Closer Look

Well, here are some things that deserve a closer look.

1) Seahawks in Super Bowl. I've written a pome about it:

Seahawks Super

The gloom and mist
of the coastal city
lift for a minute
as do our hearts
until the clouds move
back in and the gloom
gloomifies tragically and
wetly with wind
this time like a
cruel joke that
is defused
more than anything
sizzling there
in the relentless rain
pounding the
crosshatched pavement
hitting men's
bald spots bam.

The pounding of the
rain at night,
the glory (or not)
of an umbrella
that needs instructions
to open, rain falling
down the crack
at the back of
your pants as you
try (vainly)
to open it
and Curse the lack
of instructions
which as I've said
the umbrella
should have
come with.

Fishing out change
to get the three
dollars needed
to park, your head
awash with water
that seems to
circle it (your head)
and create a cold
wet band of steel
that requires somepin
like a blow torch to
warm up again
and reading on the
parking lot instructions
through a misty wall
of rainy rain,
that aren't instructions
enough on how
to get one dollar
back.

The Coursing
river of puddles
that combine one
with the other until
there's one Big Old
Puddle to drive
through uneggs-pectedly
Swoosh
leaving you
shaking your head
and saying to your
partner next time
I'll put the wipers
on HIGH! and your
partner not answering
because she can
get very moody after
37 out of 41 days
of rain.

The Glory of
the Damp Seattle
the Weathermen All
Prattling, Doppler Radar
this, Doppler Radar
That, It's
More of the Same
Rain with a high of
48 degrees that
we would watch
if we could work up
enough Energy.

We await word
from Detroit
and looking
forward to
having a beer
on Sunday.
Gloom.

Go Seahawks!

Sports Recap

Oi, the Seahawks actually did it! That was unbelievable that they won and now that they have I have to say that I thought they would all along. In fact I predicted it, I said, I think they might win big (or they might lose a close one).

And win big they did, 34-14 just as I predicted, over those hapless losers, those Washington Generals of the NFL football set, the Carolina (meow) Panthers.

Oh, it was so great, Matt Hasselbeck was the star throwing pinpoint passes to his pesky receivers who ran and jumped high to catch them and Shawn Alexander carried the load, darting and dashing all over the field, dinking and diving his way to 134 yards a playoff record of stupendous proportions at least for him it was a personal record.

The defense was AWESOME in particular Lofa Tatupu and especially Rocky Bernard who gave a few of his Suga Bear Shakes that signify the sack of the opposing quarterback and who brought the crowd to its feet in a mighty roar.

The Panthers who had riddled the best defense in the whole freakin' league last week, the Chicago Bears, had a lot of problems with the Stingy Seahawk defense and they managed only a meager amount of yardage, pathetic really.

Panther quarterback in a Seahawks induced Daze

Jake Delomme, the Panthers quarterback (who looked like either Ashton Kuchner or some guy from a sitcom that Chris had seen once) looked like he was in a DAZE, a Seahawks LETS PLAY TOO MANY MEN ON THE FIELD IT LOOKED LIKE THAT THEY WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE SO MUCH induced daze (as it turned out).

The Seahawks DARED TO DREAM and for their efforts are now going to the Big Ult Tomato, the Super Bowl.

Omigoshalmightyholycrimony

Let's just hope the 12th man is able to dream too, and not get intimidated by size of the whole thing. There's already been some people who have gulped and said to themselves, omigoshalmightyholycrimony what have we done?

A case in point is the article by Steve Kelly in the Seattle Times this morning, the headline for it reading, "Super Bowl loss can be difficult to Shake".

What? The Seahawks have just won the NFC Championship game two days ago and this joker is already talking about LOSING the Super Bowl?

That's what I mean -- Seattle is FULL of provinical people who do well in their safe secure environment who have trouble rising to the occasion, have trouble dealing with the Big Time. Oh, they might give it the ol' college (Purdue) try, but in their hearts they would just as soon lose the Big One and go back to moaning about how there has never ever been anybody nearly as good (he's like a GOD) and there never will be anybody better (you can take that to the BANK) than Dan Wilson because he's such a good guy in the clubhouse and he handles the pitchers (team era= 5.21) so well.

It'll be interesting to see what Art Thiel writes about this week, all his normal "I get it but you don't and I'll tell you why" angles seem to be non-existent although believe you me he'll find one you can bet your bottom dollar on THAT.

The twelfth man (that would be me and everybody of my ilk) need to jettison these guys who would try and DRAG US DOWN and keep our attention focussed on keeping our head on straight in Detroit and kicking some Big Time Booty.

We don't need small minds at this point. I think all you guys who can't handle it should go get your latte with Soy and peppermint and perhaps, Art, I would suggest that you can draft a nice article about what Safeco Field cost to build or those danged high prices that are paid to players that we PROMISE we'll read when we're done TAKING CARE OF SOME BIZ-NESS in MOTOWN!!!!

Puh-Leeze just let us do our work, and don't say anything (Steve Kelly I mean YOU!).

Sports Recap

Well, the Superb Seahawks, the mightiest of all the birds in the sky if in fact it's a real bird, soared mightily and dove like a big mean bird, scaring the poor Washington Redskins silly and winning the game last Sat. 20-10.

What a Quel Surprise!

Nobody (not even the French) expected this. Oh, everybody hoped it would happen, but deep down everybody (and we're talking the North South East West Sides, the people in Queen Anne, and Capitol Hill, Ballard and Fremont, people in Shoreline and in Kent and in Tukwila and Puyallup and Mulkiteo, Redmond and Kirkland, the islands of Bainbridge and Vashon and Whidby and points north and west in Forks and Humptulips, the beautiful community of Ocean Shores and the not so beautiful community of Lynden (although who am I to judge having only been there once), we're talking EVERYBODY in the Greater Puget Sound Basin of the Northwest part of the United States of America) thought they would blow it.

Especially when they got down 3-0.

But the Seahawks rallied behind Matt (Just how do you spell his last name) Hasselbeck and the rest was history, the poor Redskins muddy and bloodied but unhurt, flying on their own big bird back to the Land of Scandals and lamenting the fact that they just didn't win, saying things like Goldang it, the Seahawks were just the better team and good gosh almighty did you see how fast that guy Lofa Tatupu was, making plays all over the field and holy crimony that one play where Hasselbeck called the audible and Mack Strong rumbled for a 32 yard gain was kind of incredible.

I think people everywhere (and that includes the aforesaid Greater Puget Sound Basin/Everett Metropolitan Area) have got to stop being surprised, the Seahawks just ain't that bad and maybe just maybe they won't blow it.

Of course, there's always next week when the Surly Seahawks will take out their game claws and do some screeching and face the Carolina Panthers. This should be a good game and hope to heck they don't screw it up and hope to heck it rains.

Because now the Seahawks have actually played in some good old fashioned downpours, and have got their feathers wet so to speak and maybe now they actually have an advantage over a team that hasn't seen the seamy underbelly of a week of clouds so low you can read the serial numbers on each and every one of them. Clouds so low that people have adopted some of them as pets and have named them names like "Fluffy" and have put them on a leash and walked them down the street to have them rain on their neighbors lawn or should I say their neighbors mush. And have it rain so hard and cold that people (read: the Washington Redskins) say just how in the name of H-E-double hockey sticks can people actually live here?

I think the Seahawks actually have an advantage this game. If it rains.

And I'm knocking on wood, employing the anti-jinx don't you worry about it. I am not Rick Rizzs.

Here's the weather forecast:

Sunday
48 ° 37 °
Partly Cloudy

OH NO!!!! I knew it!! It's not going to rain! ('Course veteran Seattlites will remember the big party they threw that one time when the weather forecasters actually got something right and they were giving speeches and stuff ("I owe it all to Doppler Radar") so probably we're going to have to wait on this one until the actual morning.

Pray for rain, gosh dang it!

Sports Recap

Ok, so nobody on the east coast has ever heard of Seattle, or the Seattle Seahawks either and they've been such a soft team for such a long time nobody really thinks that they'll get tuff all of a sudden and clean everybody's clocks all the way to the Super Bowl.


Yeah? Well, we'll see about that, I think the Seahawks are tuffer than many people think. After all, they live in the Northwest, don't they?

Gumption

It really takes some gumption and I'm talking gumption with a capital "G-U-M-P-T-I-O-N" to live here.

I mean, it's been raining and raining and raining and it isn't only raining on the common people (such as myself), it's also been raining on the Seahawk football players (or on the windshields of their humongous SUVs).

People (and the Seahawks) are suffering but they've been really tuff about it, going above and beyond the call of duty on this, putting one foot in front of the other to keep on going even in the face of horrible conditions, never saying die or giving up in what could be called the fourth quarter of rain. Their backs have been against the wall all season and still they come back for more. Does that sound weak and soft?

No
No.

People in Seattle are cranky, the Seahawks are cranky. The people of Seattle (vicariously) and the Seahawks just need SOMEBODY to go out and hit.

And unfortunately for the Redskins (the Seahawks opponent or should I say victim this week) it's going to be them. I'd say I'm sorry but WE DON'T SAY WE'RE SORRY IN SEATTLE we're that tuff.

(Well, we do and we say thank you too and we don't think that cuts into our tuffness in any way shape or form because we've risen above old definitions of tuff to a new tuffer place (that involves 33 straight days of rain)).

Tony Kornbuttheiser

Some dude in the Washington newspapers, Tony Kornbuttheiser or sompin like that like we're supposed to know his name or sompin, says that the Northwest is full of Microsofters (shudda named themselves the MicroHARDers because they go after their competition in cutthroat fashion) and Starbuckers (that coffee is so HOT they need a warning on their cups it's so HOT) like it's something to be ashamed of and he says that the Redskins will Grind Them Up.

Mud

Good one, Tony, only it ain't going to happen. You (and the rest of the country) have NO idea what we've been going through here and let's just say I hope the Redskins can grind in MUD and I hope they're ready for a team that will be firing on all seven cylinders (the eighth one flooded full of water) who are going to be NASTY and who are going to take the Vaunted Redskins to the cleaners by gum.

After the game, right to the Corry's Fine Dry Cleaners the Seahawks will take them (because after all is said and done, the Seahawks are a very nice group of young men and they have a car) to clean off all the blood and mud off the Redskin's jerseys so they'll be ready for next season CUZ THE REDSKINS WON'T BE NEEDING THEM AGAIN THIS SEASON!!

Tuff, you ain't seen tuff. Or wet.

Weather

People are in bad moods, boy! But not me even though we got at least two more weeks of storms according to the paper.

I have to admit, last night hearing the rain on the roof again, I thought when will it all end? When will we be warm again?

I'm not sure why I'm not in a bad mood, just lucky I guess. There does seem to be two types of people, those who can handle weeks and weeks of rain and darkness and cold and those who can't.

Just sitting on the bus, you can see both types, the one group laughing and chatting (but not too loud so as not to disturb their cranky neighbors) and the other cranky group with frowns on their faces.

I guess sometimes I'm that guy with a frown so I better just shut up.

Today I saw a guy riding a bike yelling at somebody in a car who had cut him off. The fact that this biker is riding in one of the most un-bike friendly areas in Seattle is forgotten in his wrath, just screaming at the person in the car. The car stops and I think uh oh but it's just a drop off of a woman in the car who gets out and walks across the meridian thing to the stairs, all the while the biker screaming at the driver of the car.

It turns out the biker is going the same way as the woman walking so he stops screaming long enough to say Please after you to the woman going down the stairs. Ker-azy.

Right after that, I also saw another guy stoop over to look at something and the lens fell out of his glasses but that's another story.

Anyway, these bikers who insist on biking on heavily travelled routes when they could be riding somewhere else a LOT friendlier are a different breed that's for sure. It's almost as if they want someone to not see them so they can complain, but not seeing a biker on these routes could be disasterous (knock on wood) .

Although they would win the battle (ha! you didn't see me when you should have) you lose the war. A pyrrhic victory at best.

The thing that gets me too is how they feel like it's their right to be in traffic, but they can't manage to go the speed limit. 30 mph is pretty fast on a bike. I think that's illegal but try telling it to these wankers who are just waiting for somebody to say something.

You always see them, especially at red lights in front of a whole line of cars smack dab in the middle of the street, not off to the side where cars can get around them. That's not what they're there for, making things safe and easy. Their job is to slow cars down, create anxiety and especially create danger and all because they are PROVING some misguided POINT.

But all they're proving is they have a POINT ON TOP OF THEIR HEADS!

They are related to the people who are in the Sunday-let's-go-out-and-drive-slow-in-the-mountains club.

They're just the sort of people who would scream at somebody and act all indignant, just the sort of person you want to invite to your next soiree.

I think they're pedants.

On Seeing

I think the long and short of it is how you see depends upon what kind of brain you have.

I know that's a radical theory, I know it.

I mean it's kind of amazing how different people see different things and interpret things differently and see more intense color and things of that nature.

I bet it would be amazing to step into somebody else's brain (wipe your feet!) and take a look around a little bit, who knows WHAT you would see.

Maybe in the future we'll be able to house sit somebody's body, use their brain while they're on vacation or somepin. It would come in handy if that coincided with the BIG TEST you know what I mean? And you were brainsitting an MIT graduate who got 800s on some test and knows things only people who are smart know and knows them in abundance.

These are the kind of brains that I've noticed which of course as I've said relate to seeing.

1) There's the kind of brain that sees stuff but is afraid to tell anybody about it because they're afraid of looking foolish. These people walk into an art exhibit and boy the ideas are registering in their brains but there's some disfunction when it comes to actually saying anything about them. Every once in awhile, it becomes too much, the ideas overflow the speech center and the person says something blurts out something like "That cow over there doesn't have an udder" and looks at you meaningfully.

2) There's the focussed brain, the brain that goes after it's goal and doesn't let anything stand in it's way. These people you'll see them, at any art opening, cruising down the hallways headed somewhere only they know about, not looking either way and certainly not looking at any art that might happen to be hanging in the vicinity, their goal the ONLY thing on their minds. What it means probably is they have a friend in the building and they promised to come look at the paintings and oh god they're going to have to say something about them so they think well what should I say should I say hmmm interesting and now they're in the room and they're looking at the paintings and they think ACH! not those BIRDS again and they grab a glass of wine and some pistachios and then when finally they have to say something they say hmmm interesting and they look at their feet.

3) There's the people who say to themselves you know it would be a GOOD IDEA to do something a little different, do something to IMPROVE ourselves Why don't we go to the Open House at this building? And everybody sez What a good idea! But when they get there, it all is a little too much for them and they spend their time walking down the hallways, looking into the doorways, but not going in. They're peerers. They peer into a doorway, just their head showing. At the end of the day if somebody asks them (who knew they went to an art opening) if they saw any good art, they'd say No but we peered at a lot of it!

4) There's the people who look at art by scanning it with their monumentally large brains, looking for the slightest flaw and then reporting it to you with relish say that finger there on the left hand of that guy with the videocassettes is a little short doncha think Hmmmm? They do this very quickly in nanonanonano seconds it's kind of amazing to see and you actually can hear their brains scanning (if you listen closely). They say things like I LOVE this painting with the beautiful sky and the puffy clouds and the composition is FANTASTIC and those bubbles look splendid there next to the shingles on that guy's face and WHO KNEW that the little people of Ireland would look so menacing but WHY did you give that girl a moustache? Hmmmm?

5) There are the people who think shading techniques used by artists through the centuries to indicate shade are, in fact, facial hair (see above).

6) There are the people who say "So what's going on there anyway?" when they look at a painting. These people aren't sure they trust their own eyes, and want confirmation from somebody else. They think they like it, but they're not sure what it is they like, which would be kind of unsettling no doubt about it. Usually in a situation like this, someobody else chimes in, "yeah, why are those boys sniffing the woman" thinking that the first person is seeing the same thing they are and feeling that when it comes to getting the lowdown on a painting, there's safety in numbers.

7) And then there are the people who LOVE what you're doing and even LOVE what you're not doing but they see it anyway, they think the color is GREAT and the composition is the BEST and they say why aren't you in a gallery you're a GENIUS!!!!

I have a special fondness for these people I don't know why and think they are the BEST seers of all!!!