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.