Well that was fast

Goodbye Patriots. Once again our Boston heroes blew it. I'm just glad I'm in Chicago, away from all the negative writers and Debbie-Downers that control Boston. It was a great season, a lot of memorable games that were truly enjoyable. The Jets played better today, and that sucks. That's all there is to it. We had our chance. I'm just glad that the Steelers will beat them next week, and hopefully the Bears or Packers will go on to win the Superbowl. The Celtics are doing good things, and the Red Sox look to be stupid good next season.
But this loss had me thinking about the big picture, and the roller coaster ride that is Boston Sports. Let's just remember all the highs, like the Patriots' three Super Bowl rings, the Red Sox' miraculous run in 2004 and slightly less-awesome World Series title in 2007. And of course the Celtics' return to prominence culminating in a championship over the Lakers in 2008. All of those teams were amazing, and truly inspired all of Boston, not to mention all of New England.
But with every great victory there comes great tragedy, that's just a part of the game. Unless you want to be the Pittsburgh Pirates and lose every year (sorry Dad), the price you pay by having a great team and high expectations is you're also going to have some epic losses. We can start with the worst of the worst, '03 to the Yankees. Close second would be losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl, and third is losing to the Lakers in last year's Finals. I'd say fourth would be losing to the Colts in '07, followed in no particular order by losing to the Jets, Rays, Ravens, Magic, Angels, Broncos, and just for fun, Flyers (there's your one hockey reference). The timeless question is: do the victories make the heartbreaking losses worth it? And of course the answer is yes. Luckily we can block out some of those losses (I mean who really cares about the Broncos anyway). But some of our teams that lost in the postseason had incredible years, which of course are forgotten since they weren't #1. What's wrong with being #2, or #3? If Boston were in the Olympics, we'd have a ton of medals, some gold, more silver and bronze. And of course we'd display them all prominently, because they're awesome, and they show how much hard work we put into our teams. I apologize for this rant, but having a good team that makes it to the postseason should be reason enough to be a proud New Englander. Just be thankful you don't live in Cleveland.
And now, here are some things to take your minds off sports until the baseball season and NBA playoffs start:
First, this from Saturday Night Live.
Or, if you'd rather just mope, here's one of my favorite songs/scenes from a beautiful French movie called Cleo from 5 to 7.
And...here's a puppy I get to hang out with!

So what does New York have that Boston doesn't? Other than trains that run past midnight? We started a little thing called the American Revolution, have you heard of it? And maybe you've eaten some of our clam chowder. And had some of Samuel Adams' beer, yeah that's right, it's delicious. And...I guess some people enjoy Aerosmith and Matt Damon. But I think we can all agree the only good things ever to come out of New York are the Velvet Underground, the Strokes, and Manny Ramirez. Who's with me?

Here's to a New Year of Stuff and Things!

Now that the holidays are over I can finally take a deep breath and contemplate the tornado that has just swept through. In early December my former roommates Nate & Elf treated me to a Chicago Symphony performance of Schoenberg's Transfigured Night, truly one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. It was so good I had to see it again the next night! (You should know by now that I am not one to turn down free tickets, let alone free tickets to one of my favorite pieces played by America's best orchestra) A gorgeous late-romantic piece for strings, filled with enough drama and heartbreak to last a lifetime. Now I just need to see Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and I'll die a happy man.
The week after a group of us saw The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan, another fabulous work that's been flowing through my brain since as long as I can remember.
The second weekend of December brought the insane feat of saying goodbye to the house I grew up in. It was great, having a garage sale on our first floor, practically giving everything away to support Gabe's favorite charity Aid El Salvador. Once everything was gone (including my first guitar and my awesome collection of action figures) we had a wonderful potluck dinner with friends and neighbors and kids and anyone else who wanted some good food, drinks and company. Toasts were made, memories were shared, tears were shed, but it really was the perfect farewell. The weirdest part will be next time I'm back in Boston and not returning to 11 Robeson Street. Ah well, the nice thing is knowing that a new family will take our place and their kids will be running around where we used to. Hopefully on nicer floors and never in that terrifying basement.
Back in Chicago everything was leading up to the Christmas explosion! Like last year I decided to stay in town to make the big bucks, and it didn't disappoint. Luckily I had other friends who were hanging around so on Christmas Eve I was able to enjoy some excellent food and karaoke with Ross, his girlfriend Lindsey and her whole clan. And then on Christmas Day of course I celebrated like all should by enjoying some delicious sushi with my Jewish buddies.
Seriously though, I saw so many cats and dogs over the holidays that I barely had any time to think, and once things briefly calmed down we immediately had thousands of friends staying over for New Years. It was great having so many visitors, several Butlerites made the trek, and we surely didn't disappoint. And then there were the Three Musketeers: Gabe, Lauren and Jimbo. I took them to the Salvadoran restaurant a couple blocks away and they got to talking to the waitress, it was like I was back in that beautiful country, not comfortable enough with my Spanish to start a conversation but always ready to nod and laugh at the appropriate times. Everyone came for our New Years bash, which centered around my newest batch of beer (a Russian Imperial Stout which blew me away as well as the top of its bucket due to overheating) and a performance by some band called Bricklayers Foundation. Actually it was tons of fun, we played really well, and we received no noise complaints so I'd say it was a great success.
In terms of reading I enjoyed Alex Ross' Listen To This, a collection of articles about all sorts of music and musicians. Not quite as good as The Rest Is Noise but still fascinating. Next was The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, an epic story about Boston around 1918, dealing with everything from the flu to racism to corruption and the Police Strike. Gritty, exciting, historically fictional, I highly recommend it. I mean, bringing in Babe Ruth every now and again obviously sucked me in.
Lastly I read A Clockwork Orange, similar to American Psycho in its graphic description of violence and lack of any iota of morality. Great book, hard to get through the futuristic dialect but still top-notch stuff. I even got to read the 21st chapter which was cut out of American publications (and thus the Kubrick movie based off of it).
And if you have the chance, watch (Untitled), a brilliantly funny movie about modern art and music and all the nonsense that goes with it. My apologies for the lack of pictures, I promise I have some cute puppy pics but for some reason they're being difficult. Lastly, go Pats!