30 for 30 - Jordan rides the Bus

As many of you know I am huge sports fan on the side and occasionally write on a few different sports blogs around the interwebs. Basketball has always been one of my favorite sports but by far my passion has always been baseball. ESPN, or as we call it The Network, is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a documentary series entitled 30 for 30. This week they finally returned to covering stories that are relevant to my sports love. They covered Michael Jordan's transition from basketball to minor league baseball. They looked at how Michael responded to the murder of his father and the transition from jumbo jets to riding the charter bus with a minor league baseball team. I saw the promo for this episode of 30 for 30 and immediately set the DVR to record.

Watching the first 20 minutes of this I seriously found myself a little upset with Jordan for making this attempt. By the way I am typing this as I watch the show so if my opinion changes dramatically don't jump on me. I have no clue what to expect. But anyways, I found myself very upset with Jordan. Some people try their entire lives just to make a name for themselves in baseball, a name that may make a kid get excited to get their baseball card. Jordan tried to show up and get that without any outside struggles or hardships. It looked like a huge publicity stunt by the White Sox and a major stretch for Jordan himself. Now I realize he says that his family issued the challenge to him to become a baseball player and I respect that but this whole circus they keep showing in this video is pretty insane.

The camerawork and editing in this documentary are very impressive, but the story so far is NOTHING new that hasn't been talked about. They were hyping this thing up to be the "insider" into Jordan's real days in Baseball. Not so much, ESPN hits on his father's murder, then his gambling problem, and then the relationship between the gambling and his father's murder. ALL things that have been talked about for years. Please give me something in depth here.

The second half of the documentary is more centered on the baseball 'career' of Jordan. I do like the mix of interview and authentic footage from back in the day but was it necessary to do interview the old real estate lady that got him his house in Birmingham? She makes people in that town look like country idiots. I will say that the interviews of his former teammates was very cool hearing about how they never made the majors but they felt like big leaguers when he was around.

My overall impression of this documentary was somewhat positive. I expected ALOT more from this but I definitely enjoyed it for the most part. For someone who has always played baseball and watched it, this was automatically interesting. Jordan's baseball career was insanely short but he did chase a dream/request of his murdered father. I applaud that dedication to his father but I also see it as somewhat of a media stunt just to keep his name in lights for a year or two until his big comeback in the NBA. Thats where Jordan belonged. In the NBA, dunking on people... not on a bus or wearing baseball pants. This may not be the usual Media Hero post but this is definitely a big entertainment event I looked forward to, if you don't wanna read this... not gonna hurt my feelings.

Endless Loop - The Top 3 iTunes play for this week

As I mentioned in the first post of this blog a few weeks back, I have a crazy taste in music. The playlist I play to work out with may range from the before mentioned Bob Schneider to Jason Aldean to Jay-Z. So I figured why not make a weekly (hopefully) post of the my top 5 songs in my iTunes that week. I will call it endless loop because they are probably some of the only songs I am listening to this week. These songs may not be new, popular, or even good but they are definitely the most listened to songs of the week. Some may be songs I hear on the radio, some may be songs I am sick of because I have heard them 1000 times while editing videos for the school or church. So here we go... in NO particular order.

1. Eli Young Band - Guinevere

This song is such a breathe of fresh air from a band I have been listening to for 7 or 8 years. they are from the Denton area, UNT Grads (not sure if they finished but we claim them) and used to drink at the bar I bartended at so I claim to know them. Anyways after hearing them release song after song on albums for the last 6 years that were songs they played in and around Denton, their big fans had to be tired of hearing When It Rains and Oklahoma Girl. This new album is the first of theirs where I didn't know a single song before the drop date, and this song here is by far the best one of the CD. It takes me back to their old emotional hits like Everything is You and Highways and Broken Hearts. Looking forward to catching them next time they come in town.

2. Incubus - Wish You Were Here

So a few weeks ago, while really diving into my dirty ass house, I decided I needed to make a new upbeat playlist to motivate me to do some DEEP cleaning... You can ask the chick over at Elevated Ebenezer she can attest to just how out of control my house had gotten. Back on topic, I was trying to remember my old school workout playlist I had on my old iPod and macbook that I got rid of and I realized I never reloaded all of my Incubus music I had worked so hard to download. Well, instead of cleaning for an hour or two, I downloaded as much Incubus as I could and loaded up a playlist. I used to never really get into this particular song, but this go around I love it. It's just a song I can jam to I guess. Needless to say I got a lot of cleaning done that day. Glancing around this room right now, its about time to rock out again!

3. Brandon Rhyder - Freeze Frame Time

This song was introduced to me in a clutch moment by a co-worker. We had a slideshow to show for another co-workers retirement party and the audio bailed on us during the burn to DVD. We were pretty screwed, but one guy stepped up with some audio cables and this song and saved the party. This song is beautiful. The lyrics are amazing. Rhyder needs to be more popular than he is. I bet I listen to this song at least once or twice a day. It makes me think of everything in my past ranging from sitting on the porch of my house in Virginia with my mom and dad all the way to the newest memories that I wish I could get stuck in that just happen in Boston with my dad and brother... it also makes me think of some other memories that are on the way... If I get a new guitar, I can honestly say this is at the VERY top of the list of songs to learn to play... Please if you skip the rest of the links on this page take some time and listen to this one. It is simply a beautiful song.

So there you go, those are the top 3 songs on my iTunes this week... maybe down the road I can push this up to 5 songs a week like a normal person would but really, who cares! Tell your friends about me. I am pretty cool

JD

Bob Schneider - HOB Dallas July 31st

So for the first time in probably 3 or 4 years I ventured out to see Bob Schneider play a live set. The back story on my addiction to Bob Schneider goes back to my college roommate Cody. He was a rabid fan of Bob and he started playing his music around the apartment and I started to like him. Once I saw him live the first time at RBar in Denton, it was ON! I have driven to Austin once or twice to see him, I have been to HOB at least 4 times to see him and I have seen him in 5 or 6 other venues. His shows are always upbeat, random and fun. So I decided to take the girlfriend out and introduce her to the greatness of Bob Live. We were joined by 2 good friends from the church.

So after some great food and a REALLY spicy margarita at the Iron Cactus, we walked over to HOB and settled in on the front row railing of general admission. Quiet Company took the stage as the secondary opening band. The first guy I can't remember his name, obviously he was memorable. Quiet Company was like a cool mix of Maroon 5 and Kings of Leon in my opinion. I rarely pay attention to the opening acts at concerts like this, but these dudes ripped the stage up. I can't find these guys on the internet anywhere. Their stage presence was off the charts. I am a new fan.... if I can find them anywhere. Not on iTunes either, sucks.

So once they got the stage set up, Bob took the stage with authority. I forgot my camera so please enjoy these wonderful iPhone pics. My bad. Mr. Bob rocked a lot of newer stuff that I wasn't 100% familiar with but it was definitely needs to be put into the rotation on the iPod. The crowd was very interesting and different from most of the crowds I am used to at a Schneider show. The concerts I frequented of his back in college were full of drunk college students, and a few of his biggest fans. This concert was pretty close to Douche Central. Alot of 30 thousand dollar millionaires and fake looking women. From the beginning I was wondering just how involved the crowd would get in this concert. It definitely wasn't your usual raucous Bob crowd but ah well. Bob did his thing, he brought his 'A' game. He brought a new addition I hadn't seen before into this concert. He had a hat one at the beginning of the show, just a normal looking top hat. Whenever he wanted to do a sing a long with the crowd, he would put on a PIRATE hat. Yes a PIRATE hat. It was hilarious. Like I mentioned earlier, I heard quite a few new songs I hadn't heard but the best new song of the night was definitely the Pants Song. Bob jumped back into the rap game on this one and brought the house down. '40 dogs', his current radio release, of course, brought the crowd alive and then his usual set closing rendition of 'Tarantula' was a festive as ever.

This concert from my personal standpoint wasn't the best one of his I have been to, but it definitely was not the worst. There is no concert that can top that first one at RBar in Denton, Texas. We were there with Bruce Hughes', Bob's bass player, daughter... did that compute? Anyways, we were front row and center, and Bob and Bruce both were interacting with our group the entire concert. This concert at HOB was very upbeat and fun but it definitely was missing that hardcore college feel of old. Overall, it was well worth the cost of tickets and the 3 miles we walked through downtown Dallas to get to dinner and then to HOB. Next concert is looking to be Kings of Leon in September!