Dark Day One

"Basketball has always been my thing
I like Magic, Bird, and Bernard King
And number 33, my man Kareem
Is the center on my starting team"
--Basketball, Kurtis Blow

Heard this little gem on 93.5 this morning, and I can't believe I've never heard this song before. The guy raps about all the all-time greats (Dr. J, Moses, Tiny, Earl the Pearl, Wilt, Big O, Jerry West, Clyde, Rick Barry, Pistol Pete, Isiah, Iceman, etc.) and makes it work, old-school style. If you haven't yet been introduced to 93.5, KDAY, you're missing out big-time. It's basically rap for white people. All the songs you know all the words to, and great music you've never heard before like this tune. Snoop, Dre, Warren G, Ice Cube--it's "Hip Hop Today and Back in the Day," as they say. Too good. And it's right between Arrow and KZLA, so it's no problem to have good music on all the time without turning the dial more than a couple clicks at a time.
It was mentioned yesterday, but I have no doubt that the Chargers' AFC West title deserves repeat acknowledgment. Such an amazing story: a squad that nobody figured would win more than four games (the San Diego Union-Tribune predicted exactly zero victories for the season), and now an eight-game winning streak and a playoff berth. Awesome.
I'm trying to recall a regular-season NBA game more anticipated and more built-up than Saturday's Lakers-Heat match-up at Staples. It just might be the biggest non-playoff basketball game in my lifetime, and I don't think that's an understatement. The only possibility that comes to mind is MJ's first comeback against the Indiana Pacers, but the build-up wasn't longer than a day or two because of the nature of his announcement. People only knew like that day or the day before that Mike was going to be playing, so the anticipation wasn't even close to this. Everybody I know has had Christmas Day circled on their calendar for months--not because it represents the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not because it's time for presents--strictly because it's Shaq v. Kobe for the first time. All the soap opera stuff that surrounded those two while they were in L.A. paved the way for the acrimonious split-up this past off-season, and has now allowed for an awesome encounter on the 25th. It should be quite easy to continue my tradition of falling asleep on the Zentmyer's couch watching basketball on Christmas Day, though hopefully the Lakers will stay in the game long enough to keep me awake. I'm thinking it might be a little tough on Chris Mihm to try stopping Shaq, and there isn't much help on the bench either: Vlade? No chance. Slava? Ha. Brian Grant? He couldn't do it five years ago, he's not going to be able to do it now. It's gotta be time for Lamar Odom to step up and show something against his old team; steal the show from Shaq and Kobe and give the Lake Show a win. I'm not so confident in that possibility, unfortunately. I'm thinking it's going to be the Dwyane Wade show, which Shaq would love--showing that his new teammate is better than his old one.
Dark weeks are the post-game feasts of my job, allowing me to come in and leave whenever I want, work on my own fun projects (or not) and spend as much time writing and e-mailing as I see fit. I've worked hard for long stretches of time (last week being the extreme), and I deserve such breaks. So I'll be in the office until about 2:00 today (I got in at 9:30), and I'll probably have a similar 10-3 or something tomorrow, then nothing until the New Year. I do need to put together a short list of things I hope to get done during this vacation, to be sure I'm at least somewhat productive:
- finish Christmas shopping. I'm good with the family, but there's an unidentified cousin (we drew names a month ago, and I definitely forgot who I drew) for whom I still need to shop, and a few friends that warrant gifts as well...
- finish my current book. I'm nearing the end of Leigh Montville's Ted Williams biography, which has been a great read. I usually read a chapter or half before sleep, but since my bedtimes have been so late recently, reading hasn't been as appealing at 3 or 4 as it was at 10 or 11. Finishing that will mean I'm able to move on and start "Fever Pitch," a book about which I've heard great things. It's written by Nick Hornby, author of "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy," both of which are tremendous stories. This one's about a soccer fan in England, which I know will appeal to me. Evidently it's been adapted for an American screenplay, with Jimmy Fallon playing a Red Sox fan (they shot some of the closing scenes at the actual Red Sox World Series on-field celebration).
- sleep in. I don't foresee any problems with this one.
- play music with Charlie and Joel. This needs some planning ahead, but I've missed out on the whole band jamming experience, and would like to partake again sometime soon. Doesn't matter what we're playing--probably Sister Hazel and assorted other favorites--but it's so nice to get that feeling back again.
- (final and most important) enjoy and appreciate my time with family and friends. These holidays come and go pretty quickly, so I want to be sure I'm soaking in every moment I have with the ones I care about (and who care about me). It's easy to take all that for granted, and I hope that I don't. A bonus on this point is that I'll be able to do this even while at work next Sunday, since I've successfully secured one-day gigs for both of my brothers in the highlights department of the Fox NFL Sunday show. They'll both be logging games, helping out with the highlights crew, since we're a little short-staffed due to Sunday's proximate nature to Christmas. Should be a great time.
Off to do not much work. I love it.

Exhale

"I've got a story that's almost finished
Now all I need is someone to tell it to
Maybe that's you"
--The World You Love, Jimmy Eat World

I'm on the verge of this nice week-and-a-half vacation, and almost able to exhale completely. After two weeks of no sleep, endless hours of work, extra shifts and whatnot, the end of today's football session means two half days Monday and Tuesday (like 10-3, I can't wait) and then lots of time off. Back to work on Monday, January 3, which happily seems like a long way off...
Obvious highlight of today's football schedule: Chargers wrap up the division with a stellar display in the snow, a 21-0 shellacking of the woeful Cleveland Browns. Drew Brees attempted just six passes the entire day, completing four of them (one to my main man Gates, resulting in a 72-yard touchdown). LT was over 100 yards again and scored twice, and Donnie (another pick) and the rest of the defense did another great job. I really can't believe we're going to the playoffs, playing so well after such an awful 2003 and a tumultuous off-season (Rivers and Manning and all that). Speaking of Manning, we head to Indy next week--should be a nice test for the defense, and a good warmup for the playoffs.
Got to play some guitar yesterday for the first time in a while, jammin' through some Sister Hazel with Phil, and following with some original stuff later in the evening. Haven't been writing nearly enough of late, so hopefully that will be one byproduct of the vacation time.
The highlight of yesterday's activities was a morning visit to Union Rescue Mission, an outreach spot near downtown that was having a toy and food giveaway. Stu, Steve, Draudt and I got up nice and early to head over there, arriving around 8 and taking care of a bunch of manual labor-type tasks. We moved palettes of food from a warehouse to a truck, drove the truck around to the lot where the activities were going to take place, and then unpacked everything. Walked around all the tents and temporary housing situations in the neighborhood and got to chat with some of the locals, which was a very enlightening bonus of the proceedings. Driving into the Fox lot every day, the first thing I see to my left is what looks like a run-down city street, used in countless movies and television shows. I don't even think about it when I drive by, because it's there every day, and so walking around this area yesterday, it took a long time for me to grasp the reality that this was no movie set. Real people sleep on the streets every night. Real people don't have anything to eat. It was quite sobering to walk around and know that I've lived 99% of my life completely insulated from the sad, sad situations of people like this everywhere. I still need time to process and realize what it means, but I know I'm not doing enough. One guy in particular had my ear (and that of Steve and Stu) for almost 15 minutes, talking about education and work and getting ahead in life. Our assumption is that he works at one of the local shelters, reaching out to individuals in the neighborhood and giving them hope for the future. He knew a lot about a lot of stuff, having apparently done a little bit of everything in his life: football, track and field, fighting in the Vietnam war, earning a masters degree, working toward a doctorate, bodybuilding, doing some camera work for Comcast. Seems pretty remarkable. I don't come across people like George (that's his name) in my daily life, so I'm again reminded that I need to act somehow on the experience gained yesterday...
I love the first lines of the song above (off the new J.E.W. disc, of course), providing an optimistic look at a budding relationship (at least that's how I'm choosing to view it). I don't know about the story being almost finished, but it's cool to think about sharing it with someone. Then a new story begins, right? Heading to church again tonight--I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few weeks at Bel Air, especially the Christmas concert last week--and I don't have to worry so much about sleep when I get home, which will be such a relief. Of course, last Sunday night I had to return to work to finish up an edit session, and I ended up with a half-hour of sleep, so anything's gonna be more productive than that.
Final thought, this one on baseball: thank goodness the Padres aren't playing "moneyball," because I don't really understand what the Dodgers are doing with all these deals. Finley, Beltre, Green, Penny, Brazoban, Ishii--all gone? Why? It's not like they had their most successful season since 1988 or anything. Jeff Kent is not the answer. Neither is Javier Vazquez. We'll take our Woody Williams acquisition any day of the week. Off to church, hopefully a decent amount of writing will ensue this week, because of my free time. We'll see...

No Sleep 'Til...

"Waking up before I get to sleep
'Cause I'll be rocking this party eight days a week
No sleep 'til..."
--No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn, Beastie Boys

I'm not sure how I'm still functioning this morning, based on the sleep patterns of the last week or so. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, with approximately two weeks of vacation coming right up, but for now, ouch.
Thursday night: 5 hours. Friday: 6.5 hours. Saturday: 3.5 hours. Sunday: 0.5 hours. Yeah, that's written correctly. I was able to grab the valuable 4:30-5:00 a.m. sleep window, underrated by most. Yesterday was crazy though, and after working a full week last week (60+ hours, Monday through Friday), working on a shoot all day Saturday (8:30-5:30), working NFL on Sunday (8:30-5) and adding an edit session at night (5-12), I was smart enough to take another shoot assignment at the end of the workday yesterday. It was cool though, heading to a barbershop (The New Millenium) on Crenshaw to shoot all the trash-talkers discussing various issues (sports and other) with John Salley. There are some definite characters in that place, and no shortage of strong opinions. I got to actually shoot some stuff, using a dv-cam to provide some variation to the one camera we brought. I managed to maintain focus--somehow--on that half hour of sleep, and I think it'll turn into a good piece.
In the midst of all this lack of sleep, there were certainly some redeeming things about the weekend. I'm privileged to be friends with one of the coolest girls in the entire world, and she reaffirmed that amazing personality and depth of character on multiple occasions in the past few days. Sometimes dudes can be idiots (and I'm obviously no exception), so to have someone like that in my corner is a blessing and a half.
In less significant news, the Bolts won again and maintained their two-game lead in the division, with just three to play (the first of which comes against the mighty Browns, they of the 15 yards of total offense on Sunday). LT was back on track, which warms my heart, and Donnie Edwards played the game of his life: 16 tackles, two picks (one for a huge TD) and four pass deflections. I love it.
Lakers not gonna get it done tonight against Seattle, though I'm still not sure I understand how Nate McMillan's boys are playing so well this season. Ray Allen & Co. have been shooting the lights out (Rashard Lewis, Antonio Daniels and Vlad Radmanovic included), and they've overcome their lack of a true big man with some finely tuned smallball.
Big Fox Christmas party tomorrow night--I'm told it cost them high five figures to get it done, so I'm hoping for a good time. Probably no time to write tomorrow (which is why I mention the party now), because the show has been changing a lot this week and time is at a premium. There will be a gigantic sigh of relief when the weekend comes and my nice little vacation beckons. Peace.

Pet Peeves

"A thousand nights or more
I travelled east and north
Please answer the door"
--Polaris, Jimmy Eat World

Yes, that's a song off "Futures" as well. Get it.
I've been coming to grips with several of my pet peeves recently, the most notable of which I'll get to in a second, but the most current of which was rediscovered this morning. I remain in disbelief as to the number of bad drivers in the greater Los Angeles area (or GLAA), not because of their lack of skill, but because of their lack of a brain. It's one thing if somebody takes turns too fast, or doesn't know how to properly slow down before a stop sign to avoid giving their passengers whiplash. Those sorts of skills rarely give me cause for concern, unless I happen to be riding with that person--I try to avoid riding with these kinds of people, so again, it's rarely an issue.
Here's where I have a problem: There's a sign at the National Blvd. offramp from the 405 North telling us that we can't turn right on a red light after 6 a.m. (until sometime in the evening, doesn't really matter). Turning right on said red light before 6, however, is freely allowed, even encouraged. I never get to that light after 6 on my way to the gym, so I never have to worry about waiting a long time for the green. However, when I approach and there's a car in front of me (or three, as was the case today), I start to worry about the reading ability and comprehension level of the driver at the front. When they sit for 15-20 seconds and no cars are passing in the perpendicular lanes, I begin to grow restless. When 30 seconds becomes a minute or two, steam is beginning to emerge from my ears. When I have to wait for this stupid light to turn green, at 5:50, a full ten minutes before any sort of turn is disallowed, I can't handle it. Why can't people read? There are variations on traffic laws in this great state of California, and they made it easy to figure out what to do. It's spelled out, in plain English, on a sign directly in front of the place where this confusing (?) situation might arise. If these drivers can't read English (which was one of my first attempts at an explanation), then they shouldn't be able to read the part that says "No Right Turn on Red" either. The numbers are the easy part.
There's a worse variation of this offense that involves people who don't know that it's legal to turn right on a red light at all. That's even worse, when there are no restrictions and Henry Red Sedan just won't budge. Aargh.
So my biggest pet peeve is along the same lines of ineptitude. At the very top of all that I can't stand is people's inability to do things right (like these awful, awful drivers). I know I should be more patient, acknowledging my own inability to do things right all too often, but it still drives me up a wall when people are inept. Grammar is the biggest thing, which is the reason for the "literally" board that graces the entry way of our home. The first entry was a correct usage, Larry David referencing the "blind date" he was securing for his friend (the guy actually was blind, quite humorous). The rest of the list details the all-too-often misuse of the word, as in Doctor Berman "literally" turning back the hands of time with his plastic surgery techniques. Saw an X-Box game review that I definitely need to get: Call of Duty - Finest Hour. The review tells us, "Realistic sights and sounds literally explode off the screen at you!" Wow, the video game industry has really made some advances; can't wait to see this.
I also can't stand it when people try to sound intelligent and use words incorrectly, having heard them somewhere and then assuming their meaning, proceeding to throw them in sentences they have no business inhabiting. I'm not saying I have an amazing vocabulary (well, yes, I suppose I do), but at least I use words I know in places where they belong.
The word irregardless should never be used. It's not real. "I could care less" does not signify what people intend it to. The correct usage is "I could not care less," or, if you're into abbreviations, "I couldn't care less." That's okay, too. Even small words, things like "I should of." No, it's "I should have." My favorite terrible word placement was a quote in a friend's yearbook one time that read, "I'll never take your friendship for granite." Yes, that's granite. As in the rock. I'm not sure what a grayish igneous rock has to do with friendship, but maybe that's just me.
Sorry to vent; I'm probably coming across as a language snob, but I just want people to do it right. School is there for a reason. Let's hope we all learned something.
A tremendously light day today, which makes up for the 7:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. debacle that was yesterday. We're also exchanging secret santa gifts in the workplace, an exchange I forgot about until 11 p.m. last night when I got home. Still made it happen, so no worries. Everybody loves Honey Wheat Thins.
Again, possible weekend developments to report, update coming Monday...

What is Thursday?

"You'll sit alone forever
If you wait for the right time
What are you hoping for?"
--23, Jimmy Eat World

My tribute to this glorious album continues. Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, and go purchase this work of musical genius. That's all I ask.
As I sit at my desk on a Thursday morning, I'm wondering if this day of the week really has any special meaning. For me, it's bible study night. For many (myself included), it used to be Friends night (and going back a few more years, Seinfeld night). But Friday obviously signifies the end of the work week and the start of the weekend, Saturday is all about college football (or just about not working), Sunday is the NFL (and church) and Monday is the dreaded start of the work week. Tuesday might be as unidentifiable as Thursday, but Wednesday is hump day (that's one of those things that makes you snicker when a teacher says it in class, like "Lake Titicaca"). So Tuesday and Thursday are lost in the middle, with nothing really to show for themselves. Kinda sad, I guess. It'd be nice to have something significant every day, but just like every birthday can't mean something (b-days 1 through 21 are all important; 25 is the last semi-momentous one, and then it's only every ten years that it matters), I guess all the days of the week can't have something cool tied to them.
So yeah, it's Thursday, nothing day, and I've got a 9-to-5 edit session (a piece on the best soundbites of the year) mixed in with a promo edit session in another edit bay somehow, followed by serious preparation for tomorrow's show and next week's "experiment," where Tom Arnold and John Salley will be co-hosting the show by themselves--look out.
Watched "The West Wing" last night for the second consecutive week, having forgotten about its existence for the first month or so of the new season. Even though Aaron Sorkin is long gone, I still love the dialogue and the characters, and I try not to miss an episode. Josh Lyman (played exceptionally by the talented Bradley Whitford) is probably my favorite character in all of television, topped in historical terms (in my eyes, mind you) only by George Costanza and either Dan Rydell or Casey McCall (I never could decide which SportsNight anchor I liked more). I gotta come up with a list of my favorite television shows of all-time; that could fill up some of the free time I don't have today...
As a caveat, I'm excluding sports television (because that's pretty much all I watch) and that includes the show that employs me, so this list is limited to shows of the sitcom/drama variety. Reality TV is the bane of my existence, so no such show will be found anywhere near this list. Here's my top five, with an accompanying comment or two:
5. Sopranos
It's would be higher, but we have to wait like four years for the start of the next season, so that's souring me on it a little. It's easily the most action-packed and crazy of the shows I watch, and because it's HBO, they get away with a lot more than the networks can. Awesome side characters Tony Soprano is an amazing main character, as complex and conflicted as any man in television history, and Gandolfini does a tremendous job playing him.
4. Simpsons
Speaking of complex and conflicted, we have our good friend Homer Simpson, who's been screwing up his job, his children and his married life for almost fifteen years now. It's amazing to me that a show which started when I was in elementary school is still around, making new episodes. Granted, the animation allows them leeway that normal shows can't get, but it's still pretty cool. I can watch any episode from any season, no matter how many times I've seen it before, and I'll still laugh out loud on numerous occasions. Best episode ever: "A Fish Called Selma" when Troy McClure marries Marge's sister Selma to cover up his history of deviant behavior. Classic lines from Homer in this one.
3. West Wing
So intelligently written and clever, it's the only thing that's ever gotten me remotely interested in politics. An amazing cast from top to bottom, they should have dropped off a ton when Rob Lowe left, but Allison Janney, John Spencer, Richard Schiff, Josh Malina and the aforementioned Whitford have complemented Martin Sheen exceptionally. Sorkin = genius.
2. Seinfeld
Based on the comedy of two incredibly funny individuals (Curb might be show no. 6 on my list), and boasting a cast of amazing characters. Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine could each carry their own show, and together they're a force of funny. Add in secondary characters like Newman, the Costanzas, the Seinfelds, George Steinbrenner, Elaine's various bosses, et al, and you've got the greatest comedy in t.v. history.
1. SportsNight
My favorite show ever, and it's not even close. I remember vividly watching the initial season on ABC, so excited that Dan Rydell was one of the lead anchors' names. I was mystified that the show didn't stick around more than two seasons though, and imagine my joy when it was re-discovered on Comedy Central (at 1 or 1:30 a.m.) in the Summer of 2001. The series was released on DVD about a year later and I now have every single episode at my disposal. Aaron Sorkin's genius on full display in the dialogue, the storylines and the character development. Peter Krause and Josh Charles were great, and Josh Malina preceded his Will Bailey role (West Wing) with an extremely likeable Jeremy. I will never get enough of this show, and I even appreciate it more now that I work in sports television. Didn't think that was possible.
Editor's Note (added at 10:26 p.m.): The 9-to-5 edit session I mentioned at the top has been shifted, and I ended up having to stay until 10:30 to work on this piece. Hopefully it'll be worth it, weekend's just ahead and there could be some major happenings...updates coming. Peace

Up and Down Weekend

"I'm in love with the ordinary
I need a simple space to rest my head
And everything gets clear"
--The World You Love, Jimmy Eat World

One of the highlights of my weekend, before I get into its up-and-down nature, was just that: a simple space to rest my head. I fell asleep upstairs at my friend Jeff's house after a nice dinner, intending merely to take a nap for an hour before heading out to another friend's party, but the sandman got me and I emerged more than three hours later with a real solid nap to my credit. Unfortunately, things didn't get clear, as Jimmy professes; instead I remained rather hazy as I braved the 110-105-405 route home.
So the weekend started with a lazy Friday evening, watching some of the bad Lakers (Kobe drives and dishes on every single offensive set, meaning that everyone else stands around, spots up, and casts threes--not a good offense, sorry Rudy T) with Michael after the initial screening of "Thanksgiving Football 2004: The Video", my half-hearted effort at re-creating the magic that was the previous weekend's football game. It's a pretty good, minute-long piece that would be better if the camera work was better (I have only myself to blame) and if any of my editors really wanted to spend more than an hour on the thing. Returned home to Philip and friends and pretty much headed straight to bed, waiting for the Lakers' conclusion and acknowledging my dramatic need for sleep (fewer than five hours of slumber in each of the previous four days).
Up fairly early on Saturday to play some NCAA football (more to come later that night) and after some grocery shopping, I headed up to Pasadena to join friends Jeff, Jenny and Jason for the UCLA-USC game. Somebody proposed the title "'Wood vs. the Hood" and I think I like it. Much better game than most thought--I knew we'd cover, but I figured it would be 13-14 instead of a five-point margin. We even had a chance to win the thing, but Drew Olson got a little too excited and fired the ball to a wide-open Jason Leach instead of one of his receivers. I'm stoked about next year, though, with Olson, Maurice Drew, Chris Markey (not to be confused with Biz Markie, though maybe they're related, I haven't done the necessary research), Marcedes Lewis (did they try to name him after the car and just miss?) and Junior Taylor all back to provide another year of experience in this West Coast offense that Tom Cable has so adeptly managed this season. The defense might suck again, but it can't help improving at least a little bit (I hope). Reggie Bush is ridiculous. He's the NCAA version of Michael Vick, so much faster than everyone he's playing that it's almost not fair. Like nine guys would have angles on Reggie, and he'd still turn the corner and go for 80. We don't have anyone like that (Maurice Drew looked like that against Washington, but, let's be fair: everyone looked like that against Washington this year). Well, nobody else in America (maybe the NFL included) has anyone like that, so I can't feel too bad. Leinart was unspectacular (we even got some pressure on him, which I didn't expect at all), but he is a tremendous manager of the game and possesses the best touch of any quarterback in the country (machine-gun Olson could stand to learn a thing or two from his counterpart: you don't need to rear back and try to throw it through the chest of a running back who's four yards in front of you--come on, man). We did have a great time at the game though--saw like four hundred people I know, which was to be expected--and not such a good time getting out of the Arroyo. We didn't arrive back at Jeff's house (in Pasadena, mind you) until after 7, and considering we departed for the game at 11:30 a.m., it was entirely too long a day. This brings us back to the nap, which took place after some Chinese food (Pei Wei, never had it before) and was intended to bridge the gap between dinner at Jeff's and a party at my buddy Jim's house on the west side. He's a hockey agent and left today for a trip all across Europe with a bunch of their players, so it would have been nice to hang out before his departure. Instead, I spent the time in dreamland, and got home around 11. Phil, Charlie and cousin Brian arrived shortly thereafter (from Union Cattle, where evidently a dozen or so of my co-workers were also partaking in the revelry--just found that out today) and we goofed around until entirely too late for my early-morning football wake-up time.
Had a good Sunday at Fox, watching some great games, most notable of which was--of course--the Chargers' survival and triumph over the visiting Broncos. We did everything we could to try and lose the game, but Jake Plummer was worse than anything we could conjure up. He threw four picks--he really, really sucks--and allowed us to hold off any late rally. Bryan Cox does a bunch of NFL picks every week on our show and I usually cut the video for that segment, so I've picked up on a few trends displayed by Mr. Cox. He always picks against the Broncos and he always uses the same humorous rationale: Jake Plummer sucks. I love it. LT, Brees and Gates weren't quite up to par either, but we got some big plays from the defense and still won, and that's all that matters.
I'm trying to think of analogies for this next little section. Like if you're a farmer (work with me here) and there hasn't been much rain in a while, you don't want a flood to come along, right? You'd rather received a steady stream of rainfall, spread out every couple weeks, because a) it won't become overwhelming and damage any crops, 2) you can prepare for it a little bit, and c) you can appreciate the days of rain that much more. In the dating life, it's nice to meet people fairly consistently, find interesting girls and go on dates on a semi-regular basis, but (due to a variety of factors, not the least of which is my standard 65-hour work week) it hasn't been as consistent as I'd like for the last several months. And now, for whatever reason, the rains have come, as it were. Multiple favorable options have presented themselves, and while I certainly can't complain, I'm just wishing I could have spread things out a little bit. An inch of rainfall a day is way better than a two-foot torrent every three weeks, that's all I'm saying. And thank goodness there are more than 65 hours in a week.

Keep It

"Rejection never felt this good
Everything unclear, now so well understood
At first I didn't see it as kind
But you did me a favor when you left me behind"
--Rejection, Rollins Band

A quick tribute to Kobe's ridiculous blocked shot last night, a two-handed stuff job on Michael Redd's attempted dunk with less than a minute to play in a close game. Please watch SportsCenter re-runs (or our Salley Oop feature on Friday) Say what you will about his character (and there's no doubt he's a shady dude), but he's an incredible basketball player, as good as there is on both ends of the court. LeBron is having a tremendous second season, but I put Kobe, Duncan and KG in a class head and shoulders above everyone else right now, because they do play offense and defense.
Okay, so now onto the coolest thing that's happened to me since I started working. Wow. I'm still in awe. Yesterday was the much-anticipated Charger show, featuring Antonio Gates and Keenan McCardell--the first two Bolts on the show since I've been employed (though I can't blame the bookers for overlooking my boys until now). Not only did I get to cut a sweet music video--all NFL films, great stuff--but I got to cover both of their segments, making those boys look as great as they've been playing all season long. I even uncovered some basketball highlights for Gates from his days at Kent State, showcasing a MAC Championship game that matched him up with Central Michigan's Chris Kaman (who really looked like the most uncoordinated man on the planet Thanksgiving night). Here's where it gets cool, though: I got to hang out in our green room with the two of them, initially discussing the merits of Marty Schottenheimer with Keenan (who compared his current coach to former Jags boss Tom Coughlin, now with the Giants) and then standing with Antonio for like fifteen minutes on the set, chatting about everything from basketball (he was a huge Fab 5 fan growing up) to the huge showdown on Sunday with the Broncos. I was in heaven. Not literally. He was the coolest guy, though, incredibly humble for someone who's rapidly become the best tight end in the game. At the end of our conversation, as their segments were about to start, I got to take a picture with the two of them, which will be prominently displayed everywhere possible. We shook hands, they headed to the set and I headed to the control room to watch the two segments, which were both quite entertaining. I'm still a little giddy, frankly. Gates is one of only three or four guests that would get me this excited (T-Gwynn and LT--not Lawrence Taylor--come to mind), so it's forgiveable, I hope.
Here's a random thing that I find funny: I saw something on SportsCenter this morning about the Butch Davis resignation (sure he resigned, sure he did) and they interviewed a second-year linebacker by the name of Chaun Thompson, the existence of whom I was heretofore unaware.
I think his name means there are now like sixty-three different spellings of the name Sean (Salisbury, Taylor). Or should I say Shaun (Alexander, Williams). Maybe Shawn (Kemp)? Shon (Tarver)? Shawon (Dunston)? Chone (Figgins)? Chaun (our new friend Thompson)? We're not even getting into the De-varieties (DeShaun, DeShawn, etc.) Let's just pick one and go with it.
I don't mind that Scott exists with one t or two; that sort of a subtle difference isn't too awful. My brothers' names are similarly limited in their variety: Michael only varies internationally (Miguel, Mikhail, Mikael, etc.) and Jeffrey goes British (Geoffrey, like that Toys R Us giraffe) but nowhere else.
I get Marv Levy today--not nearly as exciting as those Lightning Bolts--so it's off to find some footage of Super Bowl losses. Good times.