Tearing The Roof Off This Sucker

On February 10, 1964, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers went into the Van Gelder Recording Studio (in Englewood Cliffs, NJ) & laid down one of their most enduring releases to date, as well as one of the most hardest-hitting jazz albums from that same year, Free For All. This would also be a swan song for this incarnation of the Jazz Messengers: tenor saxman Wayne Shorter (one of the most awesome tenor sax players all time!!), trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (one of the most intense trumpet players of the day; if Coltrane ever picked up a trumpet, this is who he'd sound like), pianist Cedar Walton, trombonist Curtis Fuller & bassist Reggie Workman. But did they ever go out in a blaze of glory & fury as the title track clearly indicates, & this will be the selection of interest for my latest review.

The title track was written by Shorter (who would develop his composing abilities to the max with his next boss, Miles Davis) & naturally enough, the opening solo (which is his, BTW) definitely had to grab the listeners' attention. And boy, of all the solos which Shorter has ever done, none has sounded so loaded with superlatives as his presentation on Free For All does. From the opening burst of notes, you could have sworn that Art Blakey & company were going to melt the walls off the recording studio that day. In a sense, they just about did. Or should I say that they about tore the studio's roof off while I'm at it...lol?

With Shorter's solo starting things off, things get cooking real quick; one can sense that he was playing as if he had nothing to lose (as if...lol). You can even hear his bandmates cheering him on in the background...talk about a fiery environment in which this composition was recorded!! When Fuller & Hubbard get in on the fun during the brief ensemble moments they have in this solo, you can tell that the intensity isn't going to let up anytime soon (& it doesn't). When Shorter's solo draws to a close (one of the most magnificent ever!!), Fuller picks up the baton & gives things a go...again one of Fuller's most defining solo moments ever committed to tape. Soloist #3, Hubbard, reveals why I dubbed him "the John Coltrane of trumpet." With aggressive flurries which would make Trane proud, he proves (as on many of his solos either as leader or as sideman) that he was a force to be reckoned with in his day.

Of course, Blakey saved the best for last with this composition's last solo, a drumming tour de force which is devastating as much as it is pure ritualistic mayhem: the rage, the primal fury, the fever-pitch emotion...it's all here & is good as drum solos ever get (not to forget the times which Elvin Jones took a solo by his lonesome & literally destroyed like none other). And Blakey, in this particular section, lays down with relentless force why he was one of the more imposing drummers & most important bandleaders in all of jazz, period.

All told, Free For All is a defining moment for this round of the Jazz Messengers but the title track was & always will be a masterpiece in its own right. If that doesn't suffice, it's not just a landmark album in Art Blakey's discography; it's also one of the most important releases Blue Note ever put out, bar none.

To Be Perfectly Honest

"Never again. Never again."

In regards to the racially sensitive letters which Ball State men's basketball coach Ronny Thompson & his staff received this past weekend, I can't help but say that when it comes to discrimination of any type, once is enough.

So what if it happens to be the perpetrator's/perpetrators' first offense? It doesn't matter; anyone who thinks that discrimination based on skin color, religion, socioeconomic status, etc. is awesome isn't fit to be a student on any college campus including Ball State's. These are my views & I'm sticking to them obstinately.

Yet racism is only a small part of the much larger picture behind why this anonymous source chose to write such demeaning comments to begin with. It just as well could stem from one's psychological makeup, that is to say, one's overall personality whether it involves social interaction/strong social relations with others. This much we must take note of while we're still ahead. Whether it was seriously motivated by racial hatred or just a sick joke someone decided to play on the BSU men's hoops staff, something has to give. In the coming weeks, this issue will be a topic which will bring on anxiety as much as it will bring on more pressing questions which need to be asked. How will we respond? It is not just racism we're talking about but a much larger dilemma looming on the surface of which racism is a part.

There are those who think that racism is a thing of the past but it isn't. Whether we talk about interracial dating, job opportunities for minorities, the likelihood of job advancement for minorities, so on & so forth, there is the uneducated, Jim Crow-bred mind which feels & sees differently. Racism is still present, even if it is revealed in more subtle forms; there is no doubt about that. But to explain it away or to compartmentalize it is to rob minorities of their senses of pride, humanity & dignity in the same way the anonymous letter writer robbed Thompson & his staff of all three values which I just mentioned. To say that there is no such thing as racism, that it is all a giant lie: it is also to rob minorities of their true worth as our fellow human beings, something which I among so many others cannot stand for.

Let us hope that such an incident never does happen again; it already has sparked enough tension to make us wonder about what the future holds in our relations with those whose skin color is not the same as ours. But one thing we can be sure of: we can stand strong together in a situation like this to see to it that (to end things on a poetic note):

never again can such hurtful words
strike chords of
fear & distrust into our hearts
never again
will such faceless actors
vent their cowardly rage
towards those
not of their own color
Never again
will such hatred repel us
from one another
only make our bonds stronger
I say never again
Only love for one another
& God's love for all
wins the day
fulfills the victory
we have so desperately sought.

What's This World Coming To?

Just this past weekend, Ball State men's hoops coach Ronny Thompson & his coworkers got not only the shock of their lives, but something no one should ever have to deal with: letters with racist & demeaning comments.


And yet this issue is not solely about racism. It is also about humanity & dignity & how the person/persons responsible for these letters thought that it would be awesome to take both of these things away from Ronny & his staff. As anyone would agree, there is no formal place for racism at all on campus & to think that it does belong at Ball State only provokes further prejudices, misgivings & fears toward the university community. But for what reasons?

Obviously the language which these cowards used to get their point across is inexcusable & unacceptable; to be painfully honest, it's not very adult. If they were at least willing to be open about their beef toward Ronny & his colleagues, they could have said it to their faces personally. Then again, these same individuals are lacking decency & respect by venting their views with racist slurs.

Whether it's in the classroom or in the field of sports, such behavior is totally untoward. Yes, Ronny & his team had a lousy season, filled with underachievement & other whatnot. Yes, they've got NCAA violations to deal with. Does this mean that the Ball State men's basketball program has to face the indignity of one/a few hateful uneducated minds? No.

Ronny, his staff & his team deserve the common courtesy which is expected from all of us day in, day out. And they surely deserve than a faceless tongue-lashing from a source who chooses to tuck his tail in between his legs & stay anonymous. They deserve a work environment which is safe, free from panic & unwarranted fear. What purpose these letters from source unknown are serving is beyond me but what I do know is that they are only creating more fear & distrust toward the Ball State community, two things which we do not tolerate along with racism itself. We all deserve so much more than this.

A Dynamite Indie-Rock Offering to Remember

Tortoise knows how to bring it on when it comes to musical styles. Whether it be Krautrock, drum 'n' bass, experimental techno, dub, reggae, hip-hop, jazz, or computer music, the Chicago group has never ceased to find new ways to address itself (& write new innovative chapters in their discography as well) in the world of popular music. If any of its members know how to craft sound so effortlessly & yet with so much care & discipline, Tortoise multi-instrumentalist John McEntire has always been the man for the job as any release with Tortoise, his other group (The Sea & Cake) & countless others has confirmed.


But Tortoise's 1998 release, TNT, is where their mishmash of styles synthesized so perfectly & in one accessible offering. Even without vocals, TNT still speaks volumes almost 10 years later. Picking up where they left off with their previous effort, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, TNT is a musical shape-shifter in more ways than one, sparked in a major way by their interests in the possibilities which remixing tracks presented. And if there was ever a perfect model which showcases not only unique styles but also unique sounds, this album is the blueprint to follow. (Their third release would also introduce guitarist Jeff Parker into the fold as a full-time member!!)

The 7 1/2 minute opener (BTW, the title track) is where the musical journey begins in earnest, a road trip to anywhere & everywhere, the great wide open. (One more thing to be said about Tortoise: the music which these duders make isn't just to be listened to; you also picture yourself in it & is prime road trip soundtrack material.) Then, it segues into the Krautrock-inspired blurp & bloopfest of "Swung From The Gutters," an equally intriguing journey through sonic landscapes which Tortoise refuse to leave unchartered as other tracks such as "I Set My Face To The Hillside," "The Equator," & "The Suspension Bridge at Iguazu Falls" boldly indicate. Again, each of these tracks just makes you want to be in the music itself, caught up in the scenery of places like Brazil, France, Germany, who knows where else.

But the centerpiece of TNT is the nonstop 18-minute suite beginning with "In Sarah, Mencken, Christ And Beethoven There Were Women and Men" and ending with "Jetty." Not only does this suite reveal Tortoise's love for electronic & computer music, but it also reveals a group playing at the core of their strengths & as always using their divergent styles to the best of their advantages. (Listen to Stereolab's "Refractions In The Plastic Pulse," off their release Dots and Loops (which McEntire co-produced & helped create during the same time span as TNT) & you can't help but ask who inspired who to make such awesome music.)

And of course, what better way to close this musical odyssey than with "Everglade." This final track signals the end of the road up ahead, as if to say one has almost arrived at his destination although still out in the great unknown (the Florida Everglades perhaps?...lol). If there was ever an album which was all about taking new & bold adventures in sound, fusing differing musical genres together into something remarkably fresh & innovative, TNT was where Tortoise pulled out all the stops & made a lasting name for themselves as a result.

The Bengals, Titans & Bears, Oh My!!

So many times during his career with the Chicago Bears, defensive lineman Tank Johnson tested everyone's patience to the limit. And yet they gave him support where he needed it most, visited him while he was locked up, & gave him numerous opportunities to redeem himself & give his career in a Bears uniform a boost, a chance to advance to much bigger & better things.

But in light of his latest run-in with the law down in Arizona, the Bears were at their last nerve with Tank, feeling that he compromised the team's credibility long enough, so on Monday they cut him loose. Bears GM Jerry Angelo had these words to say:

"...He compromised the credibility of our organization. We made it clear to him that he had no room for error. Our goal was to help someone through a difficult period in his life, but the effort needs to come from both sides. It didn't, and we have decided to move on."

This may sound like an unfortunate incident for Tank to get into trouble for the nth time, but after awhile, it also is disheartening. The Bears have really come a long way in such a short amount of time, & as their last two seasons have revealed, they could be a formidable football dynasty again. To have someone like Tank Johnson detracting from their successes & accomplishments was getting tedious, so it was a good call for Chicago to release some baggage from their team & move forward.

But what about Pac-Man Jones? some are asking, feeling that the Tennessee Titans need to show him some tough love too - & also the door leading out of their organization. He's more of an embarrassment than Tank ever was/will be. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell may have given Pac-Man a season-long suspension but this, to me, isn't adequate punishment for the latest spate of trouble Jones has gotten himself into; the Titans management need to be more assertive with the Pac-Man like Chicago was with Tank Johnson, no ands, ifs or buts about it.
(Also of note: the Bengals with Chris Henry if anyone's in doubt.)

Bottom line: something, somewhere has to give. In the NFL nowadays, weeding out the troublemakers is becoming more commonplace but what to do with them, as the Bears/Tank Johnson affair shows, is a glaring issue that cannot be overlooked. If Jerry Angelo's words have struck a chord in the hearts of every GM from the other NFL teams out there, action at this point will speak more loudly than words. From the looks of things right now, they already have.

Our Very Own Frat Boys

They walk among us; we hang out with them on a regular basis whether it be in class, at the fraternity house, or at the bars. They were initiated with us; they wear our letters with pride as if to say "I'm truly proud to be a Sigma Chi, or a Delt, or whoever."

They're our very own fraternity brothers but not the type of brothers you'd want to have good lines for.

In the Journal of Sigma Phi Epsilon, there's a little section called "Our Very Own Frat Boys." This isn't to celebrate their glorious accomplishments (like being #1 on campus with a 3.54 GPA) but to admonish those chapters who aren't living to SigEp's ideals & standards as well as informing this section's readers that actions such as the ones they listed DO have consequences.

And one chapter in the summer 2007 edition of the Journal really raised my eyebrows: the Florida Epsilon chapter down @ Florida State University. 4 students were arrested on hazing charges & the ongoing criminal investigation is looking into these charges which 31 alleged hazing victims brought up. They were being held in a crawl space at a private residence, not the fraternity house; who knows what they had to go through but to me when it comes down to treating your associate members with respect, this is downright deplorable, just cramping their style by keeping them in a confined space like that. Of course, SigEp got suspended but this is not to say that their time @ FSU is up:

An Alumni Advisory Council was in place to do a membership review on any of the 97 members who wish to remain SigEps, considering that they're wholeheartedly worthy to be SigEps. But if we look at the strong indicators which confirm a fraternity's willingness to improve & keep improving - 4 dudes had 4.0 GPAs & 47 more were above a 3.0 GPA. Talk about a chapter who prior to this incident was pretty focused on academics; the SigEps @ FSU from the looks of things were that type of fraternity without a doubt.

Is this to say that they deserve special treatment in light of all these charges against them? Not exactly; the main HQ & AAC will determine what to do (as they always have done in situations like these). If there is a lesson to be learned, it would be that hazing can happen to any fraternity, anywhere, anytime & it doesn't matter if it's the #1 chapter on campus; the HQs don't discriminate when it comes to weeding out those duders who exhibit the "frat boy" stereotype which has no formal place in the well-being of the Greek system nationwide. The one thing which we cannot do at this juncture is become complacent & say "It can't happen to us." Because from the report given in the SigEp Journal, hazing & its aftereffects can happen to any chapter, even the most elite of the bunch.

A Tale of Two Teams

After the Cubs' 3-0 sweep of their crosstown rivals, the White Sox, this weekend, I can't help but wonder: where do we go from here?

From the looks of things, the Cubs could finally be competing again; it's a bit premature to say that they're primed for a wild card or a divisonal championship spot at the present time. But Chicago's lovable losers are starting to play like winners again & Wrigley Field could be making a lot more noise real soon if the Cubs don't have any more lapses coming up in the next 2 months.

On the other hand, the White Sox are on a downhill slide (losing 22 out of their last 27 games) & losing 3 straight to the Cubs hasn't aided their cause one whit. And to think there's plenty of baseball to be played; there's still hope for the ChiSox (& hope for manager Ozzie Guillen). Next question is, when will they play up to their expectations, especially in a division which is one of the toughest around? Cleveland's playing nicely; Detroit's up there too. If the ChiSox don't step their game up, chances are they won't make the playoff round for 2 straight seasons...at least some fans still have faith that they can accomplish the miraculous.

For the folks who love Wrigley Field, go Cubbies!!

It Was A Pretty Good Year (for John Coltrane)

The year 1965 was a pretty frigging good one for one of jazz's most important musicians ever, John Coltrane. After the success of A Love Supreme, one would be inclined to think that Trane was planning to make history repeat when his next recording session came up. Unfortunately, he was only looking forward as he would always do, continuing to search as it were for new ways to express himself musically. And without a doubt, that's exactly what Trane would do over the course of 1965: move forward & never look back on his past accomplishments.

1965 was a pretty turbulent year in general for the United States: the Civil Rights movement, racism, our first earnest involvement in the Vietnam War...things were getting intense. For John Coltrane and his bandmates for 3 years running (pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison & drummer Elvin Jones), they were a jazz quartet to be reckoned with & Trane's recordings for the Impulse! label have figured to be some of his best output ever. But this same year, Trane would be more prolific than ever in terms of recording & more experimental in the process: in February, he featured two bassists on a recording session (which would wind up on The John Coltrane Quartet Plays album); then in June, he would diverge from playing straight rhythms & rely on pulse as much as free tempo on certain tracks (which can be heard on Transition and Living Space). Later on, he would reach a Mount Everest of his own when he made a free jazz equivalent of a big band recording, and one of his most challenging pieces period, Ascension. Some folks didn't get it (& still don't), yet Trane was making a statement with this 40-minute long composition. Win a few fans or lose a few fans, he felt that there could be no turning back on his musical journey from this session forward. And yes, things were indeed getting intense with Trane's output as the summer of '65 wore on.

This wasn't to say that the Classic Quartet was MIA. But from the accelerated changes taking places within Trane's music that year, there were signs of tension which fueled his fellow bandmates' performances even more. Sun Ship & First Meditations were the last recordings Trane did with an actual quartet; by this time, he added more folks into the musical equation (to be heard on Kulu Se Mama, Selflessness & Meditations) so that by the end of the year the lineup of Tyner, Garrison & Jones ceased to exist. (In 1966, Trane regrouped with Garrison as the lone holdover from that previous lineup; his wife Alice took over on piano, Rashied Ali took over on drums, & Pharoah Sanders occupied the second spot on tenor saxophone.)

1965 was a pretty good year for John Coltrane as he approached the first crucial peaks & summits of his musical career. Once he got past those peaks & summits, Trane knew there were other mountains to climb & up to his checking out in 1967, he would do just that. Who knows where he would have gone with his music had he not passed on so soon in the prime of life.

When things go wrong

In the world of not only professional sports, but also even at the collegiate level, 9 times out of 10, star athletes get the star treatment. But when they have run-ins with the law, it seems that they not only receive star treatment; they also get preferential treatment as well. Which leads to the next question, "When will something have to give?"

For the higher-ups in the NBA, NCAA, NFL, etc. that time is now. It seems that whenever someone along the likes of (the Atlanta Falcons') Michael Vick, (the Chicago Bears') Tank Johnson or (the Tennessee Titans') Pac-Man Jones has brushes with the law or makes front page news, we tend to explain away the truth behind why they ended up in this predicament to begin with. No wonder then that they receive little more than a slap on the wrist & they can continue with their lives & careers as if nothing happened. Or, in the case of Kobe Bryant, they feel that they're the scapegoats, & as it were, the innocent victims of a criminal justice system which just enjoys pointing fingers to find someone to blame for their actions.

In a previous post, I focused on the three Duke lacrosse players who were wrongfully convicted of rape. Was the Duke lacrosse team portrayed as a bunch of saints when they threw a party which had booze & strippers? No. Did this party (& subsequent rape which occurred there) mean their entire season had to be cancelled? Perhaps, perhaps not, depending on how you look at the situation. At any rate, there has to be a punishment which appropriately fits the crime. If it means not being able to play all season long, so be it then. But the higher-ups in the NBA, NFL, NCAA & so forth need to toughen up on repeat offenders, no questions asked. With first-timers, I can see that there is work to be done & plenty of contention concerning what to do about those athletes who slipped up just once. But if the offense was serious, or just plain unprofessional conduct, the thought of getting second chances at redemption may soon become more & more unlikely.

Pac-Man can't play the 2007 season; Tank Johnson got into trouble again. And Michael Vick recently was at the center of a dogfighting issue. How many more foul-ups will it take before enough finally is enough? Only the criminal justice system can answer that question for sure; it sure doesn't discriminate, even if it happens to be the football team's star WR or QB whom they're dealing with.

Mugabe & UMass: A War of Words

Yesterday, the University of Massachusetts gave Zimbabwe ruler Robert Mugabe a pretty good rebuke; this is the same university which awarded him a honorary degree in 1986. At the time, they cited him as "...a 'humane revolutionary' who ended an oppressive white rule to establish an independent Zimbabwe in 1979."

True, back in the day, he was a humane revolutionary who did the obvious: ended a racist regime of sorts which the British brought into being at the start of the 20th century. But this is where the university board gets downright honest about Mugabe in the present day:

He has been "...scorned worldwide as a tyrannical dictator whose rule has been marked by intimidation, violence, fraud, and robbery." (And he's committed all of the above offenses!!)
But there's more to be said in the u-board's statement, citing "...his actions of seizing land from white commercial farmers and giving it to allies, while using the secret police to beat or kill opponents...His actions have prompted observations of his having degenerated as a political leader and as a human being and allowing in Zimbabwe the near disintegration of health, education, and other public services, and the worst inflation in the world..."

UMass, recognizing the monster Mugabe has developed into, picked the right time to condemn him for every action & monstrosity he's committed over the past 27 years or so. Practicing racism in reverse (taking land & job ops among other things from whites), Mugabe has put Zimbabwe in a worst predicament than his predecessor Ian Smith ever would have envisioned. To even think of criticizing Mugabe for the state of affairs economically & politically is to declare oneself persona non grata in his eyes (i.e. This means you're no longer welcome in the nation of Zimbabwe for all this beef you have against Robert Mugabe). Serves Mugabe right for sending his nation beyond rock bottom. He was a "humane revolutionary" back when he officially ended British colonial rule; not anymore. If there were words to best describe him now, he would be an "inhumane recalcitrant."

Other folks right here in the States should take note of what UMass did if they've checked up on their world news lately. And if they've checked up on what's been happening in southern Africa, especially in Zimbabwe, they too should be speaking a piece of their mind about Robert Mugabe in hopes of one day ending his iron-clad reign. Good call for UMass' university board for saying what they said; let's hope more along their lines do the same.

More insightful brotherly advice

In some previous blogs, the issue of true brotherhood was focused upon. And yet, of course, with each blog devoted to Greek life, there is always going to be a relevant topic which needs to be mentioned in more detail. This particular topic is a big deal to me as it should be to so many countless others in the Greek system.

It's hazing.

Hazing doesn't have any rightful place in the Greek system - period. Not only is it detrimental to each chapter's prospective members but also to the actives as well - yes, even actives are not immune to being hazed by their upstarts or fellow actives. Steve Bull, a 2004 Windsor graduate, (& also a Sigma Chi) said it best when he wrote in the winter 2003-2004 edition of The Magazine of Sigma Chi: "...Mistakes that slipped through the cracks and happen to wear letters haze...The act of a handful of idiots calls into question the integrity of thousands upon thousands of brothers."

Hazing doesn't help prospective members bond adequately into a unified pledge class of this or that number of dudes. Hence the issue which is apparent in any fraternity today: that is to say, formations of cliques & brothers who happen to know little or nothing about one another.

It isn't conducive to the prospective members' abilities to perform/excel to their fullest potential academically. Reflecting on Bull's comments once more, hazing does more harm than good: it damages any existing integrity or positive influences fraternities have on & off campus.

Cleaning up the actives' messes isn't the way for prospective members to gain a fuller insight on the core values which their fraternities stand for. Likewise, it doesn't take belittling them or screaming at them every chance you get if they should happen to louse up; this won't convince them on how to become better brothers & it sure won't help them become better brothers once they get initiated either. By creating needless, pointless obligations which aren't relevant to helping new members understand the true values our respective chapters were founded upon, we're only creating a group of Greeks whose knowledge of their own fraternities is fuzzy or just plain inadequate.

Hazing isn't needed to help our brothers-to-be emulate the very values & aims which our chapters are striving to live up to day in, day out. In fact, it's an embarrassment to everyone in the Greek community & also tarnishes the Greek system's reputation in the process. Anyone who happens to don Greek letters & feels that this is an effective way to promote true brotherhood isn't a man of good character, a true gentleman, etc., etc., & sure isn't fit to be a brother in the first place.

The Wrong Way Around

In the wake of the Duke lacrosse scandal, I can't help but utter these words: "Everyone cries out for peace, but nobody cries for justice."

Three members of the lacrosse team, wrongfully accused of rape, are confirming their innocence boldly once more in the city of Durham, NC. One would think that their acquittals would bring closure to this whole ordeal; after having their charges dismissed, that's what we've come to expect, right?

But no. An empty feeling still lingers on campus & in the lives of Colin Finerty, Reade Seligmann & David Evans. Each man's good name, as well as the university's, is tarnished & nothing has been won/gained from this scandal as there are so many losers in this game of judicial Russian roulette.

Former Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong is the man responsible for all this damage & destruction from every standpoint you can name: judicial, legal, moral, ethical. Such beating around the bush to wrongfully accuse Finerty, Seligmann & Evans of fabricated charges is inexcusable & unacceptable & not the proper way to present himself in the practice of law. Nifong only cared about winning votes & the trust of his fellow voters come election time; he didn't care about the innocent students whom he was about to put through the court system's ringer. Add to the fact that others out of their own misguided speculation were more than happy to railroad three lacrosse players as an excuse to diminish Duke's reputation as one of the elite institutions of higher learning. The end result is: a case with so many gaping holes that it wasn't even credible to begin with. Nifong, for all his self-serving ambitions, is now about to get disbarred permanently because of how he manhandled this case.

Am I saying that the members of the Duke lacrosse team were angels/saints when they threw a party with booze & strippers? No. That's the thing. In a world where star athletes get preferential treatment - the very mark of favoritism - someone was worthy of punishment in regards to this rape case. But these three men didn't deserve the mark of ignominy for all this. Someone else was responsible; who actually committed the rape remains to be seen & hasn't made himself accountable for his actions. And who knows how many folks are crying out, "Who did it?" "Who is guilty now?"

The criminal justice system has a job to do - I mean, it's in place for a reason!! - & in each instance, all are innocent until proven guilty. In the media, anytime a story with as much magnitude as the Duke lacrosse scandal comes out, we could do worse for the cause of the innocent by finger-pointing, speculation, rash judgments. It's time that we took a closer look into the truth before jumping to conclusions; this is where justice wins out without contest over injustice.

For the record

As a fond listener of pretty much every genre of music you could name (except country...no way!!), I've been hard pressed to get a definite list of my top 10 albums. My musical tastes have changed from time to time as well, so that makes creating that list much more challenging. But for the record, here are the ones which really stick out head & shoulders above the rest:

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme. This is not only Trane's brightest shining hour as one of the top jazz musicians all time but also for his bandmates in their 3rd year of existence as a quartet: pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison (whose extended, unaccompanied solo during the bottom half of Pursuance is beyond awesome) & drummer Elvin Jones. If there is a definite must have in your collection, A Love Supreme is definitely one album you can't overlook.

The Sea and Cake - Everybody. Four years seems like an eternity for a band to wait between releasing albums, but for one of Chicago's indie-rock greats, The Sea and Cake, this was definitely worth the wait. If there was ever a perfect soundtrack for road trips, lakeshore drives, or all things associated with summer, TSAC has made one for the ages...breezy, dreamy, rootsy & oh so danceable :-)

Sam Prekop - Who's Your New Professor. TSAC singer/guitarist/chief songwriter Sam Prekop has put out two solo albums: 1999 saw his eponymous (aka self-titled) solo debut & 2005's WYNP. Of the two I'd have to choose, Who's Your New Professor is the most accessible (at 38 minutes) & the most straightforward, a trend which Prekop continued with his TSAC bandmates on the last CD I just mentioned.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light. As good as David Byrne & company ever got; this 1980 effort is booty-shaking as much as it is trance-inducing. The perfect marriage between pop, post-punk & Afro-Beat for sure.

Stereolab - Dots and Loops. Around the same time that TSAC drummer/keyboardist John McEntire was engineering/mixing/playing on what would become (his other noteworthy band) Tortoise's 1998 release TNT, he found time to come up with one of post-rock's most danceable & funkier offerings from one of the more influential bands around in Dots and Loops. With Laetitia Sadier's hypnotic voice (singing in both English & French), never did post-rock sound so seductive & yet so quirky.

Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information. Shuggie's 1974 release, though ignored commercially, stands out as an enduring album which sounds as fresh now as it did back then. Like Stevie Wonder & Prince, Shuggie could do it all & virtually all the instrumentation was played by none other than Otis himself. Like a sunnier version of Sly and the Family Stone's 1971 album There's A Riot Goin' On, Inspiration Information proved to be the start of something new in who knows how many musical genres: not just funk, R & B or soul, it was all of these & rocked out in a major way too.

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book. This 1972 release features Stevie at the top of his game both musically & in terms of songwriting. I've always loved musicians who do their music from the heart, & Stevie does exactly that.

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions. A close second to Talking Book as far as my fave Stevie Wonder albums go. With staples like "Living For The City" & "Higher Ground," Stevie once again made an awesome & relevant song cycle which has stood the test of time.

The Sea and Cake - One Bedroom. From 2003, TSAC made their leap in a more pop-oriented direction but wasn't afraid to either get their jam on as "Four Corners" brilliantly illustrates or make the listeners want to move, move, move... on tracks like "Hotel Tell" & "Shoulder Length." If there is an outstanding summer album in the indie-rock world, One Bedroom fits the bill perfectly.

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus. One of reggae's classic albums, bar none, with plenty of longtime Marley staples worth listening to ad infinitum: "Jamming," the title track, & "Waiting In Vain" are just three familiar yet very outstanding songs Marley committed to tape. A masterpiece in not only reggae, but all of popular music.

...and of course there are more I'd love to add at the present time but this positively rounds out my top 10 favorite albums, ever.

The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Whole Truth

The latest chapter in the Kobe Bryant-Los Angeles Lakers saga has just been written & as is the case with his recent tirades, it is no less turbulent & no less dramatic.

Wow, what an eventful two weeks this has been in Lakers land.

First, Kobe went on a diatribe concerning the state of the Lakers team-wise along with a wish to get outta town. Then on Memorial Day Weekend, he went on live radio oscillating between not wanting to play in a Lakers uniform again & feeling he could stay on to give the Lakers a fourth NBA Championship title. And now this: Kobe going on the offensive, blasting teammates & management on amateur video - all 24 seconds worth of him fuming & other signature traits of his when nothing goes his way.

But if we look at the situation more closely, there is plenty of verifiable reason for Kobe's newest outbursts. He's in his prime as one of the NBA's best players around, bar none. But he's had little or no additional support to help his team reach the heights the Lakers achieved while Shaq while was still in a Lakers uniform. Even in a conference as talent-laden & awful good as the Western Conference, in order to compete for a NBA championship, you've got to have quality players stepping up & doing their jobs accordingly (a la San Antonio). Kobe feels the Lakers & GM Mitch Kupchak haven't lived up to those standards.

Kupchak has been a lame duck from the get-go; even the most bandwagon Lakers fan feels that Jerry West should still be running this team, without a doubt. First of all, they used a lottery pick on a very sketchy player at best, Andrew Bynum...I can see that was questionable. But what about Jason Kidd? Kobe felt they wouldn't bother plugging Kidd into the Lakers' equation all because they wanted Kobe to stay on at Los Angeles.

"Are you kidding me?"

Then again, who is? Bryant seems to digging himself deeper & deeper into a hole he can't get out of; to be positive, if you're arguing that you want to win more, you shouldn't come off sounding like Kobe Bryant: power hungry, vacillating, petulant, hateful, an ingrate. So far, Kobe's displayed all these adjectives in some form or other & this latest tantrum isn't helping his cause one iota. No one's convinced that he's fit for a trade, much less make Lakers owner Jerry Buss believe him or even keep Kobe's fanbase's trust in him rock solid. If there is something to be said in all of this, he's committing career suicide by burning both bridges which are connecting him with the Lakers as a collective professional basketball organization.

Bryant, at this point in time, meant what he said by summary: "I want out of Los Angeles." But no sound hoops trade will replace the talent which Kobe has brought the Lakers in spades. As the star of the show, bright lights & all, he remains the franchise's leading man regardless of what he thinks. Still, he has that wild child streak in him; his unpredictability not only off the court but on it is equally impressive.

Yes, he has a desire to win, to push the Lakers back to glory, to compete with the likes of Phoenix & Dallas & his pushes to management to make this a distinct possibility have been tremendous. But from the looks of things, worse is coming to worst as he continues to take the wrong way down a one-way street to make his case known to Phil Jackson, his teammates, etc.

"Are you kidding me?"

Down in Bloomington, back in the day, watching the Indiana Hoosiers play awesome football seemed like wishful thinking. That is, until ex-Miami (OH) University coach Terry Hoeppner arrived on the scene. And it didn't take long for fans to fully embrace him & see that he truly cared about improving a program which was seen as one of the Big 10's laughingstocks while Cam Cameron was on the sidelines running things.

Hoeppner's death at the age of 59 (from complications caused by a brain tumor) earlier today is not only heart-wrenching, but also one of the toughest losses anyone on the IU-Bloomington campus could ever have, period. He was one of the Big 10's most respected coaches (as well as respected by his IU fanbase) & was dedicated to the program, showing his willingness to rebuild what his predecessors left as ruins from seasons past. And his expertise (which included almost 20 years with Miami of Ohio) served as immediate notice that he was on a mission to turn things around @ Memorial Stadium & though IU had a 5-7 record last season (& was one win short of bowl eligibility) Hoeppner was on his way to doing just that.

Even Purdue head coach Joe Tiller had these things to say about Hoeppner, words about the man which proved he was indeed respected - and this, even from the head coach of one of IU's fiercest rivals during the regular season: "I know that Hep was a fierce competitor, and he battled an unforgiving disease..." And Terry Hoeppner, indeed, echoing Tiller, was a fierce competitor; despite all odds against a formidable disease, he kept fighting courageously until the end. If there is anyone to keep in your prayers/thoughts this week, the Hoeppner family definitely needs plenty of both. Terry will be missed by not only IU fans, but countless others as well.

The Story So Far...

My last two blogs focused on what true brotherhood (i.e. being a loyal member of a fraternity) is all about & what it honestly means if one is willing to take fraternity membership seriously enough. There's one area I touched on, but only in a cursory way - I didn't do this topic any justice at all but with this entry I've made things right:

Being in a fraternity is not merely about parties. It's not just about getting involved both inside & outside the Greek system, campus, as well as within your own respective chapters. It's not merely about fulfilling your obligations & the expectations required of you as a member of your collective fraternity. There's something more to be desired & it only confirms all the more that you're living up to your chapter's standards (as well as the National level): grades.


God, grades, frat: this is the motto I lived by ever since my first days as a pledge & continued to live by this credo until I graduated. For some, focusing on academics seems a bit much to ask but it isn't. If your chapter's cumulative GPA suffers, there's always going to be people who have to be held accountable because of the following:
(1) They're viewing class as some kind of joke, rather than something compulsory;
(2) (with #1 in mind) they're not attending class regularly;
(3) they're not studying intensely, especially when the situation calls for it;
(4) they're not asking questions in class which their respective professors could help clarify for them (& which would be beneficial in the long run)...
among other factors I didn't mention.

In this day & age, fraternities with the Alpha Beta mindset toward grades (2.0ish) are the ones I frown upon the most; to me, fraternities who place partying above academics or worse yet kick academics to the curb are just plain unacceptable. The ones which gain the most respect on campus, the ones you'll always talk about in superlatives, the ones who grab awards left & right at Grand Chapter...those are the fraternities who perform at the top of their game academically & are at/near the top of the pile as far as chapter GPA goes. Those are the duders we should emulate if we truly care about our house as a whole & if we want to serve as exemplary role models within the Greek community. Not only that, but those chapters in question are the best templates one could have if we're focusing on being successful fraternities on campus. (And believe me, like academics, this takes a lot of hard work to accomplish.)

True Brotherhood Cont'd.

In my last blog, I got at the basics of what true brotherhood really means & felt that I did an awesome job thus far doing just that. For this round, I'll touch on more pressing issues on what true brotherhood really means in its other aspects.

It's about meeting your obligations as a fraternity member from a financial standpoint (i.e. seeing to it that your dues are fully paid - not delinquent beyond the pale; paying your housing dues in full, among other things). Being in a fraternity is not the free ride some folks envision Greek life as being; for the record, one of the primary reasons for why some chapters have went down the tubes, besides behavioral problems, are the following:

(1) Some of the chapter members weren't pulling their share of the workload by paying their housing & membership dues in a timely fashion;
(2) there was no one in charge of the chapter's financial ship...aka mismanagement of funding;
(3) (with #2 in mind) the Treasurer isn't holding anyone accountable when it comes to getting their dues & other whatnot paid off accordingly.

When either of these incidents occur, 9 times out of 10, the chapters in question either (a) are suspended until they pay off everything in full or in the worst case scenario, (b) get shut down for good.

True brotherhood is also about making sound & balanced decisions. Any chapter who has had a lengthy record of drug/alcohol abuse only continues the vicious cycle of trouble with their Headquarters, the university, so on & so forth. On top of that, how many fraternities on their respective campuses have continued functioning as exemplary role models for the Greek community as well as academically if their members condone/encourage the use of illegal drugs or abuse their share of alcohol on a regular basis? Those who have somehow stayed on, still set in their ways of disrespect & of stereotypical behavior which movies such as Old School and Animal House glorify to the gills do not know what it means to be Greek. If anything, they have completely forgotten what true Greek life is all about. And come to think of it, there are dudes who wear Greek letters & who happen to be an unworthy lot when it comes to representing the Greek community 110%, based on the info I brought up in the last few lines which I have just wrote.

Here's the thing: true brotherhood is living up to the standards which your respective fraternities were founded upon & nothing less than this could suffice. Not only will people feel the differences which you're making inside & outside the Greek community; people will know the differences you're making as well, further evidence which shows them that you are sincerely proud to be part of the Greek system & benefitting from it exponentially.

True Brotherhood

As an alumni of the Greek community, I can't help but reflect on all the great things which Greek life has done for me & all of the benefits it has provided me in the real world. Truly, Greek life has made a lasting impact on my life in more ways than I could ever know and I'm saying this from personal experience. Some time ago, I wrote about what true brotherhood really stands for on Facebook & without further ado, I'll begin this blog with the following quote:

"Brotherhood is a two-way street; if you want its benefits you must live up to its obligations."

That's what true brotherhood to me has always been & still demands to be nothing less than this. Whether you're striving to be a man of good character (speaking for my fellow Sigs!!), or a true gentleman, being a member of a fraternity means so much more than just getting initiated into the ranks of thousands of members worldwide. It means so much more than just wearing your fraternity's Greek letters...that's right, it's so much more than both of the above.

Being a member of the Greek community means so much more than what some people think it does: It involves building stronger leadership skills, improves one's communication skills with others (not only in your respective chapters but also in all other interactions inside & outside the Greek community as well), getting involved with various organizations & projects on & off campus...In short, it's all about initiative, the willingness to step up to the plate & commit every ounce of energy into your chapters, not for your own good alone but for the chapters of whom you are a part.

However, there are those fraternity members who act, believe & say otherwise; that's one of the few things which positively gets to me. For those specific individuals, they use the chapter in "a la carte" mode: that is to say, they use it exclusively for their own benefits, not for the sake of the brotherhood as a collective whole. In other words, they're part of the chapter solely on the premises on what strikes their fancy the most about their house: intramurals, parties, hanging out at the house, etc., etc.

But true brotherhood, to have any lasting integrity whatsoever, encompasses more than just the social aspects of the fraternity. It also involves being on top of your game academically, getting involved in various positions within the chapter itself (e.g. President, Vice President, Treasurer...) among other things which I'll mention in my next blog. It's not the free ride which some have claimed it is; it never was to begin with.

That's what true brotherhood is all about & if it's a true priority in your life as it was for me, you'd support it wholeheartedly beyond the outward appearances.

Summer sounds booming in my ride...

When it comes to the perfect road trip, my preference of music is pretty wide open: I'll listen to funk, reggae, post-rock...anything that flat out rules. So far this summer, I've been in a reggae phase, & some of the albums I've got on this list fit into the perfect road trip mixtape perfectly:

(1) anything by Bob Marley and the Wailers (my faves are Catch A Fire, Exodus, and Uprising)
(2) Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey, first & foremost
(3) Peter Tosh - Mystic Man, Legalize It, Equal Rights
(4) Sly and The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On
(5) pretty much most of The Sea and Cake's output (in particular, Oui, One Bedroom and Everybody)
(6) Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
(7) Ali Farka Toure - The Source, Talking Timbuktu, Savane
(8) Third World - Journey To Addis, 96 Degrees In The Shade
(9) Stevie Wonder - Talking Book, Innervisions
(10) Stereolab - Dots and Loops, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (I know...funny title for an album but still great stuff though!!)
(11) Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
(12) Sly & Robbie - Riddim: The Best of Sly & Robbie in Dub 1978-1985
(13) Miles Davis - anything from his fusion period (B****es' Brew, In A Silent Way, A Tribute To Jack Johnson, Get Up With It, Dark Magus & The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 are more than enough for me at the present time
(14) Antibalas - Security
(15) anything Fela Kuti
.......

For this summer, the releases which I just brought up are going to be booming in my ride, & I'll be dipped if I'm not grooving to their rhythms :-)

History In The Making

Now the Spurs can do the riverwalk they've all been waiting to perform back in San Antonio.

After clinching the NBA Championship outright with an 83-82 win up @ Cleveland (& a 4-0 sweep of the Cavaliers), San Antonio has made a case for the ages as far as NBA champions go, especially in the case of Tim Duncan. He's already caught up with Shaq (who snatched up four championships with Los Angeles & Miami) & is on his way to catching up with the greatest all-time NBA player around, Michael Jordan (who has 6 championships, with none other than the Chicago Bulls). If all goes well, he (along with his teammates) could do just that.

San Antonio doesn't have any one star player who runs the show, like say, Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade do with the Lakers & Heat, respectively. That, to me, is what makes the Spurs such a formidable presence to be reckoned with at this time of the season...no, should I say this is how they've played the entire season, including the playoffs. And whereas many of their peers are in it for the fame, they're making history, creating a legacy which goes to show that there are other dynasties in NBA Basketball besides the obvious Big Four (the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, & Pistons).

Congratulations again to the Spurs for winning the NBA Finals last night & for writing a new chapter in the NBA Championships book!!!!!

The Start of Something

The San Antonio Spurs, if they happen to sweep the Cavs out of the building in Game 4, definitely have something to say to those doubters who felt Dallas or Phoenix would win it all this year. Not only will they add another championship trophy to their collection, but they also are putting themselves up there with the greats of NBA Finals fame:

(1) the LA Lakers (especially with Magic Johnson running the court; the Kobe/Shaq combo was the best thing that could have happened for the Lakers dynasty in the post-Magic era)
(2) the Boston Celtics (one of the best NBA hoops dynasties around other than Los Angeles, seriously)
(3) the Chicago Bulls & their run of championships with Michael Jordan at the helm
(4) the Detroit Pistons (who can forget Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars & Dennis Rodman? Come on!!)

One of the amazing things about this year's group of Spurs is that they're taking care of business as focused & as humbly as possible. They're not all about being overly flashy or majorly into trash talk, like, "Man, Lebron James is sooo overrated." They're not that type of team who'll get wrapped up in the hype & attention Lebron's had to endure; they've already been in that position before. And barring any tricks the Cavs may have up their sleeves for tonight's game, the Spurs are going to remain in the driver's seat with nothing to lose & so much to gain.

But don't look down on the Cleveland Cavaliers. This could be the start of something new for the city of Cleveland in all things connected to professional sports. Perhaps this is the start of a new hoops dynasty with King James as the rightful yet selfless ruler of the court? ...lol. We shall see. For San Antonio, this is just a perfect opportunity to make NBA history as much as write a new chapter of it; Tim Duncan & his fellow teammates know the routine by now.

When The Going Gets Tough

San Antonio, when they traveled up to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers last night, knew of all things that Game 3 would be the toughest one yet & with good reason: a raucous home crowd, the simple fact that the Cavs are on their home turf...an unusually high amount of electricity which could give Cleveland more than just a psychological edge over the Spurs. To be honest, Game 3 would either turn the tide in the Cavs' favor or give the Spurs a chance to close in on a sweep.

After last night's 75-72 defeat of the Cavaliers, San Antonio is one step closer to grabbing all the Championship hardware as well as a sweep of this series (along with their third title in 5 years). And no team in NBA Championship playoff history, if our memories serve us well, has ever climbed out of a 3-0 hole to claim a championship either. Which makes the Spurs' win all the more exciting. From the looks of things, despite not playing their best hoops, the prize is there for the Spurs to take without contest; only question is, can they win another game in one of the toughest NBA arenas around to make this possible?

It's not beyond Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, etc. to pull off an undisputed sweep. As for Lebron James, the most likely savior on his home court, he simply couldn't rescue his team when the going got tough. Chances are Game 4 may be the last gasp of air, or if you will, the last shot of redemption Cleveland has to even remotely challenge this hoops juggernaut called San Antonio. So far, the Cavs have a huge chip on their shoulder to knock off & the going will get no easier this time around for either team.

Picture This!!

Just the other day, I went & got my pics developed (as has always been the case with me, one-hour) & they turned out quite nicely. The centerpieces of all the pics that got developed were the ones which I took a few weekends back at Sidney, Ohio, home of one of the more enduring landmarks in railway bridge history, the Big Four Bridge. Turns out I took some awesome pics after all. But of course, I'm itching to return there sometime soon if I can help it...too cool of a travel destination to pass up!!

Of all the things I enjoy doing for fun or for random kicks is take photos left & right. The best ones I've ever taken were done spontaneously; I never had to sweat it out in order to capture my subject matter perfectly: the open road, railroad tracks, landscapes, rivers, forests, bridges. For me, the sweetest moments worth cherishing & sharing with others when it comes down to taking pics are the ones that were done on the fly - only one try to nail & do they look awesome!! For the record, my past experience taking photos with that mindset has served me well & quite often (though there have been those instances where I got flasher happy & wanted to approach stuff from new angles, & there have been plenty of 'em, FYI).

As I just said, I may be anticipating making another random trip over to Sidney, OH in the future among other places to continue my photographic adventure like none other. Until the next time on the road, I'm content with my recent snapshots from the Buckeye State. And the best is yet to come.

Just like old times

Again, it seems that the San Antonio Spurs won't cut the Cavs a break & so far they haven't. The end result: a 2-0 advantage in the NBA Finals & still some more hoops to be played.

However, like the boxer who gets let up off the canvas, don't count Lebron James & company out just yet. Now that the series is heading to Cleveland, there are some scores to be settled & the Finals momentum could shift into the Cavs' favor in short order if the Spurs aren't careful.

Then again, that has almost always been the Spurs' tendency to play in the Finals. In their 2005 go-round against the Pistons, they got pushed to 7 games (& somehow, San Antonio claimed the NBA Championship as well). The series isn't over yet & the Spurs need to stay focused, humble & resilient in order to make a sweep possible. Or better yet, conquer Cleveland on their home court, the very same court which ended Detroit's likelihood of forcing Game 7 outright.

From their own personal experiences & from the NBA history lessons which they helped create, though, the Spurs don't need to be told what's at stake. They know the incredible energy & noise levels they'll be facing up @ the Cavaliers' home turf. They know the psychological edge Cleveland has now that they're back at home. The last thing San Antonio needs is a mental letdown of any kind, even if they're the more talented, more veteran team (with plenty of depth to spare).

At this point in time, talk is definitely cheap. This series is make-or-break for either team, & anyone who's been watching the NBA Finals knows this, the Cavs & Spurs included.

The Sound of "Summer Lawns" still going strong

Joni Mitchell has always been one of my favorite singer-songwriters in more ways than one. First of all, she isn't afraid to follow her own creative Muse wherever it leads her (akin to Miles Davis' modus operandi through all periods of his musical career). Second of all, she has always been the adventurous type from a musical standpoint. Third, her lyrics are honest as much as they are heartfelt; she's an awesome teacher, offering up her lessons in, on & about life through song. Finally, she's one of the most important singer-songwriters of all time, based on all of the above reasons which I just gave.

Court and Spark, released in 1974, was Joni's highwater point as far as mainstream/commercial success went. Her follow-up & equally worthy sequel to C&S, 1975's The Hissing of Summer Lawns, would be a different story. Not only was it more challenging but also slightly less accessible; in a sense, she was making a statement of intent that she wasn't about to repeat the same formula twice. And she wasn't going to recreate Court and Spark all over again. She wholeheartedly saw to it that she wouldn't either. This may have been the end of the line for her from a commercial standpoint; but somehow THOSL has become one of her most enduring masterpieces ever as JM tackles incisively & prophetically all the good & bad that goes with the American Dream.

This would also serve as a transformation for Joni from a lyrical standpoint; in assessing the American Dream through the entire 10-song program, she also became a critic of sorts & this kind of criticism only could come from personal experience, as a few of my favorite tracks will attest:
(1) "Shades of Scarlett Conquering": This song paints a picture of a woman at odds with herself, both personally & from a moral standpoint. At the same time, it reveals a woman struggling to find her true identity in this world (dreaming on making it big on the silver screen) & really hurting as a result of these conflicts she is facing.
(2) the title track. A pretty descriptive track about the superficial, loveless, materialistic life the female protagonist is living out big time (as with so many others long well over 3 decades after this tune was recorded, & one of the strongest points on all of THOSL, BTW).
(3) "Harry's House/Centerpiece": It's all about a dude who's great to be around on the job but when it comes to his family life, he's a miserable failure & his wife & kids are feeling it. Like the title track, this tune (as well as Centerpiece, which JM didn't write but was done in appreciation of her jazz roots & to connect the dots with the song's key character, Harry) is an ode on the bored housewife, trying to make sense of her existence with the man she's with since love doesn't seem to factor into the equation.
(4) "Sweet Bird": On being human & how powers, ideals & beauty, even though they thrive, reach a point where they lose their luster & fade away, as well as time itself.

THOSL, about 30-odd years after it was recorded, is not only a supreme gem in Joni Mitchell's discography but also one of the more defining albums she ever released. Love her or hate her for being extremely adventurous (& she always has been that type of artist) but looking back on this masterpiece of compelling songcraft & social commentary, you can't help but appreciate her efforts that much more. And this would be a perfect intro to Joni's next phase in her musical adventure, 1976's Hejira. Gotta love artists who love to take risks from the heart.

Oops!! They did it again...

The NBA Finals began last night & of course there was a lot of excitement buzzing around about King James' entrance into the arena. Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of reason to be excited. Could the Cavs gain a 3-0 advantage over San Antonio this season? Could Lebron run riot over the Spurs or would he give someone else the glory of scoring points?

The answer to both questions was a resounding "No!" as the Spurs strategically & thoroughly dismantled the Cavaliers 85-76, teaching the young bucks a thing or two about coming out ready to play hoops in the Finals championship series. By clamping down on Lebron & sticking to their trademark game plan, the Spurs once again revealed how formidable they were as a veteran team doing all the little things right. Nothing flashy, nothing boastful. San Antonio just went about their business & Cleveland didn't put up much of a fight.

Again, this goes to show that the Cavs can't go exclusively to Lebron in order to manufacture points; if it's all Lebron (no Daniel Gibson, no Drew Gooden, etc.) this could be an all-out sweep. Cleveland needs to get fired up & ready to put up a fight with the Spurs instead of basking in the hype & attention which they're getting plenty of. But then San Antonio, in their own methodical little way, is at the ready & isn't going to let any midwestern upstarts pluck this year's trophy out of their hands.

To be positively honest, San Antonio might be "vanilla" to some, but from what Thursday night's victory confirmed, they're on top of their game right now & wouldn't want it any other way.

Getting Ready!!!!

Tonight is the night!!

The NBA Finals don't get any better than this when the Spurs take on Cleveland @ San Antonio.

And this is going to be a marquee matchup indeed. Sure, San Antonio is the better team & a team with strong experience when it comes to winning NBA Championships or just punching their ticket into the Finals. But no one should overlook the Cavs; they owned the Spurs 2-0 in the regular season & with Lebron James running the show in his own selfless way, things could look interesting for Game 1. Question is, how interesting will this series get?

Sure, the Spurs have been there, done that. But the Cavs, making their grand entrance into this championship round, are ushering in a new hoops era for their hometown. The Indians aren't playing too badly. The Browns...I just dunno what to say. The Cavs could change things around a lot for the city of Cleveland in terms of professional sports.

Anything could happen but hey, that's the NBA for ya. I'm rooting all out for Tim Duncan & company but I'll still sing a lot of praises for Lebron & crew; they have indeed come a long way in so little time.

A Tale of Two Players, Part Two

In my last blog, I touched on an article which Sally Jenkins wrote for the Washington Post about two pretty popular NBA players: one who's pretty much an awesome dude on & off the court whereas the other - Kobe Bryant - is a complete narcissistic bear. One player is building his team up whereas Kobe tore the Los Angeles Lakers apart (& still is as we speak).

Who is the other player which is deserving of the accolades which Sally Jenkins has given him?

It's Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A lot of folks'll say that the Cavs are all about Lebron in the same way that the Lakers are all about Kobe. But this just isn't true. In Game 5, sure enough, plenty of eyebrows were raised when Lebron scored 48. On the other hand, as Game 6 illustrates, he confirms one quality that any NBA star player in their right mindframe should have: selflessness. By accepting less, he's also raising his teammates' level of play up exponentially (Daniel Gibson had a career high in points & led the team in scoring too). He is the true epitome of unselfishness & integrity at its finest. Not only that, but he does something hardly anyone would think of doing nowadays, as Jenkins points out: "...He takes blame as easily as takes credit, and he talks in the plural instead of about himself. 'I've always believed in us,' James said..."

As you can see, he believes in accountability. He also speaks the language of personal responsibility. Rather than sulk or brood when things go wrong or displace his anger on his teammates if he should fail (as Kobe has done too often), he has the heart & confidence to say, "I'll keep getting better." When Lebron was drafted only four years back, the Cavs won a paltry 17 games but never has he vented his frustrations toward Cleveland's GM for all the losses he's had to endure & he hasn't turned into a hater towards those who look down on his weaknesses. He's let his actions on the court speak louder than words ever will & none of his playing has ever felt as if he had to force himself to dunk or bank a 3-pointer, etc. Quoting Cavs coach Mike Brown, & I'm sure a lot of people will agree here about Lebron's true character as a leader of his ballclub, "Everybody keeps asking for more, and he is a willing guy...He just keeps giving us more."

Now that's a gulf of a difference between two of the NBA's top stars. Where Lebron continues to give more (& not boast too highly of himself), Kobe has demanded more (& drawn all the attention to himself for all the wrong reasons). If anything, Lebron is the type of player Kobe ought to be - no, is supposed to be. Sadly, Kobe still doesn't seem to get it. While he's languishing at home, Lebron and the rest of his Cleveland teammates are getting geared up for the San Antonio Spurs. This isn't to say Lebron has finally arrived with his first-ever trip into the NBA Finals; he still knows there is work to be done. And here's the thing: Lebron is genuinely humble about where his team now stands & he'll only find more ways to build the city of Cleveland into a hoops dynasty. But he sure isn't inclined to follow in Kobe Bryant's shoes to make a success story worth remembering.

A Tale of Two Players, Part One

In the Sports Section of today's The Journal Gazette, I came across an article by a writer for the Washington Post, Sally Jenkins. It's a tale of two NBA players, going two different directions career-wise. But to say that they're going two different directions is a bit of an understatement, given the fact that one player is more volatile than the other; if anything, their careers are going on completely divergent paths & that's saying something.

The first guy I'm going to mention is Kobe Bryant. Love him or hate him, he's one of the more premier NBA players around. He, with the help of Shaquille O'Neal, propelled the Lakers to glory which to this day remains unprecedented in the history of pro basketball.

That was then, this is now.

Bryant, as the sole go-to guy the Lakers have since Shaq bolted for Miami, has been unable to help the Lakers win so much as a single playoff series. In fact, he helped, as Jenkins put it, "...engineer the departure of Shaquille O'Neal in 2004." If that's not enough, she again states, "...Bryant fights with everybody." Like an Eminem of the NBA, Kobe has had longstanding beef with anyone & everyone: teammates Shaq & Karl Malone, Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak & Lakers owner Jerry Buss among others. Anytime Bryant is looked at as a a bad guy or causes controversy to develop, he feels he's being unfairly victimized (but he's put himself in that position; no one else has done it for him). That's been the pattern which his career has taken: one selfish roller-coaster ride with no real end in sight.

And to think of wanting this dude as a teammate? If one struck up a conversation with his fellow teammates back in Los Angeles, the consensus would be saying, "Forget it. He's too demanding."

That's the thing about Kobe which turns me off: he's just too demanding & wants more of this, more of that: attention, support, chances for the Lakers management to hear what he has to say for once. Unfortunately, listening to Kobe's tirades already is getting old. Crying out in his cloistered existence, in his own gated little world, "What about me?", Kobe is the worst of the worst when it comes to what a true NBA player should stand for: integrity, selflessness, dedication & compassion (he woefully lacks all four from the looks of things). If there were two words to best describe his personality, Jenkins said it best: "...glowering and dark-hearted..." Not to forget self-centered, narcissistic, plain immature. He may be one of the more premier scorers the NBA has got, but come on. Kobe tore the Lakers apart as a franchise & is continuing to do so even now.

This isn't to say that we're ruling out redemption for Kobe; he can snap out of his angry funk & bring the Lakers back to their good old glory days when Shaq was an equally formidable presence with the basketball @ Los Angeles. It's not too late.

The next blog will feature player #2 & believe me he's a brighter star than Kobe will ever be again. In fact, as one of the more premier NBA players around, his success story is one for the ages; please believe it!!

Feeling (& sounding) bulletproof: the best security any music lover could have

Back in the day, in the African nation of Nigeria, a musical genre called Afro-Beat came into existence & with it music which was both danceable & political at the same time. Afro-Beat's first & foremost VIP, Fela Kuti, saw to it that it was & to this day Fela's music has lost none of its fiery, intense, charged vibe; living in a country which was going through so much crap, Fela was not only a spokesperson speaking for his fellow Nigerians who were oppressed & decrying their & his oppressors (of which there were plenty). He was also a very dedicated musician who knew how to get the dance floors of Lagos riled up with the type of music he was delivering.

Fast forward to the present day. In Brooklyn, a musical collective of roughly a dozen musicians named Antibalas (Spanish for "bulletproof") stepped onto the scene with a mission in mind. Though the music which they bring to the table sounds like a resurrection of Fela in his prime, they're not a tribute band. Nor are they to be lumped in with jam bands as they don't focus on flashes of solo brilliance to keep listeners interested in what they have to say. No, this is a group whose mission was to expand on the Afro-Beat vocabulary which Fela Kuti first brought into being over 3 decades before, all the while finding their own musical voices.

Their latest release, Security, is just further proof of Antibalas finding their own musical footing while staying true to their obvious Afro-Beat roots. It is also their first album to feature an outside producer, John McEntire (multi-instrumentalist for The Sea and Cake & Tortoise, Stereolab). What makes McEntire's contributions to Security so unique is that he doesn't intrude too heavily into the musical proceedings. But what he does well at throughout this release production-wise is bring a rich tapestry of color to the instrumentation & at the same time ups the ante as far as musical density goes. No polish, no needless sheen; just rough-edged music which Fela would be proud of. (And to think that this album was recorded & mixed in Chicago; this sounds & feels like Lagos, Nigeria!!)

But the real stars of the show are of course, Antibalas. "Beaten Metal," the album's opening track, sets the tone for all of Security's 57-minute playing time, with the horns, vintage lo-fi keyboards, etc. bouncing off each other left & right. Yet this composition has other influences floating around in the mix besides Fela: Can, Talking Heads, electric-period Miles Davis, & yes, even Tortoise. "Filibuster X" is prime booty-grooving material for the dance floor, with plenty of lyrical moments to be had from Nigerian vocalist Amayo (whose interpretation of "GOP" is sooo reminiscent of Fela's more political rants), & "Sanctuary" is no exception here either. With "Hilo" & "Age," the twelvesome explore their more jazzy, soulful side (again, one key aspect of Fela Kuti's music which made it so awesome). Talk about a musical collective who isn't afraid to explore outside the box (jazz, Latin, Krautrock, funk, besides the other obvious point of reference). Then talk about that same musical collective who is living up to their name: bulletproof as can be. And for sure, they are just that.

Antibalas hasn't brought sexy back. But they have single-handedly brought Afro-Beat back with a vengeance that comes awful close to sexy; look forward to them rocking a dance floor near you. This is music with a message, proof that Fela Kuti is still alive & well in spirit.

If only the Cubs would stop getting beaten up...

This weekend for the Cubs has been eventful & memorable for all the wrong reasons:

(1) Team infighting. This time it escalated to the dugout on Friday between pitcher Carlos Zambrano & catcher Michael Barrett. Ouch!! And to add insult to injury, they lost to Atlanta 8-5.
(2) Yet another loss the very next day...the bullpen for the Cubs falling asleep on the job, paving the way for the Braves to win 5-3.
(3) Even manager Lou Piniella had to throw a temper tantrum during Saturday afternoon's game...& of course he got tossed outta there.

Life at Wrigley Field for the past few games has been nothing but hard knocks; this isn't to say that things will have to get worse before they improve drastically for the Cubs. But this ballclub, if it is to stand a chance of breaking the playoff doldrums, needs to play like a major league team, enough said. This means: they need to make the key defensive plays when the situation calls for them; they need to produce offensively; they need to get the fundamentals right (e.g. running the bases properly!!)

At least something good came out of this long weekend: the Cubs finally won, defeating Atlanta 10-1. Now that's good news any Cubs fan can live with. Question is, can Chicago start making noise with their bats more often? Can they clamp down on folks defensively (& this includes great pitching to help make this possible)? It's not beyond Chicago to do all of the above. The time for redemption after Sunday's win starts this month. And I pray that they don't get beaten up more than they already have this past weekend.

Just my luck

Finally. At long last. You guessed right, it's down to two teams. One championship trophy.

The NBA Finals will soon begin & I'm excited like you wouldn't believe.

Right now, I'm rooting for the Spurs; they're running on all cylinders & on any given night if Tim Duncan or Tony Parker isn't playing well, San Antonio has other players who could step in & pick up the slack. But then again, San Antonio wouldn't be the same without the usual contributions of T-Dunc & Tony Parker either; they're the stars who make the Spurs tick like a well-timed clock. And of course, that's what makes San Antonio so awesome in the first place.

Then we've got Cleveland. The Cavs actually put all my fears of their not getting into the playoffs to rest Saturday night by sending Detroit home early. And I admit, I have to say to myself, "Finally." After coming oh so close to upsetting the Pistons in the second round of last year's divisional playoffs, Lebron James & company have now punched their ticket into the Finals; the question is, can they compete against a team who has been there & done that when it comes to winning NBA Championships? We shall see, we shall see. But at least they didn't have to rely on the Lebron James show to get them this far (as Saturday night's game readily confirmed).

And yet it'll take more than Lebron for the Cavs to put up a fight against San Antonio; more players will have to get involved for sure. With the Spurs, there's no real need to worry; it'll be a matter of being fully prepared to play these midwestern upstarts which'll decide who takes home all the NBA championship hardware for 2007.

GO SPURS!!

African History Lesson #1

In 1884, at Portugal's request, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck decided to get the chief western powers of the world & decide on what to do with the African continent. In modern-day parlance, he basically would have said: "Welcome to the Berlin Conference!!"

But this conference was serious business as far as Otto von Bismarck was concerned. It helped the two key players in this whole deal, France & Great Britain (along with Germany & Portugal) get the lion's share of African soil; the French took up most of western Africa while the British took a Cape-to-Cairo approach to grabbing new colonies (they also acquired Nigeria & Ghana). Then one of the more infamous figures around, Belgium's King Leopold II, snatched up what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Germany took Namibia & Tanzania; Portugal claimed Angola & Mozambique while Italy grabbed Somalia. This conference basically proved to be the undoing of kingdoms which had been flourishing for centuries (at that point, 80% of Africa was still under local/traditional control).

The formation of all these new colonies didn't exactly sit well with a lot of the indigenous peoples by any means. For instance, they helped merge together groups who had a penchant of hostility toward one another. And where the indigenous tribes once ruled supreme, the white minority took control, causing havoc & misery beyond the pale. Some of the books of African history which I've read recently & continue to come back to from time to time, are strongly recommended reads for anyone who loves African history/Africana as much as me:

-King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
-In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michela Wrong
-Frontiers by Noel Mostert (be forewarned: it's 1300 pages worth but still an insightful look into the Xhosa of South Africa)
-The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
-The Washing of the Spears by Donald Morris
-Season of Blood by Fergal Keane (about the Rwandan genocide in 1994)
-Biko by Donald Woods
-Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (I love this book tons!!)

Back to the topic at hand. The Berlin Conference really did more damage than it did any beneficial good for the Africans. Zimbabwe & the Democratic Republic of the Congo are just two prime examples of where colonialism & its aftereffects went way wrong. South Africa, with its Afrikaner (a Dutch-German mongrel) machine of oppression called apartheid, is yet another one to take into account. Angola & Mozambique, with each nation carrying a history of warfare & sorrow, are just two more...the list of casualties seems endless at this point.

For some who want to know more about Africa or a key event of world history, the Berlin Conference is one of those events to seriously look into, not to brush away from memory as an insignificant bunch of gobbledygook.

Thinking about Zimbabwe

Near the end of the 19th century, an imporant & defining event in the course of world history would take place at the Berlin Conference, which was mentioned in an earlier blog of mine. The dynamic duo of France & Britain grabbed all the turf they could find in Africa but managed to leave Portugal & Germany with some land of their own. And all this was done through grabbing the signatures of African chiefs who must have felt, "Well, we're doing these guys a favor; we'll sign on the dotted line & hope all will be well between us & the Europeans." Unfortunately, they also signed away their rights to territories which they held for time immemorial. And no, all would not go well between the whites & Africans from that moment forward.

In Southern Africa, the Rudd Concession was one of the more infamous ruses for the British (of all the Western powers with a mission in mind) to snatch up more land & completely disintegrate peaceable relations between the natives and the white minority. Somewhere, somehow in 1890, the formation of a colony, Rhodesia, came into fruition & with the white minority now in power, things went from bad to worse as far as relationships between the indigenous groups & whites were concerned & would only continue to do so for the next several decades as long as Ian Smith ran the show.

It would take persistent civil war to drive the point for independence from the British home but in 1980, Zimbabwe broke off all ties with its former namesake, Rhodesia (named after British entrepreneur almighty Cecil Rhodes). In the process, it broke off the yoke of the white minority rule which kept the indigenous tribes in their place for an eternity & with it the specter of British colonialism which next-door neighbors Zambia & Malawi broke free from about 15 years before.
If this wasn't enough good news for the African majority, they would also receive a brighter ray of hope: Robert Mugabe would be the first black ruler of Zimbabwe. And to this day, he still is Zimbabwe's president.

Initially, Mugabe was living up to the promises that he made; the economy was on the up & up & the future definitely looked rosy. But over time, the whole nation went on a downward spiral which it still has not recovered from. To say that Zimbabwe has hit rock bottom in every category you could think of is an understatement, considering the current state of the nation: horrific inflation (up to 1700%), shortage of basic necessities (& even the more fortunate Zimbabweans are finding the little things hard to come by), & one of the shortest life expectancies worldwide!! Economically & politically, Zimbabwe has been completely run into the ground; to even question unseating Mugabe from the post he's held for 27 years running is asking for trouble as so many Zimbabweans have discovered. If there are any African leaders whose names are anathema along the lines of Mobutu, Taylor, & Idi Amin, Mugabe ranks right up there with all three. Yes, he's that horrible as a ruler.

It's not too late to bring Mugabe to heel for all the damage he has caused the nation which he was supposed to guide into a better future. The question is, when will he finally face the music? For Shona & Ndebele alike, that time is now. For the white minority who somehow is staying on in Zimbabwe, that time is now. For the rest of the world, that time is now.

Our thoughts & prayers need to go to the suffering nation of Zimbabwe without a doubt.

Picking up the Pacers

Of all the things going down in the NBA at the present moment, nothing could be sweeter than hearing that the Indiana Pacers have a new head coach. This isn't to say that the search for our newbie, Jim O'Brien, was way overdue. Not at all. In fact, he could be the perfect fit for the Pacers as far as Larry Bird is concerned. Rick Carlisle may have done many wonders for Indiana - I mean, the Pacers had the best NBA record a few years back - but last year, I dunno; I just lost faith in him as so many other hardcore Pacers fans out there.

Why for? You might ask.

Injuries were one key factor for why the Pacers didn't get into this year's playoffs. Another is consistency. Another is plain discipline. I mean, having some of your stars get out of line, get hurt & make noise in the news is one thing; when those same stars decide to keep making the same off-the-court blunders, that's enough reason for changing the team morale. Hopefully, O'Brien can restore some order on the Pacers' court, & provide the team with much-needed discipline (which is one thing they're in desperate need of). Here's the thing: O'Brien could do a lot of great things for this ballclub during the 2007-08 season. Yet the likelihood of his tenure staying strong @ Indianapolis will depend on if he lives up to his promises.

I mean, I loved the Pacers way back when, before they got torn apart in every which way imaginable. What really started to dim my love for my formerly #1 ballclub in the NBA was the whole Pistons-Pacers incident at Auburn Hills (while Carlisle was still head coach). After that, I just dunno...the Pacers that I used to know & love weren't the same Pacers I've been supporting for the longest time.

But with O'Brien now at the helm, things could be looking up @ Conseco Fieldhouse. Could the Pacers find redemption after last season's debacle? We shall see, but the outlook is hopeful for now & anything could happen.

And for all you Pacers fans who want to see Indiana back in the NBA playoffs next season, I've just one question to ask: "Where is the love?"

Told ya so!! (Part two)

The pieces of the NBA Finals puzzle are slowly but surely beginning to fall into place & what better time to rejoice now that half the puzzle has been completed:

How about them San Antonio Spurs? As I expected, they ran riot over the Utah Jazz & claimed the series 4 games to 1. Who said that the Spurs couldn't beat the Jazz up @ Salt Lake City? Well, they did & the NBA Finals are starting up at San Antonio. Whoever wins the Eastern Division Finals, be prepared. Very prepared.

And speaking of what's going on in the Eastern Division Finals:

The Cavs are making things look interesting against the Pistons, gaining a 3-2 advantage in the series after last night's win @ Auburn Hills. Now it's switching back to Cleveland & this is not only a key game in deciding who goes home early or who's staying on for another game. This is also do-or-die for Detroit. In a sense, game 6 is deja vu all over again for both the Cavs & Pistons; if Lebron James & gang are ready to protect their house, it's sayonara once more for Detroit. If they're not, anticipate game 7 being the straw that breaks the camel's back.

And though it's a little early to say this, I'll say it anyway: go Spurs!!