If it’s mid January…then it must be time again for The Black Odd Couple
Posted: January 13, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Join the good Brother @WiseMath (aka Wise Naim) and me for another Black and elegant season of The Black Odd Couple.
This week’s topics are likely to include:
- The phenomenon that is Blue Ivy Carter
- The Phenomenon that is Timothy Richard Tebow
- The phenomenon that is the Republican Party’s complete disenchantment with their presumptive nominee for president, Willard Mitt Romney
- The Phenomenon that is the marriage between Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. and Michelle LaVaughn (Robinson) Obama and the much discussed book about said marriage and its impact on the White House and America.
- whatever various Phenomena that we encounter between now and Noon, Saturday Eastern Time.
Like this:
The Grinches That Stole Football
Posted: January 10, 2012 Filed under: Football, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tim Tebow 1 Comment »
Because Ike Taylor's Day needs a Signature Photograph
In Eleven Seconds…It all fell apart.
I have been watching the Steelers since they had ZERO Rings. That is the single most Frustrating Loss I have ever witnessed.
EVER.
After I sat in Stunned silence and watched Demaryius Run down the I will forever call it Mile High Stadium (Used to be Invesco until the financial markets crumbled and Sports Authority swooped in and Tagged their name all over the place) stadium I felt the desire to watch another NFL game Fleeing right along with him.
Eleven Seconds. And no more Super Bowl…Didn’t even want to watch.
It wasn’t just because it was Tim Tebow. It was because…the whole thing seemed so avoidable.
With all the injuries…and there Were.a.Bunch. The game was right there. Ben Did what Ben does.
- Dramatize every Bump and Bruise
- play his heart out
- Make the obligatory WTF mistake
- Find a Way
Even at 20-6 and 23-13…I knew They had it in them.
The defense…What do I say about the defense?
Dick LeBeau showed Exactly what he thought of all the Tebow Mania. Not very much. He rolled the safeties up and played press Coverage on the outside. When it worked…it was text book. But when it DIDN’T? It was worse than anything I have ever seen watching a Steelers Football game.
If the Steelers had any respect for Tebow’s Passing ability, Four to Five of the Seven significant passes he made Would never have happened. Every time he flinched in the pocket, Coverage Broke Down.
Ike Taylor, bless his heart…his game film will be worse than 2 Girls 1 Cup. (No, I’m not linking that)
Which leads me to my final and most Critical point.
When Troy Polamalu gets his Bust in Canton…it Should have Ryan Clark’s head on it also.
Either Troy Polamalu has never guessed so wrong so often in his entire career, or Ryan Clark has spent his career Covering Troy’s ass.
Ryan Mundy played admirably in Clark’s place…but he is not schooled in Covering up for Troy’s freelancing.
If we have learned nothing else as Steelers Fans…it is this. 43 is only 43 when 25 is next to him.
Which Brings me to Mr. Tebow.
I have already reached my quota on Emo Football analysis, so I will spare you the gory details.
But I didn’t see a prodigious Passing performance…I saw a man who capitalized when mistakes were made.
And BOY, were mistakes made.
Beginning at the Beginning… (Or the beginning of the End, to hear the Mayans tell it)
Posted: January 3, 2012 Filed under: Inkognegro, Reading, Real Talk, Writing 1 Comment »
So, you’re a philosopher?
Actually, no. I am an intermittent blogger and non-custodial father…BUT…
Yes. I think very deeply. (Paraphrased from the opening to My Philosophy, 1988)
Now that we have puttered around and disposed of the 2011 holiday season, it is Tuesday January 3, 2012. Today is the first functional day of the new year. Today is the day that you are supposed to get down to whatever the hell it is you said you were going to do differently from last year.
If you are like me (and despite my incessant desire to proclaim some kind of Singular mode of humanity…you are more like me than either of us care to admit), You made a conscious or not so conscious effort to put off whatever sea change you sought to make in your life until the day when society deemed that life return to normal.
And At the dawn…Here we are. So…what did I decide?
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Writers write.
Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there. – Thomas Berger
I realized that I spend far more time in 2011 telling people I was a writer and explaining why it was I wasn’t writing than I spent actually writing. After Last year’s pitiful performance…I don’t really deserve the title. I am officially on the writer’s hot seat. When Ed Werder is done chronicling the annual underachievement of the Dallas Cowboys he will stand next to the Wendy’s in front of my Building and discuss the tenuous status of my “writer” title.
I say all that to say the following:
If I cannot accomplish significant improvement in my productivity within the next week, I will stop calling myself a writer. If you know me well…I expect you to hold me to that.
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Writers read.
If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write. -Stephen King
I spend the preponderance of my time Reading. As someone who has left the driving to someone else, I spend most of my commutes and my non working time reading the thoughts, facts, and opinions of others, typically in the form of short bursts of text. The reality is, no matter how many of those short bursts of text a single person or a group of people string together, the ability to focus and follow an extended narrative suffers.
Your experience may differ…but I can say with certainty that my ability to read is suffering.
This is not to say your ability to read long form communication must be negatively affected by this change in societal communication, this is to say that my reading, and by extension of my writing. This too, must change.
And so…with that…I give you nominal, yet substantive change. It’s what is hot in the streets in 2012.
