Just some observations in this crazy world
Dude, I’m tellin’ ya………..
Thought it was time to take a quick look at the world around me lately and tell you what I see.
First off, the hard chargin’ band West 34 is ready to jam out again this Saturday night at Rolling Lanes (bar) bowling alley in Countryside. If you missed them at this same venue last month, they rocked out big-time. My boy “Big Wave” Dave Johnson, the lead guitar virtuoso, was walking from tabletop to tabletop at one point like Eddie Van Halen in the Hot for Teacher video. Their version of Summertime Blues comes complete with the Pete Townsend windmill effect. And the drummer’s version of Moby Dick brings visions of John Bonham to mind.
Here’s the specifics:
WEST 34
Saturday, February 27, 2010 9PM
Rolling Lanes Bowling Alley (bar)
6301 Joliet Road Countryside, Illinois
If you want a rollicking Saturday night out with your woman and hear some great rock and blues, this is your ticket.
Speaking of some of the boys kicking ass, I have to mention my old alma mater’s basketball team. And I’m not talking about Southern Illinois here. I’m talking about the Lyons Township High School (LaGrange, IL) boys basketball team. These guys are now 23-1 and ranked among the top 10 teams in the state in most polls. They started out 23-0 and just suffered their first loss this past Friday night to a talented team out of Oak Park-River Forest (18-5). The LT basketball team has had some occasional solid seasons and usually puts out a competitive team. But this year is the most successful so far in about 40 years. Keep it up guys…..and I’ll be watching you in the state tournament in a few weeks.
And then we have the US men’s hockey team in the Olympics. I’m not much of an Olympics guy. But hockey is one of my favorite sports and one of the few I will watch during the Games. And on Sunday evening, the US knocked off Canada for the first time in about 40 years. We did beat them in a World Championships tourney back in ’96 or so, but this was our first Olympics triumph over the Canadiens in about four decades. When the Miracle on Ice team won the gold medal in 1980, we didn’t have to face the Canadian team. So we are now in the quarterfinals on Wednesday and will face Switzerland. If we don’t beat them, I’ll be sorely disappointed.
So between the Chicago Blackhawks, my high school basketball team, and the US men’s hockey team……we have some good teams to root for until the baseball season starts. Which is in the first week of April–just about five short weeks away !!
In my recent post { see Feb 16: I’ll Give Ya a Hero } where I identified some of my heroes to match the overhype of people like Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, and NBA players, I neglected to name a few due to space limitations. Besides the heroes I did mention like Lucky Luciano and Attila the Hun, I didn’t have room to give proper kudos to great men like Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Robert E. Lee, Carlo Gambino and Tony Accardo. I don’t know what it is…..I like ass kickers. I like guys who play by their own rules for the most part–since most of the rules we are forced to live by are mythological, utopian ideas. Notions that the average man is expected to follow and is penalized heavily (or incarcerated) if he doesn’t. But the people in authority who make up these rules never seem to abide by them theirselves. So I guess I tend to respect and like the people that say, ” This is a steaming pile of bullshit and I’m not going to play your little game. ”
Just wanted to give a shout out to those deserving men of accomplishment.
There’s been some really good posts on my buddy’s website ShareMyShot.com recently. He had one named after Jimmy Conway from Goodfellas and just yesterday he paid tribute to the men’s figure skating team in the Olympics. Check it out when you have a chance. Funny stuff.
How about that little speech that Tiger Woods made last week? I have a feeling I’ll be writing about him in a little more detail in the next few days as we near the end of this month. He tried to say all the right things in his meticulously prepared statement written by someone else. Nice try, Tiger.
That’s what I don’t get about these fallen celebrities. They come out with a statement written by their publicist or a spin control firm and read it right off the page and want us to believe they are sincere and truly sorry for their behavior. If you can’t take the time to memorize the statement……or blow us all away and actually write one yourself obviously penned from the heart…….then don’t even bother. What does it take to write 1000-1500 words of sincere apology?
I write between 1000-1200 words on this blog every day in about 45 to 60 minutes. And I have to think of a topic every single day. These celebs know what their topic is; their own asinine behavior. So all they have to do is sit down for a few hours and write about being truly regretful and sincerely apologize to those people they have hurt. Maybe have someone proofread it and change a handful of words to make it sound polished. That’s it.
But when they read a pre-prepared statement verbatim and then raise their voice and admonish the media for trying to gather all of the actual details in the situation (like Tiger did), they often just dig themselves a bigger hole. If you want the media to back down and go find a new witch hunt, then come forward sooner and fill us in on why you acted like a jackass. The only reaction I have heard from friends about his little speech is some smirking and mostly dismissals of Tiger’s half-assed “apology”.
Finally, as I looked out the window yesterday, I saw yet more snow falling in my yard. And then this morning my driveway had another thin layer on it. I have to feel that I am that much closer to fulfilling another one of my Dirty Dozen prophecies with certainty. We received another 3-5 inches in my area from Sunday night into Monday. And now it has been falling again the past few days. And I’d be very surprised if this is the last snowfall we see. So the total accumulation records continue to add up for certain regions and my prophecy of it being a bastard of a winter are just about confirmed.
Hope you make it out to see the band on Saturday night. And check out my buddy’s blog: