Ex-Penn basketball great Phil Hankinson dies in apparent suicide - Resources

Ex-Penn basketball great Phil Hankinson dies in apparent suicide - Resources

I find myself continually fascinated by this story. I was not alive during Phil Hankinson's hey day. I think I can understand what it feels like to have your dreams deffered. I do think that it shrivels like a raisin in the sun and gets bitter with each passing year unless you reign it in.

Opinions of...politics - Part 2

Obama and Rev. Wright's comments:Please...unfortunately many people will not see this for what it is-someone's way of planting the seed that Barack Obama if elected, will not meet the needs of ALL Americans and that he is one of those "evil" Black Nationalists left over from the 60s and early 70s.

Tunes for a desert island stay

Out of a conversation I had last night, I came up with the absolute must have music list for those who are on a stranded island. These are in no particular order of preference:

• Personal Jesus-Depeche Mode


• Anything by that Parliament-Funkadelic-P-Funk All Stars-Bootsie and the Rubberband-George Clinton---especially the usual suspects: "We want the Funk, One Nation Under a Groove, Aquaboogie, Bootzilla, Atomic Dog


• No list would be complete without the New Order/Joy Division collection---again the usual suspects: Regret, Ruined In a Day, Dead Souls, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, She's Lost Control, True Faith, Bizarre Love Triangle, Digital, The Perfect Kiss, Dreams Never End, Here To Stay


• Baby Love-Regina (Richards)


• Selections from Cappadonna's "The Pillage" --Everything Is Everything, Black Boy, Slang Editorial, The Pillage


• Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash


• Hank Williams' I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow


• Anything by the Stylistics and the Spinners would be great


• Aimee Mann and the Japanese group Flow --nuff said

I have often found ...

I have often found a certain irony in the fact that I like some tv shows that exclude people that on the surface I would have more in common with than the characters on those shows.
For example, today on hulu.com, I am mining the 'Kojak' archives. This is still to me one of the more rough cop shows around. And is quite the posterchild for testosterone. I don't think growing up there was ever a female cop in Kojak's stable and there was no real room on this series for what is usually considered "feminine." However, I love this series. My mother and I used to joke that if Kojak and [Steve] McGarrett were on the case, there would be no crack problem in America.

Most of the soaps that I watch, especially ones that take place in locations like Los Angeles, apparently suffer from a disease where the people of colour have died from some mysterious disease.

Opinions of...politics - Part 1

'Onpoint' Radio has a weekly Friday roundtable discussion about issues in the news. They touched upon a few that I should make plain where my positions are.

Geraldine Ferraro: Oddly enough, I got what she was trying to say. I do honestly have to say that there have been times where I wonder about whether or not Obama would have been subjected to some of the awful things that have been said about HRC. No one's seen fit to make a nutcracker of Obama. There was a better way of saying it and I wonder what the race would have been like if Barack had been Michelle Obama instead.

B & B

Wow.

Just when I completely wrote off the new Bridget and Bold and the Beautiful, someone finally wrote a scene that MADE SENSE and gave Bridget some cajones in the bargain. Bridget called Brooke by her RIGHT NAME and snapped her whole body. I know that it will be short lived and that good writing will go away again. Boy I wish that Jennifer Finnigan could have played that scene. Ashley Jones did all right, but Jennifer would have really knocked it out of the park.You can watch the 3/13/08 episode here:http://www.cbs.com/daytime/bb/video/

The subplot of Stephanie's sister Pam (played by Alley Mills of 'The Wonder Years') is mildly amusing. It's almost as if they said, "play her like Kevin Arnold's mom with a dash of Dolores Umbridge of Harry Potter fame and a bit of Annie Wilkes of 'Misery' fame."

Hulu listening

Well, I hate to say it, but one of the recommendations from the 'Today Show' paid off. Hulu.com , a website that seems to house the tv shows and movies NBC Universal owns, has been my thing of late. CBS Paramount need not worry-I will still go there for my daily soap dose and for the 'Twilight Zone' and for "Five-0."
Today I got to "see" 'Benson,' 'Lou Grant,' 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' (an interesting episode with Lorne Greene), 'S.W.AT.,' and of course "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven." I wish they would show this instead of infomercials in the wee hours or reality shows that have no point to them-especially 'Lou Grant'. I would say that I wish there was a show like 'Lou Grant,' but then I am reminded that on cable a series like that but gritty in a way I am sure 'Lou Grant' wishes that it been just finished its run-'The Wire.'

Since my last post...

• I attended a forum at Harvard's Stem Cell Institute. It was an interesting overview of what types of research is going on right now for the use of stem cells in some of the major diseases that are killing us, such as diabetes, and heart disease. I liked it fine, since that is where my interests lie-gene therapy. I also got a chance to look at Harvard Dept of Molecular and Cellular Biology-one of the many possibilities for school.
  
  
• I realized that tv blows at certain hours of the day. I am so not the 'Rachel Ray'-'The View' person and 'Jerry Springer' lost it's entertainment value for me around 2000. 'Maury Povich' basically three programs: "Who's my baby's daddy?", "Amazing Animals" and "Amazing Videos."

• I came to the realization that I need to have my Wednesdays or Thursdays back.

• I found lots of websites that will show full episodes of classic TV. A bit like having the radio experience at work. The sites I frequent are: CBS.COM, NBC.COM and now HULU.COM. Oddly enough, two of my favorites moments have come from the dreadful Season Three of 'Star Trek' TOS. In 'All Our Yesterdays,' I love the scene where Spock essentially snaps McCoy's whole body and I liked the exchange when he and McCoy really go head to head. I love reinterpreting some of this dialogue in Ghetto-ese: "Oh hell No! You are not trying to score while our captain is out there you know where in danger! " or "you know, you done called me out of my name just one too many times. Do it again and see what happens..."The 'Turnabout Intruder' episode is sexist in the extreme. For some reason I liked the Spock, Sulu, and Scott speeches (though Scotty's was a little long-we got already that Scott had seen many sides of the captain through the first three adjectives he dropped on us.) I suppose it was something about the letter "S" in the writers' room that day.I have often said regarding the 'Galileo Seven' episode that Spock should have said to McCoy, "You open your mouth one more time and you will be walking home. See if you don't."

• I could just throw some dates on the calendar and see what sticks. One that I will do is combine this with dinner afterwards:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/

berkmanat10/2008/03/stone

• I have started being more conscientious about my blogging I did take up the pledge to blog 365 and I want to keep it.
  
  
• I learned that apparently the W3 Foundation offers free web building tutorials that go beyond HTML Look what I found in an email digest from the asklizryan group: http://www.w3schools.com/

• I found out that People R Stoopid I think that now former Governor Spitzer should have watched "American Gangster" and have heeded Frank Lucas' admonition about the loudest one being the weakest link if he wanted to get away with it.I also think that I love that this guy got caught because I bet that this is the more typical profile of the john that gets involved.

• I learned that American needs to make or get off the pot when it comes to math and science. I've been listening to the 'Two Million Minutes' interview on 'On Point.' Totally homeschooling my future children now. There is also a blog about this at their website: http://www.2mm.typepad.com/

MONDAY

Poor Monday-it gets such a bad rap as a day. This has to be a recent thing because I can't imagine that people in the past felt the same way.

Soaps:
A lot of "WTF" from me lately. Some people will blame the directions the storylines have taken on the scabs that wrote during the Writer's Strike. I don't let the regular writers off that easy. Many, except for The Young and the Restless, were going south for a long time now-most notably The Bold and the Beautiful.

Whenever I watch Guiding Light (GL), I find myself saying "Genug already!"
-I am happy that they finally wrapped up the Sarah/Jonathan/Lizzie storyline, but I hate how they ended it. I'll allow that Alan Spaulding is powerful, but I still can't see Lizzie and Jonathan not being about to find a legal remedy to keep him out of their lives, like a restraining order or something. The courts recognize very few grandparents' rights and honestly their wacky plan to get married would not have really stopped him.

-I wish they would end the Marina/Harley/Cyrus thing. I wish Marina would just bring both Harley and Cyrus into the same room and go,
"I know you guys are knocking each other and since you both couldn't grow a pair and tell me, I am telling you that I know. I am also taking myself out of this equation. Have fun together and go with god."
If wishes could come true that a soap heroine would just do that and strike a blow for intelligent women everywhere. Granted, never crazy about Marina or Cyrus, but I would love Marina to show that she has some pride rather than these silly "I Know What you Did" games she's been playing with Harley and Cyrus.
On a related note: I know that Rick Bauer needs to leave Harley alone. Rick "I'm in love with my wife until another damsel in distress comes along" has no right to threaten Harley, although he's right to call her by her right name.

-I also wish they would knock off the "Will they? Won't they" thing with Josh and Reva. Definitely a "genug" situation. I say just put Reva and Josh back together and call it a day. The Cassie/Josh thing never really jelled for me and honestly, while we are on the topic of self-respect: you would think that Cassie would invest in a clue in that she has honestly been sleeping with 3-4 people in the same marital bed (the fourth being Tammy or Will depending upon the moment) and that's not a marriage. Cassie too should cut her losses and find a life somewhere else.

-The OMEN/BAD SEED '08
Clearly in addition to returning to some of the visual elements that made up GL's, they are returning to plot elements of the past. The bad seed idea was explored way back in the 50s and 60s with Meta Bauer's stepdaughter Kathy and her daughter Robin (admittedly Kathy was more of a rebel and felt unloved a la Lizzie Spaulding a few years ago vs. Robin whose actions were completely more bad seed). At times it's been amusing and at times ludicrous (Friday's episode where Will pays a guy to give him a ride was ... well, gee I wonder what that says about adults in general.) I honestly now don't understand why this kid has just not been put away. Yeah, Cassie stands in the way of such things but O'Neill as DA could take care of that. Court mandated mediation....I know there was a hearing and I can't fathom that a good judge in the face of the evidence would look the other way. I almost wish Beth would press charges against Will for what he did to James. (Granted all this is soaps so logic does not apply). This one needs to be laid to rest, even if it ends with Cassie riding off into the sunset with him to whatever special school he gets committed to (thus clearing the way for a Josh and Reva reunion). It was interesting at first but now it's becomes a lot of "are you kidding me?" Rafe gets busted for breathing and Will sits back and enjoys his life of making people miserable.

Except for the fact that I hated hearing that down the pike Phyllis and Nick are supposed to have marital problems because of Adam on young and the Restless, I've got nothing else except that while I was not pleased that Patrick is the father of Robin's baby, I am glad that she told him and that she is not looking to take him back. Of course GH will insist on not putting Robin and Jason back together...


Politics:
Another "genug already" situation. Granted last week's SNL take off on the "3am" ad was great, but honestly I feel that Lord Howard Dean should have the election "do-over," which includes placing Obama et. al on the ballot this time. A move that brings risks to either candidate, but I feel that both can stand up to it.

Other Stuff:
Still working on organizing meetups. I will sort this out by the end of the week.