Go Hawks!

Football season is upon us. One blowout, one game that was a LOT closer than it should have been. But I am not complaining, because anytime you turn the ball over 4 times in a game you should lose without question. So the overtime victory with the amazing defensive stand is good enough for me. However, probably not good enough to beat Iowa State, so step it up boys.

At last...

Hawkeye football has come around (all apologies to Etta James). First tailgate of the year with the new seat buddies. No worries, once I figure out where the old tailgate buddies are hanging on Game Day, I plan to come hang out for a bit during each game day. Meanwhile, this is the first year I have "big boy" tickets. That is to say, the first time I have sat somewhere in Kinnick Stadium that was not with the HMB or in the student section. Nice seats, 35 yard line, row 7, a little too close to the visiting fans section, but pretty good seats nonetheless.
Good game, but I had to leave in the 2nd quarter to go to the wedding of a high school friend of my girlfriend. Nice wedding, good time and I feel like I didn't miss anything too important from the game.
In conclusion, it was a good kickoff to the season, a decent tailgate that served as a practice run for the rest of the season. Looking forward to a great football season and seeing a lot fo old friends around Kinnick. GO HAWKS!

So I got mugged...

Last night in Madrid. Go out with some friends for some tapas and a few drinks. Head home early so I can get a little sleep before going to the airport. So it's about 3:30am and my friends and I walk home, they head off to their houses and the dorm and I have about 6 blocks to walk by myself. I get about 100 meters from my house and these 3 guys come up to me, shove me against the wall and tell me to sit down. I immediately hand over all the money I had, which was about 6 euros in change. Apparently this was less than they were looking for. They start beating me and I yell for help. One of them puts a knife to my throat and tells me to stop screaming. I keep repeating that I have no money. I guess my word isn't good enough for them, as they keep beating me and then start choking me. They finally get my wallet out of my pocket and open it to find, guess what, no money. They give me my wallet back (without even taking my bank card or anything), tell me they're sorry (??), and run off. A taxi driver sees them run off (since this was a pretty busy street in a upper middle class neighborhood of Madrid) and tells me that there is a police car behind him at the intersection. I go over to the cops and tell them what happened, and they ask me if I want to get in the car with them. At this point I just want to go home, so I say no and then go home. Upon arrival at my apartment, I realize that there is no water at that time for whatever reason, so I am unable to wash the blood off my arms and head. I go to bed and get up in the morning and go to the airport.
I have to say that I am lucky. This kind of stuff happens in any big city. The people in my apartment were shocked that this happened around the corner, and didn't believe me at first when I told them. Madrid is relatively safe, and I am lucky to have gotten away with just a few scrapes, bruises and a knot on the head. Hell, I even managed to lose only a few euros because I had spent all the cash I had at the bars. If the same situation had happened to me in New York or Chicago, I doubt that I would be able to say the same thing.

Weekend in the sun

Spent the weekend at my Spanish family's summer house in the mountains outside of Madrid. I went out on the bus Thursday afternoon and came back today. Great weekend. Spent most of it reading by the pool and soaking up some rays. I skipped pool time one morning to write my final paper for my Medieval Lit class (about the role of El Cid, a famous Spanish medieval warrior, in the facist military ideology of Francisco Franco--if you're interested, I can email you a copy...hehe). Then I also worked a bit on my final project for Linguistics class, which is a bitch that I am now halfway finished with. That piece of shit gets finished tomorrow, no matter what.
But really, other than a few hours working on those projects, most of the weekend was in the pool or next to it. It was awesome and I have a nice tan to show for it :)
Coming home in Thursday. Good to be done with classes. Good to be coming home to see the girlfriend. Not good to be leaving Madrid. I always feel a little homesick when I have to leave here. Someday maybe I won't have to leave... someday...

A few more days...

The great thing about my masters program is that I can take classes just during the summer and I don't have to try to balance work and school. The big drawback is that the term is only 6 weeks long and the courses still cover a semester's worth of material. That translates into me reading one novel per class, per week. Multiply by three classes and that equals: hell. I have four days of class left. Tomorrow I have a short quiz on my medieval literature class and a final exam in my one class that is only a 2 credit course, meaning that it finishes earlier than the other courses, not that there is less work, by any means (in fact, I have read more for this class than the others). Then next week, I have to turn in an 8-12 page paper in Medieval Lit, and a huge final project in my linguistics class. People who have started this project already (e.g., nerds) have said that they are about 1/2 finished and are on page 13. Shit. I should get started. This could be a long weekend...

The Spanish-American Wedding

Dinner/joint bachelor-bachelorette party

Wednesday night (the day before the concert) we all met up for dinner at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Yes, the home of Real Madrid, Spain's soccer "powerhouse" (although they haven't won a title in over 3 years) has its own restaurant. And it was actually pretty good food. My two favorite Spanish soccer teams happen to be the bitter rivals of Real Madrid. Atlético de Madrid, the crosstown foe, and FC Barcelona, the two-time defending Spanish Champions as well as reigning European Champions.
So I arrive on time, which in Spain means I was a good half-hour early, along with Raúl, a friend of Sergio, Roberto's brother.
Timeout: Family tree time. Roberto is my friend the groom, who lives in North Liberty, was on the diving team at Iowa and now works in CR. Sergio is his brother who I met at Roberto's graduation from Iowa and now hang out with regularly in Madrid. Jackie is the bride who I used to work with at Sports Camps at Iowa and she now teaches Spanish at a high school in CR (but not the same one as me)
OK, now that you're caught up, on with the dinner. Sergio was in charge of the event, therefore all of his friends started showing up. I knew most of them because I have gone out with them several times in the past few summers that I have spent in Madrid. So I am there catching up with the group and some of Roberto's friends start showing up. Meanwhile, the bride and groom's tardiness is approaching an hour. The Spaniards decide to go in and sit down. Shortly after, Jackie and Roberto show up with the troop of Americans who had come for the wedding. Having arrived with the Spaniards (and knowing more of them than I did of the Amercians), I sat with them. I soon saw that the room was divided in half. One table of Americans and one table of Spaniards, plus me. I was fine with that. We ordered some drinks, watched a bizarre dance/acrobatics show, then finally ate. I was starving at this point. Dinner was nice, not too expensive, then we went out for drinks.
The joint bachelor/bachelorette party was a good idea. No tacky, out of control party atmosphere like in the US, just a good group of people going out and getting shit-faced. Or at least, I think they got shit-faced. Being a Wednesday night, I had to bail early (2am-ish) because I had class the next morning.
Concert Thursday--see previous post. It was awesome.
Friday was the day of the big wedding. I, of course, was early. This time I was actually early because I didn't know how long it would take to get to the church. The church was gorgeous. 19th Century, Neoclassical architecture, decorated with paintings by Francisco Goya, one of Spain's most famous artists. This was the church where I first went to mass in Spain on my high school trip we went here for Easter. Real Basilica de San Francisco el Grande, or if your Spanish is really terrible, the Royal Basilica of Saint Francis the Great.
The wedding was beautiful, with a blend of American and Spanish traditions. For example, Jacke had her sister and one of her friends walk down the aisle (unheard of in Spain--it's just the bride and groom there). One of the readings was in English, but the rest of the mass was in Spanish. They exchanged rings and, as is Spanish custom, exchanged coins as a symbol of sharing the wealth and finances of the family.
Then we all boarded buses and went to the reception at a beautiful banquet facility on the outskirts of Madrid. There was a pond with fountains and swans as we walked into the garden area. The cocktail hour was great, with all kinds of awesome appetizers. We took our seats for dinner, and I was with Jackie's sister and aunt, along with the entire family of the girl Roberto coaches in diving. The girl is a former Kennedy student and her brother goes there now, so I knew them somewhat. At least enough to make conversation, which is better off than I would have been with any of the other Yankees. The dinner was spectacular. Roberto's dad is the owner of a winery and is a wine distributor, so the wine was some of the best Spain has to offer, needless to say it was unbelievably good. Gazpacho, salad with shrimp, crab and lobster, then steak with foie -gras (which I happily scraped to the side) and a potato cake. Not quite as good as the potato cakes at Atlas, but the steak was to die for. Dessert was chocolately and then after dinner liquers and coffee. The Americans (this time I was seated with them), apparently not used to drinking so much wine with dinner, were out of their seats before dessert was served and became a bit unruly. A traditional singing group, La Tuna, came in and went around the room during dinner singing traditional Spanish songs. When they got to the American corner of the room at the end of dinner, that side of the room became a free-for -all. Everybody was up taking pictures, dancing and singing (I have no idea what words they were making up), while the Spaniards just sat and stared, with a "what the hell is going on" look.
Everybody got a free bottle of wine to take home, with Jackie and Roberto's name on the label.
The dance was great, lots of drinking and the Spaniards showed why they were pacing themselves at dinner. Again, the mixture of traditions as Jackie and Roberto showed a video they had made of pictures of them and their friends, etc. Pretty standard at American weddings, but the Spaniards had no idea what this was all about.
The last bus back to the city was going to leave at 5am, a little earlier than expected, but there was a delay because there wasn't enough room for everybody. Somehow, people found rides in cars and those of us on the bus entertained ourselves while we waited for things to get sorted out by singing soccer chants. Anytime Spaniards are in a group with nothing to do, sooner or later, the soccer chants come out. I had a few in me, so of course I joined in. This time it was the Americans' turn to use the "what the hell is going on" look. They surprisingly were still alert, given the late hour, although there was one really trashy seventeen-year old who needed a babysitter or at least someone to keep her from removing her dress in front of everyone on the dance floor.
I declined the post reception party at the Americans' hotel (which later reports show as basically a contest to see which Spaniard could get into drunk girl's room first) and went home. I got back around 7am and crashed. I slept through the better part of Saturday and eventually got a little but of reading done for class, although not nearly what I was assigned.
All in all, it was a great time, and well worth being behind all week-long in my classes.

I told you so

OK, so it wasn´t later that day, but at least I am updating this damned thing.

Classes are kicking my ass. Last week was midterm week, which in a term that is only 6 weeks long, doesn´t give you much time to process the material. Monday I had a short quiz in Medival Lit. and a presentation in Masters Readings. Tuesday I had a paper due in Medieval Lit. Wednesday I had a test in Linguistics and a dinner to go to for my friends´ wedding. Thursday I only had one class--thank God.
Today I have another test in Masters Readings and just bombed a short quiz in my Medival Lit class--in which I have another paper due on Thursday.
I think next week I actually don´t have anything due. However, the following week is finals and I will have two papers and a test to deal with. And who knows if there will be anymore impromptu presentation or short quiz assignments. Why did I sign on for this? I could do the same amount of work over the course of 12-16 weeks and be much more relaxed. Oh well, I will be done in 2.5 weeks, I just have to survive until then. I got my paper back today from Medieval Lit. 9.5 out of 10, so not too bad I guess. I thought it was total crap when I wrote it, but myabe it was less crap than what everybody else turned in.

This weekend was going to be the weekend that I did some catching up on my reading for class. I had my friends´ wedding here on Friday night and then I was going to study Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. Riiiight. Here´s what really went down:
Thursday
Best. Concert. Ever.
Went to see El Canto del Loco at Las Ventas (the bullring in Madrid). The concert had been sold out since March, but a classmate of mine and I decided to check it out and see if we could score tickets. After walking around the entire ring once, we were just standing around trying to figure out what to do next and a guy came up to us and asked in a very low voice if we needed tickets. I said yes, and he offered us two for 30 Euros each--face value 25. Not a bad deal. I asked if they were real tickets and he got snippy with me. As I pulled out my money he says¨Hurry up before the police come¨ This makes me feel really good about the validity of the tickets. We pay him in a very clandestine fashion, (I felt like I was making a drug deal) and head towards the gate. The tickets seemed real, the paper was all shiny and everything, with the logo of the department store chain that sold the tickets, but the ink was smudged and was kinda coming off on my hands. I was starting to feel very doubtful about our chances of getting in. But there was absolutely no problem. We went in without a second look from the ticket-takers, bought t-shirts and found some seats. We tried the floor at first, but it had rained that day, making the yellow dirt of the bullring floor an absolute mess. So we sat up in the stands and enjoyed the concert. Two encores, both provoked by endless soccer chanting and high-pitched whistles. It was a damn good time.

OK--Since the rest of the weekend deals with wedding festivities, I will post that later. This post is already too damn long.
Hasta luego.

God, I suck at this!

I realize that is has been over a month since I wrote anything here and nobody ever probably reads this anymore. But anyway, her is what I have been up to since June 2.
Moved. Found a great new apartment in Cedar Rapids. Not really where I wanted to live, but it's close to work and super crazy cheap. A week after moving in (with the girlfriend, btw), I headed to O'Hare and got on a plane to Madrid. Eventually. Apparently there was some big storm in Philadelphia, where I was going to connect to my flight to Madrid. So the flight leaving O'Hare wasn't even going to take off until 2 hours after it was scheduled to, thereby making it impossible for me to catch my connecting flight. So I head back to the ticket counter where they find me a seat on a United flight to Heathrow and then a later flight to Madrid. I was originally scheduled to arrive in Madrid at 7:30, but my new ETA was 4:00--exactly 30 minutes before I had to be at a meeting at my university. So I ask, are you sure there are no earlier flights from London to Madrid? No, sir, the noon flight that arrives at 4pm is the earliest. Ok, I guess I'll have to take it. Fast forward to me sitting in Heathrow at 6am, watching the flight screens announce flights to Madrid at 8am, 9:30am and 10:30 am. I sat waiting for my noon flight, in one of my least favorite airports in the world.
So I get to Madrid finally. I go to the ATM to get cash for the cab ride to my university, and am unable to get money. I figure it is a maching thing, since I bought breakfast in London with my card. So I take a cab that accepts cards only to find out that my card doesn't work there either. Shit. I go into the university, they pay the cab fare and I use their phone to call my bank. My financial aid money that I deposited into my account had been taken out by my bank, pending approval of the check, even though they told me they wouldn't do that when I specifically asked them a few days earlier. So I call and explain that they had left me in a foreign country with no money. They quickly fixed the problem and five minutes later I was able to withdraw the euros I needed.
Headed to my new apartment in Madrid, which is nice. It is a little dark, but it couldn't be in a better place. Walking distance to school and two metro stops close-by. Nice. I could go buy a cable to hook television up to my computer, but I decided I would try to live without TV for a few weeks. Now that the World Cup is over, it isn't so bad. Having to go to a bar or having to miss some of the games was tough, but after Spain was eliminated, I lost some interest anyway. But the good news is that I have wireless internet here and it is all included in the low low price of my rent for the 6 weeks I am here. Only 400 euros, which isn't too bad. Now if someone could only convince Spaniards that air-conditioning is a good thing...
So that is the story of my arrival. I have a few good stories from my classes and going out on the town here in Madrid-- rock concerts, weddings, 100 degree heat, and tons and tons of reading and homework. I'll post those later. Maybe even later today. No, really, I will.
But for now it's back to reading medieval Spanish literature...don't be too jealous.

Apartment hunting--ad nauseum

I am currently searching for a new place to live. My girlfriend and I have decided to do the whole living together thing. After much discussion and debate, we are looking to live in Cedar Rapids. Iowa City is just too expensive, espeically with the drive back and forth to CR for work everyday. I will also be organizing prom next year at school, so it will be an advantage to live close to all of that. I will miss Iowa City, but we promise to come visit and have dinner there at least once a week--especially since there are no good restaurants in CR.
So we found the perfect place yesterday. A house split into two, two bedroom apartments. Ours would be upstairs and it is HUGE!! There is a little patio area, a washer and dryer (almost new), walk-in closets (you know how great that is for me!!), central air, and amazing woodwork. The only drawback is that there is no dishwasher. I don't do dishes. I warned the g/f of this. She still agreed to this place. We'll see what happens there. We even talked the landlord (who lives in the downstairs apartment) down from $675 a month to $600. Score!
Now I just have to get out of my current living situation in IC. The roommate who owns the house is currently studying in China. I have been sharing the house with two other guys, after thinking that there would be 5 of us splitting utilities, it got a little pricey. We are also trying to rent the place out for the summer and next school year, so I have been showing the house to all comers. It appears that half the population of Hawkeye Court is now moving in with me. I have two new roommates from China and in August the place will be totally filled with Chinese students. The guy who just moved in spent an hour yesterday at 4 AM going up and down the stairs and in and out the front door. It woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep. I was not happy. I am now trying to deal and negotiate my quick exit from this place. Hopefully my role as realtor will get me a deep discount on July's rent.
And as if that wasn't enough housing issues, I am also trying to find a place to live in Madrid this summer. I have it narrowed down to two places and will probably pick one today or tomorrow. Not bad, only 450 euros a month and really close to my school. It turns out that this was probably the easiest process of them all. No endless parade of viewing apartmens all over Cedar Rapids and no crazy Chinese people to deal with. I can't wait to get to Madrid. Three weeks left!

Prom and more Prom

Two weekends ago, I got to chaperone prom. At the school I work at, the seniors are the only ones who go to prom. Since I am the faculty advisor for the junior class, it was really a fact-finding mission to see how the whole thing operates for next year. Not a bad night, I went to dinner with the 4 kids who will be in charge of prom next year with me and then was up until 4am.
Last weekend, the junior class did our last big fundraiser of the year to boost the size of the prom budget. It was an outdoor games, food and music party we called "Cougapalooza". The Battle of Bands was fun and we even had a celebrity judge, Scott Schulte from Z102.9. I think we ended up making about 2000 dollars, which should help out for prom next year.
Finally, I got to spend some time with adults on Saturday. I drove in to Chicago where one of my girlfriend's friends got married on Friday night. I met all of her friends from college and then we spent Saturday afternoon/night in the city. Had tapas at Café Ibérico, which was awesome, and just strolled around downtown for awhile.
Sunday morning we met one of my friends that I worked with at my last job for breakfast. Her little one-year old boy is the cutest! The drive home was too long as usual, but we stopped in Davenport to see The DaVinci Code, which I thought was lacking in many areas. Finally got home and crashed. This week is graduation, which all faculty are required to attend in full cap and gown, and then Memorial Day weekend. I am hoping for some grilling, but we'll see what happens. I can't wait for summer to get here. I am ready to be done with these kids!!

I laughed, I cried...but mostly cried

So last weekend Kennedy was the first high school in Iowa and one of the first in the whole country to stage Broadway's longest running musical, Cats. I had never seen this show before, but was familiar with some of the music and liked what I had heard. When I was in high school, I had tickets to see Cats in Des Moines but ended up not being able to go. My mom went instead and she hated it.
So I saw it for the first time on Saturday at Kennedy. The production was very well-done, the costumes and make-up were good and it was very impressive for a high school production. The kids did a great job and the performances were excellent. My problem is that I just don't like the show. There is no real story line, it's impossible to relate to any of the characters and there is no way to get emotionally invested in what was going on. There are some good songs that stay with you after the show, but no memorable characters and the ending was just ridiculous. Again, I haven't seen a professional production, but do they really suck up the cat to the "heavyside layer" in a spaceship? Are you kidding me with this?
Anyway, I laughed , I cried it, it was better than Cats, I want to see it again and again. It wouldn't take much for that to be true.

I'm an uncle! (and I still have a place to live)

My little nephew was born on Wednesday, April 12. I got to see him and hold him on Saturday when I went home for Easter. Of course, as I was feeding him, he threw up on me. I hope that isn't a sign.
My home is still standing after Thursday's tornados that tore their way through Iowa City. There was a twister that took out a big chunk of the Honda dealersip down the street from me. The same tornado took the roof off of Menards and Wal-Mart near my place too. I drove downtown Friday afternoon, or as close as I could get, since most streets were closed to clean up the debris that was strewn all over the place. It took me almost 30 minutes to get from my house on Mormon Trek to my buddy's apartment on Johnson Street. Traffic was crazy and Burlington Street was closed, making it tough to get anywhere downtown. Iowa Avenue looked like a war zone. Houses were missing roofs, front porchs were caved in, it was the worst thing I have ever seen. I had planned on attending Good Friday services at Saint Patrick's in Iowa City, which was totally destroyed.
I missed out on the worst of the storm, since I had to stay at work in Cedar Rapids until 6:30 Thursday night. I had planned on going to mass that night in Iowa City at St. Mary's, but ended up going to mass in CR. I was on my way home when my girlfriend, who was driving behind me in her car, called me and told me to pull over because of the tornado warning. We ended up waiting out the storm at the rest area on I-380. As we were sitting there, four lesbians walked in, all carrying a can of beer they brought with them from their car. Then the truckers, complete with homemade tattoos, began to come in. It was turning into a bad episode of Seinfeld. Finally, the weather cleared enough for us to make it to Iowa City. As I turned toward my house, I saw traffic lights down and the roof of the Honda dealership was sitting on the cars in the lot. I was relieved to see my house all in one piece just a few blocks further down the road. The Press-Citizen website has some good pictures of the craziness that you can check out. http://www.press-citizen.com

Randoms

Time for another update to this--I really need to find time to do this more often!

1. Tom Brands is the new wrestling coach at Iowa. I have been waiting for Zalesky to get the boot for a couple of years now, and it has finally happened. I have met Brands on a few occasions through working at the Iowa wrestling camp. He is so intense that if you can manage to look him in the eye, you would swear that he is insane. There is something just not quite right in there. The news has been showing highlights of Gable slapping him in the face before a match--I love those highlights and I think that is the attitude and swagger that has been missing from Iowa wrestling. In short, I think a good analogy to make here is Jim Zalesky:Iowa wrestling :: Kevin Kastens:Hawkeye Marching Band.
They are still decent programs, but just not as good as they used to be and lacking the pride and attitude of the past.

2. Made a big, life-changing purchase yesterday. Can't post details now, but stay tuned.

3. I should be an uncle any day now. I'll spare you the reasons why I fear for my nephew. But suffice to say, another Nascar fan is about to enter the world. Ugh. (in other words, my sister is white trash)

4. Lots of drama at work this week. If I get time this weekend, I'll post the newest reasons why I need to find a new direction for my career.

Spontaneous Roadtrip

OK, so now that Jenniffer has yelled at me, I will update this.

Picture it--Perkins in Coralville on Wednesday March 8. I'm meeting a couple of my friends for dinner. They had run into another friend from Sports Camps and she came along. Turns out this friend had won free tickets to the entire Big Ten Tournament, a hotel room in downtown Indy for the weekend and other prizes in a big package from the Hawks Nest (other prizes which included free season tickets for next year and a 100 dollar Hawk Shop gift certificate...lucky bitch)
Anyway, my friend Jackie, whom I was meeting originally did not have to work on Friday, so she convinced me to come down with a terrible flu and drive with her to Indy for the quarterfinal game against Minnesooota, since we could stay with our friend in her free hotel room.
Friday comes and we head out for Indy. We arrive downtown, have no problems parking right next to the hotel and start walking to Conseco Fieldhouse. Our plans included buying tickets on the street (scalping is legal in Indiana) and look for cheap tickets from teams who had already been eliminated. Our back-up plan was to just buy tickets from the box office for $45 each. Our thinking in this is that on a Friday night game with a 5:30 tipoff there would be few fans from either Iowa or Minnesota and tickets would be cheap.
So we see an old guy with a big white beard selling tickets on a corner and decide to ask him how much he was selling tickets for. Santa replied, "$150--it's a hot ticket". We think, "crazy old Santa-looking homeless man", and move on. As we walk, Jackie observes that there are a helluva lot of Illinois fans wandering about and we see a crowd of them around another guy selling tickets. This guy wants 130 bucks each. We finally figure out (we're geniuses, I know) that Illinois is playing the game after us, against Michigan St, and it's the same ticket as our game. We freak out and decide to get to the Fieldhouse and buy from the box office before we are stuck with either paying an insane amount or not going to the game after driving all the way there. As we get to the Fieldhouse, I ask a guy in an Iowa shirt what he is selling tix for. He says $65 and I think "Plan B". Box office=sold out and we are freaking. We decide to go for the $65 tickets (in section two-hundred-something in the upper balcony), talk the guy down to 60 bucks and meet up with the lucky ass friend and head into the game.
Lucky ass goes into the game with her free tickets in section one-hundred-something and we are rigth behind her when the scanner makes a funny noise when the dude scans our tickets. Funny noises are not good when you just bought your ticket from a guy on the street. The usher informs us that our tickets are for TOMORROW night's game. The only way you could describe the look on our faces was "sheer terror". We just got jobbed out of $65 a piece. We look at our friend who has already gone into the gate and she looks back, says "Sorry, call me" and walks into the arena. Bitch--if only we didn't have to rely on her for a place to crash.
We immediately start planning on how to find the guy, involve the police if we need to, etc, etc. Luckily, our dude is right where we left him, still whelling and dealing tickets. I approach him very calmly and say "Hey bud--I think you gave us the wrong tickets, we need tickets for tonight, not tomorrow night." He was very cool about it, apologized profusely and said he would give us tickets for tonight.
So he digs through his stack of tix and can't find anything (I am trying not to panic too much at this time), then turns to his co-scalper who gives him two tickets and says "That's all I got". Our dude hands us the tix and says "Sorry about that, have these for the same price, even though they are much better tickets. " We look at the date (something I will always do when buying tickets for the rest of my life now) and after ensuring that they were for the correct day, went back to Conseco Fieldhouse. As we go in the doors, Jackie sees someone she knows and stops to talk, while I take a closer look at the tickets. It was then that I realize our seats are in the lower section in row 16. Holy shit! Talk about a bargain (screw you and your $150 tickets, Santa!). So we enter the gates with no funny noises this time and find our seats. It was fairly early and the arena wasn't very full, so we decide to find our friend who had abandoned us earlier. We saw her--across the court and an entire section above us! We immediately did just as she told us when ditching us with our bogus tickets--we called her ass. We waved like idiots across the arena at her and the it dawned on her-- "You have better seats than I do".
The game was good--except for the random Ohio State fan who kept telling us to sit down. Excuse me--your team isn't even playing so shut the hell up. The next day we could find ourselves on TV easily in the highlights because we were standing up, wearing yellow and everybody around us was wearing orange. Which reminds me--it was really fun cheering for Michigan State in the second game as they upset the Illini. Serves the bastards right for driving up ticket prices and screwing up our plans. Lucky friend said it was funny to watch us stand up and do the Vader arm motions, since we were the only ones on that entire side of Conseco Fieldhouse cheering for the Hawks!
We crashed at the free hotel (on the floor, of course) then the next day drove to Chicago. Jackie had to catch her flight to Madrid, since she was going there for a few days to finalize her wedding plans for this summer. We checked her in at O'Hare, then went to a sports bar near the airport to watch the semifinal against MSU. We were pretty loud in our cheering and I am sure the other 10 people in the bar thought we were crazy. After the game, we got Jackie on her flight safe and sound and I drove back to Iowa and watched us take care of the Buckeyes the next day.
So the Big Ten Tournament was interesting this year. 3 games in 3 different states in 3 days. GO HAWKS!

are you happy now Jenniffer?

The Big Ten Tournament

This should be one of the most interesting editions of the conference tournament yet. Michigan State is playing on Thursday for the first time ever, The top five teams finished so close to each other in the regular season and there were few sweeps of opposing teams during the season. Ohio State looks to top off its outright championship with a tournament victory too, which would duplicate their women's team's tourney crown from Monday night. That would make the Buckeyes only the second school to sweep both basketball tournaments in the same year, with Iowa pulling it off in 2001.
Jeff( http://jeffrey.theutechs.com/blog) posted some of his counterpoints to my earlier post about Alford and this year's team. I used to think that Alford would improve and be a very good coach someday, and maybe I do still believe that to some degree. My point is that in games like this year's loss in Evanston, he still gets outcoached on a fairly consisitent basis. There is some improvement there, and Jeff is very right about that. However, the fact remains that he has yet to really develop a player to his fullest potential and his teams suffer from a lack of motivation at times. If the improvement of Alford's coaching is on the way, next year would be a good time to show it. With a very young team that will lack the leadership and intensity of Horner and Brunner and the inside defensive presence of Hansen, Alford will need to do his best coaching job yet in order to avoid yet another sub .500 season in Big Ten play.

As if I needed another reason

So, I hate Northwestern. See earlier post about the Hawks' debacle in Evanston earlier this year. But after last night, when they had a chance at redemption, a chance to knock-off Big Ten leaders Ohio State, they blew it. With just seconds left to go, they had the game in their hands and screwed us over. If they were playing us in that game, there's no way they screw it up. But no, they had one more chance to kick us while we're down and they took it by lousing up the last possessions of the game.
It is easy to blame the 'Cats for their evil ways toward the Hawks. However, the fact remains that if we pull out the game in Evanston, which was easily within our grasp, we would be still be sitting in first place. We had another chance in Minneapolis to keep our grips on the top spot, but in that game, Alford gets outcoached and the Hawks get out-hustled and out-rebounded in a loss that sent us to Champaign needing a win in probably the second-toughest arena in the conference (Breslin Center). So, when it comes down to it, although there is still a theoretical shot at claiming a share of the title, I am not putting any hopes in the Purdue upset of OSU.Not on senior day in Columbus and not with this pansy version of the Boilermakers. Although, the scene is set for a poetic justice-type of ending. Remember last year when league leading #1 Illinois went into Columbus for the season finale? A bottom-feeding Buckeye team with a first-year coach upset the Illini on a last second three-pointer. How sweet would it be for first-year head coach Matt Painter to take Purdue into Columbus and upset the Buckeyes' chances of an outright conference championship? Keep dreamin' Hawk fans (and Illini fans).
Can Alford coach a favorite in the Big Ten Tournament, or does he save the real stuff for the underdog teams that have to play in Thursday's first round? A tournament title could give us as high as a 3 seed in the NCAA's (which is where ESPN had predicted us before the two game losing streak on the road).
Which brings me to the final thought on the Big Ten season this year. Alford has enjoyed his best year as head coach due to the effort of Horner, Brunner, Haluska, and a much improved Hansen. Their gutsy play has lifted the team to a level that Alford has never seen as Iowa's coach. Many may be tempted to say, "Let's see if Alford can keep up the improvement", but without the leadership of this year, I only see a return to the typical Alford underachievers. Here's to you, Indiana--please take our coach. We need a fresh start

Here it is...

as promised, my look at this year's Oscar race.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Will win: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
Should win: Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Will win: George Clooney (Syriana)
Should win: George Clooney (Syriana)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Will win: Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
Should win: Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Will win: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
Should win: Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain)

DIRECTOR
Will win: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)
Should win: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)

MUSICAL SCORE
Will win: John Williams (Munich--also nominated for Memoirs of a Geisha)
Should win: John Williams (Munich)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Will win: Brokeback Mountain
Should win: Brokeback Mountain

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Will win: Crash
Should win: Good Night and Good Luck

PICTURE
Will win: Brokeback Mountain
Should win: Brokeback Mountain

I'm predicting a big night for the gay cowboys. Although I am warming up to Munich, after reading some different perspectives on it and seeing it from a different angle. I think it is Spielberg's best effort since Schindler's List. The final image and the thematic parallels to today's world situation are just haunting. I just think the movie was misunderstood by many (myself included) and the reaction to it has been polarized.
I also have cooled down on my feelings toward Crash. It is just too obvious and preachy, although it would not be surprising to see Oscar lean that way, especially if the Academy wants to support a social issue film without touching off a potential controversy by picking Brokeback Mountain.
I loved Good Night and Good Luck, but I just can't see it winning much, and in almost every category there is another nominee that I think was just a little better. George gets his catch-all reward with the supporting actor nod.
I'm looking forward to the show on Sunday, especially with Jon Stewart. Keep a notepad handy to tally all the Dick Cheney jokes.
But for now, it's a nice fish dinner (yeah, Ash Wednesday) and then off to Carver for the Iowa vs. Penn State basketball game. Penn State, you're really mean, nobody likes you, you suck.
GO HAWKS!!

Olympic observations

First of all, the American snowboarding chick is a dumbass. As if we aren't seen as showboating, arrogant assholes by the rest of the world already. Nice job....JACKASS!!

Second. I'm watching the men's speed skating (not the short track with the cheating Koreans, just the normal, Dan Jansen stuff). Did anyone else notice that it looked like a bunch of those guys had camel toe? What is up with that?
Also, the black dude who won the 1000M (Shani Davis) was a total dick in the interview on NBC after he won. There are all kinds of accusations about how he is not a team player, hates the other guys, dropped out of the team event to pursue his individual events, etc., and then he goes and grunts his way through the interview right after he won the gold medal, ignoring the poor woman who was trying to get more than one word answers out of him. Nice way to improve your PR. Jackass.
They did a human interest story on him before the event saying how he grew up in the rough, gang-infested streets of Chicago and how his life has been so hard and so on. This sob story goes on for another few minutes, then they say that he lives and trains in...Evanston. Now, I think Evanston is a hellhole and should be burned to the ground for many reasons. But rough and gang-fested it is not. Not by a long shot.
To the credit of NBC and to keep me from being blasted by comments correcting me, I do realize that later in the story, NBC said how he had moved to Evanston from the south side of Chicago. But that was tacked on much later in the story, after I spent 5 minutes in the living room laughing about Evanston's gang problems and its rough and tumble streets.
"Yeah, last time I was in Evanston I was eating lunch at this nice little corner café when some private college bastards flashing purple gang colors came up and cut me, then took off in their daddy's Jag and did a drive-by at the 3 story mansion down the street."

Last one--Ice Dancing. It's like someone looked at the sport of figure skating and decided that it wasn't gay enough, so they came up with this crap.

Wow--cynical comments for the Olympics on a Monday morning. Maybe I need some coffee--or a four-day weekend. Stupid public school that has classes on a federal holiday. But all kidding aside, I am watching a ton of Olympics and enjoying most of it. Hockey is getting interesting, the Michelle Kwan saga will rear its ugly head again this week, bobsled is getting started and speed skating is always fun to watch.
And if all that fails--there's always curling, right?

Two weeks to go...

And I have seen all the Best Picture nominees! I rounded out the group by seeing Capote on Friday night. I enjoyed the movie, although I thought the narrative didn't have much of an arc to it. It seemed to sit in the same place for awhile. Philipp Seymour Hoffman was outstanding as expected. His characterization of the author was excellent, but I just thought that, like the story, once he had established that great character he didn't change it. I didn't see much range within the character and he didn't seem to evolve or change through the course of the film.
My full Oscar picks will be fodder for a later post as the big night gets closer, but for now, if I had a vote for Best Picture, I would rank them like this:

5: Capote

4: Munich

3: Good Night and Good Luck

2: Crash

Winner: Brokeback Mountain


It is really close for me between the top two, I love Crash, but also think it gets a little obvious and preachy (same racist cop who humiliates upper-class black woman is the one who pulls her from burning car? please). I love the message, but just feel it needs to leave a little more for us to think about, instead of beating us over the head with it. Brokeback Mountain has those moments where you just don't know what exactly happened to Jack, or why the characters do what they do. Those moments that make the audience think and wonder and discuss--that's great filmmaking. (It's also why the Spanish movie Abre los ojos is a million times better than the Cameron Crowe English re-make Vanilla Sky) But I disgress.
I also want to put a big shout out to Good Night and Good Luck. No movie has more relevance to today's society than this one set in the 1950's. The words of Edward R. Murrow from the opening and closing scenes are downright haunting. They could easily be spoken by anyone today. The prevalence of the media and their role in culture and politics is frightening. The ease with which politicians can manipulate the public through the media was foreseen by broadcasting legend Murrow and the film shows his beliefs and how he fought against those politicians and that trend in our culture. Too bad we don't have any Edward R. Murrow's today. The power of television has been usurped and programming has been transformed into a voyeuristic, narcissistic wasteland instead of the great tool with the power to inform, educate and strengthen a democracy--as Murrow saw it. Anyway, the film lacks the scope, cinematography, supporting cast and emotional pull to bring home the statue for Best Picture, but if it doesn't win a screenplay award it would be a major injustice.

Happy Oscar Season!

The day after my birthday

Also known as Valentine's Day. First off, Happy Anniversary to my parents, who today celebrate 30 years of being married. I was glad to find out at their 25th that they did not get married because it was Valentine's Day. They actually wanted to get married on February 11th, which was my grandparents' anniversary, but since the closest Saturday happened to be the 14th, it just worked out that way. Then on the day before their 2nd anniversary, I came along.

I am taking my girlfriend out to dinner tonight, but rest assured that I have no intentions of buying any chocolates or flowers until after the price-gouging extravaganza that this holiday was meant to create has ended. This way the holiday is not ignored (keeping her happy), but yet is not the shallow, consumerist oriented crap that everyone sees it as. She does agree with me in that Valentine's Day is a load of commercialist crap, but I was also warned to not overlook it completely :)

Finally, tonight I enjoy the last of my birthday presents. My g/f bought us tickets to the Iowa basketball game tonight and after dinner, we'll head off to Carver to see what happens against the Spartans. GO HAWKS!!