MARCH GLADNESS

IT'S TIME FOR 16 to take out a 1

That's what March Madness is really about right? It's not about a simple little college basketball tournament. It's about the fact that hockey and the NBA are going into their playoffs...Nascar is in full bloom and we are about ready to jump into the Major League Baseball season. Oh, and there is that very exciting basketball tournament. I believe at some point, somehow, somewhere, the 16th seed in the NCAA tournament will finally beat a number one seed. I'm going to put in my bid for this year. You know why? Because my school - California State University, Northridge is in the tournament and many are predicting they will be a 16th seed. So prepare everyone as Northridge beats North Carolina on a half court heave with 1 second on the clock....now that's what March Madness is all about!!!

HOOP DREAMS

Rent yourself a documentary - I dare you. Come on...really...you can do it. Why do I get the feeling that some people think of a documentary as something you watched in 5th grade history class while you were studying the Aztec nation? How can documentaries not be the coolest type of movie when you really get down to it. No one is "making believe" for the most part. The movie making is not a bunch of takes and re-takes for the most part. The movie making is how the film is put together....often how interviews are woven into the story line and keep viewers glued to the screen. You might night have 3 hours to spend sitting in front of a TV watching 5 years in the lives of 2 teenage boys trying to make it to the NBA. The film raises a number of issues concerning race, class, economic division, education and values in contemporary America. It also offers one of the most intimate views of inner-city life to be captured on film. If ever there was a nail biter as a documentary this would be the one. Great film.

HOOPSEY DOOPSEY

OOhhhh....I've hit a snag....I cannot possibly relate basketball to something in the classical music world. Well....I did with Spike Lee's "He Got Game" which had music by Aaron Copland as the soundtrack, so there. So I have to tell you about the coolest moment in the movie. I've always conducted a very obscure but beautiful piece by Copland called "Letter from Home". It was written around WWII and basically summaries feelings a soldier would have upon receiving a letter from home. I could not believe that Spike Lee and the music staff of that movie dug out this piece. It came at the perfect time, when the young basketball player received a letter from his father and started to open it. Out of the millions of people that watched this film I began to wonder how many people would have recognized that piece of music, the title of the piece and it's significance at that exact moment in the movie. I say two or three. That moment was genius and I just had to share it.

GRIPE OF THE DAY

Listen people...if you're on a line at McDonalds it is my opinion that you should know exactly what you want before your turn comes in line. There are these big neon menus that you can read while you're standing on line. Oh....and I forgot.....It's F&*&ing MCDONALDS!!! They've basically sold the same shit for the last 50 years....is there anyone here that doesn't have the menu memorized? Really? Oh - and it's not really all shit...that chicken sandwich the other day was pretty damn good.