Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Blue Devils take another one...

Well the good news is that Duke beat North Carolina. The bad news is that Duke once again blew a big lead in the second half and couldn’t put away a team that it is much better than. This is what worries me about this Duke squad. They’ve played to the last seconds with the likes of Florida State and Boston College and Virginia Tech in games that should not have had that much of a challenge. Duke’s easily going to be a number one seed but I don’t know, this worries me. Plus, tonight’s game was ugly by both teams. Turnovers everywhere and nobody was able to get into an offensive rhythm, which did not make it fun to watch. Plus, it wasn’t even shown in HD so explain that one to me.

There is an interesting point on whether J. J. Reddick is the most hated player in the history of Duke basketball. It’s a tough list to crack. I definitely consider him to be the most hated player since Wojo who was outright despised due to the fact that he either a) played incredible man to man defense or b) fouled on every single possession. J. J. probably is running neck to neck with Christian Laettner in the most hated category. I mean, Christian gave you a lot of good reasons to hate him. He was tall, he was the best player on the court and he knew it and made sure that everyone else knew it as well, he hit every big shot, and he had really good hair. You either wanted to be him or failing that, beat the living crap out of him. I don’t really get why everyone hates J. J. though. He’s a killer outside shooter with a bit of an attitude. Sure, it feels like he’s been playing college basketball for ten years but that isn’t a reason to hate the guy.

Switching topics, I had a really interesting experience while driving to work this morning. I put in U2’s The Unforgettable Fire in the CD player for the first time in maybe a decade. It’s a disc that just hasn’t been in my regular rotation and if you asked me I would say man that album is ancient. The thing is, the second I started listening to the CD I immediately remembered listening to a cassette I had of the album in high school, sitting on the floor of my bedroom writing a letter to the legendary girl from Minnesota. This memory is as fresh as anything, from the fact that I always thought A Sort of Homecoming was a great song to the fact that if anyone can ever explain to me what the hell is going on in Elvis Pressley and America please let me know. In my heart, I don’t consider that to be that long ago, definitely feels more like five years than fifteen years. Suddenly realizing how fast time has gone by while you drive to work is not something you expect to encounter every morning.

The other thing is is that realization that some albums have such a connection to time and place. I can guarantee you I will always think of that same time whenever I listen to this album. Kelly Willis’ “What I Deserve” always reminds me of working at ComEd in winter because I would listen to it constantly while I sat at my desk running power flows. Neko Case’s “Furnace Room Lullaby” reminds me of sitting at my old desktop writing B-School admission essays. I just find it interesting that years after the fact, hearing a song can trigger such memories. It makes you wonder just how all of those thoughts are organized in my head. Some people use an alphabetical filing system, some go chronologically, mine apparently mirrors the Billboard Top 40.

(Last bit: can’t believe that I forgot that Calista Flockhart dated Harrison Ford and Lara Flynn Boyle dated Jack Nicholson. That said, what the hell happened to Ally McBeal anyway? Has she done anything since? Is she about two seconds away from appearing on The Surreal Life?)

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