Monday, July 26, 2010

I've Run Out Of Things To Say About Ron Artest

I know that this clip has been all over the internet lately, but it's worth posting again.  Has a player regarded by just about everyone as a pariah and shame to the game undergone as dramatic an image makeover as Ron-Ron has, and still be considered just as crazy?  He's downright LOVABLE right now.

But crazy, still so very crazy.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Super Wild Horses - Fifteen


Melbourne, Australia's Super Wild Horses are about to release their first full length LP "Thirteen" on Hozac Records here in the states. Their follow-up to a vinyl only ep release on Australia's fantastic Arrght! Records, which is also releasing the record overseas.

I couldn't wait for the vinyl release and happily found that the digital version of the record is already available from iTunes. Say what you will about Apple, iTunes and the iPhone, when it comes to instant gratification there is nothing quite like downloading an anxiously awaited album right to your phone. (Don't forget to send me that check, Mr. Jobs)


The ladies of Super Wild Horses, Haley McKee and Amy Franz switch off between drums and guitar much like garage heroes The Oblivians were known for. The garage rock influence is apparent, but also figuring into the equation are vocals which recall Kim Deal at her best and the call and response of Boston's Mr. Airplane Man. Throw in some Alien Lanes era Guided By Voices influence and tie it all together with an early 80's post-punk syncopated back beat. The result is a strong album that moves seemlessly between garage rave-ups, summer songs and no-wave stompers.


Check out the video for Golden Town from Fifteen and Standing On The Corner from their self titled EP. If you like what you hear...go buy it!


Golden Town, by Super Wild Horses from Super Wild Horses on Vimeo.

Standing On The Corner (keyboard mix)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ilya Kovalchuk Is Unstuck In Time

Welcome guest blogger KC. to the Wiggle.  KC and I go back ways, and we share a common interest in sports and music.  Since those topics are the overarching theme of this corner of the interweb I asked him if he wouldn't mind contributing...I woke up the next morning and found this tract sitting in my email inbox. He works fast and he works smart. I hope you enjoy. KC...the floor is yours.

Why am I writing about a hockey player on a basketball blog? Particularly a blog who's editor has made his distaste of the sport no small secret? I'm compelled to write this because Ilya Kovalchuk has crystallized the passage of time for the thirty-something sports fan.


 The NHL has been creeping in this direction for a couple of years now. The New York Islanders gave Rick DiPietro a 15-year deal. The Washington Capitals locked up their franchise player, Alexander Ovechkin, for 13 years. Both of those players were in their early twenties, meaning they would most likely continue to be productive at the end of those deals – well, Ovechkin will, anyway.

Recently, Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils had agreed to a 17-year contract (the NHL has since voided the deal for salary cap reasons). Now, that’s not the longest contract ever given in sports, but it’s the longest in recent memory. It’s so long, in fact, that there is no realistic frame of reference to use to comprehend it. But let’s look at it from an NBA perspective.

We have just concluded the 2009-10 season. And let’s assume that this past season was the final year of someone’s 17-year contract. That would mean the contract would have been signed after the 1992-93 season. That was my freshman year of college. I don’t know where you were, but I was surrounded by Starter Jackets, Co-ed Naked T-shirts, and Cross Colours. Need some music as a benchmark? How about the first Radiohead album? Or the fact that the summer that contract would have been signed, you might have been bumping “Insane in the Brain” in your Jeep? On your way to see Jurassic Park?


 OK, enough for the trip down Memory Lane. Back to the hoops connection. Putting aside the money value, we’re just going to look at the years. Right now, Kovalchuk is 27 years old. So, using basketballreference.com, let’s look at some of the players that were 27 when that 92-93 season ended. Among them, there were some names that you may remember as solid NBA players:

Brad Daugherty, Harvey and Horace Grant, Mark Jackson, Steve Kerr, Dan Majerle, Mitch Richmond, Rony Seikaly (I’m not convinced he wasn’t 27 when he was at Syracuse), John Starks

Sure, there’s some talent there, but no one you’re going to tie yourself to for the better part of two decades, even before the salary cap was introduced. But let’s look at three guys who would be in that top tier of talent.  Now, certainly you don’t expect any of these guys to be of any use to you at age 44, but would you have signed them to what basically amounts to a lifetime contract? 

(Editors Note - I think I know someone who may have given any of those guys a lifetime contract.)


Scottie Pippen - He has basically become the textbook definition of the guy a star player needs around him to win a title.  How many times did we hear that LeBron needs a “Pippen” if he’s going to win a title (of course, now LeBron IS "the Pippen", but that’s another story). Pippen was coming off a season in which he averaged 18.6/7.7/6.3; not to mention a third straight title. Add to that the fact Jordan was about to “retire”, and you might have a case for wanting to lock him up. Then there’s the whole Hall of Famer thing.

David Robinson - A true physical specimen. Robinson was perhaps the premier big man of this era, before Shaq entered the league. He was coming off a 23.4/11.7 season, and also averaged a little more than three blocked shots per game. He was well on his way to being one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (as was Pippen), and writing a Hall of Fame resume. In a sport with increasing media exposure, Robinson was a good-looking, charismatic player that any team could easily marketing around. He was a Spur for his entire career, that’s an easy lifetime lock.

Reggie Miller - Oddly enough, not voted one of the 50 Greatest Players, and I’ll have to claim my age for not having the faintest idea why he’s not there and Tiny Archibald is. The very definition of clutch, and the kind of competitor any team would love to trot out there, Miller came off a 21.2/3.1/3.2 season – not quite the all-around player that Pippen was, but served his role as well as anyone in that era not named Jordan. Like Robinson, he stayed with one organization for his entire career, but you’d have to assume the Pacers would have locked up the face of the franchise if the situation arose.

There was one other player that was 27 in 1993. A player who might have turned that final trio into a quartet. In fact, we’re coming up on the 17th anniversary of his death. He was coming off a very good 92-93 season, which was almost a carbon copy of his 91-92 season.  Averaging over 20 points a game, he was a lethal shooter, only a notch below what Reggie Miller was doing at the same time. Celtics fans were just starting to get a glimpse of what kind of career this player was going to settle into.


Reggie Lewis signaled the new era in Celtic basketball. McHale and Parish were near the end of their days, and Bird was already out. A young, athletic team was being built around Lewis with Dee Brown, Rick Fox, and Alaa Abdelnaby (OK, not really..) The Celtics finished second in the division, losing in the first round of the Playoffs to Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning and Dell Curry's Charlotte Hornets.  The young guys gained some playoff experience, and the foundation for what may have been a new run of success for the storied franchise was being lain. Lewis was working hard in the offseason to improve his game, when he dropped dead of cardiac arrest. Lewis' death, brought on by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, numbed the city of Boston, and sent the Celtics into a tailspin of eight consecutive losing seasons.

Larry Bird will always be my favorite Celtic. Carl Yastrzemski will always be my favorite Red Sox player. Both started their careers before I was aware of them (or, in the case of Yaz, well before I was born). Reggie Lewis was (and still is) my second favorite Celtic. He felt special because I remember when he was drafted. I remember watching him develop. And unfortunately, I remember where I was when I heard that he had died.  He left us far too soon. His death kept us from wondering whether or not signing him to a lifetime contract would be a good thing. Reggie Lewis did sign a lifetime contract. Except no one knew it at the time.

17 years. Doesn’t seem so long after all now, does it?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Muckracker

I wrote the entire first draft of this post as a satire of Dan Gilbert's "Open Letter" to the fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers.  I thought it was ok and sat on it for a few days while deciding if I really liked what I had written.  Then I happened upon this gem, posted today on Ball Don't Lie.  Clearly my half assed attempt at skewering Mr. Quicken Loans and Cav Nation was not up to snuff.  Plus I haven't been able to figure out how to add Comic Sans font to blogger.  Once I do that this blog is going places.  (Speaking of going places...soon you can expect to see more music oriented posts along with a focus on The Boston Celtics and the NBA in general, as well as a monthly music podcast.)

I can't let Cleveland get off scott free.  I just can't.  I've enjoyed just about every one of the series of unfortunate sporting events that have befallen the town, most of which came at the hands of my beloved Boston teams. Starting with Pedro Martinez coming out of the bullpen with only a curve ball to slam the door on the Indians in the 99 ALDS and culminating with the Celtics dismantling of the Cavs and LeBron quitting on his team and town...its been a pretty good run.  Cleveland has been Boston's playoff fodder for over ten years...and the Patriots took the goat of the Browns and allowed him to become one of the greatest coaches in the NFL, but I'm not here to gloat.  I'm here to rub it in the face of Cleveland Fan.


There has been an outpouring of sympathy from the sports world towards poor Cleveland Fan in the weeks following The Decision. I'm just not sure that it's warranted.  Cleveland Fan...I think you had it coming.

The good news is that Cleveland Fan really never cared about the Cavaliers. In fact, eight years ago...most of them didn't realize that there was an NBA franchise in their city.  I guess its understandable, if Ricky Davis and Darius Miles were the face of my team, I'd probably deny their existence as well.  Things started to change once Sports Illustrated and ESPN started promoting this High School Junior from Akron as the heir apparent to Michael Jordan's legacy.


As luck would have it the Cavaliers were terrible during the 2002-2003 season. The team lost 65 games and was rewarded with the rights to draft LeBron James with the number one pick in the draft.  Over night a fan base was born.

Cleveland Fan never really had a reputation for being a terrible front runner.  Sure they abandoned their teams when they stunk and came out in droves to support them when they were winning, no different from any other city. With this Cavaliers team however, everyone acted like they already had a champion.  I'm sure Nike had a lot to do with this perception.  I think every Cleveland resident had a  "Witness" t-shirt stuffed in their mailbox. 

My problem with this whole LeBron-Cleveland love affair was that it was just that.  A LeBron-Cleveland love affair, and only that.  The fans who were so quick to get on the phone and order their season tickets, couldn't get back on the phone fast enough to cancel them once it was known to the world that LeBron was "taking his talents to South Beach".  I feel for the poor souls working in the Cavs ticket office.  I can't imagine how many season ticket holder they have to argue with each day now trying to get out of their commitment for next season.


Cleveland Fan, you can go ahead and burn all of your #23 James Cavaliers jerseys. I'm sure you have a vast collection of every alternate version cranked out over the last 7 years. I'm sure they all have "James" on the back, because really, who wants an Anderson Varejao, or Mo Williams jersey. In fact, who the hell were those other guys on the court with "The King"?

Destroy the evidence.  Now, head on out to the mall and throw down the cash for a brand spankin' new #6 Miami Heat LeBron James jersey. You can get it in Black, Red or White!!!  It's no big deal.  Just pretend that the last seven years you were watching the best college player ever to play for Ohio State. Now he's graduated and you can follow the hometown hero in the NBA.  Let's face it...you're not going to see NBA quality basketball played in the Quicken Loans Arena for a very long while.


I mean...c'mon. The only thing this city has ever produced of value is dystopian and misanthropic punk rock and hardcore. There's a reason why Pere Ubu and Integrity made such goddamn dark music...Cleveland is a depressing wasteland. There's nothing there, and what is there, shouldn't be. The Browns left (then came back for some strange reason), CC Sabathia left, and finally LeBron left. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should probably pick up and head on down to Memphis where it belongs.

Sorry Cleveland.  It wasn't LeBron. It was you.

Friday, July 9, 2010

We Were All Witnesses, And It's All Our Fault.

Chuck Klosterman recently made the point on Bill Simmons' BS Report that the popularity of Social Networking sites like Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, was a direct the result of a sort of Post 9-11 fear of being forgotten, or having one's voice silenced. Posting a status update on Facebook is a vapid everyday habit for most of us. Klosterman argues that it really is a collective attempt by us all to leave some sort of legacy of who we are in case we're suddenly wiped off the face of the earth. In essence we're writing our autobiographies whether we intended to or not. I've been told that I'm one of the worst offenders. Looking at my facebook profile tells you exactly where I've been, and what I've done since the middle of 2007 or so. All of the most important moments of my life have been documented and broadcast to the internet (until of course I recently revised my security settings to Ft. Knoxian levels). I know a fair amount of people, and almost all of them have a facebook account, the ones that don't, they have a twitter account. Whether I realize it or not my opinions reach a pretty amazing amount of people compared to back in the days when I cranked out a couple of issues of my punk rock fanzine or did my late night radio show in College. Through the social networking sites I use the people I care about know that I'm around, and doing ok.


What happens when you're the most popular and dare I say most talented athlete we've seen since Michael Jordan? Facebook and Twitter are accessible to the average joe, but when you're LeBron James ESPN becomes your Facebook profile. LeBron may not have realized it when he agreed to make the announcement of his free agency decision during prime time on ESPN, (there seems to be some disagreement between the principles regarding how this came to pass, so lets for the sake of simplicity work off the premise that he was approached by the network to do this) but he was taking part in the most widely watched and most commented upon status update in history.


Obviously it didn't go over very well. Facebook and Twitter exploded, although they didn't crash like many people joked leading up to the event. Anti-LeBron sentiment won in a landslide. John McCain and Walter Mondale, you're off the hook. Here's the thing though, most of the anger was directed at the WAY LeBron made his decision, not with the decision itself. Tweets and status updates derided LeBron for being self aggrandizing, egotistical, making himself bigger than the game, a self promoter, I could go on...and on...and on. Have you ever published a status update where you shared a strong political opinion? Imagine the flood of comments you received in its wake and multiply it by the combined salaries of "Miami Thrice" (a nickname so hilariously terrible, that it's amazing) and you're just getting in the neighborhood of the negative reactions.


LeBron's decision was of little consequence to most viewers. It was THE DECISION that really bothered us. It wasn't that LeBron essentially wiped the city of Cleveland's nose in the mess that Cavaliers owner Daniel Gilbert left on the carpet (His own damn fault, plain and simple and no amount of vitriol wrapped up in Comic Sans font should misdirect you from that fact). What really galled us was the fact that LeBron thought that we all should care about where he was "bringing his talents in the fall". Newsflash folks...he was RIGHT. More people tuned into King James' status update than watched his basketball team play a single playoff game on national TV this past spring. 7.2 rating last night on cable television vs 6.3 on ABC. Nike was prescient...We Were All Witnesses. Because of our voyeuristic obsession with Facebook, Twitter and reality television we couldn't help ourselves. We had to watch, we had to react. We hated ourselves for it because of how it reflects upon each and every one of us.  We all over share, we all want our voices heard over the din and we all realize deep down in our core that it's a little embarrassing.  LeBron James and The Decision took the Facebook/Twitter phenomenon to its zenith.  It held a mirror up to us, we were all witnesses...and we hated what we saw.