Live from Morehead State

Just got to press row at Morehead State University for the MSU Eagles’ exhibition game against the Asbury Eagles. Nothing formal here, just going to give you my thoughts as we go. Should be a good time. If you stumble upon this during your Monday night surfing, leave questions in the comments about whatever and I’ll get those answered. Particularly if the question is about ’90s rock. I’m so all over that.

(UPDATE: If you are reading this after the fact, start at the bottom and work backwards)

• That’s it for me, look for team previews later this week

• Not a great game for Morrison. He’ll be fine though. He uses low-level point guards and gets away with his spin move in the KIAC

• Corey Britt could be the team’s x-factor. If he’s hot, that’s another legit scoring threat in the starting lineup to go along with his great defense

• Justin Jones will be a defensive beast. Teams will have a tough time scoring against him.

• Couple of takeaways from the game: I love Kenneth Faried. I hope he scores 50 points in a losing effort against the Cats. Also he’s really, really good

• Ball game. 91-57. Good thing it doesn’t count, huh?

• Now Faried leads the “Defense CLAP CLAP” chant. Nobody joins in though

• Dre with a great steal and layup

• Adam Satterfield and Peter Vogel check in for the first time

• Hurtle does the one-handed-rebound-and-bring-it-down-to-the-other-hand thing. Ben Spann’s was louder

Rock star

A little story about my weekend:

Last Tuesday, I got a call from my friend Rob whom I used to play music with. He told me that Shake Anderson was playing at Broadway Christian Church, and Rob wanted to know if I wanted to play.

Open for Shake Anderson, I thought. That would be fantastic.

I consider myself a bass player — aspiring to be sure, but with a small amount of ability — so naturally I have several pros that I look up to. My three favorite bass players, in no particular order, are: Pino Palladino, Victor Wooten and Shake Anderson. I dig them all for very different reasons, but suffice it to say that those are my favorites. So opening for Shake Anderson would be an amazing moment for me.

Later that day, Rob called back to give me the list of the songs I would be playing. He started naming these tunes, a lot of which were Shake’s songs.

I really don’t think we should be playing Shake’s songs before he goes on, I told Rob.

“No man, you’re going to be Shake’s bass player.”

It’s funny that sometimes the feeling you get when you get really bad news is the feeling you get when you get really good news. I’m actually not sure which one of those I felt — probably somewhere in the middle — but I almost declined right there. Nope, not gonna do it. Get somebody else. I can’t play for one of my heroes of the instrument.

Q & A with guitar legend Phil Keaggy

Phil Keaggy will perform at Asbury College Thursday night with Shake Anderson and the Ely Cartwright Band. He took a few minutes to talk to me today about his newest works and playing with Shake.

TY: How did you get hooked up with Shake?
PK: He had called my booking agent at Street Level Artists Agency, and they wanted me at the Ichthus Festival, where I had played before, and I’ve played Asbury College before. I said, “Well what do I do?” and they said,  “They just want you to sit in with the band,” so that’s what I did. They did their set, the Ascenxion Band. The first time I had played (in 2007) , Shake had injured his foot and couldn’t play. We did a few of my songs, and it was alright, a pretty good time. The next time they had worked up a few of my songs, but the way the whole thing went at Ichthus, I just had my own electric and my amp, and I just played and chunked along — did some solos, but didn’t do any of my own songs, and that was fun. Shake was a real powerful communicator with his music and his voice and his words. He contacted me about doing a couple of these little concerts. I don’t like dealing with the business side of anything, I just said “I can be there.”
When it comes to my own music, I like to play solo acoustic, that’s my thing right now and has been for quite a long time. I do still play electric, so I’m hoping I can sit in with his band and just improvise, which I love to do on the electric.

My day as a Harlem Globetrotter

I’ve really been blanking on blog ideas, so today I went back at old posts and looked at where I had written “(idea for a separate post)” somewhere in the post itself. I found this in the Lame Claim To Fame post.

When I was 10 years old, my friend Clifton’s dad got three baseline floor tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters play the Washington Generals in Rupp Arena, and he decided to take me and Clifton. We had both seen the Globetrotters on TV, so we were both thrilled at the prospect of seeing them live and so close.

The first half went by as a typical Globetrotters game — ball on the string, bucket of confetti, Sweet Georgia Brown — and we were eating up. Just loving it. Then the weird Globetrotter phenomenon kicked in with a ridiculously boring fourth quarter. I mean, these guys were the greatest at their craft, but for some inexplicable reason, they decide to play real basketball in the third quarter. I don’t know if it’s so they can get a manageable lead on the Generals so they can goof off again or what. Listen, we’re from Kentucky — you’re playing a game at Rupp Arena — we’ve got our fair share of real basketball. Whatever the reason, this was a prime opportunity for us to pig out on some popcorn and nachos until things got fun again.

Toward the end of the third quarter, Paul “Showtime” Gaffney was fouled hard underneath our basket. He looked at me with this wide-eyed “He almost took my head off!” look that I returned in kind. He came over to me, took my arm and yanked me up onto the Rupp Arena floor.

This week in irrelevance 10/20

A weekly installment of news from around the globe that I can’t bring myself to care about.

• Balloon Boy took us for a ride – Was there any doubt I was leading with this? What’s left to say that hasn’t already been said about this humiliating moment for Americans everywhere? Everybody ended up with egg on their faces, and for some reason people are still talking about it (guilty!). I can only hope for the sake of all parties involved that A) the parents are deported, B) the children are adopted by normal people, and C) we never, EVER report anything that happens in northern Colorado ever again.

• Lindsay Lohan’s dad wants to kidnap her – Lindsay Lohan is seeking a restraining order against her dad after he said he wanted to take her to an undisclosed location to try and straighten his troubled daughter out. I think I speak for the rest of the world when I say: Four years late, big guy.

• Scientist busted for selling US secrets - An American lunar scientist was caught after he tried to sell secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli. Stewart David Nozette gained fame after helping discover evidence of water on the moon, and now he is facing some big-time charges. Nozette is contesting he gave away any of the weapons secrets, saying, “I’ve only shared them with my dog Duke, here, and he’s not talking.”

• McNabb just a little forgetful – The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback had another big mental lapse last week when he tried to call a timeout that his team didn’t have late in a 13-9 loss to the Little Giants…er…Oakland Raiders. He was criticized last season when he didn’t go for the win on the last play of overtime because he thought there was another one. Listen people, give it a rest, the man is an NFL quarterback. He can’t be concerned with inconsequential things like “rules” and “counting.”

• South Carolina senator frugal “like a Jew” – South Carolina Republicans, in an opinion piece that ran in the Orangeburg newspaper, showed their support for Senator Jim DeMint for watching the government’s pennies “like a Jew.” South Carolina — Apologizing in advance for our politicians since 1776!

• Octomom has her sights on Jon Gosselin – In today’s “Nothing could possibly go wrong here” news, the Octomom Nadya Suleman said she has a crush on Jon Gosselin, who has eight children with his ex-wife, Kate. So for those of you scoring at home, break out the calculators. Jon + Kate + 8 – Kate + New Kate – New Kate + Octomom – Common sense = ? Show your work.

This Week In Irrelevance 10/6

A weekly installment of news from around the globe that I can’t bring myself to care about.

• David Letterman’s love life – The Late Show host admitted he slept with several women who worked for the show over the years. Thursday night, he addressed the issue on his show for the very last time, saying he was being blackmailed for $2 million. Last night, he addressed the issue on his show for the very last time, apologizing to his wife and staff members. Later this week, he will address the issue on his show for the very last time. Also next week. For the very last time.

• Kate – Jon + 8 – These two are going through what every divorced couple goes through. Except instead of crying into a tub of ice cream, they cry into TV cameras. And instead of getting to vent to their best friends, they vent to TLC and every news outlet in the world. A word of advice to all married couples out there.: If you want to stay married, don’t let somebody film every second of your life. Remember how frustrating it was to have that wedding photographer around all the time? Yeah, that times a million.

• Tom Cable busting chops – The Oakland Raiders were dealt a blow in an otherwise sparkling season when it was learned that Head Coach Tom Cable may face assault charges after breaking the jaw of Assistant Coach Randy Hanson. I’ll let you pick your joke here:

A) No word on whether or not Cable will also be blamed for the broken jaws of hundreds of Raiders fans who have punched themselves in the face while watching the Raiders play.

B) Cable still insists that the broken jaw was from a typical Jamarcus Russell pass. “Nobody’s safe from those things,” Cable said.

C) Hey, at least he won’t have to watch Raiders games anymore!

D) The Raiders suck.

• Rush Limbaugh bidding to buy Rams – Oh boy. The jolly old radio talk show host is bidding to buy a crumbling franchise. A few things jump out at me reading this story. Rush Limbaugh is paid enough money to buy a football team. Limbaugh was an ESPN football commentator in 2003 for like three games. The Rams are not technically for sale, but they’re accepting bids — talk about your owner’s faith in the franchise. Although it will be easy to defend them if Rush were calling the shots — ain’t nobody going left.

• Dollar Tree expanding its stores – There will be thousands more Dollar Tree stores because the franchise’s profits are rising during the recession. Because nothing cures recession woes like plastic duck-shaped whistles and Pogs.

More on social media

As you are probably aware, seeing as how I’ve written about it here plenty of times before, I’m fascinated by the social media trend — a mixture of wonder and fright. I honestly don’t know what the end game is with this things, whether it’s going to go by the wayside like BETA and turn signals or if it’s going to transform into something even more far reaching than we can imagine today.

Let’s take a look at the timeline for a second:

Home phone – Get in touch with any home whose personalized 10-digit number you know
Primitive cell phone – A HUGE jump, allowing individual people to have telephone capability wherever they are
E-mail – Send messages via the Internet that can be read from any computer connected to the web.
Instant messaging – Chat with a person over the internet
Modern cell phone – Literally every person has a personalized 10-digit number that you can use to get them at any time
Text messaging – Like instant messaging, but no internet required. Trade information without actually having to call the person
MySpace/Facebook – Each person has his or her own page with the ability for people to leave messages, photos, etc. Enormous leap in information sharing
Twitter – A simple question — What are you doing? — updated continuously by millions of people around the world

This Week In Irrelevance

Well I’ve gotten a couple people point out that I haven’t been blogging as regularly as usual (read: at all), so this seems like as good a time as any to try out a new weekly feature called This Week In Irrelevance. Basically it’s a list of what seems to be captivating most of the world but I just can’t bring myself to care about. And because I don’t care about it, I write about it. Make sense?

• Sarah Palin’s tell-all – Former Alaska governor, former vice president hopeful — former lots of things, really — will publish her book, “Going Rogue, An American Life,” Nov. 17. So all of you who have been pining for a 400-page reason not to believe what those anonymous Republicans said about the “diva” toward the end of the 2008 presidential race, your wish has come true. (Spoiler alert: It was everybody else’s fault but hers that she strayed from the campaign direction.)

• Jenny Slate f-b0mbs SNL – In case you were wondering — yes, I watched Saturday Night Live when cast member Jenny Slate, who had a **** of a first day on the show, dropped the f-word in a skit. There are a couple reasons it shocks me that literally every media outlet in America covered this story. 1) It’s Saturday Night Live, which is not known for its kid-friendly viewing. That same episode had a flasher in a Transformers mask, a how-to tape on sexual positions and a phone sex line that advertises itself for murderers and people who want to be murderered. The f-bomb was far from the most offensive part of the show — that honor goes to Megan Fox (hi-yo!). 2) The skit was written to have the characters say the word “frickin” over and over and over and over and over. Ya think somebody might slip up?

• Parents lie to children – In a groundbreaking study, it was found that parents often lie to their children. Also, we pay people to do these studies. If somebody would just call me first and ask if parents lie to their kids, we could move on to study some other issues, like cancer and stuff. Plus, aren’t the lies we tell our kids (this hurts me more than it hurts you, Rover went to a big farm where he could run around, eat your vegetables or you won’t grow, the dentist won’t hurt you, flatulence isn’t funny, Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy) really just stopgaps until they learn the truth on their own? Kids need reasons to be good, clean their room, share toys and not flatulate in church, so parents just do what needs to be done.

• Michael Jackson is still dead – In the latest piece of Michael Jackson news, which is amazing when you think about it that we still have Michael Jackson news, The Michael Jackson Tapes will be revealed in a book. They are expected to fill in the final slivers of his life that we didn’t already know everything about and have been dying to learn — friendship with Madonna, fear of growing old, shyness — wait, didn’t we already know all that? Larry King will be playing some of the tapes on his show tonight, though, so there’s that…

• Bill Clinton loves the ladies – In an upcoming book written by a former Clinton aide, the female staff member says the President walked her into a hotel room and gave her a hug that “lingered a little too long,” and Clinton was always flirting with women around him. In related news, the sky is blue.

• Golfer hits two holes-in-one – I’m just kidding — as a guy who has never had a hole-in-one, I’m fascinated by this story. One of these days, I’m going to get one, and you all are getting a 4,000-word post on every detail.

Like This Week In Irrelevance? Hate it? Let me know in the comments.

Dot Com-ments

Ah internet commenters. There is not a more interesting online subculture than the people who comment on Web sites. The ones who post here are generally extremely intelligent and respectful and do a good job getting their points across. For that, I am very thankful and enjoy reading your responses. Although there are a few that I have been embarrassed to approve and some that were so crass and inappropriate that I had to delete them. I almost took down an entire thread two weeks ago. Sad thing is those people tend to be the majority online. Not that they are critcical — those are certainly necessary — but that they do it in such a hateful way that they would be laughable if they weren’t so offensive. If you for some reason have a desire to be frightful for the human race, read a YouTube comment section sometime — political topics work best.

Alas, there will always be those who leave thoughtful commentary and those who hide behind their usernames to spread their hate. The Jessamine Journal opened a comments feature a couple months ago, and luckily for us people have been pretty well behaved. I want to take this post, though, to publish some of the more…um…interesting comments .

• Wolf-Dog’s fate not determined:

“I don’t believe the dog ever took the child from its crib.”

• Wolf-dog will not be returning home:

“This is to Michelle and all the others who asked “what if it was a pittbull” I have owned several and currently have a 7 month 65 pound puppy and a 9 year old jack russell who bosses the pup around. The pup is the best behaved pup I’ve ever owned. All he wants is love and praise when he does what he’s told when is all the time. Tell him once and he remembers tell him once that’s all it takes, but since I’m bragging on him he’ll act up and disobey now. like a child! But if it had been a pitbull they wqould have destroyed it no questions asked no second chance! IT IS A SHAME!!! If Chihuahuas wre the same size as Pits or German Shepards or Rottweilers the would be really viscious, perhaps the worst breed of all. Thank God they are no bigger than they are. And Michael Viick is still playing football and making millions if there was real justice in the world they would have “put him down” istead of letting him do 18 months of his 23 months!”

“is this still a story ?”

Obama v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

I just want to warn everybody right now: I’m fired up, and I’m about to rant.

There are three items up on the Lexington Herald-Leader Web site right now that make my blood boil. The first one is a poll that asked about 600 Kentuckians whether or not they believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States. Want to know how many did? 51 percent. Fifty. One. Percent. That means 49 percent of those polled said either no he’s not, or I’m not sure. So 49 percent of the people in our great state think that he was slick enough to get the fact that he was born outside of the country past the American government.

Item two is another poll, this one on the front page asking people if they want their children to watch Obama’s address to the schoolchildren of America about the value of an education. Nearly 2,500 people have voted, and 49 percent said no, 48 percent said yes, and 3 percent were undecided. 49 percent don’t want the President of the United States — the most powerful man in the world — to tell their kids to stay in school.

Item three comes from the sports department. UK Coach John Calipari revealed yesterday that he is sending a number 44 Wildcats jersey to President Obama, commemorating the 44th President and showing him the support of the University. He announced this on his Web site CoachCal.com, and so many people left derogatory and offensive messages about the act that he had to take it down.

I don’t care if you’re a republican, a democrat or a whig — this is humiliating. I always tell people that Kentucky is the greatest state in the country, but I’m starting to think that it has the worst people. We have some of the most narrow-minded and ignorant people I’ve ever seen, and that’s not an exaggeration. For every good person that I have met here — and there are a ton — there is an equally reprehensible bigot that does nothing except bring this state down and make it the laughingstock of the rest of the world.

You know the reputation Kentucky has, and you knew the way it would play out with this presidency. And don’t even act like you don’t know what I mean. I know for a fact that this display does not have everything to do with politics. I’ve lived here long enough, and I’ll leave it at that.

It is completely unacceptable to act this way toward the leader of our country, whom we have to support, root for and pray for every single minute that he is in that seat. Every time we wish that Obama would fail, we are wishing that our country will fail. And I’ve heard the arguments: “I don’t want the country to fail, I just want him impeached.” That’s bull. The only reason he would be impeached would be because he had done something to ruin this country. Nobody is going to preemptively take the man out of office. So that argument is worth nothing, just like the people that make it.

I’m sick of this. I know it’s not going to change — the idiots are just breeding more idiots — but I’m sick. Blast me in the comments, tell me how I’m just a pawn for the liberal media — I don’t care. If you are pulling against our President, you are pulling against our country, and that’s all there is to it.

(I realize this is an extremely controversial topic and there will probably be major criticism of me and of the President here. I have offered a little clarification in the comments section that should clear up a point of argument with this post. As always, thanks for reading and commenting.)