Best and Worst of 2008

After a little thought about this past year that is leaving us I thought it would be good to write a Best and Worst list of 2008 in a number of areas. 2008 saw extremes of good and bad in many categories so I thought I would put my mind to it and give some examples of what happened this year that made me go WHOA!!

Best Moment 2008 –
By far the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the night of November 4th, 2008 will live in history for a number of reason. Not just because he is the first African-American president, but because he showed that if you are smart, work hard and stay out of trouble you can do whatever you want. In looking at the history of the past 100 years of Presidents I cannot think of anyone who has been elected who came from less. This is a man who grew up to an 18 year old single mother who had no money, status or connections. Despite a time of hanging with the wrong crowd and doing drugs, he managed to graduate from an Ivy League school – Colombia University and then go on to an Ivy League graduated school – Harvard Law School. The true American dream as the son of an immigrant from Kenya and a mid-western woman. Having only served in US Government for 2 years and state government for 7 years before running for office it is true his experience might have seemed lacking but the people of America believed in him. It was not a black thing, as he manged to get more percentage of the votes in ALMOST EVERY CATEGORY over the last democratic candidate John Kerry did in 2004. It was only the 65+ year old White people who favored Kerry. And for those folks I have a giant F U, most of yall probably still think Black people should use different water fountains, ride in the back of the bus and not be allowed into public swimming pools.

Anyway as good as the night of November 4th, 2008 was, so will be the morning of January 20th, 2009 when Barack Hussein Obama swears to protect and serve the constitution of the United States on a bible used by Abraham Lincoln.




2008 Best Book - Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman


In the year that oil prices shot past $100 and up to almost $150 and then crashed with the rest of the global economy down to $35, Thomas Friedman wrote a book talking about how American can re-invent itself as an industrial superpower again with a Green revolution. Thankfully Friedman knows a bit about the subject writing back in 2005 The World is Flat, which if you don’t believe in that after watching one country after another following into global financial panic caused by the credit crisis well then you need to go back and read the book. We are all interconnected as a society now, so any gains that America makes in the Green Energy Technology revolution can help the whole planet that yes is getting Hot, Crowded and is already Flat. A great read for the new year, as hopefully President-Elect Obama and his awesome true freakin GENIUS Secretary of Energy nominee Stephen Chu, nobel prize winner in Physics can help lead us into a true Green Revolution and that $1.65 gasoline will not encourage people to dust off their SUVs and fill them up again.



2008 Best Music Album – Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It

Raphael is a talented cat no doubt, while his solo albums have not had the widespread success that he had as a member of Tony Tone Toni, for music lovers his stuff has hit the spot. From his “gospeldelic sound” on Instant Vintage, to his straight back to the 60s Soul revival on his current album, its always a good listen. I must say as I grow older I not as hip to all the new artists coming out, anyone who tells me that Katy Perry is a groundbreaking artists needs to either be taken out to the woodshed or just given a copy of the last stupid “I Kissed a Girl” song done by Jill Sobule and I’m sure there will be another copycat in 10 years. If you like the sound of the 60s or was not alive and wondered how the 1960’s sounded in terms of black music, check out this release. Note a great talent of the 60s Mr. Stevland Morris aka Stevie Wonder does his harmonic thing on a track, worth the price of admission alone.




2008 Best Movie – Iron Man


Ok yes I’m a comic book nerd, and if was not for my collection of Marvel’s back in the 1980’s I would not be into reading at all. While Iron Man was one of my favorite it was not my favorite book back in the day, that honor would goto Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four or the Avengers. Well 3 of those above have had movies made and were all rather disappointing in ways. Yet for the true Comic Book nerd out there IRON MAN is DA SHIT. Taking his origin as literal as possible and just changing Vietnam with Afghanistan the movie has great acting from Robert Downey Jr, great supporting cast I mean I never thought I would see a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow and LOVE IT. This movie is the best comic book movie possibly ever, and surely my favorite movie of 2008, yeah it won’t win any big-time Oscars, but hell if you didn’t enjoy this check your pulse.




2008 Best Sports Event – UEFA Champions League Final Manchester United vs Chelsea


While my soccer/football allegiances fall to Arsenal, I totally enjoyed the semi-finals and finals of the 2007-2008 Champions League final. Played in the middle of the night on a rainy wet miserable night in Moscow, the game that went to extra time and then penalties featured everything you could want. From a goal by the player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, to a stupid sending off by the moody Didier Drogba for girl slapping someone in the face. Yet it was the penalty shoot-out that would decide it all, with Mr England Captain himself John Terry with a chance for Chelsea FC to win their first ever Champions League title, well his shot was wide and then Manchester United won it. Overall a great game. Also don’t overlook the semi-final 2nd leg game between Chelsea and Liverpool that went to extra time also that was a thriller. We can only hope for 2009s games to be as good as last years.




2008 Best Technology – Apple ipod Touch 2nd generation


While I do not yet own one of these, having seen and played with one, this is all you need in your pocket. While it does not have the phone capacity, I think the whole sign you life away for 2 years to AT&T/Apple for $120 a month is sort of crazy. For everything else you might need the iPod Touch does it. With WiFi, email, browser, music, video, youtube, and access to the 3rd party apps store which then lets almost unlimited expansion. 36hrs audio playback life and 6hrs video playback, in a package that fits in your hand I must give Apple props for doing it well. I have been an anti-apple person from way back in the Apple 2e days, when my friends had those and I was given a crappy IBM PCjr in 1984. Yet I stuck to IBM, DOS, Windows operating systems forever and never been seduced by the Mac zombie crowd. Well in 2009 that probably will change when I get my first true Apple product (yeah I have own a ipod shuffle before but that does not really count now does it?)




And now onto the worst things that happened this year.

2008 Worst Event – Sub prime Crisis/Credit Crunch/Global Financial Meltdown


It can be called by so many names, but basically the economic malaise that spread from a bunch of overpriced unsold houses in California, Arizona, Florida and other states has spread around the world taking out Iceland in the process along with wrecking financial markets. We living today get the privilege to live through the first ever worldwide recession, and while much of it might be called just Fear, the reality of it is cheap money is gone. The US Government will print up as much as needed, and yet the rest of the world feels safe in knowing it’s the USA printing these dollars and not say Mexico, Brazil or Argentina. In the past financial crisis have been limited to one country or region, but hell this one is worldwide, it has even affected the seemingly untouchable Gulf Arab states as we have watched oil plunge to $40 a barrel from $140 on worries about lack of demand. The US Consumer has been cut off, so therefore has 70% of our economy that relies on buying cheap shit from China. While its good to see 2008 behind us in terms of the crisis, its just the start and anyone who tell you that by the 2nd quarter of 2009 cheap credit will be flowing again might have already had too much holiday cheer in terms of adult drinks. It will take a bit longer, how much longer no one can easily predict but this problem that has taken us 20+ years of easy money to get into is going to take more than 2 quarters to get out of.




2008 Worst Downfall – Eliot Spitzer


As years of being the so called Sheriff of Wall Street, the now governor of New York State took a nasty spill after being caught up in a high end prostitution ring. Well high end if only you talk about the amount of $$ being spent, as the ‘ho he was last caught with certainly was not some worldly, speaks all these languages and fine wine/culture whores her agency said she was. Nope she was a New Jersey run-a-away who featured in Girls Gone Wild videos and then decided to sell her cooch to horny old men who were happy to pay it. The thought of Spitzer spending $4500 bucks and then being able to keep on his black socks while he banged away is more comical than it is sad. Bye Bye Eliot.. Oh and to my peeps overseas, yeah its amazing that American political figures can take a big tumble for this, when you can goto Amsterdam and anyone politican, sports star, or regular Joe the Plummer can get whatever on the menu that you want for 50 Euros and its all good.

2008 Worst Technology – Blu Ray


After a nasty 2 year battle with HD-DVD, it seems that Blu-Ray won. Well there is no winner as despite the demise of the competing format, people are not flocking to Blu-Ray out and out. Reasons could be the cost of replacing your whole DVD collection that you have been slowly building since 1997. Or it could be the fact that hell many people(my sister included)who buy nice big HDTV, don’t even subscribe to HD service and wouldn’t know the extra quality of Blu-Ray if it slapped them across the face. Anyway with DVD sales finally slowing down, and better technology to stream HD images and 1080p into the home over internet/cable/satellite lines I doubt that Blu-Ray will ever amount to much more than a few year fad. And hell other than 2% of the videophile population out there, who can tell the difference between a standard DVD movie up scaled or a broadcast in 720p vs 1080p, not many of us. The extra cost is just not worth it.




2008 Worst Sports Collapse


Either the NY Mets or the NY Jets, funny both teams played at one time in Shea Stadium, it could be that stadium is cursed and many are glad to see it being torn down this year. As a partial NY Jets fan, I’ll have to say the Mets Collaspe for the 2nd straight year to not make the playoffs has to win, but the sting of the Jets losing 4 of the last 5 is still fresh in my mind. Whatever the case, both teams hit the golf course early this year.

Get Some Nikka Costa Funk in yo Trunk

If you have never heard of Nikka Costa, now its time for your lesson in Funk. She has been a performer all her life, from age 10 being a child star and opening for the Police in front of 200,000 in Chile, to her recent spell for the last 10 years playing rock, soul, funk, blues, you name it. Her new album comes out today entitled "Pebble to a Pearl". I have been listen and watching Nikka in concert since 2001 and since then very few if any live concert experiences has been as amazing. She puts her whole soul into the performance and her band is FONKY.

Her new album released today October 14th features 12 tracks. I must say many of the funky tracks are throwbacks to 1970s sweaty in your momma's basement funk. Be sure to check out Can't Please Everybody, Pebble to A Pearl, Cry Baby, Keep Wanting More for your workout of funk. Pick it up from Amazon for only $12.

She will be performing on Conan O'brien show airing October 16th, and also is on tour till the end of October, if she comes to your town check it out here are a list of some of the remaining dates. All shows are $25 or less for concert tickets, so even in this recession its something hopefully everyone can enjoy.
14-Oct Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
15-Oct Orlando, FL The Social
17-Oct Atlanta, GA The Loft
19-Oct Baltimore, MD Recher Theatre
20-Oct New York, NY Webster Hall
21-Oct Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
23-Oct Boston, MA Showcase Live
24-Oct Burlington, VT Higher Ground
25-Oct Montreal, QC Saints
26-Oct Toronto, ON El Mocambo
28-Oct Chicago, IL Park West
29-Oct Milwaukee The Rave
30-Oct Minneapolis, MN Varsity

to leave you here is one of my favorite live songs that she performs back from the 2005 tour, i shot this with my digital camera in Philly. the song is On & On, from her 2005 release can't never did nuttin'. Still waiting for the day I hear this at a strip club, that girl will be happy cause i'll be doing my best Pacman Jones to make it rain.

John McCain you have lost your marbles..

I really was trying to avoid ever talking about politics on this blog, cause like religion it totally polarizes people.. in fact your not suppose to talk about either of those things in public.. I would much rather talk about beer, babes, soccer, traveling, whatever.. But now with only 40 days till the US Presidential Election and the so called "greatest financial crisis to hit us ever" in front of us, the news coverage of this event usually has me fuming mad.

There is no way the $700 Billion dollar bailout is going to work, first and foremost the gov't has no idea what to price toxic shitty subprime debt at. The last 2 companies to unload their debt including Merrill Lynch sold it at 20 to 30 cents on the dollar. The banks are still giving it a value of 60 cents on the dollar. The government is going to overpay and the assets will never go up in value. I mean it was just a month ago that Bernanke and Paulson were all saying "everything is fine.. the fundamentals are strong.. so and so was too big to fail but its all good now.." Yet today its all about the politics of fear.. the Iraq War was entered cause of the fear of a mushroom cloud over the USA.. now its the fear of going back to the stone age.. Politics of Fear I'm done with you..
It funny but I'm with the GOP Republicans as to no way to this bailout, but their leader John McCain is so out of it, its not funny anymore. I think the only thoughts in the mans head are the stump speech and lines he has memorized, not an original thought, not an original idea going on up there.. This interview below with Brian Williams below is an example.. when asked the clear question



Brian: Where does that money come from, can it be printed.. are we talking about a hike in takes..

McCain: If we restore our economy and cut the out of control spending, I think we'll be ok. But if we dont do this, the consequences of failure are emornous. So if we get our economy back on track and grow the economy and keep peoples taxes low and cut the out of control spending... Blah Blah Blah..

I screamed at the TV.. ANSWER THE EFFIN QUESTION YOU #$%!*. Oh and don't even get me started on Palin answering about how since Alaska is close its foreign policy experience.. Lady I've been to Russia, I have more experience than you do living next to it...

Yes they are going to print the money, they are working overtime right now at 14th & C Streets SW Washington DC. For those who have never been that is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, actually one of the best tours in all of DC.. But that is where they print the US Currency, and trust me they are working the prints overtime for the next plenty of years to get all that money printed and shipped off to the Fed.. Maybe tomorrow i'll work on a calculation of just how tall a stack of $100 bill uncut sheets would have to be for 700 billion worth.

Ok that venting felt good... now back to regularly schedule talk about beer, babes, travel and soccer.. i promise

Nikka Costa rocks..

Check out the video for the new Nikka Costa song. If she comes to your town on tour in October, go see her.. you will not be unsatisfied.

Videos from Steve Nash Charity Soccer

Just a few videos from my digital camera at the Steve Nash Charity Soccer game in Chinatown. Sorry they suck so badly, but that is a combination of my digital camera and my lack of skills.. Hey I had 3 beers watching the Germany vs Turkey game, so i should be forgiven..


First video is my fave of Thierry Henry doing all sorts of tricks and Big Baron Davis taking the ball from him. Baron was the crowd favorite, but mostly cause he was so horrible on the ball, yet he scored a goal


This is just a video of Thierry coming right down the side where I was watching, the speed and skill is just amazing.


Last video for today is the penalty kick that Thierry took. I think it was only about 10 feet away and it was a rocket of a shot, good thing it found the net cause this ball and someone face, i would say the ball would win that battle.



More to follow..

Wednesday in the Park with Thierry

Today was an all-soccer day for myself. Around the world everyone tuned in to see if the cardiac kids Turkey could keep their improbable run at the Euros alive. Well despite Television problems all around the world, the game went on and Turkey was about 1 minute away from sending it to extra time. Future goat Philip Lamb scored with only 30 seconds left to put Germany up 3-2. He would have been a goat if the game went to extra time and Turkey had won, as he was SMOKED one on one for the 2nd goal that Turkey scored in the 86th minute. I am actually glad the game ended on time, as I would not have been able to hang around the bar for extra time as I had to run over to watch my man crush Thierry Henry in a charity game.

Steve Nash the 2-time NBA all star is a big soccer fan, in fact I heard he supports Tottenham Spurs, which considering he is good friend of Theirry Henry he can't be that much of a Hot Spurs fan. Anyway due to France basically totally sucking at the Euros, Thierry's summer vacation began a bit early and he was able to come to NYC to play in Nash's charity game. The game took place at the soccer field at Sara Roosevelt Park on the edge of Chinatown. Its located between Houston St and Delancy St, and ELdridge and something else. I guess its a spot where folks come to play pickup games all day long. The game was schedule to start at 5:30pm, and I booked it over from the bar One & One right at the end of the Turkey vs Germany game, so I was inside the gates at about 4:50pm, and they probably closed the gates to the crowd at 5:15pm so extra time would have been no good for me.

There were 2 teams, the blue team and yellow team, naturally since Nash was the organizer he put Thierry on his team, but the blue team had the equally talented and trying to show off his stuff Salomon Kalou of Chelsea fame. Too bad John Arne Riise was not there as they could have showed off how to score an own goal in the dying seconds of a big champions league match. Some other players on the blue team were $10 million american teenager Jozy Altidore, Claudio "Capt America" Reyna, Juan Pablo Angel(he must have been hurt as he did not play), Baron Davis the point guard from the Golden State Warrior who must have never kicked a soccer ball before cause his touch was SHOCKING, and a few other guys. The yellow team had Nash's Phoenix Sun teammates Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, the aforementioned Thierry Henry, Robbie Fowler(former Liverpool player), Jason Kidd, Steve McManaman(Liverpooler before my time).

The game started at 6pm, and it was 8 vs 8, so there were a few subs on the sidelines. The place was PACKED.. inside they stopped letting people in and it was 3-4 people deep. Outside the black fence it was at least 8 deep on the street, and as you can see in one of my pictures, the people were literally climbing up and hanging on like 8 feet off the ground just to see the game. The police only numbered about 5 people, so they tried to get people down, but in the end it was fruitless, the NYPD should know if Thierry Henry is in town, you need more force!! The game was very cool, it was played at a high skill level for sure, and FAST.. when you are literally 3 feet from the players its only then that you realize just how much speed the game is played at on the highest level. Everyone was good natured about fouls as they were none, no contested tackles or headers, only 1 50-50 ball i think when Baron Davis playfully bear hugged one of his fellow basketball players. Thierry showed some really cool skills to impress the crowd, including a seal dribble almost to the net, and plenty of step-overs. There was a playful penalty shot that he took that was like a LASERBEAM. The goal might have been 8 feet high but it was very very narrow, the type you would get with a 5 on 5 game of pickup soccer, well he buried it high and tight, it was good he did not miss cause anyone near the net or behind the net would have been CREAMED by the laserbeam of a shot he unleashed. I have a video of it and will be getting it on youtube in the next few days.

The game was free for all i believe, they did have some orange seats, like the ones you take to the beach with the built in beer holder on one sideline for either guests of the players or folks who donated to the Nash Foundation. I've read they do good work and have built a hospital in Paraguay. The website is Steve Nash ORG check it out and if you can on there donate a few bucks if you can afford it.

Ok Pictures now.
Thierry Henry doing some tricks after a dead-ball. Look at the fans literally hanging onto the Fence all around to see



Salomon Kalou was impressive, i guess he wants the whole blog world to say how good it was so he can get a starting spot on Chelsea this year



Thierry and his skinny calfs. I was shocked to realize up close just how small/tiny most of these professional footballers are, yet TH has some muscles on those skinny legs


Leandro Barbosa playing some D, one of my few decent action shots


After the game all the fans basically stormed the field as the NYPD was not in force and there were only about 2-3 organizers, all the players were REALLY NICE and signed tons of autographs and took pictures. Thierry did a little bit of media/interview and then tried to run for the exits but was stopped and i heard signed a decent amount of autographs. Here are some pics from after the game

Claudio "Captain America" Reyna signing for the only 2 Beckham shirts I saw


Leandro Barbosa, who is from Brazil and showed he has a few skills


Salomon Kalou very sweaty and a cute fan. If my folks up in Harlem knew their boy from Ivory Coast was going to be there(he was not mentioned in the NY Times article) I'm sure it would have been more of a mob scene.


Jozy Altidore with 2 girls hanging on to him. He was INCREDIBLY nice, signing for a while, taking pictures, talking on people's cell phone, everything.


Baron Davis, who was a fun guy, but obviously had not kicked a ball in a while


Water break with one of like 3 really cute girls dressed up like soccer players who were handing out vitamin water.


myself and Jozy Altidore. Best of luck with your move to Villareal, the team just gained one new fan, go Yellow Submarines!!

Euros.. win or go home..

To take a catch phrase from the NBA, its time in the Euros now to win or go home, and so far the first game was a delight. These hot swedish fans are going home now, and man I wish Sweden would have made the World Cup 2006 in Germany as I did not run into 4 hotties like this from any other country. Thanks to the Sun in the UK for letting me "steal" their picture.

Germany vs Portugal a game that I had picked to take place in the semi-finals took place in the quarter-finals due to the upstart Croatian team. I had picked Portugal to win the game as watching the group stages Germany looked a bit shaky and Portugal was like a machine. Well the machine came up against a machine killer, the super duper tall German backline. Portugal missed a ton of goal scoring chances and it seems this is a one-trick pony team with Ronaldo having to do everything, well everything that is but mark his man on free kicks. No way Klose should have been to free he used his head/shoulder/collar-bone to score the 2nd goal. Ronaldo you can throw your hands in the air, wave them however you care but you didnt mark you man. Portugal does not have an out and out scorer, a killer striker, a Torres, Villa, Podolski, or any of the other players in this tournament who have proven they have a thirst for the back of the net. The end of the game looked like a possible Turkey come-back and all was needed was a tie to send it to an extra 30 minutes and then penalties, while it did not happen in this game, i'm sure at some point we will get a total nailbiter 120 minute game.

The Friday game between Croatia and Turkey is not by any means a snoozer, the teams don't have the big name cache as Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany etc but both of these teams have played amazing. Turkey with their comeback kid spirit and ability to come from behind. And Croatia with their unbeaten record and tons of talented players, just imagine if Eduardo was around for these games. I will be watching this one for sure, as i've been watching all the games.

My Heart is still with the Dutch, as I feel they should have bottled it againt Romania, but even their second 11 players were better, plus with Huntelaar in the shop window looking for a big money move you know he was going to do his best to find the back of the onion bag. I watched the Netherlands vs France game at the bar Tonic in NYC that was packed with Dutch fans. There is a chance I will be watching Netherlands vs Russia at the same place as the atmosphere was simply amazing for mid-day NYC but I did not like the service. Aside from the $8 beers, I gave a $20 to the very cute bartender wearing her offical KNVB jersey and she gave my change to an old white bald dude at the bar.. I collected it from him, stupidly tipped her a buck and mentioned to her she gave me change to someone else, she then was like hey look its busy and didnt say sorry.. for sure that was the last overpriced Heineken I ordered from this place.. Yes it was crowded but shit this was before the game even started..
Anyway some pictures from Tonic and other days watching the games will be posted later, good times had so far by the fans

12 Games into the Euros.. thought so far..

This opening picture is the only good thing I will like about the Italian National Team during this tourney!!

Man what a great tournament so far, almost every game has been watchable big time for me and thanks to a new hard drive in my DVR i'll have them saved for a while. The coverage on ESPN has been very respectable, i wish they would get rid of that damn ticker at the bottom of the screen, but they have to let us know the NBA Finals are on tonight as if the whole USA does not know about The Lakers vs Celtics (watching as I type this and the Celtics have cut the Lakers big lead in the game to 2 points 73-75).

So far my thoughts of some of the best games. I totally loved and dug the Netherlands vs Italy. As my adapted country for this tournament I was shocked at how many people had not given much props to the Netherlands. I have a thing against the Italian National team that dates all the way dating back to the 2006 World Cup as I was at the USA vs Italy game. I have never seen a team dive so much, cry in pain, get carried off on stretchers so much in my whole life of 1 previous live game before that game. I don't know more than 5 players on Italy yet I do know they are old and play a slow defensive football and love nothing more than a 0-0 tie and taking it penalties. So when the Dutch came out, attacked, pressed and played Total Football I was very happy.

The best overall game of the Tourney probably has been Turkey vs Swizterland, where the host country went up a quick 1-0, the home nation fans were going crazy in the rain and Turkey was looking at their tournament being over with losses in the first 2 games. But they managed to come back and win the game in late stoppage time. With Portugal already having won earlier in the day Turkey knew they needed a win to keep hopes alive of advancing.

Today's game between Croatia and Germany was also a great match. Germany being the betting favorites of everyone before the tournament and opening the first game with a 2-0 steamrolling of Poland it was looking good. Croatia came out soft in their first game against an Austrian team that their own country did not even want to participate and while Croatia escaped with 3 points it was not a display of an up and coming young team. Well in today's game vs Germany it was alright as they played an amazing game, exposed the German flaws and won 2-1 to move to top of the group and basically win the group. Thus setting up a most likely quarterfinal game between Portugal and Germany.

Naturally i'm looking forward greatly to the Netherlands vs France. France has not looked good, and Anelka and Benizema probably will be replace by Henry and someone else. I love me some Thierry but his damn injuries have plagued him for years and we will see if he can suck it up to keep France alive. I know i'll be wearing my 70 Euro (damn those europeans must all be rich!!) KNVB Dutch Oranje jersey and going to the bar in NYC Tonic with all the crazy Dutch fans, just check out this video I found on the web of the fans and this is DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Ok lets see what the rest of Game Day 2 hold for us, but this is captive viewing for sure. I wish I was able to go, but looking at how small the stadiums are, it would have been totally disappointing to be there and have no shot at tickets at all, especially with a dollar worth only 63 euro cents these days.

Euros in Central Park

While not quite the turn out at the public viewing in Germany, the public viewing in Central Park for the 1st game of the European Championship was a fun time. It was sponsored by the Swiss tourism something and ESPN. They were giving away lots of red stuff, hats and t-shirts for the Swiss, i didnt bother to fight to get one, as well red is not a good color for me. I wore my Orange, and saw one other dutch fan, but it seemed like this damn Bee liked the Orange as it was hounding me all day long. Normally i wouldnt think twice about swatting/killing it, but knowing how the bees are all disappearing i gave second thought to it.

Watched the later Portugal vs Turkey game at a bar with AC, as it was freaking HOT HOT HOT outside, just insanely hot. It was a good crowd, the Bartender put the sound on as while the Yankees played a great game and a great comeback, more people wanted to watch the soccer, can you imagine that?? in NYC.. i guess its just a sign of the times that the Yankees do kinda suck these days.

Today off to a crazy German bar, gotta get there early i know. Here are some pictures from Central Park.

The 2008 Euros are here!!!!

To say i'm excited about the upcoming Euro 2008 soccer championship would be an understatement. Back in 2004, I watched the France vs England game, where England was leading 1-0 late in the game, in the 3 minutes of extra time, France well actually Zidane managed to score on a free kick and a penalty kick to snatch the victory. I was hooked on this sport soccer. I had not really followed or watched a match since the 2002 World Cup where the USA had a great showing. In the 4 years since, well i've become a total fan of the world game, including a life changing trip to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.. So now on the eve of the 2008 version of the tournament i'm excited for the games to play out.

For those at home not sure what all this hype is about, the Euros are a once every 4 year tournament matching 16 of the best national teams in Europe. This year the big surprise team that did not make it are England. This should not really be a surprise, as well England is just not that good. The English Premier league while the best in the world, has more foreign born players than Brits, this hurts the national team in that one week Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard will be playing with the best in the world during games with their club teams, but when national team duty comes up, getting 11 talented players to play together seems like an excerise in futility.

Ok enough about those over-rated and over-talked about English players, The tournament is broken into 4 groups of 4 teams. THey will play 3 games in a round-robin format and then the top 2 finishers of each group will advance on to the knock out stage games. The tournament runs from June 7th to June 29th, and all the games will be broadcast in the USA on ESPN family of networks. This is a huge change from 2004, where you either had to pay $20 PPV to watch at a bar, or buy the game at home for $24.95.

My predictions for how the tournament will turn out.

Group A - Czech Republic, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey. This should be a fairly simple group to pick. The Czech has a disappointment at the World Cup 2006, not making it out of the group round despite beating the shit out of my USA team in the opening game. Turkey had a very good 2002 World Cup, but i have not watched much of them and few of their players play overseas in big leagues, yet I might pick them as a dark horse team for this group. Switzerland suprisingly had a great 2006 World Cup winning their group and not giving up a goal in the process, yet I don't see their luck carrying on from that tournament. Portugal has to be one of the few teams that can honestly be looked at winning the whole thing. Cristiano Ronaldo is easily the best player in the world, and having a total cracking season, there will be pressure on him to produce, especially if he wants to validate the rumored $150 million US Dollar transfer fee to Real Madrid that is being talked about in the press. I pick Portugal to win this group and Turkey to be in 2nd place.

Group B - Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland. This is a rather easy group to pick. Austria simply SUCK, they only made it as one of the 2 host teams, and are ranked well over 100 in the world, I dont expect them to score at all, and watch teams run up the goal difference in games with them, which will be important as the other 3 teams could easily end up tied in points and need a tie-breaker to determine who goes thru. Germany is the favorite to win the group, and I think will as they are loaded with talent and experience in big time international tournaments. Croatia is the suprise team that is loaded with young talent, they beat England at Wembley to knock England out and make sure Croatia won their group. I'm picking them to go thru in 2nd place but could easily be tied with Poland on points.

Group C - France, Holland, Italy, Romania. The proverbial group of DEATH, every tournament has to have one of these both for the press to soak it up and the fans. This is a hard group for sure. My heart and jersey will be with the Dutch, thanks to some shopping my mother did in Amsterdam last month with an official KNVB Dutch jersey. Romania is a good team, and won their qualifying group, don't sleep on them, the French seems to start out slowly and that first game of the group could be a tough one on the French. They have amazing players, a great strike force but their players are spread all around the world, playing in France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and all sorts of leagues thus each playing a different sort of football for most of the year and taking some time to gel with their national teams. I predcit the Dutch to win the group, and world champs Italy to go thru in 2nd place. But this group is a total toss up considering its strength.

Group D - Greece, Russia, Spain, Sweden. Could be the easiest and least interesting group. Yeah Greece won the whole thing back in 2004 tournament, but it was hard to be a fan of them, as it was not exciting football to me in the least bit. Russia made it due to England's crashing out, and Russia is a talented team with a bit of confidence and a good coach. Spain is everyone favorite to finally lift the monkey off their back and go far and win a tournament. The team is totally STACKED with talented players but are known as choke artists. After watching their poor showing vs the USA this past Wednesday, they have to be at a low on confidence, and look for them to make it out of the group stages only to crash and burn in the next round. Sweden is a team I don't know much about, and many of their players who i have followed in the past like Lunjberg, and Larsson are a bit long in the tooth. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a stud upfront, but does he have the rest of the team to support him? I'm picking Spain to win the group and Russia to come in 2nd and make it out.

Now that will leave some interesting match ups in the knock out round. Of the teams I picked and if they finish in that order you will come out with the following knock out matches.
Portugal vs Croatia - Should be a good game, but the pressured and experienced Portugal team should win it.


Germany vs Turkey - Easily Germany would win this game, would be an intersting match up considering the tensions between Germans and the millions of Turkish immigrants living in Germany

Netherlands vs Russia. Gotta go with my Dutch, the Orange...

Spain vs Italy. This would be an amazing match, have to say the experience and international pedigree of the Italians win out.

So now the Semi-Finals would be as follows
Portugal vs Germany - Wow a rematch of the 2006 World Cup 3rd place match, one which I watched in the awesome town of Bratislava, Slovakia. Germany won that match but I would have to say everything is falling for Portugal this season with the wicked season Ronaldo is having.
Netherlands vs Italy - Wow another awesome match, I would have to keep on going with my Dutch, plus I have a problem with Italy for their dirty tactics in the 2006 WC game vs my USA.

the Final - Portugal vs Netherlands.. Hard to pick an honest winner, I might have to put the Orange away for this one, as I think it would be Portugal to win the whole thing...

Those are my predictions, and I'm sure they will be horribly wrong, but neverless tune in for some great soccer!!

NHL Playoffs are coming up and my Rangers are In!

Ok Hockey is a great sport.. Under appreciated in the USA, in Canada it is religion. My team the New York Rangers tonight clinched a spot in the NHL Playoffs. In terms of sporting events the NHL Playoffs could be the most intense, most passionate and hardest to win event out there. There is nothing like a Game 7 double OT game for your heart, after watching one of those in 1994 the famous NY Rangers vs NY Devils you don't want to ever see another one. In fact one of my greatest moments in a bar ever, was in Chicago at Stanley's bar where after a hockey game most of the Chicago Blackhawks team came in, hockey players are down to earth and fun to drink with. On this particular blackhawks team was Valeri Zelepukin who with 7.7 seconds left in said 1994 game 7 scored a goal that took the game to overtime. All NY Rangers fans at that moment hearts sank only to come back to life after Stephane Matteau scored in the 2nd overtime.

This year the Rangers have been slightly struggling going int the end of the season, but tonight's 3-0 win over the rival and hated NY Islanders cliched us a playoff spot. Hopefully our trio of old forwards in Jagr, Shannahan and Straka can give us the best of them over the 2 month Playoffs.

There are still some spots to be decided in the playoffs, and while Sydney Crosby will be there, one player I would love to see on a night-in night out basis would be Alexander Ovechkin. This year he has set the all-time record for goals by a LW with 65 and counting. The Capitals have an uphill battle to make the Playoffs with their last game of the season this weekend, they need a win and Carolina Hurricanes to lose one of their games. If you have not seen Alex Ovechkin and his highlight reel goals, check out this great compilation below.

USA punches a ticket for Beijing Olympics

Last week the USA finished in 2nd place in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. It was enough to have them be one of the 16 teams to make it to the Beijing Summer Olympics later in 2008. While in the sense of the world the Olympics are not a big deal for soccer, here in the USA we get so hyped up over the Olympics in all aspects a good showing here for the US Men and it would do alot for the game overall. The tournament is scheduled to run August 6th to August 23rd, so they are actually going to be games before the official opening of the games on August 8th. If all goes well with me I hope to be making my first visit to China to goto the games. Since a little kid I've watched the Olympics and loved it and going to a games in progress would be awesome, we'll see how those plans progress as right now airfare is freaking CRAZY to china.

The Qualifying tournament was a total bore, which shocked me. With so many of the USA players being young I thought it was a good look at the future, but in reality the most exciting moment of the whole 5 games was the semi-clothed Streaker who ran out on the field during the USA vs Honduras games, bless you Tiffany Nicole May as you allowed the major media to pick up that the USA was even playing a game, cause looking at the attendance at the games in Tampa you would think no one cared.

The other teams joining the USA at the games will be China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Netherlands, Serbia, Belgium, Italy. The teams will be made up of Under 23 players, with 3 any age players allowed. Brazil is taking this tournament seriously as for their over 23 players folks like Kaka are talked about going to it. The USA has some great under 23 players in Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Eddie Johnson. These games are actually not going to be played just in Beijing but over China in Shanghai and other cities, so scheduling will be tough having to move around.

The one thing I do hope that happens to the USA is that they get their shit together, no need going over there and playing like 11 guys who just met each other in the parking lot.

Get Well soon Eduardo

This past weekend one of the most promising young talented soccer players went down with a horrible injury. I was watching the game live on the Internet so the quality was not that good, plus the injury was so horrible they choose not to show it on replay. Eduardo da Silva was born in Brazil but somehow has Croatian citizenship. It guess its a case of carpetbagging where in Brazil he had 280 million other people to compete with to get on the national soccer team, but Croatia with only 4.4 million people it would be easier to make the national side. Regardless of what country he plays for, the kid at 25 is a supreme talent. This year at Aresnal he was finally coming into his own and has scored some amazing goals. Check out this one below, chest to head to back of the net. Wait till the 28th second for the best up close replay.

Anyway this past Saturday in a game against Birmingham City early in the game in the 3rd minute, Birmingham defender Martin Taylor was going to get smoked so he went in 2 feet studs up and broke Eduardo's leg.. not just your run of the mill broken leg, but a compound fracture and dislocated ankle. There was initial worry that he would lose his foot as the blood circulation was cut off, but thanks to great sports doctors they were able to stablize him before transport to the hospital. I finally saw the full injury last night watching Fox Football Phone-in and its hard to watch. This picture alone at the top of the page is bad..

Eduardo was going to be the star of the Croatian national team at the upcoming 2008 European Championships, but sadly now he will be out for at least 9 months possible more. And with soccer players making their living with their legs and feet there is worry this could be a career threating injury. So lets hope for a good recovery and the chance to see Eduardo work his magic on the pitch again in the future.

Welcome to Freedom Kosovo!!!

Welcome to Freedom Kosovo. Only 2 days into your freedom and those Serbs are acting up again and torching villages and U.N checkpoints, oh how things have not changed even when they are suppose to have changed. For those who are not in the know about things, the area of the former Yugoslavia Kosovo which is made up 90% of Muslim Albanians, and a few violent Serbs. Its been a long dispute since the end of the Balkan war and breakup of Yugoslavia and Kosovo was governed by the UN for a while.

On my 2006 trip I never went to Kosovo and in fact never thought of even going there. I went to 4 other former Yugoslavia countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzgovinia).. I met a few other backpackers who went to Albanian and one even who wanted to head for Kosovo. I must say I was totally ignorant about the political and religious issues that surrounded the breakup in the Balkans, and still would not consider myself an expert by any means. Yet I had a sense of the tensions and where america stood in that region.

On my worst ever 12hr train ride from Sofia, Bulgaria to Belgrade,Serbia a ride that was suppose to take gosh like 7hrs. I was in a 6 person cabin with 2 cool girls from Spain and a few people from "the area", as I cant understand spoken or written Serbian I had no idea where they were going. All I remember is in the middle of the night at one of the checkpoints when I handed over my American passport, the man in the group of "others" saw the Eagle on the front of the passport and for the next 10 minutes I assume cursed me out in Serbian, the only thing I understood was Bah American Bill Clinton.. Now I thought Bill Clinton was universally loved, but I've since learned in this current election cycle has a bad temper and not quite the way with words, heck as dirty he has played I'm not liking him anymore.

Anyway during the war in 1999, the USA planes bombed Belgrade on a nightly basis, the buildings still have the scars from 500lbs dropped from F-117A Stealth Fighters.

The Serbs were seen by the Western countries as the enemies as Slobodan Milosevic(you might have heard from him) was doing genocide and killing as many Albanians as he could get his hands on. Anyway some of the crimes committed against the people in Bosnia specifically in Sarajevo were what he was on trial for crimes against humanity for when his heart stopped.

My time in Belgrade was amazing yet. I was there for 4 days, 4 of the hottest days of my trip with temps easily approaching 95 degrees in the middle of the day. The people were incredibly friendly, I went to one of the best museums during my trip the Nicolas Tesla Museum, Tesla being the father of modern electricity. Also some wicked party nights on the Barges.

Along with lazy days spent at the fake lake drinking Jelen Pivo(deer beer) and reading the Day of the Jackel.



So overall I was happy being in Serbia. When I left for Bosnia, people were like WHY are you going to Bosnia, so there is still some hatred/dislike between the countries, something I would learn later while in Croatia and the family of a Bosnian young women would disown her as her boyfriend was Croatian.

Anyway what is going on today in Kosovo is no different than years ago, the small but yet powerful/violent Serb minority refuses to recognize Kosovo, yet the USA, Europe, and the UN have recognized its status as a sovereign country, so what do the Serbs do, yep what they do best resort to Violence and burn shit down. This situation could easily escalate to all out war in the Balkans and as the Nicolas Cage character said in the movie Lord of War something to the like of "I’ll reroute the shipment to the Balkans. When they say they’re gonna have a war, they keep their word.” Anyway i hope before shit gets out of hand we can re-draw the borders, find a way to placate the Serbs, or something.. this world already has one Palestine-Israel situation we dont need another.

As for visiting Kosovo, sure next time i'm in the area why not. I mean a city that already has a street named after a living American President is impressive (Boul. Bill Clinton), usually here in the USA we have to wait till they are dead to name anything after them. I've been told Americans are well loved in both Albanian and Kosovo, this image from the night of freedom celebrations should suffice.. Now i just hope they can brew their own beer.. I dont think this will be a problem as Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia all managed to do so just swell..

This man will win the Daytona 500

Ok so i'm not Nostradamus with predictions of sports events, not even close. I have quit gambling on sports for this reason and this reason alone, you might think you know it all, but as it said "this is why they play the games" Anyway I'm a NASCAR fan, despite only have followed it for gosh the 7 years since Dale Earnhardt Sr, died at the 2001 Daytona 500 on the last lap, last turn. What a tragedy in terms of sports events, but thankfully in 1998, he won the race after his 19th try. Before that 2001 race my only thoughts of car racing were the Indy 500. This past year while up in Montreal during the Grand Prix, i learned about Formula 1 racing and followed the sport picking up what I could while following Lewis Hamilton and is quest to be the only rookie, only black dude to ever win the Championship in his first year.

Well this year Its all about Dale Jr, he has already won the Daytona 500 back in 2004, but since then has been mired in what one could call a slump. Last year after running a crappy season with the team that his evil step-mother Teresa owns after it was inherited from Dale Sr, they could not reach a new contract so he left the team. He went over to Hendricks motorsports, the team with the 2-time reigning champion Jimmy Johnson, and the most decorated current driver Jeff Gordon (who along with driving fast cars has a taste for fast hot women!). The team is stacked, and while the concept of a team is over-rated in NASCAR, they have the best staff, best facilities, best engineers etc. Basically they are the Yankees of car racing, and while the Yankees have not had the best success in the past 7 years throwing out the highest payroll team i think for the race tomorrow it will work out.

So far this week, Dale Jr has won his qualifying race, and the Budweiser shoot-out, and today running in a car that he owns, finished a close 3rd place in the 300 mile race at Daytona. I think it all sets up for him to win the big Daytona 500 on Sunday. I'll be watching at 3:30pm EST on FOX, i hope you do also. As someone who used to drive a car on a daily basis, but now currently hates the concept of driving (just move to NYC and deal with parking, buses, potholes, car insurance, traffic, etc and you might feel the same).. so yeah I dont like driving, but the thought of bump drafting at 195MPH on the back straightaway of Daytona is like a rush of blood to the head. So i'll be watching, drinking my Bud 40oz in honor of Dale Jr's last sponsor team and hoping no one gets hurt but in the end we have a finish like 2007. Where Kevin Harvick beat Mark Martin by the length of a hood (.02 seconds or 8 feet at the speed they were moving) to win the race, while Clint Boyer finished literally on his head, upside down at 150mph.


Or better yet the 1979 race. This was the first 500 mile race to be broadcast on US TV from start to finish LIVE, and it was worth it. If you don't know the history of NASCAR the 1979 race was won by Richard Petty after the 2 leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed into each other 3 times on the final turn and spun out, letting "The King" Richard Petty come back from over a half lap down to win the race. Oh it was not even over, a donnybrook insued on the infield grass between Yarbourough and the whole Allison family (ok well only really brothers Donnie and Bobby vs Yarbourough).. anyway a great finish spend the 2 minutes of your life below watching the video. Enjoy

Dig a shallow grave and bury the Grammy's

Well one of my passions is enjoying music, and preferably live music at that. I've been a fan of the Grammy Awards for a mightily long time, i remember as a kid with my father being a member of NARAS(National Academy of Recording Arts and Science.. the folks who give the grammys out), I would get to vote on the awards with him. But after last's night show I'm convinced its done and run its course after 50 years. The TV ratings were some of the lowest in history with a bit over 17.5 million viewers. This is pretty sad figuring that American Idol gets like 30 million average viewers. So what its saying is people would rather watch and vote for the next big upcoming star than watch current established stars. The shows has gone without a host for the last 2 years, but still it runs LONG. This year it was scheduled to run 3:30Hrs and ran about 5-10 minutes over, no reason the show should be well over 3 Hours long. But most importantly to me why the show sucked was the level of performances.

In the shallow grave that I'm digging I want to bury the following artists. You can call me a hater, a cynic, or whatever but I just feel these folks dont have much talent plain and simple. Lets start at the beginning

Alicia Keys - Sorry hon, you are going into the shallow grave. While you have sold millions of albums, won tons of grammy's and are beloved by everyone I DONT LOVE YOU. I think you are a very pretty girl, but a talentless hack. I'm not saying I can sing or play piano, but neither can you. You so called classical piano training is nothing more than banging on the keyboard. Your singing is nothing more than Shouting. And you have a habit of ruining songs when you sing with greats. Look at your performances of my boy Prince's "How Come You Don't Call me Anymore" sad.. Your utter low was singing "Black Magic Woman" with Carlos Santana this past year at the Fashion Rocks show. and this last night's duet with Frank Sinatra, well a dude who has been dead for longer than she has been releasing albums.

Kayne West - You go in the shallow grave also, this is a horrible thing to say about you considering you just suffered the sad death of your mother. But having to watch you "perform" for some 7 minutes last night was the last straw. Between you pissy bitch fits when you dont win awards, here last night they gave you 4 awards now go away FOREVER. Take your lit up sunglasses, and never never despite how much you miss you miss your mom try to sing a song for her/about her/to her again, you sounded like a cow going to the slaughterhouse.

Fergie & John Legend - Fergie you have a slamming body, if someone would to put a paper bag on your head, I would do naughty things to you. But your voice it leaves much to be desired, as least its not as bad as your face which looks like its a tranny who used to work in the meatpacking district. John Legend, where can I begin, well other than the fact I don't "understand" you or your talent lets see.. you were born with the last name Stephens who the fuck told you that you are/will/ever be a Legend, you are not, so please go away NOW!!!!

Will I Am - what to say about you, other than you are now offically more annoying than Sean P "Puffy" Diddy Daddy Combs, and that is a hard task to do. You can't rap, you can't dance you can't do anything, so please join your fellow Black Eyed Pea in the grave...

The only good performances from this year's awards were from people over 60 years of age.

We had Tina Turner (age 68) looking and sounding like a vision out of the 60s.. that 1960s that is.

Aretha Franklin (age 65) proves she can sing anything, from a few years ago when she stepped in for Pavarotti and sang a wicked "Nessum Dorma" that made me cry. Well we know you are the queen of Soul, but you wouldnt be out of place in a Gospel Church.. honey i'm waiting on you to do a country album, you can do it!!!

To keep in the tradition of older is better we had Herbie Hancock(age 67) on a Gershwin Tribute that showed folks like Alicia Keys if you want to be called a piano player what you must do. Herbie baby who does your hair?? can I get their number, cause that was a nice full head of hair you have on your head. Its sad that after you won the biggest prize of the night and I was talking a friend who shall remain unnamed thought you played the Axel F theme song from Beverly Hills Cop, that sent my blood pressure up as we all know you played in Miles Davis's 2nd great Quintet, if you havent heard please go and pick up "My Funny Valentine (1964 Lincoln Center)" could be the greatest live album ever..

Last but not least of the senior set we had John Fogerty (age 62), writer of some of the greatest songs in history including the "Proud Mary" that Tina and Beyonce tore up. He got up there with some septuagenarian's in the form of Jerry Lee Lewis (age 72), and Little Richard (age 75), who added a little, just a litle to his great 2 songs performances. Ahh what folks would pay for a true Creedence Clearwater Revival reunion tour, hell if Led Zeppelin can do it, so can you guys.

Just as an example the performers (young) at the 2007 Grammys included the following, Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Wyclef Jean/Shakira, Mary J Blige, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, James Blunt.. that is more talent times 20, than the hacks they brought out this year.. The only talent in this years youth was Rhianna, Carrie Underwood, and Amy Winehouse.

Brush up your music history with some Miles!!

Sports Orgy upcoming

Right now since Sunday its been a sports orgy in my world. Yeah other types of orgys would be better but i'm happy with the sports.. Still high of the Giants Superbowl win, i picked up a copy of Sports Illustrated this week while that cover is great, the 2 page photo of Plexico catching the TD pass that won the game is one of the best sports photos ever, seriously... all the players watching and waiting to see if this is the piviotal moment that they battled and gave their blood, sweat and eventually tears over the last 59:25 for is captured in all its glory...

Anyway, why is it a sports Orgy, well today in less than 50 minutes is the start of England vs Switzerland, the best part about it is that since its a "friendly" and England isnt qualifying or playing for shit the game is on regular cable on FSC(that would be Fox Soccer Channel for those at home keep score). Its rare to see an England game that they dont charge $24.95 for on PPV but since they suck, this game is free. Its worth a watch to see what difference if any the new coach Fabio Capello can make..

More importantly for me, and a reason to get dressed up is later tonight at 9pm EST the USA vs Mexico game, again technically a friendly, there is nothing friendly about these 2 teams when they meet. The game will be played in Houston so of the 71,500 or so seating capacity of Reliant Stadium probably 65,000 will be Mexicans. Still I predict the USA to triumph. Still the USA will win, as the USA is 8-0-1 on home soil against our southern neighbors. Probably like a 2-1 game. It will be great to see Jozy Altidore in a real game, along with a newly matured Freddy Adu.. this could be the future at work folks..

Then after the hangover, early on Thursday is the semi-finals for the African Nations Cup. The noon (in NYC) early game is home team Ghana vs Cameroon. Cameroon has not looked impressive so far, giving up a late goal to Tunisia but then eventually beating them, but any team with Samuel Eto'o has to be feared. Ghana will have the crowd and this dude named Michael Essien could be the best player going right now. The later game 3:30 (again NYC time) is Ivory Coast vs Egypt, this will be a quality game, Ivory Coast team is LOADED with talent, but Egypt are the defending champs. I will probably be watching the late game at a West African restaurant as the internet is not always as reliable and i would hate to miss some of this action.

Enjoy the games!!

The best Superbowl ever!!!

Still recovering from the Superbowl hangover but going to try to sum up an amazing game, amazing night and good time for NY all around. The classic NYC ticker-tape Parade is Tuesday and its something that no other city can pull off, sorry Boston but those stupid Duck Boats are just that, STUPID.

Full disclosure I am a NY Jets fan. I love Gang Green, but for this one day I was a Big Blue supporter. I can easily justify this without being called a fair weather fan for the simple reason of there is not rivalry between the NY Teams. They play each other in the regular season once every 4-5 years. The fans simply don't have ill will for each other. Yet Boston, that city and everything about it folks in NYC hate. The only true rivalry between NYC teams is in hockey, as the Rangers and Islanders really really dont like each other and the Rangers and Devils while not as storied have played some amazing tight games.

I went to a bar with about 7-8 friends, many of whom are die-hard Giants fans, season ticket holders and overall fanatics. The hardest sporting event I ever witnessed on TV that almost gave me a massive heart attack was Game 7 of the 1994 NHL Eastern Conference Finals Rangers vs Devils. To sum up that game Brian Leetch scored an amazing spin-o-rama goal to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Mike Richter stopped everything in sight until with 7.7 seconds left Valeri Zelepukin scored to take it to overtime. Overtime in the NHL is sudden death, so any goal and the series was over, for 2 full 15 minute overtimes my heart rate would race whenever the Devils had the puck. Thankfully Stephane Matteau scored that fluke goal in the 2nd overtime and the Rangers were going to the Stanley Cup.

For this Superbowl game I was worried some of my friends would have the same heart atack. On onto my analysis of what happened in the game.

First off, dont discount the Injury to Tom Brady's foot/ankle/whatever. It was obvious that his mobility was limited, this guy never gets sacked, even when his offensive line breaks down(which doesnt happen often) during the regular season he would have the mobility to evade the pass rushers. Not this time.. For a man used to having a 120lb supermodel on top of him, instead numerous times he had 600lbs of black men on top of him. The same injury issue with Plaxico Burress was true, for a guy who caught everything thrown to him in the Green Bay game in stupid cold weather, he was a non-issue for most of the game, but came up big with 35 seconds left in the game.

Eli Manning while not having a great game, he basically did what he needed when it was needed which is in the 4th quarter. The first TD gave the giants a much needed and deserved lead, the 2nd TD gave them the much deserved win. The fact the Giants had no running game at all, meant it was really all on Eli's shoulders, while I'm not ready to send him to the hall of fame just yet.

Ok enough analysis of the game, as you will read better account from professionals, lets talk about the drinking that I did.. My plan was for 1 pint (Blue Moon) a quarter, so a total of 4 beers, I felt that amount would allow me to think clearly, remember the highlights of the game and not be hung over on Monday. Well I think I had 5 beers instead of 4. After the game the posse traveled uptown to a bar called Scruffy Duffy's that is closing in a few days. It had the feeling of a bar that was closing as the beer selection was limited but they still charged $5 for a freaking Bud Bottle, screw that. Next stop the legendary Yogi's...

Yogi's on 76th and broadway in NYC is one of the best Dive bars in the city. Cheap prices, friendly and beautiful bartenders and country music on the jukebox.. Bad things are smelly bathrooms, but those are tolerable if you are drunk enough. I also liked the $3.25 bottles of Bud, vs the $5 at Scruffys.


Here are the celebratory blue shots for the Giants fans, not sure what was in them, but at this point the night was so good it did not really matter.


Next stop on the celebration tour on the UWS was Bourbon Street, we were shocked that many of the bars on the Upper West Side closed or were empty, thankfully some folks with spirit were at Bourbon Street. The Bartenders were in Giants mood, and dressed perfectly in their Eli Manning and Plexico Burress jerseys. Not sure of their names, it was 3am at this point and not all my functions were functioning properly.



The tickertape parade is tommorrow. hopefully I will have some good stories or pictures to share.

The best 0-0 draw i've ever seen..

In soccer they say a 0-0 draw is like kissing your sister, well this afternoon's game in the 2008 African Cup of Nations between Mali and Nigeria was the best 0-0 game ever. I had to watch it over the internet using P2P software, but despite a few break ups the quality was just fine. I do think I will be going to Little West Africa for the Ivory Coast vs Mali game on Tuesday January 29th.

Tournament favorites and heavyweights Nigeria are now out of the tournament after losing to the Ivory Coast (ok i know the official name of the country is Cote D'Ivorie) and now drawing again Mali, the Super Eagles of Nigeria only have 1 point and i think have no chance of making it to the final knockout round.

Mali might be one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP per person ranking 166 out of 179, but I give it up to their soccer players for playing with heart and passion. The same passion can be heard in their music, check out any CDs from Malian artists.

They do have what I think is the best soccer jersey in the world, I want one of those as seen up top for sure.

While I thought i was going to root for Senegal in this tournament as its a country I have visited, now I think my spoiler team is going to be Mali. Lets go Eagles!! If you are not watching this years African Cup of Nations you are missing out on some of the best soccer in the world right now. Forget the boring FA Cup, or the Premiership as heck without the African players in England now, the game is boring.. fire up your Sopcast and tune into the African Cup of Nations!!

Weekend at Bernies Part III

You simply can't make this shit up. Folks if this is not the sign the USA is already in a recession I dont know what other than the 4 horsemen riding through the street will tell ya tough times are ahead..

From the NY Daily News yall Let the man Rest in Peace

So for $355 bucks, folks are now arrested and in jail for who knows what crime. And folks are renting places for $1700 in Hells Kitchen for a tiny space, oh no thank you.

Well I guess since the Screen Writers are still on strike, someone needed to come up with new ideas for Sitcoms..


and the NY Times link All the News that is Fit to Print

But on the real, I would rather talk about sports, soccer, drinking, and hot Czech vs Brazilian supermodels right now I dont have much in that aspect. We are all up into elections, recession, housing crash.. I know that the lil bit of money I have in the stock markets is FAR FAR away from the Financials. They are about to take some massive writedowns in the 4th Quarter 2007 earnings. Like over 10 Billion each for Merrill Lynch and Citibank.. If you bought a house anywhere outside of Manhattan in 2007 its going to probably take you 2-3 years just to get back above-water. Real estate is fucked in most of the country, and then in NYC-Manhattan its the opposite shoeboxes with showers in the kitchen cost $500,000 bucks, hell you can't even get a non-jumbo mortgage for that price..

So as one investment bank said in their 2008 outlook, "There will be blood" (in the streets).. Keep your money closer to your mattress than to Wall Street..

Ahhhh now just looking forward to see if Beckham will get his 100th appearance in an England uniform for the upcoming Feb 6th game vs Swizterland.. but more importantly anyone have picks for the Africa Cup of Nations starting on Jan 20th.. I don't know enough about the other teams, other than I'll root for the Ivory Coast, as i love me some Didier Drogba and got plenty of Ivorians living up by me in Harlem...