Politics

The absorbing politics of sport, I hasten to qualify. I appreciate Brett Farve. Having watched him for less than maybe 2 quarters his entire humoungous career.... I can appreciate him with a clear and biased conscience. You see... nothing has buried New England's Spygate quite as efficiently as this Bacholerette episode. Every day I click on Yahoo's NFL and the New England Patriots aren't on the front smear. Yes they have decent odds of going 16-0 again. (I would plead clemency... from the base of my dirty fingernails and never-was-in-fashion T-shirt. Patriots? You do that again and you WILL owe me a beer. Kraft, listen up.) And they even have the best odds of winning the Super Bowl. (Last I looked... and I quickly averted my eyes.)

But I'm excited... in a quiet let's-just-sneak-up-on-them-this-time type mode.

I enjoy watching the pre-season games. Though, this being Red Sox nation also, its sometimes difficult in a bar this time of year. Last year I was psyched... I had my rookies to root for... hoping they made the team.... I wowed at the new offensive weapons and would wonder if Moss could really be that good. This year is different. I do have rookies I am rooting for. But more... I hope the team does well. I hope... that... ya know... maybe there's still some of those 19-0 T-shirts available in South America. And I could do with a free beer. A new shirt? Last year's model is fine.

And to start the pre-season... To start a season that recognizes the glory of not worrying about, for a few hours (hahahaha) every week, life details like war and work and automobile repair. To not worry about the much more violent politics of the political kind, healthcare reform and environmental challenges. To instead focus on the fine art of fandom... and its related beer consumption. Here is a video (I switched videos after looking at some of the comments! perhaps it will help explain football a bit! lol!)

Polls, the NFL, an Elliptical, and a Rosebush

(I like lists. Not to grocery shop with... I've found that if I'm going to forget something I can do it just as well without a list as with one.)

People do tend to denigrate polls as hype... but they serve a function. Between February third and August 7th, there are only 2 days of excitement for those of us not into baseball basketball or are trying hard to ignore world or financial affairs, and that is today and tomorrow, the NFL draft. Other than that... there's the polls. And an elliptical, which I should mention as a way of sort of exercising on it.

I am a Patriots fan. When the Pats play my two primary desires are that they win and nobody gets injured. Its *crushing* when... well. We (me) won't go into past losses... Jersey decorum its called. *Or that's what its called by me... wimpishness could be applied but let's stick with a no-cement-that-time jersey decorum.* My life is affected yes... slamming your forehead onto a bar at the conclusion of the one but most important loss of a season does affect your equilibrium for a while, but it does not affect your personal plans like should I vacation in the middle east next year.

Whereas political polls... You root for whom you think is best... The anxiety of a future with crumbling ice caps and confused migrating birds, can not be diminished even with a 6 pack. Even blurry eyed, the glass is near empty. The supreme optimist could detect tequila where others see desert.... But polls are once removed. They are numbers. Numbers in red alongside faces, that's true... but like a score card in the things-that-matter but you never-can-see.... polls are touchdowns in these tenuous times.

But frankly? Can't the NFL do something more before August this year? I'll start things off with Marvin Gaye and the Star Spangled Banner and forget the rosebush.

In Defense of Tom Brady (As if he really needs it...)

(A good offense might be all that's necessary...)

But really this is in celebration of my accidental prescience in not owning a T.V.. I don't own a T.V. because (for me) it is an annoying time waster that jellifies the brain. (And my brain needs no extra help there...) This time of year I almost regret it... but really. I would have watched 6 hrs a day both Saturday and Sunday and my rear would hurt and a lump of wax would be sitting in my studio in a still unmangled lumpish state. As It is... I watch 1 game a week, the Pats, and on their off week I watch whichever opponent scares me the most.

In not owning a T.V., not listening to commercial radio, not listening to talk radio (well. I do listen to NPR and BBC), I am a bit underexposed to the bullsh*t of celebrity culture. Whenever I am stranded in a place with plastic chairs and People magazines, like when my pickup is being resuscitated, I don't know who those People pictures are.

You see, I've figured it out. (I am soooo slow, I know, but, it's da jelly brain.) It's Brady's bad luck to be a superstar quarterback in not only a celebrity culture... but in an overanalyzed bloggified celebrity swamp. I have heard relatively (!) intelligent people suddenly go off on what a bad father Brady is. It's like you are talking football one moment and the next you're on the toilet, magazine in hand... I was talking to a guy and I'm like WTF... I don't know do you know and WTF! I was like... the folks involved are a bunch of millionaires and what's it too you anyway? And his answer was enlightening... he said well its in your face all the time. See. That's the difference. I don't own a T.V.... So I don't have an opinion on Brady's love life... or his fatherhood... or anything non-football.

And with not owning a T.V. I can say, beer in hand, with only the prejudice of being a Pats fan... this is some kind of good football we are seeing. Tom Brady is a truly great quarterback on a truly great team. People magazines kinda belong on plastic chairs... leave them there and enjoy the fun. GO PATS!

Our Team

This just cracks me up. Really it does. The NFL and all sports franchises make money off of the concept of "our team," or "our players." And then they cry business and just leave us alone to make more money when the fans cry foul! Its not just a business, and they should know... 'CAUSE THAT'S HOW THEY MAKE MONEY! A fan wants to be able to watch THEIR team. When THEIR team is in a record setting season, a perfect so far season, a quarterback and receiver breaking records, they want to see the freakin' game. They are not viewing it as a business transaction.... If it were, they might not pay the bucks to go to Foxboro and watch a Patriots game. They might instead buy a sofa or get the car fixed or go to Disney land. I don't know how many people I've talked to that say oh I remember when the Pats were terrible... They've watched them over the years not out of "brand loyalty" but because its THEIR TEAM.

On top of this is the anti-trust exemption that the NFL (network? league?) has. I know when Bush built a new stadium for the Texas rangers, he did it with tax payers money. I do not know all the tax breaks and tax supported projects the NFL has enjoyed, but I do know they are choked with money. They are a billion dollar industry... that is a business... a hugely profitable business... that is acting like a spoilt child. I know I am not the most irritated fan over being denied access to the Pats Giants game this Saturday... Just look at the politicians getting involved! Their message boxes must be stuffed! But its like talking logic to a spoilt child... the child just does not get it. Just does not understand where you're coming from.... If the NFL wants to be treated like a "business" FINE! BUT LEMME SEE THE FREAKIN' GAME FIRST! Broadcast it? Like, in an accessible way?

Jeesh! and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO!

Lucky AND Good

Thankfully the Pats listened. (hehehehe.)

You know. I'm a bit new to this. The whole sports viewing/rooting kind of thing. It started a year or 2 before Brady was quarterback. I had a job in downtown Boston that I would get out of about 5:30-6 o'clock on Sunday. I'd head for the nearest bar and root for the loosing team of which ever football game was showing, and drink a couple of brews. I hated my job. Football and beer gave me a purge distance that helped... and then I got into watching the game itself. I really didn't root for the Pats until I moved to Rhode Island and Brady started quarterbacking. I have no knowledge to judge his quality of play.... he wins. But why I liked him at the first was that he made things happen. I think that is the core of what makes him great. The range of potential. He and others might look to stats, completions or whatever.... I think its still the potential that is what's important. Its what can be sensed in a player or a team... Its what gives a freak series of plays (SEE RAVEN'S GAME!!!) room to happen. They say you make your own luck. That could be open to debate. I do think you have something to say about potential....

This might be why people take sports so personally. When the team wins you are better... when the team looses... you loose. Whether you need the purge (wouldn't any teams' victory suit?), or the fulfilling of what you sense they might be able to do that, well, in some tangential universe, there is a potential you can don as easily as a purchased Brady jersey. Is living well a quality of limited viewing... well angled snapshots... or matching the player with the play.... And you the figure on the sidelines in a Hoodie. (An aside. This evening a lady that knew Bellichick's hoodie is the best selling item in the Pats store watched the game in the next barstool. (!))

And here I'll depart from psychological propping to real life flaillings. Flopping wildly about, as it were. The easiest way to piss me off is to suggest that artists (or myself) do not or do not want to work. Success is the one vindicator. But, in art... Okay. let me back up. With a job you have a paycheck. In any artistic fields you have... a show? a sale? a line of work that is marketable? an idea? Where does clocking in in the morning give you the paper to stuff up someone's nose? Honestly. Yet. It is assumed, that, as an artist you don't want to work. WELL FRAK THEM! A sentiment I will not apologize for. (Besides I love the word FRAK.) (frackety fracktey frak!)

eh. how to end this. Because you know it goes on and on. Its one of the compromises with life. Here I am, one round diagonal self, with nary a corner to blend into. There is the world with its ever flattening edges. Is sports gaining in popularity? I don't feel totally alone in this. Maybe others find other blending tools. More power to them. In the meantime... GO PATS!

Love the beer enjoy the game CHEERS people.

The Supremes, or a Note on the Patriots Scoring Potential

hehehehe. (Figured I'd get that out of the way first.) hehehehe. (And second.)

But really, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that watched the Patriots play Sunday (late) night that they could have easily scored 3 more touchdowns? And make the score instead of a lowly 56 to 10, 77 to 10? Look at it. By restricting themselves to 56 points how is that running up the score? And, did you watch them go into overdrive just before the half? This is something the Pats take pride in. That they could score in 2 minutes if necessary. And it has been necessary! (Truely. The Pats rock.) So extapolate that over a game. Say, for instance, the Pats have posession for 30 minutes and score every 2 minutes... that's 15 touchdowns... 105 points. That means the Pats left 49 points on the table Sunday night. The Pats are the epitome of sensativity self restraint and humanitarian impulses towards the easily crushed, necessary to nurture, fragile flowers that compose the egos of the rest of the NFL.

hehehehe. (and again.)

but really. Those guys are good. When they say, its the offenses' job to score and the opposing defenses' job to stop them... that's it. Watching the Pats execute is scarily good. I'm glad I'm a Pats fan, otherwise... I'd be one beer soaked pissed off hair pulling barstool kicking... woman that really needs to get a life. Miami... read my comment after the "difficulty walking" post. Might give you a helpful suggestion on how to deal with your impending doom.... I mean game.

But enjoy it if you can. What the Pats are doing and doing so well is gold. NFL gold... which might be a heavily package over managed strategized to the last scrap of tape (!) and infiltrated with unspecified elements while clutched at with greed and hyped by bobble headed noise makers that are marketed by... desperate self hating artists. It is good... good as NFL gold.

CHEERS! and GO PATS!

Brews and Self Restraint and Football

I'm not a big fan of self restraint. I think its because it takes so long for the cogs in my brain to mesh into any coherency that when should if they do and action occurrs.... slowing things down with restraint is rather redundant. However. I had too many brews last night. And I really am too old to be a bobble headed doll.

But the Pats game was FUN! I thought the Bengals played pretty well. The Pats... I would say the defense did okay? The score says they did okay. As an inebriated spectator, I wasn't so sure. And the offense looked spectacular occassionally and other times... Isn't the Bengals defense suppose to be not that great? I'd have to look up how many times the Pats punted... only once or twice. It seemed to be more...

The highlights were... Moss' catch. Does that guy play or does that guy play. And the reverse thing that they got 27 yards on. How many times does that happen? So there was some fun stuff... The NFL season is a long one. Hope the Pats continue their winning ways... GO PATS!

CHEATERS!!!!!

Thought I'd get that out of the way... And the obvious... agaisnt the Jets? THE JETS? Nothing against them but... really.
The Jets?

It points to... what the Pats did on Sunday was so routine for them that they did it against a team they should've beat by 21 anyway.

My theory. Last season there appeared to be a steep learning curve in play calling by the offense. By the end of the season, it was pretty good. Sometimes a screw up (Miami, first half Chargers), but generally pretty good. Now we know why. I just don't think Josh McDaniels is any where near the offensive coordinator that Charlie Weiss was. I think this is how they were compensating. And I think this stinks. Its a bad crutch to be so dependant on. Also, play calling wins and looses games.

It is true stuff like this has always been going on. Its why catchers call the pitches between their knees, why coaches hold up papers or otherwise cover mouths, why signals are changed for every game. But what the Pats did sounds so blatant and routine. (Against the Jets?)

Its hard to be sorry for a 300 lb guy, but Wilforks bigger than that and I feel bad for him. I feel bad for Hobbes and Vrabel and Thomas and Bruschi. I feel bad for Welker and Brady and Dan (the center). I feel bad for the entire offensive line (those guys are great.) And Green and the rest of the defense. They've been let down. Big time.

I don't want to watch Sunday. I'll think about it. But really, I don't want to watch.

GO PATS!!!! eh.

My prediction was, Pats by 21 over the Jets. Depending on how pissy Bellichik was feeling. He may have only wished to win by 14. Who knows. And that tackle of Pennington by Green looked totally clean... I think Green's a good guy and he still has my vote.

What I didn't expect was. To blow the last 3 minutes of play... or was it 4? Disscussing The Great American Healthcare Industrial Complex. I'd had a couple or few brews... not a care in the world, right? And here it looms, on my small and personal horizon... The Great American Health Care Industrial Complex.

So I'm sitting there, saying to this perfectly nice fellow...(poor guy... red hair? my family has a thing about redheads...) How I think that Americans are more suseptible to propoganda... because they are close to the end stages of capitalism. They are more use to being treated and talked about as consumers than as citizens. And how the oligarchs use this power of propoganda to tell people how great their healthcare system is.... even though they pay twice as much for a system that isn't even the best. (Americans don't get out much.)

We (Pats, the good guys) won the football game but can the war be won. My theory is, that the chink in the armor of the oligarchs is, healthcare. The poor fellow I was bombasting (great flirt, me), said Americans don't care and that they are not paying attention. I'm like, it's difficult with the static in the enviroment created by competing advertisements and products (what was it, the Bushies did not want to launch their new product "war" in August. Because you don't launch a new "product" "war" in August. ! ! ! Don't, with death from a "product" you get recall? RECALL!) (I WANT A RECALL!)

But. hunger might focus the masses. And the power, despite the attention entanglement of a thousand things demanding YOU, is in the masses. If we did not offer up our behinds, people like the product pushing Bushies would have nowhere to place their commanding triumphal boot clad toesies.)

So next to mass starvation is the obvious inequality in access to healthcare. I think there the apathy that the oligarchs are use to exploiting to their own benifit might become a bit, prickly. Yes, a coach like Bellichik would be helpful. And I have only a wet noodle for a sword. But people, a thousand wet noodles can really gum up the works.

If I were an idealist, I'd be... well... idealistic. As it is... I'm wondering if I can watch Patriots games in Canada. The whole thing makes me so tired. I don't want the oligarchs to win. I want lucidity, intelligence, equality... I want the good guys to win.... But people. We are way behind and there is no leader. At some other time I might go into what I think the genius of the Pats organization is. Its been said elsewhere. But here I want to say. what. What. WHAT! CARE people. that is what you need to do. Ask questions and care. Be a wet noodle too.

It's the NFL SEASON! Prepare with Etsy's Own Personal Shopper, KarmaRox!

A stadium of applause, please, for Etsy.com's own Personal Shopper, KarmaRox! Football season is upon us and we don't have to listen ANYMORE to querulous "who is the best quarterback" mumbo... Now is the time to watch guys making more money than you will EVER see kick some ASS. I have asked KarmaRox to assist the excited-to-ditziness fans prepare...

The first is, well, the long wait. Some of you may have been reduced to this... I hope not. But if so, Kimberlyatstir.etsy.com did this fabulous photo...

Next... Its here! Finally! No more Uber-analysis! Out of KarmaRox's own shop, at KarmaRox.Etsy.com is... (I picked this.) It's fun! It's fun! It's really really fun!


And "proper" dress for the occassion? Glamarita.etsy.com has a GREAT possibility!


And you may need this to yell... I don't. I only yell at a T.V. screen and risk getting thrown out of the bar at that... But for those of you less situationally challanged BrassMonkeyDesigns.etsy.com has this:


This is for the Atlanta Falcon's fans. Don't know if it will help! TheDogCoatLady.etsy.com made...


And lastly... hehehe.... These guys are fans, though I don't know of what. A FOOTBALL fan returning to his car has MixedSpeicies.etsy.com to thank for this IMAGE if nothing else!


All you guys are GREAT!

The NFL and I

I know that beer plays a large part in this.

At no time in my life, past 14 years of age that is, have I ever been under the delusion of intellectualism. And for me, believe me, it would be a delusion. Occassionally I read books that excersice the few feeble brain cells rattling about in my cranium. But having read Ulysses twice (okay, in a book group) I figure I'm good for the next couple of years, at least.

But I go to a bar (don't own a T.V.), drink beer, and watch football once a week. I really don't have the patience for more. But this, excuse me or not, is perfect. I enjoy this and am not quite sure why. Yes, I think Vince Wilfork of the New England Pats has a beautiful smile. But he ain't my hottie. Tom Brady, a good quarterback and the perfect Belichick quarterback, is more admirable to me for the way he stays with the game and is always working at it. His Hollywood looks are a bit of a turn off. (? a character flaw, I'm sure.) Watching beefcakes bounce around in tights is fun, no doubt about it. But my favorite players are the ones that stay in there. Troy Brown's stripping the ball out of a Charger's hands last year was just that. Staying with the play. Also seeing Wilfork halfway down the field... The kicker making a tackle....(Gostowski)... A solid catch a good tackle the offenive line creating a good pocket....the defense stopping the opponents cold at the 1 yard line...

Those are the things I think about while watching... and are definitely a big part of the attraction. But there is also... hearing about (yet another) bomb in a Baghdad market. I protested the war even before it started. I actually thought at the time that something could be done to stop a bad idea... And I'm not young.

Perhaps it is the combo. A bomb, beer, and beefcakes bouncing. Somewhere in there is what makes me enjoy the NFL. I've heard it said that the reason people like to write about sports is because its easy. Maybe that extends to the watching of it. Like a nice fall breeze, and beer.

SUPER BOWL PATS!

Okay that now cements it. The Patriots are going to go to the Super Bowl in 2007. (!!!!) Just read my "Who Knew" post. You see, I just found out that Gisele Bundchen made the Forbes list as top model earner with 33 million (not the 150 million? where did I get that...) And that fits into my convoluted calculations a bit better. 33 million for GB+ 30 million for TB (who really cares about the "best quarterback" as long as you get to the Super Bowl) + a 30 dollar fine for me = .... well. Anyway. Let me think on this....

Who Knew

Who knew, indeed. But what I was going to blather about is the state of... well. Finances. Bleck. Today I discussed life with the manager of my local bank branch. Weelll. maybe not life in general but an overdraft or three and I am guilty. You see, life is way to complex. I didn't expound on this. Instead I brought up Gisele Buchanan and Tom Brady. You see, I read that GB earned 150 million and TB earned 30. Million. Last (one) year. And one of my overdrafts involved a $30 penalty on a $1.25 charge. Geeze. (I think I represent the amoeba of this story.) The local branch lady was nice and understanding, the bank person downtown who bizzarely kept hanging up the phone was less understanding. (What would Freud have said about her relationship with her phone? WWFS?)
I really don't think I misremembered the $150 million... and not even for a cure for cancer. or AIDS. Infant mortality is on the rise in Mississippi and a lady (I'm sure she is a nice person) is paid $150 million to walk around in a bathing suit. Now paying TB 30 mill.... well, go Pats, what can I say. Geeze. Like, win? My $30 penalty + TB's 30 million = three beers during a Pats Super Bowl.

Regarding the NFL Patriots

Who cares. In the background I'm listening to NPR cerebralizing over blogging. Now, I have read some fantastic blogs. And forgotten every single one (no not really but I have a point to make). I don't forget reading Tale of Two Cities while in Quito, Equador, or talking about Steinbeck with some CRAZY Canandian in Panachel, Guatamala. There is some great beer in Guatemala for all you NFL fans. And in Fiji. Man do you guys got some traveling to do....
As with all those cell phone crash drivers, I've taken up one neural track with another. How to listen to others while talking to oneself.... (present difficulties referring to...
Who cares.
I do re: Pats. (that's the title, anyway) I wanted to vent about Randy Moss. What I want to say, to me and the keyboard, is. I don't think individual desires and society expectation can ever be factored out. Simplified, shut up youse guys. Look at it. Do all families have a black sheep or do all families need a black sheep? People respond to expectations. There is something way to facile about how we deal with one another. I've heard it said that if you enter the public forum expect the the pubic discourse. But. If I were to say anything to RM I'd refer him to a blog I caught a few weeks ago talking about deliberate practice. A blog, mind you. (by Friendsvangard..? just to help out any anal retentives out there.) It was talking about success, and practice, and what made for success. Bottom line, if you want the touchdown do it all the time. Practice delibrately.

However. There's the individual thing and the organizational thing. Psychology. Whose playing footsie and why. I think the Pats played footsie last season. This season I expect them to go all out. Kinda like redefining the line. And RM? well. um. I wish the guy well. The videos I've seen are great. Pure talent. He is an artist. Its just, the deliberate practice thing. (Wes Welker apparently read that blog.) And how can any individual with a sense of self ignore massive BS? It'd take a Zen master. Hey, RM....

And another Pats thing. Regarding TB, our incredibly sucessful QB? His self absorbion? Give it a rest. Like, who do you know says all the right things all the time, and who isn't self absorbed to some extent? What contorted value system are we holding athletes too? (or not to for that matter). He is not, from what I've heard, more self absorbed, than 90% of the folks I know and I don't want to know the other 10%! Geeze people. You're paying him to win, and he and the rest of the Pats do that very freaking well. Quit nit picking. Were he to be involved in dog fighting I'd say call out the....

Anyway. Good night and buy more jewelry! That is, StoneyCharms.etsy.com. (Other jewelry dosen't count. We're going for the touchdown here...)

In the Pursuit of Happy Endings

In this post I will link Paul McCarthy, the Great American Health Care Industrial Complex, and the NFL. Hah, you say. Well, we're all in this life raft together... let's drift. (The Great American Health Care Industrial Complex will henceforth be referred to as the GAHCIC.)

Getting back to the title. See, all problems, or some of them, or those that I pick anyway, can be linked to time. The other day I heard a fragment on NPR about how "the pursuit of happiness" had a different meaning when the consitution was written. I do not remember, if I was even listening, what the time relevant meaning of P of H was. My pathetic brain stopped with that one realizaion. (one at a time, please.) You see. It does make sense. P of H never did. However, the misunderstanding over time has morphed into an odd thing. Pursuit of Happiness....

Now enter Paul McCarthy. Not to be used just as a Google spasm, he (again on NPR. I do enjoy NPR... the beauty of it is an aquired literateness without having to open a book) said this a.m. something about "Happy Endings." Was it a song title? dunno. Another brain fart occurred. (my brain does beans.) Did he realize the beauty of that phrase? Possibly. I mean, well, you know....

And the NFL. I'm rooting for the NE Patriots. And one reason? I really hope this is not totally true but the pain of living requires me to at least sit in this well cushioned chair and admit... they win. I remember the season Brady started doing his thing. Or at least, his QB thing. Though I'm sure he was doing other things too, but I digress... The team suddenly started to look interesting. Stuff (football) happened. Good bad though mostly good, happened. I don't know enough about football, I just look at action... and the scoreboard...

And getting back to the microchip implanted in my bean fed brain... NPR, that is. On "Only a Game" this past Saturday a pro B-ball player talked about how he didn't understand 40 yr olds painting themselves green and black and taking sports so seriously. He doesn't get it. Maybe as a player he's not aware... He doesn't have this need...

Its all about happy endings. Paul McCarthy said it right. In that one phrase. with DARFUR. The Bush (that is his name, right?) administrational debacle. Global Warm Poop down. Health care.... GAHCIndustrialC. Is it the warping of a time that created misunderstanding, or is it a human need? Maybe, the misunderstanding came willfully though subconsciously through time.... We need a happy ending therefore we saw the P of H as our right....

GO PATS! The NFL (or at least rooting for the NE Patriots) is like weeding. It's a mindless activity that one can succeed at. (all NFL folks just... you know I had to say that...) I won't paint myself. Really. But whether it is good... not... it is like that little bird E.D. mentioned (see I did read in 3rd grade... introducing E.D so early robs her of the P of H link)...

There was this book, Rollerball. Where in a world corperations ruled, there was this sport rollerball that was vicious and committed and occupied the masses totally. I do not link the NFL and today to this sci-fi story totally (GO PATS)... but I wonder... I want a happy ending. Frankly, we really are in this life raft together. (Steelers fans, okay. No Colts.) I still pay attention some, albeit in a cringing way, to the political train wreck (an old metaphor denoting an unstoppable destructive force...)

I even liked Brady's Snickers commercial. Good night.