Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope all your little ones had as much fun as we did! I was going to post a picture of Brandon dressed up as Dash Incredible, but the blog program is not allowing uploads tonight. :(

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Turn It On Again - CONFIRMED

WOW. I've been literally waiting for this moment for 14 years now. My all-time favorite band, Genesis, after years of speculation of possibly getting back together have now CONFIRMED, through official sources (including their website) that the 1992 iteration of Banks, Collins and Rutherford WILL be touring in 2007. They are currently in studio in NYC and are rumored to be possibly hammering out a new album, although the new album is not yet confirmed. The band's management has released an official invitation with "Turn It On Again Tour 2007" and the front of the Nursery Cryme album cover on it, as a press conference invite. The press conference will be held at noon (I assume England time) on November 7, at which time all future plans will be revealed. Another confirmation is that NO presale tickets will be made available for the tour, which pretty much ensures that it will be a madhouse. I'm saving up already!

As for Peter Gabriel, he has stated that he will not be involved in the first "go-round", but has not ruled out some sort of involvement in the not too distant future. Perhaps he will join them for some gigs, or even a separate tour?

At this point, I'm elated. I can't even put into words how much this tour would mean to me. Genesis was the soundtrack of my teen years and into college, and I still listen to them frequently today. One more chance to see my once idols is worth more than you can imagine to me. My day has officially been made!

Turning it on again....
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Friday Night Lights

I stumbled onto this pretty cool show on the way back from my Vancouver trip. It was part of the NBC previews that were showing on the post movie in-flight entertainment. I decided to give it a try, and man am I glad I did. I've been hooked from the start, and it's almost passing my passion for LOST as a "must see" event.

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's an extremely well written show regarding, of course, a football team, but it's so much more. The show packs a talented cast and a slew of good-looking young talent. The storyline is basically about a football town in the deep South (aren't they ALL football towns there?), and the trials and tribulations of the team and the peripheral students and families. But it's so much more than just a football show. So far in the first month, the show has tackled a slew of topics including the underlying racism and bigotry that are present in many parts of the country, but I can imagine particularly in the South. The interactions and relationships between the characters are complex enough to keep the story multifaceted, and they even sprinkle in some actual football each week. The show even started by paralyzing the team's all-state QB in the FIRST WEEK. It's been a roller coaster since then, with the townies possessing that "football is everything" attitude, and the coach trying to save his job and his reputation by scrambling to right the ship after the loss of it's captain.

Usual time slot is NBC Tuesday at 8, but this coming week, it will be airing Monday at 10 (strange to go up against MNF) in an attempt to lure over additional viewers. Despite critical acclaim, the show is not performing well in the ratings (I believe 79), although it hopefully will pick up steam with the increased exposure. One good sign, additional scripts have been ordered to push the show to a full season.

Take a gander if you are looking for an interesting new show with solid writing, acting and depth.

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What the hell is there to say...?

Well.........


In this, the longest weekend of sports. On the longest day for Philly area fans. What is there to say?

Goodbye Mr. Clarke. Your candid admissions of you basically sleepwalking through your GM position over the past 1/2 year won't completely overshadow your heroic playing days, but man, it's not a good way to go.

Goodbye Hitch. Though we hardly knew ya, you probably did the best you could in the face of what you had to work with. Sorry you lost the room, but your shelf-life here was up. Time to move on.

Welcome Mr. Holmgren. PLEASE don't carry on the Clarke legacy as trying to preserve the Broad Street Bullies. Maintain the attitude, but not the player type. We have enough trees playing defense so as it is...

Welcome Mr. Stevens. You should be like an old blanket to the youngsters on the team. Comfortable...familiar...just don't be too overprotective. This IS a business too...

DMac - You literally left it all out today bringing the team back. What can you do when you make a comeback like that, only to have your day ruined by a near NFL record 62 yard field goal? You tip your hat, say "Damn nice kick" and move on.

I'm finally willing to admit 100 percent - Philly sports are cursed. What more?........

CRUSHED
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Munce update...

With dad still in town for the back-to-back home games, Munce started and won the game today, 5-3. 21 saves in 24 shots. Dad is still proud, and I feel a whole lot better about things...

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The Ballad of Mr. Munce

Interesting night tonight on the frozen pond in Reading. I was attending the Royals' home opener vs. Trenton. About 1/2 way through the game, our star goalie got freight-trained by an opposition forward, and had to be carried off the rink. On came our backup, a 2nd or 3rd year player named Munce. Well, as the second period ended, we had a 3-1 lead. A gentleman who was sitting in my row had come back with a few souveniers, and sat down to me and asked if I attend many Royals games. I told him of my past season ticket experience, etc., and asked him in return. He said that this was his first, that he and his wife were down from Missauga, ON to watch their son play. Turns out, their son was the backup goalie. So we talked through the whole intermission, and got on rather well. As the players came out for the 3rd, we stopped our conversation, and he went back to sitting with his wife, about 4 seats away from me.

The 3rd started out pretty well, as we scored again and went up 4-1. Munce was playing well, and I was really happy for his dad. But as the period went on, things started to change. Munce let in a pretty tough shot with about 9 left, to cut the lead to 2. Still not too bad. 2 goals at home late in the game... However, with about 2 and change left, he let in a 3rd goal which was fairly soft. I could barely stand to sneak a peak over to dad, but still, hey, we had a goal lead and it was now VERY late in the game. 11 seconds later, a long shot which may or may not have ticked off a forward's stick found the back of the net AGAIN. Now it was 4-4 and the natives were restless. I sat there and thought of how hard it must be for a father to go through this, but still, we had OT to make it right. Despite having a powerplay in OT, the game ended up tied after the extra session. So on to shootouts. Well now Mr. Munce was on the edge of his seat. The kid would live or die with the one on one's. We shot first. Miss. Trenton's first went in. Dad was stunned. No more goals until our LAST hope, and we finally got one! All Munce had to do was stop one final shot and it would go into sudden death penalty shots. But alas, with dad on the edge of his seat and the whole stadium holding their breath.....Munce couldn't come up with it. Final score, Trenton 5 - Reading 4. Dad and mom were speechless. I felt horrible, but I still managed to go over and tell him it was nice to meet him, and good luck with the season. I left feeling sucker punched. Not b/c my team lost, but because I met a good man who just watched his son fail in front of 7215 people (a sellout crowd). I'm sure Munce will have his good days, but as a father, it was one of the most excrutiating things I've seen in a long time.

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The Iraq Solution

I heard Howard Stern suggest this earlier in the week, and I thought it was funny and also something we should do:

Declare TOMORROW that we won the war. Immediately bring ALL of the troops home, and the following day stage a massive "victory parade". Possibly even in NYC. Maybe even past Ground Zero. Then THAT'S IT. I'm sure there will be massive criticism and such in the days to follow, but we can simply reply "Hey man, we won the war and that's that. Anything that happened after "V.I." day is not our fault.

I know it's a longshot, but right now it's better than any other plan I've heard...

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9-1??? WTF???!!!??? Flyers Change In the Air

I'm still in stunned disbelief in the events that occured last night in Buffalo during the Flyers/Sabers game. 9-1. That bears repeating.... NINE to ONE. To put this in perspective, had this been an NFL game, the final score would have been like 63-7. In baseball, perhaps 25-1 or worse. Folks, this wasn't a drubbing or even a good old ass-kicking, this was something much worse. There is NO REASON that a professional team, ESPECIALLY one that is a perennial playoff contender should lose by anywhere near that margin. Even if everything possible is going wrong for your team, if you are at least competing, it shouldn't be anywhere near that bad. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that somewhere along the line, the team has stopped caring.

I have to stop for a second after typing that. Million dollar athletes. People who virtually spent their entire lives playing the game NOT CARING. It makes absolutely no sense. Yet all the signs are there. And they even go back to the preseason. This team is not an unskilled team. We have 2 all-star goalies, one of which won an olympic medal. One of which won the Calder Cup 2 years ago. We have argueably one of the best 2 way players in the WORLD in Forsberg. One of the league's top goal scorers in Gagne. A solid goal scorer in Knuble. Highly talented (and fast) young players in Carter, Umberger and Richards, who have already proven they can play at a high level in this league. Plenty of additional speed - barn burning speed in Kapanen and Sanderson. And even with the perceived weakness of the defense, still enough guys to be productive and competent. And yet there it is in black and white. 9-1. Too many questions to be answered.

I just saw a very interesting interview with all-everything owner Ed Snider, perhaps the single most passionate, caring (about the sport) owner in all of sports. He has basically declared that he is going to spare no effort to get to the bottom of the problem, and solve it himself, if need be. And he also stated very clearly that NO person is safe. Should he deem Clarke or Hitch part of the problem, I'm very confident at this point they are gone, contract or not. Perhaps even one of the "untouchables" would be gone if deemed necessary - Gagne, Carter, Richards, .... Forsberg???

The team has been complacent since last year. Gone is the fire that defines truly good teams. In the past, new NHL or not, a 9-1 loss would have meant MANY good fights and plenty of bad blood. Last night, the team didn't even seem to care that Buffalo was pushing for the TENTH goal. That should have been "stick into Afinogenof's spleen" time long before the 9-1 margin. The other thing that blows my mind is the number of times that people have taken relative cheap shots at the team captain, for cryin' out loud, and all the players just watch. Somebody has to grow a friggin' pair on that team REALLY soon. Maybe the problem really is Forsberg. Maybe not only is he a poor captain, but maybe he really isn't liked in the room? It's all speculation, but I've noticed he does have an odd way of carrying himself during interviews. Without being overtly narcissistic, he seems to almost KNOW he's better than the others, and maybe they resent that. Whatever the issue, there has not been a good leader in that room since Preems went down last year. Hatcher was a fucking disgrace.

I'm stumped. Snider has promised a return to playing "Old Flyer Hockey". Whether that means finally playing AS a team for each other, or simply beating the tar out of everyone that moves as a distraction for your team sucking is yet to be determined. Something needs to happen soon, though. Like yesterday. The first 3 heads rolled today, and if tomorrow's game is anything CLOSE to what happened in Buffalo, I think there may be wholesale changes at all levels. My heart is breaking, but still bleeds orange and black...

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The marriage question....?

Yahoo has posted an interesting article on the state of marriage in this country. We all have heard of the divorce rate topping 50% several years back. Well perhaps an even more telling statistic is the new data revealing 50.2 percent of households in America do not involve married couples. This is an interesting trend in that it perhaps signals the TRUE sentiments that marriage is becoming an antiquated arrangement.

Stranger things have happened. I know the human race likes to think it has to be "civilized", and marriage is seen as a "civilized" thing to do (in addition to the religious quality given to it by some people). But we are truly one of the very few species that even attempts to single out a mate and stay with them for an extended period of time. Looking at it from a biological standpoint, this action is actually counterproductive to "spreading the gene pool". Not that I'm suggesting we should be randomly impregnating women all over the world, but it just points out that the very act of marriage is biologically unnatural.

I don't think we'll see marriage disappear completely, but it wouldn't surprise me if within the next 50-100 years that it becomes a vast minority thing to do. Hell, perhaps our children will see marriage as just "something religious folk do". The next bunch of years bear watching to see exactly how this all plays out...

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Buffett is Back

Yeah baby, the land of Margaritaville is rocking again! And it has me all juiced up to find a way to the Keys for good again!

Jimmy's latest offering, Take The Weather With You is chock full of some amazing stuff. It's one of the most diverse offerings I've ever heard. Literally, no two songs sound the same. It's been reviewed multiple times, including on cyberhap's site, as well as my own offering at Amazon, so I won't kill you with too many details here. Just know that it is an amazing album, particularly for JB fans. The return of Fingers Taylor is enough to push this baby into one of the top few albums JB has ever made. Certainly top 5.

If you haven't checked it out yet, have a listen. You certainly won't regret it...

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Back to life

Ok Pat, I'm calling your bluff. I'm getting off my ass and starting this thing up again. I've been away for a LONG time. No excuses. I could go on and on about the summer and vacation and working 2 jobs, and being a father and taking care of my post-surgical father, but I won't. I'll simply get back on the horse...

But I should at least provide a bit of an update for the past few months. Things have been tough. I spent much of the summer taking care of my father, who had 2 major surgeries to correct vascular problems. Fortunately, everything is looking good, and has been for about the past 2 months. Brandon started pre-school and is doing very well. I got to take 2 trips over my blogging break. I went on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach with 3 other families. It was a total blast, and we ended up being down there during bike week. I'm not a rider, but my in-laws are, and it was amazing to see all the bikes there. 300,000 bikes by estimate. Supposedly it's now the third largest rally in the U.S. behind only Sturgis and Daytona.

My latest trip was work related (and partially financed), and was to Vancouver, BC. Vancouver is a very beautiful city. The downtown district is walking distance from the water, and visual distance from the mountains. I thought it would be a Seattle type climate, but the week we were there (Sept. 23-29), the weather was perfectly clear, 70ish during the day and 55-58 at night. I also found a killer Irish pub called Doolins which served as our rendezvous point each night. Ahh the Guinness!

So where do we go from here... Well, I'm NOT looking forward to the upcoming weather, but I am looking forward to teaching Brandon to ski sometime soon. Maybe this Winter, if not next. I also need to get him on skates more this year. On a personal note, I'm trying hard to reestablish some control over my financial situation. Things have stabilized, but it's going to be a tight winter. Next year should hopefully lend itself to a turning point, with me being able to drop the preschool bills, and Gina perhaps going back to work when Brandon starts full-time school. I guess I should be proud of keeping the ship afloat for these years by myself, but I wish I had more flexibility. I know it will come, and I have to look at the fact that I'm only 35 and I'm thisclose to a 6 figure salary. Most people would kill for that...

Sports:

Eagles are good, but need a damn running game. They aren't going anywhere without some ball control. They could easily be 6-0 with an above average running game when they need it. The defense needs to be more consistent, but that's not the main problem

Flyers are intriguing on paper, and not so good on the ice right now. They have looked dominant at times, and have looked classic Philly lost at others. No reason they shouldn't make the playoffs and make some noise, but 1-3-1 isn't scaring anyone. Team speed isn't an issue, hitting the net is...

Sixers - who cares...

Phillies - as I predicted at the beginning of the season, had alternating streaks of great, awful, and WTF. And also as predicted, managed to keep in the hunt until the end of the season, and lost just enough games to last place teams to miss the playoffs. Again by thismuch. I hate them yet every season I root for them (or as they say in Vancouver, I GO for them).

Well, that's it for now. I promise to keep up to date on here now. I just needed a spark to get writing again, and thanks to scaggy for that. Ciao bitches...

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