Thursday, July 28, 2011

Amy Winehouse. Find peace, you will live on here.

So a lot has happened since I last blogged.
     Amy Winehouse died.  I'm not sure how many other people were saddened by this, but I was.  I enjoyed her music and thought she was an amazing talent.  She had her problems, maybe not enough help, but I personally was hoping for her to overcome and get back on top.  The cause of her death is still unknown even after an autopsy.  They (the people following the story including me) are waiting for the toxicology results to come in to see if the expected is true, that she overdosed on a crazy cocktail of drugs and alcohol.
     In the last year or two, I read multiple stories of how she was trying to overcome her problems and doing pretty well at it.  I was not personally around her so I do not know how she was doing.  Rumors were she was trying to get off the drugs, and I know she got the breast implants for self-esteem and I read that they helped.  I'd like to find out that she was cleaning up, and finished the album she was working on that she was having trouble with writing for, and that she died from natural causes or the results of the life she'd lived that were already there and was trying to get out of.
     Her death did bring about some recognition for those suffering from drug addiction and some urge for the people who love them to help them overcome their addictions.  Russell Brand wrote an amazing piece about Amy and addiction.  If you haven't read it yet, I recommend it.  It's located on his website.


Sunday, July 3, 2011

Lockout

So the NBA Lockout is in its third day.  Nene opted out of his contract with the Nuggets; I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this.  Nene's positives outweigh the negatives and he's a great player for the team, and would be with most teams.  A good center is hard to find.  He would also probably be better at power forward which rumor has it he'd be playing for the Nuggets next year.  I completely understand his opting out of the contract, but I have no idea what he's thinking about as in staying versus going elsewhere to play.  He can obviously make more money as he is one of the top names in this years free agent class, and he could just be trying to get more money out of the Nuggets.  He is married to a woman from Colorado and they have a child on the way, but he also took the summer off from playing for his homeland Brazil's FIBA team to focus on contract negotiations and everything.  So there's a lot of confusion when I think about this, if he does in fact stay I'll be happy; if he doesn't I will wish him the best and will still be pulling for his success and I will hope the Nuggets can sign Kenyon Martin to a new contract.  I am very excited about the Nuggets franchise if the league ever gets going again.  With the talented, young front court of Ty Lawson and Arron Afflalo, a mixture of youth and experience all dedicated to being a team, the new addition of the modern era NCAA's rebounding record holder and a scorer out of Texas, two young 7-footers who are expected to come into their own this year.  A lot of things could go wrong, but a lot of things could also go right.  I look forward to the NBA players and owners getting the new CBA worked out and getting on to the next season (hopefully next year).