running commentary...vol2

so that didn't go according to plan...

basketball season is over now that the Knicks have fallen to the Celtics in a 4-0 sweep. the best team won, there is no question of that, but that won't tell the tale...

a little Vegas officiating in game 1 turned a 1 point lead to a 2 point loss and a nice comeback, smothered by a floating charge in game 4 removed any chance the Knicks had of making this look respectable in the series box score...

positives? Chauncey Billups got hurt on a (non-call?) contact play but game 1 was the still Knicks' contest. hopefully the Celtics took the officiating crew out for dinner afterwards, in lieu of the 'Melo call and Garnett moving pick miss, but it was losing Billups that took away the ability to run a cohesive last shot offense in both games 1 and 2. The team played admirably without Billups and Amare Stoudemire in Game 2 and Carmelo Anthony showed us something that Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari will never be able to do, I'm not sure what happened in Game 3 or the for better part of game 4 but they were in it in the last five minutes or less in 3 of 4 in this series and that says a lot...

negatives? i'm not sure why D'Antoni kept Landry Fields out there in game 3 when Anthony Carter consistently gave him good minutes all series long. Fields had an awful series. He's a rookie, its fine. watch the film and get back in the gym. however, staying with fields, along with Jefferies on the court while the ship was taking on water left the Knicks playing 3 on 5 on the offensive end. it was poor management and D'Antoni has to answer for that...

29 games. that's the sum total of the Knicks after the 'Melo trade. listen, they were going to have to be healthy and clicking on all cylinders to win this series. losing the first two the way they did led to the sluggish start in game 3, and there is no excuse for that after 2 days rest, and D'Antoni has to answer for that, but he gets a pass on defense, because i think this team proved they know how to clamp down. i think they found a nice player off the bench in Shawne Williams and Ronny Turiaf certainly showed his worth. i think they resign Carter. but this team is missing a piece. a rebounder, defender and enforcer. a 30-minute a game bruiser that will make teams weep...

i am worried about what little Jimmy Dolan will do about the management. a return of Isiah Thomas could very well put this team back in salary cap hock. short of that, re-upping Donnie Walsh's option is a primary step in the right direction. another draft like the team had last year, this time with a first rounder and the kind of signing that shores us up on the glass and in toughness is step 2. D'Antoni is most definitely on the hot seat for 2012. i fully expect this team, with a few tweaks, to have home court for the first round of the playoffs at least, and challenge a Celtic team that might not have a coach or some of their unrestricted free agents for the division title next season...

the clock starts tonight, get to work...

metwich...

yeah, i know where my Metwich is made, i can still here the call of 'sauteed onions!' from Sera. and i know its raining for you poor folks in flushing, but i'm all ready for some Mets baseball via FSArizona...
3 egg whites, shallots (i'm out of onions), jalapeno and green peppers with sharp cheddar, shredded, and a couple of shakes of Cholula chili-lime on a homemade roll for some morning baseball...

let's go mets!...

its not raining here in the desert, so i'll just pretend they're playing where its 75 degrees and dry as a bone...

letting the universe decide...

Plush is a decent venue for a a local show in Tucson. after a recent renovation the stage and viewing are more symbiotic, but overall, the ambiance has suffered with the installation of a warp-around bar that causes a bottle neck to the stage area and the removal of the stage are bar facilitate leaving a performance to get a Guinness. i haven't been here long, but during my several visits prior to my relocation, i had grown to dig the place. now, not so much. i still think its a fine place to see a show, and Mostly Bears was good, even with the stand-in drummer...

after the show the Cat Mom and i struggled over having another Guinness and being semi-social with Boy-Wonder from the gym and his ex-girlfriend and her family (apparently the family that parties together stays together)—CM coined her shrinky-dink and its difficult to explain just how much that was a perfect assessment. i will say that her face was involved and you can take it from there...

anyways...

we continued to waffle, i am perpetually looking for my next Guinness so it wouldn't be a stretch for me stay for the sake of strength and the Cat Mom often leaves these precious decisions in my hands to grapple with—the agony...

then came a song on the P.A. that sounded familiar, it was difficult to fully discern over the din of the ultra-cool. the Cat Mom turned to me and asked, 'Is that 'Easy Lover'?'...

i walked back to the performance area to get a better ear and it turns out that it was not. i returned to the Cat Mom and told her so, adding that all things being equal since its not 'Easy Lover' that we should step with no delay...

sometimes you have to let the universe decide...



i am fully aware that this song was released only as a single and on the 1984 Chinese Wall LP from Philip Bailey, although the person who posted this video doesn't seem to think so...

running commetary...

in an effort to get my point across to New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni and to provide the best possible outcome in game 3 of the NBA Playoffs i will use my considerable prowess as an affiliate marketing writer...

Coach Mike D'Antoni of the New York Knicks facing the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2011 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs game 3 should be sure to redeem his Superstar Carmelo Anthony, husband of La La Vazquez not to be confused with Lamar Odom of Queens' prep high school Christ the King who is married to Khloe Kardashian, coupon to save on splitting double teams and showing patience in the far-wing post. Save with special discount offensive opportunities when you play the pick and roll from the high post rather than the wing and receive additional New York Knicks fans approval by instructing basketball superstar Carmelo Anthony married to La La Vazquez—Nuyorican actress, disc jockey and television host, to post one on one inside the three point line in order to ensure the spin dribble to the left and skip pass to the opposite wing for maximum scoring and open shots in late game situations versus the Boston Celtics in the 2011 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs Round 1, Game 3.

can't say i didn't give it a supreme effort...

as a Knick fan it is difficult not to chew D'Antoni's head off for the poor execution the team has shown in the final minutes of both games but at the end of the day, the Celtics have snuck out of their home court winning game by a total of 3 points with the help of some Vegas officiating and untimely injuries to vital pieces of the Knicks. 0-2 going home with three days rest and yet to play a mistake free game—i'll take it...

as an aside, if Anthony does what he did tonight another 15-20 times in the playoffs during his career as a Knick number 7 will be hanging in the Madison Square Garden rafters in 10 years or so, along with a championship banner or two...

on with the show...

the art of the double standard...

it sure is peculiar what people will allow and not allow when it comes to their hallowed ground...

case in point, in a shorter distance to the World Trade Center than any proposed community center is a little joint called the Pussycat Lounge. i came about this hole in the wall on Greenwich St. when i was working down the street in the great big hole in the ground, (haven't been there in a touch, i figure it is a hole no more), two colleagues and i decided to grab lunch at the pizza/sandwich place next door (and connected incidentally do your best to stay away from the parm-wiches, but Chaz in Charge said the pizza was good). along with being a go-go bar the pussycat lounge has a second floor for live music and dancing. next door to the lounge is an adult movie shop, all of this within earshot of what many Americans consider hallowed ground...

this is the site of the January 8th shooting of 19 people and 6 deaths at a Tucson Safeway. a used book sale...

a few months prior a junior college professor was arrested for practicing yoga in the the same area. read about it here and make your own judgements the cat mom has some personal history with the gentlemen, and come to find out through mutual friends that all he was doing was trying to make the area a 'sacred space.' now in fairness and by all accounts this man is a bit of a fruitcake, but regardless, all he did was grieve and process in his own way, his constitutionally protected way, and he was arrested...

hmmm, guess he was trespassing on the old book sale's turf. grieving is hard these days...

is nothing sacred?...

what i know...

first a couple of things i don't know...

i don't know why referees are calling suspect offensive fouls with :35 seconds to go in a playoff game but not a moving pick with the game on the line. nor do i know why it is so important to keep Jared Jefferies on Rajon Rondo after the latter gentlemen is relieved of the responsibility of in-bounding the basketball...

but i know this...

switching inbound passers after almost turning the ball over doesn't make you a genius, so let's hold off on the Doc Rivers schooled Mike D'Antoni talk right at the top. The play didn't change and more than anything else D'Antoni schooled himself by taking Jefferies off the inbound pass...

i've watched enough Celtic games over the past three or four years to make the following statements....
1. in late game situations Paul Pierce is the Celtics #1 option. he is not only one of the great players in the NBA today he absolute cash money with the game on the line. Pierce makes Kobe Bryant look like Charles Smith...
2. when Pierce is covered, which Carmelo Anthony did quite well on the play, Ray Allen is option #3. Allen has been metaphorically kicking me in the jewels since i was a younger tyke watching St. John's games from behind the basket. he might be the best shooter in the biz right now, and there is no reason to hang your head when he drops a game winner...
3. when the Celtics are successful getting a shot away out of option 1 or 2 they are very successful, when they have to go to option #3, they lose...
here endeth lesson 1...

as for the series, i have the Celtics winning in 6, but the way the Knicks played last night, most especially Tony Douglas and A'Mare Stoudemire, i am optimistic that it could get a little more interesting than that, seeing as well as they played and the team played defense and how terribly ineffective Anthony was on the offensive end, and that will most certainly change for the better...

if i was in that locker room last night i would have, (and i hope the questionable for game 2 Chauncey Billups would echo this gesture), pulled Douglas over and told him; 'next time keep the ball and take that shot.' that's not an indictment of Anthony's late game prowess, just a flow of the game decision that a point guard has to learn to make. win or lose, the Knicks can find comfort in the fact that Douglas will come out of this series a much better player in the long run...

down 1 on the road, i know this isn't over...

riding the mutt vol I...

folks who know, know this—i am my bike, in all reincarnations from the banana seat hand-me-down and the childhood triumvirate (the names escape me but not the pain of losing them to dirty thieves will never fade) to the Pierce Arrow to the Mongoose Stylist and younger brother Hilltopper (both still in holding in QV)...

then there is the mutt...some of you might be familiar with the Bianchi Mutt 7700 i picked up in 2008, featured above in all its splendor in its new home, Tucson, AZ. i'm sitting in the tree. yes, there are trees in the desert. while due to nagging injuries and other responsibilities, the mutt and i haven't really been able to stretch our legs together here in the great southwest, that is, until recently...

this town has its share of breathtaking landscapes and interesting routes to explore. but for the opening volume of riding the mutt i chose to give you a handlebar view of Roller Coaster Road, a local back road that lives up to its name. its even better when you don't have to worry about the camera in your hand...

music courtesy of 24-7 Spyz, 'Yeah X 3'—enjoy...

really, don't look behind the curtain...

you are not going to like what you see America...

this was never about paying down the deficit. nor was it about making government smaller, (not directly at least). it sure wasn't about getting you and i a job, or affordable health care or any of the other glossed out promises made by any number of politicians who won your heart in 2012...

it was about this...

and this...

when did republican politics become about staying out of their business while allowing them to stick their dicks in ours? attaching riders to a budget plan after a compromise has been made isn't bad politics, it is despicable politics. good faith has been rewarded with good faith and a little something for the trouble. Wisconsin has changed its mind, who is to say the rest of the country won't...

i'm under no illusions that the alternative is the solution. this is a problem 50 years in the making and you want a solution tomorrow?!...

i say make your own...

Smokey the Bear once said; 'Only you can prevent forest fires.' he was right, i once started one and i know it to be true. conventional wisdom dictates that we all have a pawn in the game—our vote, but what, pray tell, has that helped us achieve? more of the same?...

i say conventional wisdom be damned. it is no longer relevant. dictate your own terms on your own battleground because multinational corporations and industrial complexes have laid down the law and the government, the one that you think is too big, is now powerless and feckless in its own defense...

those who believe in the way things are have only something to gain. everyone else can't decide on the ground rules of what's right and wrong while the answer is inherent. don't buy what this latest round of budget talks is trying to establish—the end of the new deal. the end of any chance at an American dream unless you are born into it or winning some random lottery that deems you worthy of a reality TV show...

don't buy that these wars are for oil when they are really about production. if you want to blame the President for introducing us into a bigger mess in the Middle East, that's fine, but remember its only because we need the money. Sure Tomahawk missiles cost money, but who do you think makes them? its the only thing we do right, the morality of it be damned. only we can prevent forest fires remember?...

i was in Camp Bulowa in upstate New York on a boy scout trip, i must have been 15, i'm guessing. the fire hazard for that weekend was high, but i decided to light a couple of leaves on fire to impress the younger kids huddled around, one thing led to another and i was running up to the cabin to grab one of the 5 gallon water jugs. when asked by the adult leaders milling around the cabin what i needed the water for, i answered, 'nothing.' Luckily those leaders had reason enough to be suspicious and doubted the validity of my answer. They followed me shortly down the hill to my destination, a now 10-15 foot circumference of fire getting more ornery by the second. needless to say that was the last time i let a flame touch a leaf, a cigarette go thrown in haste or improper care be shown to fire. no one had to tell me, i just learned the lesson, all by my lonesome...

when are you all going to learn. don't buy that the sun is going to come out from behind the curtain. don't buy...

sell...

because that curtain is all fucked up...