Posted on by
2

Two weeks out now from the surgery and I’m getting a little restless here in the shoebox.

I’ve only left the apartment twice. Last Tuesday, I went to the surgeon’s office in Kips Bay. He snipped away the stitches and told me to take it easy and let it heal. And then today – a week later, I saw my prosthesist at his shop across the street from the Empire State Building. He says I’m getting there but not yet.

I crutch it from the apartment to the subway. I take trains that go to stations that have elevators. Compared to my last lengthy stretch on crutches and one leg back in 1998, I can say NYC is more every-man-for-himself than Chicago. And that’s ok – but man, you see the world through different eyes when mobility is limited, that’s for sure. The pushing and shoving and fighting for position as one moves about the city isn’t near as fun when you can’t push back.

When I emerged from the F train elevator at 34th and Broadway today, it was a gorgeous 60 and sunny. The streets were thick with people soaking it up. The air smells like spring already.

I’ve been consuming a lot of sports and political coverage – almost all of it via the radio – and in some cases through web streams. I played the Big A card from home on Saturday and came out a few bucks ahead. I peer out my window a lot just to see what I’m missing. I wanna get back out there.

Steelers Fan Mike came for a visit last Friday night and that was fun. We caught up pretty good.

I’ve seen Frances Ha, Punch Drunk Love and the entire first season of Apatow’s “Love” on Netflix. Love is really good. The lead female character “Mickey” is extremely well-played by actress Gillian Jacobs. Episode five ends in dramatic fashion, pretty much forcing you to stick with the rest of the season. That episode goes from unexpected smooch to a perfectly-timed John Doe song that melts into the credits.

Music plays a pretty big part of the show. Gus is the lead male character. He hosts regular parties at his apartment centered around impromptu group writing and singing of original movie theme songs. The show’s budget clearly includes room to pay for music. The show deftly uses the Wilco song I’ll Fight in the final episode and surprises you with a Shaun Fleming number early in the season.

Episode six follows the deep hook I mentioned with the big kiss to end episode five and incredibly Apatow risks all of his great effort on the folly that is Andy Dick. The legendary mindlessness of Dick and his downward personal spiral occupy a good chunk of episode six but it works thanks to Jacobs. I suppose Apatow saw Dick’s availability as a challenge – and an opportunity to showcase a symbol of a uniquely Los Angeles character to give the show some quirk. It worked. And I liked it because much of that episode took place on the LA subway.

Gotta wait a full year now for season two which is said to be a done deal.

Hofstra’s unfortunate loss gives me one less team to root for in the Big Dance. I’m down to Stony Brook and that’s it I guess. I really like the highly-touted freshman two guard at Duke and I’ll be rooting for him. Luke Kennard wears #5 for Duke and he’s great fun to watch although Coach K inexplicably doesn’t start him. Part of it I guess is that neither Kennard nor Duke’s other great backcourt player Grayson Allen are natural at the point. Allen has had a great season leaving Kennard to be observer for significant minutes although the two sometimes play together with Allen handling the ball in those situations.

Posted on by
Reply

I tuned in for Chris Rock’s opening monologue Sunday night and thought it was pitch perfect. He laid it all out there. He talked it out – and allowed the show to proceed properly. It bogged down bad an hour in but Rock did his job in the first 10 minutes. You knew he’d be prepared. His timing and delivery are pretty much unrivaled among modern entertainers. Jerry Seinfeld possesses similar skills although he rarely takes on the big night chores.

Rock went quickly to what I thought was a fair but risky rebuttal of the Jada Pinkett Smith boycott statements delivered via social media on January 16th and 18th. “Why this Oscars?” said Rock.

He then took a personal shot (although it was done in a comedic vein) at Pinkett Smith by challenging her credibility as the lead protest voice. She’s not a movie star – and her husband’s snub for his work in Concussion gives the appearance of sour grapes. Rock pointed out that the same power bloc that denied Will Smith just due for Concussion paid him $20 million for Wild Wild West. A quick review of some of the movie star salary databases shows Rock might have got his number wrong for Smith’s Wild West payday but his point remains intact.

Later, Rock’s proposed solution to the absence of black nominees (made in jest but still a brilliant framing of the debate) was to create separate black categories. Why not – he said with a grin – given the current outdated Oscars tradition of doling out separate acting trophies for men and women.

What institution or entity or gathering isn’t tinged with racism? With the movie world watching, Rock spoke about Hollywood’s racism in words that expose it – and ruminate it – better than a boycott would.

Major victory for Rock in delivering a swift, comedic and effective kick in the pants to the Academy.

-Seton Hall’s PR department put a big public push on the notion the Hall’s game Sunday against Xavier at the Prudential Center was a “sellout.” Everybody ran with it. It was in the game notes well before tip that the final Pirate home game of the year was a “sellout” despite acknowledgement in the same release that tickets would be available at the door. Pirates radio play-by-play man Gary Cohen repeatedly called the crowd a “sell-out” during his game description and Jerry Recco did the same on his sports report on WFAN Monday morning. Most of the game stories I saw also prominently called it a sellout. So, nice job by Seton Hall’s athletic department successfully convincing everybody that they got their big win over the fifth-ranked team in the country in a packed-to-the-gills venue. The sell-out theme is nice to promote if you want people believe your program is back on the map. Problem is the announced attendance of 10,353 fails to acknowledge the eight-thousand empty, unused seats hidden behind a curtain in the upper bowl at The Rock. You can’t call it a sell-out when almost half the building is empty and you’re openly pushing availability of ducats day-of. The ricochets of sound from the lower bowl aren’t confined to the sold out space. That sound goes up – and gets lost in the form of echoes up near where Marty’s number hangs. Perhaps this run of success by Seton Hall will generate enough excitement to prompt Hall to take down the curtain and sell enough tickets to truly merit use of the word “sell-out.”

-What was the Zen Master’s response to Steph Curry’s big game at OKC Saturday night? He took to Twitter and said Steph reminded him of former Nugget Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. The quip obviously floored hoops fans generally but caused an acute panic among Knicks fans who wonder where Phil’s sanity is while at the helm of the Knickerbocker organization. Phil likes Twitter to communicate with NBA fans and so he used the same vehicle to clarify his original remark. Twenty hours passed and all he did was make it worse. In a follow-up tweet, Phil scolded his critics and said Rauf’s “cross-over” and “quick release” did indeed “remind” him of the way Steph plays.