Lakers SOS/ Purple Rain

Tonight was a good night filled with bad results. Amazing basketball game that ended very badly and brought the end near as early as ever it seems for my Lakers in the last decade plus. I had to put salt in my own wounds by periodically reading up on what I'd already seen with mine own two eyes. As if that wasn't enough, I watched the final disastrous minute of the game yet again at 2 in the morning, which has lead me to being up at this ungodly but Friday acceptable hour.

The other good but bad, and I don't want to be too negative here cause it was a good time, was seeing Prince at the Forum this evening. My third time seeing one of the legends of popular music, who at 52, continues to impress, but could barely focus long enough to play an entire classic song of his. The setting for the former artist formerly known as, the former home of the Lakers, only served to remind me of the last time things were this dire in Lakerdom back in 1999. No, the artist neglected to replay the song of that name. If he had it would have taken on a double meaning for me, party like it's literally 1999 and party despite your team being on the brink of an embarrassing sweep, the likes of which we haven't seen since that year. Since, it's been 7 finals appearance in 11 years, which despite my floundering faith, doesn't appear to be set for 8 in 12. For a brief somber moment in an otherwise fun late evening, I thought of the Nick Van Exel days and the lockout shortened, Kobe miss free throwing, Shaq being a friggin pussy days of yore, when my love affair with the purple and gold was fresh and new.

With the Lakers on the brink of disaster and shame, it feels only appropriate that I've been dwelling on another team in a similar spot back in 2004, that of the Boston Red Sox. It was my first year of College, in New England at that, and I found myself in Beantown just as things went from bad to good to great to historical as the Sox would complete the greatest rally in the history of baseball, and likely pro sports. The only difference was they were David up against the Yankee Goliath, and had absolutely nothing to lose. The Lakers are Goliath here, although a very aged and undisciplined one. But the thing about those Sox that I've been reminded of this week, was once their backs were against the wall, they threw all caution to the wind and became a ragtag bunch of carefree idiots who played the game as if it was there last, and made history as a result.

The question for this Laker team though is if they manage to stay alive Sunday and then take care of business on Monday, what will stand as their bloody sock as they attempt to do what has never been done in the history of the NBA? Maybe Pau will become like Schilling, rising from the dead to lead his team on a shocking run to the top. Like anything with this unpredictable bunch of fading champions, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the impossible became possible.

Saturday April 30th, 2011

Uwtl as April turns to May. Wow this month went by fast.

Today was one of the best Saturdays in a while. Very productive, full and satisfying. Read, wrote, chatted, ate, exercised, balled, drank. All in all top notch.

Hoping that Sunday is a close match if not exceeds it. Now for some sleep.

Monday April 25th, 2011

UWTL yet again, not ideal for a Monday night. I blame my dogged loyalty to LA sports teams for this one. That and general laziness, falling asleep on the couch, procrastination, etc. Spent a nice chunk of my evening watching the KINGS toy with me for 3 plus periods before eventually losing in overtime for the 3rd time in this series as well as losing their 3rd home game in the series and going quietly into the night for the 2010-2011 season.

It's a very depressing and interesting time for LA Sports now that Hockey in SoCal is kaput for the season (thank you DUCKS and KINGS), the DODGERS are just barely regaining their early season pulse, Hallelujah for Bud Selig (never thought I'd say that!). Meanwhile our beloved LAKERS are going through the 1st round playoff motions and opening themselves up to fatigue and injuries in what will be their most difficult title run this century (gonna be tough to win with the ghost of Pau Gasol at the 4 spot).

In my younger days (that's right, at 25 I'm old now), I'd live and die with the successes and failures of my teams (which besides for the Lakers, have tended to weigh heavily in the latter category). But as time's gone on and other life concerns/ issues have taken precedence, wins and losses are becoming more trivial by the day. A befuddling Kobe Bryant kamikaze mission just doesn't hold the same weight it used to (although I'd still hope we don't see one of those this time around).

You know you're a little jaded/ your perspective has changed when the most exciting thing to happen in sports this week is the plug being pulled on the up, down and recently beaten to the ground Frank McCourt era over at Chavez Ravine. Maybe LA won't win a thing on the field, ice or court this year, but at least our city's worst owner in decades (that's right, he's made Donald Sterling look like a beacon of all that's good in the world) has been cast out once and for all (I hope).

I'm sure I could continue this ranting and raving til the sun comes up, but I think I'll opt to hit the sack instead. Goodnight (or Good Morning to you early east coast risers).

COACHELLA!!!

Uwtl indeed. Shoulda gone to sleep hours ago but I had to make a quick round trip to a shitty Santa Monica bar for little reason. Pales in comparison to my night last Saturday, in which Arcade Fire and many other musical wonders were rocking my world.

Twas my first Coachella and will certainly not be my last. Went with a solid group and ran into a hearty helping of people, but couldn't even begin to see everybody. Don't you love that we live in a world where our live human and phone interactions are so muted that we find out after major events that all our friends were there? Or maybe i'm just a loser and am way out of the loop (the truth probably lies somewhere in the inbetween).

Anywho, it was really hot and sweaty and exhausting and fun and breezy and dark and bright and joyful and high and low and all kinds o' other stuff. And I was up way way way way too late every single night. Felt like a kid again, haha.

The lineup itself was not the most exciting one ever but for me I think that had something to do with the fact that i'm just not as on top of my music as I used to be. This was my feeling before but once I was there I got really stoked to re-see all my favorite bands i'd seen multiple times as well as anticipation of all the new acts i'd discover. A measly 300 bucks for a weekend of getting back in line with the pulse of the music scene these days was well worth it.

Highlights: Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Cut Copy, Kanye's first 15 minutes or so, Boys Noize and the DJ tent.
Lowlights: One Day As A Lion (the side project of the lead singer of one of my favorite bands in the history of everything, Rage Against the Machine). They sounded like a cheap rage rip off and only held my attention for 5 tracks or so.

Bands I regretted I missed: The Swell Season, BAD (Mick Jones' frickin band!), most of The Black Keys set (tho I did catch a bit of), Delorean and Francis and the Lights (both of which for various reasons I showed up after or near the end of their sets).

All the other bands/ acts I caught (some albeit for a few tracks):

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (yup, that's one act), Cee- Lo Green (who's sound was cut off, OUCH), A-Trak, Lauryn Hill, Cold War Kids, Yacht, Interpol, Sasha, Crystal Castles, Monarchy, The Chemical Brothers, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Radio Department, Foals, Two Door Cinema Club, Alf Alpha, The Twelves, Joachim Garraud, Laidback Luke, Broken Social Scene, Electric Touch, Mumford and Sons, Animal Collective, The Kills, The New Pornographers, Fedde Le Grand, Paul Van Dyk, Empire of The Sun, fun, CSS, Wiz Khalifa, Jimmy Eat World, Nas and Damian Marley, Death From Above 1979, Trentemoller (shoulda stayed the whole set), Duck Sauce, Ratatat.

Not too shabby for the 3 days in the dessert. I felt like I was back in college except without any studying and more fun. Except my college was probably 50 times smaller than the festival population.

Either way good times and can't wait til next year (but also can).

Saturday April 9th, 2011

Pretty good day at face value but man am I worn out from last week. I can thank the sinus infection and various other causes for that.

Didn't get the movie in today that I wanted nor the work I would have liked to get done but still made a bit o progress and that's all you can really ask for.

Here's to hoping a full night sleep or two proves healing and all that stuff.

Getting really excited for my 1st Coachella next weekend and stoked for AMC's THE KILLING as always. So so blabadibla blog out.

Friday April 8th, 2011

3 UWTL's in one week! That's crazy! Why am I exclaiming!?! It's 2:20 in the morning! I assure you this punctuation does not express my energy level or current state of being on any level!

Last night's late night really but a crimp in today. Today was a rough one. But somehow today is not over. Don't get me wrong, there were some good times had, but many of which I could not tell you of due to being tired and stressed and cranky and generally unproductive.

One highlight of the day was definitely a little gem of a movie called CEREMONY that I hope gets a decent chance out there in a very unforgiving movie world. I went into it with pretty high expectations for a number of reasons. Firstly I'm friendly with the director and knew about it for a good while. Secondly it had a great cast and really sounded up my alley even way back as they were putting it together. And lastly, the trailer was damn good and seemed to paint the picture in a positive light.

As I sat down to watch the movie after a long, sick, anxious week, I had a tough time fully giving my undivided attention to the film. As a result, I don't think I quite got the full experience I would have if all was right in the world, and I could really truly escape for 90 minutes. That being said I really did enjoy the thing. The movie had a great look and feel and pace, and the acting was pretty stellar across the board with a few exceptions.

One huge standout was a kid by the name of Reece Thompson, who i'd heard great things about from a few indies over the years, specifically ROCKET SCIENCE, which I actually haven't gotten around to seeing. Maybe it was the way the character was written and the moments he was given but I just thought he was awesome. Mind you the Angarano's, the Pace's, Johnson's, Thurman's and Dill's of the world were also great, but he really stuck out which is saying a lot in this particular company. People have got to put him in more movies and I'm def gonna make a point to go back and watch some of his earlier stuff.

The night ended solid enough, with a nice chicken sandwich, a quick and fairly painless stop by a crowded bar for a friend's new job celebration. Then the night ended with a little housewarming at the new spot of some good friends. There was a lot of Turkish spoken so I wasn't entirely in the loop, but that was more than cool. I find that when the conversation's in english, plenty of it gets tuned out anyways, so always good once in awhile to find yourself in a social setting where there's just no way you're going to catch everything that is said. There aren't enough domestic get togethers and house parties in my day to day at the moment. Gotta find a way to change that for sure.

Alright, enough of my mildly interesting rambling. As matchbox 20 once said (remember them?) it's nearly 3AM and I must be lonely. Time to tinker away at a few things and hit the hay. G'night.

Thursday April 7th, 2011

Did not intend to be up anywhere near this late but procrastination and Gchat will do that to you.

Baseball's back but for a lifelong Dodger fan, it's anything but exciting right now. I've been pretty heated/ disgusted by this franchise this week. I can deal with dim prospects on the field or even embarrassing steroid busts, but I can't deal with lowlife owners and ritual parking lot beatings. If you're in LA and have been living under a rock this week, then maybe you didn't hear about the Opening Day beat down of an innocent Giants fan. There have always been plenty of shady, drunken, idiotic types filling up the Ravine, but a few individuals reached a new low by beating a fan within an inch of his life after an easy Dodger win mind you.

The occurrence itself was appalling enough on it's own, but it was our wonderful owner Frank McCourt's response, or lack thereof, which proved truly disturbing. After releasing a pedestrian joint statement with the Giants and MLB, the boys in blue have been deathly silent. Not an apology or a genuine well wish. The closest they've gotten to action or attempting to take responsibility is encouraging fans to contribute to this man's medical bills. FANS pay!? As if they were responsible for this egregious act because of the bad taste of 2 of our own? If anything the Dodgers as an organization should be offering to pay the bills in full and take care of this man in any way he needs. Instead, our cowardly owner who even before this seemingly couldn't get any more unpopular, remains silent. Trying to continue to save face when there isn't even an eyelash left to save. If there was any uncertainty of the kind of person Frank McCourt was, there's absolutely no doubt no. He's a fundless millionaire who's out for nothing except his own self interest. Maybe he'll buy another home with way more money than it would take to do the right thing and foot the proper bill, not the 1500 dollar dinner bill that is probably common place in his life.

As sad as it is to say, we can only hope that a number of good things can come out of this stupid stupid situation. First, that going to games becomes safer and people of all classes and creeds and inebriations respect each others right to cheer for and don their team colors. And second, that LA will finally be rid of the McCourts, no matter what corporate monster or a-hole takes over the team.

Gotta go to sleep now, more on this soon.