G's Spot - The Life and Times of Grant W. Blair

2009-02-28T17:25:00.009-06:00

A Farewell to Conan

February 20th marked the final episode of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and the end of Conan's 16-year run on the show he inherited from David Letterman in 1993. This coming Monday, March 2 the "Late Night" mantle will officially be passed to new host Jimmy Fallon; Conan moves on to succeed Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" on June 1st. Only because it aired at such a late hour and, well, I actually have to work during the week did I not watch Conan more often. However, his final week of shows coincided with a week break from school. So, I was able to relive highlights from the show each night as they re-aired favorite segments chosen by fans and "Late Night" staff.

Of all the segments and characters on "Late Night" I have to say that my all-time favorite was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet performed by one time head writer Robert Smigel, who is perhaps better known for his "TV Funhouse" segments on "Saturday Night Live." Triumph was identified early on as a Siberian Mountain Hound, often had a cigar dangling from his mouth and his most well-known catch phrase is "... for me to poop on!" usually spoken to undo a compliment that preceded it. Triumph's debut was in a skit filmed at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and he also showed up at 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston among other places.

However, my all-time favorite bit (see video in "Triumph and the Star Wars Fans" post below) was a remote filmed on the streets of New York City as devoted "Star Wars" fans waited to see "Attack of the Clones" in 2002. I am not even a hard core "Star Wars" fan but this segment still makes me laugh out loud after at least a half dozen viewings and is an example of Triumph at his finest. As Triumph might say, "This is a hilarious bit...for me to poop on." If you like Triumph as much as I do or, God forbid, more, I highly recommend the "Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" DVD that came out in 2004. Enjoy!

Triumph and the Star Wars Fans

2009-02-28T17:24:00.001-06:00

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

2009-02-02T19:45:00.002-06:00

Super Bowl Sunday and Bruce!

Despite the fact that I was not that enthusiastic about the matchup this year, I of course watched the Super Bowl with a friend in East Bay yesterday afternoon. I mean, it's the Super Bowl after all and I am a guy who likes watching football, sitting on a couch and drinking beer. Even if the game sucked I'd figured I'd see some good commercials plus Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at halftime. Got to love a 3:30p kickoff and the whole she-banga-bang being over by 7pm. I am liking those early west coast starts for evening sporting events.

As it turned out, the game was terrific and I had to grudgingly give the Steelers some credit for the clutch drive at the end and amazing TD catch by MVP Santonio Holmes. And Bruce rocked the halftime show with "10th Avenue Freeze Out," "Born to Run," "Working on a Dream" and "Glory Days." Loved how he changed the baseball reference in "Glory Days" and made it "Had a friend who was a big football player back in high school...he could throw that hail mary, make you look like a fool boy." Great stuff.

I was even more pumped this morning after I got tickets for the opening night of Springsteen's tour on April 1st in San Jose, lower level seats. Heard the new record is great and will be picking it up later this week. Perhaps a review to follow.

2009-01-19T15:30:00.010-06:00

U2, MLK and Barack Obama

So, I am enjoying my day off for the recognition of MLK Jr.'s birthday. Barack Obama is soon to be inaugurated as our 44th President (Whoo hoo!), and my favorite band of all-time is right in the middle of it all. Yesterday, U2 took part in "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial" which aired live on HBO and is now available as a webcast on HBO's website. The show featured artists and presenters ranging from Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce to Jamie Foxx and Tom Hanks, all performing and speaking on the steps of the memorial. The event combined two things that I love: History and music. U2 appeared toward the end of the show and played "Pride" and "City of Blinding Lights," the latter of which was featured on the soundtrack of Obama's campaign stops. Apparently, they got a wink from Michelle Obama during the show, so it's all good. Check it out.

In other news the band has released the cover art and track listings for its new album, No Line on the Horizon, produced by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite and dropping on March 3rd in the U.S. I just got an email today from U2.com with audio for the first single, "Get On Your Boots". Needless to say, I am eagerly anticipating its release as well as the announcement of tour dates for 2009. Only because I have nothing better to do, I have noticed a pattern: U2 has toured every 4 years since 1997 (Pop Mart Tour), followed by 2001 (Elevation Tour), 2005 (Vertigo Tour) and the anticipated tour in 2009. I have seen them on every one and will see them again this time around. Maybe a road trip to Chicago for shows there, if my buddy Reg can get tickets :)

2009-01-09T20:02:00.003-06:00

The Sub Life

1/9/09

Grant Does P.E.

If I have learned anything from my time as a teacher, it is that you have to be flexible and you have to be resourceful. This was certainly the case when the director of my school sent me an email over winter break that said: "Grant, when you come back from winter break I think I am going to have you teach 4th grade P.E. (gym) for a week." This news neither fazed me nor did it present an insurmountable challenge. Yet I have to admit I did not know quite what to expect dipping my feet into the gym teacher pool for the first time.

I would imagine the first question you are thinking to yourself is why I, a 5th/6th grade classroom teacher, would be teaching a class (gym) I have never taught before in a grade (4th) I have never worked with before. Good question. I should further qualify this scenario by saying that up until Thanksgiving break, I did not even know I would be teaching at the school in 2009. My contract only ran through December, as the teacher I was filling in for was to return from maternity leave on a PT basis after the holiday break. As it turned out there was a need for an additional teacher in the 4th grade, so I was brought back and now split time in the 5/6 and 4th grades and will do so through the end of the school year.

I know, this still does not explain why I would be teaching physical education for a week in January. Well, the first week after winter break is traditionally when the 5th/6th graders go on a weeklong school trip to Yosemite. The gym teacher, Christine, is one of the coordinators of the trip and thus would be gone all week. I did not go to Yosemite myself only because when the trip was being planned in the fall it was not known if I would even be teaching at the school in January. Sure it would have been nice to go to Yosemite, but seeing as I got to go on 2 fields trips plus attend a conference in Flagstaff, AZ this fall I really could not complain too much about being left out.

So, on Monday the 5th I reported for duty. In addition to 4th grade P.E. I would also cover some 7th/8th grade classes depending on the director's availability to cover them himself. The latter ended up being fairly easy, as the first morning I let each 7/8 group play dodgeball the whole time after I had some issues getting into the equipment locker we share with another middle school (there are 2 schools on same campus). The other times I saw them it was just a matter of supervising them swing dancing with the P.E. class from the other middle school, whose own P.E. teachers ran the class. For the record I did not swing dance myself, citing medical issues relating to my ski trip in Lake Tahoe over break.

As for the 4th graders, I must say that it was a trip down memory lane with some of the games we played. We played a variety of tag games including "Blob Tag," where you start with one person "it" and then they grow like an amoeba as they tag others; "Rainbow Tag" where the "it" people stand in the middle of the gym, call out a color and anybody wearing that color must run from one side of the gym to the other; "Sharks and Minnows" where you have everyone inside the 3 point line of the basketball court and they chase people on foot (shark) or while crawling (minnow) depending on whether they are a shark or a minnow. Then there was "Adventure," which is basically a variation on "Capture the Flag."

With all the advances in techology like the Internet, iPods, cellphones, Blackberrys, Nintendo Wii , virtual reality games and the like, it was certainly refreshing to see that the kids still appreciate and enjoy old school games that I played as a kid. The days of the kids sitting in a chair a la "Total Recall" or "The Matrix" and having a chip put in their brain that simulates physical activity are not here...yet. Let's face it, no matter what era we live in kids are always going to want to run around, crawl on the ground, climb in trees and just generally get the led out. And thank God for that.

2008-11-21T12:17:00.023-06:00

The Obama Girls Keep it Private

In the wake of Barack Obama's election as the 44th president of the United States a few weeks ago, there has been much speculation as to what decisions he would make during his first weeks as the President-elect. Whether it be policy, who to appoint to his cabinet and various other posts, making peace with his political rivals, helping to avert the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression or the sheer history of an African-American being elected to the highest office in the land, much is on the plate and on the mind of our next president. However, the ramifications of the most recent decision made within the Obama brain trust still reverberate around Washington, DC.

Malia and Sasha Obama have chosen Sidwell Friends School.

Now that you have picked your jaw up off of the floor, let me say that this was not exactly a shocker given that the Obamas were considering 3 schools in DC for their daughters, all of them private. Malia and Sasha are currently attending a private school, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, in Chicago. Sidwell Friends (picture below), a Quaker-run institution established in 1883 that is regarded as the Harvard of Washington prep schools, has educated the children of Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. The grandchildren of Vice President-elect Joe Biden go to Sidwell as do the children of two of Obama's advisers, attorney general nominee Eric Holder and foreign policy expert Susan Rice.

Pretty exclusive stuff, right? But of course, the added prestige of having the president's children at your school can make a drooling idiot of even the most jaded elitist. The rich can always get richer. “No matter what the ideology of the president who is elected or what his party is, the privileged people in Washington always want to get a little more privileged,” said Michael Kazin, a historian of American politics at Georgetown University in an article published November 14th in the New York Times. “It’s clear that many parents who send their kids to these schools would want the Obamas to go there,” he said. “They want their particular niche of the community to be enhanced.”

As an educator with a private school background who is currently working in a California charter school and has also taught in the Chicago Public School system, I followed this story with great interest, as I feel the Obama decision is a mini-referendum on the state of our public schools in urban areas such as Washington, DC. Not since Jimmy Carter sent his daughter, Amy (pictured left with her cat, Misty Malarky Ying Yang) to Stevens Elementary School and Hardy Middle School has a sitting president chosen public over private. While the Mayor of Washington, Adrian Fenty, lobbied the Obamas in vain on behalf of the public schools, the reality is that Mr. Fenty himself sends his children to a private school. So his pitch is just another example of "Do as I say, not as I do."

Though it was paid mere lip service during the 2008 presidential campaign compared to bigger issues such as the economy, energy policy and health care, public education was in fact discussed by Obama and Senator McCain...at the very end of one debate I should add. Their discussion centered primarily on the pros and cons of vouchers, which I am personally against as they serve to encourage parents to abandon stuggling public schools for other public or private institutions instead of rolling up their sleeves and making them all better. As a teacher I believe strongly in the need for a robust public school system and an overhaul of the underfunded "No Child Left Behind" mandate left behind by the Bush administration.

Hopefully, despite Obama the father's choice of private school for his daughters, Mr. Obama the president can bring real change to our public education system. It is certainly needed.

2008-10-24T19:53:00.011-05:00

The Sub Life

10/24/08

Conference Week

Before I entered the teaching field, the words "conference week" were associated with that glorious time on ESPN in March when college basketball entered conference tournament time in advance of the NCAA's. A glorious week for me the college basketball fan, filled with much TV watching and little work. However, as any teacher can attest to, school conference week is far from a glorious time and is a week filled with little TV watching and much work. Such was the reality I faced this past week as I hunkered down for my first conference experience as a teacher.

As I remember it from my youth in the fine public schools of West Hartford, CT, a parental invitation to talk with the teacher in person was usually preceeded by a phone call home to deliver news such as "Your son threw _________ out the window of the bus" or "Grant shot a spitball at ________" or "You'll never guess who started a food fight in the cafeteria today." As a parent you usually were not expecting good news at the conferences, and thus there was a built in air of tension and negativity to the proceedings before they even started. And yes, for those of you that are wondering, I did actually get in trouble a lot in elementary school. The behavior epiphany finally came in 7th grade, much to the relief of my parents and area law enforcement.

The nice thing about the conferences at SCCLC is that every child has one regardless of whether they are doing very well, very poorly or anything in between. On the plus side, this philosophy makes for generally pleasant conversations where we talk about areas of strength and areas that need improvement. If a child was not turning in homework and the parent was not aware of it - as was the case with many of my kids - then they were aware of it after this meeting. I do not think it was a coincidence that the week after conferences, both the collective spelling test scores and the homework turn-in rate jumped substantially. I have said it many times, but increased parental involvement = increased student success.

On the minus side, the SCCLC conference philosophy means that, as a teacher, I have to do 56 individual conferences in the span of 4 days in addition to all of my planning and instructional responsibilities. Throw in the fact that our Powergrade online gradebook system was not functional until the weekend before conferences and you have one stressed out new teacher. However, as with most challenges I have faced this fall it went much better than my doom and gloom prognostications would have suggested. And just like parent night, the best part is that we only do conferences once a year so I won't have to face hell week again until fall 2009. Whoo hoo!

2008-10-12T23:39:00.009-05:00

Saturday in the Woods With Grant

One of the advantages of living in my new home is the breathtaking scenery that surrounds me. Now I'm not normally the outdoorsy, hiking and camping type, but the reality is that a lot of the people I am meeting out here are. As such, I have been able to get out in nature a bit more on some local hikes. Last month I took a 5-mile hike on some trails in Portola Valley not far from where my sister lives. Yesterday, I met up with a new friend, Martha, for a hike in Purissima Woods near Half Moon Bay, a coastal city 25 miles south of San Francisco. She had been telling me about the area ever since we first met, and I was really excited about the hike. It was much more hilly and a longer hike at around 9 miles, but there were some amazing views along the way. To be walking amongst huge Redwoods or along the side of a mountain with a view of the Pacific Ocean in the distance (top left picture) is not something you take for granted. I was a bit sore in the, um, gluteal area the next day but it was so worth it. Much more fun and scenic than doing 30 minutes on my sister's Nordic Track.

2008-09-29T21:03:00.022-05:00

You Don't Mess With the Johan

I know, I know, nobody wants to hear about someone else's fantasy baseball team. And it is not like I have never won a fantasy league before. But hey, this is my blog and I can write about whatever I want so indulge me for a few minutes. So, with the conclusion of the 2008 Major League Baseball regular season, my team the Bad News Blairs can officially claim victory in the CBS Sportsline fantasy league known as the Bleacher Bums. I follow in the footsteps of good friend and fellow blogger Rob Schumann, the 2007 league champion and frequent trading partner in the league.

My acquisition of Mets pitcher Johan Santana and shortstop Jose Reyes from Rob in exchange for Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton and future Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw put me in "win now" mode for 2008 and set the stage for a strong second half run. It is a very competitive, tough league with a great bunch of guys, which makes the achievement particularly satisfying. I learned everything I know about the general managing biz from Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, so let me give a shout out to him. By the way, Theo, still haven't gotten those playoff tickets in the mail yet. I'll just stop by Fenway Park to pick them up. Sound good?

2008-09-25T22:33:00.000-05:00

First Palin, Then Campaign Suspension. What Now?

As posted today on Slate.com, John McCain's next 10 hail mary stunts:

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.

2. Offers the post of "vice vice president" to Warren Buffett.

3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.

4. Learns to use computer.

5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.

6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.

7. Sex-change operation.

8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.

9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.

10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

2008-09-12T20:44:00.017-05:00

The Sub Life

9/11/08
Parent Night

Having settled into the job my first couple of weeks, I soon faced yet another in the many line of "firsts" that have come my way this fall as a teacher: Parent Night. The strange thing with teachers is that, due to the nature of our work, unlike most people we actually prefer facing a room full of children to a room full of adults. A room full of adults is actually more stressful for us, not less. So there is a certain amount of anxiety that comes with preparing for parent night. When you factor in that this is a school known for a very high level of parent involvement (i.e. I knew the room would be packed) and that fellow staff members kept asking me if I was nervous about parent night - thus making me more nervous about parent night - there were definitely more butterflies than normal.

Some of my readers may have experienced parent night as either a parent or as a teacher, but for me this was uncharted territory. I attended one in 2005 as a student teacher in North Carolina, but the classroom teacher Heather did all the preparation and the talking as I was still an education student at that point. Other than some help with the setup, my role was strictly as observer. Not this time. In tandem with Fran, the 5/6 math and science teacher, I was going to have to do more than just watch. I knew up front that we would do the presentation together in Fran's room and that I would only be talking about the language arts and social studies curriculum, so that definitely put me at ease at least somewhat. Plus, I had already met many of the parents the first couple of weeks of school, so this was not a group of strangers.

I got to school a little early and took part in some of the games the PE teacher had setup for the parents. Played some floor hockey with a soccer ball instead of a puck and a long foam stick in place of an actual hockey stick, thus making it very hard to make the ball go anywhere fast. I basically just ran around a lot and occasionally touched the ball when it emerged from a scrum of parents. Was kind of fun to take the edge off a bit, though. We all headed over to the room and then the fun began. Fran opened the proceedings with a discussion of the weekly schedule, and at the mention of word study turned it over to me for a brief explanation of what we did in word study. Once the ball was rolling with word study, I proceeded to rattle off my entire language arts presentation before turning it back over to Fran. Not exactly the way we drew it up, but whatcha gonna do? Fran kind of laughed as I turned it back over to him and I grinned sheepishly.

I must say that during both the language arts and social studies presentations I was very relaxed, despite the fact that there was like 75 parents in the room at the time. Was kind of hard to gauge the parents' level of satisfaction when the night was over, as they are not going to come right out and be like "You nailed it" or "You really crapped the bed tonight" or hold up scores like Olympic judges. However, Friday morning the curriculum director of the school, who is also the parent of a child in my class, said that the parents were very happy with what they heard and satisfied as they left the room that night. So, it appears as if my first parent night was a success. And the best part is that I don't have to do another one for a year. Whoo hoo!

2008-09-12T00:30:00.009-05:00

Female Fans Out For Season With Tom Brady's Knee Injury

As a Patriots fan, only the Onion could make me laugh about a story that otherwise made me want to throw up in my mouth and light myself on fire:

FOXBOROUGH, MA—More than 90 percent of female football fans were lost for the season on Sunday when New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady suffered a left knee injury that will require extensive treatment. The Patriots announced Monday that Brady, the 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player and arguably the NFL's most handsome man, will be placed on injured reserve, where despite being no less attractive than before his injury, he will only be partially visible for the rest of the 2008-2009 season.

Bill Belichick held a press conference Tuesday confirming that Brady will have surgery, ending his 128-game combined starting-and-high-visibility streak, the third longest for a quarterback and the longest ever for a quarterback heartthrob.

Brady left Sunday's game against Kansas City after suffering an ugly anterior cruciate ligament tear in his incredibly handsome left knee after being hit by merely average-looking Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard.

"We feel badly for the nation's women about the injury," Belichick said. "And for Tom, of course. You hate to see anyone with that kind of masculine yet boyish appeal go down. No one has worked harder or done more for this team's female fan base than Tom has, and we expect him to set his rugged, chiseled jaw, keep his twinkling blue eyes on the prize, and be ready to get back on the field and in front of the cameras by next year."

Matt Cassel, who analysts say looked "consistent and confident" while guiding New England to its 20th straight regular-season win after Brady was hurt and "okay but not remarkable" in jeans and a polo shirt after the game, will start Sunday at the New York Jets, although there are doubts Cassel can win as many games and women as Brady.

"Well, as far as my role on this team goes, I'm not trying to be Tom Brady. I'm just trying to be Matt," Cassel said when subbing for Brady on his regular weekly radio show. "I mean, I have to just be myself, or else the ladies will sense I'm faking it, and in the end, that'll make it worse. I just hope there's one special fan group out there for me."

Cassel has been a second fiddle his entire football career, even in college at Southern California, where he was backup and wingman to lovable tousle-headed manchild Matt Leinart.

But football and demographics analysts agree that Brady's injury surely changes the rugged, weatherbeaten complexion of the entire NFL, where the Patriots, winners of three Super Bowls since 2001 with Brady as their quarterback and spokesmodel, were the strong female-fan favorite. However, Belichick denied the team reached out to any other more experienced or handsome quarterbacks.

Although losing Brady's strong arm and sculpted face will not be easy for the Patriots, the impact of his loss is expected to be felt around the NFL, where Brady has been the leading performer both on and off the field for the last several seasons. League commissioner Roger Goodell called an emergency owner's meeting Monday in which attendees discussed measures designed to compensate for Brady's loss, such as giving poise and diction lessons to Peyton or Eli Manning, getting Brett Favre a new wardrobe and a decent haircut, or teaching Ben Affleck how to play football.

Unfortunately for the NFL, Brady's loss seems to have affected more than just the Patriots and women. Many Boston-area fans of both genders, claiming that the team isn't worth watching without Brady, have concentrated their attention on the waning and somewhat disheveled Red Sox season or the attractive upcoming Celtics' NBA title defense. The sports media has likewise gone into shock, with columnist Bill Simmons saying he will no longer watch football this season, Sports Illustrated canceling large Brady-themed sections of this years' upcoming swimsuit issue, and NBC Football Night In America analyst Cris Collinsworth bursting into tears and collapsing into Peter King's arms upon receiving the news.

"No one else in football has Brady's unique talents—the physical gifts of build, height, arms, cheekbones, piercingly sultry field vision, the combination of arm strength and accuracy with a sense of tenderness, the combination of smirk and pout—along with the intangibles and the ability to look good in everything," said Tom Chiarella, who scouted and evaluated Brady for the September issue of Esquire. "It's impossible to estimate the impact of his loss, but it will almost certainly mean the loss of most female fans, many Boston-area fans, fair-weather fans, and the majority of mainstream media fans. The NFL is really looking at a worst-case scenario here, one that it never wanted to happen: A football season that's only watched by actual football fans."

2008-09-07T12:34:00.001-05:00

Grant About Town

September 6, 2008

Amelie - San Francisco, CA

As some of you might be aware the home base for G's Spot has migrated west to the bay area in California. I am currently living in Portola Valley, about 30 miles south of San Francisco. So now I have a whole new city to explore, and just the forum to share what I find with "Grant About Town." This weekend I made my first trip into the city to meet a friend, Veronica, for drinks at a wine bar called Amelie. The bar is located in the Nob Hill neighborhood, not far from Russian Hill area she was coming from. It took me a couple of hours to come up with the place through extensive research on yelp.com . Cool site by the way, with plenty of information and reviews of bars and restaurants and a very easy to use sorting feature where you can search by neighborhood then modify further by walking distance (1 mile), biking distance (2 miles), driving distance (5 miles) etc. to find stuff around that area.

Let me first say that if you are coming to this place from outside the city, plan on allowing A LOT of time to find parking and most likely shelling out for a parking garage. Cab it or walk if you live in the city. San Francisco is not that big a downtown relative to my previous home, Chicago, and I would not have drove were I living in the city. For Veronica it was not a problem since she could walk to the bar. For me, it was about a 45 minute drive followed by another 15-20 minutes trolling for parking on and around Polk Street. Fortunately for me in this case I had the option of parking in her grandmother's garage, which I did so as to free myself from my car once and for all. A short walk and nice chat later, we were at the wine bar.

My first impression was that it is a rather long, narrow room, but decorated in a modern kitschy style that I liked. It being 8:30p on a Saturday night the place was crowded...I'd wonder about the place if it wasn't. We made our way to the bar and, after perusing the wine list, ordered a couple of sparkling white wines, a relative bargain at $7.50/glass. It was very tasty, kind of a sweeter version of champagne. There being no seats at the bar, we made our way towards the front and approached the three seats you see in the picture (above, right). There was a guy sitting on the aisle seat talking on his cellphone, and for some reason he said the two seats next to him were taken when it was clear that: 1) He was not there with anyone; and 2) Even if he was, they were nowhere to be seen.

Having been shot down for the seats, we made our way to a couple of wooden folding chairs just outside the front door on the sidewalk by the window to the bar. We were able to place our drinks on a ledge and sip them but the glasses could not be outside, or so we were told. After being harrassed every 5 minutes when we held the glass for a sip, and finally being told by another waiter that we could not drink out there at all, I finally said enough is enough, handed the guy my half-consumed drink and walked out. Between snooty cell phone guy and the endless parade of cloying waitstaff, I must say I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. However, I liked the ambiance of the place and the wine list enough to give Amelie another shot in the future.

2008-08-29T20:17:00.020-05:00

The Sub Life Returns, California Style

Week of 8/25/08

As some of you in G's Spot land may have known, my ongoing search for teaching work had expanded to the west coast in early 2008. Well, the bi-coastal (if you consider Lake Michigan a coast) approach finally paid off earlier this month when I got a job teaching 5th/6th grade language arts and social studies at a charter school in the bay area of northern California. The position became open late in the hiring process due to a maternity leave situation, which is not coincidentally also how I got my first teaching job in North Carolina. In this case it was for the birth of twins, and I thank them both for coming along just in time for me to get hired for the 2008-09 school year.

Upon being offered the position via a phone call on 8/8/08 while on vacation with family on Nantucket Island, MA, I promptly returned to Chicago, gave my one week notice at Edline that Monday, packed up all my stuff, rented a moving truck, said goodbye to as of my friends as possible, packed the moving truck with the help of my buddies Rob (aka "Half-Life of Shoes"), Mike and Thang and hit the road August 17th with my Honda Accord in tow for a nearly 2,220 mile drive cross country. Said drive, which took me through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada was completed in 3 days, just in time for me to crash at my sister's and report to orientation on Thursday the 21st bleary eyed to say the least. Pictures from the drive - still stuck on my digital camera - will be forthcoming when I set up my computer.

Just to give a little background, the school where I work, San Carlos Charter Learning Center, opened in 1994, was the first charter school in California and is currently the longest running charter school in the United States. It is a K-8 school with a multi-grade approach for all grades other than 4th, which in California is the last grade of elementary before entering middle school. It is progressive in terms of curriculum, more project-based and student-centered with a very tight-knit community with strong parental involvement. The new director comes from a Quaker school background, where more emphasis is placed on creating a community of learners adhering to values of integrity, equality and peace. So, for example, kids call the teachers and staff by their first names as opposed to "Mr. or Ms. such and such" as to eliminate the formality and inequality the use of title implies, and we are referred to as educators and learners, respectively as opposed to teachers and students.

Last Saturday I was besieged by parents and kids alike in my classroom with offers of help to clean, set up computers, move furniture, etc. One thing you learn as a teacher is that when you are lucky enough to have parents offer help you take it. My first day got off to strong start in the dessert department when one of the parents brought me a yummy homemade apple cobbler. Mmmm Mmmm. Keep the food coming. That first week with a new group of kids is always a feeling out process, and the fact that I was in a new school and living in a new state made it all the more challenging and exhausting...I crashed by 9:30p every night last week! Having been used to an elementary school situation where I was with the same group of kids throughout the day, it was also an adjustment for me to be in a middle school situation with different groups of kids coming and going from the room during the day. Also, I had to familiarize myself with twice as many student names, always a challenge at the start of the year.

The important thing is that I survived the first week, with many compliments and much support from students, staff and parents alike which was nice. I can now enjoy some down time with my sister, brother-in-law and 3 adorable nieces in my new home over the long holiday weekend. I hope this posting finds everybody doing well and that you all have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.

2008-08-15T14:03:00.002-05:00

Manny Ramirez Likes Red Sox's New Blue Uniforms

From the brilliant folks at the Onion:

LOS ANGELES—Dodgers left-fielder Manny Ramirez, sent to Los Angeles in a three-team trade two weeks ago, said Monday that he "really likes" the Red Sox's new blue-and-white uniforms. "I like it more than the red," Ramirez told reporters following the Dodgers' 8-6 win over the Phillies Monday. "I'm also happy that they shortened the Green Monster, and painted it blue, because that wall was too tall before. And I'm really enjoying the easy schedule we've been playing lately." Although Ramirez admitted he didn't appreciate having "that vampire from the Yankees" [Joe Torre] hanging out in the dugout all the time, he did say that he "completely approves of David Ortiz's new mustache" while gesturing towards Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent.

2008-07-07T20:33:00.037-05:00

4th of July in NOLA

Three years ago in March, during spring break from grad school in North Carolina, my late father and I decided to pay our first visit to the city of New Orleans. Sure, we considered more tropical locations such as Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Ultimately, however, we went with an American city that we felt offered an interesting mix of cuisine, music and culture. Suffice it to say the trip was a blast and I am thrilled we went there. We saw some great jazz at Snug Harbor jazz club in the French Quarter, ate some fine food at places such as Brennan's and Commander's Palace, and were treated very well by the locals. A truly great experience and one of the many fond memories I have with my dad.

Anyway, I don't need to remind any of you what happened to New Orleans just a few months later. One word sums it up: Katrina. I remember talking with my dad on the phone in the weeks following the hurricane and how sad, angry and frustrated he was by the event itself and then the pitiful response by FEMA to the subsequent disaster caused by the failure of the levees. Having just been there a few months earlier, it all seemed a bit more familiar to me and thus bothered me even more. I took in all the news reports about the storm, and was reminded of the very real human drama playing out when a child displaced from New Orleans enrolled at the school where I was teaching in North Carolina in the fall of 2005. I vowed to return to the city the first chance I had.

Fast forward to July 2008. My first opportunity to return to New Orleans, this time at the invitation of my buddy Thang, a native of the Crescent City who now lives in Chicago. We had talked about doing this trip since I met him last year and I jumped at the chance to go back. To check out some of the places I had gone to with my father, see some things I had missed in 2005, and most importantly to spend money and show my support for the city. This time I saw the city from a decidedly different perspective, with someone who still has a lot of ties in the city and knows his way around. I stayed with a friend of his, Kelley, who lives in the Bywater section. Within minutes of my arrival last Wednesday I was sipping a drink at Bacchanal, a wine bar owned by his friend Chris.

Craving live music, one of the few things that I requested be on the itinerary was a return to Snug Harbor. Thang wasted no time knocking that one off, as we hit the club Wednesday night to check out a set by local trumpet player Irvin Mayfield and his band. During the show he brought up a number of teenagers, all students at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), to play piano, drums and standup bass. I swear if you closed your eyes and listened to this group you'd have no idea they were between 14-17 years old. Wow, there is some really impressive musical talent in New Orleans. Did I mention that we got into the club free because Thang knows the manager? Very cool.

Over the course of the next few days I saw a lot of the city, imbibed at many of Thang's favorite drinking establishments and met a lot of interesting people. Noteworthy among the places we visited is the Columns Hotel in the upper Garden District. Built in 1883 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel is a step back in time with its mahogany wood interior, grand staircase and square domed stained-glass skylight in a stylized sunburst motif (yes, I took that description from the hotel's website). Equally breathtaking is the exterior, which boasts a large front porch upon which to knock down a few drinks and watch the crowd roll in and the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line roll by on a lovely Friday afternoon. And this is exactly what we did. Just a beautiful setting and one of the highlights of the trip.

Aside from all the things I did and saw, it was fascinating to talk to residents and hear the many stories of how they managed in New Orleans post-Katrina. Kelley, my host, talked about all the people she put up in her house during the months following the devastation; About her goldfish, who had to be relocated to a friend's place since she couldn't get into her home at first, but who is still alive and swimming much to her delight; About how everyone had to dispose of their refrigerators after they were filled with rotting food for weeks. Thang's friend and host, Heather, told me that she was without Internet service for four months and that the day the first garbage truck returned to their neighborhood all the residents came outside and applauded.

In these and many other stories I was blown away by the resiliency of these people, the strength of the communal ties, the passion they have for their city. I made a lot of new friends that weekend, and I will be back to New Orleans. That is a promise.

2008-06-17T23:19:00.021-05:00

Green Day

A few months ago, I paid a visit to my good friends Reggie and Sarah on the occasion of meeting their new daughter, Zoe, for the first time. Cute kid by the way. It was during the NCAA tournament and my UConn Huskies men's team had just lost to powerhouse (sarcasm intended) 13-seed San Diego in the first round. A couple of other friends, Vince and Kerry, were there as well and Vince noted the humbling loss. "What Happened to UConn?" he asked and I shook my head, unable to offer an explanation. "Maybe your run is over," he added, referring to the recent successes by the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox. I wondered myself if this was the beginning of the end. After all, don't you know these things go in cycles just like Bobby Brown was just ampin' like Michael ("A Tribe Called Quest" reference for those old school rap fans in the audience). Was this loss an omen for what was to come in 2008?

Well, Vince, might want to hold off on the post mortem for Grant's favorite teams. Last night, the Boston Celtics routed (and I mean routed) the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals and won the 17th title in the franchise's storied history. It took a record 26 playoff games (Two 7-game series and two 6-game series) to get the job done and it is the C's first championship since 1986, when yours truly was a mere 14 year-old aspiring blogger walking tall in suburban West Hartford, CT. As always, ESPN's Bill Simmons sums up the night better than I possibly could in his column "Notes from a good ol' fashioned Garden party".

It was the culmination of a record-setting season in which the Celtics improved by 42 games over last season's dreadful 24-58 mark, going a league best 66-16 in the regular season. Following the 2007 regular season, the team somehow missed out on both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in the draft (shades of 1997 when they missed out on Tim Duncan) despite having the best odds in the lottery, and all seemed dire for 2008. However, GM Danny Ainge traded for veteran sharpshooter Ray Allen on draft day. This was followed not long after by the blockbuster trade for forward Kevin Garnett that changed everything. With these two All-Stars now paired with talented forward Paul Pierce, the team made it clear they were going for it this year and the stage was set for a memorable 2008. While it is the first NBA championship for all three guys, I am most happy for Finals MVP Pierce as he endured some absolutely dreadful seasons and plenty of trade rumors in his 10 years with Boston. More than any other current Celtic, he earned this.

With the Red Sox currently in first place, the Patriots poised for another run in the fall and the UConn men looking loaded for 2008-09, I'd say my sports run is far from over.

2008-06-05T19:04:00.024-05:00

U2 Live at Red Rocks: The 25th Anniversary

I was listening to my iPod on the way home from work the other day, and I decided to fire up the legendary 1983 U2 show from Red Rocks in Colorado. It had never been released on CD and the VHS version cut out a few tracks for some reason, but I found a bootleg of the whole show on the Internet being the intrepid U2 fan that I am. As I was rotating through the playlist I got to the show and noted the date: 6/5/83. I thought about it for a second and did the math. Today is the 25th anniversary of the show. After getting over the fact that I was old enough to remember something 25 years old, it stirred up my long running frustration over the fact that this show has never gotten a proper DVD release. One of the most famous concerts in not only U2 but rock and roll history, only available on VHS. Criminal, absolutely criminal.

Fortunately for U2 fans such as myself, this situation is being remedied. In honor of the 25th anniversary the band is releasing a remastered version of the concert on CD with a bonus disc, due in stores June 24, and finally releasing “Under A Blood Red Sky” on DVD in August. While surfing the Internet for more information I found an interestin g piece by G. Brown, former rock critic for The Denver Post who was an early advocate of the band and attended the show, as well as a look back by the Post's current pop music critic Ricardo Baca. When you read these articles you appreciate just how many things had to go wrong for this show to play out like it did, and how the combination of band, venue and conditions set the stage for what would be a defining moment in rock and a seminal moment for U2. 4,400 fans braved the cold and rain that night, but you'd better believe that a whole lot more have claimed they were there. Sure wish I had been one of them.

2008-06-04T23:45:00.012-05:00

Barack Rocks!

History was made Tuesday night when Chicagoan Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for president, the first black candidate to lead a major party ticket. A combination of superdelegate commitments and those obtained in the final two primary states, Montana and South Dakota, put Obama over the top for good. “Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another — a journey that will bring a new and better day to America," Obama said to a packed house in St. Paul, MN. "Because of you, tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America.” I literally got chills as I watched Obama's speech. What a moment for our country. His is the kind of story that could only happen in America.

You would have hardly known he was the victor based on the "non-concession concession speech" given earlier in the evening by his rival, Hillary Clinton, who is clearly angling for the VP spot at this point. She did not help her case and in fact pissed off a lot of fellow Democrats with her performance. Instead of holding to party tradition and graciously congratulating Obama on his win, she proceeded to deny reality, talking about herself and why she is more qualified to take on John McCain in the fall. It felt like the Bush "Mission Accomplished" speech all over again, and either Clinton is in deep denial or she got some terrible advice (yet again) from her advisers on how to approach the speech, or both. Whatever the case may be, she came off as petty and small.

Either way, it is over for Clinton now and on Saturday she will reportedly do what she should have done last night - endorse Senator Obama and begin the process of unifying the party.

2008-06-03T22:54:00.004-05:00

Boris to Enforce New Booze Ban

While watching "The Daily Show" tonight I caught a piece on the recent enactment of a drinking ban on all public transportation in the city of London. Apparently, new London mayor Boris Johnson announced the ban on consumption of alcoholic beverages within days of taking office in an attempt to curb crime on trains and buses around the city. I'm sure not even Boris could have imagined the monster he created when revelers decided to hold the mother of all cocktail parties in Tube stations throughout the city on the last night before the ban took effect on June 1. Thank God there were only 17 arrests, the assault of 4 train drivers, 3 other Underground staff and 2 police officers, 1 police car damaged, fighting and vomiting on the trains and the eventual closure of 6 stations. Way to take a bite out of crime there Boris.

2008-05-19T22:33:00.012-05:00

It Just Keeps Getting Better

After 86 years of torture, my beloved Boston Red Sox finally ended the drought with a World Series title in 2004. Last year, they made it 2 titles in 4 years with a sweep of the Colorado Rockies. One of the many great stories on that team was Jon Lester, the starter in the clinching game 4. He beat cancer last year. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diagnosed in late 2006 because of a sore back that he thought stemmed from a car crash. That he was even on the field again at all was rather miraculous, let alone him being given the ball my manager Terry Francona with a World Series title on the line.

As if the Lester story could not get any better, he went out and no hit the Kansas City Royals on Monday night. His 130th and final pitch of the 7-0 victory crossed the plate at 96 mph, the hardest he threw all night. It was the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history. While that sounds like a lot, remember that teammate Curt Schilling has thrown more than 3,000 innings without a no-hitter; Josh Beckett has won a World Series MVP and not thrown a no-hitter, and Daisuke Matsuzaka was the most dominant pitcher Japan has seen in generations and never threw a no-hitter. Strangely, the last person to do so was Lester’s teammate, Clay Buchholz, who threw one in his second major league start last September.

I know I'm biased, but you just can't make up a story this good: Cancer survivor makes it back to the big leagues, starts the clinching game of the World Series, throws a no-hitter. “To watch him do that beyond tonight was beyond words,” Francona said. Couldn't have said it better myself.

2008-05-01T19:06:00.067-05:00

Is This Camera On?

In contrast to my buddy Reggie, who keeps the sharp political commentary coming on his blog reggienewton.com, to this point I have kept the political discussion on G's Spot to a minimum. It hasn't really been an intentional thing, as I do follow politics closely and enjoy discussing it with friends and family alike. But with the imminent departure of George Bush (and not a day too soon) I must admit that I have been particularly dialed into the '08 campaign. It should be noted that I am a Democrat and yes, a New England born and bred liberal from the great state of Connecticut, insurance capital of the world, birthplace of John Mayer, former home of the NHL's Hartford Whalers and current home of, well, we don't have any other professional sports teams. Anyway, for the sake of discussion I am also a Barack Obama supporter as can be observed from the, um, endorsement right there on my blog.

When I haven't been arguing with other Democrats about why they should choose Obama over Clinton, I have been paying close attention to the presumptive Republican competition this fall: Senator John McCain. Now McCain is a good man and I honor his service to our country. While I do not agree with a lot of his politics and in particular his stand on the Iraq war, at least he is not a chicken hawk like Bush and Dick Cheney who will send other young men and women to pay the ultimate price for their country when neither was willing to do so themselves. That said, as a Democrat who wants to take back the White House I have taken great delight in the way that McCain has aligned himself with Bush in regards to this war. His initial support of the war, praise of the "successful" surge and recent defense of the now infamous Bush "Mission Accomplished" speech make it pretty clear that McCain would be an extension of Bush in regards to Iraq.

Then there's the "100 years" comment . We have all said things in the heat of the moment that we've regretted later. The difference is that most of us aren't running for president and a camera wasn't rolling when we said them. McCain is running for president, and there's little doubt that this is one that he would probably take back and certainly wished were not caught on tape. Unfortunately for him it was, and it is now the subject of a particularly effective ad for the Democratic party. Apparently, McCain's people have been slamming anyone who even dares bring up the comments and have categorized them as "misleading." Were it not for that overzealous response who knows if this ad would have been made. Just like Hillary Clinton, who got a bit carried away with her recollection of a trip to Bosnia only to have the video tape refute her version of events; Barack Obama, who has been dogged by the media since the controversial comments of his former pastor hit the airwaves, so is McCain going to have to deal with the repercussions of these words as we move into the fall.

As former Virginia Senator George "Macaca" Allen can attest, this is a YouTube world and the cameras are always rolling, particularly when you're an elected official or running for political office. May as well just man (or woman) up to what you said instead of trying to spin and dissemble, lest you lose even more credibility with the fickle public. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch TMZ.

2008-04-18T18:26:00.022-05:00

This Week's Second Sign of the Apocalypse

In my previous post about a cougar sighting in my neighborhood on Monday, I concluded that it locked up story of the week honors and "I shudder to think what could possibly top it." Well, Mother Nature chimed in early Friday morning with her major shudder of an answer at around 4:37 am when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake sent a minor rumble through the city. Centered in the southern Illinois town of West Salem, the earthquake was relatively mild but nonetheless the strongest to hit the area since a 5.3 magnitude quake in 1968. It was enough to shake my light fixtures and wake me from slumber, which really isn't that hard to do as I am a very light sleeper to begin with.

So, for those scoring at home, this is a cougar sighting and an earthquake in the same WEEK. Were I living in southern California like my buddy Chris (aka "Our Man in LA" in the blogosphere) or northern California like my sister Elizabeth (aka Liz) this would be no big deal, but this kind of stuff just doesn't happen here in the midwestern city of Chicago. A tornado and a rat sighting, sure. Been there, done that. But this is just flat out weird and ominous and I am starting to feel a bit too much kinship with the Will Smith character in "I am Legend." Maybe it's time to revisit those bomb shelter plans.

2008-04-15T23:00:00.008-05:00

Out of the Wild

So, I'm driving home from the train station after work around 6pm last night and all of sudden come upon a gaggle of police cars while driving up Cornelia, a street near my apartment in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on the north side. The blocks are short and I can see police cars literally at every intersection in this normally quiet residential area. There is a police station nearby so I am used to seeing law enforcement in the neighborhood, but not this many cops. Something is definitely going on. As I cross one particular street, Hamilton as I recall, all of a sudden the police rush towards a particular house with their guns drawn. I can't get a really good look at what is going on since I am driving, but my first thought was a hostage situation or something like that.

Little did I know, the cops were rushing to confront a cougar - that's right, a cougar - that was loose in the neighborhood. For those who watch "30 Rock" and saw last week's episode where the network was pushing a new reality show called "MILF Island" I am not talking about that kind of cougar. No, this was not a hot, middle-aged woman on the prowl for teenage boys. Rather, this was an ACTUAL cougar from the wild, weighing in at approximately 150 lbs and, according to a witness, able to scale 6 foot fences with one leap. It may have come as far as 1,000 miles from the Black Hills of South Dakota via Wisconsin to its rather unlikely final destination in the city. I know the housing market is tough but damn, cougar, you ain't going to find a better deal on the north side of Chicago than you had living in the woods in the Dakotas.

Unfortunately, the story has a sad ending as the police eventually shot and killed the animal. Apparently, cougars can be difficult to tranquilize (it won't work if you hit bone, for example) and with it being a densely populated urban area the obvious safety risk was there as well. Some were critical of the police decision to shoot the animal, but Mayor Daley made a good point when noting the lawsuit potential for the city had the cougar mauled a human. I must say that encountering a cougar on my way home from work pretty much locks up story of the week honors. I shudder to think what could possibly top it.

2008-04-07T13:15:00.017-05:00

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

The national pastime enters its second week with a full slate of Major League Baseball games across the country. Optimism for my defending champion Boston Red Sox as well as my fantasy baseball team, the Bad News Blairs, is running rampant. Hopefully this optimism will still be running rampant at the All-Star break, or at least Memorial Day. Living in Chicago, I should also note that this is the 100th (!) anniversary of the last world championship for the Chicago Cubs, the beloved north siders. Can you imagine saying "Wait until next year" for 100 years? I thought 86 years was rough but damn. However, the beauty of baseball is that hope springs eternal at the start of every season. It's the summer romance that eventually breaks your heart, leaves you for the winter, buys a cute new outfit and shows up again in the spring.

In recognition of the opening of baseball version 2008, I wanted to pass along this funny article Presidents, Pierogies and Other Strange Things That Race at Ballparks sent to me by my friend Aeron in North Carolina. It is a history of some of the mascot racing traditions in major and minor league ballparks across the country. As a midwesterner who has made it to Milwaukee for a Brewers game or two, I am very familiar with the famous Klement's Racing Sausages. They got some notoriety 5 years ago when Pittsburgh Pirate Randall Simon smacked the Italian Sausage (aka college student Mandy Block) with his baseball bat, knocked her and another racer to the ground and received a citation for disorderly conduct. Needless to say, ESPN showed that clip a lot.

It is somewhat ironic in this technological age that a number of the mascot races - including the sausages and the racing presidents at Washington Nationals games - evolved from graphics on a scoreboard to actual flesh and blood "people" and not the other way around. In this world of Nintendo Wii, Blackberry, podcasts and virtual reality computer games like "Second Life," it is nice to know that we haven't completely given up on the human element when it comes to our sports-related entertainment. Don't know about you, but if I am going to watch four sausages race down the 3rd base line at a ballgame I demand authenticity.

2008-03-19T19:39:00.029-05:00

Snow Angels, Meerkats and Me

After what could generously be described as a "bleak" month of weather here in February, yours truly was more than ready for a vacation come March. So, I took up my sister on an offer to join her family for a ski trip to Lake Tahoe, CA. That's right, I flew nearly 2,000 miles to California for an opportunity to experience MORE snow. I figured that unlike Chicago, where the snow is something to be removed from my car, driven through on the way to work and generally not a source of fun, this was a chance for me to experience snow in a different light: On actual hills, as fresh powder, with skis on and surrounded by family having a good time. The fact that I hadn't skied since high school was immaterial.

I have to say, it was very surreal to start out a drive like we did from my sister's house in the Bay Area in relative warmth and end it in sub-freezing temperatures and snowy conditions. The snow piles on highway 80 East were several feet deep and literally covered the street signs. As frequently as it has snowed in Chicago this winter, we have not had nearly this much of the white stuff on the ground due to periodic warm ups and thawing. On the drive up we were about 15 miles from our destination (Truckee) in North Lake Tahoe when they stopped traffic on the highway due to a couple of spinouts ahead. Often they require snow tires or chains on tires through stretches of 80 in the winter, but fortunately this was not the case as my sister's BMW had neither. After over an hour parked on the highway chatting with my sister and entertaining my 2 year-old niece, Erica, we were once again on our way.

The resort where we stayed - Northstar at Tahoe - is a very nice, family-friendly place with plenty to do for skiers and non-skiers alike. Make no mistake though, this is a ski resort first and foremost. There are free shuttles that take you from the condo developments that ring the resort to a village area complete with shops, restaurants, bars and plenty of comfy outdoor seating. One of the non-skiing highlights for my nieces (and no doubt my sister and brother-in-law, since it killed over an hour before dinner) was an area overlooking the skating rink where they bounced up and down on a trampoline with bungee cords attached to each arm. Who knew that paying a mere $12 to jump up and down for 10 minutes could bring such joy to a child?

Now to answer the question I'm sure you've all been wondering since I mentioned that I hadn't skied since high school. Yes, I fell down. Many times actually. I am proud to say, however, that I did not have any high speed wipeouts of the "Agony of Defeat" variety from the old ABC "Wide World of Sports" intro, nor did I once fall when getting off the chairlift. When I went down it was either at slow speed or while trying to stop, which proved quite challenging given my glaring lack of appropriate technique. I kept myself to either the green (easy) or blue (more difficult) trails, doing some runs by myself, some with my brother-in-law and a handful with my nieces Caroline and Meredith when they weren't taking ski lessons. The skiers share the trails with the snowboarders, and honestly the fact that I didn't collide with anyone over the two days was a minor miracle.

Let me just say that the views from Mt. Pluto, the summit at 8,610 feet, were breathtaking. I wasn't able to get photos but include one from the resort's web site at the top of this post. When not barreling down from said summit like a runaway freight train, I was able to show Erica how to do snow angels and learned from Caroline what a meerkat is by watching a DVD of the Animal Planet show "Meerkat Manor." It was good to know that Sean Astin, the narrator of the show, is still getting work post "Lord of the Rings." I also had what I am pretty sure is my first ever snowball fight with the girls, seeing that they live in California and all. Anyway, good times were had by all and I can't wait to get back on the slopes again. After a few ski lessons, of course.

2008-03-06T18:30:00.021-06:00

Grant About Town

March 5, 2008
"Felt" at iO Chicago

Though it is the shortest month of the year even in a leap year, it was a long, hard February in Chicago as usual. Nothing is more demoralizing than the one-two punch of snow and cold, and that has unfortunately been my world for the last month or so. We very nearly set a record for the total amount of snow here in the month of February, despite the fact that we had no major storms. By major, I am talking about a foot or more at one time. It was 2-3 inches here, 4-6 inches there and it seemed like snow was on the ground all month. As I said to my buddy and fellow blogger Greg recently, the last month's weather was kind of like bleeding someone to death to maximize the suffering. I'd like to think that the worst is behind us at this point, but having endured many winters in Chicago I know better. They have had snow on Cubs opening day in April, so we're not out of the woods yet.

Despite the dreary weather, I have actually been able to have some fun in between the stretches of hibernating at home, counting the days until spring and wondering when the sun would shine again. One such occasion was last night when I attended a truly original improv event called "Felt" at iO (formerly the Improv Olympic) in Wrigleyville with my friend Jessica. This was my second attempt to see the show, it having been canceled on short notice a couple of Wednesdays earlier (it only plays once a week) when I tried to go with some meetup group friends. However, I was not going to be denied this chance to brave the Chicago elements in the hope of watching puppets make me laugh.

That's right, "Felt" features a group of 9 puppets performing improvisation that is most definitely not family friendly in terms of the subject matter. On the iO website it says "This show may not be suitable for children" and having seen the show I can confirm that this is very accurate. The puppets curse, they talk about sex, they meet people online and have disastrous first dates. If you took The Muppets and crossed it with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from Conan O'Brien's show, I imagine this would be the result. Some of the puppets look like real people/animals including my personal favorite, a dog who wears a button down oxford shirt that looks a lot like one I own. Some of the puppets looks like furry monsters out of a Disney movie (see picture at right).

For those of you that have seen humans doing improv before, there is not going to be anything revolutionary here in terms of either the method or the subject matter. However, in the entertainment world the saying goes that you never want to work with children or animals as they will always steal the show. Similarly, a scene that would just be average with human performers takes on whole new comedic dimensions when the participants are puppets with a limited range of motion and emotion. For instance, in one scene a dog puppet showed up to a restaurant for a first date with a girl he met online. She told him that he "doesn't look anything like his picture" after which he proceeded to grunt and then dry-hump her leg repeatedly. I didn't say this was highbrow stuff, but it is funny as hell.

The show concluded with a game of "freeze" between the puppets and human members of the all-girl improv group, Virgin Daquiri, that opened the night. For those of you unfamiliar with improv, the freeze game is when two people start a scene and then a third yells "freeze," takes the place of one of the people and initiates a new round of dialogue. As if watching a group of puppets do improv was not strange enough, watching a puppet do a scene with a human that ended with them making out was truly off the charts. If you live in Chicago or are ever visiting and looking for something to do on a Wednesday night, I highly recommend it.

2008-01-26T17:14:00.000-06:00

Grant About Town

January 25, 2008

U2 3D

I was riding the train to work one morning a couple of Fridays back, perusing the RedEye newspaper with my bleary eyes. Flipping through the arts section in the back my eyes lit up when I saw a full page ad for the new U2 3D concert film simply titled "U2 3D". The film, which was to begin its run the following week at the Navy Pier IMAX theater, is billed by producer National Geographic as "The first live action 3D concert movie." My first thought was "I am seeing this movie." My next thought was "I wonder if Reggie (my college buddy and fellow connoisseur of all things U2)" wants to see this with me." Naturally, Reggie called me that afternoon to make plans for the movie. "I wouldn't see it with anybody else (in Chicago)," I told him. The date was set - January 25th - and the tickets were purchased.

Having seen the band perform live many times in many places, I have to admit that I wondered how the 3D experience would improve upon seeing them as I already had, up close and personal in the general admission floor section or really good lower level seats. Before Reggie and I made our way into the theater we each tried to recall the last 3D movie we had actually seen. Reggie recalled seeing something on local television growing up, a monster movie type thing. I honestly could not remember the last 3D movie I had seen, period. I'll say this, the glasses we got were a far cry from the flimsy white cardboard ones with the colored lenses we all remember as kids, used to see forgettable films like "Jaws 3-D" and "Friday the 13th: Part 3" in 3D. The glasses were plastic and big "Kanye West style" looking things as I noted to Reggie, clad in his Elevation Tour t-shirt. I was wearing mine from the Vertigo Tour.

With footage shot at nine concerts during the 4th and 5th legs of the Vertigo Tour in South America/Australia in early 2006, the film utilizes cutting edge "3ality" technology featuring high definition, multi-camera rigs, real time filming with zoom lenses, robotic control and integrated digital processing. The result was nothing short of breathtaking and from the moment the title of the film dropped down in front of me, so close I felt as if I could reach out and touch it, I was totally hooked. The first few minutes of the film the cameras sweep around frequently, from the top of the jam-packed stadium all the way down to the stage, hovering over Larry Mullen's drum kit, behind Bono's microphone stand and peeking over the heads of the fans as beer sprayed and arms waved. And I felt like I was right in the middle of it.

At various points during the show the cameras would come in tight on one of the band members, such as guitarist The Edge, standing six stories tall, and when he walked towards the camera you literally felt like he was going to burst out of the screen. It was like having him do a solo for you in your living room, except if your living room was the size of a small building and he was the size of King Kong. Having played the drums I also enjoyed watching Larry Mullen's technique in high definition, such as the way he used the timpani (kettle drum) at the begining of "Where the Streets Have No Name." I noted to Reggie that the picture detail was so good that I could actually read the name (Gretsch) off of the neck of Bono's guitar at one point. And with the audio in 5.1 Surround Sound there were literally times when I could have sworn that audience members in the back were cheering when it was actually crowd noise from the film.

Highlights of the show itself included a rousing version of "Miss Sarajevo" with Bono in full operatic tenor out on one of the curving walkways that came out from the main stage. It was also pretty cool when the cameras swept over to and then hovered over The Edge as he played keyboards during "New Year's Day." You could not have had a better view if you were sitting next to him while he played. Awesome. The way that the filmmakers integrated the video screens with the actual performers was neat, too, like when Bono would be singing with his video screen likeness right next to him.

When the show ended, Reggie and I talked about how neat it would have been to see past U2 concert films such as "Rattle and Hum" or "Under a Blood Red Sky/Live at Red Rocks" in 3D. We also agreed that the bar has been raised for all concert films that come out after this one, a truly amazing visual and audio experience that any U2 fan must seek out at once. Seriously, drop what you're doing right now and go to the nearest IMAX theater. You'll be glad you did.

U2 Set List - U2 3D

Vertigo
Beautiful Day
New Year's Day
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo / Reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

First encore
The Fly
With or Without You

Second encore/End credits
Yahweh

2008-01-18T23:14:00.000-06:00

What Person Is In Deep S%#t This Week?

I am amending my "famous person in trouble" idea to recognize Dave Seanor, former vice president and editor of Golfweek magazine, who was fired Friday for illustrating a noose on the magazine's cover in the wake of broadcaster Kelly Tilghman's lynching comment in reference to Tiger Woods. For those not familiar with the story, while talking about challengers to Woods during a Golf Channel broadcast of the Mercedes-Benz Championship on January 4th Tilghman, in the booth with former PGA pro Nick Faldo, said that young players should "Lynch him in a back alley," implying that this is the only way to beat the dominant Woods. According to a statement by the Golf Channel four days later Tilghman, who has known Woods for 12 years and has a very good relationship with him, apologized to him and the matter was for all intents and purposes resolved.

Not quite. The Rev. Al Sharpton got wind of media coverage of the story and demanded that Tilghman be fired immediately, leading to the channel's decision to suspend Tilghman for two weeks. To this point my reaction to the story was that Tilghman made a very irresponsible and inflammatory choice of words, should have known better, and probably deserved to be suspended just based on her stupidity alone. Then Seanor comes along and makes the job-killing decision to illustrate a noose - that's right, a noose - on the cover of the January 19th edition of Golfweek magazine. Are you serious? PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem called the Golfweek cover "outrageous and irresponsible" and accused the magazine of tabloid journalism. "It was a naked attempt to inflame and keep alive an incident that was heading to an appropriate conclusion," Finchem said.

That Seanor would put a noose on the cover of the magazine under any circumstances is galling, but to do it on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday when sensitivity to it would be even higher showed a whole new level of ignorance. I'll be the first one to say that this country is too politically correct in general and needs to lighten up a bit. However, in this case Seanor screwed up and got what he deserved.

2008-01-09T20:57:00.000-06:00

Clemens Guilty Until Proven Innocent

For weeks now, since he was named in the now infamous Mitchell Commission Report on steroid use in baseball, I have followed the Roger Clemens/Brian McNamee saga with great interest. Once a hero to me as a member of the Boston Red Sox in the mid 80's-early 90's, Clemens became a pariah to Sox fans when he let himself go physically his last several years with the team, left as a free agent without so much as a "Thank you" to the fans and signed with the division rival Toronto Blue Jays (where he won back-to-back Cy Youngs in 1997 and 1998). The only thing worse than that would have been his signing with the Yankees; Clemens took care of that in 1999 and officially became dead to me as a Sox fan.

Much like nobody really questioned the assaults on the record books by artificially bulked up hitters such as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in the 90's, nobody really questioned how Clemens went from a player who won 30 games total his last 3 years in Boston and looked close to finished to one who won 41 with more than 550 strikeouts in 2 years with the Jays and continued this revival with the Yankees. Until now, that is. With his naming in the Mitchell report and revelations from former Clemens trainer Brian McNamee that he injected the seven-time Cy Young A ward winner with steroids and human growth hormone 16-21 times in 1998, 2000 and 2001, Clemens now finds himself square in the crosshairs of federal investigators and Congress who seek clarification of his role in the fraud that was baseball's steroid era.

Now, of course, there is always the presumption of innocence until proven guilty when it comes to the American legal system. As much personal animosity as I have towards Clemens, I do understand in principle that even he deserves the opportunity to tell his side of the story and defend himself. And while a lot of the Clemens/McNamee situation boils down to he said/he said - Clemens claims McNamee injected him with only the painkiller lidocaine and the vitamin B-12 - the reality is that if you look at Clemens' actions since the release of the report, he is hardly behaving in a manner consistent with someone who is innocent. For starters, he did not immediately come out swinging as most would have when the Mitchell bombshell dropped in mid-December. And when Clemens eventually did address the matter, he did so via a statement through his attorney, Rusty Hardin, and a video on his website.

Clemens "60 Minutes" Interview - Part I

Clemens "60 Minutes" Interview - Part II

Clemens continued the media parade by doing an interview with Mike Wallace (Yankees fan, by the way) on "60 Minutes." In the interview, which aired January 6th, he continued to vehemently deny McNamees's allegations and also denied having advance knowledge that he would be named in the Mitchell report. This despite the fact that Mitchell sent two letters to the Major League Baseball Players' Association seeking comment from Clemens in advance of the report's release. Once again, this was carefully choreographed theater with Clemens playing the "Woe is me" card and being outright dishonest about the fact that he was blindsided by the allegations.

In a bizarre development just prior to the airing of the "60 Minutes" interview, Clemens and McNamee spoke by phone with Clemens' lawyer in the room taping the conversation. The tape is revealing in that at no point does McNamee indicate a willingness to say that Clemens did not use steroids, and McNamee also implies that he is telling the truth and would of course face jail time if he lied to the feds. Unlike Barry Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson, McNamee would not go to jail to protect his former client. The "60 Minutes" interview was followed up the next day by Clemens first actual press conference since the release of the report - a full 3 weeks after the report's release. In the press conference, an outright hostile Clemens lambasted the press for its treatment of him and lobbed a grenade at Hall of Fame voters when he said "You think that I played my career because I'm worrying about the damn Hall of Fame? If you have a vote and it's (turned) because of this, you keep your vote."

The way things are going for Roger right now, whether or not he makes it to the Hall of Fame should be the least of his concerns. His legacy has been tarnished and the trainer who Clemens claims is lying has already been proven correct once when his testimony that Andy Pettitte, a longtime friend and teammate of Clemens, used human growth hormone was confirmed by Pettitte. I wonder just what exactly a trainer with no medical degree was doing with the prescription drug lidocaine, as opposed to a team doctor. First of all how did he get it, and why would he inject it in Clemens' rear end, as Clemens claimed, when it is normally injected in one's arm? And just exactly why would McNamee tell the truth about Pettitte but lie about Clemens? Furthermore, why would he lie about Clemens to federal investigators knowing full well that if he did so he would go to prison?

Who knows just how much of the truth will come out when Clemens, McNamee and Pettitte, among others, testify before Congress on February 13th. Maybe Clemens will take the 5th like Mark McGwire did in 2005, mysteriously drop a bunch of weight and disappear from public view. Actually, that wouldn't be so bad, never having to see or hear from Roger Clemens again.

2007-12-31T00:20:00.000-06:00

Vacation All I Ever Wanted

It is Sunday night and I just got back from a very nice holiday gathering at casa Greg and Mary Jo (aka "Dr. Overboard & Prof. Evenkeel") in Glenview and wanted to thank them again for their hospitality. It was great to catch up with friends, enjoy a nice home-cooked meal and drink a few glasses of wine. Sorry I forgot the food, MJ :)

OK, so I am not even going to try to rationalize how little I have posted lately. Not going to try to blame it on the craziness of the holidays, taking my work home with me, having a pregnant wife, a Netflix addiction, a hangover from the Red Sox World Series run, depression over the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike or anything like that. The reality is that I can't make as strong or as entertaining a case for my absence from the blogosphere as my buddy Chris (aka "Our Man in LA") did recently, so let's just say that the dog ate my blog mojo (or whatever the homework equivalent is) and move on.

Anyway, I had a little time off from work and just got back from a nice week long visit to northern California for Christmas with my sister and her family, a Blair/Fenyo family tradition since 1999. My mom was out there, too, as well as my brother-in-law Ken's parents from San Diego. At first, it was a little weird spending the holiday in a place where the odds of a white Christmas was somewhere between that of a tiger escaping from its habitat at the San Francisco Zoo and mauling someone and Britney Spears not making a fool of herself. However, as a veteran of many white Christmases growing up in Connecticut and a current resident of frequently snowy Chicago, I have come to appreciate the snow-free and more fall like December weather conditions in Silicon Valley. It may not be 70 degrees like southern California, but I'll take the 50's and sunny in late December thank you very much.

The visit got off to a most auspicious start when I found out that I would get to use the finished office/guest room at my sister's house, as my mom would be upstairs in my oldest niece Caroline's room. They recently installed one of those fold out beds that drops down from the wall, and when you couple that with my own full bathroom as well as Internet access I could pretty much have stayed in that room for a week if: a) I was a crappy, unsocial guest; and b) You brought me food. Not that it hasn't been a treat to sleep in Caroline's room, with its yellow walls, pink pillowcases and, well, it's an 8 year-old girls' room so you get the picture. When you consider I started out sleeping on a couch for my first few X-Mas visits, we have made tremendous strides here.

Since I only make it out to visit 2-3 times a year, I always marvel at how much each of my nieces worlds has changed in the time I was gone. By this I mean what they are talking about, the things that they are interested in, etc. After a few days in the Blair/Fenyo home I realized that Disney's "High School Musical" and Webkinz reigned supreme for the moment. Unless you have been living under a rock you have at least heard of the former, but the whole Webkinz thing was a bit new to me. Basically, you buy a stuffed animal with a secret code that allows you to enter a virtual "Webkinz World" where you care for your pet, answer trivia, earn KinzCash and play games. Caroline (age 8) has like 6 of them and Meredith (age 6) has some also. I would imagine this hobby is the adult equivalent of juggling multiple fantasy sports teams in terms of the amount of computer time it requires and the amount of potentially productive time that is wasted on it. As I quickly learned, if you want to hit Caroline and Meredith where it hurts these days, you take away their Webkinz computer time.

This time around I was able to do a lot of bonding with Erica, 2 1/2 years old going on 20. Every day after X-Mas she said "Santa came while I was sleeping" and then asked "Is Santa Coming?" as if this would be a daily occurence. We got in some quality horsey ride on Uncle Grant's knee time, practiced identifying different colors at the Gap Kids store at Stanford Mall (according to Erica, her vast knowledge of colors is self-taught) and sat next to each other each night at dinner. I struck gold early on with the choo-choo train method of getting her to eat. I'd take a spoon/fork of food, say "chug a chug a chug a CHOO CHOO" and pretend like I was pulling down on the train whistle before I said "Next stop: Erica's mouth in 5 seconds" and she literally ate it up every time. It was perhaps my crowning achievement of the visit.

No vacation of mine would be complete without a heavy slate of movie viewing, and this one was no different. I saw "Charlie Wilson's War" and "Enchanted" in the theater as well as "Superbad" (even better the second time), "Eastern Promises" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on DVD. "War" is solid entertainment with an all-star cast, a non-threatening war/political movie. Despite big name actors like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts around him in larger roles, the brilliant Phillip Seymour Hoffman once again steals a movie with his portrayal of a CIA spy. "Enchanted" is cute, a clever send up of the Disney animated princess movies with enough humor, McDreamy and Amy Adams to keep the adults interested. "Promises" is a good drama/thriller with personal favorite Naomi Watts in a lead role, but rather graphic with the violence at times so be warned. "Order of the Phoenix" is just so-so.

As this will be my last post of 2007, I wanted to wish my readers a safe and happy New Year and all the best for 2008. I know that you have a lot of choices when it comes to reading blogs, and I hope that you consider G's Spot again the next time you are avoiding work or are unable to sleep for some reason.

2007-12-11T20:51:00.000-06:00

Grant About Town

December 10, 2007
Free Screening of "I Am Legend"

Spoiler Alert: This post contains plot elements of the movie, so if you are not familiar with the story read on at your own risk (or after you see the movie).

Being the cinephile that I am, I joined a movie meetup group when I moved back to Chicago last fall. We see movies at a few theaters around the city and also up north in Evanston, where they built this dynamite 18 cinema movie complex complete with stadium seating, THX sound and a cafe AFTER I was long gone as a Northwestern student. Nice. Anyway, I figured it would be a good way to meet some new folks while also satisfying my movie jones. Assuming there is something out there of interest I could go to a movie every week, and fortunately with this group that is an option.

Anyway, most of the time it is your standard go to the theater and buy your ticket routine. However, once and a while the group organizer comes up with freebies from one of the studios. Such was the case this week when Dreamworks hooked us up with free passes for the new Will Smith sci-fi flick "I Am Legend" at AMC River East downtown. I made my way over to the theater after work, got my pass and queued up in the lobby. At that point I proceeded to watch person after person cut in front of me in line to join their waiting friends. I said to my buddy Jough "Could just one of these people cut in line BEHIND me so I feel like I'll actually get into the theater?" You see, the pass does not guarantee admittance, as they always overbook for screenings with the assumption of no-shows.

The first casualties of the night were my friends Scott and Katie, as Katie got held up on the bus from work and arrived too late for the two of them to get in. The remaining casualties of this night were on the screen, namely all of mankind save for military virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith), who is the last man standing on Earth after a man-made virus intended to cure cancer goes horribly wrong and causes worldwide death as well as the severe mutation of survivors. So, as the movie poster says, he is not alone. The desolate streets of New York City are teeming with these mutated zombie creatures who hide in the catacombs and abandoned buildings of the city by day and come out looking for blood when the sun goes down.

The eerie tone is set early on as we see Neville speeding around the streets of the city with his trusty companion, Sam, a dog that is not only man's best friend but man's ONLY friend at this point. He tries to maintain some semblance of a routine, going to the video store and talking to a bunch of mannequins arranged throughout the room as if they are real people, trying to find an antidote in his basement lab and having dinner while watching old TV reruns. You wonder just why he is in such a hurry when he drives around and how he is able to have fully functioning utilities in this apolcalyptic world. As Kirk Honeycutt wrote in his review in the Hollywood Reporter, "All utilities work perfectly, which might come as a shock to New Yorkers who experience problems with water, gas or electricity when a full work force mans those departments."

Neville's loneliness and isolation is established for the better part of the first two acts of this 100 minute film, when we are quite suddenly introduced to a young woman (Alice Braga) and her son (Charlie Tahan) and the story moves into more standard action film territory. It also takes on a religious tone, as the woman expresses a faith in God that is not shared (to put it mildly) by the skeptical Neville. He was witness to the annihilation of humanity, after all, so you can't blame the guy for having his doubts in the powers of the Almighty. Here we see the Will Smith that many fans were probably expecting to see much earlier: Gun in hand, blowing up and shooting the CGI creatures that come storming into his house.

That said, this is not your standard Will Smith action movie. Smith is onscreen alone for 2/3 of the movie's running time, a daunting task but one that Smith pulls off admirably with his trademark charisma and some funny one-liners that include frequent quoting of the "Shrek" films. Smith shows some serious acting chops as he tries to reconcile his solitary place in this new world with his efforts to ensure the future survival of mankind. Slowly, the madness begins to set in as he tries to go it alone. The fact that I was more moved by the death of his virus infected dog than I was by the deaths of his wife and daughter is a little troubling, but that probably had more to do with the latter's presence only in brief flashbacks.

In general, I felt that a bit too much time was spent establishing Neville's routine and his isolation in New York City, at the expense of later character and plot development. Another problem I had is the film tries to be a cross between an action/horror picture as well as an old time sci-fi contagion paranoia fest a la the 1971 version "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. I suspect that some will prefer the early, more contemplative portion of the movie that deals quite effectively with Neville's inner struggle, while some will prefer the third act's CGI action splatter fest and tidy feel good ending. It didn't quite all add up for me, but maybe it will for you.

2007-11-21T18:57:00.000-06:00

A Time for Giving Thanks

At this time, many of you are on your way to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since I am not traveling home to Connecticut until tomorrow morning and am trying to avoid packing as long as possible, I wanted to take this opportunity to run down a few of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Some of these will be serious items and some not so much, pretty much a reflection of this blog in general. In honor of the current Writer's Guild strike, consider this to be a "G's Spot Clipshow" where I pull together some old material, slap it together and call it a new post. Hope that all my readers have a safe and happy holiday!

Without further adieu, I am thankful that:

5) The Boston Red Sox won the World Series, the New England Patriots are 10-0 and the Boston Celtics are relevant once again.

As a sports fan, I have been around enough to know that things go in cycles. Your teams can't be on top forever nor will they usually be down forever, and you have to enjoy the good times when you have them. With the Patriots being absolutely dreadful until I was out of college (the 1986 Super Bowl run notwithstanding), the Celtics on a steady decline since their last title in 1986 and the Red Sox finding new and excruciating ways to lose in the playoffs until finally breaking through in 2004 and again this year, it was a pretty dry patch there for a while. However, it is all good in 2007 as I can now say that the Sox have won two championships in my lifetime (heck, they have won two titles in my 5 year-old niece's lifetime), the Pats have won three this decade and the Celtics look to be a contender once again with 31 year-old Kevin Garnett in the fold.

4) I returned to Chicago in 2006.

When I moved away to North Carolina in the fall of 2001, I did so with a heavy heart knowing that I was leaving a great city, fantastic friends and a lot of memories behind. It was the right decision as I needed a change of scenery at that time for a variety of reasons. So, I went down south and connected with my childhood buddy Mike, eventually went back to school for elementary education and was able to watch my home state Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team defeat Duke in the 2004 Final Four on the way to the NCAA title while living in Durham, the home of Duke University.

Good times, but I digress. My transition back here has been a bit bumpy at times and I have not yet been able to find the teaching job I want, but there is no doubt that I am back where I belong in the city. There is nothing like this place, with the diversity of people, the interesting neighborhoods and their many bars/restaurants, great theater/museums and a small town, friendly vibe that no major city can duplicate. I immediately felt at home when I first came here for college in 1990 and I still do. It's nice to be back.

3) My battles with Comcast and AT&T customer service are finally over.

As has been well documented on this blog, I have been in an almost constant state of war with first Comcast and then AT&T customer service in regards to phone and Internet service at my apartment. Whether it was the lady at Comcast concluding that my Windows XP operating system was faulty or the genius at AT&T who said that my network card needed to be replaced (both of which ended up not being true), it has been a slow descent into customer service hell the last few months.

It is nice to come home from work and not be on hold with tech support for the remainder of the night, maxing out my cell phone minutes and watching albeit hilarious reruns of "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" while hold music blares from the speakerphone on my coffee table. There is more to life than learning anecdotally that Comcast has call centers in suburban Illinois, Charlotte, NC and India, isn't there?

2) The Police finally got back together.

During their heyday in the early to mid 80's, I always felt like I'd come to regret not seeing Sting and the boys perform live. I was a little young at that point and didn't go to my first concert until after the band basically broke up in 1984, though they played a series of shows for the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986. As the years passed and Sting churned out one solo album after another and you really didn't hear much about what Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers were doing, it seemed as if the occasionally rumored reunion would never happen. It would be the one band I had most wanted to see live but never got the chance.

That all changed last year when the trio set aside (or maybe didn't) their animosity for each other and decided to cash in (and I mean cash in) on a 30th anniversary tour. I saw them in Chicago at Wrigley Field with my buddies Rob, Chris and Greg and again in Hartford, CT with my childhood buddy Mike, a huge Sting/Police fan who saw many Sting shows with me back in the day. The concerts themselves were good, not great, and it seemed like Sting and Andy Summers were going through the motions at times while Stewart Copeland made up for it with his energy behind the drum kit. That said, I sang along to every song and had an absolute blast at the shows. And I can now say this: I saw The Police perform live in my lifetime.

1) My family and friends were able to share in some of the experiences listed above and/or read about them on this blog.

You're the best. Enough said.

2007-11-18T12:17:00.000-06:00

G's Movie Spot
"No Country for Old Men"

Every so often a film comes along that so completely pulls you into its world, with fascinating characters, a well-executed plot and real dramatic tension, that you are honestly hoping the movie never ends. You know the feeling when you're watching it, the experience that transcends mere movie going. You consider yourself lucky to be a part of it. "The Godfather" is one of those movies. "Goodfellas" is one of those movies. "Pulp Fiction" is one of those movies. "No Country for Old Men" is one of those movies.

Directed by the Coen brothers, "No Country" is an adaptation of the 2005 novel by Cormac McCarthy. The story revolves around a drug deal gone bad in a Texas border town, its rugged and desolate yet also gorgeous terrain shot beautifully by cinematographer Roger Deakins. We are introduced to Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who, while out hunting, comes upon the aftermath of some drug dealer mayhem in the desert, finds $2 million in a suitcase and makes the fateful decision to take the money. There is also the cold-blooded hit man Anton Chigurh, played with chilling menace by Javier Bardem, who is trying to retrieve said money. Finally, there is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, desperately trying to prevent Chigurh from causing further carnage. Though the setup may sound conventional on paper, it would be the understatement of the year to say it is much more than this in the execution. The movie is a character study in evil, fully embodied in the Chigurh character. This intention and the overall tone of the film is established in the opening sequence, as Bell recalls the words of a young man he put away for murdering his 14 year-old girlfriend: "The papers described it as a crime of passion, Bell says, "but he tolt me there weren't nothin' passionate about it. Said he'd been fixin' to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he'd kill somebody again. Said he was goin' to hell. Reckoned he'd be there in about 15 minutes."

Chigurh travels the highways and small towns of Texas with a sense of dread hanging over him at all times and a smile on his face that scares the crap out of you. His weapons of choice include a tank of compressed air with a cattle stungun attached to it as well as a shotgun with a silencer, and he is not hesitant to use them. He is merciless and brutal in his efficiency as he wipes out everyone that comes between him and the money, sometimes cruely leaving a potential victim's fate to the mere toss of a coin. In one brilliant scene in a road side gas station, Chigurh engages in some word play with the owner of the station before taking out a coin and telling the owner to "Call it." There is so much tension here that you can hardly breathe, and as Chigurh doggedly pursues Moss from hotel to hotel the Coen's brilliant use of silence and hushed tones only increases the tension level. Coming into this movie I would say that I was cautiously optimistic, as I had heard good things about it and read great reviews. However, this was tempered by the fact that I have been kind of hit or miss when it comes to the Coen brothers' body of work. There have been movies I have really liked, such as "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo" and ones that I have not cared for as much such as "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Hudsucker Proxy" and everything in between. My biggest criticism of the Coens is their tendency to be a bit too clever at times and overly obsessed with little details and obscure references, as if the film is meant to be on display in a museum. To, as "Entertainment Weekly" critic Lisa Schwarzbaum put it in her A-review of the film, "rely on snark as a backup source of energy."

"No Country" definitely falls into the "hit" category of the Coen brothers films that I have seen, and is certainly their best work since "Fargo." This is virtuoso stuff, great writing and storytelling that is wonderfully shot and acted. It is one of those movies that stays with you long after you leave the theater, as much for the effect it has on you and the moral questions it raises as for the intricacies of the plot (and there are many). In short, it is the best movie I have seen this year.

2007-11-11T14:53:00.000-06:00

Back in the Saddle Again

It only took 35 days, but I am once again up and running with Internet at Casa G Spot. To celebrate I surfed the 'net nonstop Saturday for approximately 6 hours after the technician left my place, visiting every site on my bookmarks and saying "yes" to every person from Nigeria who wanted money and all solicitations for Viagra. I haven't been this giddy on my computer since upgrading from Windows Millennium Edition to XP in the spring of 2006.

After once again implying that it was a problem with my computer (the network card in this case), the so-called Internet service provider (AT&T in this case) was again proven wrong when it was once again determined that THEIR equipment (modem) was defective. In your face Comcast, um, I mean AT&T. Unfortunately, being proven correct did not change the fact that I was without Internet for over a month. A pyrrhic victory indeed.

It has been a while since I have posted regularly, so for this entry I am going to eshew (that's right, I used "pyrrhic" and "eschew" in the last two sentences of this post) my "long form on one topic" blogging style in favor of some thoughts on people and news items that have gotten my attention during the last month. Note: As fantastic as it was for myself and fellow members of Red Sox Nation and as much as I'd like to gush about it some more, I am not going to include the recent Red Sox World Series victory on this list. Without further adieu, let's get things started.

1) Stephen Colbert Enters and Withdraws from 2008 Presidential Race.

Ever since he came on the air a couple of years ago, I have been a big fan of fellow Northwestern alum Stephen Colbert and his show "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central. A spinoff of "The Daily Show" where Colbert was initially a correspondent, the Report is similar to the Daily Show in terms of the heavy focus on satirical political humor. However, what makes it different is the fact that unlike the Daily Show, where host Jon Stewart is playing himself as host of the show, Colbert is essentially playing the character of a right wing pundit a la Bill O'Reilly while doing the show. The high wire act he has been pulling the last two years is quite brilliant, actually, and is so utterly convincing that you sometimes can forget the whole thing is a big put on.

Colbert took this character to a new level last month when he announced that he was entering the 2008 Presidential race. The caveats included that he: A) Was only doing so in his native South Carolina; and B) Would run as both a Democrat and a Republican. Upon announcing his candidacy, Colbert added Doritos as his official campaign sponsor and included nightly "The Hail to the Cheese Stephen Colbert Nacho Cheese Doritos 2008 Presidential Campaign Coverage" reports on his show. He also made the rounds on the political talk shows, including a grilling by moderator Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" (see video below).

Unfortunately, things began to unravel early for Colbert in his bid to take the White House. After learning that the fee to file for the South Carolina Republican primary was $35,000, Colbert abandoned plans to run as a Republican. And although he paid the $2,500 fee to be included in the South Carolina Democratic ballot, on November 1st he was denied a place on the ballot by the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council despite numerous campaign activities in the state. On November 5, Colbert officially dropped his Presidential bid. So yes, a Presidential campaign began and ended in the time it took me to get Internet service back at home.

2) Women's tennis player Martina Hingis retires from the tour for a second time amidst allegations of cocaine use.

This very well could have gone in one of my "What Famous Person is in Deep S%#t This Week?" posts except for the fact that Hingis isn't really that famous anymore, at least to people who don't follow tennis. As someone who played junior tournaments in New England and on the team in high school, I am still a casual fan of the sport and enjoy both playing and watching it. I maintain this interest despite the fact that I can't stand our country's best female players, the talented yet petulant Williams sisters, and that Swiss Roger Federer has pretty much been steamrolling the opposition, top American men Andy Roddick and James Blake included, for the last 4 years. Federer is to men's tennis what Tiger Woods is to men's golf, yet nobody cares about tennis so this guy's dominance flies under the radar relative to Woods. He will go down as perhaps the greatest men's player ever and few casual sports fans will ever fully appreciate his greatness.

Earlier this month, Hingis revealed a positive drug test for cocaine after her third round loss at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships last summer. She then threw the curveball of immediately retiring from the tour yet at the same time vehemently denying that she used the drug. Most people, myself included, would react to that contradiction by saying "If you're innocent, then why not fight to clear your name and maintain your livelihood?" In his article on ESPN.com, Mark Kreidler wrote "Martina says she'd be terrified of doing cocaine, and her lawyer suspects the doping procedure was botched. That's usually the last refuge of the accused sports figure, to question the system."

Hingis' announcement gets to the current climate regarding drug use in sports, where athletes from Barry Bonds to Marion Jones to every rider in the Tour de France have been tainted by either allegations or proof of drug use. Unlike the aforementioned athletes Hingis is not accused of nor did she admit to the use of performance enhancing drugs (her third round loss at Wimbledon indicating that she received no advantage from performance enhancers), so it is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. That said, the fact is that she was likely to face a skeptical public as well as a protracted legal process to clear her name, after which she would probably still have a negative stigma attached to her whether proven innocent or guilty. It's too bad it had to go down like that for Hingis, a multiple Grand Slam champion and former world number 1, but in a weird way (and given her injury history) I can kind of understand why she chose the path of least resistance.

3) Talk show host Conan O'Brien stalked by Boston priest.

This story is so bizarre it could have only been found in The Onion, except that it's actually true. According to an article in The Boston Globe, The Rev. David Ajemian, a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, has been sending the "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" host harrassing letters (on parish letterhead, no less) and e-mails since September 2006. Ajemian, who was arrested earlier this month while trying to attend a taping of the show at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, referred to himself as "your priest stalker" in the letters and after being snubbed from attending an earlier show taping wrote "Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans?" Yikes.

There really are no winners here. It has been a rough few weeks for O'Brien and his show, what with this strange incident and the current writers strike (which I will try to blog about at some point) that effectively shut down all late night talk shows and could threaten the jobs of members of the "Late Night" staff if it continues. And it is not like Catholic priests have been lacking for bad publicity either, though I'm thinking that the stalking of a late night talk show host by one priest does less damage to their collective reputation than the Church's ongoing child molestation lawsuits. As "Late Night" regular Triumph the Insult Comic Dog might say, "This is a good story...for me to poop on."

2007-10-30T17:08:00.000-05:00

Hello, Hello, Is There Anybody In There?

Yes, I am still here. First off, I wish to apologize for my lengthy (almost a month!) hiatus from the blog. Not that it is an excuse, but I have been locked in an ongoing death match all month with Comcast and AT&T for my home Internet service. I am seriously starting to wonder if my apartment is like the Bermuda Triangle when it comes to connecting to the 'Net. I am so beaten down that I don't even get worked up with the customer service people anymore. It's like, "Hey, Leo, how are the kids? Wife still happy with her new job? Oh yes, and can you send another technician out to check my phone line? Cool, talk to you tomorrow."

Enough unpleasant thoughts. Let's move on to something that still makes me smile two days after it happened, that being another World Series championship for my Boston Red Sox this past weekend. After once again coming back in the ALCS, this time from down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians, the Sawx rolled the overmatched Colorado Rockies 4 games to 0 for their second title (and second Series sweep) in 4 years. That's right, the formerly tough luck Sox are now a juggernaut, a powerhouse, your worst nightmare. Trust me, it is as weird for me to write that as it probably was for you to read it.

As I said to my mom and sister, it was definitely a new kind of feeling for me as a Sox fan watching the 2007 run. 2004 was like this fairy tale experience, completely nervewracking and I was so anxious that I wasn't able to completely enjoy it while it was happening. This time around I was much more relaxed and confident that the Red Sox were the better - excuse me, the best - team and would prevail in the end no matter what the obstacle. The thing I like more about the 2007 team is that it is a nice mixture of young and old, with newcomers like Pedroia, Ellsbury, Beckett, Lester and Papelbon blending in seemlessly with experienced vets like Ortiz, Ramirez, Lowell and Varitek. It is a team built to win now but also well stocked for the future.

"The Boston Red Sox on Sunday night graciously removed the crushing weight of baseball angst from all those blank-faced 2-year-olds toddling around New England wondering if they would ever see a World Series title in their lifetimes."

-Washington Post 10/29/07

I exchanged some e-mails this week with my buddies Rob and Greg about the implications of this title for the Sox. Specifically, how they are perceived now that the 86-year drought is over and they are no longer the perennial bridesmaid but rather the smoking hot bride. Rob, a Cubs fan from Illinois who rooted for the Rockies in the Series, was saying that most casual fans outside of the Boston area were also pulling for the Rockies. Much like the Sox in 2004, they were the feel good, cinderella story this year after going on a ridiculous run to squeeze into the playoffs as the Wild Card. Greg, a former Boston resident, suggested that when the Sox ended the "Curse" in 2004, they threw it on the Yankees, whose Series drought is now seven years and counting.

I will concede that I am a bit biased in this discussion as a Red Sox fan, but as I said to Rob there is always going to be some backlash when a team has the kind of success the Sox are having now. Just like everybody outside of New England is sick and tired of the Patriots winning or contending for the Super Bowl every year. The Sox went from the cuddly upstart to the relentless bully in a span of three years, and an already rabid fan base is going to be that much louder now that they are winning regularly. All I can say I guess is that if you want to shut us up then beat us. It is that simple. You don't hear a lot from Yankees fans these days, which is a beautiful thing in my opinion.

In short, the Red Sox are the gold standard baseball organization now, not the Yankees, and it is a strange and wonderful feeling.

2007-10-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Grant About Town - October 2, 2007

Genesis at United Center

With a career that has spanned 40 years, 150 million albums sold and numerous transformations, English band and longtime G favorite Genesis was certainly not lacking in material when it came to play the first of 3 sold out shows at the United Center. The question was: How do you reconcile all of the periods - the prog rock of original lead singer Peter Gabriel, the still progressive yet less theatrical period after drummer Phil Collins took over lead singer duties in the mid-70's, and the more radio-friendly pop orientation from the 80's forward - into a coherent live show.

Part of the answer came when (much to the dismay of many diehard Genesis fans) Gabriel was not able to fully commit to being a part of the Genesis reunion despite initial interest in doing so. Depending on the source, early guitarist Steve Hackett either dropped out when Gabriel could not commit or wanted to join the tour but was passed on by the other three members. Whatever the case may be, Collins, along with keyboardist Tony Banks and guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford decided to hit the road as a three-piece along with longtime collaborators Chester Thompson on drums and Daryl Stuermer on guitar to round out the quintet.

Some 20 years after I had last seen them on the "Invisible Touch" tour at the Hartford Civic Center in 1987, Genesis managed to strike a balance between the old and the new as they ran through a catalog of their many hits. The transition from one era to another was not always super smooth and the results ranged from sublime and powerful (the fantastic 70's medley of "In the Cage"/"The Cinema Show"/"Duke’s Travels"/"Afterglow", the two-part 80's hit "Home By the Sea"/"Second Home By the Sea") to cheesy (the clunky ballad "Hold On My Heart" from 1991's "We Can't Dance"). However, the sound was quite crisp and clear for an arena show and the musicianship was always tight throughout the 2 1/2 hour performance. Collins alternated between frontman duties and banging away on the drums side-by-side with Thompson, Banks created lush harmonies on keyboard and Rutherford sported a doubleneck bass and 12-string guitar.

A few other odds and ends from the show: Amazing video screen on the stage. Wow. Just stared at it for minutes on end during the show. At one point, it was in synch with the notes being played by the band, like the little lines going up and down on a stereo display. Concert t-shirts ranged in price from $40-50, which certainly raised the eyebrows and lowered the wallets of my buddy Rob and I. Our seats were great, section 109 lower level on the corner right over the tunnel to the locker room. We had folding chairs on the aisle, nothing in front of us but a railing (both a foot rest and my makeshift drum kit for the night) and could get to the nearest bathroom in about 30 seconds so the beer was flowing. What more could you ask for?

In a repeat of my experience at The Police concert in Connecticut, I had the requisite "Older audience member asking the younger one in front of him to sit down" episode, which made me shake my head and laugh. This isn't a movie theater or your living room, for christ sake. People stand at concerts, and sometimes they sing and dance, too. Next time stay at the retirement home and watch the concert on DVD. If I ever get that lame, please don't let me go to rock shows anymore. One more thing for the band. Would it have killed you to include "Abacab," perhaps as a kick ass closer instead of the slower paced oldie "Carpet Crawlers" which had many people (myself included) heading for the exits. Kind of a weak finish, but a fine night overall.

Genesis Set List - October 2, 2007 at United Center

Behind the Lines / Duke’s End / Turn It On Again
No Son of Mine
Land of Confusion
In the Cage / The Cinema Show / Duke’s Travels / Afterglow
Hold On My Heart
Home By the Sea / Second Home By the Sea
Follow You, Follow Me
Firth of Fifth / I Know What I Like
Mama
Ripples
Throwing It All Away
Domino
Drum Duet / Los Endos
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight / Invisible Touch

Encore
I Can’t Dance
Carpet Crawlers

2007-09-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

The Hunt For Red and Blue October

Given the respective histories of the two franchises and their places in baseball lore, perhaps it was appropriate that it happened this way.

Friday night, my Boston Red Sox and hometown Chicago Cubs were each on the verge of clinching division titles and a spot in the 2007 MLB playoffs. The magic number for each team was two, meaning a win by them and a loss by their closest pursuer (Yankees and Brewers) and the division was theirs. The Red Sox were coming off a rough couple of weeks where a once insurmountable 14 1/2 game lead in May had been pared down to 1 1/2 by the surging Yankees. After sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates at home last weekend, the Cubs playoff spot was put on hold by virtue of a 3 game sweep at the hands of the Florida Marlins, a team long since eliminated from playoff contention and reduced to playing the spoiler role.

Behind a solid outing from Japanese pitching phemon Daisuke Matsuzaka and a HR from David "Big Papi" Ortiz, the Sox defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-2. Magic Number: 1. However, the Yankees were leading the Balitmore Orioles 9-6 with no less than Mariano Rivera on the mound to close out the deal in the 9th and give life to the Yankees division title hopes. Well, a 3-run triple by Jay Payton in the bottom of the 9th forced extra innings and the Orioles completed the comeback in the 10th on a suicide squeeze by Melvin Mora which plated the winning run. More importantly, it delivered the Sox their first AL East crown since 1995.

With newly re-signed ace Carlos Zambrano on the hill and a depleted Cincinnati Reds roster between them and a division crown of their own, the Cubs took care of business with a 6-0 win. That, coupled with a loss by the Milwaukee Brewers later in the evening in which, ironically, former Cub Greg Maddux was the winning pitcher for the San Diego Padres, clinched the division for the Cubs. The Cubs are in the playoffs for the first time since 2003, when both them and the Red Sox were a mere 5 outs away from meeting each other in the World Series. Could this be the year when these 2 storied franchises meet in the series again?

The Red Sox finally got the over-referenced "Curse of the Bambino" off their backs in 2004, when they came back from 3-0 down to defeat the Yankees in the ALCS and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the their first World Series since 1918. Their opponent in 1918? The Cubs. For the record, the curse was merely a tool of the lazy sportswriter (e.g. The "Boston Globe's" Dan Shaughnessy) and television network (e.g. FOX) to explain the Red Sox playoff failures. Any intelligent Red Sox fan knew that the reason for their failure had to do with the performance of the players and not any ridiculous curse. As a Sox fan, perhaps the best thing that came out of the 2004 series win is that major sports outlets could no longer mindlessly run the Bill Buckner, Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone clips before any Sox/Yankees or Sox playoff game. The "curse" as it was became a non-factor, so ESPN, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver had to find something else to talk about.

For the Cubs, this is yet another chance to exorcise the equally ridiculous demons of Steve Bartman, the Curse of the Billy Goat and Leon Durham and forever end the talk of some curse causing a nearly 100 year World Series draught. With series wins by the Sox in 2004, the crosstown rival White Sox in 2005 and hated division rival St. Louis in 2006, the heat has been turned up a notch and expectations have never been higher for Cubs fans and the franchise long known as the "Lovable Losers." The off-season signing of free agent Alfonso Soriano, hiring of Lou Piniella as manager and a $100+ million payroll have only served to fan the flames of a fandom desperate for a winner.

While it would be a TV ratings bonanza, part of me dreads a potential Cubs-Red Sox World Series as it will make me ultimately choose sides between two teams that I like, the Red Sox moreso. In that case I will most definitely be rooting for the Red Sox, though I would not be devastated to see the Cubs win. Hopefully, it will not come to that and one team or the other will make it to the Series and I can give them my full support. Whatever the case, it promises to be a wild ride this October.

2007-09-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

What Famous Person Is In Deep S%#t This Week?

Kiefer Sutherland: Where was the CTU when he needed them?

After reading about Kiefer Sutherland's DUI arrest on Yahoo! today, and considering that I am reading about one celebrity misstep or another on a daily basis thanks to the Chicago Tribune's "I can read this paper in 10 minutes before I get to my train stop " publication called Redeye, I have decided to inaugurate a new feature titled "What Famous Person Is In Deep S%#t This Week?" Quite frankly, I am concerned that there just isn't enough gossip on my blog (some might say that is a good thing) and I figure between Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Isaiah Washington, Charlie Sheen, Britney Spears and the various members of the Cincinnati Bengals I am good to go.

Though I have to admit I find this a little troubling, there is actually a website - totaldui.com - which features a "Celebrity DUI Spotlight." Believe me, you do not want to be spotlighted on this list. Comprised of a rundown of the recent DUI arrests of various athletes, actors and musicians, this baby reads like Dostoyevski. Honorary mention this week goes to current PETA punching bag Michael Vick, the NFL player whose indictment on dog fighting charges by the state of Virginia came on just the right week to avoid being featured on my blog. Can't wait to see if Whoopi comes out and defends him again on "The View."

2007-09-20T21:08:00.000-05:00

Gordie and Me

So, I was perusing the articles on Yahoo! today and came across a somewhat bizarre story related to hockey legend Gordie Howe. Apparently, neighbors of his in Michigan have been conducting extensive surveillance on Howe's property, and by extensive I mean (allegedly) taking pictures of his home every 5 seconds among other things. Howe has filed a restraining order against the couple that was doing it. Hopefully, when I grow old I'll find a more interesting hobby than spying on my neighbor 24 hours a day. Golf is fun, maybe I'll learn how to play bridge.

The content of the story wasn't so important as was the fact that it was about Howe, aka "Mr. Hockey," a Hall of Famer who finished up his brilliant career with 2 years (1977-79) on the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association and a year (1979-80) with the Hartford Whalers after the team joined the National Hockey League. Not to get too hockey geek on you, but Howe won the Art Ross Memorial Trophy (most regular season points) and the Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP of the league) six times each, ranks third in NHL history with 1,850 total points and was an All-Star 23 times. It took no less than Wayne Gretzky to come along and break some of this guy's scoring records, many of which stand to this day.

I had the good forture of seeing Howe play in-person, as we were Whalers season ticket holders at the time. Among the highlights were getting a stick that he used and broke during a game, as well as an autographed goalie's stick that is one of my prized pieces of sports memorabilia. Then, there was a night in 1984 when I attended a celebrity sports event at the Hartford Civic Center exhibition hall with my dad and my buddy Mike. Howe was there, along with such illuminaries as actress Susan St. James (riding high with the TV show"Kate and Allie" at the time) and local boxer Marlon Starling, who was the WBC World Welterweight Champion in 1989. I played him in Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and even took a few rounds from the champ as I recall. It was a cool night, and I was in heaven with various members of the Whalers, Patriots (when it was wayyyyy less popular to be a Pats fan) and local TV personalities in the house.

Remembering that my dad took a lot of pictures at the event, I dug into the scrapbook and pulled out a few photos from the night. You get to see yours truly when I wore a younger man's clothes, had braces, wore a CB jacket because they were all the rage and for some reason wore short-sleeved polo shirts under a long-sleeved dress shirt. All I can say is that I was 13 and not yet taking my older sister Elizabeth's fashion advice. She didn't get to meet Gordie Howe though, so there.

2007-09-12T21:37:00.000-05:00

Worst Movies of the Summer

Well, the summer is almost over and that means three things: 1) The kids go back to school; 2) Patriots coach Bill Belichick purchases a new video camera for the upcoming NFL season; and 3) The major movie studios' PR machines kick into high gear as they roll out the Oscar contenders.

The latter being the case, this is also a good time to take stock of the generally less award-worthy summer movie season. That, and the fact that my mom e-mailed me an article from the Washington Post titled "Critics Everywhere Agree: These Were the Stinkers of Summer." The article highlights what went wrong in the multiplexes this year, using the aggregate reviews from the Rotten Tomatoes website to determine the bottom 10. Yes, a Lindsay Lohan movie is on the list. Some more, um, law abiding big name stars' movies are on the list too, though one might argue that subjecting us to these movies was a criminal offense. It should be said that nothing went wrong this summer from the studios standpoint, as gross domestic ticket revenues were in excess of $4 billion, a new record.

Having surveyed the list, I am proud to say that I did not see any of the 10 movies, though I was tempted in a few cases as there are a number of actors in these films that I like. This is not to say that I did not see some bad movies this summer. "Balls of Fury" was probably the worst movie I saw in the theater this summer, but in my defense I'll say that: 1) It wasn't my first choice that night; and 2) I was limited to choosing from 2 theaters because I was meeting someone there. This was the definition of a "Big name star who is slumming for a paycheck" role for Christopher Walken, and all I can say is that I hope he was paid well. On the plus side, there were several "that guys" in the movie, including the guy who was Ron Livingston's neighbor in "Office Space." I was wondering whatever happened to him, though in hindsight I wouldn't have watched this movie to find out.

Though there are movies such as the third installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Ocean's 13" that got mixed reviews, this list is reserved for the worst of the worst, the absolute dregs. As I mentioned, Lindsay Lohan made the list. In fact, she managed to make it twice, with "I Know Who Killed Me" and "Georgia Rule." Like she really needed any more bad news this summer. Steve Carell made the list, too, with the most expensive comedy of all time ("Evan Almighty") which was disappointing to me as I have really enjoyed his work on TV in "The Office" and onscreen in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and "The 40 Year Old Virgin." Jim Carrey should be commended for having passed on this less-than-stellar sequel to "Bruce Almighty" as well as the poorly received "Dumb and Dumber" sequel that came out a few years ago. Two good career moves (or non-moves, depending on how you look at it) for Jim.

I don't want to give too much away here, but will say that the #1 worst reviewed movie of the summer features one of Steve Carell's co-stars from "The Office." Think you got it? Even worse...did you see it?

2007-09-03T19:38:00.000-05:00

Grant's Rants

So, I have decided to inaugurate a new feature. I have been thinking about it for quite some time, and frankly did not act on it sooner because I wanted to come up with a sufficiently catchy title. So, after much deliberation I have come up with "Grant's Rants." Please, hold your applause until the end of the post. Basically, this is a forum for me to take a particular person, organization, decision, etc. to task. It is kind of a variation on Stephen Colbert's "Tip of the Cap/Wag of the Finger" segment from "The Colbert Report" except that mine will always be a wag of the finger. I will try to post a rant every week and who knows, maybe some weeks I will have more than one. As long as Bush is in the White House that is very likely.

Anyway, my first rant is directed at the fine folks at Comcast, my cable TV, phone and Internet service provider. A few weeks back I came home from work on a Monday to find that my Internet and phone service were out. So, I call Comcast customer service on my cell and explain the situation. After doing some remote testing of my modem the customer service person has me conduct a number of tests, none of which restore my service. So, I am told that they will create a "ticket" so that the technicians at Comcast can continue to troubleshoot my modem remotely during the evening and, in theory, solve the problem.

I get home from work on Tuesday to find my service still out. Back on the cell phone again, this time with another customer service rep. Same tests that don't work. I try to schedule a technician to come over in the evening, which of course is not available because why would you have a service person available from 6-8pm during the week, when most of us have 9-5 jobs and can't sit around all morning or afternoon waiting for a repair man? Despite not scheduling a technician during the day, I get a call on my cell from a Comcast technician on Wednesday afternoon saying he is at my apartment and can I buzz him up. I am like "Why are you at my apartment, I never made an appointment." I call customer service right after that and speak with Leo, who is very helpful and gives me his direct extension for future communication on the matter. "You mean I can talk to the same customer service rep twice? Wow," I say to Leo.

That night, I get home to no phone/Internet. So, I call customer service again and ask for Leo. The woman who answers proceeds to tell me that he is in a different call center (Charlotte? Canada? Schaumburg?) and she can't connect me. So, I go "Alec Baldwin in 'Glengarry Glen Ross'" on her for like 15 minutes before I settle down and agree to do some tests. After we run through a series of fixes on my computer the lady proceeds to tell me that my operating system is faulty and that I should contact Microsoft. So I say "You mean to tell me that the operating system on my computer, which has worked perfectly for 1.5 years, just suddenly failed at the EXACT same time as my Comcast phone and Internet service. That is a hell of a coincidence and I think you're wrong. I want a technician to come here and replace my modem."

This continues to Friday when I get home from work and, magically, my service has been restored. Whoo hoo! I surf the 'net and check my phone, all systems go. So, I call Comcast and cancel the technician I have scheduled for Saturday morning and I go out for the night. When I get home around 10:30p I go to my computer and, lo and behold, both the Internet and phone are out. And this right after I canceled the technician. If Comcast is trying to torture me a la the movie "Saw" it is working. They have slowly broken my will and my spirit and I would now consider cutting off my own arm to have home phone/Internet again. I am back on the phone several more times Friday night before I finally get a technician scheduled for Saturday morning. He determines that - you guessed it - the modem is defective and replaces it. The whole things takes like 20 minutes. Problem solved...a week later.

To the lady who said my Windows XP operating system was defective I say "Kiss my operating system. Your customer service is defective."

2007-09-02T01:52:00.000-05:00

Clay Throws a No-No

So, I am flipping the dial on Saturday night between the various college football games and the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The big sports story of the day thus far is in college football: Michigan's shocking loss to former Division I-AA team Appalachian St. At home, no less. I didn't get to watch any of this game on the new Big Ten network since Comcast (my cable company) was unable to negotiate a deal with the Big Ten in time for the start of the season. So yes, I live in a city with alumni of every Big Ten school and the major cable company here does not carry the network. Makes perfect sense. Did I mention that Comcast also made the NFL Network a premium channel after carrying it on basic cable last year? That won't suck or anything once the season starts and I'll lose a free NFL game every Thursday night.

Occasionally, I check the score on the Red Sox/Orioles games and see that the Sox are winning and that the Orioles are being shut out. What I don't initially notice is that the O's are also being no-hit. The starting pitcher for the Red Sox, 23 year-old rookie Clay Buchholz, is making his second career start. As he goes deeper and deeper into the game I start to take notice. No-hitter through 6 innings. No-hitter through 7 innings. Suddenly, ESPN is cutting in for updates and ESPNews has it on their ticker and is talking about it. Unfortunately, I do not have the Major League Baseball TV package so I cannot view the game live. I am relying only on TV and Internet updates. It is absolutely killing me not to see this game live. Of course, I could drive to a bar but figure by the time I get there Buccholz will have lost the no -hitter and it will have all been in vain.

Boston IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Buchholz (W, 2-0) 9.0 0 0 0 3 9 0 1.80

Buccholz takes the no-hitter to the 9th. Assuming that he retires the first two batters, the last hitter he would face is outfielder Nick Markakis. Markakis is a member of my fantasy baseball team, and I only mention this because another member of my fantasy team, Oakland's Shannon Stewart, broke up a no-hit bid by Boston's Curt Schilling with 2 outs in the 9th inning earlier this summer. "Oh no, not again," I exclaim. I needn't have worried. Buccholz retires Markakis on a called strike 3 for the 17th no-hitter in Red Sox history, the first by a Sox rookie in the team's history and the first since Derek Lowe threw one in 2002. Fenway Park is up for grabs, it is absolute bedlam.

One of the ironies of the event is that Buccholz would not even have been starting were it not for the back injury of starter Tim Wakefield, whose absence pushed the scheduled starter, Julian Tavarez, up a day to Friday and gave Buccholz his date with destiny Saturday night. The other irony is that earlier I saw on the ESPN ticker that Pedro Martinez, long time Red Sox ace who left as a free agent to the Mets in 2005 after winning the World Series with Boston, will make his first start of the year next week. The connection? Buchholz was obtained in the 2005 supplemental draft with a pick Boston received by virtue of losing Martinez as a free agent. Funny how things work out sometimes. The first thing that comes to my mind as a Red Sox fan after the no-hitter? "Cool, we're 5 games up on the Yankees again." Ahhh, the life of a Red Sox fan.

2007-08-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

Summer Movie Roundup

It was an uncharacteristically rainy summer weekend here in Chicago so I decided to spend some quality time indoors and catch a couple of movies, one in the theater ("Superbad") and one on Netflix ("Zodiac"). I figured that it has been a while since I have reviewed movies on the blog, so here are mini-reviews of those two movies as well as another very good film ("The Bourne Ultimatum") currently in theaters that I saw a couple of weeks ago.

"The Bourne Ultimatum"
The third installment in the Bourne series, "The Bourne Ultimatum" is, in my opinion, the best of the three. Matt Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne, trained CIA assassin, and continues his international ass kicking in the name of finding out who the real Jason Bourne is. Covering locales such as Tangiers, London and New York City, he dispatches a variety of hitmen sent by Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), one of the keepers of the secret CIA training program known as Treadstone. However, Bourne has an ally in Pam Landy (Joan Allen) who attempts to assist him in discovering the true origins of his recruitment and training by the CIA. Agent Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) also returns to provide Bourne with some help in his quest to uncover his identity and bring down Treadstone.

The sequence in a London train station and a rooftop chase scene in Tangiers followed by some vicious hand-to-hand combat between Bourne and a would-be hitman are but two of the scenes that take your breath away. In fact, the entire movie seems like one non-stop chase scene with each set piece seeming to top the last. Paul Greengrass, who directed the previous Bourne film, is back again and brings the same frenetic energy and hand held camera work to create a documentary style that is very effective. If there has been a better action movie this year I have not seen it.

"Superbad"
The winning comedy team of producer Judd Apatow and writer/actor Seth Rogen is back again (see my review of their last project "Knocked Up" in the June 2007 archive) with this update on teen sex romps such as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Porky's" and "American Pie." The premise of the film is all too familiar: A group of geeky, outcast students see their time in high school coming to a close, and realize that their window of opportunity to party, drink and hook up with girls is closing as well. Enter the trio of said geeks Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Seth (Jonah Hill), and Evan (Michael Cera). Seth and Evan are best friends who have been inseparable throughout high school, united largely by the fact that they were amongst the least popular kids in school. Their sidekick is Fogel who, according to Roger Ebert in his A- review of the film, "is so unpopular, he is unpopular even with them."

Early on in the story Fogel is able to procure a fake ID, and the scene where he reveals its details - his name is McLovin and he is a 25 year-old organ donor from Hawaii - and takes ownership of his new identity is hilarious. Less effective is a subplot with Fogel and two cops played by Seth Rogen and SNL's Bill Hader. The Rogen and Hader characters are in the film too long - perhaps because Rogen co-wrote the script - and take us away from what should be the focus of the plot, which is three friends and their quest for truth, justice, alcohol and the hottie from home ec. That said, this movie is a raunch-filled tour de force that will remind you what you loved (and hated) about high school and just how simple life was when it was all about girls, booze and parties.

"Zodiac"
Now for a movie that would never be shown in a double feature with "Superbad." "Zodiac" is a sprawling, intense, well directed account of the people and events surrounding the serial killer known as the Zodiac who terrorized the San Francisco bay area in the late 60's and early 70's. Based on former San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith's book, the film chronicles the killer's exploits and the effect it had on four individuals involved with the case: Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), the cartoonist and Eagle Scout whose obsession with the Zodiac pushes him to keep investigating long after the police have moved on to other cases; Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), a hard living reporter at the Chronicle whose dogged pursuit of leads causes him to butt heads in particular with Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner, Inspector William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards).

Directed by David Fincher ("Seven," "Fight Club") , the film works as a period piece, a police procedural and a drama. It shows how a demented and yet at the same time compelling figure such as the Zodiac killer can get inside the heads of so many people - when he is not busy shooting them in the head - and affect the general psyche of a city that is being held hostage by his actions. It is a long film at over 2 1/2 hours but I never really felt like it was dragging. If you missed this one in the theaters, as many people did, definitely check it out on DVD.

2007-08-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

Block Partying in the 'Burbs

So, my buddy Rob and his neighbors had their 3rd Annual Block Party yesterday in Palatine, and yours truly was there to partake in the good times, eating and drinking. Plus, it was a chance to see my friend (and fellow Red Sox fan, Patriots fan and teacher) Chris play the drums with his band Red Pop Fury, who were going to be playing at 4pm. It has truly been the dog days of summer the last few weeks with plenty of heat and humidity and I wondered how I'd hold up: An earlier venture to clean out my car for 45 minutes or so resulted in the complete soaking of my t-shirt. A couple of Goose Island 312's and a Brat later I was not so worried about it, and there was enough shade to be found from the cluster of townhomes where the party took place.

It was nice to catch up on our respective fantasy baseball teams with Rob, catch up with his wife Heather and see a bunch of Rob's friends that I had not talked to since his bachelor party last fall. Chris's band was fantastic, playing everything from a great cover of the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" to Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" as well as some snippets of Duran Duran. As an 80's music guy I was digging it, and everybody else at the party was, too. There was one of those inflatable castle things, which the adults seemed to be enjoying as much if not more than the kids. I hope they had insurance on that thing. All in all it was a fun afternoon and I look forward to the 4th installment next year.

2007-08-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

My Hometown

So, I made a swing back home to the northeast last week. The timing of the trip was more or less determined back in March when I got tickets to see The Police at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT. The show was on July 31st and my birthday on August 3rd, so I decided to get in some quality time with my mom in West Hartford and visit with some other family and friends as well, a little pre-birthday celebration. My buddy Mike, a childhood friend since the 2nd grade, ventured up from North Carolina to visit his family and go to the Police show with me.

By the numbers, here is a little breakdown of the trip:

3 - Times the departure of my flight from Chicago changed, eventually settling on 9:45p.

3 - States covered during my visit: Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

2 - Movies seen, including "The Simpsons Movie" and a French film called "My Best Friend."

8 - Family/Friends seen. Family: My mom Jean, grandmother Alice, aunt Linda, cousin Frankie. Friends: Mike, Jon, Brad and Art.

1 - Red Sox games watched on NESN. It would have been more if I hadn't been out so much.

2 - Trades made by my sports teams, with the Celtics getting Kevin Garnett and the Red Sox getting Eric Gagne.

5 - Stores I went to looking for a Randy Moss Patriots jersey or a Kevin Garnett Celtics jersey.

0 - Randy Moss or Kevin Garnett jerseys found.

7 - Items of clothing purchased at Bob's Stores for me by my mom, all birthday presents.

2 - Visits to the West Hartford Public Library to check my e-mail.

40 - Minutes it took to get to the Police show.

18 - Dollars spent on two fine 20 oz beers at the Police show, a Stella Artois and a Bass.

100 - Minutes it took to get home from the Police show, 80 of which was spent getting out of the parking lot.

1 - Eagles that dive bombed my mom's car on the way to Bradley International Airport, nearly causing a wreck and scaring the living crap out of myself (the driver), my mom and Mike.

2007-07-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

Birthday in Chi-Town

It was good times on the north side last Thursday when my college buddy, Chris, and his wife Stephanie were in town from L.A. to celebrate his 35th birthday in style with the Chicago crew. It was also a convergence of the blogosphere with myself, Chris ("Our Man in L.A."), Reggie ("Reggienewton.com") and Greg ("Misadventures of Dr. Overboard & Prof. Evenkeel") all representing at the festivities at the Daily Bar and Grill in Lincoln Square.

It was another beautiful summer day in the Windy City and, surprisingly, a chilly albeit very pleasant night. We gathered on the spacious patio at the Daily, one of Chris' favorite spots from his time as a resident of the neighborhood, and traded old and new stories. I even retold a classic tale of my misadventures in downtown Raleigh with a young lady after Chris and Steph's wedding in North Carolina. And yes, it killed once again. The night was yet another reminder of all the great friends I have here in the city and beyond and, well, it was just a fun time all around. Happy birthday, Chris!

2007-07-22T21:09:00.000-05:00

Batman Returns to Chicago

So, as many of you film geeks (myself included) out there may be aware they are currently filming "The Dark Knight," the sequel to 2005's fantastic film "Batman Begins" in the city of Chicago. A lot of the filming activity has been down in the Loop area, which for those of you not familiar with the city is in the heart of downtown west of Michigan Avenue, including the financial district, Board of Trade, the Chicago Theater and the Sears Tower among other landmarks. The architecture in the financial district is well suited to double as Gotham City with a lot of stark, stone exteriors and vertical bands of windows that make you feel like you're back in Depression era Chicago. You may recognize the shot looking south toward the Board of Trade (picture below, left) from two other movies, "The Untouchables" and "The Road to Perdition," that filmed in the city.

Anyway, I was coming home from a day at the Shedd Aquarium and I saw some activity around the Board of Trade on LaSalle Street. I figured it was for the Batman movie and later found out that an action sequence was going to be filmed tonight. Unfortunately, I was told that none of the stars like Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman or Morgan Freeman would be there. But I was there with my camera phone and caught a few images before: A) The security cordoned off several blocks around the shoot; and B) It got too dark to take pics. They're not the best quality, but I wanted to post them for my faithful readers to check out.

While walking around the area and checking out all the equipment and trucks and looking for movie stars, I noticed the title "Rory's First Kiss" displayed in several places. I checked on IMDb.com and apparently this is one of the working titles for the film, in this case a fake. According to Wikipedia, a working title is "the temporary name of a product or project used during its development. Although a working title may be kept as the final title, the assumption is that a working title will be changed before the actual release of the project. Working titles also allow the developing team to discuss the project in public places without letting people know exactly what it is." So there, you learned something about filmmaking today.

2007-07-16T19:46:00.000-05:00

The Beckhams Are Coming! The Beckhams Are Coming!

For months now, I have been beat over the head with the impending arrival of soccer, excuse me, football superstar David Beckham and his wife Victoria (aka "Posh Spice"). After attaining megastar status across the pond for his play on Manchester United of the English Premier League, the England national team, Real Madrid of the Spanish Primera Division and the hit film "Bend it Like Beckham" with Keira Knightley and that cute Indian girl from "ER," Beckham decided his next challenge would be to take on Hollywood when he signed a five-year, $32.5 million contract to play with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=445425&cc=5901

From the perspective of the Galaxy the deal makes perfect financial sense, much like the signing of Japanese baseball players like Ichiro, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka by the Mariners, Yankees and Red Sox, respectively. Beckham is by far the biggest name in soccer, if not necessarily its best player at this point, and what better way to market a sport that quite frankly is a niche in this country what with the huge popularity of NFL football, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. Much like baseball, soccer is an international game so you figure the Galaxy will make millions on the initial curiosity factor and sales of the new Beckham jersey alone if nothing else. Will it increase long term interest in the sport via ticket sales and TV ratings? I say no. I'll still watch soccer for a couple of weeks every 4 years during the World Cup, and then go right back to ignoring it when the Cup is over.

Aside from what he can do on the field, both David Beckham and his wife, Victoria have made no secret of their desire to cash in on Hollywood in terms of increased opportunities in the American television and film industry. So as to ingratiate herself with her new stateside audience, Victoria is not so subtly taking to the airwaves in a one-hour special on NBC on July 16 titled "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America.'' If this is half as funny as the 1988 Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall film of the same name I just might have to check it out. Odds are the humor in this special will be of the unintentional variety.

Just in case we were not yet buying the legitimacy of this new Hollywood power couple, we were also told that the Beckhams count Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes amongst their friends. Given Tom's bizarre behavior in recent years, what with the Oprah couch rant, the Brooke Shields feud and the fact that we still don't know if Katie was actually impregnated by aliens, I am not sure if this is the guy you want to hitch your wagons to at this point. As Lumbergh said in "Office Space," "Oooohhh. I am going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there." How about somebody who is a big name and well liked but not nearly as crazy, such as Will Smith, Brad Pitt or Matt Damon.

My point is that I feel like we are being manipulated here, and while the stakes aren't as high as say, the Iraq War, you can't tell people to get all fired up about soccer now that Beckham is here when quite frankly most of us didn't care about him or the sport when he was in Europe. So throw your tickertape parade and air your NBC specials and parade the Beckhams around with TomKat. It will elicit little more than a collective yawn from most of us Americans. Me, I'll be watching baseball and "The World Series of Pop Culture" - where, by the way, defending champion El Chupacabra was bounced in the first round by Fragilay, the most shocking TV development this summer since the screen went blank at the end of "The Sopranos." It's nothing personal Becks, and I hope you enjoy your stay, but I just don't care that you're here.

2007-07-07T15:27:00.000-05:00

Grant About Town - July 5, 2007
The Police at Wrigley Field

Ever since The Police went their separate ways in the mid 80's after less than 10 years together, I truly wondered if this extremely volatile bunch - vocalist/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland - would ever grace a stage for a major concert tour again. Sting knocked out one solo album after another, though I really stopped paying attention to them after "Mercury Falling" in 1996, and released his autobiography "Broken Music" in 2003. Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland did film/TV scores, solo work, wrote books and made films. The trio played a few songs at Sting's wedding in 1992 and again at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, but that was about it. Until now.

The reunion tour that I thought might never happen came rolling into the city of Chicago last week for two sold out shows at Wrigley Field. My buddy Rob got a block of tickets and when he offered me one a couple of months ago at a party I said "yes" before the question even got out of his mouth. We cranked Police tunes for the rest of the afternoon, I played air drums and we basked in the glory of it all. When the big day finally (and I mean finally) arrived I met my buddy Greg and his friend Adam in front of the park, and we all walked over to Wrigley Field institution Murphy's Bleachers to meet up with the rest of the group -Rob, Brian and Chris - for a couple of beers. Around 7:30p or so it was time to go in.

Just a bit past 8:20p the band took the stage and opened with "Message in a Bottle," as I had predicted to the guy sitting in front of me. This was followed by "Synchronicity II" and "Walking On the Moon." In between songs, Sting got a big old "boo" from the crowd when he told them this was the band's first show in the city since a 1983 performance at Comiskey Park, home of the hated crosstown rival White Sox.

The first 3 songs lasted about 25 minutes and honestly I don't think the crowd as a whole was really into much of a groove early on. Our group, however, was on our feet from the start and never sat down. The 40,000 or so in attendance skewed a bit older and people were still getting settled in, so I guess that is to be expected to a point. The band seemed to be a bit sluggish at the start, too, and the longer song arrangements early on took some of the oomph out of them. The one exception: Stewart Copeland, who was wailing on his huge drum kit from the start and really provided much of the energy for the group throughout the show.

To the band's credit, there were no backing tracks, background vocalists or other musicians on the stage. Just Sting, Summers and Copeland on a rather spartan stage by arena show standards. And while Sting can't hit all the high notes anymore, he can still fill an arena with that distinctive voice. Summers is still one hell of a guitarist and Copeland plays his percussion with an energy and precision that belies his almost 55 years. Copeland really is a force of nature and, as I said above, did not lag one bit throughout the show

The band definitely tinkered with the arrangements on some of the songs, slowing it down for tunes such as "Walking On the Moon," "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and speeding it up with a jazzy style for "When the World is Running Down." To be honest, sometimes the arragements worked for me and sometimes they didn't. Don't get me wrong, I was on my feet singing along, dancing and air drumming the whole time. But I always feel like a band needs to start a show like a house on fire to get both themselves and the audience fired up. In the case of The Police, basically just play the songs in the lean, no frills way that they were intended.

Later, things really got rolling with "Truth Hits Everybody" from Outlandos d'Amour when the band took my advice from the previous paragraph and tore through this song in true punk fashion. Sting added some nice vocal work on "Invisible Sun." During "So Lonely," when he got to the line "All made up and nowhere to go. Welcome to this one man show" he substituted "Welcome to this Andy Summers show" and then did the same for Copeland the next time around.

Copeland, whose brillance has already been mentioned earlier in the review, added nice percussion flourishes with chimes to give a middle eastern feel to a fine rendition of "Wrapped Around Your Finger." He even donned a Cubs jersey with "Copeland 07" on the back for the encores. As someone who played the drums through high school and still hits the skins now and again, it was really cool to see someone who I have always idolized perform live.

So, there it is. I have seen The Police perform in my lifetime. And you know what? I am going to do it again later this month in East Hartford, CT with my childhood buddy and fellow Police fanatic Mike. I waited a long time for this. Just a few more weeks, Mike, and then your wait will be over, too.

The Police Set List - July 5, 2007 at Wrigley Field

Message In A Bottle

Synchronicity II

Walking On The Moon

Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down

Don't Stand So Close To Me

Driven To Tears

The Bed's Too Big Without You

Truth Hits Everybody

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Wrapped Around Your Finger

De Do Do Do De Da Da Da

Invisible Sun

Walking In Your Footsteps

Can't Stand Losing You/Regatta de Blanc

Roxanne

First Encore:

King of Pain

So Lonely

Every Breath You Take

Second Encore:

Next To You

2007-07-04T21:58:00.000-05:00

Dog Day Afternoon

In what has become a strange 4th of July ritual for me, I tuned in to ESPN for the latest Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held earlier today on Coney Island, NY. For those not familiar with the competition, it has been absolutely dominated by the Japanese eating sensation Takeru Kobayashi, who had won the last six contests in a row dating back to 2001. I guess you might say he is the Tiger Woods or Roger Federer of hot dog eating. Well, even Tiger and Roger lose once and a while and today the king was knocked off his throne by American and perennial Nathan's bridesmaid Joey Chestnut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKqaX9HmQgw

During what the announcer called the "Greatest victory in the history of American sports" - apparently edging out the 1980 U.S Olympic hockey victory over Russia and swimmer Mark Spitz's 7 Olympic gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich - Chestnut downed a world record 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. This topped the previous world record of 59 1/2 that he had set last month in Tempe, AZ. Kobayashi was no slouch himself, employing his trademark "Kobayashi Shake" to knock out 63 dogs. And this despite battling arthritis of the jaw related to the recent removal of a wisdom tooth. It was an epic battle between the top two eaters in the International Federation of Competitive Eating rankings, sort of an Ali/Frazier except with a lot more regurgitation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2925803

In all, Chestnut consumed 12,540 calories and his 66 dogs is more than the average American eats in an entire year. All I can say, other than "that is one of the most disgusting things I have witnessed this year that didn't involve Paris Hilton," is that I was extra proud to be an American today. As Chestnut draped the stars and stripes around his shoulder I couldn't help but chant "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!"

2007-06-29T19:02:00.000-05:00

When Irish Eyes Are Not Smiling

For some reason I decided to subject myself to the 2007 NBA Draft last night. Normally, I would be very enthusiastic about the chance to watch future millionaires - many of whom I enjoyed watching play college ball - in colorful, ill-fitting suits with their large moms and entourage in tow on the biggest night of their lives. Throw in analysts such as Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas trotting out cliched terms such as "upside," "wingspan," and "athletic," a smirking Commissioner David Stern at the podium shaking hands and making awkward small talk with each selection, post selection interviews by Stuart "Booyah" Scott with foreign players sans translator (for Scott or the player), and Knicks fan Spike Lee in the audience and the unintentional comedy potential at this event is just off the charts.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers (above left) and G.M. Danny Ainge: Why are these guys smiling?

However, I must admit that my interest in the NBA in general has been adversely affected by the sinking fortunes of my favorite team, the Boston Celtics. The fact that this is the first time they have been written about on this blog should tell you something. Just in the last two weeks alone I have read that current stars Kevin Garnett, Shawn Marion and Jermaine O'Neal had no interest in going to Boston via trade, as a desperate Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge tried to make a major deal to placate disgruntled star Paul Pierce. And even though I have long since accepted the fact that the C's are irrelevant in today's NBA, it still sucks to read that three star players don't want to play for your team. Heck, if I were Garnett, Marion or O'Neal I wouldn't want to go there either.

Since winning 16 NBA titles with legends such as Auerbach, Russell, Cousy, Havlicek and Bird, the last in 1986, it has been a steady decline for the C's. While still a contending playoff team in the early 90's and again in the early 00's when they went to the conference finals under Jim O'Brien, there have also been many sub par to god awful years including those under M.L. Carr in the mid 90's lowlighted by a 15-67 record in 1996-97, the worst in team history. Well chronicled by fellow Celtics fan and ESPN.com Page 2 writer Bill Simmons, whose 11th annual NBA draft diary I read earlier today, the franchise has endured one crushing blow after another in the 20 years since its last title. The highlights of the list read as follows:

1) The death of Len Bias (below, left), the 2nd pick in the 1986 draft, of a cocaine overdose.

2) The death of star forward Reggie Lewis (below, right) in 1993 of a heart attack.

3) Despite having the worst record in the league and TWO picks in the first round, not winning the draft lottery and the right to sign forward Tim Duncan (4 rings and counting with the Spurs) with the first pick in the 1997 draft.

4) Despite having the 2nd worst record in the league (and almost a 40% chance at one of the first two picks), falling all the way to the 5th pick and missing out on both Greg Oden and Kevin Durant in the 2007 draft.

This list does not even include the disastrous tenures of G.M.'s Rick Pitino and Chris Wallace, where the team doled out mammoth contracts to players such as Vin Baker, Tony Battie, Kenny Anderson, Brian Scalabrine and Mark Blount and passed in the draft on the likes of Kobe Bryant (1996), Jermaine O'Neal (1996), Tracy McGrady (1997) and Richard Jefferson (2001). When Ainge took over as G.M. in 2004 he inherited a mess and to his credit improved things to the point where the team was just good enough to squeak into the playoffs on occasion but not good enough to do any damage. However, 3 years and like 6 rebuilding philosophies later they're just plain bad.

It is almost like the basketball Gods have decided that after decades of good karma and a boat load of titles, that the Celtics now must endure decades of misery. Maybe this is karmic payback for the Patriots recent run of Super Bowl titles and the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004. If so, as a New England sports fan I'm OK with it. These things go in cycles and my teams can't all be on top at the same time. Right?

2007-06-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

First Weekend of Summer in Chi-town

I hope that everybody had a nice first weekend of summer. It was both a work and play weekend for me, with the work consisting of the third and final installment of my Illinois teaching certification testing. The test consisted of 125 multiple choice questions, mostly general knowledge in the areas of language arts, math, science, history, politics. As usual, it was the math and science related questions that gave me the hardest time. However, I was very proud to have answered the following biology question correctly: The mitochondria, an organelle found in plants and animals, performs what cellular function? (see end of post for answer).

The test was given at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Science on West 111th St. which, for those of you not familiar with the city, is one hell of a drive through some major construction on the both I-94 East (aka the Dan Ryan) and I-57. Fortunately, at least in terms of traffic, my test was at 7:30a so no worries in the morning. I also dodged a traffic bullet on the way home in that the White Sox and Cubs were playing at U.S. Cellular Field on the south side, but the game had already started by the time I returned home on the Dan Ryan. The test went well and it was a relief for it to just be over. Quite frankly I've had about enough with the testing. I've jumped through your hoops, state of Illinois, give me a freakin' job already. The play part of the weekend consisted of a very fun evening Saturday night at the Belmont Arts & Music Festival in Roscoe Village (my neighborhood). My friend Greg drove in from Glenview with his buddy Geoff, who was in town from San Francisco, and our mutual friend Chris was already over there since his band kicked off the festivities under drizzly conditions on one of the two stages set up on Belmont Street. I got there a little later in the afternoon and saw The Redwalls, a popular local band from the north side of Chicago as well as an acoustic set from Bob Mould, veteran lead singer of the bands Husker Du and Sugar. The good times and Pacifico beer were flowing and, thanks to some creative thinking by Geoff, the latter continued to flow from a party we attended earlier in the evening long after we had left.

Answer:

Mitochondria provide the energy a cell needs to move, divide, produce secretory products, contract - in short, they are the power centers of the cell.

2007-06-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

"A Little West Coast Swing" Part II: The Visit

I had originally planned to post part II the day after part I but one thing led to another and, well, here we are on Sunday evening and I am just getting to it. Suffice it to say it was a really fun visit, and an ambitious one in the that I was combining a visit to my sister in Silicon Valley with a side trip to the wedding of a family friend in Squaw Valley/Lake Tahoe, some 230 miles drive from San Francisco. And all of this in 5 days.

The first couple of days were spent with my sister and the nieces, the oldest two of which took to calling me Uncle G during the visit, which I kind of liked. Even the baby, Erica, who just turned 2 in April was calling me Uncle Gant (the left out "r" is not a typo) not long after I arrived. Very cool. It was Caroline's (age 8) last day of school so I went over there with my sister and met her 2nd grade teacher from this past year, as well as some of her friends as they were all taking Chinese lessons after school. I munched on some etamame and watched one of the teachers give a Tai chi demonstration, which elicited howls of laughter from the less than impressed group of youngsters while I tried my adult best to make them pay attention.

I should probably mention that it was hot, really hot, for the first few days of my visit, with unseasonably warm temperatures in the low 90's. So basically there were few moments spent outside during the day when I wasn't either at, or on my way to the pool. This included a trip to Ladera Oaks, a private country club down the street from my sister's house where Meredith (age 5) takes swim lessons. I was told that I might have to scram after dropping Meredith off, since the family is not a member of the club. However, I was able to chill poolside with all the moms while Erica splashed around in the kiddie pool for 45 minutes. Fortunately for Uncle Gant, the swim diaper held up quite well.

On Friday morning it was off to Tahoe for the wedding. I mentioned that it was for a family friend. Specifically, the groom, Rob, is the younger son of my former next door neighbors Ginna and Sheldon in West Hartford, Connecticut, my hometown. I babysat for him and his older brother, Ashton, in the mid 1980's and they were kind of like the younger brothers I never had. These two were 8 and 5 years old, respectively, when I first knew them and now I was seeing the younger one of the two get married. You want to talk about an "I feel reeeeeally old" moment. In any case, I stayed at a posh hotel in Squaw Valley right on the base of an 8,600 foot snow-covered (though not very much) mountain, complete with a cable car to the top that we took on Saturday, where there is a pool, the ice rink that was used for the VII Winter Olympics in 1960, and views of Lake Tahoe that would blow your mind. The ceremony was in a garden just steps from Lake Tahoe in Carnelian Bay, and the reception poolside at the hotel. Just spectacular scenery all around and it was great to catch up with friends and family alike. Good times.

Barely 24 hours later, it was back in the car for the 230 mile return trip to Silicon Valley. This brings us to the crown jewel event of the weekend, the Menlo Park Academy of Dance presents "Movies in Motion" at Woodside High School on Sunday, aka Father's Day. I had known about this bi-annual event when my sister mentioned it at Christmas time and, as far as Caroline and Meredith were concerned, this was the reason that I came out to visit. My brother-in-law Ken's aunt, Judy, came into town from L.A. while I was in Tahoe so we all piled in the SUV and made our way to the show.

Highlights of the event, other than my two nieces, of course, included a routine to the theme from "Ghostbusters" and countless routines featuring little kids looking all cute in their costumes who stared off to the side of the stage to get their moves from the instructor. This resulted in high comedy such as one routine when the entire line of dancers did the tilt of the head on the pressed hands to pretend they were sleeping while one child jumped up and down with her hands waving, completely oblivious to the rest of the group. You know what they say about never sharing the stage with children and animals? This event was certainly proof of the former.

2007-06-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

"A Little West Coast Swing" Part I: Random Thoughts

Can I first just say that after a lengthy hiatus, my friends Chris ("Our Man in LA") and Reggie ("ReggieNewton.com") have been kicking some serious butt in the blogging department lately? Excellent work, boys. It is time for me to step it up on the blog front after a recent dry spell. Anyway, I hope everybody had a nice Father's Day weekend with the family. I spent last week on the left coast visiting my sister and nieces in Silicon Valley and also managed to squeeze in a wedding of an old family friend in Squaw Valley/Lake Tahoe. Before I get into the details and attach some photos of my visit in another post, I wanted to dispatch with some odds and ends from the weekend in list form. In no particular order, they are as follows:

1) My sister and brother-in-law rented the first DVD of the new "Not Just The Best of the Larry Sanders Show" 4 disc set from Netflix. If you never saw the show - a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a fictional late night talk show - on HBO in the early-mid 90's I highly recommend checking this out. The dry, biting, sarcastic humor, documentary style and lack of a studio audience on later comedy shows such as "The Office" (UK and US versions), "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "30 Rock" is very much influenced and inspired by "The Larry Sanders Show."

The show's cast is a veritable who's who of "that guys," from Jeremy Piven of current fame on "Entourage" to later "24" regulars Penny Johnson (The first President Palmer's wife) and Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe), to Jeffrey Tambor ("Three's Company" and "Arrested Development"). This is in addition to all the actors/comedians who appeared on the show as themselves. The fact that they had only put out one season of the show on DVD since it went off the air in 1998 was a crime, and it is somewhat rectified by this collection of 23 episodes hand-picked by star Garry Shandling. It is not a substitute for releasing each season as a separate set, and the fact that the episodes are in no particular order screws up the continuity of some of the storylines. Regardless of these quibbles, the show is brilliant.

2) While returning from San Jose last night I connected at LAX and with some time to kill grabbed some food at the Burger King in the American Airlines terminal. I scanned the menu and saw several "Value Meals" such as the Whopper and Chicken sandwich items priced at upwards of $9.50. I settled on the Double Cheeseburger meal for $8.65, a relative bargain. This begs the question: Can you still in good conscience call various fast food entrees a value meal when it costs almost $10? Unless Bill Gates or Warren Buffett is the one buying it, I say no.

3) I don't know how many of you have seen the Southwest Airlines ad where the guy is in the plane and every part of the plane - from the luggage bins to the window shade - costs 25 cents to use, so as to poke fun at how the major airlines are bleeding customers dry. Hah hah, I thought, it will never get that bad. Well, on my flight from Los Angeles to Chicago we were told that:

a) There would be no freebies like peanuts or pretzels
b) There were two sandwiches available, a turkey wrap or chicken, for $5 and chips for $3
c) We could rent a Personal Entertainment Device (PED), not to be confused with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) with an assortment of lame PG-13 movies including "Wild Hogs" and "The Sandlot" for $8
d) That the flight attendant would be coming through the cabin with a drink of our choice..."for $5" I said to the person next to me. No, actually the coffee, juice, soda and water is still free, believe it or not. Nice to know that I get something for my $350 round-trip ticket.

4) If you are ever driving on Interstate 80 East towards Reno, NV, aka the highway that takes you to Lake Tahoe, just be warned that the right lane is WAY bumpier than the left so stay in the left lane as much as possible. Then again, they let people drive on this highway with chains on their tires in the winter so neither lane is any great shakes.

5) If you are looking for a decent movie to see with the kids, I can actually kind of recommend "Shrek the Third." In fact, with all the references and inside jokes such as a Ye Olde Hooters restaurant and a Versarchery store in Far Far Away (where much of the story takes place) and music by Led Zeppelin, Heart and Wings, there seems to be more for the adults than the kids in this one. I know this because I chuckled on more than one occasion and got funny looks from my nieces, Caroline and Meredith, wondering what was so funny. I am not saying the movie is great, but it was something I could see with a 5 and 8 year-old and still retain my dignity.

2007-06-02T21:15:00.000-05:00

Grant About Town - May 31, 2007

With the summer movie season kicking into high gear and the usual slate of big budget Hollywood studio offerings ("Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Shrek the Third," "Oceans 13") hitting the multiplexes, I wanted to highlight a very satisfying trip to the movie theater that did not involve any of the aforementioned threequels. While it has certainly not received the hype and media coverage of these summer blockbusters, "Knocked Up" is a must-see and one of the best comedies I have seen in many years.

The film is written and directed by Judd Apatow, who's best known for co-writing/directing the hilarious "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (2005) that starred Steve Carell and had a great supporting cast including Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen. Apatow is a comedy veteran who wrote and produced for the brilliant HBO comedy "The Larry Sanders Show" as well as "The Ben Stiller Show" in the early 90's. I won passes to a free screening and made plans with my buddy Reggie to see the film at Piper's Alley on Thursday night. It was the least I could do for a friend, as I was the frequent beneficiary of movie passes when Reggie worked for the Chicago Tribune in the late 90's. Remember the 1997 classic "Starship Troopers?" Of course you do. Saw it for free, baby.

Seth Rogen moves up to top billing in "Knocked Up" as slacker/stoner Ben Stone, who while out with friends at a club meets up and eventually hooks up with E! producer Allison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" fame. Rogen is kind of a shlubby guy, definitely not your standard leading man type, but has that everyman underdog appeal. Heigl has a tough job as more of the straight man in this comic duo, but she has a real knack for comedy that makes her more than just a pretty face in the movie. Anyway, due to some confusion on the night of the hookup - Allison says "Just do it" while Ben is trying to, um, prepare himself for sex, which he interprets as him not needing to use a condom - Allison becomes pregnant. The timing could not be worse for her, as she just recently got a promotion to an on-air gig at E! and for him, as he has no job nor the income to support a baby.

The supporting cast is fantastic, particularly Paul Rudd as Allison's brother-in-law Pete, whose dysfunctional marriage to Debbie (Leslie Mann) and two kids gives Ben and Allison a window into what the future may hold as parents and a couple if they choose to stay together. According to Pete, "Marriage is just an unfunny version of 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' but it doesn't last 22 minutes ... it lasts forever." Pete becomes kind of a role model and confidant for Ben and their guy trip to Las Vegas, complete with a mushroom induced freakout by Ben during a Cirque du Soleil show, is dead on and had Reggie and I nodding our heads knowingly throughout. Also very funny is current "Saturday Night Live" cast member Kristen Wiig as one of Allison's bosses at E!

I have been a big fan of Paul Rudd (on the left, with Rogen in the picture above) for years and was even once told by an ex-girlfriend that I resembled him. He is really underrated as a comic actor with his droll, sarcastically funny performances in films like "Clueless" and "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and in a recurring TV role on "Friends." Talent-wise this guy deserves to be talked about in the same breath as A-list comic actors such as Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

Another great scene and perhaps my favorite in the movie involves a very pregnant Allison and Debbie being turned away by a nightclub doorman (played by Craig Robinson - aka Daryl the warehouse supervisor from the TV show "The Office") because they aren't young or hot enough to merit admission, followed by an indignant Debbie going ballistic on the bouncer until he breaks down and admits to her that he would "tear that ass up." Underlying the humor is Debbie's sadness and frustration at the fact that while still very attractive, she knows she can't pull off the young party girl thing anymore.

Apatow has been quite a busy and successful man lately as a producer on the Will Ferrell films "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and "Kicking and Screaming" in addition to his work on "Anchorman" and "The 40 Year Old Virgin." He really elevates himself into the comedy directing elite with this film, picking up where the Farrelly Brothers left off by combining their raunch and lewdness with fantastic dialogue sprinkled with pop culture references that include Ryan Seachrest (who makes a cameo in the film), "Back to the Future," the TV show "Lost," the singer Matisyahu and the "Mr. Skin" website.

The Farrelly Brothers films strike me as a bit mean-spirited at times, unless you find humor at the expense of the disabled, retarded people and conjoined twins to be good-spirited. "Knocked Up" actually has a heart underneath all of the jokes and one-liners. It takes on real life issues such as unplanned pregnancy, making the transition from single to married life, becoming a parent and male/female friendships and makes you laugh while at the same time still being poignant. While it is a stretch to believe that a relatively successful knockout like Allison would ever end up with a chronic loser like Ben, you care enough about the characters to willingly go along for the ride.

2007-05-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

Working for the Weekend

May 19 and 26, 2007

For those loyal readers who look forward to reading about my wild and wacky experiences at the unnamed educational service, it has been a while since my last post. And for that, I apologize. It has been a combination of factors that have lead to the hiatus, the main one being that I cut back on my schedule a bit in the last couple of months to one day per weekend with the occasional weekend off. I was burning out a little with the long drive and working 7 days a week thing. Needed to find some balance in my life, know what I mean?

That long drive has gotten a whole lot longer with the start of the Dan Ryan (my route through downtown to the southwest side) highway construction project in March. It has been an absolute backbreaker for me and has almost doubled my commute time to work each Saturday. Despite the fact that I only use it once a week, the Dan Ryan construction easily beats out the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line (my train to work during the week) expansion project for #1 on Grant’s “Least Favorite Chicago Area Construction Projects” list. I drop more F bombs and shake my head in disbelief on that one trip to the southwest side more than I do all week if not all month on the Brown Line. I guess you could consider that an underhanded compliment for the much-maligned CTA.

The other thing going on is that I have been focusing on getting out resumes for teaching jobs and preparing for the various Illinois tests I have to take to be certified in the state. Related to that, I just found out yesterday via e-mail that I passed both the Illinois Basic Skills test and the K-9 Assessment of Professional Teaching (APT) tests that I took last month over one grueling day at McCormick Place. In the words of the great academic Homer Simpson: "I am so smart! I am so smart! I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T. I mean S-M-A-R-T." One more test to go next month – APT Content Area Exercises - and I have heard it is an easy one. Now if I can only find that teaching job…

So, I have worked the last couple of Saturdays and must say that they have been very pleasant indeed other than the ridiculous Dan Ryan traffic I mentioned earlier. For one, I have generally gotten a good group of kids to work with each hour, kids that are able to focus and don’t distract each other. The other thing that has happened a lot more the last couple of weeks is that kids who were scheduled to be at my table of three have not showed up, leaving me with two kids to work with instead of the standard three. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but trust me, it makes a huge difference in terms of the craziness/stress factor and allows me to give more attention to each child.

Before I wrap up, a funny story that happened today. I was working with a young boy and was trying to explain the difference between fact and opinion. I said to him “What is your favorite sport?” He said: “I don’t have a favorite sport.” So, I said: “Who is your favorite singer or musician?” He said: “I don’t listen to music.” Running out of ideas fast, I said: “What is your favorite subject at school?” Much to my surprise, this was the question that he chose to answer. “Math,” he said. So I went on to explain that his preference for math would be considered an opinion while saying that math is one of the subjects at school is a fact. Another fact: Kids will be difficult sometimes for no other reason than to test your ability to deal with it. Guess I passed that test, too.

2007-05-20T17:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr. Dork

It would be an understatement to say that Major League Baseball players have been producing a lot of bad PR lately, what with Barry Bonds' tainted chase of the home run record, Rafael Palmeiro lying to Congress about his steroid use and the shadow that hangs over the game because of performance enhancing drugs. So, as a fan of the game, I felt it was my duty to report on two positive and rather funny stories involving baseball players' interactions with the MOST IMPORTANT participants in the game: The fans.

During a recent game versus the Blue Jays at Jacobs Field, Indians fan Jeff Raycher and about 100 of his fellow Indians fans were getting on Jays outfielder Vernon Wells with various verbal taunts and jokes. At one point, Wells faked like he was throwing a ball towards Raycher and then threw it to another section. Later, Wells came back to the outfield with a ball inscribed with a special message just for Raycher.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/Toronto/2007/05/08/4163067-sun.html

So as not to give too much away, click on the link above for the text of the message. Note: For some reason the story leaves out the hilarious saluation "Dear Mr. Dork" but you can see it in the picture. Suffice it to say, Wells won major points for his sense of humor and overall good natured handling of the situation. I already knew the guy was cool - He's on my fantasy baseball team.

The other story is of a slightly less PG variety. Reds outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. provided a gift of a more, um, personal nature in response to ribbing from a Dodgers fan. After taking the verbal abuse for several innings, Griffey finally decided he'd had enough and proceeded to make some fat jokes about the fan and tell him he couldn't hold (Griffey's) jock. Then, he proceeded to go one better by giving him one of his jockstraps.

http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05/14/this-heckler-actually-can-carry-ken-griffeys-jock/

These are only two examples, and I know that for every positive story put out there some disgruntled or jaded fan can come up with another about the player who told them to "F off" when they asked for an autograph, turned out to be a cheater, beat up his wife or didn't pay his taxes. However, it is nice to know that there are some athletes out there who get it and understand how lucky they are to make millions playing a game for a living, and that even the smallest interaction a fan has with them is a memory the fan will have for a lifetime.

As a case in point, after a Red Sox game at Fenway Park in April 1986 my dad and I went over by the players' parking lot in the hope of seeing some of my heroes and maybe getting some autographs. We waited by a chain link fence as the players gradually emerged from the locker room: Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, coach Joe Morgan. Most got in their BMW, Mercedes or Porsche and left without much more interaction than a wave and a smile to the fans.

Just as we were about to leave, outfielder Tony Armas came out and walked over to his Wagoneer, parked just on the other side of the fence from where I was standing with my dad. As he walked up to the car he stopped, pointed to the ground and said to me "Hey kid, there's a ball under my car." At first I was startled that he was talking to me. He said it again and got my attention. Some of the people around me thought he was messing with me and started laughing.

"Come over here," he said, so I walked in and knelt down by his car and carefully scanned the pavement hoping for a souvenir. Sure enough, there was a ball. I grabbed it. "Thanks, Mr. Armas," I said and whipped out my autograph book so he could sign it for me. As if that weren't enough, a few minutes later pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd came out, gave me an autograph and chatted for several minutes while sitting in his Mercedes with the door open. Coincidentally, we ran into Boyd again later while driving away from Fenway Park as his car ended up in front of ours on Boylston Street.

Though they weren't even among my favorite players on the team, by giving me a few minutes of their time Armas and Boyd each made a fan for life that day. And though they may not realize it, with their recent actions Wells and Griffey did as well.

2007-05-07T18:51:00.000-05:00

The Antichrist Returns to Gotham

As has been well established on this site and elsewhere if you know me or have talked to me for more than a minute, I am a die hard Boston Red Sox fan. So it was with great interest that I read the text message sent to me yesterday from my friend Mike's younger brother, Jon, somehow a Yankees fan despite growing up in a family of smart people. It read "Clemens is a Yankee!!!"

Those four words seared into my psyche. The pitcher I had once loved as he K'd 20 Mariners, took the Sox to the brink of a title in '86 and won 3 Cy Young Awards, only to dog it towards the end amidst a contract dispute before skipping town to Toronto after the'96 season, was making a return engagement to the Evil Empire. There was a time when such a development would really bug me as a Red Sox fan. However, that time has passed and I was even a bit surprised by how little the news affected me. Ditto for fellow Sox fan Bill Simmons, aka "Sports Guy" on ESPN.com, whose classic piece "Is Clemens the Antichrist?" is linked below.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1206543

After taking in the message for a few moments I promptly replied: "They need him. Their pitching is a trainwreck" to which Jon responded "Won't be for long!" Yes, I thought, the 44 year-old with groin problems who has been pitching to the friendlier (i.e. no DH) lineups of the National League is going to return to the harder hitting AL, save the day 6 innings at a time and deliver a title for the Yankees. That is, if he doesn't break down physically, ruffle feathers in the notoriously tight Yankee clubhouse by receiving prima donna treatment or get busted for using Human Growth Hormone (HGH) first.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070506&content_id=1949377&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Am I biased in this discussion? Of course. I hate both the Yankees and Clemens. Clemens left Boston after three final lackluster seasons (1993-96) with a lot more weight and without so much as a "Thank You" to the fans. Then he promptly "re-dedicated" himself and won 2 Cy Youngs with the Blue Jays to show Sox GM Dan Duquette how wrong he was for letting him go. Where was this work ethic at the end of his time in Boston, when he was more likely to hit a plate of chicken wings than the weight room. Then he went to the Yankees only to bail on them to return home to Houston, who he is now bailing on to return to the Yankees because the Astros stink. Are you seeing a trend here?

Let's call Clemens what he really is: A mercenary for hire. As Sports Guy wrote, "We're coming closer and closer to my dream of Clemens' Hall of Fame plaque featuring a cap with a dollar sign on it." That said, is he also a Hall of Famer who will go down as one of the greatest pitchers of all-time? Yes, of course. But his annual "Will he or won't he return?" routine is tired and since only 3 teams in the league have a chance of signing him is of little consequence to a vast majority of General Managers.

Speaking of GM's, kudos to Yanks GM Brian Cashman for the brilliant move of spending $28 million on a less than sure thing after his 2007 pitching staff quickly came to resemble the Titanic post iceberg. What are you going to do if this doesn't work, Brian? Put pitching coach Ron Guidry back on the mound and bring back Whitey Ford? Injuries aside, it's not exactly an endorsement of the GM's offseason work when you need to overhaul your pitching staff a month into the season.

This was a semi-desperate move by a team whose ERA ranked 27th in baseball and who has been starting the likes of Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo after half their staff pulled a groin, the low point perhaps being the back-to-back-to-back-to-back (that's right, 4 backs) home runs given up by sacrificial lamb Chase Wright (as in "He got Chased Wright to the locker room") in a loss to the Sox in Boston on April 22. The reality is the Yankees truly NEEDED Clemens more than Boston or Houston did. Quite frankly, given the way things went down with Clemens in Boston not only did I not think they needed him, but I did not want him back either.

But, as Sports Guy wrote in a recent blog posting, with the Clemens signing the 2007 Yankees now have a true villain. Though I can always work up a little hatred for ARod and Jeter, it just hasn't been the same for me in the Yankee villain department since Randy Johnson left town without a title. You'd better believe that yours truly in particular and Red Sox Nation in general will be chomping at the bit for Clemens' return to the cauldron that is Sox-Yanks. The best rivalry in sports just got even better.

2007-05-02T23:02:00.000-05:00

A Case of the Babels

Having watched the film "Babel" on DVD recently, I could not resist posting a link to a strange story I read on Yahoo! Movies: Movie News. The film opened in Japan this past weekend, and apparently there have been 15 reported cases of nausea and headaches from moviegoers. This is nothing new for a movie to cause such a reaction, as similar reports came out after the release of "Breaking the Waves" in 1996, the film starring Emily Watson which is set in a remote Scottish village and features scenes at sea on an oil rig shot with hand held cameras. Also, I myself felt a bit queasy after watching the shaky camerawork of "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), which was shot entirely in documentary style.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20070502/117813012000.html

That history aside, let me just say that after sitting through the rather lengthy and in my opinion much overrated exercise in angst called "Babel" I felt a little ill myself, and it had nothing to do with the cinematography or sound. It has a lot to do with the fact that Brad Pitt wouldn't stop screaming and Rinko Kikuchi's Japanese schoolgirl character wouldn't stop taking her clothes off and coming on to every guy she met, including a police officer and her rather shocked dentist during a checkup. Cate Blanchett does a great job of bleeding and suffering, as that is pretty much all she is asked to do in the film. To its credit, the cinematography is beautiful and "Babel" is ambitious in scope with four stories shot in four countries in four languages. Unfortunately, it bored me in all four.

2007-04-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

This Week in Netflix :
"Children of Men"

As I am pretty much watching at least one DVD rental per week lately, I have decided to start a new feature called "This Week in Netflix" with periodic reviews of my DVD of the week. I may even go back and review some past DVD rentals, but for now let's stick to this week's selection: "Children of Men," based on a P.D. James science fiction novel and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine and directed by Alfonso Cuaron.

For those not familiar with the story, the premise is basically this: The movie is set in England in 2027. Society faces extinction because women have lost the ability to reproduce, with no child having been born since 2009. We never really find out why or how this has become the case, it just is. Martial law has been implemented, with refugess being caged and/or deported and a revolutionary group called the Fishes at war in the streets with the government with bombs going off and random gunfire. Probably a lot like Baghdad is now, only without the unwanted U.S. military presence.

The always good Clive Owen plays Theo Farron, a former activist who is pulled back into that world by a former lover Julian (Julianne Moore). Julian and some members of her group kidnap Theo and present him with a proposition: Help them transport a pregnant teenage refugee named Kee out of the country to the (perhaps) mythical "Human Project," a place where scientists and doctors are working to solve the infertility problem that threatens to wipe out society as they know it. For some reason, also not fully explained, the Fishes do not want this to be a successful mission.

I was kind of envisioning a "Blade Runner" type story where you have an intelligent action-thriller set in the bleak, dirty, colorless, anarchic future that seems to be the standard for all such stories not starring the Jetson family or directed by George Lucas. Maybe even something along the lines of the recent futuristic actioner "V for Vendetta" which I did not expect to like but actually enjoyed quite a bit, Natalie Portman's shaved head and all. Heck, even if it was as brainlessly entertaining as "Total Recall" I would have been happy. Suffice it to say that is not what I got.

Technically and visually the movie is quite impressive. Cuaron really has a flair with the camera and his use of documentary style gives the film a gritty look and feel that serves this material well. In particular, there is a breathtaking sequence where Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki somehow get the camera to swing around the inside and outside of a speeding car while it is being attacked by terrorists. I read that the scene has been dissected by film school students and aspiring filmmakers alike trying to figure out just how it was pulled off.

However, the story and tone of the film is just so relentlessly grim and depressing that I couldn't take it after a while. In addition, Cuaron asks more questions and presents more ideas than he is able to adequately answer and develop. How did women become infertile? Why is Britain the only country still (barely) alive and kicking in 2027? Why are the Fishes trying to stop Kee from getting to the Human Project, where she conceivably could help save society from extinction? And what the hell is the deal with Michael Caine's hair?

On a positive note, my buddy Michael in North Carolina will be happy to know that his longtime nemesis Julianne Moore's character meets a rather early and bloody demise in the film. While we're talking about Moore, she seemed miscast and her character kind of superfluous to the story. In his review of the film, Chicago Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips noted that "Moore's apparently immobilized forehead is proof that a good actress is not improved by a lack of expressivity." I imagine that Moore's early end would put a smile on my friend Mike's face. Unfortunately, this movie did not put much of a smile on mine.

Rating: 2.0 stars out of 4

Rating Scale:

0 - I read that Rob Schneider passed on the script

1 - Slightly more entertaining than a "Simpsons" rerun

2 - I like you, but can we just be friends?

3 - So good I would have paid Netflix extra for shipping

4 - Not even Jack Bauer could prevent this movie from world domination

2007-04-12T13:02:00.000-05:00

Justice Served?

I never had a chance to weigh in on the Duke Lacrosse scandal, and with yesterday’s development in the case - all remaining charges of kidnapping and sexual assault against the three players were dropped by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper – felt like now would be as good a time as any. As a former resident of Durham, NC from 2001-2006 and student at North Carolina Central University (the school attended by the accuser), this event literally unfolded in my backyard and I have been following it closely over the last year.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/563248.html

Let me first say that I am not a legal expert and do not have any law background other than the fact that my mom is a legal secretary, my sister once worked as a lawyer, I once dated a lawyer and I was an "Assistant Legal Assistant" at my mom's firm one summer back in college. OK, so maybe I do have some legal background. Despite my just realized abundance of legal acumen, I am not going to bore you with the minutiae of the case. Rather, I wanted to give an overview of the events and look at how fascinating the case is as a reflection of issues of race, class and the workings of the legal system in this country.

Dave Evans, 24, Reade Seligmann, 21, and Collin Finnerty, 20, all members of the lacrosse team and all white, were initially accused of raping Crystal Gail Mangum, an African American escort service dancer, at an off-campus party in Durham on March 13, 2006. The Durham District Attorney, Mike Nifong (who was up for re-election at the time), came out swinging and insisted that a racially-motivated gang rape had occurred. The black community in Durham was up in arms and Nifong's words only served to stoke the fire. Many faculty and students at Duke spoke out in comdemnation of the three accused players, with students even putting up "Wanted" posters with their pictures and comparing them to Hitler.

Without getting into too much detail, it would be safe to say that Nifong's case had more holes in it than a paper target at an NRA rally. First, the DNA tests came back negative for all the players. Second, the accuser's story seemed to change each time she told it and could not be corroborated by anybody else at the party including a fellow dancer there with her. It was also suggested that perhaps Nifong was not as forthcoming with evidence for the players' defense teams as he could have been.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/563242.html

In an unprecedented action, the North Carolina State Bar removed Nifong from the case when it filed ethical and professional misconduct charges against him in December. Nifong ceded control of the case to Cooper's office in January. Basically this was the equivalent of Nifong saying "My bad, Duke lacrosse players. Sorry about the whole "making your life a living hell and dragging your name through the mud for a year" thing. No hard feelings, OK?" The Attorney General's office launched an investigation and found that there was no merit to Nifong's case and that the remaining charges against the players be dismissed immediately.

Having lived in Durham, I can say that racial tensions do indeed run high in the city. For example, Board of Education meetings were notorious for devolving into shouting matches between black residents and white members of the Board over issues of racism in their decision making. Also, there is definitely a latent hostility that exists between Duke University - perceived as a privileged, rich, white institution - and the poorer black communities in Durham that surround the campus.

Listening to radio coverage on NPR today a student at Central, a historically black university, expressed her disappointment with Wednesday's decision. To paraphrase, she said "I wonder if it had been three black players accused of raping a white girl if the outcome would have been the same." Though one cannot excuse the ugly racial slurs that were reportedly used towards the dancers at the party, it is one thing to utter some hateful words and entirely another to rape someone. Maybe the players are guilty of being boorish jerks, but it appears from an evidence standpoint that they were not guilty of rape.

That being said, one can't help but wonder if there is a nugget of truth in what the student said. If the roles were reversed and the players were black and the accuser white, would the result have been the same? Clearly, legal history has shown that the American justice system is not colorblind nor blind to the influence of wealth and power (see the O.J. Simpson trial for an example of each). Unlike the Simpson case this one will never actually go to trial. However, with the possibility of civil suits being filed by the players against Nifong this story is far from over.

2007-04-08T13:17:00.000-05:00

Weekend at Uncle Grant's

For the last several weeks I had been eagerly anticipating the first visit to the city of Chicago by my three nieces, Caroline, Meredith and Erica. My sister informed me earlier in the year that my brother-in-law, Ken, would be having his annual rotisserie baseball draft here the last weekend of March and that the whole family was flying out for the weekend. I immediately started to think of fun and educational things I could do with them. After all, we were not going to pitch a tent at American Girl Place and let the girls run wild for two days.

One of my first ideas was going to the Chicago Children’s Museum at Navy Pier. I thought it would be enjoyable for the girls and that my sister would like it as well since there would be an opportunity for them to learn something along the way. Sure enough, my sister liked the idea so I decided that would be our primary activity on Saturday. For me, the museum went along with animated movies in the “places/events intended for children that I also like but probably wouldn’t go to without a child” category.

So, tired from a night of babysitting at the hotel the evening before with my friend Monica, Uncle Grant arrived at the hotel Saturday morning ready to entertain. However, my first assignment of the day was of the less ambitious variety: Get the girls to finish their breakfasts while my sister got ready in the bathroom. I employed the oft used “eat what you can and Uncle Grant will finish the rest” strategy which resulted in a fine breakfast of eggs, blueberry pancakes, potatoes, toast and orange juice for your truly.

To say that the girls enjoyed the Children’s Museum would be an understatement. They loved it. Caroline (age 8) and Meredith (5) hit the climbing ropes that started on the ground floor and extended up to the second floor of the museum, ending with a walk along a bridge with wooden planks. There was also the Water Works area with big sinks of water and tubes for the kids to play (and get wet) with, and the Kid’s World exhibit by Jewel-Osco (a grocery store for those non-Chicagoans) with a pretend grocery store for the kids to role-play in.

For some reason Caroline decided I was the President and then began bringing baskets of groceries to me, apparently in an homage to my power and greatness. The first one was all milk, then fruits and vegetables and I said “Thanks” and pretended to eat and drink them much to her satisfaction. Among other activities, Meredith pretended to be a bus driver in a miniature Chicago Transit Authority bus complete with actual bus seats and steering column. Even little Erica (almost 2) found plenty of things to climb on, slide down and pull on, so she was quite pleased as well.

Next, it was on to the Navy Pier ferris wheel, or “fairy tale” as Meredith called it in a funny slip of the tongue. We were told that it was designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and is the fourth largest ferris wheel in the world. I had been on it before but was once again blown away by the breathtaking view of Lake Michigan and the beautiful Chicago skyline. After we got off, my sister – who was watching on a bench with Erica – said that Erica was saying “careful, careful, careful” which is apparently what their nanny Sri says around the house when the girls are in potentially harmful situations. Very cute.

I haven’t even mentioned that Saturday night we went on a tour of Wrigley Field hosted by one of my brother-in-law’s friends, who is an employee of the Chicago Cubs. We got to sit in the Cubs dugout, walk on the field and go into the owner's box, all of which was very cool for a sports junkie such as myself. All in all it was a very nice visit and when I talked to my mom - who is visiting my sister for Easter this week – last Thursday she said the girls were still talking about it. Chalk one up in the success column for Uncle Grant.

2007-03-11T22:33:00.000-05:00

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

March Madness is upon us once again...the greatest month of the year. All you Syracuse, Drexel and Kansas St. fans take heart. So you missed out on the big dance this year. Big deal. You can still take part in the greatest NCAA pool out there. Hate Arkansas for taking your spot? Take out your frustration on the Razorbacks by picking against them in my pool.

So you think you know who is going to cut down the nets in Atlanta next month? Show me what you’ve got then and take part in my NCAA tourney pool. Here's what you need to do:

1. If you are not already registered with Yahoo!, you must first register and obtain a Yahoo! ID. Note: If you already have a Yahoo! ID, skip to #2. To register with Yahoo go to the following link and fill out the appropriate information:
http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_register?.intl=us&new=1&.done=
http://www.yahoo.com&.src=www&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;
partner=&promo=&.last=

2. Once you have obtained your Yahoo! ID you are ready to join my private group and make your actual picks online. To do so, go to the following web address:
http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/men

I have set up a private group called "Knee Deep in the Hooplah" but all you really need to know is the Group ID# 77944 and the password (cinderella). It will prompt you to enter this information after which you can select a name for your pick set and answer some other questions. You are free to make and edit your picks up until the opening tipoff on Thursday 3/15.

The entry fee of $5 from each participant will be paid out 2/3 of the pot to the winner and 1/3 to the runner-up. Information on where to send the entry fee will be forthcoming early next week.

Please don't hesitate to forward this information along to any others who may be interested and let me know their names/e-mails for further correspondence if they decide to participate. Let me know if any questions. Happy bracketing!

2007-02-26T21:56:00.000-06:00

Working for the Weekend

February 17-18, 24, 2007

Up to this point I have had a pretty good run in terms of the overall behavior of the kids I work with at the unnamed educational service. While some of the kids definitely have their highs and lows in terms of keeping focus, staying on task, etc. for the most part behavior has not prevented the children from begin productive during the hour I spend with them. That all changed on the weekend of February 17-18, perhaps due as much to coincidence as anything else.

Each weekend when I arrive at the center there is a daily schedule that tells me: A) Which 2-3 kids I will work with in hour 1, hour 2, etc.; B) Which table I will be working at (this is usually the same for the entire shift); and C) What subject I will be working on with them, either reading or math. There is no rhyme or reason to how the students will be arranged as different kids are coming and going from noon-4p, usually for 2-hour intervals but sometimes longer. It is unusual for me to have the same kid for more than 2 hours at a time. However, just this past weekend I had the same boy at my table for 4 hours straight. Fortunately, we got along well and he was an excellent independent worker.

So, for the first two hours of my shifts on both Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th I had the same three kids, two girls and a boy. I had worked with each child in different groupings in the past and knew that they had a tendency to goof off and not complete many assignments. Little did I know that putting the three of them at the same table together would multiply the behavioral issues exponentially. Whether it was giggling, talking to each other or asking to go to the bathroom or get a drink (along with sharpening the pencil, a classic method of student procrastination) several times during the hour, these kids brought the bad behavior trifecta to the table that day. Unfortunately, I was the dealer.

Initially, I tried to control this situation with verbal warnings and stern looks, but finally I had to really let the group have it by raising my voice to them. Much to my surprise, at one point one of the girls said “But we can do this in school” to which I quickly responded: “This isn’t school.” What I really wanted to say was “Look, the reason you are here in the first place is because you behave like this in school instead of doing your work,” but it would not be appropriate in a setting where we are trying to encourage the kids. The reality is that kids live in the here and now and don’t connect bad behavior in school with the need to come to the center on evenings and weekends.

The “bad combination of students setting each other off” experience was not a new one to me, in that during my student teaching I learned that teachers frequently rearrange desks and change the location of students throughout the year to facilitate better behavior and, of course, learning. As a teacher at the unnamed educational service, the challenge is that when it is just me and the three kids misbehaving at the table there isn’t anywhere for me to move them. Where’s Jack Bauer when you need him?

2007-02-19T11:35:00.000-06:00

Who's Your Daddy, Peyton?

When I first launched this blog last fall I mentioned that I would write about, among other things, the brilliance of New England Patriots QB Tom Brady. While one would naturally interpret that as meaning his brilliance ON the field - he has won 3 Super Bowls and 2 Super Bowl MVP's to date - I am making my first Brady post to recognize Tom for his recent accomplishments OFF the field. In all fairness, it should be noted that this angle became much more appealing to me after New England's loss to Peyton Manning and the Super Bowl champion Colts in the AFC Championship game. As a New England area sports fan, Tom Brady related gossip is all I have until the Red Sox season starts.

This past December, Brady broke up with longtime girlfriend, actress and former model Bridget Moynahan after the pair dated for three years. Not long after it was rumored and then confirmed that Brady was dating supermodel Giselle Bundchen, with reports that she waited for him outside his locker room in San Diego after the Patriots beat the Chargers in the playoffs and that he was photographed coming out of her New York apartment. All I am going to say about this is that when your REBOUND is a hot Brazilian supermodel that once dated Leonardo DiCaprio then you are truly big time.

http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=183728

That brings us up to today, with Moynahan's announcement that she is more than three months pregnant and that former boyfiend Brady is the father. I have to admit that when I read this story my first reaction was negative, in that Brady got Moynahan pregnant, broke up with her and is now running around with a supermodel. Plus, I kind of liked Moynahan. She is attractive, intelligent and a 5'9" brunette, which is my type in case you didn't know (Call me, Bridget, I'm listed). Not that this has anything to do with anything, but her character Natasha got totally screwed over by Mr. Big on "Sex and the City" when he married her and then subsequently cheated on her with Carrie. I would have stayed with you, Bridget, if it's any consolation.

I wonder how this development will affect Brady's golden boy image if it does at all. Maybe it was his way of stealing the spotlight back from Super Bowl XLI MVP Manning, who finally eclipsed him on the field this year. Or perhaps Brady is in the early stages of a planned jump to the NBA, where fathering multiple children from different unwed mothers is no biggie. Surely the former sports network ESPN is already planning a "Tom Brady's Top 10 Girlfriends" segment to air in a future edition of Sportscenter, which should be the final arbiter of this important debate.

2007-02-11T17:47:00.000-06:00

Grant About Town - February 8, 2007

The weather has been downright awful for a couple of weeks now, with single digit temps and sub zero windchills, but that didn't stop me from getting out and having some fun this past week. And by "getting out" I mean going from my apartment to another warm place very quickly with as little time outdoors as possible. The 21 year-old British singer Lily Allen was in town for a show at Metro, part of a brief 7 city U.S. swing dubbed the MTV Discover & Download Tour.

I had heard her song "Smile" on the fantastic alternative radio station 93 WXRT here in the city (which is now streaming...check it out at http://www.wxrt.com/) but did not know much about her otherwise. However, I saw her perform a couple of songs on "Saturday Night Live" (yes, I still watch it) when Drew Barrymore hosted and really enjoyed her catchy ska and reggae influenced pop sound.

For those unfamiliar with her, Ms. Allen is a native of England and has been somewhat of a phenomenon in Europe though she is still a relative unknown in the States. She signed with Regal Records, a division of Parlophone/EMI in 2005. The studio had hoped to re-record some of her songs, but instead she put them on her MySpace page and soon had 1.5 million people (current count 1,858,630) streaming her tracks. Her debut album, Alright, Still was released in Europe on July 17, 2006 and debuted at No. 2 on the UK charts. The album spawned a No. 1 hit with the catchy track "Smile" and hit the top 10 in Ireland and Australia.

http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic

Despite her ripe young age, Ms. Allen has been influenced by a wide variety of artists including The Specials, Rip Rig and Panic, T.Rex ("possibly the best band ever, ever!" according to Allen) The Slits, Blondie, Wreckless Eric, Kate Bush, Prince and Eminem. While one might initially dismiss her based on her age and catchy pop sound, her lyrics are quite observant for a girl of 21. For example, the track "LDN" - a love song to a city filled with teenage muggers, pimps, and crack whores, is narrated by someone who's cycling because "the filth took away my license."

Lily Allen brought her direct and literal brand of pop to a sold out (and warm...whoo hoo!) Metro last Thursday, and I was in attendance along with my friend Liz and several hundred adoring fans. She kicked things off (and eventually finished with) "Smile" and pretty much played her full catalog as the 11-track debut album is her only recording to date.

While it sounds like sugary pop, "Smile" is a breakup song with cutting lyrics such as "At first, when I see you cry, it makes me smile. Yeah, it makes me smile." There is definitely an early-Madonna feel to Allen's attitude and the urban subject matter of her songs, dealing with sex, drug use, shitty breakups, her bratty, pot smoking younger brother and all the other stuff a typical 21 year-old would obsess about. She has a bit of the bad girl quality that made the Material Girl famous and effectively disarms you with her sweet voice while she lays on the twentysomething angst.

http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/

Ms. Allen chatted with the crowd quite a bit and had a little sound board on the stage where she could make various audio effects, which she did several times during the show. Mindful of her paucity of original material, Ms. Allen joked to the crowd that we "Paid good money, and it would be a short show if we only played the album."

So the band, consisting of Allen, a 3-piece horn section, drummer, guitarist and keyboard player, threw in a couple of covers including the The Specials' song "Blank Expression" that pushed the show over the one-hour mark. Her voice sounded fantastic and one couldn't help but bob left and right to the reggae and ska rhythms of the band.

One little funny aside. While Ms. Allen was playing one of her slower tracks and the crowd was relatively quiet, I was chatting with my friend Liz as one is wont to do at a concert. To my amazement, a girl in front of me (whose friend was apparently too busy texting to notice my chatter) turned around and said "Can you please be quiet?" That's right, I was shushed at a rock concert in a club. I wanted to say "You know, we're not in a library" but my non-confrontational instincts kicked in and I said "Um, OK" with a somewhat bewildered look on my face I am sure.

All in all it was a fun night and I will be interested to see how Ms. Allen fares in the United States. We don't always embrace breakout musical artists from the UK - the Arctic Monkeys being a recent example - but I think this one is worth a shot. Check her out.

2007-02-04T14:07:00.000-06:00

Are They Just Words?

I am probably the last person on earth to finally weigh in on the controversies surrounding Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade, the Michael Richards comedy club "N word" rant, Isaiah Washington's use of a gay slur and Joe Biden's recent statements intended to (but not interpreted as) complimenting fellow Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. However, I am interested in the topic and a couple of stories that I heard/read last week got my attention such that I wanted to share them.

On NPR's "Talk of the Nation" last week the story "Are All Slurs Created Equal?" featured guests John McWhorter, author of Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America; Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger, a Seattle weekly paper who writes a syndicated advice column, "Savage Love," who it should be noted is a homosexual; and Mark Anthony Neal; professor of black popular culture at Duke University.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7117625

The gist of the discussion was now we have historically attached a social stigma to certain terms such as the "N word" in relation to blacks and the "F word" in relation to homosexuals. Specifically, that we condemn those such as Richards and Washington who are not either black (Richards) or gay (Washington) who use these terms towards somebody who is. As McWhorter and Savage discussed on the show, it is very much acceptable for one black person to use the "N word" with another as well as for one gay person to use the "F word" towards another. In fact, these are terms of affection or friendship in those contexts.

One caller suggested that we may give these words more significance by giving events such as the Michael Richards "N word" rant and Isaiah Washington's comments about fellow "Grey's Anatomy" co-star T.R. Knight, who was forced to out himself as a homosexual after Washington's comments, so much attention in the media. He asked just how powerful these words, and after all they are just words, would be if the media and prominent members of the black, gay, or Jewish community just ignored these episodes entirely. Of course, this will never happen but it is food for thought.

In an article that appeared on Slate.com last week titled "The Irrelevance of Soft Bigotry: Why Joe Biden's Foul-Up Doesn't Matter," Richard Thompson Ford looked at Biden's comments and a discrimination case involving a female employee of Price Waterhouse through the prism of existing civil rights law. In case you didn't hear his words, Biden refered to Obama as "The first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

http://www.slate.com/id/2158959/

Ford's general point in regards to Biden is that regardless of the words that we speak, our attitudes are harder to discern, much less control. Maybe, as he puts it, Joe Biden is in fact a bigot who thinks most blacks are dirty and inarticulate. However, as Ford writes, maybe Biden is just inarticulate himself. As evidence he cites President Lyndon Johnson who was, by all accounts, something of a racist which was not unusual for white Southerners of his age. However, as Ford writes Johnson also "worked tirelessly and at real political cost to ensure the passage of modern civil rights legislation," adding that "his professional and personal dealings seem free of the stain of bigotry."

Look, I am not saying that Joe Biden did not put his foot in his mouth and virtually derailed his 2008 Presidential bid before it even got started. However, for him to be completely written off by members of the black community based on these comments is not entirely fair either. Let's evaluate the man for his body of work, for his actions and decisions as a politician such that we don't throw the baby out with the bath water. And you never know, Obama and Biden just might be running mates at some point. How about that for some irony?

2007-01-30T19:57:00.000-06:00

Bring On the Reunion

It was announced today that the legendary 80's rock group and G's Spot favorite the Police plan to reunite to perform at next month's Grammy awards. Despite their huge success and five Grammy wins, the performance at the February 11th show in Los Angeles marks the first time the group - singer Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland - have played on the Grammy stage. It is also their first performace together since the band's 2003 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=aee0902e-eeac-469b-a7be-120b06183ef2

This news comes on the heels of reports that the band has been holed up in Vancouver rehearsing not only for the Grammy performance but for a full blown world tour. It is just a matter of when and not if they announce 2007 tour dates. All I can say is it's about damn time. Not that any of these guys need the money but come on. If the Stones can roll their bones out on stage in their 60's then certainly Sting, Andy and Stewart can get that band back together again for one last blowout tour.

My last memory of the Police performing live was of their set at the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope tour at Giants Stadium in 1986, broadcast on MTV back when music was more than filler between episodes of "Laguna Beach." This was in fact a reunion as well, as they had already broken up the previous year. Midway through their performance of "Invisible Sun" Sting was joined by U2's Bono on vocals, and after its conclusion each member of the Police handed their instrument off to their U2 counterpart. Two of my favorite singers of all-time and hands down my favorite two bands of all-time on stage together. Wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvGpWksgEI8

It was a symbolic changing of the guard, as U2 was less than a year away from the release of their seminal album "The Joshua Tree" and megastardom. The supergroup of the late 70's/early 80's passed the torch to what would be the supergroup of the 80's and early 90's. Why this concert has not been released on DVD is one of life's great mysteries. The Live Aid show from 1985 is out but not this? Come on now. In addition to the Police and U2 the concert featured a typically mesmerizing set by Peter Gabriel and too many other great performances to list here. Thanks to YouTube you can do a search and check it out.

In the 20+ years that have passed since this performance, I have had to satisfy my live Police jones by seeing Sting perform various Police songs during his solo tours. It would not be hyperbole for me to say that this is the one band left that I wanted to see perform live in my lifetime, having been a little young in their heyday. Well, it looks like I will finally have my chance. Whoo Hoo!

2007-01-28T20:18:00.000-06:00

Working for the Weekend
January 27-28, 2007

As this is my first post of 2007, I wanted to wish a belated Happy New Year to all my readers. During a visit to their home last night, my friends Greg and Mary Jo reminded me that it has been quite some time since my last posting on G’s Spot. I then realized I had recently passed the month mark since my last entry, which is totally unacceptable to both me and (I am assuming and hoping) my loyal readers. I can only imagine if my Netflix or Sports Illustrated didn’t show up at my door for a month. I’d be so irate that I’d be, um, making angry phone calls and sending pissed off e-mails to customer service, or something like that. Anyway, I am sorry and I won’t let it happen again. I promise.

So, I once again spent Saturday and Sunday out at the unnamed educational service where I have been working part-time since November. There I have been helping our youth keep their New Year’s resolutions to get a better score on their end-of-grade tests so the federal government doesn’t take their schools’ funding away via No Child Left Behind. Or, maybe it is just to pass next week’s math test so that they can play more X-Box and see “Epic Movie” with their friends. Either way, a lot was on the line here.

This weekend, I had a couple of children who went on and on about how they hated reading and that it was boring. Just the kind of enthusiasm a teacher likes to see! I looked at the information profile for one of them and saw that he liked basketball, so I said “You like basketball, right? Who is your favorite player?” Somewhat to my surprise he said his dad, and not LeBron, Carmelo or Kobe as I had expected. It would have been kind of cute, actually, if the kid wasn’t such a brat.

So I said “Do you think that your dad was just born with the ability to play ball or that he had to practice and work hard to get better at it?” Perhaps just to be argumentative the young boy went with the “he was born with it” option and I said “Even if he was born with natural ability, he’d still have to work to get better at it, right?” The kid grudgingly admitted that yes, he’d have to practice to improve. I said “It is the same with reading. You have to practice to get better at it.”

I could have predicted the counter-argument I would get next as I have gotten it many times before. All teachers have at some point. It is roughly stated as “Why do I have to do this/When will I ever need to use this?” So, I ask the child what he wants to do for a job when he grows up. “Shoot people” he said without a hint of irony. I was like “That’s not a job unless you’re a hired assassin or James Bond.” “Be a police officer, then,” he said. I went on to tell him that you have to pass a written exam to be a police officer and asked how you would do this if you couldn’t read.

The student considered this for a moment and didn’t have much more to say about the matter. Score one for the teacher! For those keeping track at home, in addition to providing quality reading instruction and assessment for roughly 20 children this weekend I also managed to defeat an 11 year-old in a debate. They don’t pay me enough for this kind of expertise. All in a day’s work for yours truly.

2006-12-25T11:18:00.000-06:00

Christmas By the Bay

I have spent the last several days visiting my sister and three nieces in northern California for Christmas, a family tradition since 1999. While spending the holidays out here means there is pretty much a 100% chance that it will not be a white Christmas, there is something to be said for shopping in short sleeves and sipping a latte (or in my case a raspberry sorbet smoothie) afterwards on Christmas eve.

Before I arrived my sister said that my two oldest nieces, Caroline (age 7) and Meredith (age 5) wanted to go to the movies to see either "Happy Feet" or "Charlotte's Web." It was put to a vote and on Friday afternoon Uncle Grant, Nana (my mom) and the two girls headed out to a 2:05p showing of "Happy Feet" in Mountain View. A slight panic set in when we arrived at the theater and the show was sold out, but a quick call to my sister with information on a 3:05p showing in Redwood City got us back on track.

The movie was cute, kind of an animated "March of the Penguins" with more singing and dancing and less of the death stuff. The music is great, from an opening performance of the Prince classic "Kiss" to songs from the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. Robin Williams plays every other character in the movie (or so it seemed) from the latino penguin Ramon who befriends the lead character, Mumble, after he is banished from Adelie Land because of his, um, happy feet to Lovelace, the guru who dispenses wisdom to the citizens of Adelie Land for a small fee.

The movie goes a little Al Gore on us with the "we're overfishing and polluting our oceans without considering the effect it has on the marine life" environmental message towards the end, and there was a bit too much over-the-top Robin Williams for my taste. However, I still enjoyed the flick and give it a thumbs up. My nieces also liked it and even went so far as to say it was better than the last movie we saw together,"Over the Hedge."

My activities on Saturday were I believe a testament to just how evolved I am as a man. First, I joined my sister, mom, brother-in-law's mom and two nieces (that's right, all females) for a performance of "The Nutcracker" by the San Francisco Ballet. I went on the condition that I'd be back in time for the Chiefs/Raiders game at 5pm. I am still a guy, after all. My sister said that my brother-in-law wanted nothing to do with the outing and let's just say that his dad didn't put up much of a fight for the extra ticket when it was offered to him and me.

So yes, I went to the ballet and actually enjoyed it. Also, I got the added bonus of being told afterwards by my nieces that I looked like the Prince. Damn right I do. Happy holidays to all!