Photo of the Week

Been a while... today's picture is courtesy of D. Nett @ the Post Standard...

So with the turn of the calendar, college hoops season is in full gear, so I am putting a stake in the ground to declare my enthusiasm for this year's Syracuse Orange squad. The picture you see above are the two cornerstones of the team, both freshman, and both incredibly exciting: Donte Green & Jonny Flynn. I'll be the first to tell you that sometimes the Cuse can be
an unenjoyable group to root for that I root for nonetheless... but this year's team is a pure joy to watch. These two guys especially. I think these two combined are in the same league as Melo/McNamara were combined at the same stage, so we could see some interesting development over the course of the season. Enjoy it while you can, beauty in college hoops is fleeting.

And how talented, check out this video of Green sitting in with the pep band:

Links: Cuse-ified

Indulge me for a paragraph and I'll throw something decent and a lil' more LJ your way...

First day of the NCAA's and I can't let it slide without at least mentioning "The Snub" as we're calling it with a capital "S." The shit's been hashed over aplenty, with the best work again by Baxter and Waters over at Syracuse.com. My favorite thing about this has been watching Boeheim just all over the place pleading his case. I don't recall as heavy a PR blitz just laying into the selection committee quite like this. I liken it to a good coach working the refs early in the game on some questionable calls and then getting all of them to fall his way during crunch time... I just don't see how we get screwed again. Anyway, last Cuse post until next year unless we end up winning the NIT!

Check out Boeheim on PTI here
His press conference here
Jimmy on the radio making a pretty damn good case


We could go on... by the way, if you'd like to be in my NCAA pool, get in touch before noon on Thursday. Onto some more links...

• If you haven't seen this video yet, get geeky
• David Byrne speak -- you listen
• Tasty music links, downloads and streams for the discerning listener:
• Jarnow's Frow show
• In anticipation of their new album, Prog, The Bad Plus will be teasing with new tracks on their Myspace every couple of weeks
• Friend of OTW, Ted R. does better than good work with his EC podcast every week, it's more than just a bunch of Panic tracks... he may have outdone himself this week
• Speaking of Ted, he dropped this great This American Life clip on me which I enjoy as both a scientist and a parent.

Which leads us to the third chapter in the Conversations with LJ (previously here and here). Seems to be our most popular segment here at OTW (she's earned her own blog tag!), and I'm happy to oblige, although I can't force the magic. I think it might be all downhill after last week, but we'll see what we get. Luckily for you, the lil' one obliged from the back seat once again...

LJ: Is this on TV?
Dad: Wha?
LJ: Like, do you think people are watching us right now on TV.
Dad: No.
LJ: How do you know?
Dad: Well, uhh... where are the cameras?
LJ: Cameras?
Dad: ...
LJ: I want to be on TV.
Dad: Do you think people would want to watch this?
LJ: Yeah! Everyone in the world could watch me....
Dad: Mmmm
LJ: ...except the people who don't know me.

Links: With Friends Like These

• Do you know that guy who Makes It Happen? The guy who not only has time to travel the country making good music happen on stages big and small, hit just about every meaningful show in the City, pimp strong for his friends and cook bacon-inspired meals for them when the mood strikes, scour every bit of poop on the internet and post heady comments on silly blogs like this, now has his own blog as well. If anyone should be gracing us with anecdotes from the road or turn us on to what we should be turned on to, it's him, so check it out. Of course, I only love him because he's a Syracuse native.
  
• While you're wasting time in the blogdome, C-Dawg has got reviews and mixes just like me, but he gets out more often and has better taste in music.
• A month or two back I did my best to sum up what I loved about Friday Night Lights, but Heather Havrilesky, one of my favorite writers on the web, does a much better job, seeing how her mission in life is to get people involved in good teevee... and this is better than good, it's grrrreat!
• Some nifty NYC-centric photography
• Being March, I'm happy to report that the Orange are still alive in the Big East and likely heading to the NCAA's once again. Did you see their new uniforms? You know when I was a kid.... some really good Cuse blogs:here, here and here
  
• Finally, a pretty funny YouTube to get you through til Friday (via BoingBoing) a brilliant pre-computer edit of Ron & Nancy urging you to "Just Say Yes!" Definitely worth 7 minutes of your time:
  

Photos: Deep fried Orange... and bacon

Before I get into the meat of today's post, I'd like you to know that we're all about the OTW reader here.... er I'm all about the reader here, so if you say "make it happen!" I make it happen. That being said, I did my 1st draft on the deep fried bacon, photographic proof of such tasty deathliness, or is that deathly tastiness?

The shit was damn tasty, although I'm quite certain it'll be tastier next time. I need to use thicker/better bacon next time. I just threw what I had in the fridge in there which was Oscar Meyer brand. The package claimed "America's Favorite Bacon" which is kind of like claiming that in 2004 George Bush was "America's favorite presidential candidate" -- needless to say it was almost deep fried fat, which isn't saying that's a bad thing. But we can do better... and will!

Onto the game...

Just watched the biggest Cuse game of the year as the Orange absolutely crushed the consensus top team in the Big East and a legit top ten team, so I had to steal some photos off the AP wire and sell them off as my own blog post. It being Georgetown made it that much sweeter, but really what decade was this game played in??

Two technical fouls plus a player named Patrick Ewing (Jr.) all made for some weird Remember the 80's action. In fact, there were at least three players who were sons of former 80's stars: Jeremiah Rivers (son of young coaching phenom Doc Rivers, soon to be late of the Boston Celtics), Ewing (nearly identical to his father except he's lacking his pop's extraordinary abilities to sweat... and play basketball... I kid, I kid, he's actually pretty good) both on Georgetown and Andy Rautins from Syracuse, son of former Orangeman, and present Canadian renaissance man Leo Rautins.

In my pre-Ned days of old I spent many a winter night in the Carrier Dome booing the hell out of John Thompson and watching some sublime in-the-prime Big East action, so tonight was especially sick ass.

Bring on March!

Photos: Rambling to the Garden and Back

At the beginning of the season I promised the occasional foray into Cuse hoops talk. There hasn't been much because the team is what I'd call lacking -- lacking talent, lacking personality, and worst of all lacking watchability. This was all in full effect on Sunday afternoon when we made a trip to the self-proclaimed World's Most Famous Arena for the nearly-annual Syracuse/St. John's tilt. Seen is a picture I took of the "action." I use that term loosely -- it was one of the most unentertaining college basketball games I've been to in a long while, so the picture sums it up pretty well. Needless to say, they beat us, and all signs point to a long season.

I will take this moment to mention the Orange hoops blog at Syracuse.com, which has become an essential stop for any fan of the team.

In all honesty, the best part of our trip to the Garden was seeing this sign which helps feed my foods-wrapped-in-other-foods fetish. The knish-wrapped hot dog is just what could lift my spirits.


Actually, the train ride into town wasn't a total loss because we had an amazing BBQ meal at Daisy May's which I rate as the best Cue in the 5 Boroughs... prove me wrong. The Oklahoma beef rib is like meat candy. In the interest of equal time, I did also catch up on my New Yorker reading with an interesting article on vegetarianism.

Made the train back home and watched the absolutely thrilling AFC East championship game. Which brings us back ever-so-gracefully to Syracuse. See, I don't really have a pro football team (or NBA team for that matter). I just have Syracuse to root for and I didn't even go to school there. The best sport at the school I did go to was sailing of all things, so I've been saddled with a strange rooting complex. Most Syracusans tie on to Buffalo or the Giants, and while I'll root for both, I feel no allegiance. In the spirit of contrarianism I actually spent a lot of my misguided youth rooting for the Cowboys which was fun until they actually got good. Spending school in Boston, I rooted for the hapless Pats and have a soft spot in my soul for poor Drew Bledsoe from being forced to watch his ineptitude for 4 straight years. So in the complicated calculus of my fandom, I end up following Syracuse alumni in the pros which makes for some strange conflicts. The two I enjoy the most are McNabb's Eagles and, as it so happens, the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts have like 5 or 6 former Orangemen playing significant roles on the team, including superstars Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney. Nice to remember a time when we actually had decent players on our team -- watching these guys is like a throwback to happier times in Cuse-following. So, long story short, I consider myself, of all things, and Indy fan (I can even get behind Peyton with little remorse), so Go Colts! I guess I'm going to need to hash this out before I pass on some demented rooting rules to my children and they grow up to be conflicted mass murderers who can't commit to a meaningful relationship... but hopefully death merchants with a proper admiration for foods wrapped in other foods.

Links: Let's Go Orange! (+ bonus FUNKYouTube)

Last night was marked the official start of the college basketball season for my beloved Syracuse Orange as they opened their short preseason schedule. I love the NFL, dig hard on baseball (read: Mets), college football and the NBA, but college hoops is where it's at for me and being a native Syracusan, it's all about the Orange. Let this post serve as a warning that I might delve deep into SU minutiae from here up until whatever painful exit they inflict on us faithful in March.

Some links:

• Pictured above is Paul Harris (hard to fathom that kid was in high school 6 months ago) who is the new wunderkind freshman for the team. We'll see if he lives up to the "next Carmelo" expectations, but here's a taste of the hype. Boeheim seems to indicate he's a one-and-done, but we'll see.
  
• Who knows if this shit means anything, but here's a neat slideshow of a little hardcore hoops boot camp.
• Who can deny that Jimmy Boeheim is the man? Here's a Q&A from USAToday.
• Basic optimistic preview from rivals.com.
• And while things are looking good for this year, perhaps the best thing to be excited about is that the future is bright: SU incoming recruiting class for next year is currently ranked #1

Feel free to discuss the upcoming hoops season below [snicker, snicker]. They'll be more, you've been warned.

And for those of you who couldn't care less but are looking to boogie, apropos of nothing except me and my girl just got down to this... funkucational!