Seattle And The Sonics Parting Not All That Much Sorrow

I read an interesting article in this morning's Seattle P-I about the evolution of Seattle's relationship with the now departing Sonics and how, among other things, Seattle has become like Los Angeles, being at the point that the public is ready to shrug off a sports team. LA has been without a Pro NFL team for well over 10 years. With the West Coast often starting trends for the rest of the nation, I'm hoping this bodes well for the coming end of the bizarre pro sports world of ridiculous salaries and billion dollar palaces to play the children's games in.

I can not imagine an honestly introspective self-aware type of article appearing in the more propagandaish, Chamber of Commerce boosterizing, often outright misleading and dishonest, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Read a blurb from the P-I article below. Read the entire article here.

"Before, (Seattle) aspired to be big," Brewster said. "Now it thinks it's probably bigger than it really is.

"So it can behave like Los Angeles (which has been without the NFL for 14 years) and say, 'OK, we don't have a professional basketball team. We don't need that. That's for smaller cities like Oklahoma City.' So we have almost a condescending view toward cities that are dying to have professional sports."

Most Seattleites have never been to a Sonics game. Some view them as a nuisance that gums up downtown traffic 41 times a year. Instead of a sprouting town eager for events, we are now a crowded metropolis inundated with them. But Gorton doesn't think that lessens the value of our pro sports institutions.

"I don't think there is any leisure activity that involves all of the people," Gorton said. "Certainly the majority of people (in Seattle) have never set foot in Safeco(Mariners) or Qwest(Seahawks). An even greater majority has never set foot inside Benaroya Hall or the art museum. I don't think that cuts down on the desirability of those things."

"There are so many things to do here, I think we've become complacent or blasé about any one single attraction," Uhlman said.

In 1967, the Sonics were part of Seattle's identity, part of the recognition that helped it grow as a center for business and tourism. Now, the bottom line is that Seattle no longer needs the Sonics for those things.

Bravo's Sheer Genius Sheer Weirdness

Last night I was in the mood for doing nothing. So, I popped a bowl of popcorn, turned on the TV and found it already on the Bravo channel, due to having watched Flipping Out the night before. Sheer Genius was already a few minutes into the show. About hair cutters. This can not be at all entertaining I thought. I was wrong.

My local disinformation purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has made mention multiple times of 2 local guys being on this show. One, named Matthew, from Dallas, one named Daniel, according to the Star-Telegram, from Fort Worth, but according to Bravo, from Dallas.

Of course, it may be possible that Daniel is from Fort Worth. When I'm on a road trip, or back in the northwest, I say I'm from Dallas, because few people know where Fort Worth is. It's like when I lived in the northwest and I was on a road trip, when asked where I was from, I'd say Seattle, because no one would know of my actual hometown of Mount Vernon. When people here, in Texas, ask where I'm from, I usually say Seattle.

Sheer Genius is similar in format to another Bravo show, Top Chef. Instead of a Quick Fire, Sheer Genius does a Quick Cut. Whoever wins the Quick Cut gets an advantage in the Elimination Challenge.

The first episode of Sheer Genius last night was a re-run of last week's show. In that re-run, the guy the Star-Telegram thinks is from Fort Worth was over the top stereotypical not a guy who likes girls. He went all emotional when he realized their challenge was to do the hair of people on another Bravo show, The Real Housewives of Orange County. Apparently Daniel was a rabid fan of this housewife show. I've not seen it. Most of the haircutters had.

Later in the show, or was it the next hour, Daniel said he got so excited over the OC women, that he wet himself. If such a thing happened to me, which it wouldn't, I would not be telling a TV camera about it. He also let it be known that when a person on the OC show got married, that he had a wedding party, where the guests came dressed for a wedding and celebrated. Another Sheer Genius person, a girl, said if she'd did something that embarrassingly weird she wouldn't be telling people about it.

At the Elimination part of this episode, Daniel had an emotional crying breakdown upset and collapse to the floor at one point during the booting process. The proceedings had to come to a halt while ex-Charlie's Angel, Jacyln Smith inquired if Daniel was all right. By the way, Jacyln Smith has held up really well. She looked like she could easily still be an Angel.

The other Texas guy, Matthew, won the Quick Cut in the second episode. This upset the others, because they did not like him. Apparently Matthew is quite socially inept, grating and constantly bitching and saying things that are offputting or make no sense. I thought, welcome to Texas.

Matthew's advantage in winning was he got to pick the first dress in that episode's Elimination Challenge. And then pick who got to pick next. And on til all the dresses were gone. The dresses went on models on whom the hair cutters had to make their hair red carpet worthy. Whatever that means.

Matthew over and over and over again mentioned his wife. How much he loved her, and she him, how he missed her, how he didn't need to relate to these juvenile fellow hair cutters, because he has a wife back home. When he picked his dress he said something like I'm picking one for my wife, to which the Germanic Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes in a supermodel's body type guy, named Rene Fris, said "Your wife's not here." It seemed like everyone was sick of hearing about this Matthew guy's wife.

I thought all the wife talk was typical reality show editing, foreshadowing that Matthew would get the boot. But he has immunity, I thought, because he won that Quick Cut Challenge. That's how it works on Top Chef.

So, Daniel, the other Texas guy, was all worried that he'd wet himself again, because he was sure that since this was a red carpet thing, there'd be a celebrity there. There wasn't. At one point, Daniel excitedly said this was just way too much excitement for a Texas boy, seeing all these famous people.

We see the haircutters work on their red carpet girls, then the girls go down the red carpet in front of the judges, including someone I've never heard of from some soap opera I've never heard of. But Daniel from Texas had. He was so excited.

And then the judging occurred. I thought Matthew was safe from getting booted, but no, you are safe from the next week's boot if you win the previous week's elimination. So, Matthew was in the bottom three and got the boot due to not listening to his model tell him that her hair would not hold a curl, so his red carpet hair was a disaster.

Matthew did not mind getting the boot. Once more he told everyone how happy he was to be going home to his wonderful wife and friends in Texas. We cut to another hair cutter who said something like, "That damn wife of his must be one wild cat in bed."

I likely will not be watching this next week. I will watch Bravo again tonight, unless I forget, to watch Kathy Griffin's Life on the D-List. She's funny.

One of the judges on Sheer Genius is some, apparently, well known hair guy I've never heard of named Kim Vo. He is one odd looking guy. Constantly with a really goofy grin. Below is a video of this Kim Vo guy getting interviewed after he'd been in Britney Spear's house fixing her hair.

Scandals Of The Day: Miss Washington & Jesse Jackson

I'm going to be in Tacoma in 11 days. Tacoma was in the news today. Because Miss Washington is from Tacoma, well, Wapato, to be precise. Apparently Miss Washington was runner-up in the latest Miss America Pageant. I didn't know that quaint practice still took place. I thought it'd been turned into a reality show, then cancelled.

Some embarrassing photos of Miss Washington, Elyse Umemoto, showed up today on the Internet. She apologized for the photos, in which she was shown flipping off the camera, while wearing her crown, then playing a drinking game that ended with her making suggestive hand signs. I assume involving her middle finger.

And in another scandal, Jesse Jackson was caught using some unfortunate verbiage. Again. He had been interviewed on some Fox News show. He'd been asked questions about Barack Obama. Apparently Reverend Jackson did not like Obama's Father's Day lecture to the Black Community.

Jesse Jackson thought the microphone was no longer hot. But it was. He was over heard saying something along the lines of Obama had made him so mad he wanted to remove Obama's testicles. The Reverend used more colorful language to express the sentiment. I believe the word 'nuts' was involved.

Jesse Jackson quickly apologized for his choice of words. I don't know if Obama accepted the apology or if he told Jesse Jackson that his was an example of the bad behavior he was talking about on Father's Day.

Matthew McConaughey Baby, Me & Yoga

Matthew McConaughey is a native Texas boy. He has a house down in Austin where he likes to get naked and play his bongos late at night. He and I have a lot in common, because I enjoy naked bongoing, too. Earlier in the evening though. And my preferred herbal stimulant is tea. Red Zinger.

When Matthew is visiting the D/FW zone he likes to run in River Legacy Park.

I am very grateful to Matthew McConaughey for one good reason. He taught me the right way to do the Cobra Yoga position. I've been doing the Cobra Postion correctly for a year or so now. It's made my back so much stronger. And when I do get a back a bit out of whack, like a couple weeks ago, I think the proper Cobra gets my back back working real fast.

I don't remember when last Matt was here running at River Legacy. He's been busy because he got himself in the family way with his girl friend, a model named Camila Alves. The pair are not married, but yesterday they became proud parents of a little boy named Levi.

Levi will likely be taught the proper way to do Yoga Positions from a young age. I wish I'd had that advantage.

Chesapeake Energy, Barnett Shale & Their Spokepeople

Everytime I blog about anything that makes reference to Cheseapeake Energy and the Barnett Shale, I notice a big jump in blog readers from Oklahoma City, home of Chesapeake Energy.

Twice now a blogging has gotten a long-winded, off-point comment from an obvious Chesapeake person, employed to try and counter people's perfectly valid personal points of view. I got a new one today, again from someone anonymously calling him/herself B. Others, too, have gotten similar comments from this B person, regarding what they wrote about Barnett Shale.

This is an effort worthy of Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi Propaganda machine. Throw up a bunch of smoke, while personally attacking the object of your disdain, attack a bunch of straw men. And totally ignore the issue the person is raising or the point the person is making.

Don Young sent out an Urgent Alert letting people know that Chesapeake Energy had found a loophole in Fort Worth's rules that is allowing them to attempt to drill on the fringe of Tandy Hills Park, a nature preserve. Don Young does not believe it wise to drill in an urban setting, particularly near a nature preserve. It is Don Young's right to hold whatever opinion he wants about anything, and verbalize it anyway he wants. America is not Nazi Germany.

The Chesapeake Energy propaganda shill ignores what Don Young's actual issue is and, instead, like a good Nazi, attacks Don Young. Despite the Chesapeake Energy shill's insinuation, I have not heard Don Young say he is against drilling for oil offshore, or in Alaska. I have not heard Don Young say he is against developing alternative energy sources. I have not heard Don Young say he is against nuclear power. I have not heard Don Young say he is against conservation.

The reason Chesapeake Energy is losing in the battle for hearts and minds, in this urban zone, is precisely because of this type heavy-handed, thought control, disrespectful way of addressing people's perfectly valid concerns. That and their embarrassingly over the top advertising campaign. Which appears to be halted.

I've already lived less than a 1000 feet way from a Chesapeake Energy operation. It was not pleasant. I don't want to see one near my favorite place to hike. It is my belief that drilling in an urban zone should be an energy policy of last resort, after offshore, ANWR, the Gulf of Mexico, rural shale and all possible means of alternative energy generation have been exhausted. Then, maybe, start drilling in densely populated zones. But, until remote ANWR is tapped, it is my opinion, which I am intitled to, this being America, not Nazi Germany, that no drilling rig should be allowed anywhere near Tandy Hills Park. Or any other urban park.

Now below, the anonymous shill work from the Joseph Goebbels wannabe who calls him/herself B-----

I wonder how much it costs Don Young to fill up his Conastoga Wagon? Because if he’s driving an automobile, or using electricity to cool his home, or plugging in his computer to write a blog … if he’s doing anything that uses any produced energy, then Don Young defines hypocrisy.

It really is that plain and simple. I’ll get back to Don in a moment, but first, let’s take a look at the general hypocrisy of America’s energy policy.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton vetoed legislation to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic. If that bill had been signed, 1 million barrels of American oil – 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel – would be on the market today.

With all that extra American oil available, we would not be suffering from skyrocketing fuel and grocery prices today. Supply and demand. The greater the supply, the cheaper the cost.

But Clinton vetoed the bill and all that Alaskan oil remains untouched … right beneath the surface of our own feet. And out of our current 100 United States Senators, 72 of them have voted to keep that estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.

“Not here,” those 72 Senators said with their votes. “Not here.”

But that hasn’t stopped the politicians from hijacking a microphone to complain about skyrocketing prices at the pump.

It’s time to pull the plug on the hypocrites. Because, as columnist George Will astutely pointed out a few weeks ago, “Don’t drill here seems to be our national energy policy.”

That sounds familiar, kind of like the loud minority of so-called “activists” who oppose development of the Barnett Shale. “Don’t drill here,” they say, even though the technologies of natural gas drilling and production are incredibly safe and unobtrusive. Even as our nation is in desperate need of affordable, clean, efficient energy … and it rests right beneath our Texas dirt, waiting to be produced. Even though this vast resource provides not just a tremendous boost to the Fort Worth economy, but a viable means of meeting America’s energy needs with less reliance on foreign oil.

And our reliance on foreign oil is a critical and growing problem. It’s not going away and it’s only going to get worse.

T. Boone Pickens recently pointed out to Congress that America is spending $700 billion per year for foreign oil. That’s more than the Iraq war is costing us! And with new demand for oil from nations like China and India, the price tag is only going to go up … until we do something about it, something for ourselves.

And there is a way out of this mess. In his testimony, Pickens told Congress that if we converted America’s transportation fuel from gasoline to natural gas, we’d cut our dependence on foreign cabals by 38 percent. Get a calculator – 38 percent of $700 billion – we’d save $266 billion every year, just like that.

But there’s more good news. According to the prestigious scientists at the Colorado School of Mines, we have a 120-year supply of natural gas right here in North America, right under our feet. And natural gas is, by far, the cleanest burning fossil fuel known to man. It’s affordable, it’s clean, and it’s available right here at home.

Right here, at home in Fort Worth … right under our own feet.

But, “Not Here,” says Don Young. “Not Here,” say a small minority of “Not Anywhere Naysayers.”

But they still drive their cars. They still complain about the price of food that was shipped to their local grocer in gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. They still turn on the air conditioner or the stove at home.

And they still plug in their computers to declare “Not Here” in their blogs and emails.
Which brings us back to Don Young … and hypocrisy.

Don, if you were Amish, I’d understand. Because as New York Times reporter Peter Applebome wrote, the Amish “… live what they espouse.” They use no produced energy.

So, Don, if I see you around town in a horse-drawn wagon, I’ll wave and offer a note of respect.

But as long as you keep plugging in that computer to destroy America’s efforts to lessen our dependence on foreign oil … well, you’re just another “Not Here Hypocrite” that, frankly, isn’t worth the energy it takes to listen to you.

Star-Telegram Connections To Texas, Part 18

One of my 2 readers may remember me making mention of that Fort Worth paper that I continue to read, the constantly shrinking Star-Telegram, and its odd habit of making any possible connection, no matter how remote, to someone in the news, or on TV and Fort Worth or any other town in North Texas.

I've really not understood why this bugs me. Til today's example.

In the TV section, esteemed, likely sometime Pulitzer Prize nominated, writer, Robert Philpot, describing tonight's So You Think You Can Dance, wrote, "Fort Worth's Joshua Allen and Carrolton's Comfort Fedoke continue to represent for North Texas...."

And this, about tonight's Bravo show, Sheer Genius, Frisco's Daniel Lewis and Dallas' Matthew Tully continue to cut on this hairstyling competition..."

Okay. A few day's ago an awful show called The Bachelorette ended on ABC. I read about the finale in the Seattle P-I. A guy from the Seattle zone city of Kirkland, was one of the final two. And a guy from Breckinridge, Colorado.

The P-I's verbiage was like this, "Kirkland account executive, Jason Mesnick.....and Breckinridge, Colorado professional snowboarder, Jesse Csinsak....."

See the difference? The P-I does not describe the local as Kirkland's Jason Mesnick, as if the town possessed the guy. And the P-I identifies where the other guy is from. The P-I does not make it's frame of reference filtered thru a local prisim, instead the P-I just states the facts. One guy is from Kirkland, the other Breckinridge. Neither town possessing either of the guys.

Where, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it is always, "Burleson's Kelly Clarkson." Not "Burleson songstress, Kelly Clarkson."

It's like by turning something like this into a possessive, as in "Fort Worth's Joshua Allen," it just comes across as real, I dunno, ultra small townish. And, well, like Lulu said, pathetic.

Now, that I've finally figured out why this verbiage bugs me, I think this will likely be the last time I make note of it. Unless a particularly pathetic, amusing example crops up.

Fort Worth's Enviable Quality Of Life

Back in May I blogged about a weird announcement from the City of Fort Worth in which the city advertised that for the 3rd time in 45 years the city would hold a city wide conversation with its citizens.

In this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram there was a paid ad from the city of Fort Worth. I don't know if this counts as the Star-Telegram using the infamous "envy of" verbiage, due to this being a paid ad, but this is the first paragraph...

"In a recent city survey, residents agreed that Fort Worth is a great place to live, work and play. Such an enviable quality of life, though, is no accident."

The ad article goes on to talk about all the good the 2 previous city wide conversations accomplished . The 1963 conversation somehow resulted in Fort Worth's seldom used convention center and much used D/FW Airport. And resulted in Fort Worth being named an All-American City. Wow!

And then in 1992 Fort Worth's Ruling Junta Oligarchy deigned to listen to the citizens of Fort Worth again. This conversation resulted in a recycling program, the return of minor league baseball and the Bass Performance Hall. And once more, Fort Worth was named an All-American City. Wow, again!

It is interesting, to me, that this 1992 city wide conversation resulted in the downtown Fort Worth Performance Hall. I thought the Bass family initiated that. I'm impressed, I tell you, impressed, that the Bass's built that hall after listening to the good citizens of Fort Worth verbalize their desire to have a good performance hall.

Now, the 2008 city wide conversation is under way. Maybe this time all the talking will result in recycling occurring in my zone of Fort Worth. I'm not sure that that All-American City thing is still in operation. If so, I'm sure Fort Worth will be an All-American City again after the wonders produced by this 2008 city wide conversation between Fort Worth's citizens and the Ruling Junta.

Flipping Out on Bravo

I've got a new favorite TV Show. Flipping Out on Bravo. I'd seen bits and pieces of this show last season and found it annoying. I've watched several episodes this season and find it amusing.

A good reality show is so much better than scripted TV. No one has the imagination to make up the lives some people lead. Or like the recent rescue in Columbia of all those hostages held for so long by the FARC rebels. That reality show played out like a tightly scripted, implausible Hollywood movie, with a very happy ending.

On Flipping Out you've got this guy, Jeff Lewis, with a bad case of OCD, which makes him obsess about the oddest of things. And he can say the most blunt, rude of remarks, caused, by his own admission, by his lacking of an empathy gene. He is in therapy, sees a therapist, a spiritualist and a psychic.

Yes, it is obvious this show is set in Southern California.

Flipping Out is so named because Jeff Lewis flips houses, has done about 50 flips and has a reputation for doing a brilliant job. Part of what is entertaining is seeing the transformations take place.

Jeff Lewis has several pets that he obsesses over. Three mutt dogs, one fat cat and, temporarily, 3 deer. The fat cat is a handful. Jeff Lewis had a psychic examine the cat so as to best determine how to make the move to a new house the least traumatic. One time the cat got acupuncture.

Jeff Lewis does not do any of life's mundane chores himself. He has a guy named Chris who is his house manager. Chris Elwood, the House Manager, has an assistant, also named Chris, as in Chris Keslar.

To my shock, I learned last night that Chris, the House Manager, is married to Lewis' Executive Assistant, Jenni Pulos. They are married, but don't share last names. I learned last night that the married couple rents a bungalow from Jeff Lewis. Jeff and Jenni dropped in to inspect the property. On the way there, Jeff had to slam the brakes, slightly. He reached out across Jenni's chest, which caused her to scream, "Get your hands off my boobs." He explained he was acting as a seatbelt backup. She then admitted her big boobs were hard to not touch, accidentally, in such a scenario, due to their size.

Regarding the mutt dogs, Jeff Lewis found a place that tested your dogs DNA to determine its breed mix. So, all his "people" worked with him to figure out the self-test. The results came back. One little mutt's supposed DNA indicated it was a Chihuahua/Poodle mix. Another one was a Cocker Spaniel/Doberman mix. This seemed ridiculous to Lewis, because the dogs bore no resemblance to those breeds. Lewis decided he'd been scammed. And at $200 per dog, he thought maybe he should get into the DNA Dog Test Scam.

The best drama of the night came about after Jeff's OCD Paranoia caused him to put a spy cam in his house. He was sure his House workers were taking advantage of him. As Jeff and Jenni drove along he had someone call his house. His people are instructed to answer in a precise manner, instead Jenni's husband answered and said "Bon Jour, Chez Lewis," or something like that.

Later, Jeff confronted Chris, who denied, vehemently his egregious breaking of the phone answering rules. Later Jeff saw that he had proof Chris had lied, when Jeff played back the day's spying.

In subsequent days, Jeff caught Chris on Jeff's computer for hours. Employees are banned from Jeff's computer, except for Jenni. Jeff caught Chris spending a lot of time text messaging. But the worst offense was Chris was caught going through Jeff's personal papers.

Next week's episode appears to deal with Jeff dealing with Chris' bad behavior. I'm sure much hilarity will ensue.

Chesapeake Energy, Barnett Shale, Tandy Hills Park & Don Young in Time

Time Magazine, online, published an interesting article about the new phenomenon of citizen's fighting back against the gas drilling industry's encroachments on their peace and quiet and property.

The article quoted Fort Worth's noted Eastside Rabble Rouser, Don Young. I'll paste the Fort Worth part of the article below. You can read the entire TIME article here.

Don Young went from being a full-time glass artist to spending 50% of his working hours battling the energy companies via his website, FWcando.org (Fort Worth Citizens Against Drilling Ordinance). He first became alarmed at the exploration boom when a prairie reserve near his old, cherished Fort Worth neighborhood was threatened. He began the fight by printing flyers and distributing them to his neighbors, but he soon set up a website to keep the information flowing. It has not only been a clearinghouse for Fort Worth residents concerned about the impact of backyard gas wells, but it also attracts daily e-mail messages from groups across the country, Young says. His site links to other anti-drilling advocates from New Mexico and Wyoming to Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Michigan.

Young says some of his neighbors are attracted by the sort of Texas mythology that is woven into Fort Worth's cultural history, including legends portrayed in movies like Giant with the brooding poor ranch hand played by James Dean turning into a plutocratic wildcatter. But Young and other opponents insist the real Texas — the city's old neighborhoods and tree-lined trails, plus the rolling prairie lands and nearby small towns — are threatened. "The oil companies are acting like it's West Texas here, but it's not," Young says. "We're trying to put a brake on things."

For him the fight is personal, sometimes sadly pitting neighbor against neighbor. Young has turned down a $25,000 signing bonus offered for his own land. With daily headlines proclaiming new exploration moves, Young is now committed to focusing his neighbors' attentions on the impact that the accompanying pipelines and service roads will have. Says Young: "The war is not won by them or lost by us ... yet."

Hell's Kitchen Winner: Christina

I did not get hooked on watching Hell's Kitchen's latest trip to hell. The first season of Hell's Kitchen I watched it all. Hell's Kitchen is not a reality show train wreck like, well, The Bachelorette. You can learn some useful things on Hell's Kitchen. Like new swear words and how to ruin Risotto. I did not know what Risotto was til I watched Hell's Kitchen, so it is quite educational.
I find Chef Gordon Ramsey quite amusing. His other show, Kitchen Nightmares, put me off restaurants for awhile. The new season of that show starts soon. I'll likely watch some of it. And be put off of restaurants again.

The winner of Hell's Kitchen is determined by who Gordon Ramsey thinks did the best job of designing a kitchen, a menu and executing their restaurant operation.

Last week, the 2 remaining chefs worked on their restaurants and then were whisked off to New York City by private jet. In NYC they had to prepare their signature dishes in one of Ramsey's restaurants, to be judged by chefs from his restaurants around the world. There were 5 chef judges. 3 of the 5 liked the chef named Petrozza's steak better than the chef named Christina's steak.

Because Petrozza had the better steak when they got back to LA he got first pick of booted chefs to staff his restaurant. The episode ended with one of those cliffhangers that leaves you on the edge of your seat and wanting more. Who will Petrozza pick as his last chef? The bumbling buffon, Matt, or the lady with an attitude, Jen?

We'll find out tonight. And then Hell's Kitchen opens and Petrozza likely wins. I don't remember what the prize is.

UPDATE: Ooops! My guess was wrong, as usual. Christina won. The finale was actually pretty entertaining.