September 22, 2006 ...The Orlando papers say Grant Hill is healthy. I wish Hill would be able to play an entire season because I love watching him play, and because I view him as a real ambassador for the sport. Hill deserves some good luck. He is such an underrated playmaker. The Magic have really nice pieces in Jameer Nelson, and Dwight Howard. The iffy deal for Orlando is who plays two guard? Trevor Ariza? ...Is hip-hop mastermind Eminem living in Granite Bay, CA.? That is his listed hometown on a myspace.com rap. ...What’s has your 80’s band done lately? I saw the Human League on Jimmy Kimmel live. After several mentions leading up to the performance—I was thinking, - ‘wow—they still play? I wonder what their new stuff sounds like?’ So I waited for them to come on—and don’t you know they were playing the their 80’s hit Don’t You Want Me? Suffice it to say—I am not in favor of 80’s acts who do not progress with a new library of tunes. I respect Prince so much for that. He could have played the same old Purple Rain stuff forever but instead he has experimented with jazz, salsa, electronica, and more. He has released hundreds of songs since his peak in 1984.
September 12, 2006 Could they hype the Justin Timberlake deal any more? ...I think you all should
be hip to Kaskade, a house-soul-chill-lounge music act based in SF but
originally from Chicago. The song “Surrender”
from the Calm EP is the latest track
to strengthen my argument that this kid (Ryan Raddon) is a terrific songwriter. The song
could be an adult contemporary smash. It is available on I-tunes only. Kaskade
first came to my attention in 2003 when DJ Danny Ramirez would play It’s You, It’s Me upstairs at 815 L on Thursday nights.
Several house-dance tunes later, Kaskade’s sound is maturing, and becoming more
organic. The only thing Kaskade needs now is a real live Raphael Saadiq bassline.
August 29, 2006 It is a Band-Aid. Letting Mike Montgomery go, and hiring Don Nelson is the latest is series of bad moves by
the Warriors. Maybe Nellie will win some more games this year and next—but not
enough to justify the time wasted treading water. Let’s make these predictions about the W’s:
Scoring will be up, rebounding percentage will go down, assists will be up,
steals will be up, turnovers will be more abundant, blocked shots totals will
drop. Field goal percentage will drop, free-throw percentage will rise. If you
are a perimeter player you love Nelson’s arrival. If you are Adonal Foyle, Troy Murphy or Andris
Biedrins your playing
time just dropped. My gut also says Nelson will ship off Mike Dunleavey Jr. ...Jason Richardson, and Baron Davis are smiling though, and that means more
wins for the Warriors in the short term.
If there is one thing Nellie can do well—it is evaluating players. He will
put the ball in Baron’s hands and give him the freedom to make the
Davis-Richardson backcourt as good as it can be. ...Warriors off-season
additions: Devin Brown (Utah), Patrick O’Bryant (draft).
August
28, 2006 ...Here is a thought. I’m sure there is a good reason why NASA does
launches from Florida. I just don’t
know why. My logical mind says they could save tons of money in a more
efficient place weather-wise. They must extend budgets every time they have to
scrub a launch at Cape Canaveral due to the wild weather in that part of the
world. I’m thinking Sacramento would be a good place. ...I was happy to see Jeremy Piven win an Emmy Sunday night for his Ari Gold
role on Entourage.
For my
money—dude is the best actor on the tube. ...August 25, 2006 ...Kudos to local Sacramento, CA radio
station KBMB 103.5 FM for their Ludacris Takeover yesterday. ‘Luda’, an international hip-hop superstar was the
DJ for two hours from 4-6 PM Thursday. He even gave a traffic report saying
“The I-5 is ignant right now”. He played some exclusives, and took phone calls
while introducing songs. It was entertaining stuff!
August 22, 2006 ...I been thinkin’ …The Orlando Magic suddenly are point guard rich with Jameer Nelson, Carlos Arroyo, and Travis Diener. ...My three favorites to win the 2007
NBA Championship are Miami, Cleveland, and Phoenix. ...The Denver Nuggets are still
not very good at the TWO or THREE when you get past Carmelo Anthony. They made a move to get J.R. Smith but I don’t think he is ready for
primetime yet. Many nights Earl Boykins closed games as a Two with Andre Miller at the point. Denver sure could use Bonzi Wells. ...How about the San Jose Mercury News with a story posted 07/26/06
about possible Warriors trades…”Pietrus would give the Kings insurance on the perimeter, and Biedrins
would be a better option at backup center than
August 21, 2006 ...Two ‘must see’ films are When the
Levees Broke—Spike Lee’s HBO documentary, and An Inconvenient
Truth, Al Gore’s global warming film. ...It is your moral
duty to watch these shows. …Kudos to NBA-TV for their coverage of the FIBA
World Championship. ...I NEVER thought I would be anticipating an album by Lionel Richie but I am thanks to Chuckii Booker writing and producing several tracks for
the mid-September release.