Bracketologists Unite!
Art courtesy of Joe Zeff
Buzzer beaters always make quite the big racket
in March Madness when they blow up your bracket;
and not every great coach is the fella
who saves a top seed from Cinderella.
So pick 'em, swami, let's see if you can hack it.
the whole shebang in a nutshell
film criticism, 'pomes,' and reportage on our pop culture mosaic, as well as tales and memoir fragments from one who is sometimes stuck in the 1970s
Monday, March 13, 2017
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Monday, November 30, 2015
sound and fury
In Act V, Scene V, of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," the title character waxes philosophical about life. These days the metaphor strikes me as an apt description of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.
...a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
...a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
A Lord of Barmbeck
I got Johannes Brahms in the earbuds.
I am listening to Ein Deutsches
Requiem in honor of the passing of another famous son of Brahms’
own Hansa City Hamburg, former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who died at his home there yesterday.
Schmidt, who graduated from the University of
Hamburg, where I studied in 1975, will be laid to rest at his family grave in Ohlsdorf Friedhof, a sprawling cemetery in a northern burb of that great city, steps
from the college dorm where I lived for one semester, and where the little
girls would periodically accost strangers on the sidewalks in front of those
great cemetery gates shaking tin coffers and requesting donations for the upkeep
of soldiers’ graves therein.
Each side has its veterans. As a young man, it struck me as grotesque that such cute, innocent blonde children
should be begging in the name of dead Nazis. I was a Germanophile who harbored a deep
hatred of nazism. I had no qualms in refusing to donate, even waxing
chauvinistic.
Of course, Schmidt fought in WWII on the side of the Nazis. Late in life he minced no words, describing the war as shit – Scheisse – conceding only that the experience taught one not to panic.
Schmidt turned to Social Democracy postwar and came to West German national prominence when, as a senator in the Hamburg government, he coped efficiently with the disastrous flooding of that Elbe River city-state 1962.
Schmidt led
West Germany during much of the era when I lived in Europe. Generously, he used to tutor our President Ford in
economics.
In the 1980s, Schmidt joined
Die Zeit as a co-publisher, the great weekly intellectual newspaper published
in Hamburg. For a brief moment in the mid-80s – a cup of coffee, in MLB terms – I struggled to
contribute journalism to that publication. It made me exceedingly proud to have
even the most tenuous common cause with Schmidt.
I may just light up a cigarette in honor of Helmut
Schmidt today. Hummel Hummel!
Monday, November 2, 2015
Your Head is Full of Clay
Elegy for an
angry old woman
Your
hatred’s source, Mary Lee,
is, of course, a mystery to me.
You
demand the champ's given name
forever remain the same.
In
your hate-filled world,
is
it the racist flag you unfurl?
“Cassius
Clay,” you say,
must
forever stay.
You
would strip “Ali” of all validity.
Or
is it Islam you would deny,
when
Mohammed you decry?
I
say a person has the right to name their name.
Deny
this, and you deny the freedom to become.
You
would enslave, according to your lights.
But
men and women will always fight those fights.
Anyway
your lights are dim.
Since
you cannot enslave, you choose to ooze hatred,
and
ultimately must be frustrated.
Across
the bar, perhaps in your cups,
you
shout at me rapid-fire,
“fuck
you fuck you fuck you fuck you.”
Your
rationality has reached its premature end.
Know
this, mean Miss Mary Lee,
denier
of Mohammed Ali,
that
Louisville slugger is a real champeen,
Finally,
a koan for thee:
By
what name would you call
his
daughter, Laila Ali?
Friday, October 30, 2015
Ya Gotta Believe
If my prediction is to come true (see post below), the NY Mets need to start getting W's tonight. As for Yoenis, he needs to live up to his nickname La Potencia.
In general, I hope young Syndergaard can hold his own versus these KC brutes and thus avoid the headlines that tabloid editors are just waiting to splash on their backpage:
THOR GETS HAMMERED! or ROYALS HAMMER THOR!
In general, I hope young Syndergaard can hold his own versus these KC brutes and thus avoid the headlines that tabloid editors are just waiting to splash on their backpage:
THOR GETS HAMMERED! or ROYALS HAMMER THOR!
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Let's Go Mets!
"Ya gotta believe." Tug McGraw said it and fans of the New York Metropolitans have taken it to heart ever since.
This year the Orange and Blue have a starting rotation of young arms that makes fans truly believe the world championship is attainable.
The starting pitching is reminiscent of the last time the Mets won a World Series: 1986. And if you remember that back-in-the-day drama v. Boston, I'm sure you're getting ready for a wild ride.
Prediction: Mets win in 6. Cespedes is MVP.
Good luck all.
.
This year the Orange and Blue have a starting rotation of young arms that makes fans truly believe the world championship is attainable.
The starting pitching is reminiscent of the last time the Mets won a World Series: 1986. And if you remember that back-in-the-day drama v. Boston, I'm sure you're getting ready for a wild ride.
Prediction: Mets win in 6. Cespedes is MVP.
Good luck all.
.
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