Day 198

From the "There is no God" department, I found out this morning that last night, my friend Dan and his girlfriend Jocelyn were in the middle of a horrific tragedy. Jocelyn's father had not come home from work and was missing. Her mother asked her to go to his office to look for him. Dan followed shortly. When she got there, Jocelyn found him bound, gagged, and stabbed to death on the floor. By all accounts, he was a hard working doctor and family man. This is such a horrible tragedy. It brings me back to our friend Stephanie who a few years back suffered a similar tragedy as her father, brother, and uncle were all killed by a disgruntled factory worker at their company. Imagine being Jocelyn. This poor woman has to have the imagine in her head now for the rest of her life of her father tied up and stabbed. I don't think I could ever get over that. When my father passed away, they asked us at the funeral home if we wanted to see him one last time and all three of us, Mom, MD, and I, we all passed right away. I just didn't want that image to be in my head. My heart goes out the the whole family. Just a terrible, terrible tragedy.

Last night, Jeremy and I went to see The U.S. vs. John Lennon at the Cedar/Lee. Here is my review. While the movie was very interesting and gave me a lot of facts that I didn't know about the pot-Beatles Lennon, it was a little slow and lacked the amount of his music I was hoping for. It was very thought provoking for someone of my ilk who was not alive or too young to remember the Vietnam war. It has been said that Lennon was "the voice of his generation" and I really saw that in the movie last night. The many Lennon interviews shown in the film, were so witty. He was a brilliant, brilliant man. I now understand more than ever why the Beatles broke up. Too many strong personalities. John knew what he wanted and needed to do - spread his message of peace throughout the world. I don't think the others had the interests that John did.

It must have been incredible to be a part of the anti-war movement in the late 1960's. What an incredible time in U.S. history. The incompetence of Richard Nixon and the out and out lies of his administration were astounding. During his 1968 election campaign, he promised to unveil his secret plan to get out of Vietnam quickly, yet he was elected and that pretty much never happened. The funny thing is the Nixon administration were way more concerned with the anti-war movement in the U.S. than they were about the actual war going on. Does this sound familiar Mr. Bush? They were so concerned about Lennon that they actually attempted to deport him over a marajuana bust for a decade prior in London. I would have liked to have been alive to see Nixon scrambling. The clips they showed of him were eerily similar to W. They both seem like a couple of moron con artists.

Obviously, we all know Lennon was shot and killed in January of 1980. They showed video of the candlelight vigil in New York after his death. All of the people in tears singing "Give Peace a Chance." It was spine-chilling. It also had me thinking that if someone huge of our generation was killed this way, say a Michael Jordan for example, what kind of out cry would there be? I just don't see people gathering in Grant Park crying the way people did for Lennon. His reach, views, and power were far less than I ever thought they were before seeing this film. Lastly, Yoko Ono obviously was a huge part of the movement as well. Or so SHE thought she did. To me, all she did was sit there next to Lennon and try to get a word in, but nobody wanted to listen to her. Memo to Yoko, nobody really cared about you and they still don't. I will say this though, she is unfairly blamed for breaking up the Beatles. Overall, the movie gets a B-. It was something I probably could have seen on VH-1, but for any Beatle lovers, you should check it out.

The #1 team in college football, THE Ohio State Buckeyes, reside essentially in my backyard. With the Browns pretty much a laughingstock, the Tribe season a failure, and The Cavaliers still in the preseason, the Buckeyes are the talk of the town. They get more local coverage here than they did when I was growing up. There was an uproar because their last game against Indiana was only shown on ESPNU, which nobody gets. I have a ton of respect for the season they are having. Unlike every other top 10 team, not only are they winning, but they are destroying everyone. Their closest game was a 24-7 win AT Texas, the defending national champions who haven't lost another game this season. Ted Ginn and Troy Smith are Cleveland products and amazing talents. Jim Tressel is the kind of coach that you can't help but love. He is the antithesis of his predecessor, country boy John Cooper. You would think that with me being the huge sports fan that I am, I would be totally into them. I'm not and here is why. This may be the be the most interesting college season in years and it looks like it is on pace to bust up that ridiculous BCS system in place, which to me, is the ruination of the entire sport. Its taken me living here for half a football season to see that there is only one fan base more annoying than Michigan fans and more bottom of the rung than Browns fans, and that is the Buckeye faithful. If I never hear "Hang On Sloopy" again, it will be too soon. The annoying "OH!" chant also drives me crazy. I don't want to paint all Buckeye fans with that broad of a brush, because guys like Ags, Melsh, Scotty Miller, and my guy Adam, are huge fans that don't bother me one bit. Again, I respect the program immensely, but I just can't get into them. I never grew up loving them either so it isn't in my blood. Ags cannot understand how I lived in Ohio for 18 years, then live in Lawrence, Kansas for four, yet I am the most die-hard KU basketball fan you will find and I don't root for the Buckeyes. The heart wants what the heart wants. To quote the great Mark P: "it is what it is."

Finally, I have to congratulate my boy Adam "Money" Wolinetz and his wife Jenny on the birth of their son last night, Chase. He is 6 lbs, 11 oz. Born in Columbus, Ohio. In a completely random occurrence, Adam and I lived across the hall from each other freshman year at KU, and he married a girl I went to high school with. Small world. Anyways, I know Adam was very nervous beforehand but today he told me it is "the most amazing experience" of his life. I can't wait to go through it myself. Congrats Money!

Song of the Day: "The Chase, Part II" by A Tribe Called Quest