Thursday, August 25, 2011

Why Charles Barkley Was A Good Role Model.

Growing up, I was a big NBA basketball fan.  While my brother was a huge Michael Jordan fan (like everyone else in the world), I was idolizing Charles Barkley.  He did not want to be a role model and proclaimed that he wasn't, but to me he was.  I know my mother agreed with him in thinking that he shouldn't be.  She seemed disgusted at his outspoken and scandalous behavior.

Many comparisons have been made and Jordan is known as the greatest ever, I personally don't believe that anyone deserves that moniker because so many things go into it and it is objective (I am not looking to get into this argument here).  Charles Barkley had no championships, he also did not have the coaching and as strong of a roster around him in his prime.  He was drafted to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984, a year after they won a championship (the beat the Lakers!).  In the 1992-93 season, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns, where he would play his best years, before going to the Houston Rockets to join Hakeem Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler and to try to win a championship in his latter years before retiring before planned in 2000 at the age of 36, after rupturing a quadricep.  Barkley was an undersized post man who made a bigger impact on the game than most in his era with hard work, honesty and passion.

Sir Charles began his career on a championship team.  He was not a leader of the team, but he learned from the veteran leaders.  Something we should all do, learn from those who have come before.  While playing with Dr. J surely benefited him, he obviously took the most from Moses Malone.  Moses Malone was a fellow post player, who prided himself on rebounding was a great mentor for "The Round Mound of Rebound" to have show him the way.  He taught him to work hard and prepare for games, the seasons and the life of a professional athlete.

By 1988, Malone and Erving were both gone (trade and retirement), and Barkley was the team leader.  Doing all he could with the limited resources the 76ers management gave him, he relocated via trade to Pheonix.  When you try and try and things aren't working, change something.  This obviously helped, as he was the league MVP that season and led the Suns to the Finals to an eventual six-game loss to Michael Jordan's Bulls.


"Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids." - Charles Barkley

I AM NOT A ROLE MODEL.  This was a popular Nike ad campaign designed around Sir Charles in the 90s.  He didn't want to be one, but he was.  I'm sure there were other kids around the country and the world looking up to him besides me.  I mean, he WAS one of the most popular players in the league and he was a polarizing personality.  He was honest about his thoughts and feelings and didn't sugarcoat anything for the public.  He owned up to things he did, and did not make excuses for his mistakes.  He took the credit for his faults as well as his achievements.  He was passionate and competitive and often had skirmishes with players during games.  Afterwards he was not afraid to say what he thought about it, rather than playing to the media as most did.  He always left these grudges on the court, though.

He learned from his mistakes.  Once, during a close game in 1991 he became agitated by a heckling fan and turned to spit on him, and ended up hitting a little girl.  He apologized to the girl and became friends with her family and provided them with tickets to games.  He also served a suspension and paid a fine for the incident.  He learned from this.  Here's a quote from around when he retired.

"I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."


Charles got in many fights through his career.  He threw a guy through a window, he jawed refs, he played rough and took some cheap shots, but he was always standing up for what he believed.  He stood by his opinions and fought for them.  


Barkley never won a championship, but in later years of his career he chased his dream, joining Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and the rest of the Houston Rockets to try to achieve his goal.  You should always try for what you want, don't leave yourself wondering what if.  Though he did not succeed, he tried.

For the best years and majority of his career, he was competing with Michael Jordan.  The two are widely known as being good friends.  They had a healthy competition between them, which is important.  Competing with our friends is always important.  It does sometimes get out of hand.  We've all had times when a pickup game at the park, a board game or even a game of Halo got out of hand and we lost our tempers.  Competition brings out our adrenaline and testosterone and things get heated.  This is why we should surround ourselves with good people.  Our friends understand and don't hold these things against us.

I could go on, but I feel this is enough for now.  Charles Barkley taught me a lot about life through his achievements and downfalls.  He was a league MVP, an 11-time All Star, and All Star Game MVP, SEC Player of the Year and named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time in the NBA.  He taught me roads to take, and roads to avoid.  He taught me to be passionate about what I do, to voice my opinion on things, hard work and to stand up for what I believe.  I am glad I went through life looking up to him.


I am a better man for having Charles Barkley as a role model......because he could dunk a basketball.


[I used Wikipedia to get some of the details like years and stats right, because as a kid, I didn't pay really pay attention to that stuff.]

Here are some of the gems from Youtube, there are more if you feel like checking them out.












^Start that one at 1:44






Tuesday, August 23, 2011

"Hey, I'll Decide who sucks around here."

Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but it seems that in the 90s they made a lot of family sports movies that appealed to the whole family.  Re-watching some of these movies as an adult, I've noticed there are quite a few jokes I didn't get as a kid (I.E. there's a goat raping joke in The Air Up There [1994] with Kevin Bacon ).  Perhaps, part of this is due to the MPAA taking a stronger stance on things.

The family friendly stories of films like The Mighty Ducks movies, The Big Green, Little Giants, The Air Up There, Rookie of the Year, Little Big League, The Sandlot and all of the others that came out in this era were enjoyable for the whole family.  The filmmakers worked in jokes for the adults and used jokes for the children that the parents and older kids could enjoy, as well.  From the Little Giants "When she's hot to trot, she's still gotta squat" or Coach Bombay saying "I'm sure this will be a real bonding experience.  One day, maybe one of you will write a book about it in jail."  Another example is when the kids in The Sandlot share a bag of Redman chewing tobacco before riding carnival rides, and they all throw up.  This is taboo, but it also teaches them drugs have consequences. These jokes seem taboo to kids because they deal with adult situations and things, depending on their age and knowledge, they may or may not know about, but do not cross any boundaries or hard topics that can't be easily explained to kids.  And the parents are still entertained because the jokes and story are actually enjoyable to them, too.

These films also often incorporated words like "shit" and "damn" which a lot of kids know, and know they shouldn't say.  They're known as bad words, words that adults use sometimes, but as kids you are not supposed to say them or you get punished.  This adds to the taboo which makes the kids more interested, and keeps it more realistic for the adults.

They did all of this and incorporated morals and lessons for the kids to learn, and for the adults to relearn. 

In the 2000s, it seemed sports movies got overly serious, like Coach Carter and Friday Night Lights that dealt with adult situations a lot of kids aren't old enough to comprehend.  There are also movies like Disney's The Rookie and Meet The Titans that feature a more mature view, mixed in with a touch of comedy and its all appropriate for the whole family.  These movies didn't seem as fun, though, because they addressed things from the adult point of view, which kids can't completely relate to.  

We can all relate to the kids point of view to things, we were all there before.  We've all had the experiences of being a kid, trying to overcome something we're too small and not trained enough to overcome, the impossible.

Maybe I just haven't seen any of the quality family sports movies in recent years, or maybe they have, indeed, just stopped making these types.  I would place at least part of the blame on the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), the organization who controls the rating system for movies, for the lack.  They've put stricter restrictions on things, drawing a thicker line between adult movies and children's movies and making less of a grey area.

I could just be being nostalgic, but I'd like to see some new movies like these.

If you have any movies you'd like to suggest to me, to prove me wrong, or just clips from these types of movies you'd like to share because you enjoy them, feel free in the comments section.

[I have noticed the type of humor is coming back with movies like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid films, but I have not seen sports movies like this]



Thursday, August 18, 2011

I wasn't sure where this was going or where it went, but it went where it needed to.

In 2005, I discovered a band called Lucero.  They were featured on a compilation album I purchased on a whim and have loved ever since (Atticus: Dragging the Lake, Vol. 3).  This album introduced me to a few new bands, and some new songs by bands I already loved, track six was one that stayed with me.  The song was "Bikeriders" by Lucero.  The raspy voice, the mixture of genres choosing none in particular, the words...this song was one I wished I had already known, but also wished I could hear it for a first time again.

I looked more into this band and could not find (and still have not found) a song of theirs that I didn't like.  The more and more I heard from them, the more and more I liked them.  Looking back I can tell that they fuse more of my life than I'd like to acknowledge.  In my teen years I denied the country music I was exposed to as a child through my parents preferred radio stations.  I see now that there are parts of this music that have stuck with me, the parts that Lucero and artists like Ryan Adams and Ben Kweller take from it, and add to rock, punk and whatever else influences them at the time of writing.

I choose not to have a favorite band or artist.  I am open to any kind of music, but do have strong opinions sometimes. I'm not very fond of country music, although some of it I can stand, but prefer to avoid.  I think the reason is that it lacks the dirt, grit, honesty and pain that it has held in past generations.  Now it seems that country songs are written with things you expect to hear, then have a sheen applied to them.  It's strange to think now that country music used to be for the rebellious kids.

I am drawn to musical artists who don't reside in genres.  They bend and break them and make something more original.  They keep the heart, honesty and emotions in them.  I enjoy hearing the crack in a voice ridden with pain.  Music brings about a wide array of emotion in us, whether it puts us in someone else's shoes, or shows us someone else has been in ours.  Sometimes it cheers us up and gives us energy, sometimes it comforts us.

If I were to list my favorite artists right now, they would be all over the place because of my eclectic tastes.  The thing that would be constant in most of them are the pain and honesty, whether sad or happy.  The painful experiences we have make us stronger and build character; sometimes they make us better though they don't seem like it at the time.

We've all felt some pain in life, and sometimes it leads to great things like music, literature and art.  A lot of artists seem to lose their edge when they get out of their funk; Ben Nichols seemed to keep his somehow with the latest Lucero album (it's been out since 2009).

I am in one of the positive points in my life right now, and I don't plan on it ending.

Strive for better.  Enjoy the journey.

"He not busy living is busy dying." - Bob Dylan










Thursday, August 11, 2011

Fall TV Lineup?

With Fall so close, and my last post ranting about it, I thought of another good thing (that comes about because of the crappiness of fall)....the Fall TV Lineup.  I've grown up on TV as I believe many of my generation have.  I'm pretty pumped for new episodes of Community and Parks and Recreation, as well as seeing how long The Office can hold on without Steve Carell.  I am also looking forward to seeing where the second season of Happy Endings leads.  That show has great writers and comedy and is the best of the friend, group, couple dynamic that has been pushed on television viewers the last year or two.  I only enjoyed one other show that was new last year, and it was canceled by Fox.  If you don't watch Community, Parks and Recreation (both on NBC Thursdays) or Happy Endings (ABC Wednesdays), I urge you to give them a chance.

In addition to these shows returning, I am also intrigued by some new shows.  The new shows this season that are being advertised during the television shows I watch regularly seem to have primarily female leads including: Whitney, starring Whitney Cummings, The New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel, 2 Broke Girls starring Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs.  I am also aware that a new show with my biggest celebrity crush, Rachel Bilson, will be premiering.   This show will be on The CW which makes me nervous, because they aren't known for quality entertainment.  The show seems questionable, big city doctor moves to small town in the South.  This dynamic works sometimes (Doc Hollywood, Doc Martin, Northern Exposure), but sometimes is doesn't.  Knowing this and that the show is on The CW, I am glad Rachel Bilson is starting to do movies with some bigger named people, like The To-Do List with Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Donald Glover and a bunch of other people.

There are many other shows that will be premiering soon, some that I know about, some that I don't.  If you have any shows that look promising feel free to mention in the comments.










The Argument Against Autumn

The heat wave in the region is over, so the end of the summer season is nearing.  Some you people out there who I like to describe as "horrible" are happy for fall to come about, but I am not.  Summer is the greatest season and Fall, or Autumn as some of the kids in other areas call it, is the worst season, hands down.  Here's my argument.  Suck it!

In the Fall, things die.
The world turns to many shades of brown as the plants meet their demise, the dead leaves all fall to the ground to be crushed by the feet of people walking by and kids finding joy in their death, and the birds all get the hell out of town because they know things are about to take a turn for the worse.  As much as I'd like to join them, I must suck it up, throw on some layers and brace for the brisk breeze.

In the Fall, what am I supposed to wear?  
One of my biggest arguments against the middle seasons (Fall and Spring) is I have no idea what to wear.  In the middle seasons the weather fluctuates so much there's no way to plan other than the inconvenience of layers.  I don't like having extra stuff to carry around later in the day because I'm sweating when I started the day off freezing my ass off.  In these circumstances I choose to keep my hoodie on because I'd rather be at an uncomfortable temperature rather than deal with the inconvenience of holding/carrying the extra baggage.  I enjoy wearing hoodies and being able to use different styles to change my look, but so much inconvenience comes with the Fall season and its fluctuating temperatures.

Because of the temperature change people often get sick, too.  Then I have to deal with the risk of getting sick myself.  I go to movies or events or just to the store or post office and have to hear people hacking and wheezing and blowing their noses into their handkerchiefs that they keep in their back pocket covered in their nasal mucus.

Every season comes with its inconveniences, from Summers back sweat to Springs wetness to Winters timely preparing for the outside conditions.  Feel free to have your opinion on the seasons, feel free to voice them, but my order is set and will not change.

Summer>Winter>Spring>Fall

Fall is by far the worst, outside of burning things and making piles of leaves to jump in there is nothing enjoyable about it.