A Perfect Night: Friday night Leah and I went with Jeremy and Amy and Steve and Aimee to the Tribe game in the Amtrust suite. (A side note - people in Cleveland call luxury boxes or suites "a loge." Its a term I used from 0-18 and once I hit college I realized nobody outside of Cleveland had ever heard that word. Therefore, I refuse to ever use the word loge, its beneath me. Like the Michael Stanley Band, its C-Town only and lame.) The Cavs were playing the Nest in game six at the same time, but in New Jersey. Being in the suite, we had two TV's, one outide, one inside, and we of course had the Cavs game on. Early in both games, our teams took big leads. The Cavs jumped out to a 19 point second quarter lead and the Tribe bounced back from three run deficit with a big six run second inning, led by Ryan Garko's three-run homer. (another side note - my rule always is wait until the Indians bat, and then once they are out, you go get food. Since the girls wanted to go get grub and could care less, the six of us went down in the bottom of the second. I wasn't in charge and the wives all had to put up with us barely talking to them while watching two sporting events. So when they wanted to get grub, who were we to say wait? So naturally I was getting food during the six run second.) Once the second half of the Cavs game started, Steve, Jeremy, and Jer's brother "The Mikester" were pretty much all Cavs. When Lebron picked up his third foul with six minutes left in the third, the Nets went on a huge run to cut it to one at the end of the third quarter. That is when Jer and I moved inside. I don't know what it was, but the seat changed seemed to work. What was hilarious was that the TV outside where Steve and the Mikester were watching was about 2 seconds ahead of the TV in the suite. So everytime Donyell Marshall or Daniel Gibson hit a big three, We'd hear Mikester yelling "YES!" at the top of his lungs. The Cavs closed it out to move onto the Eastern Conference Finals and the Tribe ended up winning 9-4, moving my season record to 5-0. But what a night. You all know me, was there a better night for me than watching a Cavs playoff game at a Tribe game? It was too good. Now I've got MD working on getting me and Leah in for game three, the first home game, of the Eastern Finals this coming Sunday night. Series Prediction: The Pistons just have way too much for this average Cavs team who is still Lebron James and a lacking supporting cast. The Detroit guards are such a mismatch against the Cavs that it will be too much to overcome. Pistons in six.
Catering to the West: Let me ask you this, why is it that all TV events, sports, award shows, etc, are catered to the West Coast audience? These tip times for the Cavs/Pistons series are a joke. 8:30 tip time on Sunday night? Do you think that anyone in LA, Phoenix, etc where the weather is beautiful all the time give two shits about this series? Network executives are so worried that west coasters will miss the game. Ratings don't dictate it, so why do it? Earlier in the playoffs, the riveting Warriors/Mavericks and then the best series of all, Spurs/Suns, all started at 9:30 or 10:30 EST. See a double standard here at all? West Coast dwellers can watch any game they want, while people in my time zone can barely make it to halftime unless the game starts at 8.
Nice Mayor: Once upon a time, Cleveland had the biggest joke mayor of them all, Dennis Kusinich. The so called "boy wonder" ran this city into its deepest depressions. I thought I had seen the worst mayor of all time, and then, my brother moved to Detroit. A few years ago, MD turned me on to the new mayor of Detroit, the great Kwame Malik Kilpatrick.
Folks - if anyone wanted to know why Detroit is viewed the way it is, look no further than the mayor. He was elected at age 31. Look at some of his classics over the past couple of years. On May 8, 2007, WXYZ-TV reported that Kilpatrick used $8,600 from his secret Kilpatrick Civic Fund to take his wife, three sons and babysitter on a week long vacation to a a five-star California resort, the La Costa Resort and Spa. The fund, controlled by Kilpatrick's sister and friends, was created to improve the City of Detroit through voter education, economic empowerment and crime prevention. Tax and accounting experts said Kilpatrick's use of the fund was a violation of IRS regulations. This week's Kwame blunder. WXYX is quote "out to get me" says Kwame. When the station sent a reporter to get a response directly from him on the civic fund fiasco, he did everything he could to avoid the reporter and then grabbed his microphone and threw it. It was all caught on camera here. Because of this, the mayor has abruptly canceling his trip today to a public pension conference in Hawaii, after he learned that local television stations had sent reporters to Honolulu to follow him.“Mayor Kilpatrick doesn’t wish to have the international body gathering in Hawaii or their mission misrepresented,” said a statement issued by his press secretary, Matt Allen, this afternoon. “The administration has been made aware of several local television stations who have sent reporters and camera crews to Hawaii to follow the mayor and the pension board representatives. Any distraction created by his attendance with our local media would be unfair to those present.”
Speaking of trips, Kilpatrick frequently hands over the city credit for charges at nightclubs and spas. Here on the mayor’s February bill: an $831 charge by a South Africa hotel where the mayor bunked in for three nights at a luxury Capetown hotel, traveling on a Congressional “fact-finding tour” to Africa. He traveled with his mother, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick and others and supposedly at no expense to hometown Detroit taxpayers. The mayor’s office claims the $831 charge was just the phone bill, that U.S. taxpayers paid for the room. No, these records show Detroiters paid for it all; phone calls, laundry, porters, AND the room for the mayor, too, at least for this stop on the junket. Class act Detroit has running the city.
Cleveland's mayor Frank Jackson is nothing to write home about either. Any guy who has the man I bought this house from as his financial advisor can't be that great. yes, that's true. I miss mayor Richard Daley of Chicago. Now that's a man of power and balls. He's like the Tony Soprano of mayors. He is one tough SOB who doesn't back down to anyone and gets things done.
Peace: Last Tuesday, the reverend Jerry Falwell, creator of the "Moral Majority" died in his office at Liberty University. Can't say that I'm too sad about it. I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but this schmuck deserves a rip session. Falwell was nothing but a hate monger who used religion as his cover. Remember his famous quotes after 9/11? "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich eulogized Falwell in front of 17,00 students in Liberty's Football stadium late last week. Some of what he said was stunning. He told the crowd
"A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot publicly profess the truths on which it was founded. We are told that our public schools cannot invoke the Creator, nor proclaim the natural law, nor profess the God-given equality of human rights......Too often, the courts have been biased against religious believers. This anti-religious bias must end."
And this nut job wants to run for President? I bet he gets George Bush's vote. These are the things Bush wishes he could say, but doesn't. Has Gingrich ever heard of the division between Church and state? No religion in public schools? To quote Dick Dodge in the Distinguished Gentlemen: "Nobody wants to hear a sermon." People shouldn't push their religious beliefs on anyone, especially at the high office Gingrich is potentially seeking. I sometimes am guilty of passing my anti-religious beliefs on others, but I won't be putting this on Andrew. I want him to grow up believing in something. His mother believes in God and the after life, why shouldn't he? I'm just very very jaded.
Sopranos, Entourage, and Idol: Last night from 9-10:30 PM EST was about as good of a 90 minute period on television I've seen in years. If you haven't watched Sopranos yet, STOP READING HERE. I had my hands over my mouth and a pit in my stomach when A.J. tried to kill himself in the pool. That was one incredible scene. What about when Tony kicked the crap out of the guy who harassed Meadow when she was on her date? He went brass knuckle technique on him followed by American History X style, making him eat the curb. The whole show was phenomenal. Entourage didn't disappoint either - how much better has the show been since Vince went back to Ari? But again, the reason to watch the show was Drama and his pursuit of a part in Rush Hour 3. Lastly, tomorrow night is the American Idol finale. Why I still watch this show is beyond me, but its like a bad movie, you have to hang on to see how it ends. I'm sure we will be stuck with several of the lame-ass all finalist medleys that are always brutal. The talent level here was mediocre at best, but Jordan Sparks can blow. She will win, but Blake Lewis will have a career.
Song of the Day: "The Mission" by Special Ed
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