Proof that once is never enough, even when it comes to spending time behind bars, this man got arrested for his thirteenth (13!) DWI. My god, man. With all those fines and everything you could probably afford a private driver by now.

While there’s more news out that the Knicks organization is in shambles (not to mention their most recent loss - 8-20 people, wooo! Absolutely no reason to boo!), I can take some solace in knowing that it’s not just the basketball team in MSG that is the problem, it’s anything housed in that building. Apparently, there are sexual harrassment charges coming from the Rangers side of things, too. So basically the whole thing is just a giant Mesopotamia. The Rangers, however, have a 37-18-15 record currently good enough for sixth in the East while the Knicks are battling for the worst record IN THE LEAGUE.

Uch.

After the Knicks beat the Cavs rather soundly on Wednesday, some people thought this might be the sign of a turn around, and I really just can’t take this seriously. While the Cavs do have LeBron James and have resigned Varajao and all that stuff so maybe they’ll get back to the form they were in last season when they went to the Finals, but they’re 11-15. Their starting point guard is a man who’s mother calls him “Boobie” and who had 1 assist in the game. Ira Newbie (IRA NEWBIE!!!) played 17 minutes for them.

But here’s the thing, it’s not just that the Cavs didn’t play all that well, there were some signs that the Knicks weren’t playing that great either. The Knicks just happened to shoot a ridiculously high 56.2% from the field. But look at the rest of it 17 assists (on 41 field goals I might add) and 15 TOs. Malik Rose had 3 turnovers by himself (to match a stellar 12 minutes and 2 points). So who looked good? David Lee (who we all like), Jamal Crawford (who strangely seems to be our best point guard), and Randolph and Richardson looked decent as well. These are all players I am fairly found of and this gets me closer to my overall point. If the team is going to lose, I would rather it lose with lovable characters. I mean, after the whole sex trial, we learned more about Marbury than I’d like to know. I’ve already chronicled my feelings about Curry (don’t get me started on his line from Wednesday). Malik Rose is a waste of space. Jared Jefferies…well…I don’t know what I can say about Jared Jefferies. And don’t get me started on Jerome James.

Just take a gander at the Knicks depth chart and tell me you wouldn’t want to basically see that team sans say Jared Jefferies, Jerome James, Malik Rose, Eddy Curry, and Stephon Marbury. You keep Randolph because occasionally he just becomes a beast and can rebound MUCH better than Curry. Now I realize you’re short on players but how ’bout we keep Dan Dickau and Demetrius Nichols from the summer team. You’ve got 12 players right there. You definitely would need to pick up some sort of big man, a Joel Przybilla type (basically a rebounder and shot blocker who doesn’t need shots really), to patrol the paint (though Randolph Morris could be an incredible shot blocker for all we know). Then the starting lineup could look like some variation of the one from Wednesday with either Morris or Lee put in place of Curry. Now I’m not saying we would win any more games than we do now, but it would be a more likable team (on paper at least - it would seem like they’d hustle more) and it gives the team a chance to play and develop younger guys for the future.

I know there’s a win now mentality in New York, but right now I’d settle for a team that just looks like they actually want to play the game, that they want to work at it, a group of guys that don’t seem like complete asses, and a chance that two-three years down the line we could have some nice, young pieces. With our present cap situation and players, I just don’t get that feeling.

Okay, this is just too awesome not to pass along. My score was 26.  And the return of the bitches tag!

So the infinite knowledge base that is my elevator just informed me that one of NYC’s mammoth shopperies had windows designed to reflect the five elements: earth, wind, water, fire, and light. Since when are there five elements? If you do a quick Google search of five elements, you get a lot of differing opinions. Some seem to say wood (isn’t wood part of earth?) is the fifth element. Some metal. Fifth Element the movie seemed to think love was it and Captain Planet seemed to agree stating that the fifth element was heart. I am so confused.

Okay, after checking the news this morning, my planned (wait, these are planned?) blog entry has a little bit of a different twist on it, but I’m going to go ahead with it anyway. Yesterday, the New York Sun reported on a conservative Princeton student who was beaten for his views and sent death threats and the likes. It has come out now that he faked the entire thing and had been sending himself the emails and apparently beat himself senseless (the insanity of this is beyond me). But my point isn’t so much about the beating itself, but the fact that after the initial incident, the New York Sun ran the story of the student’s beating on the front page while the New York Times didn’t carry it anywhere in its paper (in hindsight now this seems like a smart thing).

At the time, my boss (a fairly conservative man himself) scoffed at this and blamed it on the Times liberal ways. While the Times certainly has more leftish tidings than the Sun, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a liberal paper especially in the media environment of today. Or at least not leftish enough to completely ignore an attack on a student just because of his conservative view point. Apparently, that is what happened (or maybe they had inside information that it was a hoax - who knows), but this got me thinking about where liberals actually get their news. Sure, plenty read the Times, but the Times is also one of the papers largely responsible for blowing up the Wen Ho Lee case and that was not very liberal of them at all. (I suppose I should note here that I’m using the terms “liberal” and “conservative” very loosely here.)

This is where comedic news sources like The Onion and the Daily Show come in. There have been all sorts of studies done on the amount of people who get their news via the Daily Show and their relative knowledge leve, as well as figures pointing to the fact that the Daily Show has more viewers than most “real” news shows (interesting and perhaps disconcerting). Point being though, these shows (Colbert Report, Daily Show) and The Onion definitely pander to the liberal audiences though they are somewhat unbiased in their bashing of political parties and policies. This is perhaps where the liberals are going for their news in a media environment where people sometimes ask “What Liberal Media?”. (SO MANY LINKS!!)

Perhaps this all links back to post modern theory (Ha! You knew this was coming didn’t you?). News shows themselves have become shows. It’s meant to give the illusion of reporting and unbiased news (WE REPORT YOU DECIDE, YOU GIVE US TEN MINUTES WE’LL GIVE YOU THE WORLD) and all that mumbo jumbo, but it’s all, pardon the Italian, merda di cavallo. So in a world that is entirely an illusion, is the illusion that admits its an illusion more real? Is reporting that admits its a farce and a comedy of errors more full of truthiness? Well that is the question. (I am unsure whether I actually fully addressed my liberal news angle on this, but Phuket).

Curt Schilling is a huge computer buff/nerd as you may well know. He runs a blog and plays lots of MMORPG (I’m unsure exactly what the breakdown of that is, something like massive online role plyaing game). One of these such games is World of Warcraft. And apparently this is his World of Warcraft character. My man loves his fantasy games.

I guess those four days off between starts gives Schilling the time he needs to get his character to level 70. Ah, the life of a major league pitcher. Oh yeah, this guy is making 8 million dollars next season not including incentive packages.

Here’s an interesting statistical breakdown of the rap game. It gets repetitive, but still good analysis.

I believe I’ve mentioned before that many of the articles I forward along to you are sent to me by my mother. She has the time to peruse the New York Times and BBC and the like and sends along things she thinks I’ll find interesting (Note: I probably have the time to do this too, but instead fill my hours with TV, video games, and staring at some social networking site or another). This article on a woman who’s stalking Raymond Chandler - it’s okay, it’s for a book! - is no exception. My mother forwarded it along to me and for any Chandler lover like myself, it’s an interesting preview of a book that I may end up reading. The book’s about a novelist’s travels through LA stalking Chandler and his wife’s spirit. It’s nonfiction so far as I can tell, and looks interesting.

What this made me think of however is the purpose of this blog (what, you thought it was just a collection of links from my mother and ramblings about the New York Knicks?) - mostly because my opinions are very important and you should care about them. Anyway, this got me thinking about the lengths people go to get inspired, the places they’re willing to travel to write. I understand that this author, Judith Freeman, has a very personal journey to go through in order to, shall I say, exercise the demon of Chandler that dwells within her. I can understand that (one day I may have to do that with Raymond Carver), but it’s amazing the lengths she’s willing to go to do so. The synopsis describes the work almost as if it was a pained, frantic journey. This is my type of writing. It gives the idea and the feeling that a life is enough inspiration. While Freeman is inspired by a life that’s not really her own, it’s still just a life and she incorporates it with her own crazy journey. It’s the idea that you just need to get out there and live in order to get what you need to write. It does annoy me a little that she had to create such an extravagant tale or mystique in order to be inspired, but this is less about inspiration and more about exercising her demons as I said before (or so it seems - remember, I enjoy blanket statements about things I do not know anything about). But more than anything, I like that she’s out there writing the good write. Out there being key.
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Sorry to keep griping on these Knicks, but not only did they lose last night, they lost and seemed to want to blame the fans even if just a little bit. Randolph seemed to have the biggest problem with the fans booing (he must not be used to it because no one used to go to Portland games, otherwise I think they would most definitely have heard the boo-urns). From the MSNBC report, it seems the Knicks’ fans saved their special treatment for Curry and Thomas. Let’s see what’s going on with Curry and Thomas this season. Thomas recently settled a lawsuit with Anuuuuuuuuucha Browne Saunders for 11.5 million after almost a full summer of legal battles and an impending appeal. Let me remind you that despite the fact that Anuuuuuuucha was suing for a large sum of money to start with (somewhere between 8-10 mill - I forget), she was willing to settle before the trial started for a cool million. That means that Dolan and Thomas cost the Knicks 10.5 million. But hey, at least they saved the team 100 g’s because Anuuucha was awared 11.6 million! And what do the Knicks fans get for that 10.5 million? A couch that’s led them to a 6-14 record to begin the season.

Onto Curry. Eddie Curry right now is averaging a little over 15 points, 5.5 boards, and .63 blocks per game (.63!!!) from our starting center. Now it should be noted that he only plays 30 minutes a game. So let me put this in some Knicks perspective. Quentin Richardson, our 3, plays about the same amount of minutes (1 more) and averages 1.1 more rebounds. David Lee averages 5 LESS minutes and grabs 2.2 more rebounds. Zach Randolph plays 2 more minutes and averages almost 5 more rebounds. For perspective on his blocks…wait a sec…he’s the Knicks leading shot blocker!!! At .63 a game! That means 2 out of three games he gets ONE block! There is no truer testament to our lack of interior D than the fact that our starting center leads the team in blocks at .63 and that our starting power forward (Randolph) has the same blocks average as our starting point guard (Marbury). That’s what I call protecting the paint!

More fun (read: depressing) Knicks facts: Our shooters (if you consider Quentin Richardson, Jamal Crawford, and Nate Robinson our main shooters) all shoot below 40%. We average almost as many assists (17.1) as we do turnovers (15.8) while our opponents have about a 9 assist advantage over turnovers in games against us.

All in all, Randolph is right. There is absolutely, positively no reason to not like this Knicks team. Oh, AND we have the highest payroll in the league! WOOOOOO!!! Go Knicks!!!