Art Thiel and Brokeback

Took this pic in Madison Valley.  It's the 12th Man House.

Pick of the day:  Art Thiel's column in the seattlepi likened the Seahawks new head coach and GM's relationship to Brokeback Mountain.      

Any comparison between the Mike Holmgren-Tim Ruskell relationship and the new regime now running the Seahawks was obliterated when John Schneider on Wednesday described the first hour of his first meeting with Pete Carroll.

"I was sweating like crazy," he said. "I was all jacked up. We started talking and I thought we were going to come across the table at each other a little bit there a couple of times. It was exciting.

"Pete and I, I felt like we could have stayed all night. I didn't want to finish. I thought we could have kept going."

The bromance seemed to stop a little south of Brokeback Mountain, but the principals left little doubt about the professional connection between the two. As opposed to the connection between Holmgren and Ruskell, who missed like the airline pilots who whiffed on Minneapolis.

I was surprised the P-I ran it. That observation was pointless and juvenile. The whole article was a waste of a post. It may have been lazy editing by Mr. Thiel, but whatever the reason - it goes against the way he portrays himself (as Seattle's thoughtful sports guy).

Here is the full story on Pete Carroll and John Schneider.

North By Northwest

Dave and I were discussing the Sonics move last night and we wondered,when the Sonics do eventually move to OK City, will they take all the retired jersey's and Championship banners with them and raise them to the rafters in the Ford Center? We also wondered if Clay Bennett would be nice enough to offer true Sonic "diehards" a weekend discounted package to be able to fly to Oklahoma City and get some great seats for the night they retire Gary Payton's jersey and celebrate his great career as a Sonic...

American professional sports are a complete joke. I could care less about the NBA or the Sonics and I consider the NBA, as a whole, to be comparable to that of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The people of this city should focus their energy on boycotting Starbucks and running Howard Schultz out of town than wasting their time and resources on Clay Bennett and a situation that is hopeless. It's not as depressing if you've already accepted the fact that it's over, like I have, but how about the Storm signing Sheryl Swoopes? I smell another WNBA Championship on the horizon!!! Go STORM Baby!!!

PS- Shouldn't Seattle's greatest fan (that guy who holds up the Sea-Fence" sign at Seahawk games), shouldn't he be doing something like handcuffing himself to the bumper of the team bus or to the landing gear of the team plane? I mean, you are Seattle's biggest fan so go out there and do something about this. The city is relying on you and your passion...I haven't heard a peep from that guy. What a joke...
- Cod the Fish on the fate of the Seattle SuperSonics.

My phone keeps ringing but I will not answer anytime soon. I have bigger fish to fry. I sit here in Seattle with a keyboard in my lap perched on a pearl white yoga ball. Here in the Northwest we are under a dark cloud. This may not be much of a big deal for the rest of the country. Sadly Seattle is relegated to weird looks from much of America. We are thought of as almost Alaska to so many. It is a deeply disturbing and hurtful thing for us natives. We are a proud people and know we are right and true. We have supported Obama like no other territory in the Empire and done the same for Ron Paul. Recently 40% of registered Republicans in these parts have been projected to support Paul in November even though his name will not be on the ballot. But never mind that. This is not a political story.

This is about basketball and 41 years of support for the Seattle Supersonics and now they are on the way to Oklahoma City. A foreigner bought the team from the king of a coffee empire named Howard Schulz who sold the team because the city would not give him a new arena. It was a childish and spiteful move by Schulz and he has paid for his stupid decision. These days his beloved coffee brand Starbucks is slipping down the Dow Jones and I know many people who routinely slap Starbucks cups from a person’s hand if seen on the street with it. It is no longer fashionable to drink the stuff.

Schulz is suing Bennet to get the rights to the team back. He is trying to save face because he knows his image is suffering and will forever be blamed for the reason we lost the team. In Seattle we have a shoddy history with sports. The Mariners have always sucked. And now in 2008 the Year of the Rat, the Mariners have the worst record in Major League Baseball. As a kid growing up the Seahawks were awful and now they are finally good, but for me it has been a hard thing to get used to. They are not a proud franchise in my mind and most people I know are more excited for the first year of Major League Soccer with the Sounders FC. Owner Drew Carey has done everything right following in the tradition of European teams with a board of members that can vote in or vote out the manager of the team and voting on the name for the team. All very classy and elegant decisions.

It was a sad day when Commissioner David Stern decided it was a better to make Seattle the premier WNBA city with the Storm Juggernaut and get rid of the Sonics the most hallowed franchise in Seattle sports history. The Sonics have always been good except for a few recent years where they have been treated like the Cleveland Indians in the movie Major League where they purposely built the worst possible team they could so it was easier to move them. And in real life the Cleveland Browns situation may be the closest resemblance to what we face. Same thing in Seattle. So now our fate is the WNBA hall of fame which will be built here soon. We can all look forward to that as the WNBA hall of fame takes over Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project.

I took the picture of the GP poster inside the Key @ the last Sonics game I ever went to.

Note to Obama: Fight like a panther

It is 7 in the morning and I look out the window to gaze at the gray sky, is almost white and blinding. This is the kind of city where the sun never comes up and never goes down and the horizon is met by never-ending gray. The cars are zooming by my window, a diesel motor is spitting as they tend to do, but instead of a car it is strapped to a man’s back: the leaf blowers are out. Like the machine gun man in The Predator movie mowing down a section of jungle with the pull of the trigger, the leaf blower man shoots dust and debris all over the street, moving it from one lot to the next, in constant motion for no reason. The haze of diseased material won’t go away, it just moves. Like a drunk wandering from one bar to the next all day. Existing, but not moving forward. Just being blown around by the fuel power, the liquid courage. Aha. Did I just hit the nail on the head? Surely sounds like it. Stumbled upon it of course. Now lets get down to business.

In The Scotsman Samantha Power, Mr. Obama's key foreign policy aide called Hillary, “A Monster...” because she had stooped so low in her attacks. What pisses me off is that today Power resigned from the Obama campaign probably because the Clinton’s called for her to be fired for the comments. Why? Who cares. She called Clinton a monster, she is a monster with eyes bulging and looking so desperate all the time, so tight faced, she looks like a balloon ready to pop.

No interpersonal skills to speak of. For some time now I have thought maybe she is some kind of speed freak. Her eyes are so big, Is she on Meth? Her face so tight. Remember 2004 when people piled on Kerry about possible botoxing? Well its 2008 and Hillary is definitely filled to the top with botox, look at her forehead, it looks like a clay teapot.

Larry David posted something on Huffingtonpost.com today and I think he keys in on something that we have all been seeing, but maybe people are too afraid to call her out on it. This is an interesting paragraph from the post:

How is it that she became the one who's perceived as more equipped to answer that 3 a.m. call than the unflappable Obama? He, with the ice in his veins, who doesn't panic when he's losing or get too giddy when he's winning, who's as comfortable in his own skin as she's uncomfortable in hers. There have been times in this campaign when she seemed so unhinged that I worried she'd actually kill herself if she lost. Every day, she reminds me more and more of Adele H., who also had an obsession that drove her insane.

Indeed. She seems to be completely unhinged to me. Scratching and clawing at the White House door like a sick puppy. Constantly pacing, nothing moving fast enough and no satisfaction ever. I thought with age came wisdom. I thought you learned to be a bit more philosophical. Veteran athletes force it less with more experience, don’t throw the ball away as much, live for another play. Brett Favre is old as McCain and in the playoffs this year executed precision shovel passes vs. the Seattle Seahawks in the midst of a blizzard at Lambeau Field. The Great Favre retired yesterday, but still kept repeating, “I know I can still play.”

I am not so sure Hillary ever learned how to play, never calmed down enough to be herself and confident with it, still trying to get her father’s approval. She has actually talked about and been pretty open with the public about her lifelong struggle of living up to her father’s idea of success. That is a skeleton in her closet, that may haunt her until the end.

Who cares what anyone thinks? Do whatever the fuck you want and don’t apologize to anyone for it. Family or friends. Be yourself.

Note to Obama: I know you are above the fray, cool, calm and collected, distinguished and academic, cut from a John Kerry cloth. I support you I just wish you would get a little bit more mad sometimes. Stand up and hit back. Or the least you could do is not fire or “let go” or “accept the resignation” of a campaign aide that is fighting back for you. Especially one hour after your rival The Clinton’s complained. They are the last people to be whining about attacks.

Note from the Editor: I was just thinking about this today...He is too focused on cleaning up America to be bothered with the pettiness of dirty politics, but isn’t that his appeal? Peace.

I took the pictures of the Obama posters under the Ballard Bridge.