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.