The Knicks make sweet, sweet music

Ahh the Knicks have finally strung together their first winning streak of the season, and it only took them about 4 weeks to do it. nice.

I take back all the mean things i said about this team in a previous post. I acted like a hothead, and for that I apologize. They are starting to look like the team that I wrote about last month in my preview. I don't want to

They were spectacular tonight as they dropped 113 points on the Jazz at MSG. Marbury was attacking the basket like it was an intern in his truck, Z-bo was gobbling up o-boards and generally acting as if he liked being a the Knick, and Nate, Q, Lee, Balkman and of course my man JC all had solid games. It was great seeing steph playing as well as he did against a pg many consider to be among the best in the league. I wish they could have gotten Curry some better looks and more touches against Okur but I felt that he was able to make his presence felt without scoring much, and coming up with a huge block late in the 4th.

Overall, a great night to be a Knick fan. When it comes down to it, this is why you are a fan of any particular team, the nights when they look like world-beaters and prove all of their critics wrong. As I see it, only one team can win the championship each year, so there is a very strong chance that your team will not come home with the trophy in any given season. Therefore, why not just enjoy every win that you can? As a fan, you should really appreciate all the little good things without being in the mindset that "If we don't win it all, the season was a failure". Every night the knicks win, I've got a smile on my face despite the number of games that they may have lost coming in. If you can't enjoy the victories for what they are (a single win) then what are you watching and rooting for?

Checklist

There are a number of different places I want to live in during my life. I'm probably forgetting a few.

-Live on a boat for an extended period of time, just traveling around, floating from place to place

-Live out in the desert, somewhere real isolated in the Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Texas)

-Live in a little house in somewhere on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Overlooking a fjord preferably.

-Live in a cabana somewhere in the Caribbean, sipping margaritas and going fishing/ snorkeling.

-Live in New York City- get season tickets to the Yankees, Knicks, Giants

-Survive a plane crash with a number of other good looking strangers on a mysterious island

-Live for a month hitchhiking, camping and traveling the Western United States

-Live in a house right on the beach, coming home from a hard days work and jumping in the ocean

Ahhh the knicks...

With a 108-82 loss to the Golden State Warriors tonight at the Garden, the Knicks have fallen to 2-8 after losing 7 straight. The only positive to take away from tonight’s game is the fact that things could not possibly get any worse. After shooing 39% from the field and committing 29 turnovers while being unable to string together enough stops to mount any type of run. Any time you give away 29 possessions mostly with sloppy ball handling (the Warriors had 14 steals), run an offense where at any given time you have 2-3 players just standing around watching, and generally play like you don’t give a shit about the outcome of the game, your chances of winning aren’t too high.

It has only taken Zach Randolph 10 games to both prove that despite his seemingly gaudy numbers, he is a terrible fit for this team. At different points in this game he dribbled around in circles, forced shots over double teams, launched 20 yelled at David Lee as they ran down the court after he didn’t get the ball, and refused to cross half court letting his teammates play 5-4 in the half court. Maybe I should cut him some slack after losing his grandmother last week, but his negative energy seemed to spread throughout the team in their return to NY. He is terrible on the defensive end, bogs down the offense, and doesn’t complement his teammates at all.

Lee needs to play more than 24 minutes. Randolph isolating on the wing should not be the Knicks offense. Nate and Jamal need to get their confidence back. Balkman needs to get back on the floor. Shit, this is what I’m suggesting to turn around the season, Renaldo Balkman? It was hard to get any positive feelings from watching this game tonight. It has only taken about 2 weeks to turn a hopeful 2-1 start into finding myself dreading the final 72 games of the season.

There is a fine line between the not-giving-a-shit look where you are playing your ass off and don’t care what anyone has to say about your game and the same attitude when you are not bringing it on the court and don’t seem to care about your team or winning. Latrell Sprewell, perhaps my favorite Knick of all time, was a prime example of this. I always loved watching him play not only because he was so talented but because he always had a ‘fuck you’ look on his face whenever he stepped on the court. Say what you will about the Carlesimo incident or “having to feed his family”, but when he was on the court for the Knicks he played his ass off and spurred his team to win games. Isiah Thomas needs to figure things out with this talented team soon or the garden faithful might get what they were asking for tonight.

The Evening News

So for the first time in years I watched the simpsons and family guy on fox after a long day of watching football (G-MEN!) and doing a lot of eating and lounging. For some reason I didn't jump up to turn the tv off before "Fox News" came on at 10. Now, whenever I watch the local news with another human being someone eventually says, "man, don't they have anything POSITIVE to tell us?"

This is a quick recap of the news stories that were presented in the first 15 minutes of Fox News at 10.

-One guy commiting suicide by jumping head first from a third story building
-A woman caught in cross fire and being shot in the eye in Irvington, NJ on her way home from church
-A man breaking a bottle and stabbing another man in Brooklyn
-A shooting supposedly occurring during a drug deal
-A biker died while crossing the brooklyn bridge after he was forced off the upper level of the bridge and fell to the lower level
-MTA trains held up at penn station for 2 hours today
-Broadway stage hands on strike
-A fire that damaged a church, BUT the congregation and church leaders are positive it will be rebuilt soon!!!
-Muggings are on the rise in the city and which neighborhoods in the city you are most likely to get mugged in
-New "killer cold" adenovirus takes 10 lives including a female military officer
-A teenage girl viciously attacked by another girl in an amateur video from Texas

My dad finally grabbed the remote and muttered "enough of this crap" and changed the channel. Thanks.

There are terrible things that happen in the world everyday but there are incredible, beautiful things as well. The extent to which the media has the power to influence thinking and the perspectives of its audience is really frightening. When a news channel or program consistently broadcasts nothing but overwhelmingly negative stories, its viewers might begin to believe in this picture that they are being force fed. The Fox News corporation has been criticized for presenting a strongly biased point of view and promoting a conservative, right-wing agenda that is far from its "Fair and Balanced" motto.

I came away from watching these 15 minutes considering the fact that the world is a cold, dangerous place where anyone could get shot or stabbed or mugged at anytime. What would be the benefit of emphasizing these types of stories? To scare viewers? To warn them? Or maybe there just aren't enough 'good' stories out there that are interesting? In a perfect world, the media would be obligated to simply present the facts with as little editorializing as possible. People should be allowed to come to their own conclusions without being influenced by a hidden (or partially hidden) agenda.

It is important for any news media outlet to inform its audience of the most important issues that occur. But who should be allowed to decide what should be shown or not shown? How would a purely objective news outlet work?

I just hope that this news broadcast is not an accurate portrayal of the only local news stories in the world around me. I'd like to think that there is still some good in the world, or in the greater NYC area.

Start snitching, Steph, and a dance party

- Sportcenter always has some of the funniest commercials, but this one definitely tops the list.

- I remember talking with my friend after the whole Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal, specifically about how his friends sold him up the river to save their own asses. He joked that Vick must have been pissed he wasn't friends with someone like Greg Anderson. Anderson repeatedly refused to testify against his buddy Barry Bonds over accusation of steroid use. He was willing to sit in a jail cell just to protect Bonds and give him a shot to set the all-time HR record this past year.

It was always assumed that there was some deal in place where he would take care of Anderson financially if Anderson refused to talk. It now seems as if Bonds didn't plan on holding up his end of the bargain somehow and Anderson agreed to snitch on his longtime friend when he finally realized what a dick Bonds is. Anderson gets released the same day as Bonds is indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, coincidence? You would think Bonds would be willing to pay this guy almost any amount of money to keep quiet.

And somehow with all the coverage this obviously got today and will get in the near future, I really just want to see a special on the arrangement that these two had worked out. I don't care about what type of sentence Bonds might get or what this means for his HOF chances or any other topic they will discuss endlessly on ESPN. All I want to see is Anderson talking about how Bonds let him sit in jail and how he finally snapped and decided to cut a deal when Barry told him he wasn't going to pay up.

-Things aren't looking so good for my Knicks who are off to a 2-5 start. The only good news is that my man Steph is keeping up the good work. I don't really care so much anymore about the missed jumpshots or terrible passes, I'm just glad he is still holding it down as the craziest dude in the league. I think the Knicks are gonna turn it around pretty soon once they get used to playing together, but even if they don't, we still have Starbury around to keep us on our toes. (Watch that whole video, you won't be disappointed.) I love this guy.

If you think there is no God, You better be right

There is one of those replaceable-letters billboards at an intersection in my town and it always has some Christian faith based message up for drivers as they pass. This message has been up for the past week or so since I’ve been home and I can’t help but notice it every time I take that road.

This message is definitely frightening because it makes you question what really is out there after this life. If you are not a “believer” and live just for this life with no expectations for anything afterwards, you might be fucked if it turns out there is a god who is pissed that you lived the dream despite his/her/its warnings.

However much I agree with this statement, I feel it could also be written the opposite way, ‘If you think there is a God you better be right’. I think of all the people that try so hard to live their lives in accordance with how their religion tells them to in hopes of being rewarded in the next life. How pissed would they be that they gave up so much of their lives for this “after-life” that wasn’t at all what they had been promised.

Politics?: Krugman and Wobbly Kneed Democrats

Paul Krugman is an economist, professor at Princeton University, and a columnist for the New York Times. I first became familiar with him through my class with the legendary Tim Koechlin. Koechlin was a big fan of his, and it goes without saying a friend of Koechlin’s is a friend of mine. His work definitely leans to the left a good deal but it is always insightful, straightforward, and intelligent.

In his article today, “Wobbled by Wealth?” he debates whether the interests of a rich, powerful few will continue to prevail over the general welfare of America at large. He claims that America as a whole is 1) Unhappy with our current situation 2) More liberal now than it has been in over 45 years 3) Relying on a Democratic party that ‘has not yet found its voice as an agent of change’.

He challenges the Democratic candidates to not sell out to the pressures from lobbyists and Washington political agendas. However, in the current system there is a dangerous catch-22, in which it costs millions and millions of dollars to even be considered a top candidate but you would essentially have to sell your soul in order to get those millions in the first place. It really boils down to the American public getting to a point where they are sick and tired of dealing with all this bullshit in terms of campaign financing, media distortion and propaganda, and politicians lying through their teeth.

Obviously there is not an easy answer to all of these problems. As I see things, it is first and foremost on the American public to educate themselves and to vote accordingly. Easier said than done. It might just take a courageous, perhaps costly, move like John Edwards taking the Public campaign funding route and calling for his opponents to do the same. Calling out Washington for being corrupt and overrun with private interests is a bold strategy. Edwards definitely earned some points in my book with this move. It seems that all we can do is hope that someone can rise above this bullshit and open our eyes to what is really going on with the American political system and what needs to be done to start changing it.

Saturday's Thoughts

-Will Bike For Food (WBFF)
My good friend Jerald Isseks and I are starting an organization called "Will Bike For Food". We are planning a cross country bike trip with the intent of raising money for charities and organizations that are working on progressive and innovative ways to fight hunger and poverty in the US. We've been doing a lot of brainstorming and are really excited about the possibiliites for a movement like this. We have created a blog (willbikeforfood.blogspot.com) and are working on a website. Join our facebook group if you are interested in learning more and want to be in the loop. We have a lot of work to do and any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Call for help
Related to the previous bullet, we are looking to create a non-profit charity organization in order to offer potential donors and sponsors the ability to contribute tad-deductible gifts. We are looking for an attorney who is knowledgeable about this side of the law and would be willing to help us out as we get started. Let me know!!!!


-A-Rod
A-Rod, under the guidance of his agent Scott Boras, has decided to opt out of his contract with the NY Yankees in order to cash in on an even bigger payday than his last $250mil contract with the Rangers. In doing so, he fucked the yankees by opting out so that his contract would not be subsidized by the Rangers for the remainder of the deal. Cashman stated that if he opted out that the Yankees, with their already bloated payroll, would not negotiate with him and his d-bag agent.

He is reportedly looking for a deal of around $350mil. There are very few teams that would be willing to take on that sort of a contract for Jesus Christ himself, never mind some weasel who has no loyalty and swings the bat like a 9 year old girl suffering from PTSD when October rolls around. In other news, the Toldeo Mudhens, a triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers (i think) offered A-Rod a deal to play for them.

-Architecture in Helsinki
Great band. I just started listening to them. Their album "Fingers Crossed" is incredible. Great sounds from start to finish. Anyone who likes quality indie-type music should check it out.

-On The Road
I'm just about to finish this classic book by Jack Kerouac. After traveling around the country this summer and having everyone I know say to me, "What, you think you are a young Jack Kerouac?", I figured I should read this book. Yass, yes ,yass!
I might give a review of what I thought about this novel at some point in the near future when I finish it. So far... I dig it.

-Into the Wild
I just picked up the book "Into the Wild" after seeing the movie two weeks ago and I'm really excited to start it. I won't give a complete run down, but its the story of a 23 year old college graduate who hitchhikes across the country after donating all his money to charity looking for adventure. The movie was great so I wanted to read the book. I think that it might be better to do things this way bc when you read a book and then watch the movie, its never as good. The way I did it this time, the movie fascinated me and made me want to learn more about Alexander Supertramp so I'm about to start the book, which will probably be better and more insightful than the movie. I've got it all figured out. You might notice a trend toward literature that focuses on traveling, discovery and a nomadic lifestyle. You'd be right.

-Google Reader
Google Reader is such a great idea. Everyone should get it.