Worst. Finals. Ever. (?)

You know, I'm really getting sick of this "this is one of the worst years in basketball, neither of these teams could hang with the greats" line.

On one side, you've got one of, if not the, best power forward of all time. He's got to be in the top ten of all time of "guys I would pick first if I were starting a team." As his running mates we have a sick fast slashing frenchie who was Duncan's second banana when they won the Championship ... when he was 19. They are teamed with an up and coming superstar (with a heck of a schnozz) who won a gold medal in a team sport by himself. They run with one of the best defenders of all time, one of the most scary clutch shooters of all time and a somewhat more than serviceable center. At least as serviceable as, say, Luke Longley.

On the other side you have what is widely consider to be the best defensive team of all time and one of the teams with the most heart ever. They have been written off in half the playoff series they have been involved in in the last two years. This is the team that beat Kobe and Shaq (still in their respective primes) and broke up that dynasty. But they also have a fearless point guard with icewater in his veins, the most well-conditioned player with the best midrange game currently in the NBA, Tayshaun who is a threat on both ends of the floor, Rasheed freaking Wallace as their THIRD offensive option and who in the history of the NBA can compare with Wen Ballace? No one.

So they bump and grind each other and make each other look bad to the casual fan. But screw the casual fan. The problem with the first four games is that they were blowouts not that they were overly defensive. And those games were just setting the stage. Anyone who couldn't appreciate the last two games needs to go back to cross-stich.

Game 7 baby. Tonight.

Mendleson Music Critique

The middle Weinberg bro's thoughts on some recent releases
and trends.....

Mucho Popular:

New Coldplay: YAWN. Like the hit song but nothing else is
doing it for me. Yet. Pretty confident this won't happy.

New Beck: YAWN. Dude, you lost your mojo after Midnight
Vultures. Back then, the music was infused with this unique
creative signature and energy. I don't know what to write other
than its gone and your attempting to settle into this Dylan niche
is swell, but I'm not buying or listening to your recs anymore.

New White Stripes: YE-AH! I really like. Super-over-hyped band,
but genuinely talented and genuinely different sounding from
all the crap on the radio. But can we let Meg take the lead
vocals on more than one song, Jack?

Hip Hop:

Common: Havn't heard enuf yet. Seems like it could be good.
I'm tickled to learn the dude used to be a member of the Alkoholics.

Blackalicious & Gift of Gab: I'm going to give these folks a real
try. Starting from the beginning. Bought Black's first album today
for 7 bucks. Great song, "Don't let money change ya" Good sign:
I've downloaded nice-sounding songs off Limewire that don't seem
to be on any studio release records.

Indy:

Any band called, "The something." You are fucking worthless.
I hate you. In 10 years, no one will remember you, and my youth
will be gone. Rasheed's defensive decision making angers me
less than your shallow, shitty tunes.

The Shins are OK, if a little too fruity. The Deadly Snakes are
playing The Union this summer.

The baddest mother

From Shaq's "Sunday Conversation" with ESPN last week:

ESPN: People said that "he is really motivated this year because he really wants to stick it to the Lakers." How true is that?

Shaq: I don't let earthlings motivate me. I only let factors motivate me. The only thing that motivates me is, when I'm done playing, I want people to say, 'He's the Baddest Mother (expletive) to ever play the game.' Right now I am hearing that from some of the people. When I am done playing I want to hear that from all of the people. So right now I have three championships. That's cool. I could probably retire now and wait 10 years and most likely be named into the Hall of Fame. Whoopty do. Right now I am not satisfied with my career just winning three championships, because I have been there five times, and I should have five right now. Should have five. Should have six, including this year, but it didn't happen that way.

First, off, this dude is a hilarious genius. He's not the baddest mother, that was probably Jordan if only because he was a lot meaner and less human. Shaq's got this idiot savant who's actually not an idiot thing going on and I love it.

Don't think he's right about these Finals, though. I think they have been kind of boring, but only because they haven't been particularly close after the first half of Game 1.

triumph

I always find Triumph the Insult Comic dog to be quite hilarious. Check out his most recent appearance on Conan where he goes and makes fun of Michael Jackson supporters. This one definitely has a sincere twinge of sadness in it, though. When he went to the Republican National Convention, they deserved his vitriol. When he made fun of the Star Wars fans, they were all more or less in on the joke. This group of desperate people, though, is quite pathetic and, for the most part, unamused by his antics. The pajamas bit at the end, though, is quite classic, though not in any way classy.

what do the Democrats offer to the poor?

Why have a blog again? Well, to resume linking to Political Animal, of course. Here Kevin is passing along a story that profiles a famous southern consultant to the Democrats, David "Mudcat" Saunders. The post offers a pretty powerful breakdown, I think, of what's wrong with the Democratic condescension to southerners and others they accuse of voting "against their economic interest."

The money quote:

Seriously now, try to answer this question in a concrete way: if you were an average joe in a rural part of the South or the Midwest, how would it help you to vote for a Democrat? What would you get out of it?

A higher minimum wage? Maybe, but even in the rural South most people already make more than the minimum wage. Medicare and Social Security? They already exist. Money for roads? Republicans do that too. More labor friendly laws? That doesn't resonate much in the South, and in any case they probably don't believe that Dems can deliver on that anyway.

There are marginal differences, to be sure. Kerry's health care plan would be better for these folks than medical savings accounts. But only marginally so. The Dems need to get back to making (and keeping) big promises to improve people's lives. It's not enough to merely say that hope is on the way. We've gotta call up hope, find out exactly where it is and give it specific directions as to how to get here.

Hocking Valley Studs

Micah, Seth, and I are from a small town in SE Ohia.
"The part of Ohio that really belongs in West Virginia"
as Brian Gallagher might say and has said. But that's
neither here nor there. There are universal qualities of
small towns, and this is a universal-small-town-quality
story of a sort. Well, not so much a story as something
in writing to kick-start the brothers weinberg blog.

So as a Christmas present to our ma, Wanda (isn't this name
due for a popularity explosion sometime soon? how many
wanda's do you know..? not many, right? And it sure
beats Dakota or Gabe as a woman's name, right?), my bros
and I went to el local photo studio and got some nice
bro shots done. One came out really well, and for some
reason the rents ordered a print that's basically the size
of a lifesize cardboard cutout of the three of us. Its kinda
shocking walking into the foyer at 47 Elmwood place and BAM
there we are wryly grinning atcha.

Not as strange, however, as this print showing up on the
wall of a local well-patronized bank (the guy who runs
the photo gallary, Lamborns.. Mr. Lamborn I'm guessing.. works
over his local-yokel customers with this gross violation of property
rights clause of 'I can hang the photos you paid for with good
money all over town as advertis-ment'). Man, this portrait
in the Hockey Valley Bank became talk of the town. This thing
has vaulted the Weinberg bros {even higher} as local celebs.
And Micah and I havn't even lived there for 10 years. Seth does,
and the poor kid was getting so much attention (from 40ish old women,
mostly... eek) that he had to go incognito and shave off his
swashbuckling J. Depp a la Pirates of the Carribean facial hair
to keep them away. Man.

Anyway, maybe ma, Wanda, can scan one of the prints so we can
share not only with the Athens, Ohio, community, but also with
the WORLD. Wouldn't that be fun. I'll work on it.

Incidentially, I'm the most handsome W-Bs of the lot. They don't
call me Toby McGuire-meets-Beck-meets-Campbell Scott for nothin'!
(did I just help or hurt my cause?) Woo-hoo!!!

texas as beacon of civilization

Interesting quote from Italy regarding the significance of a referendum that failed to repeal Italy's restrictive laws regarding assisted fertility.

"The results of today mean that Italy is maybe more similar to Texas than to Massachusetts," said Rocco Buttiglione, Italy's culture minister and a friend to Pope Benedict. "Italians want a democracy with values - that values human life - and that is why they rejected this referendum."

And so the state that is routinely lambasted by the Supreme Court for ignoring the rights of the accused to a fair trial in its bloodthirsty rush to execute poor minorities, the state whose spawn is responsible for the current torture and deaths of innocent thousands the world over is held up as the beacon of life protection. Interesting.

all for one

Hence begins the blogging of the Weinborg. We always used to refer to our parents that way until our friends pointed out that that was a distinction without a difference. Uh huh.