Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars

Regressing to Childhood

My softball mitt and basketball are stowed in the front seat of my pickup truck. I've installed this batting screen and tee in my back yard.

This summer, I'll be living like a 16 year old. Getting the Harley into the dealership for safety inspection and a tune up. The plan is to ride around to the various ballparks in the area looking for pickup games, or maybe even just somebody who wants to play catch.

My only serious job is babysitting my granddaughter. Two more grandkids on the way, too! A boy and a girl! I'll be babysitting them, too! I get a lot of love there, so it's not exactly a chore.

The one way in which I won't be like a 16 year old is that I won't be desperately chasing pussy! The pussy does the chasing when you're an Old Dawg!

I'll also be gardening and working on my house. This year, I'd like for my garden to be productive and beautiful. Gardening is another way to be outdoors and out from in front of the computer. Tomorrow, I'll be trekking over to a site where I can score some free manure!

Somebody else will have to take care of the national and international politics.

I've earned it. 45 years of working in an office. Sure, the work was often interesting and stimulating, but I've had enough. I raised my own children. Being a serious adult is behind me!

No more dealing with HR dirtbags, fags and fag hags and their deadly S&M backstabbing game.

Free at last!

What Ernie Banks Meant to Me

Ernie and Billy Williams were the great heroes of the Cubs' teams of the 60s and 70s that came oh so close to breaking the curse. I grew up with Ernie and Jack Brickhouse on WGN-TV. Black and white in the 50s.

Ernie's approach was remarkably similar to that of another of my great heroes, Louis Armstrong. Both were black men who lived through the civil rights era of the 60s, but neither man was defined by being black. Both were defined by their devotion to their trade and to being cheerful and entertaining showmen.

"I'm playing baseball for a living!" That's what Ernie radiated. That's the attitude of a kid who grew up poor in a big family.

Chicago was a tough blue collar town in the 50s and 60s. The steel mills hadn't yet shut down or moved. The Second City was mostly a town of hard headed factory workers, first and second generation immigrants from Poland and the Ukraine. This was not a culture that tolerated bitching and whining. So, Ernie instantly fit in. He was grateful to be a Cub, even with the downside of losing. Factory workers can identify with losing.

The Cubs teams of the 60s and 70s predated the free agent era. Players usually had a job in the off season as a greeter at a bank or car dealership. Ron Santo, the Hall of Fame third baseman, delivered a speech at a rubber chicken dinner in the basement of my church in my tiny hometown to benefit the Knights of Columbus and to promote the Cubs. I doubt if he was even paid.

Ernie was just like us but he hit the lottery. And, he knew it and he acknowledged his good fortune every day. He knew that his job was to provide a few hours of pleasure for the factory workers who paid to watch him play.

Chicago has always reveled in its Second City status... the big city without the glamour chip on its shoulder, like New York City. Ernie was just folks. No words he ever uttered were not fit for the ears of a young child.

I never met Ernie, but I've been on a first name basis with him my entire life. He was a friend, an exemplar of gratitude and duty... and I will miss him. RIP, Mr. Cub.

Newbie in the Virtual World

I've been wandering around in Second Life, an online virtual world. There's a learning curve! I'm struggling to learn how to control my avatar. So, I've started by navigating around in a destination, and by teleporting myself from destination to destination. The pic below is a screenshot of an avatar posing in a destination world.

Learning to control my avatar has been difficult. I named my avatar ErnieBanks! An odd choice, huh? I decided that I might as well be a great hero in the virtual world. Ernie is an affable and peaceable fellow. I bet that the rough and tumble in the virtual world can go nuclear, just like the chat rooms. Ernie was always a peace maker who just wanted to play ball!

I plan to learn how to stage online concerts in Second Life. Appears to me that this capability is still in its infancy. Wish that I could get the Old Dawgz to appear live with me in a concert setting. Has a subscriber already built a concert hall in the virtual environment where a group of musicians can jam and collaborate? 

I'll start out testing Second Life as an environment for my solo act. My ideal virtual environment would borrow elements from a live club or theater. 

My avatar is from stock. I do think that it is kind of jaunty. Introducing ErnieBanks, my younger self:

The Second Life platform is a little unstable. This technology, a forerunner of a true Holodeck, is still in infancy. I experience crashes and screen break-ups with disturbing frequency.

I'm interested in the 3D headgear that Oculus Rift produces. Making that tech work seems touchy. Second Life has issued a beta version that supposedly interfaces with the Oculus Rift headgear. The headgear had been paird with a Galaxy phone. Don't know if the technology has moved beyond that. As it is, wearing clunky headsets is a negative. The full immersion 3D environment that we want in our dreams will not require any special clothing or equipment that must be worn.

I ran into a few other avatars in one of the virtual destinations last night, but I did not know how to interact with them. The avatars were not human. Mechanical monsters, aliens, sluts... Interesting.

Wrigley Turns 100! Cubs Blow Game Big Time!

Yeah, I know the Cubs aren't going anywhere this year, or the year after, or (probably) the year after that. But, for Christ's sake, they don't have to play like friggin' clowns, right? Yesterday, I watched the celebration of Wrigley Field's 100th anniversary on WGN. Cubs led 5-2 going into the top of the 9th. Starlin Castro booted a double play ball. The gates of hell opened up and the Cubs lost 7-5!

Long time Cubs' fans know when we've hit that moment when, as Lou Piniella put it, we are about to be transported into another dimension, where we will endure another "Cubbie Occurence." The moment Castro booted that grounder, with the Cubs still up 5-2, I knew that we were screwed.

After the boot, the game turned into a clown show. Ground ball up the middle hits the second base bag and carooms into right field. Right fielder watched what looked like a catchable liner drop in for a single, without even making an effort at the heroic sliding catch. Finally, a popup into shallow right drops when the right fielder collapses, clutches his injured thigh and has to be escorted off the field.

You could argue that this debacle proved that Wrigley Field should be demolished, and that the team should be relocated in a nice new stadium out in the northern suburbs. The old ball park clearly is possessed by demons.

Castro is probably finished. I don't mean that he won't play out his career. But, he's marked now by the curse. The kid should be traded to another team before his psyche explodes.

Wait until 2017! That's the current Cubs' mantra. The superstar kids in the minors will arrive. Big money from the new TV contract. Big name free agents will be signed. 

An old Cubs' fan knows that another episode of madness awaits.

Homework for Grandpas!

My daughter has assigned me some grandpa homework. Time to teach the granddaughter how to talk, sing and dance. Best way to do that is to have some fun. Who knows how to do that better than Mickey Mouse?

Note that you get five reps through the tune. Could be a good tune for the Old Dawgz, too!

Time to learn the names of things, too. "Dada" and "Mama" haven't quite happened yet, but it's never too soon to start drilling.

I'm looking forward to when the granddaughter learns "Mary Mack." My daughter used to play that patty cake game for hours!

Broncos Will Win the Bong Bowl!

That’s my prediction. I like Peyton Manning’s experience over Russell Wilson’s college style game. Should be a fun game. I drove by Metlife Stadium out there in the swamps of Jersey over the weekend.

Metlife Stadium is a pretty dreary looking place from the outside. It looks like one of those big outdoor air conditioning units for your house.  The stadium floats in an ocean of parking lots. Not a cozy urban setting. Not at all like a stadium on a college campus.

Metlife Stadium looks as cold and corporate as its name implies.

So, this is the Bong Bowl, pitting the two states that legalized 420 against one another.  High Times prominently displays a couple of Super Bowl stories this morning. 

One YouTube broadcaster, Richard Fowler, delivers the talking head pundit thing for the Bong Bowl.

The lead story this morning in the The 420 Times is, likewise, the Super Bowl. 

Only The Weed Blog, among my pot links, neglects to ride the Super Bowl/Bong Bowl PR blitz.  

As legalization proceeds on a national scale, weed will become a major focus of the music biz (even more so). Yeah, pot has always been a focus of the music biz.

A musician might well ask. How does tapping into the coming wave of legalization help a musician to get paid?

Think about it. Any ideas?

More casinos soon to open in New York State. How to tap into that? Vice is, as always, big biz, and I am just a music whore. But, a happy one.

A very slow day out here in the Catskills. I’d better get in a full set of yoga before the game starts because that will signal the start of some serious ass time on the couch.

I always enjoy the special TV ads during the game. So, I won’t even get off my ass for the commercial breaks. Bill O’Reilly and Prez Obama are dragging politics into the orbit of the game. Damn them!

Bud will run a commercial during the Big Game.  That would be Bud, the beer, not bud, the weed. (Anheuser Busch is certainly well positioned to become a huge player in the legalized weed biz, right?)

I'm certain Bob Marley would have seen the Bong Bowl as an Act of God. Don't Worry. Be Happy!

My ass aches already.

Doink the Clown vs. Mr. Perfect!

Doink the Clown, RIP! Relive Doink's epic battle against Mr. Perfect. Watch at about the 1:20 mark as the damned clown taunts a baby until he cries. This villain deserves whatever retribution Mr. Perfect can extract!

Laughed my ass off over this one. Two sides of the male personae duking it out with one another. The commentators' remarks are just hilarious.

"Well, it's just not going to be that easy to beat Doink the Clown!

No, it's not. We clowns are remarkably resilient.

The Heat/Pacers Series in the Hometown Papers

The Heat/Pacers series has proven to be pretty entertaining. Here in this great era of the internet, you can read about the series from a variety of perspectives. I’ve read the New York Times for the disinterested version, the Indianapolis Star for the heroic Pacers' tale and the Miami Herald for the view from on high with the Heat.

I even watched the ball game last night and formed my own opinion on it. I watched the game and followed the stats on my iPad on the ESPN app!

I’m pretty confident that the Heat will win the series. They’ve got Lebron James. I’m impressed with Roy Hibbert. He’s an athletic version of Patrick Ewing. James, however, may be the best player in the history of the game, even better than Michael Jordan. James will probably win more titles than Jordan. That’s my prediction!

Will James stand back and look for somebody else to play the star in the final three games or will he put on his Superman outfit? I wanna see the Superman.

Highest Paid Public Employees

Below, one of those info-graphics that are so popular out here in the internet. Note that the highest paid public employee in almost every state is a college football or basketball coach. Good or bad?

The football coach at my alma mater, the University of Illinois, makes a cool $1.6 million. So does the basketball coach. That’s .8 mill per football win, based on last year’s 2-10 performance. Tim Beckman, our football coach, said the Illini coaching job was a “gold mine,” and, at least for him, it is.

John Groce, our basketball coach, is earning his keep. He coaxed a previously underperforming group to a first round victory in the NCAA tournament.

Who should be paid more? Politicians? Teachers? Well, I guess you could make the argument that football and basketball coaches are paid way too much.

If you are an Ohio State grad, you might be looking at this in a different way, which is to say from a vantage point of success. The Buckeyes always win big in football and basketball.

Silly old goats like me can be counted on to tune in when the alma mater plays a game on TV. Which sells advertising. So that those coaches can get the big bucks.

CEOs are doing pretty good, too!

Meyers Leonad's First NBA 3 Pointer!

I continue to follow the NBA career of Meyers Leonard because he's a fellow Illini and he's a small town white boy from Robinson, Illinois, population 6,822. Now a Portland Trailblazer, Leonard knocked down his first NBA 3 pointer a couple of days ago.

I, too, hail from small town Illinois. I hope that the small town boys are noticing Leonard's success and gaining confidence that they, too, can compete on the highest levels.

Leonard has been starting for the Trailblazers lately. He even posted a double double against Golden State last Saturday!

I'm looking forward to catching Leonard on TV. Once that kid develops a mean streak, he's gonna be a star.