Princess Christina

Soft.

I am not against anyone for being upset about being injured. It's your livelihood. You (ostensibly) love to play. You're competitive and want to be out there. You want to help your team win.

Or want to just chill. Whatever.

But come on.

Picking on a first year ex-Euroleaguer? (Would Xtina Bosh have been so vocal if KG had landed on his ankle? If you say yes, you are LYING. He went after a youngblood.) Calling out somebody who hustled without malice? Sure, let's not be reckless. Sure, let's not be malicious. (This was neither, by the way). But come on. I don't want anybody on my team who wants to institute itty bitty micro-rules or gentlemen's agreements about when hustle is and is not appropriate. Please.

Give me the guy who dives for the ball, who gets on the floor. Not the guy who believes in some pink cotton candy world of "higher law."

Maybe KG should warn his teammates before diving into the bench for a loose ball. Maybe Robert Parish should've warned Kurt Rambis before he clotheslined him.

Bottom line: Chris Bosh got hurt on a nonmalicious hustle play (in which he may have been outhustled) that happens 5-6 times every game and had to whine about it with some stupid rant about...what...a mutual understanding among players about the propriety of hustle?

Somebody get the Heat a muzzle.

And somebody get 1990's Charlie T on the line to remind 2010 Charlie T what it meant to battle on the basketball court.

"What's it like rooting for a total p*$#!?"

I want to start out by saying that every member of the Miami Heat has said something stupid that has made headlines. They are not excused for making dumb comments. They know good and well that there are reporters waiting anxiously for some sound bite or sentence fragement that will garner some attention. They have the full attention of the sports world which means most sports fans hear all of these remarks, or at least the most ridiculous ones. (see also Iverson, Allen "we talkin bout practice?") We then get to have heated, over the top debates about what kind of person they are. In most cases this wouldn't be fair but when you have a signing party at the arena in July and have a tv special, you get more scrutiny.

Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, on to the matter at hand. Two questions about The Heatles; Is Chris Bosh a pansy? and to quote Spike's question to me "What's it like rooting for a total p*$#!?"

Four years ago I was playing pick-up basketball with a bunch of friends from school. It was five on five, full court and indoors. Just a bunch of never-weres getting together and sweating it out. Three games into it, we had finally found balanced teams and it quickly became more competitive. The last game featured a pizza bet, with the losing team paying for the winners to go put any calories back on that we had managed to shed. With this kind of a reward comes more dedicated defense and rebounding, since those are the things that only require the one skill we had any amount of (hustle). Here is where this story becomes relevant.

Towards the end of the game I had the defensive assignment on the opposing point guard. He had hit a couple of long jumpers, and was slower than most, so I was playing up on him. Around the free throw line extended, a teammate of his set a screen on me. I decided to go under it and at the same time he decided that he would try and come off the screen with a drive to the basket. He changed his mind when he saw me go underneath and he pulled back. I stepped out on him as he tried to square up and reset. This resulted in him apparently tripping over himself and going to the ground. He lost the ball, which I picked up and took down to the other end for a basket. Upon my return to the other end of the court I saw everyone standing around him on the ground. The was holding his kneee and cursing about his knee. When I came into view, the curses were then directed at me. I was a no-good-fill-in-the-blank who had pushed him over when I knew he had bad knees. Neither accusation was true, but nobody else saw what had happened and I was now the bad guy.

He tried to get up and walk it off but it was apparent that something more than a sprain had happened. We would later find out that his surgically repaired knee had failed and he tore his ACL. We went from being freinds at school to him ignoring me and blaming me for his injury. I had no response. I was sorry he had gotten hurt, but I hadn't done anything wrong. He was playing basketball, a potentially rough sport, and wasn't wearing his requisit knee brace. He tried to push the blame onto me or get me to cover some of his medical expenses. How do I respond to that? I was as kind as I could afford, but unfortunately I felt no responsibility and all he got was a couple of lunches out of me.

Now this is a round about way to getting at the question at hand. Is Chris Bosh a soft, whining pansy? Well I was in the shoes of Omer Asik, getting blamed for an injury. How did I feel? Was it justified? I understood that he was mad and that he would incur some expenses because of the injury. But I did feel wrongly accused. Could I have taken it a little easier? Of course. It was a pick-up game after all. Was this kid a pansy for blaming me? Never did that cross my mind. I did feel like he took the blame assignment too far. I think the same can be said of Chris Bosh. I am a homer, but I don't think he is truly worried that an ankle sprain will keep him from providing for his family. I think he said it out of frustration, in the same way my friend blamed me. It is a pansy thing to say, but I don't think Chris Bosh is a pansy.

So, what's it like rooting for a total p*$#!? Well, its pretty good when he is part of a team winning 21 out of 22 games. When they are on a 3 game skid, it gets a bit tougher. Its also easy to disregard anything stupid he might say since he is, at best, 3rd on the depth chart and maybe only 6th on my favorites depth chart. (In case you were wondering, my list goes Wade, Haslem, LeBron, House, Magloire, Bosh, Chalmers, etc.) If he was higher up on either depth chart, it might bother me quite a bit more. I do wish he was more of a "go to work and keep your mouth shut" kind of guy. But in the end, I don't really care that much when he says stupid things.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other guys doing stupid things that I get to be all worked up about.

Best of 2010

Sorry to the faithful readers in the delay of this post. And without further ado...

2010 Albums
1. The National - High Violet
2. Mumford and Sons - Sign No More
3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
4. Beach House - Teen Dream
5. Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt & Sometimes The Blues ...
6. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
7. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
8. Nathaniel Rateliff - In Memory Of Loss
9. Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away
10. Laura Marling - I Speak Becasue I Can

2010 Mixtape
When I put this list of songs together, I started by identifying every song that made an impact on me in 2010. It could have been a fun song, a catchy song, a meaningful song or a mood setting song. Then I tried to narrow it down to a manageable number, and eventually I trimmed it enough to fit on the old fashioned blank CD. Then came the hard part; how do I sequence the songs in a way to make the mixtape descriptive of my year? I tried to identify the reasons behind my reactions to each song and use those reasons to organize the mixtape.

Dream Sequence
I spent a good portion of 2010 having dreams, trying to understand them or chasing them down. Turned out this manifested itself in a good number of the songs chosen
528491 - Hans Zimmer
A curveball. Good to start out with a curveball to get the listener off balance, but this song represents the most impactful sound waves to hit me in 2010. Anybody who was anxiously anticipating Inception got excited any time they heard these deep, powerful foghorns. This was also one of the smartest songs of the year. Read more here.

The Dreamer - Tallest Man On Earth
This song made me stop in my tracks in the first 10 seconds. Rare to do to me anymore. I must’ve listened to it 12 times in a row after that.
Awake My Soul - Mumford and Sons
Best song on one of my favorite albums. And a great Take Away Show to boot.
Cloudy Shoes - Damien Jurado
Doesn’t specifically mention dreams in the song, but it has the same atmosphere that accompany most of my dreams.
Change of Time - Josh Ritter
“I had a dream last night, and when I opened my eyes…”

The Trying Time Section
Somebody once told me that man can do anything if he knows there will be an end to it. I responded that I could do anything as long as I could listen to music throughout, with or without an end.
Rambling Man - Laura Marling
“Its funny how the first chords you come to, are the minor notes that come to serenade you”
Wait For Me - Anais Mitchell f. Ben Knox Miller and Justin Vernon
“But if all you got is your own two legs, you best be glad you got them”

The Train Section
Workin' for the MTA - Justin Townes Earle
I love trains and I spent a good deal of my year on trains. And I especially like songs about trains. Country songs about trains and in old New York.

In Concert Highlights
Early Spring Till - Nathaniel Rateliff
Saw him open for The Low Anthem and I didn’t expect much. I was half paying attention to him when a couple songs into his set he played this song. The sincerity in his voice cut through the crowd chatter and drew me in.
Postcards From Italy – Beirut
Summertime, outdoors, Balkan folk.
Afraid Of Everyone - The National
One of the highlights from my musical highlight in 2010. This was the fourth song they played when I saw the in Oakland, but the first song that crushed me. Matt Berninger sings with a lot of feeling and emotion and it comes across on their records, but that only captures about 5% of the power of him singing live. This song really had that power.

The Upbeat Section
Not much to say here other than these songs got a lot of dance time in 2010.
Everlasting Light - The Black Keys
Walk In The Park - Beach House
Moves - The New Pornographers
Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire
Home (RAC mix) - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Best of 2010 List

Charlie T and I talked many times about how 2010 was not a year for the faint of quality. Some have said that the year was lesser, but that's bunk. The quality releases of 2010 were such that it made making a Top 10 list almost impossible. Here's where I landed. Unlike most lists, I'm saying "screw anticipation" and sticking #1 at the top. No reveal, nothing.

1) The National- High Violet

This album’s spot at #1 is meaningful beyond just it being the best record and the one I listened to and wanted to listen to the most in 2010. It’s meaningful because it sets the precedent for this reckoning and judgment, the critical philosophy that governs how I picked my favorite records of 2010. There are some albums on this list (and off it) that suffered because of the expectation (mine, the public’s, the band's) that follows releasing a great record. That can mean that we expect albums to build on (to quote the Miami Heat about themselves) greatness. It can mean we have our own arbitrary expectation of what a band should do next (the most unfair of our expectations). And it can also mean that we simply expect the album to be at least as good as the previous one, which is fair but also pretty subjective and even a little arbitrary.

The National met expectations at the crossroads and ran over them– with furious frenetic drums, shoutalong choruses, catharsis, mumbles, blood, buzz, and more. This album is NOT Boxer Pt II. But nothing that I loved about Boxer prevented me from loving this record. It took parts of that record, evolved them, and mixed them with new elements and angles and approaches. The results are great, an album that I had no problem listening to back-to-back-to-back, a feat unheard of in my ADD-riddled impatient 21^st Century mp3-single mind.

Charlie T and I talked about the challenge of not being able to pick THE one standout favorite track (initially, at least, “Fake Empire” on Boxer). At different times, different songs leapt out, pushing the others aside. But just temporarily. The song I like least (“Runaway”) is a favorite of most of my friends, which says something for the well-roundedness of the record.

2) Justin Townes Earle- Harlem River Blues (+ his contribution to the John Prine tribute record)

Steve’s kid. It has to be said. Especially with a middle name like Townes, which I’ve heard he opted to include later in his career. Might as well embrace it all, I guess. He fares better than most famous musicians’ kids (Julian Lennon, Wilson Phillips, etc) and jumps to the adults’ table with Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright.

From the first line of the first song, I was sold. And, mind you, I was bracing myself to hate it. Hype filter set to UNBELIEVABLY HIGH. And the first song just rolled over me. “Lord, I’m going uptown to the Harlem River to drown. Dirty water gonna cover me over and I’m not gonna make a sound.” It’s the first song in a long time that I just repeated over and over and over.

But it’s not just that song. It’s the beauty of “Christchurch Woman” and patient story of “MTA.” It feels old and new. It feels borrowed and original. Mostly, it feels like a guy finding his voice, an authentic voice. It’s the record I’ve been hoping to hear from Ryan Adams for awhile now- Americana that nods to its roots and keeps adding leaves. Oops. There’s that expectation again.

3) Over The Rhine – The Long Surrender

This won’t even come out til January. But I couldn’t wait. I decided not to do this album the injustice of sitting on it for a year and letting its beauty and impact be lessened by time. So here it is.

A year ago, I got to hear Linford and Karen (the two writers/players/singers in OTR) in a songwriting class, talking about how their unique and unorthodox music career allowed them to grow, and how it allowed them to devoutly believe that– 20 years into the game– their best record was still ahead of them. What other bands can say that their best record would come out 20 years in? The Beatles didn't even last 10 years. (Don't take this as a knock on The Beatles. I am a ridiculously big Beatles fan.) The Stones– a model of career longevity if not continued creative relevance– recorded Undercover in their 21st year, not a landmark record and nowhere near even THEIR Top 10.

I got to hear them preview these songs last September at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville and was blown away, praying that the recorded versions would live up to their in-concert promise.

And Joe Henry captured it. And by “it” I mean the greatness and beauty and devastation and sadness and sweetness of these songs, the power and subtlety of Karen’s incredible voice, the movement, the moment, and, yes, the best record of Over The Rhine’s career. Not a dud in the mix.

4) Tallest Man On Earth- The Wild Hunt (+ the EP)

I jumped to my kneejerk “Way Too Dylanesque” stance on this one and a friend pointed out, “If this was actually Bob Dylan, you would worship these songs.”

He was correct. These songs, while I don’t find myself listening to the whole record in any one sitting (but, hey, sometimes the blues is just a passing bird), are great. Desperate, tender, brash, passionate, sad, poetic. And what a great guitar player.

5) Anais Mitchell- Hadestown

If we’re talking about expectation, I had none with this one. I literally bought it because the album art and cast of musicians intrigued me. I had no idea what to expect. And was shocked by how much I loved it.

There was a month where this was in contention for the #1 spot. Its ambition– a modern day folkie take on an old myth, sung by a murderer’s row of great indie and folk voices (Mitchell, Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, the guy from The Low Anthem), part folk and part Broadway– is staggering. Mitchell has vision and guts. And the songs are good. And if you can get a guy who has a hairtrigger gag reflex when it comes to anything even remotely Broadway to dive headfirst into your record, you’re getting somewhere.

I'd say there were a few ambitious releases this year (Kanye for one) and this has to be in the club.

6) Jakob Dylan- Women & Country

Jakob, you are forgiven for that last postage stamp of a Wallflowers album. This collection is gorgeous, well written, smart, effortless. And Neko Case and Kelly Hogan's perfect vocals don’t hurt. I found myself going back to this record more than I ever thought I would. Sure, it has the mark of T-Bone Burnett, but since when is that a bad thing?

7) Josh Ritter- So Runs The World Away

Unfair expectation dropped a good Ritter album out of the Top 5. Completely unfair and I'm sure time will prove me wrong. Just because I thought it would be something that it’s not, I initially didn’t gravitate towards this album like I thought I would. But if you take a killer live show and the Josh Ritter Pantheon songs “The Curse” and “Change Of Time”, it refuses to be denied. In 5 years, I will still be talking about this record, but I just can't honestly put it ahead of the others as a document of THIS year. Lame, I know.

8) The Lower West- Only The Dead Know Brooklyn

A collection of honest, authentic lo-fi songs by the prolific, dynamic Dominic Moore with a new cast of characters that brings more piano and bass to the mix than usual. Dominic is one of my favorite songwriters and he shines all over this one, his range leaping from explosive to sleepy and everywhere in between.

9) Laura Veirs? Damien Jurado? Horse Feathers? Patty Griffin? Arcade Fire?

No, this isn't a tie. It's indecision and refusal to make a decision. Veirs and Horse Feathers were latecomers, leading a late and furious charge for the Top 10. But Patty and Damien had the writing. And Arcade Fire had the je ne se Quebequois.

10a) Dr. Dog – Shame Shame

10b) Tift Merritt – See You On The Moon

This, however, is a tie. A tie for tenth between two albums that I didn’t listen to as much as the rest, but every time a song came on from one of the records, I loved it and had to chastise myself, “Why aren’t you listening to this all the time?” It still holds. Why, Spike, why?

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can

Elvis Costello – National Ransom

Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back

Megafaun – Heretofore

Janelle Monae – The Archandroid

Breathe Owl Breathe – Magic Central

Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Beach House – Teen Dream

Black Keys – Brothers

Mose Allison – The Way Of The World

Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone

Jim Lauderdale- Patchwork River

Robert Plant- Band Of Joy

Broken Bells

GOOD BUT DIDN’T KEEP ME INTERESTED

The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever (a TBC staple. It hurt me to do this.)

Retribution Gospel Choir – 2 (killer leadoff track, less thereafter)

The Weepies – Be My Thrill

Jonsi

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED IN

Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig (so much hype that didn't do much of anything for me)

Ryan Bingham- Junky Star ( I love Ryan. This album felt a little blah to me. Uninspired maybe?)

Ray Lamontagne & The Pariah Dogs

ADMIT THAT I STILL NEED TO CHECK OUT

Frightened Rabbit

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Spoon- Transference

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Jason Collett

The Head & Heart

Drew Grow & The Pastors Wives

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Drive By Truckers

Mad Men and the NBA

Madison Avenue might* be the mecca of big advertising today (*unless you subscribe to the notion that it migrated to Boulder) but it definitely was during the its heyday subtly chronicled in Mad Men. A lesser known fact is that Madison Avenue is also where The Commish keeps his desk. No, not that Commish -- I'm talking about The Angel of Stern. David Stern and Don Draper both look out over the same stretch of road in New York City.

With the new season of Mad Men just warming up and the NBA off season having just about finished up, I thought we could take a look at some of the other similarities between Mad Men and what has happened with the Association since Game 7.

The Don Draper Corollary

Don Draper is an intriguing character. Half of the time you are rooting for him, hoping for another brilliant 2 minute soliloquy about how a toothbrush is more important than life itself, and the other half of the time you wonder if he has a conscience at all. All his infidelity and deceit makes him loathsome, but somehow as soon as he walks into SterlingCooperDraperPryce in his gray flannel suit, you forget all about his sordid affair the night before. And such is life in the NBA. We forget about off court drama as long as the player performs at a high level on the court. I think we are going to see the same thing with LeBron in Miami.

"You're so old fashioned"

After working again with Freddy Rumsen, Peggy Olsen finds frustration in his ideas and fires at him a simple dig, "You're so old fashioned!" A lot was made right after The Decision about how Jordan wouldn't have done this and Bird wouldn't have done that. And how Kevin Durant was a throwback because he wants to stay on the only team he has ever known. While some players -- Amare, Wade, LeBron, CP3, Bosh -- might want to fire this line at all their detractors, I think it fits better with the message being sent to another group of superstars; those on the way out. Shaq, Iverson and TMaq are stuck in some kind of time warp and remain old fashioned in their thinking. They may have some amount of validity in their thinking, but for the most part the league is collectively telling them that their idea -- the idea of who they are -- isn't going to work anymore.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

What started out as a great idea at the end of the third season has turned into struggle and strife. It was there chance to step out and make something of themselves, become relatively independent and more than anything be in the spotlight. Kind of reminds me of the NBA firm of Boozer Stoudemire Gilbert Wall. Boozer and Amare are in similar situations. They both left point guards who made them better than they actually are, but now they are going to have to earn it on their own. Gilbert is Dan Gilbert. He put some very bright lights on himself and has made some awful big promises. John Wall can no longer hide behind the gel in Coach Cal's hair or the tradition in Lexington. He gets to carry basketball in our nation's capital, and worry about showing up to practice one day only to find a half dozen guns laid out in front of his locker. Needless to say, everyone at this firm is about to realize just how hard their new life is going to be.

American Tobacco

American Tobacco (Lucky Strikes) puts almost all the food on the table at SCDP. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that they are in a delicate situation there. Kind of like the Nuggets and the Hornets and the Heat, Raptors and Cavs of last season. While its great to have a reliable meal ticket, you inevitably get put in the position of worshiping at their feet. It will be intriguing to see if the Hornets and Nuggs follow the lead set by the Raps and Cavs or if they will blaze their own trail and not be held hostage by Melo and CP3.

"I'm sorry sir, is Sam here bothering you? He can be a little chatty."

Back in the very first episode of the first season, Don strikes up a conversation with an african american employee at a bar. He is trying to find an angle on selling cigarettes when another employee, possibly the boss, comes over and interrupts. Don responds by saying, "We're actually just having a conversation, is that okay?" I hope that as the players association and the league try to figure out a new agreement, that it is okay to be a little chatty, to have some conversations. I don't want a lockout, and I don't think you do either.

Annual Report: 2001

I was tempted to talk about '69 and '71, but thought it might be better to spread out the years more. So let's hit a year in more recent memory, when– admittedly – both Charlie T and myself were in our "music-listening primes." I guess by "prime" I mean the time when you have sort of graduated from what you grew up listening to and moved into a new phase (at least for me, that's how it worked. I was less fixated on the Zeppelin-led classic rock of junior high and two-pronged jamband/alt-rock of my high school days). You listen with different ears. Whether they are more refined and less jaded is debatable, but at the time you sure think they're authoritative.

So, 2001. We survived Y2K, Ricky Martin, and boy bands. 9/11 happened. It will always be a banner year for a billion reasons unconnected to music. But the music also happened to be really great.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (free release) // Wilco
Time (The Revelator) // Gillian Welch

Two of my favorite albums of all time. I'm fortunate because I felt the same way when I first heard them, mind blown, ears appeased, heart filled. But, unlike some of the other albums that have since been demoted to bins like Overhyped, Failed The Test Of Time, and worse, these have stood strong. That they are both approaching America from such different angles and yet still seem somehow related (strong writing maybe? pure singing? nostalgia?) is a testament to the strength of 2001. Welch's "I Dream A Highway" might be the only 15-minute song featuring just 2 guitars and 2 voices that I ever wished was twice as long. And Wilco's entire album has survived time, which a lot of "glitchy production, studio experimentation" albums fail to do. With songs like "Jesus, Etc" and "Radio Cure", it's no wonder. The production wasn't veiling bad songwriting, it was adding texture to amazing songs.

Is This It? // The Strokes
White Blood Cells // The White Stripes
Oh, Inverted World // The Shins
Gold // Ryan Adams
Agaetis Byrjun // Sigur Ros

Debuts or not, these were the albums that buzzed, that introduced us to new voices in American music. Disaffected NYC hipster elite. Mondrian-inspired minimalistic, raw blues rock from Detroit. Smart, melodic indie rock. A prolific singer/songwriter who embraced his influences and excesses. Glacial soundscapes with an angelic voice sung in the supposedly made-up language of Hopelandish. There were better albums this year, but not many buzzier.

Amnesiac // Radiohead (I don't dare add to the superlatives. Let's just say it's still great.)
The Blueprint + Unplugged // Jay-Z
Love and Theft // Bob Dylan (I'm more of a Time Out Of Mind guy. Sue me.)
It's A Wonderful Life // Sparklehorse (RIP)

The Argument // Fugazi
Things We Lost In The Fire // Low

Maybe 2 of the albums I go back to most? Two great, smart, trend-oblivious bands at or near the peaks of their creative output.

Bleed American // Jimmy Eat World
musicforthemorningafter // Pete Yorn
One Nil // Neil Finn

I love a good pop song. Melodic and memorable. If the words are great too, then it's legendary. Some of these split the difference. Pete Yorn's album blew me away for awhile and was a nice patchwork of pop and indie rock and singer/songwriter and more. Neil Finn was just going about his usual business of spitting out great melodies. And Jimmy Eat World? Well, there's nothing cool about liking Jimmy Eat World. But I still love this album– its dramatic builds, its dreamy and desperate vocals, its drums, its college heartbreak. I remember going to lunch with a friend in 2001. Her much-hipper friend shows up and we're talking music and, before I know what I'm doing, I ask what he thinks of the new Jimmy Eat World. My stupid "hipster filter" kicks in and I try to control-Z, but it's out and it's even clearer how cool I'll never be. But, in the loudness of the restaurant, this guy thinks I asked about the Jim O'Rourke album. And he starts going on and on about it. And my friend shoots me a look and I sorta wave her off like, "It's not worth clarifying." The guy still thought I wasn't cool, I guess. But I never had to try to sell him on Bleed American.

Field Songs // Mark Lanegan
Old Ramon // Red House Painters
What's Next To The Moon // Mark Kozelek

My two favorite Marks. Kozelek closed the chapter on Red House Painters and opened up a whole new can of worms (a whole album of Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers?) and basically wrote his own license to do whatever. Lanegan, meanwhile, continued to do what he does best, which is write harrowingly, sing hauntingly, gargle gravel, and be one of my favorite odd rock icons. Plus, he contributed to the cactus weird of Desert Sessions.

Green Album // Weezer
Hot Shots II // Beta Band

Two quirky iconic bands say goodbye. Wait. What? What's that you say? Weezer kept making albums after the Green Album? Really?

Stephen Malkmus // Stephen Malkmus
Ancient Melodies of the Future // Built To Spill
Girls Can Tell // Spoon
Isolation Drills // Guided By Voices

Songs In A Minor // Alicia Keys
Aaliyah // Aaliyah (2x platinum, RIP)
No More Drama- //Mary J Blige

Apparently 2001 was a year where female neo-R&B struck a chord (A minor perhaps?) with me. Blige's voice, maybe our greatest contemporary R&B singer, and persona have always resonated with me and her song "Family Affair" is undeniable. I wish she'd make a record with Mark Ronson & The Dap Kings because it would be insanely great. Joe Henry producing would come in a close second. And of course, Alicia Keys and Aaliyah's hits were unavoidable. As a sidenote, pop/R&B legend Michael Jackson released what no one would've guessed was his final album (Invincible) in 2001

Souljacker // Eels
Gorillaz // Gorillaz
Vespertine // Bjork
The Photo Album // Death Can For Cutie

Songs from the West Coast // Elton John
Poses // Rufus Wainwright
Rockin The Suburbs // Ben Folds

It was a good year for piano men. Elton had a temporary revival with is best batch of songs in years. Poses still sounds amazing with standouts like "Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk", "In A Graveyard" and the title track. And Folds' debut sounded an awful lot like BF5 minus the kind of editing/filtering that a band provides. Still, it spawned at least 4 classic Folds' tunes.

Brushfire Fairytales // Jack Johnson
Room For Squares // John Mayer

It was also a good year for guys with guitars. Campuses across the country were flooded with fratboys in pooka shell necklaces scraping to learn "how to play some Jack" for the ladies. Bodies were wonderlands. Banana pancakes were made. Actual songwriters on college campuses were a little bit bummed. Clearly not my cup of tea, but deserving of mention, I suppose.

Amelie soundtrack // Yann Tiersen
Rock Steady // No Doubt (set up Gwen for megastardom)
10,000 HZ Legend // AIR
End of Amnesia // M Ward
Lateralus // Tool

Offseason Notes NOT Having To Do With The Douchecision

Some offseason notes:

– I am taking a little too much pleasure in watching the douchiness of T-Mac manifest itself this offseason. The Utah Bulls, er, Chicago Jazz, er, Chicago Bulls had a private workout with His WashedUpNess this week and, to hear Tracy talk about it, the Bulls front office was licking its chops about stumbling onto such an under-the-radar catch. These quotes encapsulate the magic dust he's sprinkling around. “Without me, without Boozer, they’re a .500 ball club,” McGrady said. Wow. Any quote that makes me defensive of Carlos Boozer deserves bold italics and a few extra vacation days. I can't wait til the Clippers sign him.

– In a related note, this is a fun offseason for Former Insanely Talented Alphas like AI and Shaq. The fact that some team is going to have to talk themselves into one of the game's top 2 or 3 most dominant centers ever (not anymore but still. Kareem got contracts when he could barely John McCain his goggles.) is a little sad to me. The bright side is: Pros vs Joes is always looked for some extra legitimacy and the combined MVPs, points, and NBA Finals appearances are legit.

– Also, The Utah Bulls. What the Bulls front office, in picking up Boozer & Korver & Brewer (who I miss the most, in spite of his complete inability to hit a jumper), is saying is: we believe Rose > Deron Williams. They are assembling, essentially, the same cast around Rose as Williams had. Now, Chicago fans, let's not carried away about Joakim Noah. Yes, I would take him on my team. No, he is not an elite big man. He and Memo Okur (who has one more all-star appearance than Noah) essentially cancel each other out, though I'm willing to admit that Noah's hustle is a plus. Luol Deng? A wild card of the same type as, oh, Andrei Kirilenko. Everybody KNOWS he's good. But what are you getting from him game to game, month to month? I think it's very interesting that the Bulls believe in the '08 Jazz that much. I did too, though, so I can't really hold it against them.

– The Laker Upgrade. Miami gets the most ink. But the defending champs upgraded, in my opinion, to an insane degree. A tough, mix-it-up guy who can knock down equal amounts of superstars & shots in Matt Barnes. A PG upgrade (though the WNBA has a handful of PGs who would be an improvement over Farmar) in Steve Blake. And some more size (as if they were lacking) in Theo Ratliff, who- for the sake of this bullet point- I talked myself into. Still the team to beat.

– Chris Paul. Wah. You're an amazing talent stuck on a team in transition. Your friends are all teaming up to try to gang their way to rings. You also signed a contract. I'm sure there's a gun to your head everytime you cash those million-dollar checks. Sack up. Whiny multimillionaire athletes kill me.

– The Jazz, to avoid D-Will pulling a Kobe/Chris Paul, have made some moves– Jefferson, Bell, Hayward. They aren't Miami-level or Steal Gasol For Nothing level, but they are decent. As a Jazz fan, I'm happy to see something happen that includes Boozer taking his talents/attitude/entitlement elsewhere and guys who want to kill themselves for D-Will onto the court. Hearing D-Will tell Jefferson he's gonna make him an All-Star made me really happy.

– Portland can suck it. Just because their "top tier, first round" talent can't stay healthy or perform up to par doesn't mean they should come pillage the hard-working, smartly drafted talent that the Jazz pick up (see also: Paul Milsap). Wes Matthews is a total stud and I worshipped his hard work in his rookie season. But it makes me sad that he's gonna get a ton of money to fight for bench minutes on a team whose best hopes are an injury prone elderly man still trying to have a rookie season and landing unhappy Chris Paul. This quote from Kevin O'Connor was money: "(Fesenko's) next on the agenda. (We'll) go from there, see what happens, see if Portland has any more money left."

Agreed to Terms

Just moments after The Decision, I received this text message from Spike - "mild hate and pure envy". I am only assuming it was a reference to me about LeBron taking his talents to South Beach and my beloved Heat, though he could have been referring to this fascinating project. (we'll get to that in the next couple days) I needed a little more time to sort through my feelings about the Heat's off-season transactions. I've been through a lot in 15+ years as a Heat fan; a kidney transplant, a Championship, a 25 win season, taking a chance on a kid from Marquette, learning to tolerate Shaq, all of sport-dom discounting the 2006 title because the Heat were somehow the only team in history to get a bogus call or two, a 16 win season, the New York Knicks (4 straight playoff eliminations, 3 in the first round even as the higher seed), Jermaine O'Heal, the Mike Beasley Experience, Clarence Weatherspoon, PJ Brown and Charlie Ward, Allan Houston, both Van Gundy's (one around Zo's leg) and Riles. I'm not saying I have been a tortured fan (though somewhere in the spring of 2003 I was beginning to wonder) but there have been some highs and lows to say the least.

Let me first address my feeling about the backlash of doubt and negativity.

Spike's sentiments could be easily applied to the majority of America's feelings about the Decision, but the problem is nobody will admit to it. The NBA has needed a bad guy since Kobe started winning again, so it seems that everyone is doing their best to make LeBron the league's foil. Had he gone to Chicago would there have been this backlash? New York? New Jersey? the reasoning for deciding on anyone of those destinations is about as reasonable as going to Miami to play with Wade and Bosh.(side note: everyone is saying Bosh is the lucky one in this off-season, raising his stock far beyond its worth. I say its Joakim Noah. He was labeled numerous times as an "elite big man". Sorry but that term is reserved for big men who average more than 10 and 10, and don't wear clown suits to the draft.) Anyway, its been astonishing to see how quickly everyone has forgotten what an incredible athlete LeBron James is. He is the two time reigning MVP. The country has been awing over his abilities on the basketball court for 9+ years. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 16 AND actually lived up to the hype. I have been very critical of LeBron over the years, but I have never doubted his basketball playing abilities. If the league needs a supervillian that bad, then thats fine. But I think that stigma is going to fade rather quickly once tip-off rolls around. We'll see more #6 Heat jersey's pop up around the country in the first week of November than we saw Chris Broussard in the first week of July.

So take Spike's words to heart and if they don't seem to do the trick, try this little line from the mid 90's: The past is gone but something might be found to take it's place -- Hey jealousy

Now to address my feelings.

I've never been good at being the front runner. I cringed as people made title and win predictions. I wanted the numbers from one to seven to go right back into LeBron's mouth. I tried to down play the potential of this team. I did everything I could to take things back to the Shaq vs Zo days, when someone else was the clear #1 and my guy(s) was/were the underdog. I also didn't want to be like all the Lakers/Cowboys/Yankees fans that I've hated my who life. I didn't want to be the guy who was the fan of the superteam, the highlight reel darlings, the team force fed to the public. I didn't want to have to explain to everyone who knows little about me that I have been a Heat fan my whole, post-2nd grade, life. I didn't want to be seen as the band wagoner. But over the course of the weekend following the LeBronal Conclave, the text messages started pouring in. Family and friends, acquaintances, people I hadn't heard from in years, high school friends that I was certain didn't have my number, and even people at the grocery store began congratulating me. My fears began to dissolve with every text message and I began to embrace the future. Then Beasley was shipped off. And Udonis came back. And Shaq was told "No Thanks". And Fisher went back to the Mamba. And Mike Miller came. And suddenly it was looking more and more like a team full of guys I could root for, guys I knew, guys I didn't have to brainwash myself into liking. I'm still not going to make a single prediction about wins or titles. But I will say that I am going to have the time of my life following this team, even if they are going to be front and center on ESPN and ABC for the next half decade.

Now to end with a collection of Heat related thoughts.

I never doubted Riley's power of persuasion and motivation. I mean he got Shaq, GP, 'Toine AND White Chocolate to play some semblance of basketball together...and get in shape. But I had myself talked into Amare and Joe Johnson several times. I was going to be okay with Gay and Boozer. I was hoping for Bosh and filler. I never would have really imagined this would happen.

I still don't know what to make of the "celebration" other than it was nice to see Wade back in the #3 and being flanked by #1 and #6 that didn't include the names Dorell or Mario.

I have always liked Dan LeBatard and I'm glad to being seeing more and more of him.

This < This

I don't think LeBron left any unpaid debts in northeast Ohio.

Zo played better than Shaq in the '06 Finals, period.

Dear Ohio,

I have decided to use this platform, The Black Converse, to officially respond to the negative outpouring towards me after my little sit down with Jim Gray last night. (side note: I should have known it was going to turn out the way it did when Jim Gray was the only reported who would agree to sit in the director's chair opposite me. He doesn't exactly have a great track record.) I chose this blog to address you all since Charlie T, a very loyal Heat fan, is one of the few people outside of South Beach who has my back.

Charlie T has also been very kind and wise in helping me put my feelings into words, providing me with perspective and verse. I would like to first address everyone in America who thinks I made a bad decision with a selection from what appears to be a TBC favorite, Wilco.

Oh it's okay for you to say
What you want from me
I believe that's the only
Way for me
To be
Exactly what you want me to be

Just remember, I make my own decisions. You don't get to. You are not LeBron James. (and you're damn right I just referred to myself in the third person)

And now to address Ohio specifically. This is sports. Get over yourselves. Remember Kent State in the 70's, neither do I but it happened only minutes from my home. Kent State was a real tragedy. Allow me to refresh your memory by borrowing from one of your Lake Erie neighbors:

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Nobody dies last night. Nobody was even physically harmed. Again, I'm sorry but se la vie .

And now to my owner Dan Gilbert. I can't wait too see you backpedaling on defense as I come up the floor like a locomotive. I can't wait to chase you down on a fast break and slap the ball through the backboard as you go up for a girlish layup. Just kidding, I know I won't be invited over for barbecue's and pick up games anymore. I'm okay with that.

But if you really feel everything you comic sansed the world last night, take some advice from Frightened Rabbit:

So swim until you can’t see land.
Swim until you can’t see land.
Swim until you can’t see land
Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?



And if you were just reacting passionately because you just lost 100+ million dollars in the net worth of the Cavs, essentially resurrecting the Rockers, then thats fine. You should have taken a step back, put your laptop down and put this Hank Williams song on the stereo and called it a night.

It's hard to know another's lips will kiss you
And hold you just the way I used to do
Oh, heaven only knows how much I miss you
I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You.

And to my new fans in Miami:

Here i am in the place where i'com to let go-Miami
the bass and the sun set low.
Everyday like a Mardi Gras- everbody party all day
no work- all play, ok

So we sip a liitle something, leave the rest to spill.
me and Charlie at the bar running up a high bill
nutin; less than ill when we dress to kill,
and every time the ladies pass they be like "Hi Bron"

Cant wait for Halloween.

Yours for five years,

Bron

Lebron & the Heat Check

As sour grapes as possible and as a fan who (if you don't root for LA or MIA or BOS or maybe OKC and ORL) thinks the NBA just got less engaging, it's my job to make Charlie T's uber-happy life a little more miserable. So, I thought I'd revisit some of Charlie's anti-Lebron rants from TBC posts past. After all, Charlie T was more of a LeHater than I was from the start. Needless to say, that ended last night around 7:04 MST.

I was actually surprised by Charlie T's turnaround. I thought I would dig up dirt and throw it in his ecstatic face. But the results were mixed and Charlie was actually turning towards LeBron long before I'd anticipated. So here it is, in reverse chronological order, with Charlie T's posts in italics:

A NONCOMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT CHARLIE T'S LEBRON-RELATED POSTS

JAN 17, 2009
A big sarcastic jab that I can't really cut/paste without making this cross over into the 1,000,000 wordcount range. One highlight of Charlie T's translations of TV announcer fawning:

"Watch LeBron here as he takes over in the fourth quarter with a steal and a thunderous slam"
Translation: LeBron just ripped the ball out of Delonte West's hand, took a hesitation dribble just past half court and took 4 steps before dunking on the camera crew. For those who haven't seen professional basketball in a while, the rules have been changed to allow two extra steps if you take a hesitation dribble. Whatever that is.

FEB 10, 2009
Wah, wah, Cleveland.

That said, (Coach Brown) congratulations on sticking up for LeBron and Co. Your team has been so picked on. And it's nice to hear a little harmony with the sad tunes our dear martyr, St. BronBron of Our Lady Of Cleveland, has been singing lately.

FEB 12, 2009
We paired NBA players together in a fictional 2-on-2 tournament, one of many overambitious TBC Concept Series. They were usually paired for reasons of similarity or intertwining stories (Nash/Nowitzki, CP3/D-Will). Note how Charlie T emphasizes the utter fiction of this pairing.

Team Name: Unstoppable
Team Members: LeBron James and Dwayne[sic] Wade

Let's be realistic. This is the only way you will ever see these two play together in the NBA. You know full well that neither will take the paycut necessary to play on the same NBA team together. It just won't happen. That said, for this tournament, they have a lot going for them. (Pushing aside the obvious fact that they are two of the four legitimate MVP candidates this season,) They have some size (James) and both are super quick. Quicker than you might ever imagine. Trying to stop either of them in the lane is futile. Also, like all 2-on-2, this tournament will be Call Your Own Fouls. So, LeBron will be calling fouls on every play, assuring a lot of easy points for his team (because, come on, has there ever been a play in which LeBron wasn't fouled?)...

Feb 27, 2009
An open letter to LeBron. And not a nice one. I believe he calls LeBron "pathetic." Luckily South Beach is known for blurry memories. I do have to give it to Charlie T for skewering both Kobe and LeBron in the same post. I'll miss that. Oh, and Charlie T's soothsaying was only half right about Shaq. He came, but delivered no title.

Dear LeBron,

I know you spent a lot of time with Kobe over the summer. And I know you think he is soooo cool. But this is really a new low in emulation. You had ZERO ASSISTS last night against the Houston Rockets. I can excuse the Kobe-esque 33% shooting, the Black Mamba-ish one-on-five with everyone standing around watching you, even the post-dunk scowl. But for Mr. I'm Gonna Average A Triple Double For My Career? This was inexcusable. Even Ben "I Broke My Leg and Didn't Know It" Wallace had more assists and rebounds than you in half the time.

Keep this up and you'll never escape the curse of being the next Kobe Bryant. Except that Shaq won't be coming to give you a title.

Sincerely,
Charlie T. Hustle Jr.

P.S. One rebound was pretty pathetic too. Correction, Really pathetic.

March 20, 2009
The turning begins.

It's no secret that there is a lack of butt kissing for LeBron here at TBC as opposed to the rest of the televisioned world. But I'm finding it harder and harder to find the holes in anything he does lately. In March, thus far, he is averaging 30 pts. 9 assists 9 rebounds nearly 2 steals and shooting 48%. Plus his team has only lost to Boston this month. So keep playing hard in the regular season, boys. I'm sure you'll give me plenty of chances in the playoffs to be critical.

Nov 13, 2009
The soothsaying, crystal balling Charlie T emerges. Was he precognitive or just really hopeful?

Now that we have established that Miami has retired the number 23, let's bring Mr. James back into the picture and add this theory to the long list of "Where will LeBron go in 2010" theories.

LeBron won't be able to have #23 when he goes to Miami next season. If he can't have it then nobody can. Nobody.

Jan 26, 2010
More saying of sooth.

LeBron becomes a little tougher to pin down (we all know the lack of income tax in Florida has got to be alluring) but there isn't as much mystery around it as there once was.

Feb 9, 2010
The Official Pro-LBJ post.

Here at TBC, we've been mostly down on LeBron James . Not because he is a bad basketball player, but mostly because we didn't like being force fed hearty helpings of King James everywhere we looked. We, or maybe just me, felt that the hype was vastly over done for a guy so young and relatively unaccomplished. This season, I'm starting to have a change of heart. I have seen quite a few Cavs games and James has definitely taken his game to another level. It's not only affecting his game, but the rest of his team looks phenomenal. He makes JJ Hickson look like the second coming of Scottie Pippen (which he isn't...Hickson will be out of the league a year after he stops playing with LeBron) and he makes Shaq (at least for 5 possessions a game) look like Lew Alcindor out there. Nobody else could do that I am convinced. Kobe would chew those guys out to the point that they wouldn't even show up to practice. Wade (as much as it pains me to say this) would get his 20 and then take the rest of the game off. ... And that is why I now buy into LeBron. And the Cavaliers.

March 2, 2010
Charlie posts his theories on why LBJ changed his uni #. Truly soothsaying, this one. People in NYC wish he were just a little more accurate.

Theory 3: He is going to play for the Miami Heat next year and the number 23 is retired there (Michael Jordan). Likelihood: 15% (he could have whatever number he wanted upon changing teams)
Theory 7: Number 6 is LeBron's Team USA number and he wants to recreate Team USA in New York with Wade and Bosh. This is the first step. Likelihood: 45% (Bosh and Wade could just change their numbers upon switching teams)

May 10, 2010
Charlie types a post about how players' value/legacies/perception hinge on how their playoff performances shake out. He put LeBron in a category of players who have "done very little to help themselves" in the 2010 playoffs. I'm not sure if Charlie is saying that LeBron's best has to be better or that the sinking ship could use a more valiant effort by its doomed captain. This was just 2 months ago.

(LeBron) is doing exactly what everybody knows he is capable of, except he has to do it every moment of every game. How does this not (improve) our view of him and shouldn't it be more about his teammates? Yes, they are to blame for their disappearing act but consider this: if a home-schooled child never learns to read, is it his fault or his parents'? LeBron is the parent in this case and his teammates are the illiterate children. Any sign of trouble and LeBron immediately takes over. He can't sit back idly while his teammates struggle through words like "rebound", "defense" or "make an open shot." Of course, we enjoy watching him dominate and I can only imagine Mo Williams does too. He has just become too accustomed to it happening. Same for Side-Show Bob, Grand Theft West, Sheldon Williams's brother-in-law and ABC's in-studio analyst for the 2010-2011 season Mike Brown.

And finally, in the midst of the playoffs and after a post that quickly mocked LeBron's elbow, Charlie T tired of hyperbolic and sycophantic journalists and announcers. We all did. Sarcastically and fed up, he posted this:

LeBron James is the greatest athlete in the history of the game. Wherever LeBron goes will turn that franchise around. You have to say something nice about Early Exit LeBron but both those comments are way off base. Great Athlete? Yes. Franchise Player? Yes. Beyond that? Let's leave it open for debate.

Well, the debate has started. We all know how Dan Gilbert feels. And in Comic Sans no less.