My very own polysyllabic spree

March 30, 2005


I feel that I’ve been inspired.

I won’t go too much into the details of the inspiration, because I fear it’s a little embarrasing to admit that it happened at a mega-Barnes and Noble store, but it began with picking up and reading Nick Hornby’s new book The Polysyllabic Spree — “A hilarious and true account of one man’s stuggle with the monthly tide of the books he’s bought and the books he’s been meaning to read.” I thought to myself: “I can do that. I buy books that, chances are, I’ll never read. In fact, I can force myself to read, to begin to enjoy reading as a pasttime again, and then swipe Hornby’s idea and write about it.”

So, as of today, it’s begun. I vow to read at least an hour each day — it shouldn’t be hard, I’ll just have to stop watching so much Aqua Teen Hunger Force when I get home from work (there’s 30 mintues right there.)

The thing is, I should have been doing this for years. Throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded by books. My mother’s living room in her apartment is filled with bookshelves — so many that she often has dreams that they are tipping over and falling through the floor under their own weight. I practically grew up in a used book store, and while it was a trashy romance-novel driven used book store, I was still in contact with bound pages almost every day of my life. I was reading Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur in 9th grade, dammit. I like books.

So why don’t I read anymore?

Hopefully, this will curb that longing. Every final day of the month (a time that is usually pretty slow at work, so that will help with writing) I will compile a list of the books I’ve purchased or checked out from the library, and I will compile a list of the books that I actually read, with reasons why I didn’t read the others, and reasons why I liked the books I’ve read. It’ll be a grand expiriment for me. It could also be an excuse to buy more books I’ll never read. I’ll have to raise that level in the monthly budget, i suspect.

So, with trusty Moleskine notebook in hand, I begin my quest. I may finally get around to reading Edward Rutherford’s London, or Paul Theroux’s Riding the Iron Rooster.

Wish me luck.

Tags: Books, Literature, What I've Been Reading |

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10-1 (finally!)

March 29, 2005


10. The Get Up Kids – Four Minute Mile

The top ten starts with this – an album that would have been number one five years ago. Four Minute Mile was The Get Up Kids’ “I’m at college and my girlfriend is somewhere else and I really really miss her” album, and considering I was in the exact same situation at the time, it was only natural that I held onto this group of songs for as long as I could. Every time I would feel a little down, I would pop this sad sappy mix of poppy emo gold into my CD player and annoy the hell out of my roommate Joel. He, however, was raised as a turkey farmer, so I didn’t really care much. He needed a little culture, I guess.

Might as well start my drinking days now if i’m really alone — “Michelle With One ‘L’”

9. Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West

Lonesome Crowded West is the Modest Mouse CD that you’re supposed to like the best, I hear, and I don’t disagree with anyone who says it. It’s the prototypical Modest Mouse album; it’s quirky and sprawling, which is all done with a little bit of tongue-in-cheek lyrical prowess. I initially didn’t care much for this album, and this band, when Kerrie first plugged it into the Ford Contour’s CD player – a suggestion from her friend Melissa, I believe – but now look at me. While I see The Moon And Antarctica as a far superior album, I think Lonesome Crowded West has the best songs (”Trailer Trash,” “Cowboy Dan” and “Trucker’s Atlas,” most specifically.)

Opinions were like kittens/I was giving them away — “Out Of Gas”

8. Hot Water Music – Forever and Counting

Here’s the anthem album for the Hot Water Music Nation, the album that brought most of the old fans on board. There are more songs to sing along to, and, in my opinion, more emotion poured into this album, than anything they’ve done since. This was put out during it’s fight with Elektra records, who had a shitty band named “Hot Water,” and so because of that, the band name (for one album only) was The Hot Water Music Band. My favorite memories of Hot Water Music are usually when they play songs from this album live – it’s incredibly infectious and full of energy, and, for the most part, everyone yells the words out until the band itself could stop and let us all sing the rest.

So what will you say when it’s time to cut me loose from your new life/Don’t say you lost the feeling/I’ll bring it — “Just Don’t Say You Lost It”

7. Cursive – Domestica

Cursive turned itself from indie-rockers on the rise into full-fledged artists/geniuses with Domestica – a CD that’s reportedly not about singer Tim Kasher’s short marriage and divorce, though by the lyrics you could have fooled me. Everything from beginning to end winds together into a tragic story – from finding out that the boy may not like the girl as much as before, to suspicions of cheating, to the final clash that ends with everyone proclaiming that they’ve “lost the will to fight.” It’s all very powerful and all very conceptual – I guess that would make it a powerful concept album.

This house is the hole that you could never fill/With shattered dinner plates/That’s how we’ll communicate — “The Radiator Hums”

6. Split Lip – Fate’s Got A Driver

Split Lip, the original name of Chamberlain, came rumbling into town with Avail, Samuel, and Slapstick for a show at the Pomp Room and ended up leaving a mark on many of my friends. When Fate’s Got A Driver came out, Split Lip was only a few years away from changing into the alt-country band they currently are. Still, this sounds like the same band, and it’s songs never really stuck with me until, again, Marshall entered my life and I needed something powerful and emotional to listen to. It’s hard to imagine that a CD with such perfect vocalizing would need to be redone, but when this was released under the Chamberlain name, exactly that happened. I still like the original, and it’s better, by far, than the reissue.

I’m the one who reached for love and missed/Can you come down to me/I’ll be waiting with that same look on my face — “Five Year Diary”

5. Jets To Brazil – Orange Rhyming Dictionary

I first heard Jets To Brazil at the 500 Club in Minneapolis, where they were opening for The Promise Ring. I knew that Blake was starting a new band, but I never imagined that they would be so different from anything I’d expect – first of all, Blake sounded, well, happy. That was unnerving enough, but to add to it, they had a distinct New Wave sound that was a fresh and welcome change from the usual multi-chord emo stuff that I had been imbibing at the time, and, thanks to a recorded copy of this album, I grew to love Blake’s new attitude.

They’re playing love songs on your radio tonight/I don’t get those songs on mine — “I Typed For Miles”

4. Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary

This was my first favorite album. It’s still high on the list because of it’s influence on much of what I still listen to today – this was the first non-mainstream album I ever liked, and it was the first album of the emo persuasion to catch my ear. Really, though, this wasn’t much of an emo album – it was straightforward rock in the Nirvana vein (soft-loud-soft dynamics, indistinguishable lyrics, on Sub Pop) except it was melodious, where Nirvana was almost punk in nature. At times it seemed very deep, and at times it seemed very complex, and it truly was the album that changed the way I listened to music. This album, actually, flowed seamlessly into the next (#3) in my transformation from Bad Religion/Offspring fan to Sensitive Wuss Rock boy.

Although you hit me hard I come back — “Song About An Angel”

3. Texas Is The Reason – Do You Know Who You Are?

And speaking of which — Texas Is The Reason, and this album most specifically, switched my mind frame from punk-rock and it’s friends to emo every day all the time. And, much like Sunny Day Real Estate’s Diary, it’s not really much of an emo album – Do You Know Who You Are is rock and roll with some sensitive whiney guy singing. I guess this was called “Post-punk,” a moniker I never really understood aside from the members being former punk/hardcore band members who wanted to sing instead of scream. I remember getting this album just a few weeks before TITR came to town (they were supposed to open for Sense Field – they didn’t) and listening to it religiously, as if the meaning of life was somehow hidden in the lyrics to “Back and to the Left.” It still ranks as the best Revelation Records album (and there were a lot of good ones,) and it’s an album that still graces my rotation quite often.

This town was built on miles of hope/And I dare you to give one reason to stay/And maybe I won’t go away — “Back and to the Left”

2. Jawbreaker – Dear You

So Jawbreaker sold out. Well, I’m the better for it, I guess, because this was the only Jawbreaker album that I ever liked to any extent (I enjoyed the other ones, but never listened to them extensively.) I have always felt that Dear You has the best song lyrics of any album I’ve ever owned, and that’s a pretty big feat. Blake Schwarzenbach was at his songwriting peak at this point, and due to a throat surgery, couldn’t be scratchy and punk anymore, so out came this, a major label debut with (gasp!) singing. It’s been continuously in my CD player for the last eight years, and will forever be an album that I measure all the new stuff against.

You are your worst revenge/Your very means, they have no ends/This is a story you won’t tell the kids we’ll never have — “Sluttering”

1. Modest Mouse – The Moon And Antarctica

Here it is! Number one! And, while it’s not a golden oldie at all, it’s certainly the best CD I’ve ever come in contact with and the album that means the most to me out of all of the albums I’ve ever heard. M&A is, in my eyes, the perfect album – It’s hauntingly beautiful at points, trashy and unbridled during others, and the overall product is more than the sum of the individual songs. It’s about as perfect as music gets. Every song is tinged with loneliness, an expansive void, and the lyrics spell out, in parts, life as a destitute idea, the questions of afterlife, and the anger in holding on. When you get tired of the spacey parts, you get “Wild Pack of Family Dogs.” When you get tired of the heavy stuff, you get “Paper Thin Walls.” When you get tired of the album, it abruptly spits out “What People Are Made Of,” a song that leaves you stunned just long enough for the album to start over again. It’s an album with atmosphere, with what seems like twenty different layers, and it’s an album that has always made me think a little harder about life and death. It is, simply, my favorite album of all time. Number one with a bullet.

I’m sure you’ll tell me you got nothin’ to say/But our voices shook hands the other day/If you can’t see the thin air then what the hells in your way? — “Dark Center of the Universe”

Tags: Music, The Top... |

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20-11

March 28, 2005


20. Mineral – The Power Of Failing

These guys tried as hard as they could to be Sunny Day Real Estate, and they pulled it off pretty well, with the soft/loud combinations and heart wrenching lyrics poured out by their wailing singer. Mineral, who broke up after only two albums, stuck with me well during my first years at Marshall, mainly due to their songs about loneliness (because I was a lonely guy in Marshall) – songs that, in the typical emo-kid way, I thought were all written about me in my “woe is me” way. The songs still hold up well today.

It’s just not the same when you’re staring/Into a perfect golden sunset/And thinking about how you sold your soul/To send the rain away — “Slower”

19. Elliott Smith – X/O

This was the first Elliott Smith album I ever owned, purchased shortly after I discovered how cool it was to like Elliott’s music. The thing is, I never really expected to continue with my adoration – I thought it would just be a nice addition to my music collection… some newer acoustic ballads to place next to the emo stuff I’d been raising myself on. In reality, this album (which was put out in the midst of his Academy Award nomination hype) helped wean me from the “usual” stuff I was listening to and forced me to look at other genres of music, for once.

Waiting for sedation to disconnect my head/Or any situation where i’m better off then dead — “Sweet Adeline”

18. Coldplay – Parachutes

The top Brit-pop album on the list. Coldplay made Brit-pop cool for the indie rockers, and brought a new form of British Invasion to the states, when Parachutes came out. This was a reminder of all things England to me – it came out mere months after my return from the Mother Land, and therefore, became my favorite album to reminisce with. For some reason, Parachutes seems more “real” to me than the widely praised Rush Of Blood To The Head, I suspect because it’s not as well produced and a little rawer. Me likey the accent too.

We never change do we/We never learn do we — “We Never Change”

17. Built To Spill – Perfect From Now On

Well, when I started to listen to all things Modest Mouse, it was only a matter of time until I began following Built To Spill, and this was the first album I did that with. It’s a little more sprawling than their other albums, capturing their more jam-band side very effectively. Perfect was one of those rare albums that actually got better the more I listened to it – it seemed every few months I would come back to it and find a song that I had always ignored, play it constantly for weeks, and then continue the cycle again a few months later.

I can’t get that sound you make out of my head/I can’t even figure out what’s making it — “I Would Hurt A Fly”

16. The Get Up Kids – Woodson

The Get Up Kids – emo princesses at their finest. Woodson suffers from the same thing that the Texas Is The Reason EP does – too short to be continually worthwhile. Despite the fact that all of the songs are great – in fact, these four could very well be their four best songs – it never really garnered as much play as the full length follow up because, well, who wants to play such a short CD when you’re going to have to change it in 15 minutes again anyway? I guess that’s the breaks for me, and one of the main reasons 7” records never became a big deal to me.

These bridges and boundaries are bringing me closer to you — “A Newfound Interest In Massachusetts”

15. Sunny Day Real Estate – LP2

I remember that a few days before this CD was supposed to come out, my friend Aaron and I went to Disk Jockey in the Empire Mall (the little one that was in the spot where that sports store is now) and found it, mistakenly, on the shelf – three days before it’s release date. Hooray! It’s all pink, and it never really had a real name, and it’s one of the better follow up albums I’ve ever heard. Diary ruled my life during this time, and LP2 was a great CD to have at a time when I thought Sunny Day would be my favorite band for the rest of my life. Oh, and it’s pink.

Was it you I saw under the moon — “Rodeo Jones”

14. The Promise Ring – Nothing Feels Good

Nothing Feels Good propelled The Promise Ring into near stardom, and it really signaled the peak of Davey and Co. From here on out, the band became almost a parody of itself (Very Emergency) on it’s way into becoming something completely different (Wood/Water). Still, Nothing Feels Good is the exact opposite of what it’s title suggests – everything feels good when listening to this, the peppiest rock album ever disguised as “emo.” You can’t help but hum the lyrics in your head for days after listening to it.

I’m proud of my genius just like a painter/And dumb like a poet I think — “Forget Me”

13. Radiohead – OK Computer

Typically, a top album countdown such as this would have put OK Computer, a CD that’s widely considered to be the best ever, at number one, two, and three. Unfortunately, while I agree that it’s an amazing album, it hasn’t had as much of an impact on my life as the next twelve. I bought this in Marshall the first day I saw the video for “Paranoid Android,” and really, I’ve never looked back – ruining one copy and having to burn a new one to put in the original packaging. It was one of my first jaunts outside of the emo-shell I had built around myself for my first year of college. It also has the best set of music videos of any album I’ve ever known.

The head of state has called for me by name/But I don’t have time for him — “Lucky”

12. Weezer – Pinkerton

This wasn’t just a Weezer album. This was Pinkerton – a dark album based loosely on Madame Butterfly and, most importantly, the most grown-up music Rivers Cuomo ever wrote. Apparently, he hates this stuff now, but I, as well as many other Weezer fans, wouldn’t be such without this. You can take the two self titled albums all you want; this is when Weezer was good. And while it’s the least radio friendly Weezer content, it’s also the most honest and tortured. Really, who wants to hear a different version of Buddy Holly twelve times on an album, when you could hear twelve different versions of River’s obsession with some Asian girl at college?

I like you way too much/My baby, I’m afraid I’m falling for you — “Falling For You”

11. Ween – The Mollusk

The Mollusk is nautical – it was taped near the sea to give the full effect – and it’s the best and most diverted album Ween has. Most fans will mention Chocolate and Cheese or Pure Guava when they talk about the “Best Ween Album,” but it really doesn’t get much better than the first Ween I ever owned – first heard while making sandwiches at Erberts and Gerberts and blasting it’s way up my chart every year since. I think it’s the sea chantey feel of every song (even the country and Irish ones) that gives it an almost “concept album” vibe. Also, “The Blarney Stone” is the perfect “get drunk and fight” song.

If I don’t get some fresh bread soon/Gonna punch you in your face and bark at the moon — “The Blarney Stone”

Tags: Music, The Top... |

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30-21

March 27, 2005


30. Alkaline Trio – Maybe I’ll Catch Fire

While Goddamnit was the first place I heard Alkaline Trio, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire was the album that kept my interest the best. It’s fun, it’s catchy, and it’s good. This album reminds me most of mowing lawns – it was at it’s peak in my rotation when I worked for the St. Cloud Parks Department, and was a permanent fixture in my mini-disk player during that time.

I’ve got a big fat fuckin’ bone to pick with you my darling — “Radio”

29. Ben Folds Five – s/t

Forever and Ever Amen was the album that hooked everyone on Ben Folds, but their first full-length album was actually the best one, and if you ask most hardcore Folds fans, it’s the one that really defines the band. Still, either way, Ben Folds made a living on being both self-deprecating and sappy at the same time, which this album really hits rather well. “Philosophy” is still a standard at his solo concerts, and is, in my opinion, his best work.

It’s really not that you can’t see the forest for the trees/You never been out in the woods alone – “Philosophy”

28. Less Than Jake – Losing Streak

Ska! Ha! Okay, I admit. I did, at one point, go through an ill-advised “ska” period in my life, but I did it very poorly. I never really caught on well with the genre, and aside from Less Than Jake and The Suicide Machines, I wasn’t really a fan at all. Still, Losing Streak could be the best ska album ever made. Much like The Decline has everything I liked about NOFX in one album, Losing Streak captures everything I liked about the ska-punk bands. I managed to get into a Less Than Jake show for free at First Ave in Minneapolis simply by having my friend Nick hook me up with Roger’s backstage pass. I think it was Roger. I can’t tell those guys apart, honestly.

So with one hand on the wheel and the other out the window/With a smile on my face and my middle finger up — “Rock-N-Roll Pizzaria”

27. The Blacktop Cadence – Chemistry For Changing Times

When Hot Water Music brings strings into their music, this is roughly what you get. Chemistry was members of Hot Water Music making more emo-friendly music. Add a haunting female voice and some orchestral type sounds, and you’ve got a beautiful album that’s a far cry from the mile-a-minute punk that Hot Water Music spits out. This was a very hard item to get a hold of for a few years, and I felt pretty special to have one of the original copies of a CD that everyone always seemed to be looking for. It’s since been re-released (in shinier packaging…ugh) and it’s still a great listen.

She said that she’d work/But what is she working on/When I’m as useless as a broken guitar string? — “Last Night…After I Bought The Wine”

26. Ugly Cassanova – Sharpen Your Teeth

The story behind Ugly Cassanova is such (taken straight from their website): “The first time any one seemed to care that Edgar Graham (a.k.a. Ugly Casanova) existed was in the summer of 1998, when he impressed himself upon the members of Modest Mouse while backstage at a Denver show. Casanova began to share some rough songs with the trio and…by the end of Modest Mouse’s tour, Casanova, with much reluctance, was persuaded to record some of these songs and hand them over to record labels for issue as singles or parts of compilations. Predictably, immediately after he had done so, he disappeared.” I, personally, think this is bullshit, but I still love this album. It’s pretty obvious that Isaac Brock wrote this stuff, and, again, Brock’s brilliance strikes gold.

We clung on like barnacles on a boat/Even though the ship sinks, you know you can’t let go – “Barnacles”

25. Braid – Frame & Canvas

I bought this album the same day as Avail’s Over The James. Unfortunately, I never really listened to the Avail disk, shoving it further and further back in my collection, choosing instead to memorize and fall in love with the Braid album. In fact, we may be able to deduce that this album drove Avail from my life all together. Personally, I don’t mind – this is the greatest Braid ever got, and the album had some of the best KSSU radio hits I ever played.

Nineteen ninety eight looked great on plain white paper on the fiftieth plane to Champaign – “The New Nathan Detroits”

24. Texas Is The Reason – s/t

If it wasn’t for this being a short EP, only three songs long, it would have cemented itself in the top ten next to it’s full length follow up Do You Know Who You Are? Basically, Texas Is The Reason entered my life because of Eric – I believe Terry Taylor may have suggested the EP to him for a Christmas present because of my undying love, at the time, for Sunny Day Real Estate. The bands sound similar at first listen, but one realizes eventually that Texas is far better at making rock songs sans the preening emo vocals. All three songs are classics.

You act like i don’t know my own way home — “Antique”

23. Cursive – The Ugly Organ

A newer entry, The Ugly Organ took art-music to another level. Much like Domestica, The Ugly Organ is a inward looking concept album, this time crafted more as a play than as a documentary. It’s awkward at times, but it’s as powerful as Cursive gets, and is as chock full of heartbreak and self-loathing as anything Tim Kasher has ever written. This is, reportedly, his “getting even with the ex-wife” album, a “grudge-fucking” compilation, according to All Music Guide. It’s an angry enough album to possibly be true.

I’ll never know who you are, and I don’t deserve to/My little girl, we would’ve been so… oh, nevermind — “Sierra”

22. The Impossibles – Return

After overplaying Weezer for a few months, I looked for something new to fill the gap. The rumored new Weezer album (which became the Green Album) was nowhere to be seen, so when I heard this Impossibles album, an album that was a far cry from their previous ska-punk existence, I latched onto it with both sets of claws. This was, to me, the new Weezer album, though truthfully, It’s better than anything Weezer put out (with the exception of Pinkerton.) And while I hate to base my review of such a great album around a washed up band, I’ll always remember the people who would come into Software Etc. when it would be playing and ask “Is this the new Weezer album?”

Tested our limits/Pushed so hard that we broke in two/And you are broken to this day — “Enter/Return”

21. Hot Water Music – Fuel For The Hate Game

This was another Christmas gift from Eric, and was the first Hot Water Music album I ever owned. Fuel For The Hate Game came shortly before what I consider their peak (Forever and Counting) and actually came out only a few months before Forever, if my memory serves me right. I remember surfing around online in Yahoo Chat when I went to school in Marshall and running into someone with the screen name of “WaterMusicHot.” I was quoting HWM lyrics, and he was finishing them up. He IM’d me, and I asked who he was, and he said he was Jason, of the band itself. I looked up the screen name and the profile, and the name wasn’t the same. “It says your name is Chuck!” I said. Duh. It was Chuck’s account.

You’re forgetting why we’re here/And what we’re fighting for/And who’s listening — “Drunken Third”

Tags: Music, The Top... |

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The opposite of Friday

March 26, 2005


In contrast to last weeks Friday rant; I’m putting up three things that I love about THIS Friday.

1. Indiana Pacers. Detroit Pistons. First time Indiana shows their face in the Palace since the melee.

First off, some moron (I know, that’s unbelievable in Detroit) calls in a bomb threat. “There’s a bomb in the Pacers locker room.” This holds up the game for an hour and a half. And you wonder why these fans are so hated? It was enough to make me want to jump into the crowd and… well… you know.

Aside: I read a great joke in Sports Illustrated today in regards to the amount of snow Steve Rushin has seen this year: “What does my driveway have in common with your average Detroit Pistons season-ticket holder? Both will get plowed 41 times this winter.” *rimshot!*

Back to the game. The Pistons – still a championship contender – with all their roster, managed to lose… LOSE!… by 13 to the Pacers, who are without their two best players (Ron Artest, Jermaine O’Neal). BWAHAHAHA! THAT made my night!

And now, get this. My hapless Pacers are currently in 7th place in the East. The Pistons are in 2nd. Yes, we’ll probably have a Pistons vs. Pacers first round match up. And, if trends continue, the road team will win every game. Pacers in 7! (only to be trounced by the Wizards in the next round, I’m sure.)

2. Yum, I like food.

Kerrie may be the best cook I’ve ever known (sorry Mom!). Good food tonight for dinner (I guess my sister-in-law Jess helped too, but whatever) – I’m not sure what it was exactly, but it was some combination of yams, tofu, beets – sounds gross but was actually very good.

The only bad thing about coming home to a great dinner is that when I go back to work, 50% of the time I smell like dinner. And since dinner includes either onions or heavy spice, I smell like body odor. Ask Chris. He told me so. But, I guess, the price I pay for delicious food from a wonderful cook is welcome.

3. Duke lost. Take that, Brandon!

————————————–

I also feel productive because I ranted, rather intelligently, I believe, about one of the stupidest arguments ever – why you shouldn’t like video game system A and you should worship video game system B. After working in the video game business for 7 years (Best Buy for about four and a half, Software Etc/FuncoLand for two and a half) I became rather calloused to that discussion, which I heard at least three times a day.

If you check out the link, remember that this is from my basketball simulation league. I’m (obviously) the Pacers. The Orlando Magic is my friend John, and the Warriors is his brother, Pete. Both are Nintendo apologists.

————————————–
Bobby Fischer. This guy, one of the weirdest anti-authoritarianism figures in the world – dorky Chess player who becomes a counter culture hero — is in the news again. Here’s what I know about him. He hates the United States, though I would to if I was charged for playing chess in Iceland against a Yugoslavian player during the cold war – he could face a ten year prison sentence for… well… I’m not sure. He’s an Anti-Semite, much like the guy from A Beautiful Mind, except they never made a movie about Fischer. Actually, I guess they did make a movie about Bobby Fischer.

I’ve just seen an interview with Fischer, an interview where he says he hates Jews and doesn’t want to be considered a Jew, and I have come to the conclusion that I loathe Bobby Fischer. That guy can eat an ass. I don’t think he should be forced to exile, but I sure don’t feel sorry for anything he gets himself involved in.

Ugh.

And that, my friends, is stream of consciousness writing.

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Random, Random Links |

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25000

March 24, 2005


Reggie - 25000 - HOF

Jerry West.
John Havlicek.
Oscar Robertson.
Reggie Miller.

Yesterday, in a win over the NBA Finals hopeful San Antonio Spurs, Reggie Miller became just the 13th player in NBA history to score 25,000 points. This puts him in a rare class – a group that includes Kareem, Jordan, Wilt, Hakeem, Domanique, and Malone (both Karl and Moses) – and cements him as a NBA Hall of Fame player.

So why is it that so many people downplay what he’s done?

Reggie Miller has scored more points with the same team than everyone in NBA history, aside from John Havlicek (with the Celtics) and Jerry West (with the Lakers). He needs only 179 points to pass Jerry West, and just 1,392 points to pass Havlicek. This is something that, in today’s big money league of little loyalty, will probably never be done again. In fact, the only two players I could see getting close to doing this are Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, and both play power forward, a physical position that may very well shorten their careers before they reach the milestone. On top of this, Miller has played more years with the same team than almost anyone else in NBA history, trailing only John Stockton.

Aside from Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller is considered the best clutch player in NBA history. Without a stat to quantify this (like baseball, which has stats like “average with runners in scoring position” and “hits after the 7th inning”) basketball players can really only rely on what people remember, and Miller has ended more games with a clutch three pointer than Knicks fans would care to count. He is, simply put the second best clutch shooter in history, and the best from behind the arc.

Reggie was the best, and was at his best, when he was getting into other players heads. This is where many basketball fans develop their disdain for the turtle-shaped head Miller. According to Sam Smith in an article that I pilfered heavily (and could be the best way to sum up Reggie Miller’s career), the Reggie Miller that everyone knows…

mugs with Spike Lee and so frustrated John Starks he attempted to strangle Miller. He even drove Michael Jordan to perhaps his weakest moment as a pro when he raked his fingernails across Miller’s face in an apparent attempt to disfigure him.

And…

once spit into the crowd, has bowed to all four sides of a visiting arena after a game winning shots, got up loudly cursing Shaquille O’Neal after a collision and dared O’Neal to hit him harder.

This is the same player who, after the greatest 8.9 seconds in basketball (where Reggie buried a three-point shot, stole the inbounds pass, walked back behind the arc and buried another three-point shot, then followed up with two free throws to end up with eight points in the final seconds) went on the David Letterman show and showed everyone in the audience (which was, predictably, compiled of Knicks fans) the choke sign. You hated him on the court. Like you’re supposed to hate your opponent. And he used that to his advantage.

But, most of all, aside from how he conducts himself on the court, Reggie Miller is one of the best examples of a kind, thoughtful superstar – the kind of basketball legend that hasn’t let his legend go to his head. Reggie Miller has hung on years after his prime to coach and tutor the Indiana Pacers’ young stars – players like Ron Artest, Jermaine O’Neal, Al Harrington (now with Atlanta) and Jonathan Bender. Reggie Miller keeps his promises, like when he found himself with conflict, yet still chartered a plane to be with a bench guy who never played because he had promised. That bench guy? Fred Hoiberg. Reggie Miller calls schools to ask if he can come in and sign autographs, to counsel the kids. Reggie Miller is an elder statesman that makes the league proud, for once, instead of acting spoiled and full of himself.

Reggie Miller, for five years, wore braces on his legs while watching his sister, Cheryl, become a Hall of Fame basketball player, because he couldn’t walk correctly with pronated hips. He’s never been the best player at his position – let alone in basketball (his prime was during the time of Clyde Drexler, Michael Jordan, and Joe Dumars) but he is the best clutch shooter of his time.

Reggie Miller is a Hall of Famer. Reggie Miller, the face of the Indiana Pacers franchise for nearly 20 years, is everything that you hate in an opponent, and everything you love in a teammate.

Reggie Miller is a superstar, even today. And Reggie Miller is better than most people ever give him credit for.

Reggie Miller, Michael Jordan

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

15 Comments

OMG! WTF! BBQ!

March 23, 2005


OMG!

It’s a lazy day for me today – Yesterday I spent most of my time worrying about what my hair would look like cropped short, and as you can see above, it’s quite a change. I’ll admit that I was a little freaked out in the chair, but Connie, who has cut hair for many years, took no time at all and made it look normal, thankfully, and I think I might even like it.

Now I just have to deal with the “OH MY GOD YOU GOT YOUR HAIRCUT” mess tomorrow at work. I’m not looking forward to it – I never wanted it to be a big deal, though it was no doubt going to be. When you don’t cut your hair for 10 or more years, cutting it is a big deal. It’s actually a pretty big deal.

Today at Something Awful (a website that every week has something called Photoshop Phriday, a forum for people to send in hilarious Photoshop creations based on a certain theme) there is a series of mock Make Poverty History posters. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an original orange Make Poverty History image (these are from Canada, hence the .ca suffix on many of them), but I am happy to throw these parodies up for your viewing pleasure.

If you want to see more, go here for part one, and here for part two.

Hulk Hogan
Ron Artest
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Contra
Duck Tales
The Big Lebowski
Futurama
Super Mario Kart
Office Space

Tags: Random Links, Vilhauer |

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