Can the City of Dallas please buy the Cowboys football team?

Ramblings Post #380
Few thing arouse our emotion like sport. I has no real bearing on the lives of 99% of us, yet it can and has become the focus of so many of us. We live and breathe our chosen games, spiritually sharing in the triumphs and wailing at defeat. Why? Because, that's why. And that's all you need to know.  

I first saw the rumor on Instagram. Micheal Irvin said he had to put his drink down. Then I heard Colin Cowherd extol the virtues of such an arrangement. It's been discussed that it's just a ploy to get Dak to the table and get a deal done. I don't care. All I know is, and I'm going to say this emphasis....

JERRY JONES, DO NOT SIGN TOM BRADY   

Just don't. Tom Brady is first, not the quarterback he once was and second, and I cannot stress this enough, I'm fairly certain that he can't win without Bill Belichick and that special brand of less than kosher football they play in New England. Every ring they have is tainted, and just last year they proved they still haven't learned their lesson.

There I said. And pretty boy Brady is one good hit away from just putting on a suit at halftime and going upstairs to sit in the broadcast booth. Okay maybe, just maybe he can win you a single Superbowl, but he's got at most two more seasons in him. And then it's off to see if you can luck into a good quarterback again like you did Dak. Sure, you'll hit the lottery three times in row.

Bottom line - Dak Prescott is a future, and Tom Brady is the one night stand. 

Don't do it. 

Kobe.

Ball up a wad of paper. Aim for the trash can. Shoot. Shout his name.

In this modern age of the viral, this simple act was just something that kind of happened. Even if you weren't a Lakers an it was a ritual practiced offhandedly by a whole generation. I know I've done it and I have seen it done. For no good reason at all except that is just how it's done.

Kobe Bryant's play was phenomenal, a game that relied on artistry, ability and a deep well of confidence you could feel in the cheap seats. In the NBA Finals with his big brother Shaq in foul trouble, Kobe looked at his teammates, patted himself on the chest and basically said to the world I got this. And then he went and got it. While we argue today over who the best NBA player of all time was - Michael or Lebron, the Black Mamba has a resume that makes you wonder why his name is never brought up. Championships, gold medals, MVP awards and the list goes on. Magic Johnson, who I would argue is the best player of all-time called Kobe the best player of all time.  

And he passed some those genes down to his daughter Gigi. I watched the clip of her play, and she'd already started to adopt some of her father's mannerisms. Her fade-away was already a smaller version of his dad's, which wasn't good news for future opponents. We'd only just met her, but I already thought she'd be one of black America's little sisters, one of those little girls we all look out for just because.

Retired from the game, Kobe's second career as a storyteller had already netted him an Oscar. I can only imagine if he had been able to bring his legendary intensity to bear on his new path what works he would have wrought. He wasn't about to fade away, but only just begun to find his new footing. But as they say, tomorrow is never promised.

Ball up a wad of paper. Aim for the trash can. Shoot. Kobe!

Dr. King would have....

I'm of the age where I now know that anyone who uses the phrase "Dr. King would have..." is usually about to frame this legendary icon's quotes or phrases to fit their own limited viewpoint. But I in turn remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, "don't believe everything you see on the internet."

Reddit - by bigtomisin

It is tiring to hear Dr. King's quotes used by people who don't understand them. Weirdly, these aren't ancient quotes or words spoken where we have no context, they were spoken with the lifetime of a good number of us. Had he lived he would be the same age as Barbra Walters, a founding member and still frequent guest on the morning talk show The View. It is in many ways sobering to realize that Dr. King's contemporaries still walk among us. Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, former aides, etc. In real terms, change only just happened. His personal secretary who is still with us and has many wonderful stories about the actual put your pants on one leg at a time man, not the myth. I understand Dr. King had a great sense of humor. I also understand that the man was as sharp as they come with a cue stick in his hand.

And while he was a Republican in his politics, the party that he was a member of isn't even a ghost of its former self. Those people who were called Republican in Dr. King's time would be considered middle of road Democrats now. So when I hear men who would have personally egged on Hoover's plans to discredit this civil rights icon try to manipulate his legacy for their own ends simply because they share the name of Republican,  I am appalled.

Once again history rises up, and beckons our call. Last time men like Malcolm and Martin answered. Who will it be this time?

What I learned 2019

Life is what you make it.

Ten years ago I did not expect to be where I am today. But then that's not an unusual statement. Ten years is a long time to try to make a prediction. And any one five minute period along the way can drastically alter the path you thought you were on. Our decisions combined with the outside forces influencing the social constructs that are our lives make predicting the multiples upon multiples of possible outcomes almost impossible. As such to survive we have to develop an outlook that includes the future and the now. To learn to plan but still live in the moment. To extend our reach beyond our vision into the ether while still holding on to the solid. Or...just to close our eyes and leap. 

That last can be interpreted as fearlessness. Or recklessness. When it's successful, we remember it as a much more reassuring concept of confidence. Framing is everything.

That's the key, that 'framing.' We all like to re-assess our lives in the best light. It's nearly a survival mechanism. Sometimes when things don't go right it's that framing that allows us to find the flaws and start over. But it is the improper use of that frame to shape the idea "that life is what you make it" allows us to wallow in our own failures.  Or lie stagnant when we need to move forward.

Early last year I was eating healthy, getting my steps in, reading more, writing more, and planning for future advancement in my career. Got started on that necessary internal work that a lot of us avoid using attitude, alcohol and materialism. But I finished last year falling back into old habits, diet terrible and hours lost to pointless activity and professional procrastination.

I try to frame it as "I deserved a break." This is a lie.

This is not to say taking a break is bad. I once went five years without using a vacation day, which is the say the least objectively terrible, so I'm all in favor of the off day here or there for personal reasons, even if the reason is the sleep in. Which may be why I've framed this period this way. This is a break after a long period of labor, this time four years. The problem is it shouldn't be this. It should be I need to get on the stick, that I've been slacking and I need to tighten up.

Maybe it was the milestone of middle age that got me. I have reached an age I always thought of as far off, where things change, supposedly. It's the middle of middle age. I thought I had more time. I like to believe I have so much further to go, so much more to accomplish. I'm not talking about the dreams of youth, but the ideas of just that space of ten years ago. And I'm concerned that I'm not there yet.

But I'm not going to re-frame it.

As much as that framing of our situations to see the better of them is necessary, what is also required and more often neglected is the need to take a long hard look at ourselves and then admitting to ourselves what is really there. Not a comparison to the glory shots of social media, but a very real assessment of a our real selves, by ourselves. We know when we're eating too much sugar, or haven't exercised in a week, or have started procrastinating. We just have to be honest with ourselves.

So this year, be honest with yourself. As we used to say, "if you scared, say you scared." Many of us have 'framing' down to an art form. Anti-social is being 'tired of the fake', a lack of tact as 'just being honest' or whatever other fiction gets you through the day. That mixed with brazen unearned self confidence can make those ten years seem like nothing. Because if you have no impetus to change, be it repair or just to improve yourself, then there is a strong chance you're in the same place you started, only the time will have passed. And you won't end up where you expected to be for other reasons.

Things I've learned 

Things change. All things change, even if it's just everything around it changing.

If you don't actually start, then your dreams will always just be dreams.

If you truly love someone, it's really all about them more often than you'd like to admit.

Exercise everyday. Create habits that work for you.

Get enough sleep.

Just because you're prepared doesn't mean you're ready. 

Stop trying to make the first draft perfect.

Cell phone games should be illegal.

Procrastination is still bad. Do it now and get on to whatever comes next.

Love your people. Because as we get older they get older.

Eat to live, not the other way around. Diet fixes so many other issues.

Bacon is better in smaller portions (I keep telling myself this, but still...)

Treat yourself from time to time. Be it a day off or a nice thing.

Five minutes watching Watchmen

I don't watch a lot of movies because I didn't have a lot of time. A lot of movies and television of late have become more niche oriented and horrible, I'm trying to write this sequel to a first book I haven't even published and I have a ton of video games I bought on sale I still want to play so there. So, I watch a movie or a little TV when I get a chance.  You know, I guess I really don't watch a lot of movies or television. Go figure.

I watched the Watchmen

I didn't read Watchmen until sometime in the 90's, when it was a graphic novel. I had always been more Marvel than DC, so it didn't seem immediately pressing even after the rave reviews. But while the book was a revelation to some, to me it was in line with my take on earlier titles like Howard Chakyin's American Flagg. But Chakyin was just a touch futuristic, on the other hand Watchmen explored the idea of superheroes not as they would appear in a comic universe, but more in line with our in that moment real lives: Less black and white issues, more murky goings on and ambiguity in the characters and their motivations. It was a refreshing read in a era of majestic heroism, a turn from that lofty iteration alongside the legendary Frank Miller's Batman: Dark Knight. It was simply heroes deconstructed.

The movie, by contrast, was a pale re-imagining. While it was visually exciting, it was missing something. I now want to attribute that to the brevity of the medium. Time constraints force editing, and editing is in the hands of of those who lack the proper respect for the source an axe and not a scalpel.

By contrast the television series, an extension of the book more than the movie, is everything the cinematic had hoped to be and more. Well written, well paced with nine hours to produce truly fantastic performances. Here it is not simply heroes deconstructed but the deconstruction itself torn down. It is a well crafted tale that almost insists on a revisit if only to catch the pieces you missed with each passing episode. From a genre crafted for the white teenage male gaze it posited a black female lead, visited upon historical black trauma, flipped our understanding of this universe's heroic history, made the cool agent a seasoned woman and made us question that most basic of understanding of superheroes: with great power comes great responsibility.

Note: Spoilers abound from here forward.

The only other show with so many callbacks that I can think of is the first season of Westworld. The first episode of Watchman started tossing out clues and they just never stopped. We all just assumed that the Ozymandias timeline was happening at the same time, although the statue in Lady Trieu's garden should have been a dead giveaway. The big deal about the squid drops that kept popping up. The eggs. The mesmerizing from the Black Hood origin swung back around to a tool for retribution at the beginning. From the goings on at the Seventh Calvary ranch in the first episode to super cool FBI Laurie's change of heart in Antarctica at the end to the ambiguous Sopranos style ending, the story was an intricately diagrammed little journey that just kept linking this idea to that idea over and over.

And nobody, not a god soul, noticed Cal was Dr. Manhattan.

This was good television. This year HBO has been fire, with Chernobyl and now Watchmen. I don't even really miss Westworld at this point which honestly in its second season felt like it was trying too hard. This series that was maligned by some for having white supremacists as the villains and discussions of reparations really hit a lot of good notes. For all the power that Dr. Manhattan possessed, why didn't he do more? But then it could also be asked, why should he?

They claim there might be a second season, which is both exciting and disappointing. The sophomore slump is real. I hope we get lucky. Again.

Barkeep. Something with some squid in it. I'm joking. No, I am telling a joke. Do not make me anything with a ...Dr. pepper. Plain. 

The "Friendly Confines" of JerryWorld...

Ramblings Post #379
Where I been? I want to say I've been writing. I started the sequel to my alt-1960's tale The Grand Berber Most Divine, only this time the protagonist has a new challenge: family. It's tentatively titled The African Riviera Most Resplendent. But that's stalled for other reasons. And I did actually go to see Sporty. But that's a post I keep re-hashing in my head. And I'm leaving the Ranch. But that's also a whole other deal. So what I'm going to do is go with the familiar. No, not politics, although whenever I run into whoever is running the DNC some words will be spoken, believe that! No, I'm going to do football. It's just so soothing. Or at least it's supposed to be. 

Ron Rivera is out at Carolina because the Panther's owner David Tepper has stated clearly that he will not accept the idea of mediocrity for his team. Ron Rivera and Jason Garrett started at roughly the same time, 2011 and have similar resumes of just above a .500 record and three division titles. Neither one's team is playing that well this season either.  The one notable exception is that Ron actually took the Panthers to a Superbowl. We're still waiting. 

As I was pondering this, it hit me. Kids, I hate to say it, but the Dallas Cowboys are apparently the Chicago Cubs of the NFL.

Allow me explain. The Cubs play baseball in the Windy city of Chicago at 1060 West Addison, the venerable Wrigley Field. (Elwood Blues does not live there). They went 108 years without winning at the championship level until three years ago in 2016. But Wrigley Field stayed a hot ticket all those years the Cubs cried about about that epic drought. The games broadcast on WGN, the merch sold like hot cakes and with no need to really improve the product because people came anyway, the owners were practically printing money in the dugouts. There were valiant efforts, of course, and on more than few occasions the team had a loaded roster and won many games but just couldn't bring it home, which only endeared them to their audience more.

Sound familiar?

The Dallas Cowboys are the number one brand in the NFL, far and away. The next three in order are : The Steelers, the Packers, and whoever is winning this season. Seriously. And like the Cubs, the fans are still talking about the last championship twenty five years ago and every flash of brilliance is met with the phrase "We're going to the Super Bowl!" They win just enough to make you mad. The team seems to keep a loaded roster, draw more primetime eyes than any other team in the league and JerryWorld may as well be a cathedral to the sport. It also stays packed. To the rafters.   

Sound familiar?

But for the Cubs it wasn't until they changed coaches in 2014 that things started to fall their way. With Ron's departure in Carolina, and Garrett's contract up at the end of the season, will the Jones boys get the hint? The players are frustrated, as are the fans. We lost to the Jets. I mean damn. (Okay, Philly lost to the Dolphins, but we can't count on that every week. LOL.) The Cowboys lucked into a season where everyone in their division but them are rebuilding or (also) struggling, so they're still driving the bus of their own destiny. And with the pieces they've assembled, they've got a shot at doing something great in the next few years. But not with their current head coach, who may get the un-coveted Marvin Lewis designation this off-season if things go wrong...for the fans.  

Dallas Fans waiting on the Jones Boys to get it right.

And this choke-hold on that branding spot and all the associated perks means the incentive to win a championship boils down to ego on the part of the owner.

Barkeep. If you could put a bottle of the Pappy Van Winkle aside for later, that would be swell. For now, vodka and OJ, two cubes.