What’s going on peoples? Its time for that Sunday Reflection.
Music to listen to: School Days by Stanley Clarke
Came across this song on Pandora on my Jaco Pastorius station and if you don’t know about Jaco and even the Weather Report, YouTube some of that music as well in your free time.
Anyway, this song appeared and I liked it and have been looking up some Stanley Clarke songs and now have to find the School Days album and appreciate all of the music. Enjoy the song. Also, props to the Old Grey Whistle Test. When I was a kid and see these old videos, I always thought it was the Old Grey Whiskey Test and never understood why they would call the place Whiskey.
Crush of the Day: Cougar week concludes here with my two final entries. While it may seem that I only have an attraction to light skinned women with dark hair, that really isn’t the case. I enjoy the company of all types of women. However, I’ve always liked older women as well. There’s a reason that my dating rule is five years younger and ten years older. There’s a method to it. So if you’re a lady between the ages of 22 and 37, you know where to contact me. Just kidding because the Tapout is still on but when its off, just remember.
OK, on to the Crushes
Lucy Liu has been on my bench for the top-five for some time so I have to acknowledge her this week. She’s a New Yorker and been a solid actor in various projects such as Ally McBeal on TV and was tremendous in Kill Bill and the underrated Lucky Number Slevin in the only movie of Josh Hartnett that I approve of. Actually, Black Hawk Down was the business, so that makes two movies.
Anyway, Lucy makes the list.
Crap, just looked up Josh’s movie list and its not as terrible as I thought. 40 Days and 40 Nights wasn’t bad and Sin City was excellent, even though his part wasn’t huge in it.
OK, this is supposed to be about the Crushes. Congrats to Lucy.
Since it’s Sunday, here’s another Crush!
Michael Michelle has to be the hottest person named Michael ever. Ladies, I ask you, who competes. Michael Bolton, George Michael, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Michael Buble, help me out.
Anyway, Michelle has been in some solid roles as well. I remember her most from New Jack City and ER. She was also in the underrated movie, The Sixth Man, seriously. I enjoyed it a lot. She reappeared on House a year or two ago and looked great in that as well. So congrats to her as well.
-What a week for Kentucky men’s basketball. This situation is interesting because going to undergrad and graduate school here in Nashville has allowed me to become good friends with several fans of Kentucky basketball. I’m from the NYC so to see a college program get the professional sports treatment is still fascinating to me. As much as I’ll try to understand fans of major southern entities like Kentucky basketball, Alabama football, Auburn football, LSU football and Tennessee football in this area, I’ll never completely appreciate the passion of having a college sport be the most important show in town for an entire state. In New York, when the Giants or Jets football season was over, we moved on to the Knicks and/or Rangers and then finally to the baseball teams.
As far as the actual firing of Gillespie, I get it and don’t get it. I get it because Kentucky basketball should be better than it is. I get mad at fans who have programs that at their peak are a Sweet 16-type program and expect their team to go to the Final Four. Kentucky is a Final Four program. Indiana is a Final Four program. UCLA is a Final Four program. When those teams don’t make it to the Final Four every four or five years, their fans should be pissed. Also, as fair or unfair as it may be, you do have to act a certain way as the coach of Kentucky, especially in that state. Being a confirmed bachelor hitting the town is not the way that Kentucky wants to see its coach act. Also, you can’t be bad to the media.
I don’t get it because you gave the guy two seasons. That’s setting a bad precedent for your program. Now, you have to be extra patient with the next guy you bring in even if he isn’t the best fit. If they’re not careful, this can turn into Notre Dame football where you’re paying a man too much money and you’re forced to keep him around despite wanting to get rid of him.
Who takes over the post? It isn’t going to be Billy Donovan. Why do I think this? I’m not the first guy to say this but with Anthony Grant taking the Alabama job, Florida doesn’t have its prime replacement anymore. I’m sure that Grant called Donovan down at Florida before taking the Alabama job and asked Billy if he was going to Kentucky. If Billy was going to Kentucky, Grant would be in Florida. However, that won’t be the case.
John Calipari also won’t be the coach. One thing that Kentucky should be afraid of is NCAA violations and possibly probation. Remember the late 80’s Kentucky fans, yeah, not fun times. Calipari has not only been pinched at one of his old spots, UMASS, there is some shady stuff going on at Memphis, I don’t care what anyone says. He’s too slimy and dirty for Kentucky in my opinion.
Travis Ford is an interesting option. Sean Miller is an under the radar candidate. Don’t overlook Jamie Dixon as well, even though if I was him, I would be looking at that Arizona job big time. Well, I think that Mark Few is taking the Arizona job so that may be out as well.
Isn’t the coaching carousal fun?
-The NCAA Tournament is down to the Final Four. I’m sticking with North Carolina, who I’ve taken from day one. Connecticut didn’t surprise me. I would have picked Pitt over Villanova if I did a full bracket. Respect to Michigan State from the crappy Big 10. They proved me wrong. I still don’t trust that conference but I should trust the Spartans in the future.
Tom Izzo. How could I forget him as a candidate for Kentucky. He has to look at it even though he has a pretty nice set up in East Lansing.
-I caught up on TV big time this week and am up to date on all of my shows, accept for House and General Hospital.
-There was no MMA Review on Friday because it was honestly a slow week in the sport. Speaking of MMA…
-Three of my favorite type of events are taking place on Wednesday night and I can only do one, check that, I’m obligated to one because of work.
1) The frickin UFC is coming to Nashville and I can’t go. When I found out that a UFC Fight Night was coming to Nashville, I was so hyped about it and it made me so excited. I love mixed martial arts so much and haven’t had the chance to see an event live and the top organization in the world is coming to my city and I can’t go. Furthermore, one of my favorite fighters, former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit, aka the Natural Born Killer, is fighting in the main event. This would have been a highlight of my year going to this event. However, I couldn’t do that because…
2) The frickin USA men’s soccer team is playing at LP Field on the same night in a World Cup qualifier. You have got to be kidding me. I love soccer and would have had a blast at the game. I would have tailgated with some buddies, eaten some good food, even possibly volunteered at the game like I did for the Under-20 World Cup matches this summer at LP Field. That would have been tremendous to attend. Witnessing international soccer live is amazing. However, I couldn’t do that because…
3) Belmont is hosting Vanderbilt in baseball, so you know what that means.
I’m not mad at anybody at all because all three events are completely separate from each other but I was hoping that the karma police would have put these three at separate times. Like why couldn’t the Fight Night or soccer match been on Thursday? Those are the breaks in life and I will attend many more MMA fights and soccer matches in my future, just not this Wednesday.
I saw that En Vogue is reuniting. This is tremendous news. I had a huge crush on all four of these beautiful women back in the early 90’s, especially Dawn Robinson, the second one from the left. I still remember the first time that I saw the video for Giving Something He Can Feel as an 11-year old boy and having funny feelings, if you catch my drift. When the video for Free Your Mind came out and Dawn busted out in the catwalk with the curly hair and rocking the fierce look, I was sold. Not only will I buy the new album out of principle, I may have to attend a concert to see if Dawn is available. Don’t test me, I will make a road trip if necessary.
Furthermore, all four of the women in that group were smoking, still to this day. Maxine gets plenty of love, but Cindy was fine and Terry may be the most underrated hot singer in a female group ever, no joke.
-I spent a lot of this weekend watching a WWE DVD on Brian Pillman and was reminded how tremendous of an athlete and wrestler he was. Speaking of WWE
-Wrestlemania is next Sunday!!!! If any of you know of a location to watch it, we can get a viewing party going and make it happen.
-I had a good conversation this past Friday with an unlikely source. I was having lunch in a common eating area on campus, sitting at a table alone, watching TV when an acquaintance from school sat down next to me. I cross paths with her a lot and we talk about general things, nothing serious.
So we’re talking about various things, her boyfriend, my work, basketball, etc. when she mentions songwriting and how she has started to do it again after a long layoff. I started talking about getting back into writing and reading books, which all of you have noticed with me writing on this Blog constantly and the Sports Book Club.
So she’s talks about how she wants to get into singing and doing ministry and spreading the good Word through music and even doing missions. That sounded cool to me and if you knew her, you could completely see her doing this type of stuff.
She then asked me what I was doing with my interests. I told her about graduating in May and applying for jobs, etc. However, I started to realize that I wasn’t truly pursuing what I wanted to do, especially in the sports industry. I’ve never grown up wanting to be a professional athlete, but I wanted to be a sports journalist. Instead of wanting to become the next Patrick Ewing, I wanted to be Mike Lupica or Peter Vescey or Ralph Wiley or Sam Smith or Dick Schapp.
Sports Reporters and Outside the Lines on ESPN was appointment TV for me as a kid. Real Sports on HBO was the same way.
Reading these sports books the past few months has begun to peak my interest in the sports publishing field, whether its magazines, newspapers, books, even Blogs.
Anyway, all of this is going through my head while speaking with her and this made me reevaluate my career path. I know that I need to work to make a living, but if you don’t enjoy it, its not a life worth living. All of the things that I’ve learned in graduate school will be valuable to me in the future and even now but I don’t know if I’ll take the same path as my classmates after graduation.
You know that you’ll know more about this when I figure it out. So, a random lunch encounter made me think about my journey.
That’s going to be all for me. Longer Reflections than I expected but when I start, I keep going. You can expect an MLB baseball preview at some point this week, along with possibly a Show that Used to be the Business and maybe even an NBA Review thrown in there, even though that may happen after the regular season and combine with a playoff preview.
Also, if any of you have topics that you want me to write about, please tell me, I’m open to writing about anything.
Music to listen to: School Days by Stanley Clarke
Came across this song on Pandora on my Jaco Pastorius station and if you don’t know about Jaco and even the Weather Report, YouTube some of that music as well in your free time.
Anyway, this song appeared and I liked it and have been looking up some Stanley Clarke songs and now have to find the School Days album and appreciate all of the music. Enjoy the song. Also, props to the Old Grey Whistle Test. When I was a kid and see these old videos, I always thought it was the Old Grey Whiskey Test and never understood why they would call the place Whiskey.
Crush of the Day: Cougar week concludes here with my two final entries. While it may seem that I only have an attraction to light skinned women with dark hair, that really isn’t the case. I enjoy the company of all types of women. However, I’ve always liked older women as well. There’s a reason that my dating rule is five years younger and ten years older. There’s a method to it. So if you’re a lady between the ages of 22 and 37, you know where to contact me. Just kidding because the Tapout is still on but when its off, just remember.
OK, on to the Crushes
Lucy Liu has been on my bench for the top-five for some time so I have to acknowledge her this week. She’s a New Yorker and been a solid actor in various projects such as Ally McBeal on TV and was tremendous in Kill Bill and the underrated Lucky Number Slevin in the only movie of Josh Hartnett that I approve of. Actually, Black Hawk Down was the business, so that makes two movies.
Anyway, Lucy makes the list.
Crap, just looked up Josh’s movie list and its not as terrible as I thought. 40 Days and 40 Nights wasn’t bad and Sin City was excellent, even though his part wasn’t huge in it.
OK, this is supposed to be about the Crushes. Congrats to Lucy.
Since it’s Sunday, here’s another Crush!
Michael Michelle has to be the hottest person named Michael ever. Ladies, I ask you, who competes. Michael Bolton, George Michael, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Michael Buble, help me out.
Anyway, Michelle has been in some solid roles as well. I remember her most from New Jack City and ER. She was also in the underrated movie, The Sixth Man, seriously. I enjoyed it a lot. She reappeared on House a year or two ago and looked great in that as well. So congrats to her as well.
-What a week for Kentucky men’s basketball. This situation is interesting because going to undergrad and graduate school here in Nashville has allowed me to become good friends with several fans of Kentucky basketball. I’m from the NYC so to see a college program get the professional sports treatment is still fascinating to me. As much as I’ll try to understand fans of major southern entities like Kentucky basketball, Alabama football, Auburn football, LSU football and Tennessee football in this area, I’ll never completely appreciate the passion of having a college sport be the most important show in town for an entire state. In New York, when the Giants or Jets football season was over, we moved on to the Knicks and/or Rangers and then finally to the baseball teams.
As far as the actual firing of Gillespie, I get it and don’t get it. I get it because Kentucky basketball should be better than it is. I get mad at fans who have programs that at their peak are a Sweet 16-type program and expect their team to go to the Final Four. Kentucky is a Final Four program. Indiana is a Final Four program. UCLA is a Final Four program. When those teams don’t make it to the Final Four every four or five years, their fans should be pissed. Also, as fair or unfair as it may be, you do have to act a certain way as the coach of Kentucky, especially in that state. Being a confirmed bachelor hitting the town is not the way that Kentucky wants to see its coach act. Also, you can’t be bad to the media.
I don’t get it because you gave the guy two seasons. That’s setting a bad precedent for your program. Now, you have to be extra patient with the next guy you bring in even if he isn’t the best fit. If they’re not careful, this can turn into Notre Dame football where you’re paying a man too much money and you’re forced to keep him around despite wanting to get rid of him.
Who takes over the post? It isn’t going to be Billy Donovan. Why do I think this? I’m not the first guy to say this but with Anthony Grant taking the Alabama job, Florida doesn’t have its prime replacement anymore. I’m sure that Grant called Donovan down at Florida before taking the Alabama job and asked Billy if he was going to Kentucky. If Billy was going to Kentucky, Grant would be in Florida. However, that won’t be the case.
John Calipari also won’t be the coach. One thing that Kentucky should be afraid of is NCAA violations and possibly probation. Remember the late 80’s Kentucky fans, yeah, not fun times. Calipari has not only been pinched at one of his old spots, UMASS, there is some shady stuff going on at Memphis, I don’t care what anyone says. He’s too slimy and dirty for Kentucky in my opinion.
Travis Ford is an interesting option. Sean Miller is an under the radar candidate. Don’t overlook Jamie Dixon as well, even though if I was him, I would be looking at that Arizona job big time. Well, I think that Mark Few is taking the Arizona job so that may be out as well.
Isn’t the coaching carousal fun?
-The NCAA Tournament is down to the Final Four. I’m sticking with North Carolina, who I’ve taken from day one. Connecticut didn’t surprise me. I would have picked Pitt over Villanova if I did a full bracket. Respect to Michigan State from the crappy Big 10. They proved me wrong. I still don’t trust that conference but I should trust the Spartans in the future.
Tom Izzo. How could I forget him as a candidate for Kentucky. He has to look at it even though he has a pretty nice set up in East Lansing.
-I caught up on TV big time this week and am up to date on all of my shows, accept for House and General Hospital.
-There was no MMA Review on Friday because it was honestly a slow week in the sport. Speaking of MMA…
-Three of my favorite type of events are taking place on Wednesday night and I can only do one, check that, I’m obligated to one because of work.
1) The frickin UFC is coming to Nashville and I can’t go. When I found out that a UFC Fight Night was coming to Nashville, I was so hyped about it and it made me so excited. I love mixed martial arts so much and haven’t had the chance to see an event live and the top organization in the world is coming to my city and I can’t go. Furthermore, one of my favorite fighters, former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit, aka the Natural Born Killer, is fighting in the main event. This would have been a highlight of my year going to this event. However, I couldn’t do that because…
2) The frickin USA men’s soccer team is playing at LP Field on the same night in a World Cup qualifier. You have got to be kidding me. I love soccer and would have had a blast at the game. I would have tailgated with some buddies, eaten some good food, even possibly volunteered at the game like I did for the Under-20 World Cup matches this summer at LP Field. That would have been tremendous to attend. Witnessing international soccer live is amazing. However, I couldn’t do that because…
3) Belmont is hosting Vanderbilt in baseball, so you know what that means.
I’m not mad at anybody at all because all three events are completely separate from each other but I was hoping that the karma police would have put these three at separate times. Like why couldn’t the Fight Night or soccer match been on Thursday? Those are the breaks in life and I will attend many more MMA fights and soccer matches in my future, just not this Wednesday.
I saw that En Vogue is reuniting. This is tremendous news. I had a huge crush on all four of these beautiful women back in the early 90’s, especially Dawn Robinson, the second one from the left. I still remember the first time that I saw the video for Giving Something He Can Feel as an 11-year old boy and having funny feelings, if you catch my drift. When the video for Free Your Mind came out and Dawn busted out in the catwalk with the curly hair and rocking the fierce look, I was sold. Not only will I buy the new album out of principle, I may have to attend a concert to see if Dawn is available. Don’t test me, I will make a road trip if necessary.
Furthermore, all four of the women in that group were smoking, still to this day. Maxine gets plenty of love, but Cindy was fine and Terry may be the most underrated hot singer in a female group ever, no joke.
-I spent a lot of this weekend watching a WWE DVD on Brian Pillman and was reminded how tremendous of an athlete and wrestler he was. Speaking of WWE
-Wrestlemania is next Sunday!!!! If any of you know of a location to watch it, we can get a viewing party going and make it happen.
-I had a good conversation this past Friday with an unlikely source. I was having lunch in a common eating area on campus, sitting at a table alone, watching TV when an acquaintance from school sat down next to me. I cross paths with her a lot and we talk about general things, nothing serious.
So we’re talking about various things, her boyfriend, my work, basketball, etc. when she mentions songwriting and how she has started to do it again after a long layoff. I started talking about getting back into writing and reading books, which all of you have noticed with me writing on this Blog constantly and the Sports Book Club.
So she’s talks about how she wants to get into singing and doing ministry and spreading the good Word through music and even doing missions. That sounded cool to me and if you knew her, you could completely see her doing this type of stuff.
She then asked me what I was doing with my interests. I told her about graduating in May and applying for jobs, etc. However, I started to realize that I wasn’t truly pursuing what I wanted to do, especially in the sports industry. I’ve never grown up wanting to be a professional athlete, but I wanted to be a sports journalist. Instead of wanting to become the next Patrick Ewing, I wanted to be Mike Lupica or Peter Vescey or Ralph Wiley or Sam Smith or Dick Schapp.
Sports Reporters and Outside the Lines on ESPN was appointment TV for me as a kid. Real Sports on HBO was the same way.
Reading these sports books the past few months has begun to peak my interest in the sports publishing field, whether its magazines, newspapers, books, even Blogs.
Anyway, all of this is going through my head while speaking with her and this made me reevaluate my career path. I know that I need to work to make a living, but if you don’t enjoy it, its not a life worth living. All of the things that I’ve learned in graduate school will be valuable to me in the future and even now but I don’t know if I’ll take the same path as my classmates after graduation.
You know that you’ll know more about this when I figure it out. So, a random lunch encounter made me think about my journey.
That’s going to be all for me. Longer Reflections than I expected but when I start, I keep going. You can expect an MLB baseball preview at some point this week, along with possibly a Show that Used to be the Business and maybe even an NBA Review thrown in there, even though that may happen after the regular season and combine with a playoff preview.
Also, if any of you have topics that you want me to write about, please tell me, I’m open to writing about anything.
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