Archive for October, 2007

Still the best QB in the league, bar none. Now that he has actual receiving threats, we’re seein the incontrovertible evidence of that. I still maintain that with a full stable of stud receivers, Donovan could (could have?) put up staggering numbers too, but we can only deal with what is. And right now, New England IS the best team in the league, bar none. That matchup against the Colts is gonna be quite a tilt, but right now, with them fools faithfully droppin 30 points a game, I don’t know what else to say.

Well, the Eagles finally won again. If you divide the season into 4 quarters, the 1st quarter was miserable. The 2nd quarter will set their trajectory for the year. If they’re gonna recover at all, or even have a chance to recover, they’re gonna hafta make their move now.

Yeah, Aaron’s right, I should have posted the picture. I just wanted to retain the element of surprise, because seriously - a light-skinned party? For real? In 2007?

Well, as it turned out, there was a tremendous b(l)acklash, so it didn’t go down. From the Detroit News…

DETROIT — A local DJ and party promoter retreated Thursday from a plan to sponsor a bash that would let “light-skinned” black women into a downtown club for free.

But the “Light Skin Libra Birthday Bash” at Club APT on Woodward Avenue turned out to be a bashing — of promoter Ulysses “DJ Lish” Barnes after word of the unusual party spread on the Internet.

“I made a mistake,” Barnes said. “I didn’t think there would be a backlash.”

Barnes, who said he’s been a party promoter for six years, canceled the event.

He said he has gotten angry calls and e-mails from around the country about the party.

“I didn’t mean to offend anyone,” he said. “I had planned a party for other shades (of black women). We were going to take a shade of color each week. Next week was going to be a party for ‘Sexy Chocolate’ and the week after that ‘Sexy Caramel.’?”

Is he serious? Even if that was his master plan, and that explanation is specious enough, he couldn’t have come up with another, “friendlier”(?) adjective, like he did with ’sexy chocolate’ and ’sexy caramel’? (Seriously. This dude’s a party promoter, and that’s the best he could come up with? Where’s Don King? I bet HE could’ve busted out with a fancy name.)

It’s interesting the things you find out that you know as you find yourself in different circumstances. For instance, one of the kids got hurt at practice the other day. Now when I say “hurt,” I don’t mean really injured, I mean that he felt pain upon impact. He stayed in the drills for a while, but I could see that he was playing through tears. So eventually I made him sit down for the rest of practice. At the time, I wasn’t sure how injured he was, but I was pretty sure about how injured he wasn’t; he was making his best, most solid tackles of the day. I sat him because I didn’t want to risk it. But while I was sitting him and talking to him, I was straight-up with him: I told him that a big part of the pain he felt was psychosomatic. Most of his pain was him being afraid of how hurt he might be. Of course, given that he was the one who was actually hurting, I don’t think he believed me; he acted like he was at death’s door every time I asked him to wiggle his toes or to move his foot back and forth. Today, he came into my class walking with a little limp; it was noticeably worse when he knew I was watching, though.

It kinda tripped me out that I knew that. I mean, technically speaking, I didn’t know-know, but I knew. It was written all over his face. I mean, know what a serious injury is like. I’ve torn my ACL, and I hardly reacted when I did it. It was mostly like, ‘Ow. Ow. OW!” My coach knew what was up, though.

*****

Coaching football has given me a whole new appreciation for Tony Dungy’s non-cussingness. I don’t know how he does it. Especially when I at these bammas. I do manage to stay calm, even when the situation is crazy, but I be lettin em fly.

*****

This right brain/left brain test is quite perplexing to me. By all counts, I’m pretty much right-brained, or at 60/40, but I cannot see this chick as moving any direction but clockwise. But I’m thinking that my understanding of artwork and anatomy defeats the potential for seeing this any other way.

*****

No words. Just no words.

*****

Still on that right-left brain thing, here are the results of one of them quick-n-dirty blog tests:

You Are 45% Left Brained, 55% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you’re left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you’re right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

*****

No words again. Actually, I do have a couple. I can’t imagine something like this happening without the internet.

Well, the Stillers looked pretty doggone good today. Even without Polamalu and Big Casey Hampton, they shut out the Seahawks in a fairly impressive effort. The defense was everywhere, doing everything. Shut the ‘hawks DOWN. Even more impressive was the way the Steelers held the ball for almost the WHOLE 3rd quarter. The Seahawks had one possession - a three-and-out. New England is still lookin unstoppable, but the Steelers are startin to look like they still belong in that conversation about AFC contenders.

In Eagles news, there had been a rumor that Andy Reid was going to retire sometime soon. Apparently, it’s just talk, but one of those Andy Reids is kinda gettin on my nerves. I’m not sure if it’s the coach or the GM, though. I think GM Andy Reid is pretty good, although I’m not sure what his beef is with quality wide receivers. Particularly since he loves to throw the ball so much. But that’s me.

Temple might not win too many games, but we win homecoming. If you’re only gonna win one game a year, might as well be that one.

Bit Off More Than I Can Chew - Lynn Day
Posse On Broadway - Sir Mix-A-Lot
Satin Doll - Bobbi Humphrey
Theme Bahamas - Ahmad Jamal
Disco To Go - Brides of Funkenstein
Come As You Are - Nirvana
Any Day Now - James Brown
Virgo Vibes - Roy Ayers
Supermarket Blues - Eugene McDaniels
The Reds - Ohio Players
Love Is All We Need - Mary J. Blige
Funky Walk - Dyke and The Blazers
Rebel of the Underground - 2Pac
Superwoman - Donnie Hathaway
Senza Fine - Wes Montgomery
Cussin’ Cryin’ and Carryin’ On - Ike & Tina Turner
That Lady - The Isley Brothers
Cisco Kid - War
Hugo Montenegro - Again
I’ll Never Do You Wrong - Joe Tex
The Grunt, Pts. 1 & 2 - The J.B.’s
No Nose Job - Digital Underground

Jeremy at Parableman has an interesting take on sports in our society vis a vis Ayn Rand’s dismissal of them as an utter waste of time. Now, I’ll concede right up front that as a society, we do waste a whooole lotta time on sports. I mean, just today, I had to get on one of my kids because I’ve heard him spittin stats in a Kobe vs. AI discussion, but he cant remember the password for his email account for my class. I had to call him on it. At any rate, while I readily concede that our society’s deification of athletes, particularly the professionals in one of the big three sports who win a lot, does represent a capital waste of time and resources, I think sports offers a lens into society that most other pastimes don’t, or can’t. Specifically, I think sports, in large part because of our national obsession with them, provide us to look at some thresholds between class and race that might otherwise be all but invisible.

Sports offers the chance for us to see the difference between what we say we believe and what we actually think. This includes the massive amount of time and money that we spend in watching them. For instance, a large part of the appeal is that professional athletics represents one of the core things that we as Americans purport to believe in, which is the idea of a meritocracy. No matter what political persuasion, people believe that the best athletes will inevitably rise to the top. In a lot of ways, that’s true. A lot of other, unwritten rules are evident in sports, too, like ‘you’re only in the wrong if you get caught.’ To me, that’s why the cheating controversy is so big. For the most part, we KNOW something’s going on, but we don’t really care all that much until somebody we don’t like is doing all the winning and ostensibly cheating. In its own way, that’s like the discrepancy between sentencing for crack and powder cocaine.

But that’s me, and I’ve been a sports fan my whole life. I would imagine that somebody who doesn’t do sports and has never done so wouldn’t feel the same way.

I wouldn’t exactly call myself an expert on statistical analysis and whatnot, but I’m fairly confident that I know how to read data. That’s what makes me so surprised when I see studies that link something as nebulous as “racism” with results as tangible as infant mortality. Now dig, I understand that racism is serious and has some serious effects, but I find it hard to see the direct causal relationship to babies dying young. And that’s before we even look at the variables that are included under “racism.”

Gettin’ down to the meat of the article,

In his research, Lu and his colleagues found that the disproportionately higher number of fast-food restaurants and liquor stores, lower number of grocery stores and the higher cost of fresh produce in many urban, predominately black communities caused poorer pregnant black women to make stressful choices about what to eat and where to live. So did the higher crime rates in these communities and worries about sending children to poorly equipped, understaffed schools.

That’s racism? Seriously? Is that what it’s come down to? Now understand, I’m not pooh-poohing the idea that racism has a residual stressful effect on people. Nor am I ignorant enough to not-know that stress has a deleterious effect on the body and that it manifests itself in a variety of maladies. But - and this is a sofa - these variables here? Suspect. At least as manifestations of the R. Follow me: if the lack of fresh produce, high crime rates, and bad schools are a causal factor in high infant mortality for poor women, then why does the racial disparity persist when income, and presumably the factors mentioned above, are controlled?

What frustrates me is that there’s an important research question in there. By settling for an easy, soundbite-ready, pat answer in racism, however, we miss out on it. To go back to one of my favorite models, I think the real research question is not a matter of a cross-racial comparison. I think the real question to ask is why, between women with virtually identical social address markers, one has a low birth-weight baby and the other does not. See, racism is a hot topic and therefore easy to talk about. I’d be curious to see the data disaggregated by features other than race. If we can figure out why two women with the same stressors have different outcomes, we might find ourselves with more actionable items and fewer talking points.

Man, the Eagles are lucky McNabb wasn’t hurt last night. HOrrible. Emphasis on the …well, you get it. I mean, I stuck with ‘em through the Ray Rhodes era, so I ain’t goin nowhere, but I’ll tell you what: this was not a good look. I don’t know who to be more frustrated with: the offensive line or the coach who used to play offensive line.
Sheesh.

The Steelers lost in a poorly-played effort, as well. Any question as to the importance of Polamalu can be dispelled now. Without Taz, the Stillers are in some trouble.

Meanwhile, the Bengals shut down the Patriots. The Pats didn’t score but 34 this week.

Muddy Waters - The Fabulettes
Precious Moments - Peaches and Herb
The Truth - Pharoahe Monch, f. Common, Talib Kweli
Vibes and Stuff - A Tribe Called Quest
Militant March - Curtis Mayfield
This Is It - Kenny Loggins
This Is My Last Affair - The Meters
Peace Be Still - Vanessa Bell Armstrong
Good Night - The Beatles
They Won’t Let Me - The Unemployed
We Major - Kanye West, f. Nas
The Girl From Impanema - Herbie Hancock
Light My Fire - Jackie Wilson
Tecali - The Counts
Nicky - Lafayette Afro Rock Band
Los Burritos - Brand New Heavies
Too Hot To Handle - Heatwave
Soul Food - Goodie Mob
Son of a Preacher Man - Aretha Franklin
Burn One Down - Ben Harper
Coming Home - Mandrill
Just Like You - Brides of Funkenstein