Happy BIrthday Say Hey Willie Mays!

 

Willie Mays turns 90 today. Wow. How time flies. 

It was 1964 in Chicago. I was a small tyke on a road trip with the family. My Dad was taking us to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play the San Francisco Giants. I had no idea who either team was. I hardly knew what baseball was. I remember seeing Comiskey Park from the Dan Ryan and wondering if that was the place. We arrived at Wrigley. We walked up the ramp and I saw the grass. The greenest grass I've ever seen. It literally was one of the most beautiful sights I've still ever seen. I fell in love with baseball at that moment. I didn't care what they did on that green field I just wanted to sit there and look at it.

The game started. In inning 1 up came a man named Willie Mays. My Dad leaned over and said thats Willie Mays, pay attention, he's the best player maybe ever. Ok Dad. I was munching popcorn or something and trying to pay attention. Then I heard maybe the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. Mays swung at a pitch and the crack of the bat was loud as hell. The crowd roared. The ball sailed out to left field, I stopped eating, to admire what I was seeing. The ball went over the left fielders head and landed in the stands. It was a home run. Dad leaned down with a smile and said to me "Never forget this, you just saw Willie Mays hit a home run" Dad had watched Willie as a rookie at the Polo Grounds  when the Giants were in New York. He was thrilled what happened. I could tell he hoped I remembered. I do. 

My Dad never stopped asking me if I remembered that day. Nope Dad, I remember it as clear as day. Willie Mays hit a home run and I saw it just as you had back in the day. It was glorious.

But the real reason he wanted me to remember was what happened after the home run landed in the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field. After he told me to never ever forget that I saw Willie Mays hit a homer a middle aged black man sitting in front of us turned around with a huge smile on his face and looked at us. He said to me "Boy, you listen to your Daddy". Dad was even more thrilled about that. It was 1964 and the civil rights movement was starting to roll. A white man raised in Western Nebraska and a black man from Chicago came together over a home run by Willie Mays to put an impression on me I've never forgotten. 

Happy Birthday Willie Mays. You made my Dad and an anonymous man in Chicago very happy that day with that blast. 

You were the greatest player ever. Just because of that day.

Oscars 2021!

Its Oscar time and though nobody gives a shit, nobody has seen all the movies, and nobody will watch I will because I still love movies, films as we snobs say. Here's my list of irrelevant opinions for tonight.

Best Supporting Actor

Who Will Win-- Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah

Kaluuya is a great talent. He can play good or bad. He's a charismatic actor willing to take chances. He was brilliant as Fred Hampton. He's gonna win and we can all hear his British accent as half the audience goes he's British?

Who Should Win--Sacha Baron Cohen for Trial of the Chicago 7

Cohen is fearless. His portrayal of Abbie Hoffman was also brilliant. The Trial of the Chicago 7 was dialogue heavy. It was an Aaron Sorkin talkfest. Some like that some dont. I do.

Best Supporting Actress

Who Will Win--Youn Yuh-Jung for Minari

I have no idea what this movie is about . I 'll see it eventually but this Oscar category is prime for unknowns. She is as unknown as they come. I'm sure she's great.

Who Should Win--Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

This unknown Bulgarian actress was the perfect choice to hold together the only movie out in 2020 that held MAGA accountable for their treason and nuttiness. As fearless as Cohen is, so is she. Not to mention she had to put up with MAGA kook Rudy Giuliani

Best Actor

Who Will Win-- Chadwick Boseman for Ma Raineys Black Bottom

What tragedy this young man has happen to him. He was one of the most charismatic actors of his time and could have won Oscars already. He will win this one and he should. It was great performance

Who Should Win- Chadwick Boseman

But lets talk about Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal. His portrayal of a heavy metal drummer going deaf and being in denial was brilliant. Any other year, I'd fight anybody about this. But this year sorry Riz.

Best Actress

Who Will Win--I think Viola Davis has a lock on this . She is the new Meryl Streep. She can do anything and her portrayal of Ma Rainey was yet another fearless acting job. The only way she doesnt win is if the old white Academy was turned off by a buxom gold teethed brave black woman telling them what to do.

Who Should Win-- Viola Davis

But like Davis, Frances McDormand dont give a fuck what you think of her. Her portrayal of a homeless van living woman in Nomadland was genius. Very few actresses could have pulled it off as easily as she appeared to do. If she does win, I wouldnt be surprised. 

Best Picture

What Will Win--Nomadland

Nomadland is a generational movie. If you're older I think you can appreciate this more than younger folks. For example , Max thought this movie was a big Meh. Why does someone choose to live like this? To us older road trip folks, why wouldn't a person choose this lifestyle? Other than lack of courage or a desire for order in your life, who wouldn't like to travel the nation as free as you can be? The use of real life nomads made this even more real and I loved every second of it.

What Should Win-- Nomadland

But lets talk about Sound of Metal. This movie about the heavy metal drumming nomad with a bad hearing loss was as interesting a movie as can be. Its the only movie I watched twice. The 2nd time made it even more brilliant. Riz Ahmed going to the deaf rehab center, being in denial, getting "fixed" in an attempt to get back his old life and his ultimate acceptance really got to me, especially the 2nd viewing. The last movie I watched twice was Moonlight. This one is similar. We all know what happened with Moonlight.

Enjoy. It will be watched by hundreds

Red State Racing!

 

Hey its been a long month. 2021 is arguably better than 2020 but not yet. I am fully vaccinated as is virtually everyone I know. I still wear a mask in public but a trip to rural Nebraska on Friday showed me a whole different world that I really want no part of. I hadn't seen a live horse race in 6 years since the old Lincoln Race Course closed down and being off work allowed me to take a 2 hour trip to Central Nebraska and a run down horse track called Fonner Park. 

Fonner is probably the finest track left in Nebraska as the powers that be in leadership roles in this ass backwards state attempt to take us back 100 years to a time of hardship and Calvinism. While the Governors and legislators live in luxury the rest of us are required to submit to a state full of guns, Jesus and nothing much else. But Fonner Park remains. And as long as it does, I will go.

The fans of this dying sport are few but rabid. They show up. The last time I was at Fonner was 25 years ago. Lincoln is much closer but that track is no longer. Omaha's track is a tiny little crowded building with no barns and about two weekends a year which brings out everybody in town making it an unbearable situation to this claustrophobic fan so I dont go.

The fans in rural central Nebraska were many. Not packed but there had to be a couple thousand. I was masked and looked at like I was a space alien. 99% of the people wore no mask, drank like fish, and screamed and yelled like it was 1999. No pandemic, no danger, no cares. It was uncomfortable as hell, But I am vaccinated and more than 2 weeks out so I stayed. I was surrounded by people who all looked like they'd proudly stormed the Capitol back on January 6th. Picture that crowd of rabble. This is what it looked like here. Maskless men in baseball hats, goatees, and who looked like waving a T***P flag would be right up their alley. The women the same. Rural aint my bag man.

The races themselves were entertaining to me even though they consisted of broken down elderly horses running for their lives. Its my jam. The cruelty of the sport notwithstanding, not one horse broke down, not one horse collapsed, not one horse ran into trouble. It was a good day. 

Except for the red state denial and lack of humanity. I liked the horses better .

Another "Normal" Week!

 Ya know this has been a week that normally would be something talked about for years. But this crazy shit happens every freaking day in 2021 America and I for one just want normal still.

The trial of the century is happening. A cop, a killer, a cold blooded killer is on trial in Minneapolis for the murder of a man named George Floyd. A murder everyone saw. A murder that nobody can defend with the exception of racists and morons. And it is excruciating to watch.

Everyone has seen snippets of the 9 minute 26 second video of a police officer slowly killing a man while smirking at a crowd of bystanders pleading for the mans life. But very few had seen the entire video played beginning to end without interruption. You had that opportunity this week. It was the worst thing Ive seen perhaps ever. It wasnt a bad police shooting, it wasnt a terrorist slicing some journalists throat. it wasnt some racist punching someone. It was 9  minutes of a slow torturous death perpetrated by a human being sworn to serve and protect. George Floyd was not only murdered, he was tortured first and then murdered. I will never be the same.

The testimony of guilt stricken witnesses, the testimony of police superiors stating this is not defensible, the testimony of  EMT's shocked at the hostility of Minneapolis cops preventing them from helping, the testimony of decent folks baring their souls on how they lay awake at night regretting how this entire murder could have been prevented. The tears, the regret, the anger and of course, the utter stupidity of defense lawyers attempting to portray these people as being an angry mob of black radicals interfering with police business. 

The defense of this act of cold and calculated homicide isnt going to work. This cop is going down hard. Even in 2021 America where Blue Lives Matter turned out to be nothing but racist  bullshit when it came to "patriots", this cop is done. There isnt a decent human being who cannot see the despicable lack of humanity that happened in the 9 plus minutes. 

But then again, decency is becoming rarer and rarer in this day and age. 

Another gun enthusiast exercised his 2nd Amendment privileges right this week in California by coldly chaining a gate closed, walking in to a building and murdering 4 innocents, including a 9 year old child. This is news you say? For fucks sake it happens 5 times a week anymore. We have proven that we dont care who these maniacs kill, even 6 year olds or 9 year olds over the last few years. As long as everybody, including the mentally ill and the just plain evil have unfettered access to mass killing weapons of war. The video of Congressional hobbit Lindsey Graham firing a weapon of mass destruction may have the been the most absurd video of the year. I am so sick of it. And of him.

Major League Baseball has pulled its All Star Game from the city of Atlanta since Georgia has decided to go all Lester Maddox and take an axe handle to those pesky black folks who vote. Georgia, who gave us the Senate, started a fight with those people who stood inline for hours and voted not the way the Orange Monster wanted. Passing a voter suppression law that will make it even harder for what happened in 2020 to ever happen again. Basically its a only whites can vote law to ensure that backwards ass hillbillies dominate Georgia politics as has been done for 150 years. I'm not sure what's worse though, The fact that this was passed or the fact white people just cannot be trusted to do the right thing. 

Other states are now trying it. Iowa, Texas, Floriduh, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee, Louisiana all seem to want Republican gerrymandered legislatures to be able to just scream voter fraud and overturn elections simply because the wrong folks voted. The fact this even is an issue shows the desperation of a party of fools dominated by a fascist con man. 

Years ago I wondered what would happen once white people's share of the vote went down to a point where they no longer decided elections on nationwide scales. Now I know my answer. 

Its full blown panic. 

Pull other shit out of these states. Hit em where it hurts. Cancel the culture until it doesn't even exist any longer. The culture sucks. Its based on hate, ignorance and meanness. Cancel it all as far as I am concerned .

NOW

Excuses!

 Im sick of it. I am sick of not only mass murders of Black folk, Jewish folk, Gay folk, Muslim folk, Children, Latino folk and now Asian folk but I am sick of law enforcement, politicians, and everyday white folk making excuses for these asswipes. Any time a white person commits some horrid act of violence, murder, or mayhem we hear excuses.

The T***p scum that attacked the United States Capitol were just frustrated patriots upset over voter fraud that was perpetrated upon them and cost them 4 more years of their Dear Leader's wise and firm leadership. US Senators backed them and felt sorry for them, The human furrowed brow Tucker Carlson says they did nothing wrong. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Klan) said out loud he was never scared of his fellow white rioters because they werent black or wild eyed white guys with crazy hair.

Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two people in the streets of Kenosha because he felt compelled to travel somewhere he didnt live to "protect" property he didnt own. 

In 1998 Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson abducted a young gay man named Matthew Shepard and tortured and beat him to death near Laramie Wyoming.

Dylan Roof prayed with black churchgoers before killing 9 of them in a South Carolina church basement in 2015. 

Patrick Crusius drove 650 miles across Texas to murder 23 Latinos at an El Paso Wal Mart in 2019.

Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and murdered 11 Jewish  folks minding their own damned business.

In 2008 Jim Adkisson walked into the Knoxville Unitarian church and started shooting what he perceived as liberals after being indoctrinated by the likes of Sean Hannity. He killed 2 innocents before the liberal churchgoers tackled him and hopefully beat the shit out of him.

And then last night in Atlanta a 21 year old loser named Robert Long walked into 3 massage parlors and murdered 8 people, 6 of them Asian women.

What do they all have in common other than being murderous scum? They are all white, they were all taken into custody alive, and they all had excuse made for them by fellow whites.

Long had a "bad day". Roof was taken to Burger King by cops after his arrest. Crusius was concerned about immigration. Rittenhouse was defending property and was praised by cops after he killed two people. Bowers was just angry about Jews and was raised by a rapist. Adkisson was "insane" and couldnt help himself. And of course the "patriots" who killed a cop and trashed the Capitol were just frustrated and caught up in the moment. Henderson and Russell were in some sort of "gay panic".

Excuses y'all. 

Only made for white folk who lose their shit. 

Its as disgusting as mayonnaise . 

Shut Up Nebraska!

News from the state making every attempt to become Texas, or Mississippi or South Dakota or Iowa, no wait all those states have touristy shit like casinos and places to visit. Nebraska is making that attempt to qualify as the absolute most boring goddamned place on Earth outside of Nebraska 02 of which I still couldnt be prouder. Its leader is the man above, Governor and Trust Fund Kid Peter Ricketts. And by leader I mean a man so utterly despised by the two places in which actual people reside, Omaha and Lincoln, but worshipped anyplace else because he has that R next to his dumb name and dumb face.

Just listen to him. This dumb son of a bitch couldnt get elected to the board of the Chicago Cubs by his own family so they sent him here to get him out of Illinois. We now know why. This shiny headed talking thumb (thanks John Oliver)  says this stupid shit all the time. Marijuana kills kids. Undocumented immigrants cant get the Covid vaccine because they dont exist here. People with underlying conditions cant get the vaccine because they arent old enough. Yet somehow in the sticks, the places not Omaha and Lincoln, the places nobody lives, the places that voted for him twice by Saddam type numbers in the 90% range, all seem to be fully vaccinated. This guy is walking Dr Evil. 

I mean we are already thought of as dumb hicks worldwide, but we dont need Ricketts to further embolden that view (did I mention Ne 02?). We are not all a gaggle of knuckle dragging rubes barely remembering to breathe and Republican brain dead to boot. Yet here he is, our Leader, a T***P ass licker, saying OUT LOUD that a plant that is used to keep children in his own state from having seizures will kill them. Yeah the plant is also used to get high as a kite, but who wouldn't want that living in this Ricketts dominated wasteland? Ricketts, a man who attempted to obtain illegal  drugs so he could kill a guy, suddenly opposes a drug legal in 30 plus states. Perhaps in Ricketts logic, he should just give death row inmates a pile of pot and let them "kill" themselves.

This dumb prick is term limited so we have two years left of his shitty leadership. Lets hope by then he has granted all of his loyal subjects the privilege of being vaccinated from Covid, not just the ones who voted for his dumb ass. But then, he will run for the United States Senate in 2024, a job for which Daddy failed to buy for him in 2006 because he got fucking crushed by an actual Nebraska Democrat named Joe Manchin  Ben Nelson. But that of course was before 2008, when white America lost its ever lovin mind. So who knows if the people of this state will be stupid enough to send this dope east. If we do, I am going to commit suicide by plant.

Meanwhile for you football fans. yes indeedy, the suck fest that has befallen the once mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers only gets worse. Yeah we stink, we havent had a winning season in years, but our name is still marketable. The state lives in the past not only politically but footbally . Its still the 90s here in terms of football. Ya know back when we were good, maybe great. The problem is young people not only dont remember when the greatness existed, they also cant get stoned legally when the Huskers find yet another stupid way to lose. 

But anyway. Remember the Nebraska vs Oklahoma series? Man was it good, trust me kids. It ended in the late 90s  because we left the conference to get our ass kicked in the Big Ten. But this year, it is 50 years since the Game of the Century in 1971 and a celebratory game was scheduled for this year in Oklahoma.

'

Whoaaaaaaaaaa there pardner. History be damned and along came Nebraska to attempt to weasel out of the game in which they will lose by 30 or 40 points and replace it with a home game against some patsy who could easily rise up and beat them anyway but at least the millions of dollars would be deposited in the coffers. Oklahoma blew the whistle on Nebraska's attempted chicanery and the rest is us looking all dumb again all  in one week. 6 hours after the news broke of Nebraska's attempted deviousness they folded and tried to blame Covid for the confusion. Yeah they are playing Oklahoma. And how dare you think any different. Oh man.  

Please Nebraska. Just shut up and stay uninteresting again.

Creighton's Plantation!

 Look I admit this. I despise Creighton University. Its an elitist Jesuit college here in Omaha  that overcharges students and puts itself on a Hilltop above all. With an alumni full of physicians and lawyers who pretty much run the government around here, the place has infuriated me with its iron grip on this town for many years. So when it goes thru tough times, whether it be passing illiterate basketball players right through the system to keep them playing and then discarding them like trash, or when assistant coaches get nailed by the FBI for taking bribes I take great pleasure. But this latest problem, in which the head coach, a man named Greg McDermott, uses what can only be described as racially insensitive language at best I dont take any pleasure in this. Because once again, it highlights this nations greatest shame. Racism.

McDermott, after a loss at Xavier Saturday night, stood in front of his team in the locker room, a team of majority black players and said "Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I cant have anybody leave the plantation". Plantation? To a bunch of unpaid black players? I assume he didn't use the Foghorn Leghorn voice as he said it.

The blowback has been brutal. McDermott got out in front of this. He apologized. He offered to resign. He has been doing the mea culpa tour of local talk shows. And he hasnt even gotten to New York, where his conference tournament will be held. Where his worst days will occur.

White Omahans are weighing in, as if it matters. Universally it is at best well he didnt mean anything by it to at worst the cancel culture morons defending his words. But this locker room fuck up, by a well respected coach says a lot about all of us. What lays deep inside the minds of white people can come out when stressed, sometimes awkward and badly stated at best, to hateful and nasty at worst. McDermott is a farm boy from Iowa. What the fuck does he know about plantations? Well apparently something took hold inside his psyche and out it came. Maybe it was one of those things you say that as its coming out of your mouth you try to suck back in. We have all done it. Maybe McDermott did it too. But wow man. That was bad.

I don't know if McDermott survives this. Creighton doesnt take well to bad pub. They have a rep to maintain. They are after all a Jesuit University. The Jesuits are highly educated priests who from what I've experienced, don't even believe in God. So if McDermott stays on, and I honestly don't see how he does, he's a twice wounded animal. Thru the FBI scandal and now this. Yeah I hate Creighton, but this is just another embarrassment suffered for us white folks.

Years ago, 1970 or so, when my Dad had season tickets to Creighton basketball games, I'd often go with him. The racial tension in the student section was apparent. The white privileged students would sit together and be the loud vulgar assholes they still are, and the black students sat together, didnt stand for the anthem and openly rooted for only the black players no matter what team they played for. It was uncomfortable to even be there. One game after a white student threw a chair on the floor and a miniature brawl broke out among blacks and whites who went to the same school, Dad stood up, put on his coat and said lets go. We left early. On the way home he told me he doubted if he'd ever go back stating that school has problems and I dont want to get caught in the cross fire when it blows up.  Those problems apparently remain.