Halloween In Madison

This past weekend was the once legendary Halloween weekend in Madison, or as it is now called, "Freakfest, presented by Mountain Dew". It is so disappointing that a city such as Madison that prides itself on being underground, vibrant, and progressive is now under the corporate control of major companies as well as the Madison Police Department. Halloween used to be a time for everyone to come onto State Street and let loose and have fun with their friends. Now it is just a big hassle to go onto State and deal with the heavy police presence that are just waiting to take down the person person who gets in their way.

However, not all of Halloween was a disappointment. For my costume, myself as well as about 60 of my frat brothers became Spartans for the weekend. Running down State Street Friday night with shield and sears chanting lines from 300 was a great time. People wherever we went chanted out "Spartan" towards us and told us to fight for our glory. We defended State Street well and defeated the Persians once again.

BRUUUUUUCE

This past monday, a friend of mine and I took a little roadie down to Chitown to see the legend, the boss, the king of New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Growing up in New Jersey makes loving Bruce Springsteen easy, and his energy at the age of 58 still does not disappoint. After the three hour drive, we got there at around 4 o clock, roughly four hours before the show was scheduled to start. The reason we got there that early is because we had general admission tickets for the floor, and by entering a lottery, had a chance to be one of the 500 people who would be allowed to enter the pit right in front of the stage. We got our wristbands, numbers 752 and 753 and waited for the number to be called. Sure enough, 652 was chosen and WE WERE IN!... Not only were we gonna be in the pit, but we were one of the first 100 people allowed to go in. After about two hours of waiting outside in the cold, without a jacket because there would be no place to put one on the floor, we were let in. Running towards the stage we realized just how close we were going to be. We were about three people deep right in front of the stage in between Bruce and Clarence Clemons.
After two more hours of waiting, the anticipation was mounting. Finally at around 8:20 the band came on stage and rocked with its new hit single Radio Nowhere. They kept the energy going all night with such legendary hits as Prove It All Night, Candy's Room and She's The One. Then, in the middle of the set, they brought out two tour premieres back to back; Tunnel of Love and Spirit In The Night. When the band came back for their encore, Bruce was preparing to play a new song, Girls In Their Summer Clothes,until he saw a ten year old boy in the front row who was holding up a sign for Thunder Road all night. Bruce responded by making an audible and playing Thunder Road for the first time in five years. It was, needless to say, incredible. He ended the set with Born to Run, Dancing In the Dark, and This American Land. It was an incredible show and still has me feeling the adrenaline of that night, two days later.

New York, New York

I thought New York was supposed to be the center of the universe in all aspects of life. One thing that it most definitely is not right now, is the center of the sports universe. For a metropolitan area that prides itself on having great fans and overwhelming support for its sports franchises, the teams are not living up to their fans' expectations.
The king of all New York teams are the Yankees. For the third straight year, they have now exited in the first round of the playoffs. Sure, any other team would love to simply be in the playoffs for 13 straight years. Not the yanks. Championships are expected, not weeks sitting a home in October watching the hated Red Sox cruise to a championship. Major changes are sure to be underway in the next few months in the Bronx, with the same expectations of every year still being in the minds of the Bleacher Creatures next April.
The Jets lost again today. No surprise. The Giants are very mediocre and have relatively no chance of going far in the playoffs. Even when these two teams played each other last weak, it was a dreadful event to watch.
What has happened to this city. Are we really going to rely on Isaiah Thomas and the Knicks to bring this city back to life...?
I dont think so.
Go Devils.

Champaign is No Madison

This past weekend I traveled four hours to the south in hope of a great weekend of partying, friends, and most importantly beating the Illini in football. The Badgers were undefeated, ranked 5 in the nation and hadn't lost in fourteen games, yet for some reason, were underdogs to Illinois, a team that had won a total of 4 games in the past two seasons. It was a perfect morning for football, sunny, maybe a little hot, but everyone was ready for the first big game in Champaign in a long time. Before the game about 20 of us were grilling, drinking and mostly yelling at everyone dressed in orange that would pass by.
Eventually, it was time to go into the game, and as we settled into our seats next to the Wisconsin section of the upper deck, we realized something was missing: no one was talking shit to us. We were dressed in red from head to toe, and yelling at the Badgers' every movement, yet none of the Illinois fans around us were saying anything. However, as the game went on, we were not as happy as we were when we walking in the stadium. The Illini knocked off the Badgers, who played a game full of terrible mistakes.
The rest of the day was not as fun as it should be, however we made up for it by rallying with a great night out in Champaign. The one problem though that still occured that night was that we still didn't hear anything at the bars that night wearing our Wisconsin gear. Not even a couple drinks could bring out some taunting out of the Illini fans. In Madison, if the tables were turned, the Illini fans would be yelled at with chants of asshole the entire night. This is why Madison is Madison and Champaign never will be.

The Mets...Ohhhh The Mets

The Mets Blow A 7 Game Lead In 17 Days.

If I were a Mets fan, today would be a no good very bad horrible day. Alas, as a resident of the metropolitan area of New York/New Jersey, I have the option of rooting for another baseball team...The legendary New York Yankees. What the Mets accomplished over the last couple weeks can only be expressed as a choke of epic Latrell Sprewell-P.J. Carlisimo proportions. Although the Phillies happened to play great baseball over the stretch, there is no way the Mets could've imagined playing this poorly in September, creating the biggest fall from grace in the history of Major League Baseball. The only question now is: What Comes Next?

Option 1:Stay The Course:
This team obviously has enough talent to make it to a World Series and possibly even win one. They were far and away the best team in the National League for 4 months of the season and have built themselves around the most dynamic player in baseball in Jose Reyes. They have a young nucleus of exciting players that has awoken he rabid fan base of Metropolitans that will stick by their team. However, the problem with this option is their extreme lack of pitching, including old man Tom Glavine (who is obviously done), and 65 year old senior citizen El Duque Hernandez (who probably can pitch another 20 years)... Nevertheless, the Mets need to make some changes.

Option 2: Fire Manager Willie Randolph
Willie Randolph is a sitting duck.. Until he wins a World Series, he will be remembered for this historic collapse. The Mets need to make a change now. Randolph needed to do something to ignite a fire under the players some time over the stretch to try and at least change something about their mind sets before each game. Most of the blame should be placed on the players, however, now that the season is over, a change needs to be made and someone needs to take the fall. Fire Randolph and head over to Japan, drink some Bobby Valentine beer and while their at it, take the inspiration behind that beer back to Flushing and give him the job he never should have lost back.