What in the world have I been up to??

So, it's been about a week since my last masterpiece I wrote up here. First, let me give a shout out to two local music acts, one in Philadelphia and one in local Philadelphia area.

• First, and most recently, I had the pleasure of seeing Ms. Darienne Rose. Her music can be found by simply clicking this simple sentence. Kim apparently went to school with her years back and her new friend Brenda knows her well. Brenda told us about her and our Saturday night was set. Kim compared her music a lot to Paramore. Not my cup of tea, but she played very well on the guitar and sang like an angel. She was the best pure singer/entertainer at the Rusty Nail in Haverford. If you like a cross between Karmin and Paramore, you would like her. Please support her.

• Second, long time (3 years) friend Lashawn Creed has been promising me that one day he will hit it big and be rich enough to own a tiger named Jesus. Still waiting to buy a tiger cage for himself, but in the meantime Mr. Creed has been working his ass off to make it to the top of I guess a very crazy rap game in Philadelphia. I am no rap aficianado, but I listen to every track for him and have enjoyed what I heard.
 
 
• I saw the Dark Knight on Saturday during a matinee showing. Spoiler Alert! Batman is...Christian Bale! Holy shit I thought he looked familiar and I suspected it through the first two movies and have made an educated guess on this third one. I loved this movie more than the Avengers and will give it an A++ review coming soon. The trilogy ended right and never seen a third movie that was better than the first two combined.

• Flag Football season begins on Wednesday. Last year, I helped coach the Raiders "C" team to an undefeated season. I was an assistant coach who came on board to help with Rocco's behavior only to help take over the offensive and defensive line duties. It took Rocco a while to understand how the line was important for the flow of the game. But one day towards the end of the season, we were tied 1-1 going into the last two downs of our last possession. The rules of flag are simple: 10 plays per team per half. The team that scores the most touchdowns wins. So, it was the last possession of the game and we were so far away from the end zone that it seemed like we would tie. Rocco was supposed to block this kid, but he didn't, and we were dropped back a couple more yards. I pulled him aside, and told him what he needed to do if he wanted his team to win. Sure enough, Rocco took on the kid who broke through on the game's second to last play and after he disposed of that kid, our running back came bursting through. Rocco kinda tripped and fell into another would be defender, thus securing an open field and the game winning touchdown. The running back got all the glory, but I know who made that play happen. And he was the game MVP.
 
• Check out the bands below:
• Rival Sons - A straight rock/bluesy rock band that is superior to the Black Keys
• Lo-Pan, Mushroom River Band, and Sasquatch - bands that makes the music that Chevelle wants to make
• Barroness - No comparison, but there new double album Green & Yellow is pretty melodic for a heavy metal act
 
• The Great Jim Duba Intercontinental Fantasy Football Championship Challenge is not fairing well in terms of participation. So, sign yourself up. Don't trust me to send you an email without you getting any spam? Well, here you go...
• Click this link to join The Great Jim Duba Intercontinental Fantasy Football Challenge.
• Enter League ID: 39657, password: russiansareweak
• Spain and the United States plus Mr. Universe himself "The Great Jim Duba" is already represented. Please join the league

What are you waiting for...rush to your PC, Ipod, Izod, Ipad, Russian Hamster Wheel, BlackBerry - WHATEVER you have!

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Uneducated and Uninformed Thoughts on the Penn State Scandal

Penn State - The only college in the country where you can major in minors!

Long story short, Jerry Sandusky, a one time great defensive coordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions, was raping young boys in the showers at the school and nobody said boo about it.

This guy...enshrined forever in statue form, is the center for most of the debate right now. Sandusky was found guilty on 40 plus charges of disgusting acts against children. I think this was all stemming from the 1990's and later. Somebody saw Sandusky raping a kid in the shower, even able to describe the sounds he heard, and supposedly reported it only for it all to be swept under the rug. Turns out, with recent victims coming forward, this may have been going on as early as the 1970's.

Sandusky started a foundation called the Second Mile which was essentially a child rapist farm system. I read disgusting stories putting this man, Jerry Sandusky, as some kind of pimp to his donors!

But that is old news. So is the fact that Joe Paterno, the head coach of the Penn State football team for like 40 plus years (second use of "40 plus" in this post), resigned and later died. He was practically forced out by Penn State, which was good. And then he died, which was kharma.

So Joe Paterno won a national title for Penn State in the 1980's. He followed up that feat with covering up the fact his assistant coach was banging little boys ON SCHOOL PROPERTY. The recent promulgation of the "Free Report" indicates that Joe Paterno did his part in helping and/or convincing the school that they should cover it up, and preserve the integrity of the football program. Sandusky was allowed to REMAIN at the school, even though he was no longer an active coach, with his own office and access to facilities where more victims were victimized.

Yes, Jerry Sandusky is the real monster in this story. However, there is a debate in my area, and to an extent across the nation, that the Statue should be taken down. Some people say it should stay up as a reminder to do the right thing because this guy who is posing in the statue did not do the right thing. Reverse psychological thinking right there. But unfortunately 10 years from now the kids who attend the school will wish they were there during the days that statue was being created so they could have lived through the magic. Somebody recently flew a banner over the stadium saying to take the banner down or "we will."

There is also a debate as to what punishment Penn State should be handed from the N.C.A.A. as a result of the Free Report. Let us get this straight, the Free Report is not an official investigation by law enforcement or government entities. The N.C.A.A. needs to perform their own investigation in this matter to gather their own evidence against the school. Most of the parts involved in this scandal and years long cover up are dead or exiled. The only person remaining as part of the scandal is the current governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who was the acting district attorney that decided to not pursue the original Sandusky claims.

The aim of the law enforcement done thus far into this scandal has been to put the initial perpetrator behind bars, and that has been done. Investigation (officially) needs to be done now into the school's handling of this and determining who should have the fingers pointed at them and who should be locked up going forward.

As a (step)father of a young son, I am disgusted as I write on this subject. So sickening how these people can be. And the idea that, according to the Free Report, those in charge of Sandusky's involvement at the school did nothing to stop this has my stomach in knots. The face of all those people is indeed Joe Paterno, who was cited in the Free Report requesting specifically that the higher ups do not expose this about Sandusky as to protect the school's program.

Like I said, official investigation needs to be done before I can say what is fact and what isn't. Documentation reviewed for the Free Report aside, it would be against our Constitutional Rights to consider the Free Report as fact. The defense and the accused have a chance to perform their own retaliatory investigation that could aim to at least lessen the blame on themselves.

The NFL has its own investigation and the Commissioner declares punishments like some kind of czar. No legal investigation has to be done. Any disputes gets done in court with representatives of the players union versus league personnel. The N.C.A.A. needs to really consider what they consider to be evidence that they have legally acquired in order to properly determine the severity of the crimes that Penn State as a university committed. I don't know much about the N.C.A.A., but from what I hear on the radio it is more like they punish programs when they maintain a competitive edge. I think that, if the Free Report is accurate, that there is reason to punish them on that basis. They did what they could to allow the program to run with Sandusky there. They tried to resign in hopes it would all end quickly and sweep under the rug, and that Paterno reportedly wanted to protect the football program. I guess if the program was protected, than it was able to thrive whereas it would have suffered from a turning of the back by recruits not wanting to be a part of a school associated with a pedophile. However, the school was able to profit from the football program, which may be part of the advantage. Time will tell.

As I wrote this over a couple days, the decision came to remove the statue of Joe Paterno this morning. Some people said leave it up as a reminder of what atrocious things that guy did. Huh? That would be like the Bills wearing a patch with OJ Simpson's face on their uniforms. I don't care about the school's heritage. If I was the parent of a victim from Penn State, I would take the statue down myself.

Something disturbing - Penn State had it's most ever donations in the wake of this scandal. So many people I associate with on Facebook had their Penn State symbols up. Student athletes showed their support of Jo-Pa. It wasn't their fault or the alumni I know's faults. It was your hero, Jo-Pa. Scumbag. His legacy should include just as much on the child raping scandal as his football achievements.

Whew...That was very tough to even make an attempt to sound intelligent. Toon in next time when I delve into a topic just as depressing - I review every job I have ever had since I was 17.

Looking Back...Latrobe Town Fair 2001

First off, Happy Birthday to one of my closest friends, Brandon Barrett. I was thinking about writing a post about Brandon, but then again I really don't think I can legally say some of my stories with him being a Vice President of his union and father/husband. I mean I could make you sick with some of these stories.  Aside from that, I decided to look back to one of the best weekends ever, and Brandon was there for it.

It was the summer of 2001. Most of us were all completely single, but we were all idiots. I was 21. Most everybody else was 21 as well, but at least 21 as I think it was maybe just past this weekend in 2001, thus making Brandon the final one of us going to the party to be of legal age.

I guess every year, at least for a few years, Rolling Rock beer sponsored a festival concert in the middle of the summer. The year before was I believe the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters, what should have been a great show. The 2001 lineup included what I believe was Staind and Incubus (before they became boraphyl), Live, Tantric, Deftones, and Stone Temple Pilots. At the time, Tantric was an awesome band. Their first record had just come out and they were like hard rock-acoustic type of bands that I was really looking forward to seeing perform. Deftones were still making good music, and this was probably the last year I would have wanted to see them. Incubus had just released that album with the Pardon Me song that seemed to make everybody suddenly like them. Live was live, so whatever. And STP was far and away my favorite band of all time.

It happened so many years ago that I forget who all was there. We may have taken upwards of four cars, but I distinctly recall 3 cars - driven by Brandon, Dave Jacobs, and Jeff Dixon. Other attendees of the trip included Tim Beitz, Chris Kerr, and the rest are blurs of maybe they were there maybe they weren't - including Bryan Selm, Nick Tsigos, and whoever else I cannot recall at the moment. My apologies, but that was 11 years ago now.

The drive was long, and I remember Jim Lipski telling us that we should start seeing signs for West Virginia when we were approaching Latrobe, PA. We laughed at him. Sure as I am short, that formerly fat bastard was right. Anywho, the drive lasted longer than it should have as we took practically the entire length of I-76, the Pennsylvania Turnpike for you out of state-ers. I was in Brandon's car along with maybe just Big Jim Robinson. We were the last car in our entourage. When we stopped at a rest stop for gas, we noticed Tim was in Jacobs' car - a Mitsubishi Galant - that had the "GA" missing from it's name Galant. When we saw Tim get in to the car, we started joking how Tim put the "gay" in galant. We joked about that to ourselves for hours on the trip. Suddenly, rain started, and almost every car with a Pennsylvania license plate was pulled over and waiting for the storm to pass. We were amazed at how many wimps we drove past on our way to rock greatness.

We got to the hotel some time in the afternoon, and instead of having like 3 or 4 rooms like we requested, they had given us 2 rooms. So dudes sleeping on top of dudes. I would like to think that perhaps Chris Anderson was with us as well as he was working hard on getting the rooms set up as Kerr and I walked out to the parking lot and started cracking open our Molsen's and Rolling Rock. I think the rooms were acquired as we requested, just all a little separated. I think all but one of the rooms we had had their bathrooms converted into ice cold beer refrigerators. Our bathtubs were full of ice and beers, and there was a local Sheetz right outside of our hotel. As we were loading up our beers to get them cold and ready for the night, Brandon was unpacking several, uh, "adult" magazines - inlcuding, but not limited to Busty, Club Cheri, Club International, and Ebony Butts. These items would be key to Brandon's involvement in the concert the next day.

I know we went to the hotel bar after we were set for the night and Brandon was there doing his newest bar move...the "slip the bartender a $20 while shaking his hand and saying 'remember my name is Brandon and these guys are my friends, so let's take care of them, ok' while everybody else saw you do it" trick. Brandon also ran the pool table all night long hustling black guys and other bar patrons. We may or may not have driven to a bar in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and we may or may not have talked trash to Steelers fans and we may or may not have witnessed Brandon's trick with the $20 and we may or may not have let Kerr drive us home in an inappropriate state. Not proud of it but that happened back then.

The next day was thee concert. We heard that we needed to leave really early as traffic would be horrendous. As we were all getting ready to leave, Brandon was in a mini panic. He was tearing up the room.. We asked him what was wrong, and, believe it or not, he was losing his shit because he lost his issue of "Busty." It was crazy. We were getting ready to leave and he said he was not going to leave until he got his magazine. He decided to stay back. And thus all of us was talking about how we thought Brandon just stayed behind to play pool and that he did not really want to be at the show, which was generally accepted.

The concert itself was insanely good. I think we got there as Tantric was finishing up. I liked what I saw, and there as a decent crowd of people for them. We spent our time trying to get free beer tickets so that the Rolling Rock could flow like water. Deftones came on and Big Jim appeared to be taken aback by what he was hearing. At the time, Big Jim was an All-American Hammer Thrower. I was a Real American weight lifter. He insisted on us going into the mosh pit. The pit had its share of huge guys, but they were no match for the Big Jim Little Duba wrecking balls combination. Jim had mud caked up under his eye and looked like a savage. I took an elbow in the stomach at one point, I think during the song "Engine No. 9" that doubled me over. Immediately somebody's body cracked into my head, slamming it to the left with a loud cracking of bone. My brain went blank and I thought I could not move. Sure enough another body slammed into my head, forcing it in the opposite direction and making even more crunching/cracking noises. And just like that I was back up and slam dancing again as everything seemed normal. Jim and I decided to partake in the mosh pit again during Staind's performance.

By this point, I was very dehydrated, and not wasted. I cannot recall if anybody was drunk, but rather just sick from tailgating followed by vicious heat and dehydration. Still no sign of Brandon though. We did think that if Brandon showed up, he would be able to easily find us amongst the thousand of people. I was worse for the wear, so I hustled up to the water tank for some hydration. The tanks were empty and people were getting aggravated, so I left to go back to the show. I believe it as Dixon who told me I should get crowd surfed to the front and act like I was going to faint. I sure did, and it worked. I was given a few minutes in the air conditioned room and drank several bottles of water.

The next phase of the concert involved a war between the people who had been in the pit all day and those standing on the perimeter. The rain from the day before had made the field in the pit complete mush. The people in the pit were launching mud across the field at the dry ones and the dry ones were actually throwing bottles. STP eventually came on and Kerr and I had decided it was time to pick a side and we joined the mudder side. We spoke with the security guards about the situation and they said it was all okay because of what they got to see. With that the guard pointed to a "wash tub" with several women undressing before and hoping in, asking for people to clean them off. Kerr and I were right there, but we aren't "wash you off and tell later"" kind of guys.


We somehow found our way back to Dixon's jeep. Jim and I sat in the back, and I can only remember that we finally got drunk again and were trying to rehydrate only with Sprite. Jim threw up violently several times out the back of Jeff's jeep. We were stuck in traffic before eventually returning to the hotel. We saw Brandon in the bar and started busting his ball about not showing up. He insisted, and still does to this day, that he was there, for the last two songs STP played and since he saw it from the entrenceway he was able to get home quicker than the rest of us.

When we were going back to our rooms, we noticed a loud group of people, with some voices sounding familiar. I cannot remember who all was there, but it was a group of younger kids from our home town. I only remember Mike Pons. Pons and I went to Sheetz late that night to get some food. We came back only to find that Brandon's interior car light was on. We go to check it out and sure enough Brandon is in there, sneak eating a sandwhich. Pons called him a closet eater.

We woke up the next day, not seeing Tim any where. Eventually there was a knock on our door, and it was Tim. He came in and started telling us a story about how he hooked up with one of the girls from the younger crew from our home town. We started asking him for the disgusting guy details when he suddenly cut us off and said all he did was make out with the girl. This prompted Jacobs to say, "So wait...you drove 7 hours away to a strange random town just to only hook up with a girl from Cinnaminson?" Before we could even laugh at that line, Big Jim blurts out "First Base Tim First Base Tim!"

We cleaned our room and I must say when several guys spend a weekend drinking and eating horrible food and sharing very small hotel rooms it tends to smell like shit and cigarettes. I had a seven flusher and Jacobs had a 7-packer. It was horrible smelling. Brandon packed his bag, completely upset that he still could not find the missing Busty. He blamed the maid. There was no way a maid touched our room at all.

When we finally got back to town, Brandon asked me to take a trip with him to the adult bookshop in Burlington. We went. I had no money left, so I was just walking around. I saw one guy come out of the private booth as another man was going into the booths, and they high-fived each other. Brandon suddenly appeared with a stack of movies clutched to his chest. The pile of movies was so ridiculous that two movies fell out - titled "How the Breast Was Fun" and "Wild Wild Chest." As this happened he said to me, "I have a problem."

You sure do buddy. And it is my job to preserve this memories.

Happy birthday, my friend. Thanks for being there for 21 years for me.

Quadruple Movie Review - A cartoon, two great movies, and one really gay-boring choice

Starting on last Thursday night, Kim and I went on a tear of watching newer movies. From family selections to deadly scenarios, below is a brief review of four movies:

Puss in Boots

Awful. Terrible. Horrendous. Stupid. Lame. Could have been better if it featured real live paint drying. This movie was highly anticipated by me Kim and Rocco. We often were entertained by the cat Puss in the Shrek movies, especially when he got fat. I will admit, several times while seeing Puss pose and make wild accusations of himself, I chuckled. The shape of this cat is always hilarious to me. He looks plain ridiculous.

Synopsis - Puss learns of magic beans held by Jack and Jill, who have evil intentions for it. Some masked cat comes along wanting to take the beans as well. Puss is also an outlaw with a big reward on his head, but it is never explained why. The other cat is a chick, and I cannot recall her name. She is working with Humpty Dumpty to retrieve the beans and get the goose that laid the golden egg. Turns out Humpty and her have evil intentions as well, but the girl falls in love with her Puss and does not want to betray him. Puss and Humpty argue about why Puss won't work with the two of them and then flashes back to a convoluted story about their disagreement. I think my 6 year old would understand the word convoluted more than he would this story so far. The trio works together, retrieves the beans, goes up to the bean stalk and steals the golden goose's gosling. Humpty becomes good again and somehow there is a happy ending. I don't remember anything else in between.

So, if I did a shitty job presenting the story, that's because it was executed shittyingly. I follow corn mazes better than I did this movie. Rocco asked 4 times to do something else, but since I ordered the movie on pay-per-view, we wouldn't let him do anything else. It was family night in celebration of our 3 year anniversary together as we feasted on homemade tacos.

Overall - Aside from laughing at the shape of Puss, I give this movie a D. Not as bad as Cars 2, but worse than Home Alone 4. Do not see this movie. Also, the overuse of nursery rhyme jokes got a bit absurd after the first 10 minutes.

The Grey

Liam Neeson plays another role where he knows everything that his character can possibly know. He has a character whose name I cannot recall and couldn't pronounce when it was going on. However, this movie was intense for film dedicated to staredowns with wolves.

Synopsis - Neeson works as a wolf/wildlife sniper for workers on the Alaskan pipe line. The workers are convicts, drug addicts, bad guys in life who would best function for society strictly as workers. They work somewhere deep in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. The opening scenes cut to a lunch room where random fights are allowed and people are drinking/eating/swearing up a storm. Neeson is actually shown sniping a wolf as it runs for one of the pipeline workers. He has a lot of respect and knowledge of the wolves and you can tell his job is performed excellently yet begrudgingly. The crew boards a flight to head back to some main area of Alaska on a horrible sunny day. The people on the plane irritate Neeson. He knows he is better than these guys. The plane gets some major turbulence and starts to break apart and crashes down. The plane crash scene is very intense. People screaming while Neeson does his best to secure himself in his seat while scenery, bodies, engine parts, plane parts, and snow circulates around him. The movie features a lot of cutscenese focusing on him being with his wife in a bed as she turns to him and says something like, "Don't be scared." These dreams end with something dramatic, like him being sucked away into a snow bank as he awakes after the plane crash. He walks around for survivors and finds maybe less than 10 people. All very intense, as the workers watch their friends die or their dead bodies burn. Neeson lets them all know that wolves are their number one enemy in these parts and he treks them out across the snowy terrain of Alaska. However, one by one the survivors are killed by wolves. Neeson says wolves are unique in that they aren't killing them to eat, but rather to show dominance. Eventually only 3 of them make it very far into the journey. One of the guys, who opposed Neeson throughout the movie and eventually saw the light, decides to leave himself behind. He hurt his leg earlier and realizes he is more liability than asset. He sits on a log to admire the scenery as he knows wolves are coming in for the kill. Neeson and his last partner eventually get chased by wolves, and the other guy falls into a rapid river. He gets his foot stuck and, try as Neeson might to save him, his partner drowns. Neeson, alone, tired, and with nothing left, feels like he is bound to pass out. At this point, he hears the howls, then one unique howl that sends the other wolves scattering. The Alpha confonts Neeson, and he prepares for one final showdown, while cutting back to the same scene with his wife. Only this time, the camera pans back to see that his wife is about to die as the intravenous bags drip something into her tubes. With nothing left to lose, Neeson arms himself with a small blade and tapes some small broken glass bottles to his hand. Fin.

Overall - The thing I most like about this movie is that not one second of the day is safe from the wolves. They show up during the day and night. There is a lot of stand downs with the wolves as Neeson explains the wolfpack logic. The night scenes are way intense as you only see the glowing eyes of wolves around them. The grizzly deaths of the humans and one wolf beheading are very graphic yet fit the movie perfectly.  Neeson's dialog is fantastic throughout as are the other characters who add much to the movie of only 7 real main actors. We were actually both blown away by this movie and would recommend it to everybody. Grade A movie.

Contagion

After seeing that 21 Jump Street was not available at Red Box, we looked up stuff as an asshole was impatiently waiting behind us. Not my problem buddy. Anywho, we saw this movie that told of pandemic mystery disease that starred a lot of well known actors.

Synopsis - The movie starts off on "Day 2" where Gwyneth Paltrow is waiting for a plan and it is revealed she just spent some time with a dude during her flight's layover from Hong Kong, stuck in the Chicago Airport. She is coughing a little bit. She gets home and appears to have the worst flu ever, eventually seizuring and being hospitalized. Within hours after being in the hospital she is dead. Matt Damon, her husband, is livid that she died and nobody has anything as to why she died. His stepson, Paltrow's son, dies eventually as well as Damon looks for answers. He has to be quarentined in the hospital as his house is like a ground zero. He eventually is deemed to be immune to the disease. Elsewhere around the world, a Hong Kong businessman who is sick has the same seizures on a train, and it is video captured and goes viral, no pun intended, across the world. Laurence Fishborne is in the CDC and he sees the video, dispatching an epidemiologist to Hong Kong. The CDC tries to delineate where the disease came from and researches for a cure/vaccine. Meanwhile, some conspiracist guy has a video blog to get information out about how some over the counter item can cure the disease. He contracted it himself and was cured over a couple days with this. By the time the disease has reached the 100 day mark, it is as if humanity is lost. Looting has taken over the U.S. and people are living without laws. Eventually a vaccine is found and lotteries based on birthdays is announced and the lawlessness starts to die down. The end of the movie takes you into some Asian rain forest currently being deforrested, presumably for logging. A bat falls out of a tree and shits over some local pig farmer's ranch. The pig eats the shit. Then a chef in a Hong Kong casino gets the pig and prepares/butchers it. Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow is some powerful business woman and is on a business trip concluding in a Hong Kong casino. The chef, after preparing the food, wipes his hands on his apron and shakes her hand. Boom. Pandemic.

Overall - Grade A (but like a 96%). There is so much detail to this movie that my paragrpah above does not elaborate on. Throughout the movie, they play a bunch of cool techno-ish type music. The coolest and creepiest part is the panic that sets in across the world, specifically in the United States. Matt Damon's neighbors are shot to death after the panic has set in, so he investigates the house and steals that family's gun for his own protection. His daughter, who does not know if she is immune, is forced to stay in the house until her lottery number is drawn. She wants to see her boyfriend, but her dad does not allow it. In the end, the boyfriend is vaccinated and he comes over on the previously scheduled Prom Night if schools were still in session. You can only assume that  the world is eventually saved. It was like the movie Crash, but with diseases affecting everybody everywhere. Very good movie without being overly scientific. I highly recommend it, and think it may have even been a slight nudge better than "The Grey."

Glee Concert Movie in 3D

Yes, Kim and I are Glee-tards. I think it has some cool messages for the youths of today who seemed confused about everything in their 15 minutes on this planet so far. The comedy is pretty funny on the show, and I can handle most of the singing they do on the show, minus when they have solo broadway type songs that suck man-ass. Speaking of man-ass, I think Kurt's dad is the best character on the show. He is not always given something hilarious to say, but he is a tough and rugged old man who has a flaming gay son, and he is cool with it and accepting and constantly shows he is proud of his son, while being a single dad. It is a very good message that is implied in this portion of the show. I came out of the kitchen with a bowl of cerial and Kim had it set on the TV.

Synopsis - A bunch of misfits and typically outcasts are shown giving their story on what Glee means to them and how it has helped them find friends, get over being a dwarf, coming out of the closet, and dealing with weight issues. Good messages, just a little overbearing at times. The singing is what it is. A bunch of singers who can act a little while running around a stage in character. The one thing that is impressive about the show is the kid Arnie who is supposed to be handicapped. For those that don't watch the show, he is parapalegic and does everything in a wheelchair, including dance routines. Watching him actually sing while dancing within the confines of a wheelchair he self-propels is actually very impressive.

Overall - Boring. I felt a little emberassed actually that it was on my TV. C minus.

Myths About the 2012-2013 Philadelphia Eagles

I've read a lot in the past couple weeks as the NFL is in the "dark ages" of news. All the opinion pieces come out, what if scenarios, and banter about what a team has to do to win. To write about the Eagles almost seems too easy. The common topics I hear on my local sports radio address a lot of the stuff I will list below. I will help you decide whether it is fact or fiction.

 

1. Michael Vick must stay healthy. I agree to a point, as no matter who your starting quarterback is you need that position healthy. You cannot instantly plug in a backup who practices with backups into your starting squad. Especially going from Riley Cooper and Chad Hall to Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin. That is not the same. However, I saw Vince Young confidently lead the Eagles to victory over the future Super Bowl champions the New York Giants. Vince Young had a decent game against the Patriots in a crushing loss (although his stats came in the last half). Young was terrible against the Seahawks four days later. That was Vince Young, though, and as Brandon Barrett says "Vince Young is a turd." Trent Edwards, Mike Kafka, and this rookie fella they drafted would not be the solution should Vick go down, but that makes me understand why people say Vick is the key. If Vick goes down, Andy Reid and his coaching staff have not ever shown fans in this city that they can handle a game change to find a way to best utilize different offensive pieces to the puzzle. They seemingly have no backup plan. I could not expect Trent Edwards to get the ball in time to DeSean Jackson as Vick would. But unfortunately, lately the Eagles are a boom or bust offense, which leads to several other bad things. Remember, in 2011, Vick went 7 and 6 in his starts. 2010 Vick did only a little better the year before. Still, the Eagles had a high scoring offense that Vick is integral to. The real answer to this myth is keeping the offensive line and Lesean McCoy healthy. Those pieces, under a normal coach, would be what keeps the offense moving, especially in this day when defenses are preparing for a pass happy league.

 

2. Andy Reid will be fired by the end of the 2012-2013 season. I think if the Eagles even made it to the Super Bowl and lost, the fans would be calling for his head. As an Eagles fan from only the Andy Reid era, I do not know how much more successful any other coach would be. I understand he was an offensive side of the ball guy and he was lucky enough to have an amazing defensive coordinator. Who died. And now our old offensive line coach is the defensive COORDINATOR. And that is Reid's decision, and he stuck with it. He obviously has some major game plan ahead. I think, regardless of my outrageous Eagles predictions, that if the Eagles make the playoffs, no matter how they struggled in the season, that Andy Reid stays, with one condition. The condition is that if Andy Reid can finally show that he has the ability to make changes in the game to stay competitive and handle adversity, and the Eagles have moderate success, then he is safe. The owner Jeffry Lurie does NOT want to fire Reid. I think he was just giving the fans some lip service back a few months ago during his now infamous (to Philadelphia fans) "fool's gold" speech. He was acknowledging (after 13 years) the complaints of the fans but also expressing his love for Andy. The fact is, the Eagles will never not be sold out, so Lurie does not really need to worry about appeasing the fans. The Eagles are one of the top 10 most popular teams in the NFL. I forget where I read that, but I did read that. What the Eagles really need is for Andy Reid to coach a game like there is no tomorrow.

He has not made any drastic coaching changes or personnel changes that he can hide behind as needing more time to develop. What I feel Reid always has done is design a game plan that he feels should work during practices and is a hit or miss against the actual opponent. If in 13 years he has made very few in game changes (at least in the fans' minds), what would make him start now? I hope I am wrong. As I was saying, he needs to coach more aggressively than ever. Throw the run in the face of the opponents, tear up the quarterback, and knock the shit out of kickers. Fans will appreciate losing that way in an all or nothing way rather than just handing the opponent a win (see San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Arizona, Giants [1st game], Buffalo, and ALMOST the Rams). A 10 win season means he stays. A Super Bowl win means he retires.

 

3. The Eagles' secondary is awful. Well, I don't agree with that. I like Kurt Coleman. He is raw, and it is a shame that there is no veteran presence back there minus OJ Otagwe. Brian Dawkins was awesome in that sense. Quinten Mikell was awesome with the Eagles until B-Dawk left. Then he was meh. Then he went to St. Louis to sabotage them. A committe of safeties would not be so bad, and I did not envy anybody on defense last year. For a long stretch of the season, the strong safety Kurt Coleman was the leading tackler. That position is typically the last defensive player in the open field. It should not come down to this position so often. The Eagles just got a veteran presence in the middle linebacker position, allowing the two outside linebackers to play to their strengths. I like Jamar Chaney and this Rolle kid could be decent to really good. And Casey Mathews can maybe become the next Moises Fokou. That would not be a bad thing. Dominque Rogers-Cromartie can play his natural position better with Asante Samuel traded to get burned in Atlanta and Asomugha can maybe play in the role that made him good. The fact that the Eagles tried to use Asomugha in a manner he was not best known for cost them big time. It also hurt Asomugha in the eyes of his peers as he was in the 70's on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2012. That's a big drop. I feel that if you are a pro athlete, commanding a shit ton of money, you should best play your best no matter what. You need to create a scheme that you think would best disrupt offenses and then find the appropriate players, not the other way around. Yes there is the need for some compromise of scheme and players, and I think with the trade for Demeco Ryans, the ouster of Samuel, and the heavily defensive rookie draft class, the Eagles are creating their own form of defense that hopefully keeps offensives guessing for a while. I am FINE with Juan Castillo as coordinator. I was not fine with the original selection last year, but I did see the defense develop last year much like how the offensive line geled as the season progressed. I think the youth will show in some spots, but less than the Eagles defense will be lauded for playing well.

4. A full off-season will help this team become the contender they were hoping to be last year. Maybe. Everybody had the same season, and the programs with the least change for the past couple years won the Super Bowl. But somebody had to win it, right? Some surprises came along the way like the development of Victor Cruz and Rob Gronkowski, but every pro football player had the same opportunity to make their splash. The Eagle's scrapped and rebooted their defense, but so did other teams. The Broncos had a new coach and won a division and home playoff game in which they were the underdogs. Perhaps we should look at 2011 as a 16 game pre-season. Yeah that's fine if you are okay with mediocrity. Perhaps the Eagles coaching staff tries too hard to come up with complicated packages. Some of these players are not too bright, but they can read a playbook better than I can. We have a former criminal mastermind as our quarterback, so at least we know there is something working up there. The Eagles were able to have some heart in 2010, which is why it was such a shame they lost in the playoffs as they seemed to be playing without it by that point. You cannot teach your players the will to win, in a regular off-season or shortened off-season. That must come from within. Even the 0-16 Detroit Lions had the will to win, they just couldn't do it. The will to win showed up on the Eagles in the last couple games of the year with flashes of it starting in the VY led victory in New York (New Jersey). You cannot teach heart, but hopefully somebody on that team, in all three phases of the game, has it and can share it with his teammates. Perhaps the best scenario would be for the coaches to design gameplans for when they may be down by two scores rather than try to start the game with a 7-0 lead after 1 minute of play. I once saw the Manning/Colts score a touchdown over the course of 7 minutes. Brady does it too. So can Eli. (and their coaches are responsible for calling those plays as well). That's what the Eagles need to adjust and take advantage of this time and actually get input from the players on this as well.

5. Nothing will ever make the Eagles fan happy.

Should, and possibly when, the Eagles do not win the Superbowl, and let's just say they don't even make the playoffs - then we can expect the dreadful rebuilding years. If Vick goes down more than a Latvian street merchant, he's out. If Reid cannot have at least one dominating playoff victory, he is out. And probably all of his coaches to a degree. The replacement coach would not be good enough. The coordinators would be hammered, and rebuilding the franchise would be more painful than buying a space heater in Russia. If Andy Reid wins the Super Bowl and goes out on top, fans will be clamoring for his return, because his plan finally worked. As the late great Mitch Hedberg once said, "You can't please all the people all the time, and last night all those people were at my show." Our city is known for appreciating the positive, but only highlighting the negative. And that is how it will stay.