Archives for July 2003

July 27, 2003

Ten Years: Reggie Lewis 1965-1993

Has it been ten years? I was home for the summer, interning at my Dad's company, playing way too much Tecmo Bowl...then on the night of July 27th...Reggie Lewis dropped dead.

I was only 12 when Len Bias did his cocaine and stopped his Celtics career after 48 hours. I don't really remember that day (Bill Simmons' memories will have to do), but I remember watching the news, spellbound, as the live reports of Reggie's collapse started coming in from Newton Hospital. And when the doctors came out to the microphone, slowly and grimly, it was like getting kicked. Simply unreal.

1993 was the year the Celtics were closing out the Bird/McHale/Parish era. Dee Brown, Rick Fox and Reggie (we really thought!) were going to lead the team into the future. We didn't know at the time that we were in for eight years of Todd Day, Travis Knight, Rick Pitino, ML Carr, and getting dragged through the absolute dregs of NBA existence before Boston ever tasted success again.

Celtics PR man Jeff Twiss remembers Reggie here; the Concord Monitor's Chad Finn has a wonderful elegant tribute. Boston lost something special that day 10 years ago.

July 26, 2003

A Sip From the Cup of Paradise

The plan was pretty straightforward. My bookstore was asked to go to Fenway Park and sell copies of Moneyball, the new book by Michael Lewis about the Oakland A's and the business of modern baseball. We (my cohorts Hilary, Churchill, Amy and myself) would sell books, assist Lewis with booksigning, then we'd load up the van and watch the Sox-Yankees game. Because it was the Sox and Yankees, they could only give us standing-room access.

So we sold some books, chatted with Michael Lewis (it's really a fascinating book; I recommend it highly), and then the Fenway Ambassador came to lead us to our standing-room section. I envisioned a giant pole in front of me and a clear view of 6% of left field.

Um...not exactly. Next thing we knew, we were in the .406 Club. The giant, posh, plexiglass-enclosed seating section high above home plate. The one that costs twice my annual salary for one ticket, and is (I was convinced), the sign of everything wrong in baseball.

And you know what? It blew my mind. The view is unbelievable; there wasn't a spot on the field that we couldn't see. The windows, while isolating us from the rest of society in the real seats, made it look like we were watching the game on a hi-definition IMAX screen or something. And there was free popcorn. Hilary whispered to me that they'd have to physically remove her after the game. I whispered back, "They'll have to physically remove me from here in October."

The crowd up there wasn't as bad as I feared. There were some stiffs. There were, somehow, some loathsome Yankee fans up there. (And as always, they congratulated one another after New York won -- as if there were some noble suffering and difficulty in rooting for a team that wins all the time. Yeah, it's a real Profile in Courage to be a Yankee fan.) And there were some people who inexplicably got up from their seats after the 8th inning of a 3-3 game (Can you say "instant location upgrade"? We could!)

But it wasn't all Barney Business Deal and Cindy Cellphone. There was authentic cheering, clapping, and moaning when the Yanks took the lead in the 9th (and a few cheers; yeah, it's been a real rough two whole years in the wilderness for you Yankee fans). Folks were there to watch the game, for the most part.

So it was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Even if I win the lottery, I'm buying the season tickets down near the field. But thanks to the Sox for putting us up there so unexpectedly. And undeservedly. We appreciated it.

July 19, 2003

Move It To the Rental Category

Quentin Tarantino hasn't made a movie in roughly 37 years. His new flick, Kill Bill, is scheduled to come out in the fall. Now Miramax has said it's going to divide the movie into two parts; the stated reason is that it allows the whole movie to get before attention-span-deprived audiences without major cuts.

And will the ticket prices be cut in half, since you're only getting half the movie? Will you, before Part II, have to sit through a second 30 minutes of previews, commercials, previews of commercials, and the commercials for how to buy tickets online so you can make sure to see the latest commercials?

Let me take a wild guess. And wait to rent it.

July 17, 2003

I'm Not On The Cutting Edge

So you may very well already know about these two things. But two cool things have been brought to my attention today, and I'd like to share them with anyone who's as far from the vanguard as I seem to be.

First is Hipster Bingo, which I guess you're supposed to bring to your local indy rock club or record store. I guess you could use it in Harvard Square, but you'd have better luck with a Panhandler Bingo (I should work on that!).

Second is the growing trend of flash mobs, when groups of people quietly organize to get together, do something weird for a few minutes, and then disperse. In New York, they all went into Macy's to look at a rug together. In San Francisco, they all crossed the street spinning. Sooz reports that a similar effort is starting in Boston. Should be fun.

July 11, 2003

Unravelling

It's a feeling Red Sox fans know well. Something goes wrong, something else happens to make it worse...and before you know it, things are spiralling out of anyone's control towards disaster. And it may be happening to the Teflon Bush Administration. While Bush is bopping around Africa, playing with elephants and relocating Senegalese residents to a football ground, there's trouble brewing.

First, CBS is reporting that Bush knew some of the Iraqi-weapon claims he made during the State of the Union address, particularly that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger, were bogus. Of course, the Administration is trying to circle the wagons, with Colin Powell telling CNN,

"To single out this one statement having to do with an intelligence picture that wasn't entirely clear with respect to what he might have been trying to do with respect to acquiring uranium in Africa, I think is quite an overstatement and quite an overreaction to this one line. The president wasn't in any way trying to mislead."

Boy, so much for "the buck stops here", huh? Meanwhile, Minister of Information Ari Fleischer put in a serious bid for Quote of the Year with this gem reported in the NY Times:

"I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are."

Really? In related stories, those of you who don't believe in Santa Claus must now go to the North Pole and prove he isn't there, and anyone who is satisfied that Oswald acted alone must go out and unravel the conspiracy. This would be comical if it weren't for the fact that over 200 American troops and untold Iraqis have been killed in this farce. And Bush is playing with elephants. At least LBJ had the decency to be photographed head down and weeping over his decision to send American boys to die in Vietnam.

On another front, there is soon coming an "explosive report" about who knew what when about the 9/11/01 attacks. It's too bad that this ancient history will (may) knock Laci Peterson and Sausagegate off the front pages, but it will be interesting to note how much of the bad info Bush and Co. were able to supress.

Are the wheels coming off the Bush bus? Howard Dean's site has a petition asking any cheats and liars in government to step down. I signed it right away, even though it probably means I'll soon be relocated to a local football ground.

(Many links and research on this came from Eschaton and Daily Kos.)

July 04, 2003

56 Down, 44 to Go

New movie review! I watched, noted and reviewed A Streetcar Named Desire. You should read it.

July 01, 2003

Yeah, but what is truth? If you follow me

Remember that wacky Al Gore? The one who said he invented the Internet? And busted up the Love Canal scam? And was the inspiration for Love Story?

Boy, it's a good thing we didn't get a fibber like that into the White House, huh? I mean, if Lyin' Al were President, can you imagine the whoppers he'd be telling? Maybe he'd invent a connection between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Hey, maybe he'd invent a whole gigantic Iraqi weapons program, and use that to whip America into a pro-war frenzy. Or tell us that a Reaganesque tax cut will benefit all Americans. The press would be savaging him, wouldn't they? I mean, can you imagine Lyin' Al trying to sell us this? The sharp American people would surely see through it.

Boy, it's good we got an honest man elected. Well, sort of elected.

(Inspiration from this post came from Salon. Title quote is from Lionel Hutz.)