Welcome to the next generation of Boston Celtics basketball hero/crazyman: rookie Bill Walker, monster dunker, uninhibited urinater. He was rumored to have been a good pick, if not a steal, in the NBA draft when the Celtics picked him up after several teams passed on him, presumably because of his recent knee surgery. He looked pretty good in his first NBA preseason game, throwing down back-to-back, athletic, monster dunks. Here is the second one, which sent the crowd and the Celtics bench into a tizzy:
Then the other day I read an article about him and his dunks which sent me to youtube to check out some more of his jams. I was clicking through the related videos on the right margin when I noticed one that was titled "Bill Walker pees on a towel" or something. Not being interested in the watersports, I passed and clicked on another dunk highlight video. Then I saw another similar title. And another. The images all looked like they were on the court, so I had to check it out. There's no way he pissed himself in a game and I missed it. Could it be? All of the videos were shot from the stands without zoom or commentary so you couldn't really tell what was going on. So I googled "Bill Walker pees" and checked out the deadspin link (they're all over this sort of weird sports news) Amazingly, it appears that with seconds left in a close college game, Bill Walker decided that he couldn't hold it, shoved some towels down his shorts, in front of 15,000 people, and drained the weasel. No stagefright there. Wow. How did I miss this story?
And now today, youtube is buzzing with this video about him in their most recent preseason game against the Houston Rockets. Not as outlandish as pissing on some towels in front of a packed house, but some pretty punchy play against the new team of Ron Artest. (keep in mind that this is a Rockets' broadcast)
There's not going to be any shortage of intensity in the Celtics' quest to repeat.
Johnny McCain loves him a good townhall. Wonder what the carefully selected and screened regular folks will ask about tonight. The economy? Are we still on about that?
(no live blog tonight, but I'll be online if anyone cares to comment)
12:50 - Tune in tonight as VTK live blogs the most anticipated VP debate in decades.
6:00 - 3 hours til showtime. I'm warming up the oil and getting the popcorn kernels out for pregame. This is like Superbowl Sunday. Several of my friends around the country have told me they're throwing or attending debate parties. lc in DC is serving milk (with kahlua (sp?)) and cookies and playing Palin Bingo. It turns out that her beverage choice is a partisan one: milk is the official state beverage of Joe Biden's Delaware. I suggested that she balance things out by also serving the state beverage of Alaska: moose blood. Speaking of "the horror", here's Talking Points Memo's greatest hits of the recent interviews with the woman who actuarial tables say would have a 1 in 6.5 chance of becoming president if 72 year old McCain wins (1 in 3 over 2 terms):
"so committed". We should be so lucky.
And for your further pre-debate entertainment, check out some "hot pics" from Biden's debate camp with Jennifer Granholm, where he's learning not to make girls cry. That's Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan, where McCain decided to concede the state today (wow).
7:00 - 120 minutes until kickoff. Let the fumbling begin. For your 8 PM EST pregame viewing pleasure, I recommend either PBS's "Debating Our Destiny II" (in which Jim Lehrer will be interviewing past and present candidates about their debate performances), the reruns of yesterday's Daily Show and Colbert Report on Comedy Central, or MyTV's highlights of Wrestlemania XXIV, featuring Triple H, Undertaker, Ric Flair, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Snoop Dogg.
8:55 - 5 minutes! 5 minutes! What's going to happen? Could be anything. Probably the scariest possibility is that it will be boring. That would be quite a disappointment, considering the candidates involved. Ultimately, something really major, a really major gaffe, would have to happen to have a significant effect on the race. My prediction is that Palin comes off much better than she has in the Gibson and Couric interviews. And that it doesn't matter.
8:59 - I'm looking at the set right now. No table. I thought there was going to be a table. 30 seconds...
9:02 - "The audience has promised to be polite" what? Here they come.
9:04 - Very cordial. "can I call you Joe?", she asks. People will like that. Not that significant though. I'm nitpicking.
9:08 - hold serve. hold serve.
9:10 - Sean and Becky are playing Palin Bingo right now and I hear lots of X's already.
9:12 - She's doing well. Drat. The staring into the camera is getting a little creepy though. Joe's staying on message. Even keel, Joe, even keel.
9:15 - Her voice is shaky. I am nitpicking again? She's nervous, but people will probably identify with that. Be careful not to pick on the nervous girl, Joe.
9:18 - "health care taken over by the feds"?, says Sarah. the "feds"? is this how "small town" folks talk?
9:20 - "I call that the ultimate Bridge to Nowhere". Nice shot, Joe. Bait bait bait. He's spraying numbers right now. Will she be able to respond to them specifically?
9:24 - Sean needs 2 more for a bingo, in three rows. Becky needs 3.
9:27 - ooh, another "rear the head" reference from Palin. Who was rearing and where? What? Was it in our airspace? This debate is really fast paced. Both are doing well. Not much drama.
postscript - Palin: "We need to look back, even two years ago, and we need to be appreciative of John McCain's call for reform with Fannie Mae, with Freddie Mac, with the mortgage-lenders, too, who were starting to really kind of rear that head of abuse."
9:29 - Palin back to "Energy". Surprise surprise. "East coast politicians" are the enemy? I think Hawaii is farther away from the East Coast than Alaska and Arizona. Perhaps their governor is the most qualified to run the world.
9:38 - Am I the only one surprised and confused by their answers to the gay rights gay marriage questions?
9:47 - Sean points out: she keeps saying "nuculer". She's obviously speaking to people who say "nuculer" not "nuclear". So much for trying to convince people she's smart.
9:52 - Still fast paced. This is not the farce I expected.
9:58 - Joe's starting to get a little condescending. "let me say it again" twice in the last minute. Annunciating slowly. settle down, Joe. Was that a sigh? I think I just heard a sigh. Joe's fuming right now. Playing into her hands, Joe. This is how they get you.
10:01 - smug, Joe. Not good. Nobody likes a smug hot-head. He's practically yelling now.
10:06 - or people are going to identify with his anger. what do I know.
10:09 - Gwen brings up the Heartbeat Away question. oooh. She phrased it as a question about "A Biden Administration" but we know what this is about. Palin "Whattaya expect from a team full of mavericks? We're a team full of mavericks!" Insanity. "Gov't, just get out of my way" You mean like on Wall Street?
10:13 - "say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again", and "aw, doggone it", in 10 seconds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? She is so full of shit. She's like a trained seal with her talking points and the lingo. Except seals can't talk. And maybe she shouldn't either.
postscript - (it's tough to transcript this stuff on the fly): PALIN: Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.
10:14 - Bingo on "Special Needs"! Sean wins!
10:16 - is it crass or sexist of me to recognize that she keeps saying that John McCain "tapped" her? It's not just her. Katie Couric said it. Should we be using that word? I'm sorry, but it's such a sexual reference ("tap that ass").
10:18 - she just said it again. Maybe I'm being a little overly Freudian here, but part of the whole point of her selection is to add some virility to McOldie.
10:22 - powerful powerful "I understand what it's like to raise two kids as a single parent" line (or something like that) from Biden, followed by him collecting himself for a second. change in tone in the debate.
10:23 - and Palin misses it. right back to the talking points with the smug smile.
cold, Sarah. cold.
10:26 - here's the [experience] difference folks: [fighting] the confirmation of Bork vs. [dealing with] the budget of a 5000 person town. There's your experience difference.
10:29 - Palin's closing statement - she mentions how much she enjoys this and prefers it to the "filter" of the mainstream media. classic. trying to erase the interviews with Gibson and Couric. Not going to work. Overly dramatic ending by her. will it play in Peoria? dunno. Indiana's a swing state. She didn't bomb tonight.
10:32 - Biden's closing statement - standard. good. He didn't fuck up. Got a little heated there for a bit, but pulled it back together.
End of debate. Let the punditry and spin begin!
Post-debate analysis: I thought it was an interesting debate, but not in that crazy circus way that was definitely possible. Ultimately, it was a wash, which might be considered a "win" for Palin. But Ultimately Part Two, it doesn't matter that much - it's a VP debate. I think she stopped the hemorrhaging, but not all the bleeding. She's less of a problem for McCain now (ie less than a huge problem), but I'm not sure she helped him at all. She appealed to the people who already like her, the conservative base, but I don't know how many independents show won over (or back). A lot of "darn right", "you betcha", "I'm not from Washington", etc. It's going to play with some people for sure. We'll see.
This was a good line from Biden: "I haven't heard anything yet. I haven't heard ... It may be. But so far, his policies are the same as George Bush's." He also did well with the pushback on the maverick label.
And what about Palin's suggestion that the Vice President should have more power? Constitution gave her extra power? Is this a talking point, a mutilated talking point, or her brazen power hunger? (has she even read the Constitution?) Is it not clear how the only aim of this person is power?
here's the quote (and see video below): I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.
Howard Fineman: Sarah Palin was "a wolverine attacking the pant leg of a passer-by" (wasn't meant as a compliment, but aren't wolverines bad asses? or am I just a U of Michigan fan? I guess a human could just kick a wolverine away if it came down to it) "but she in no way distanced her ticket from the Bush Administration, which was the Biden goal ... a rapid pace, a frantic pace, but she didn't defend or distance her ticket from Bush"
cbs poll: (Uncommitted Voters who watched the debate) 46% of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Joe Biden was the winner. 21% thought Sarah Palin won, 33% thought it was a draw… 98% after the debate saw [Biden] as knowledgeable (79% before the debate).
cnn poll: A national poll of people who watched the vice presidential debate suggests that Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won but also hints that Republican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeded expectations ... 51% of those polled thought Biden did the best job in Thursday night's debate, while 36% thought Palin did the best job ... But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54% to Biden's 36% ... But on the question of the candidates' qualifications to assume the presidency, 87% of the people polled said Biden is qualified while only 42% said Palin is qualified.
Obama should be running away with this. The national polls are looking good right now (as are the swing state polls), but it shouldn't even be this close. McCain is an opportunistic liar (ie. he's a politician) and his running mate is a frozen hayseed. Get your popcorn ready for tomorrow night. Palin v Biden? Literally anything could come out of their mouths. It's going to be entertaining.
And now a break from our regularly scheduled shameless self-promotion. Here are two very different, but equally enjoyable, musical selections for your listening/viewing pleasure:
I'm happy to finally announce that you can now order your real live, perfect bound, paperback, print version of Business Casual Stag Devil Death Boy online at comiXpress. It's $17.99 plus shipping.
If you live in the Cambridge/Boston area, you can pick up a copy at Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square, Pandemonium Books in Central Square, or *update* in Hub Comics in Union Square (it's soon to be in New England Comics and Brookline Booksmith too). It's a few dollars more, but I would consider it a "solid" if you helped me get a foothold in the stores and I will buy you a reasonably priced "liquid" sometime. (Also, all 3 of those stores are owned by righteous dudes, so giving them money is righteous. QED.)
It was a medium-large sized hit at the Boston Zinefair this weekend. People are talking. I don't want to call it a "buzz" yet, but it's definitely a murmur. Well, a warble. It's at least a warble.
[UNINTENTIONAL COMEDY UPDATE - I was just checking out the wowio link for the free online preview of BCSDDB, and it turns out that Talbots is the sponsored link for the page. Talk about your business casual!]
[UPDATE TWO - And thanks to the unsolicited and favorable props and promotion on their sites from two people I met at the zinefair: yunchtime and alternating current. For the record, I did eventually finish that peanut butter sandwich.]
Your Venerable Typing Krafwerker is safely back on the East Coast after two great weeks in Northern California. I went to work on some art projects and hang out with friends MCSmackdown and AKBoognish, and let me tell you: it's good work if you can get it! What the fuck do I care about the market crashing? I live below the federal poverty level and I'm jetsetting (jetbluesetting (love that direct tv for 6 hours)) all over the country. The majority of the time was spent up in Napa working on the art projects, hanging with MCSmackdown and his heart-melting 4 year old daughter, and eating like a king from his garden, his 15 chickens' fresh eggs, his tasty wine, and his phenomenal cooking. (Also, the weather in Napa? It's like completely cloudy and 60 every morning (got up around 8), then completely "not-a-cloud-in-the-sky" blue sky and 85 by 10:30. Then clear starry nights and 55 by 10 PM. Every day was like that. Great climate this time of year.) Sandwiching my great and productive time up in Napa were a few nights in San Francisco with Mr. and Mrs. AKBoognish and friends, their hospitality and good times. I've been debating whether to blog about the art and shenanigans of the predominant Napa time or what I think you'll find most entertaining, what happened to be going down the weekend I flew out there: The San Francisco Lebowskifest.
I think it's a fairly safe assumption that most of the readership of this blog will have seen The Big Lebowski, the now cult classic Coen Brother's movie. Most of you can probably quote it like an old Monty Python movie at this stage. The Cult of the Dude is alive and well ten years in. In fact, it was alive and well four years after the movie came out, when the first Lebowskifest occurred in Louisville KY, and the Star-Trek-Conventiony, Rocky-Horror-Picture-Showy, White-Russian-soaked event has exploded over the last 5 years and is now staging fests all around the country. There is usually a movie viewing, bands, a bowling event, trivia, and costume contests. There are special celebrity guests from time to time (including one appearance from Jeff Bridges which he later called his "Beatles Moment"). A common "celebrity" is the original Dude, the inspiration for the character, Jeff "The Dude" Dowd. Just imagine the rock-star status he enjoys at these fests. Here he is, flanked by two of the Dudes we were hanging out with:
I got into San Francisco too late for the first night's concert/movie viewing, so we settled for the costume bowling party on the second night. We fashioned "Jesus" inspired bowling outfits out of some jumpsuits that AKBoognish had, met up with his friend (above left) who had a good "Dude" look going (complete with rug to tie the room together), mixed up 2 thermoses of white russian mix, and headed off to the alley. As we waited in line, we met some guys who were dressed up as Jackie Trehorn's party guests (complete with a blanket that they used to hoist up their full inflated and sexy blow up doll), some nihilists, and a top notch "dude" who said his name was "Dog" (above right). We ended up bowling with Dog and a couple other TBL enthusiasts (one who had an official "Achiever" t-shirt and one who had an official Tampa Bay Devil Rays jersey that had "The Dude" stitched on the back (this was no costume - he actually purchased this. I was impressed)). It was a great crew and both Dog and the Devil Rays Dude have their photosites/blogs linked to from the official Lebowskifest recap of the SF event.
The evening was general madness. There were two bars devoted strictly to serving white russians. The human body is not designed to have double digits of the caucasian cocktails. It's just not. (it's definitely not designed to have a few glasses of wine on top of that) But it was a blast. I don't have any of the AKBoognish photos or videos on my laptop, but here are some I culled from the websites linked from the main site. Be sure to check out the Devil Rays Dude's blog entry, which includes a video that has AKBoognish and I doing our Hotel California Bowling Ball shining impersonation.
yeah. And a few more I found online of us in our costumes:
and some other costumes that you might recognize:
and finally:
"You see? You see little Larry? This is what happens when you ..."
I hadn't wanted to risk fueling the absurd palinmania by adding another palin google link to the world wide web, but it does warrant some mention considering that there's a reasonable chance that she'll be sitting in the White House some day (*shudder*). So, for my first and hopefully last comment on the 5 college, book banning, creationist, zealot, I'm going to regurgitate today's editorial from the paper of record, which says it all:
As we watched Sarah Palin on TV the last couple of days, we kept wondering what on earth John McCain was thinking.
If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.
It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.
What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.
The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.
One of the many bizarre moments in the questioning by ABC News’s Charles Gibson was when Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, excused her lack of international experience by sneering that Americans don’t want “somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”
We know we were all supposed to think of Joe Biden. But it sure sounded like a good description of Mr. McCain. Those decades of experience earned the Arizona senator the admiration of people in both parties. They are why he was our preferred candidate in the Republican primaries.
The interviews made clear why Americans should worry about Ms. Palin’s thin résumé and lack of experience. Consider her befuddlement when Mr. Gibson referred to President Bush’s “doctrine” and her remark about having insight into Russia because she can see it from her state.
But that is not what troubled us most about her remarks — and, remember, if they were scripted, that just means that they reflect Mr. McCain’s views all the more closely. Rather, it was the sense that thoughtfulness, knowledge and experience are handicaps for a president in a world populated by Al Qaeda terrorists, a rising China, epidemics of AIDS, poverty and fratricidal war in the developing world and deep economic distress at home.
Ms. Palin talked repeatedly about never blinking. When Mr. McCain asked her to run for vice president? “You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission,” she said, that “you can’t blink.”
Fighting terrorism? “We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.”
Her answers about why she had told her church that President Bush’s failed policy in Iraq was “God’s plan” did nothing to dispel our concerns about her confusion between faith and policy. Her claim that she was quoting a completely unrelated comment by Lincoln was absurd.
This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis.
In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.
All of the videos were shot from the stands without zoom or commentary so you couldn't really tell what was going on. So I googled "Bill Walker pees" and checked out the deadspin link (they're all over this sort of weird sports news) Amazingly, it appears that with seconds left in a close college game, Bill Walker decided that he couldn't hold it, shoved some towels down his shorts, in front of 15,000 people, and drained the weasel. No stagefright there. Wow. How did I miss this story?
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