Knicks drop another one

Kurt Thomas tied a career-high with 33 points on 15-for-22 shooting from the field. Allan Houston, Charlie Ward and Lee Nailon added 14 apiece for New York, but the knicks still got tripped up by the pacers, 107-94.

Thomas was often a one-man show for the Knicks as leading scorer Allan Houston made just 3-of-16 shots for 14 points.

"The Pacers' aggressiveness got to us," Kurt Thomas said. "It caused our big men to get in foul trouble early and it put them at the line late and they were able to extend their lead late."

Kurt ... Please, and where was the rest of the team, where was the defense? Ya'll let Indiana score 38 first-quarter points and shoot 66.7 percent. Under former coaches Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy, the Knicks used to kick ass, they sent their opponents home black and blue (even if they lost). Now you guys are giving your opponents an E-ZPass ticket down the lane. Come on now! let's play some basketball.

Let it be said, let it be done
Yes, Oliver is going to be on television as part of special program on blogging.

An Old Funkateer

William 'Bootsy' Collins and his wife Pat Collins arrives for an event honoring the Funk Brothers at Harlem's Apollo Theater Thursday, Nov. 7, 2002, in New York. The story of the studio musicians known as the Funk Brothers, who performed without credit on hundreds of Motown records, including numerous No. 1 hits, were being honored at a screening of a movie about them, 'Standing in the Shadow of Motown.' The evening also featured performances by Bootsy Collins, a bassist for Parliament-Funkadelic, andsome members of the Funk Brothers. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

Def Poetry jam

What happens when you put together nine gifted poets and performers, a talented DJ to add music to their words, one of Hollywood's most prolific directors of television and films, and a master visionary who has long shaped the evolution of pop and urban culture? The result is Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, a presentation of performance poetry inspired by today's world.

Longacre Theatre
220 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036
212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250
$25.00 - $65.00
Opening: November 14, 2002

Nine culturally diverse poets in a tapestry of jazz, pop, and hip hop - lyrical, raw, smart, hilarious and searingly honest.

Note to self: Must attend / perfect birthday gift.

Too Close for Comfort

A New Mexico couple who traveled to New York have been hospitalized with what is believed to be the first case of bubonic plague in the city in a century, said health officials.

The couple arrived in the city last Friday and went to the hospital two days later with high fever and swollen lymph nodes. The man, 53, is in critical condition and on life support at a Manhattan hospital; his 47-year-old wife is in stable condition, said officials. Both are in isolation at the hospital.

"Today, we are announcing what are likely to be the first cases of bubonic plague in New York City in 100 years," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the health commissioner of New York City.[more]

Get a Clue

Bob Levey says:

Rap is a litany of half-formed thoughts, laid over half-formed percussion. You can't hum it or dance to it. Half the time, you can't understand it. [more]

Poor chap doesn't have a clue as to what he's talking about.

Oh no you don't

A man who robbed a midtown New York bank yesterday was tackled by two bank employees. The robber broke free and ran outside where the bank employees were joined by a retired cop and a meter maid, who held on the thief until the troops arrived and cuffed him.

Passings

Election coverage kind of took priority over Jonathan Harris' recent death. Best known as Dr. Smith from the TV show Lost in Space.

While we're on the subject, this site tracks whether famous people are still alive or whether they have passed away. It is intended purely as a resource for those seeking that type of information about famous people.

Houston, Nailon Lead Knicks to First Win

Allan Houston had 21 points and Lee Nailon added 20 to help the New York Knicks record their first win of the season, 95-88 over the Sacramento Kings Wednesday.

Charlie Ward and Shandon Anderson both had 15 points for New York (1-4) as the Knicks handed the Kings their third successive loss. Sacramento is on its first three-game losing streak in two seasons.

Great effort guys, I'm looking forward to seeing more of the same. And, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only NY knicks fan out here in the blogoshere, Brian is just as enthusiastic as I am.

An easy win for NY Gov. Pataki

I'm not surprised. It is interesting to note however, that New York is a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by two million voters.

So, what happened?

Pataki basically squeezed his Democratic opponent, McCall, out of the way. A combination of a good message, (even if from a conservative standpoint) and an opponent running an under-financed, unimaginative and dismal campaign proved to be an overwhelming advantage for the incumbent. Pataki also assured his election by jumping to the left on a host of issues over the last few years.

As for Carl McCall, (the first African-American nominated for Governor in the Empire State) there was barely a "McCall for Governor" sign anywhere to be seen in my travels. McCall wasted time doing national radio when he should have been trying to rally his own local troops while broadly spreading his message and significantly challenging his opponent on the issues that mattered.

No surprise that Pataki got nearly 50 percent of the vote, McCall 33 percent and billionaire Tom Golisano took 14 percent ... One observer said that McCall's effort may have been worse than that of Michael Dukakis.

For complete NY elections returns, go to the Gotham Gazette election results page. For an overview of the state elections, see Eye On Albany. And for more information on the NY City races, click on The Record on Searchlight.

As for the national results, let's be better prepared in 2004! I believe that the "so called" leaders of our Democratic Party learned a valuable lesson. We need real leaders with vision and a clear agenda. Sleepers step aside - It's time for a Change.

For now, let's hope that the Republican party can make good on tax improvement, create jobs, reduce health care expenses and clean up our school system; find a solution to crime, drugs and corrupt officials as well as return reason/common sense to the establishment and enforcement of law without respect to Gender, Race, or Political/Private Interest Group.

Racial, ideological issues split black, white voters

USA Today has this story

Clear ''racial and ideological divides'' between African-Americans and whites ''characterize the 2002 political environment,'' the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies concluded from the results of its National Opinion Poll on political issues, which was conducted in September and October and released last week.

What makes this report remarkable is how this gap has widened since the Joint Center conducted its last poll in 2000. Then, 56% of African-Americans and 57% of whites believed the country was moving in the right direction. Two years later, 40.6% of whites still hew to that belief, but only 23.9% of blacks now agree.

If one feels that the country is not moving in the right direction, understand then that You can do something about it. It's time for us to start looking in the mirror and ask what are we doing to improve ourselves. And, one place to start is at the voting booth.

White House Maps Ambitious Plans

With Republicans gaining control of both the White House and Congress, Bush administration officials last night began to prepare an ambitious legislative agenda to press their new -- and somewhat unexpected -- advantage.

As the party goes on the offensive, a top priority surely, should be the economy ... And, if that doesn't improve over the next two years, there's no one else to blame.

A moving and Final Farewell

The family and friends of Run-D.M.C.'s Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell) united one more time on Tuesday (November 5) to say goodbye to the late rap DJ/producer at his funeral, which took place at the Greater Allen Cathedral Of New York.

Jam Master Jay's widow Terri Mizell and their three sons--Jason W., Terry Jason, and Jesse Tray Mizell--were all present, as were his mother Connie Thompson Mizell, his brother Marvin L. Thompson, and his sister Bonita Jones.

Pastor and gospel singer Donnie McClurkin performed two songs during the ceremony.

D.M.C. (Darryl McDaniels) read a poem he wrote while fighting back tears, and Reverend Run (Joe Simmons) provided the prayer of comfort.

As an ode to Jay, some mourners came clad in white, shell-toe Adidas sneakers, sweatsuits, black jeans and fedoras in place of the usual staid, black-suited funeralwear.

Others wore white Run-DMC concert t-shirts or custom-made shirts paying tribute to the late DJ.

Inside the casket, Jay himself was dressed in Run-DMC's trademark onstage garb - black leather, black fedora, Adidas sneakers and a gold Adidas necklace he received when the group signed an endorsement deal in the 1980s.

Many in the hip-hop community were present to offer their condolences, including Jermaine Dupri, Foxy Brown, members of A Tribe Called Quest and Whodini, Chuck D, Harry Allen, Congressman Gregory Meeks, Russell and Kimora Simmons, Kevin Liles, Tito of Fearless Four, and Benjamin Muhammad.

Jam Master Jay was taken in white hearse to the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, where he will be laid to rest.

The Nietzsche Channel

My dear friend, what is this our life? A boat that swims in the sea, and all one knows for certain about it is that one day it will capsize. Here we are, two good old boats that have been faithful neighbors, and above all your hand has done its best to keep me from "capsizing"! Let us then continue our voyage—each for the other's sake, for a long time yet, a long time! We should miss each other so much! Tolerably calm seas and good winds and above all sun—what I wish for myself, I wish for you, too, and am sorry that my gratitude can find expression only in such a wish and has no influence at all on wind or weather.

— Nietzsche, Letter to Franz Overbeck: November 14, 1881

The Future of Jukeboxes

The age of the MP3 jukebox is dawning. An article in this month’s Wired confirms that this trend will soon be sweeping the nation.

In the Wired article, Abby Christopher states that there are 600 bars across America that now have MP3 jukeboxes.

These machines can handle "a choice of 100,000 titles… And, eventually will handle more than 700,000 songs." Let that sink in.

Unspooled

In the Digital Age, The Quaint Cassette Is Sent Reeling Into History's Dustbin

This article waxes nostalgic over the inevitable demise of cassette tapes.

Ones and zeroes sound better than oxide-coated polyester or vinyl. Everyone accepts this, driven to fits of pleasure by iPods, and wonders why a few of us can't: the kid in Best Buy who shrugs when you ask if there are any Sony Walkman cassette players left besides the two models on display; the car salesman who is pretty sure you can't get a cassette deck as standard equipment in any of the models on the lot; and the record industry, which saw the cassette format slip to below 4 percent of total music sales last year (from a mid-1980s high of 66 percent) and has decided to let it quietly hiss into history.

Even the best-made tapes hissed, or bled sound so that you could often hear a song from the tape’s other side playing in the background. The Dolbies installed on nearly every deck muffled the sound more than clarify it. Tapes broke constantly. Car players inevitably chewed them up. The quality of tapes deteriorated after a few years. The only good thing I have to say about cassettes is that they were better than 8-tracks, but then again, I'm no expert.

Strange but True

Look at the various facial expressions from the crowd, especially the lady on the bottom right ... I'm sure she had one hell of a story to tell her friends.

(Via Way More Sports) The full article is here

Reminisce

Yeah, hey
When you wish upon a star
Dreams will take you very far, yeah
When you wish upon a dream
Life ain´t always what it seems, oh yeah
Once you see your light so clear
In the sky so very dear

You´re a shining star, no matter who you are
Shining bright to see what you can truly be
That you can truly be

Shining star come into view
Shine its watchful light on you, yeah
Gives you strength to carry on
Make your body big and strong
Future roads for you to pass
Love to watch your mug past

The shining star, lucky you
The sinful redeeming shall be true
On an adventure of the sun, yeah
Yeah it´s all awake and just begun
Yeah, thought I had to stir the mood
That´s it now I got my own oh yeah

So if you find yourself in need
Why don´t you listen to his words of heat
Be a child free of sin
Be some place, yes I can
Words of Wisdom: Yes I can

You´re a shining star, no matter who you are
Shining bright to see what you can truly be
You´re a shining star, no matter who you are
Shining bright to see what you can truly be

Shining star for you to see, what your life can truly be
Shining star for you to see, what your life can truly be
Shining star for you to see, what your life can truly be

© 1975 Earth Wind & Fire

The magnificent soundtrack to the movie"that's the way of the world" was released in 1975. It exploded and propelled EW&F to the top of the charts. The effort netted EW&F a bunch of awards and spawned an entire era of black music.

Indeed , those were the days.

From the album "That's the way of the world" came the electrifying "shining star" (which EW&F referred to as their national anthem) and of course the slow jam "Reasons" which became the standard for all slow jams to follow. If you were a teenager back in the late 70's and for a decade or so thereafter, you may have slow danced to "reasons" on many occasions. Some of my fondest and strongest memories of back-in-the-day includes several episodes with "Reasons" as my background song of choice.

The first time you heard Earth, Wind & Fire ... Do you remember smiling, singing along, shaking your rump or cuddling with your loved one? Do you remember the energetic rhythms, feel-good vibes and lyrics that were intelligent, positive and uplifting?

Earth Wind and Fire is absolutely one of my favorite groups of all time and best of all these guys are still rocking. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fifteenth annual induction dinner on March 6th, 2000.

Microsoft antitrust ruling posted accidentally

A U.S District Court's ruling in the Microsoft antitrust case hit the Internet over an hour before Justice Department or Microsoft attorneys were told, reports MSNBC. The decision wasn't to be released until the close of trading Friday, but an error in the court's Web technology accidentally posted the decision early. “Somebody wasn’t thinking. They probably uploaded it just to make sure they wouldn’t have any trouble, assuming that no one read it, which was probably naive. They’re going to have to be a lot more careful," David Farber, an Internet expert and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission told MSNBC.

Kenyans Win NYC Marathon

The New York City Marathon men's first-place finisher, Rodgers Rop, center, second-place finisher Christopher Cheboiboch, right, and third-place finisher Laban Kipkemboi, left, all of Kenya, hold a trophy and flowers, following their victory.

The wonen's first place finisher, also from Kenya was Joyce Chepchumba.

Olympic Fever

New York City turned on its star power, flexed its financial muscle and touted its status as the “world’s second home” to beat out San Francisco on Saturday and become the U.S. candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The result not only means that New York advances to a 2005 International Olympic Committee vote, in which as many as a dozen global candidates will compete for the 2012 Games, but also that several major construction projects move to the front burner.

How some people in NY feel about it here