just started throwing chairs and pouring stuff on the exiting players? Talk about classless. If you hate the players for making so much money, to the point where you treat them like trash (as long as you can get away with it, of course) I have no idea why you would contribute money to their cause by buying a ticket.
So as the players are rounded up and punished for their actions, so too should any fan who participated. The uninvolved lookers-on who rushed to throw punches at the back of the players' heads (even the peacemaking ones), the chair thrower, the idiots who walked on court, the beer pourers and the popcorn launchers. These are not quality people. They are people looking for an excuse to do something bad, a little like Artest. At least he was provoked though. That's a much better excuse than "feeling like it."
A real study needs to be done on ways to slow down alcohol consumption at these games. And if possible, any agitators should be barred from attending games. The leagues have to banish people, be it for a season or for life, in order to send a message that this won't be tolerated. As an occasional attendee of these events, I can tell you that those jerks ruin the game even when no riot is started. Their negativity and harsh heckling makes watching the game torture. And loud people do make me fear for my safety. Because if they don't care enough about other people to use indoor voices in public, there's no telling what they can do with a six-pack in them and no security to curtail them. It's just a safety issue.
I love going to NBA games, and when the energy's good, it's great. The sport truly combines grace and athleticism and strategy and team dynamics in such a captivating way. It's really my favorite sport to watch with the constant motion the teams go through. None of this has changed. In fact, I'll be seeing my Phoenix Suns at the end of December at home. I still can't wait. Hopefully the crowd will be good.
2004-11-22 - 10:32 a.m.
Congratulations!
I'd like to give a big shout-out to our neighbors in Camden. Congratulations on your latest honor, being named Most Dangerous City in America. You've worked long and hard for this honor. And I've seen your handiwork up close, what with that gang of thugs in the Mazda who wanted to take me to "a boomin' Cinco de Mayo party" that one time I had to wait for a cab in front of the New Jersey State Aquarium after dark. Way to go!
