|Driving home from a (great) night of summer golf on Friday night we stumbled across I Wish, the semi-old rap song by Skee-Lo. It's actually a great song and while it's impossible to forget those catchy lyrics I somehow forgot that catchy beat. Hard not to get you moving. The next day I heard the unfortunate news that Manute Bol had passed away and this morning Normy sent me the attached picture.
Manute Bol was a freak and travelled the NBA as a journeyman freak like a modern day circus show. Except that he figured out how to make money off his freakishness. He could block shots with the best of them. He is 2nd all-time in the blocks per game average (Mark Eaton is 1st - no shit) and is the only player ever to compile more blocks than points in a career. Much more importantly, and much less well known, is that Manute was a incredibly generous and selfless man. He died nearly broke after having donated most of his personal earnings to humanitarian aid to his homeland of Sudan. Read this nice piece from Deadspin here.
Watching his story as a youngster and learing where he came from broadened my horizons and his story, and his incredible height filled me with wonder. RIP.
The Stanley Cup playoffs ended on Wednesday night with the Blackhawks happily beating those damn Flyers. It was good to see the Cup go to an Original Six team and not to those insufferable bastards in Philly (fans and players alike). It was a great playoffs thanks, almost entirely for me, to a nice deep run from the Habs. It was probably flukey and I'm guessing that Jaro Halak is more Penney than Dryden or Roy - although praying otherwise, unless they don't resign him. It was fun to care again though, and this CBC montage will serve to remind me for a while to come:
And now, starting today in fact, sporting attention turns (or in most cases stays with) the World Cup in South Afica. It is the biggest sporting event in the World. That is to say that more of the world watches it than anything including the Olympics. I will be watching but not like I watch the Stanley Cup. I have no vested interest in who wins. Canada is not there so there is no National pride on the line. I will hope for the underdogs and I will hope for the teams that play the game right, have the fewest divers, and don't generally look like idiots. The last one is tough because they are, after all, soccer players. ;)
Canada may not be there but we do have a role to play. (One of) the official theme for the World Cup is Wavin' Flag by K'Naan who is Canadian. Hey at least it's something:
I practiced tonight for the first time in what seems like years but was actually only a couple of months. I have Plantar Fasciitis which is a painful inflammation of the Plantar Fascia Ligament which extends from your heel to your toes. It characterized by a generally annoying dull pain the mostly feels like I'm walking on bruies heels. In addition to being a pain in the heel, it's a pain in the ass.
It's likely caused by my not stretching enough prior to exercise and, just maybe, adding some extra weight as I've gotten older. Malcolm once had the same affliction and, at the time, his acupunturist told him she good prick him but it would only do some much good; the bottom line, in her words - "Mr. Malcolm, you too fat for your feet". I hope that's not my case but it's a least a part of it. I certainly am if I want to remain active.
Anyways, rugby season is getting started, I've got new orthotics, and I'm hopeful I can get back in form. As usual in situations like this, I look to Snoop for guidance and reassurance:
I missed this over the weekend when it was new news but I was sad to learn today the Dennis Hopper died. He was in a great career's worth of movies including Hoosiers which is one of my favourites, not to mention one of the top 5 best sports movies of all time. He played a drunk which was a common theme for him and potentially not that much a departure from reality. A lot of his roles may have been easy for him to play; he typically played a hippie, a rebel or an nutbar which seems to match his off-screen persona. He was very funny though. I wasn't born when Easy Rider came out but the perfect age when he hosted Saturday Night Live and parodied it in the opening in '87 (sadly nowhere to be found on the internet). It was one of my all time favourite SNL skits when SNL was really great. I liked Dennis Hopper from that moment on and loved him after playing Shooter.
He was one of Hollywood's great characters and got his long-overdue star on the walk of fame just this year. He died of prostate cancer reminding me once again to quickly state Fuck Cancer.
|Driving home from a (great) night of summer golf on Friday night we stumbled across I Wish, the semi-old rap song by Skee-Lo. It's actually a great song and while it's impossible to forget those catchy lyrics I somehow forgot that catchy beat. Hard not to get you moving. The next day I heard the unfortunate news that Manute Bol had passed away and this morning Normy sent me the attached picture. 
