(Not so) Quick Knicks Note

With my dad coming from up-state New York, and me growing up in Sacramento, as far as basketball was concerned, I considered myself a New York Knicks fan first, and a Sacramento Kings fan second. Well, early in my life, I'm sure I rooted for Magic Johnson and the Lakers more than I ever rooted for the Kings. But that changed somewhere in high-school, probably around the same time the Kings actually got decent.

Anyway, having lived in the City for the past three-and-a-half years means that, as a self-purported Knicks fan, I've been able to watch first hand the incompetence of the Isaiah Thomas era and the running-aground style of ownership of Jim Dolan. The Knicks have been a collection of bad trades, poor drafting, and lackadaisical execution for a while, and while I'm not as hardcore as some Knicks fans (the NBA doesn't rank that high on my list of things-I-like), it's been tough to pay attention to.

Of course, last year they booted Isaiah, brought in Donnie Walsh, hired coach Mike D'Antoni, and he installed his up-tempo offense that players seem to love. While D'Antoni had lots of success with Steve Nash in Phoenix, those Suns teams never made the finals because, it seems to me and some local NBA-covering reporters, those teams never contorted themselves into defensive units. So what did we have last year in the Garden? High tempo offense...32 wins instead of 28...and almost no emphasis on defense.

Eddy Curry, a mountain of a man and an Isaiah import (bust), touted by the I-man as the next Shaq, played all of 14 minutes last season. Really though, he had a stomach flu that made it hard for him to get in proper shape, and his daughter was murdered in Chicago, which obviously is a tragedy, and one from which that it'd be understandable to want to take some time off. David Lee, a white-kid forward and rebound specialist, is a great young player--he ranked all season in the top-ten in rebound average--and he wasn't even a starter. Explain that to me.

Now, I saw in the paper today something that boggles the mind and cracks me up, like in May when the papers are worried about how many games the Yankees are behind in the Wild Card standings...in May...well, this season for the Knicks has been rendered basically meaningless, as all eyes are looking forward to July 1st of next year. That's the day LeBron James could become a free-agent by opting out of his contract. He could become a free-agent, which means he could sign with the Knicks, which would make the Knicks relevant again...

Whether he wants to sign with the Knicks...whether he wants to leave Ohio and Cleveland, where he is treated as a god first, a king second, and a governor third is another question...

There is a graphic in the paper today saying "Only 274 more days until LeBron could be a free-agent"...and that's how the Knicks season is going, and will be branded throughout the NY media all year...let's just wait for the free-agent class of 2010. LeBron is dream candidate number One, Dwayne Wade is dream candidate number Two, then a toss-up between Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudamire...

New York teams don't rebuild (maybe the Jets and the Nets, over in east Rutherford, are allowed to rebuild), they just restock, and the Knicks have a tough road ahead, made even tougher by the fact they refuse, and have refused the past four or so years, to admit that "rebuilding" is what is necessary. So, we wait until next July, with a pesky season to play in between.

Happy Birthday Marc!

My good friend, old roommate, and current dairy-shill partner Marc celebrates his twenty-third birthday today. Or at least that's what we're telling people. He says the specks of gray in his hair have been there since junior-high.

Marc has the distinction of being the gentleman who introduced Corrie to me, or me to Corrie (probably both or fine and accurate), and we'll never forget it--mainly because he'll never let us. I kid, of course, as he's ever gracious about his match-making abilities, as Corrie and I aren't the first or the last couple he's set up.

Happy Day Marc! Thanks for everything, and congrats on the new Deal!

"Who is this '80% of America' anyway?"

The line above sounds strange, and it should, grammatically at least.

Another line from the source material is "If my son falls off his bike and breaks his arm, he should have to pay for that...out of his allowance."

That's followed by this gem "How else is he going to learn not to fall of his bike?"

Backyard zoos with white tigers and pygmy horses...how dare us want to take that away from health insurance CEOs...

It'll make more sense once you see this video.

Mike Fights for the Worker

My cousin Mike, last time we spoke a few weeks ago, told me about one of the demonstrations that his union was organizing against the hotel chain Hyatt. Hyatt has recently cut almost a hundred people from the house-keeping unit from their Boston hotel, and replaced them with house-keepers at nearly half the wages and no health benefits. "Bring Back the Hyatt 100" was the name of the organization as well as an obvious mantra.

Gov. Patrick of Massachusetts supports the Hyatt 100, and has called for a possible boycott of the Hyatt chain aimed at getting these workers back to work.

The demonstration Mike was telling me about had their activists getting a large group together to go to Chicago, where the Park Hyatt is the scene for negotiations, and in an act if non-violent civil-disobedience, getting arrested for the day. This was a tricky thing, he was telling me, because while the younger people in the group were all for it--getting arrested--some of the older church-going grandmotherly aged ladies had to be persuaded, but eventually some of them even joined in.

It made some of the news outlets...here are some links: New York Times, Chicago Ttibune, and the Boston Globe.

Toys from Childhood

My brother sent me an email in which he said that boredom and computers create strange discoveries, and he sent me a few links that had my brain unearthing nuggets of deep memories that had been long since covered up.

The first link was for Battle Beasts, and while the name rung a bell, and the three elements (wood, water, fire) also struck a visual note, it took actually seeing the little action figures to make me truly remember what they were. The Battle Beasts were a series of maybe two-inch animals that were decked out with futuristic knee-and shoulder-pads, and each had a heat-activated sticker on their chests that told you what their element was in the grand scheme of rauchambeau.

The second link was for Captain Power, another bell ringing name, but less so. After perusing the page, I still had little memory of the action-figure series...the description of the series--an interactive animated show where kids at home could shoot a NES-like light gun at the screen during battle scenes--didn't jog my memory, as I don't remember doing anything like that. After clicking on the link for a picture of the toy, I remembered. It all fell into place. A memory of waiting for a double pie at Little Caesar's Pizza with my Captain Power action figure claiming a back counter, rappelling down an invisible rope, and then blasting the (unseen) badguys came rushing up to the front of my neo-cortex, and my Sunday afternoon with no television to watch the Yankees clinch, the Giants rout the Bucs, or the Jets womp the Titans, was totally complete with a stroll down memory lane.

Thanks, Dan.

Governor's Island: Some Other Sights

From Governor's Island one can get a good view of some landmarks, or at least one landmark and some views of Lower Manhattan and across the Hudson to Jersey City. Here's Lady Liberty...

Lower Manhattan...

Jersey City...

Here's Corrie taking a shot of me with the bridges in the background. Brooklyn Bridge is the closest, then the Manhattan Bridge, then farther down is the Williamsburg Bridge...maybe only with the zooming feature of clicking on the picture will you be able to see any of that.

I hadn't really planned on making four separate entries about Governor's Island, but after looking at the pictures I wanted to post, it seemed like a series of short posts could accommodate my desire to churn out tiny nuggets of observation, while keeping it short and sweet.

Governor's Island: A Panopticon Among Us

A Panopticon is a circular prison design, originally devised by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham, where the cells are constructed in a circular fashion with a central tower being able to see inside each cell easily and down upon the "yard" while the inmates are exercising. The design has been used historically throughout Europe and occasionally here in the US.

Castle Williams, on Governor's Island, is basically a Panopticon, but with no central tower. Corrie and I were among the last visitors allowed through the gates this past Sunday, as it was closing for the day. Here are some pictures.

The fact that it was in use up until the 1960s explains the presence of the glass over the bars. From the outside, the winnowed window fixtures are quite striking, and I had Corrie jump up into it and have a seat to show some scale.

Walking around inside was not quite as eerie as walking around Alcatraz, but there definitely were some vibes and bad energy in the space.