Top Five Fridays - Dream Jobs
Contrary to popular belief I don’t consider blogging about denver, mortgages, real estate and just about anything in between, my dream job. Here are my top five dream jobs:
- Sportscenter Anchor: This has been a dream job of mine since I was 14 when Chris Berman and Dan Patrick were the anchors. Reporting the news and cracking jokes will always be appealing.
- Backup Quarterback: Quite frankly this has to be one of the best gigs on the planet. For the most part, you never play which means you never get hurt but if the starter goes down you finally get a shot at glory. In 20 to 30 years, we may not remember Drew Bledsoe but we’ll always remember his backup, Tom Brady.
- Stand Up Comedian: I’m sarcastic 100% of the time. Some of my jokes are funny. Some aren’t. Using your comedic talents to appeal to a mass audience isn’t just a challenge, it’s an art.
- Bill Clinton’s Biographer: Love him or hate him, the man was a force. If you’re a republican, you’re probably blaming him for the housing mess. If you’re a democrat, you’re hoping our laws can change so that he can run again. He was more sinner than saint but according to most people, once you meet him, you walk away impressed.
- My daughter’s father: I have the greatest child on the planet. Being her dad is the best job ever!
Top Five Fridays - Television Doctors
I had originally planned to do a top five fridays dedicated to sports drama queens but then my mind wandered and I couldn’t come up with five. I started thinking about drama and how the top rated shows are always dramas. Currently the top rated show is Grey’s Anatomy, a show about doctors in Seattle, with the drama almost as thick as the foam on a latte. My wife loves the show and has been hooked since day one. I, on the other hand, abstained from watching till this year. Despite all the drama, it’s actually a decent show. I still can’t believe Izzie is the girl from My Father The Hero.
Here’s a salute to the top five who can say “I’m not a doctor but I play one on television“:
- Doogie Howser from Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris): The premise was a little off-beat, a teenage boy as a doctor, and the show was a little quirky. The reason why Doogie is number one, he always ended the show by writing an online journal. He was a blogging pioneer!
- Doug Ross from ER (George Clooney): Men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him.
- Isobel Stevens from Grey’s Anatomy (Katherine Heigl): The aforementioned “Izzie” makes watching Grey’s Anatomy worthwhile.
- J.D. from Scrubs(Zach Braff): The best part about Scrubs being syndicated is that you know when it’s on. Until NBC finally moved this show to Thursday night, you never knew when the show aired.
- Turk from Scrubs (Donald Faison): Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Where’s there’s thunder, there’s rain. Where theres JD, there’s Turk. Equally funny.
Top Five Fridays - March Madness, Things I like
March Madness is upon us. 65 teams (actually 48 after yesterday’s games). One national champion. I filled out my bracket with Oden State University (Ohio State University) beating Florida in the final. Here are the 5 things I like about March Madness:
- Thursday and Friday: The two greatest days in the sports world are Thursday and Friday during the first weekend of March Madness. 32 games are played in 48 hours. If you filled out a bracket, you’re still excited. There will be blowouts, upsets, buzzer beaters, you name it they’ll have it!
- Upsetville: When colleges from powerhouse conferences (Big 10, Big 12, ACC, etc.) lose to the lower seeded mid-major colleges or below, it’s considered a major upset. Consider last night when Duke lost to Virginia Commonwealth University, what an upset! Good thing I didn’t have Duke going very far in the tourney.
- Bill Raftery: When discussing basketball analysts, most people know who Dick Vitale is but very few would know Bill Raftery. He’s not annoying. He’s coherent. More important, he has his own style. “Onions!”
- The Big East: I grew up on the East coast so I grew up watching Big East basketball. The conference has changed with defections (Boston College) and additions (Louisville). While some critics might say that the conference is overrated, I’d like to remind college basketball that Syracuse won the national championship in 2003 and Connecticut won it in 2004.
- Gerry McNamara: Speaking of Syracuse, they won the national championship with Gerry McNamara, a 6 foot somewhat stocky point guard with an uncanny ability to shoot the three point shot. While he may not be the best player, he definitely played with the most heart. The tournament just isn’t the same this year without Gerry (he graduated last year) and Syracuse (they didn’t make the tournament).
Top Five Fridays - March Madness, Things I don’t like
Next week, March Madness will be in full gear. 65 teams. One national champion. Filling out a bracket at the office has become a rite of spring. It’s truly one of the best sporting events in the country mainly because you feel part of the action. However, there are some things I really don’t like about March Madness and here they are:
- Duke Basketball: They’re a clean program. They have a great coach. They consistently win. I can’t stand them. Why? For all their greatness during the regular season, they don’t seem to get the calls in the post season. Hence they have busted my bracket so frequently, I refuse to pick them to win it all ever again out of spite.
- Tattoos: With their jerseys that look like eerily similar to wife beaters, basketball allows you to show off your tats unlike any other sport. But having both arms covered in tatoos is just bananas. The worst offenders have their names tattooed in olde english letters. Disclaimer: I don’t have any tattoos and have never had any desire to get one.
- Overpaid College Coaches: Is Marquette’s Tom Crean really worth $2 million? If Dwayne Wade goes elsewhere, Tom Crean never gets to the final four and never gets his payday.
- Free Throw Shooting: On the playground, basketball is the only sport where you earned your spot. There’s no getting picked. If you sank a free throw, you were on the team. In college and in the pro’s free throw shooting is atrocious. It’s not a difficult shot, it just requires practice. You’d think players would practice it more often since it’s usually is the difference between a win and a loss.
- Baggy Shorts: At what point do they stop calling them shorts? When women wear shorts that end at their calves, they’re called capris.
Top Five Fridays - Denver Radio Stations
Whenever I get in my car, I usually connect my ipod via an FM transmitter. Rarely do I listen to the radio. With my ipod I can listen to what I want without the ridiculous mortgage commercials. However, when I do listen to a radio, here are my top five stations:
- 101.5 Martini on the Rockies: They serve up a decent mix of old (Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin) and new (John Legend, Norah Jones)
- 97.3 KBCO: They play mainstream alternative music with a steady dose of U2 and Dave Matthews Band.
- 93.3 KTCL: Sort of like KBCO with a heavier edge.
- 105.5 Jack FM: It’s a radio station with ADD. 80’s music is always in heavy rotation.
- 104.3 Smooth Jazz: When you know who Dave Sanborn, Boney James, and Diana Krall are, it’s official, you’re old!
Top Five Fridays - Spike Lee Joints
During the 80’s Spike Lee gained attention as “Mars Blackmon” a pitchman for Air Jordan sneakers. At the time Spike Lee was an up and coming director as well. I’ve always been a huge fan of Spike Lee joints (that’s what he calls his movies) so here are my top five:
- Do The Right Thing: Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn) is the setting for this racially charged movie. With a Sountrack laden with Public Enemy rhymes, you knew it was going to be explosive.
- Malcolm X: You’ve been bamboozled. You’ve been hoodwinked. You’ve been had. You’ve been led astray. While the book was significantly better, the movie is quite good.
- Inside Man: Last year I had to do a double take when I found out that his crime thriller was directed by Spike Lee.
- He Got Game: Ray Allen, the NBA player, stars as Jesus Shuttlesworth. Basketball is the only bond between a father and son or is it?
- Jungle Fever: Forget the story line. Samuel L. Jackson plays a crack addict named Gator. When asked what he did to the television, Gator responds, “I smoked it!”
Top Five Fridays - Actors who would play me in a movie
I’m not famous. However, if I was famous, here are the five actors I would want to play me in a movie:
- Jared Leto: No, we’re not related. We don’t even pronounce our names the same way but he’s about the same age as me, same build, and the same surname. However, he’s not nearly as handsome.
- Ed Norton: By far the best actor of Generation X. He was terrific in American History X.
- Matt Damon: The second best actor of Generation X. Too bad he’s from Boston.
- Lou Diamond Phillips: The one guy I’ve been told over and over and over that I look like.
- Samuel L. Jackson: Sure Samuel Leroy Jackson is almost 60 and he’s not the same skin tone as me but he’s one bad mofo.
Top Five Fridays - Sesame Street
The best part about having children is that you get to rediscover Sesame Street. I remember watching it in the 70’s and 80’s as a kid and I thought it was cool. While more characters have been added, the premise of the show - make learning fun, has stayed the same. The characters I loved as a kid are still around and so here are my top five:
- Cookie Monster: The idea of a monster that eats cookies seems rather silly to an adult. However to a child (or even an adult who refuses to grow up) it’s downright genius.
- Ernie: If I grew up with a head the shape of a football, I’d have issues. Ernie doesn’t. He’s a kind hearted trouble make with the best laugh on the show.
- The Count: Is he a vampire or just some deranged number cruncher working for one of the Big 5, we will never know.
- Yip-Yips: “Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip!” “Uh-huh, uh-huh!”
- Aloysius Snuffleupagus: Aloysius? Yes, Aloysius. Despite being the size of woolly mammoth, he has the ability to go unnoticed.
Top Five Fridays - Super Bowl
This weekend the Chicago Bears play the Indianapolis Colts in Superbowl XLI and I’m torn. One one hand I love Chicago; It’s one of my favorite cities and I have relatives who live in the Chicago area. On the other hand, how can you not root for Peyton Manning; he’s the face of the NFL. Moreover, my wife has relatives who hail from Indiana. The Colts are favored by 7 but I think the game will be won by Adam “Money” Vinatieri in the final moments.
Here are my top five Super Bowls:
- Super Bowl III - The Guarantee. Joe Namath and the New York Jets beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7.
- Super Bowl XXV - The Wide Right. The New York Giants led by Bill Parcells win their second Super Bowl. The Buffalo Bills would begin a string on 4 straight Super Bowl losses.
- Super Bowl XXXII- The Mile High Salute. Terrell Davis overcomes migraines to lead the Denver Broncos to their first Super Bowl victory.
- Super Bowl XX- Da Bears! When a team has a video called the Super Bowl Shuffle several weeks before the playoffs, they better deliver the goods. They did.
- Super Bowl XXI- The one where Phil Simms goes 22 for 25. The New York Giants led by Bill Parcells win their first Super Bowl. It was the first time I witnessed a local team win a Super Bowl.
Top Five Fridays - Sports teams and players
Here are my top five sports teams, for those of you that know me, these are no-brainers:
- New York Jets: As a kid growing up in the greater NYC area, there were two teams televised, the Giants or the Jets. I was a Mets fan in the 80’s and since the Jets played at Shea Stadium I grew up a Jets fan. The years since Joe Willie’s guarantee have not been kind to the Jets but you won’t find a more devoted fan base in the entire sports world. Favorite Jets player: Vinny Testaverde.
- New York Mets: My older brother was a Yankees fan so I automatically gravitated to the “younger brother” team, the New York Mets. Favorite Mets player: Mookie Wilson (honorable mention goes to Bill Buckner)
- New York Knicks: The Knicks were given a gift when they were awarded the 1st Round Pick in 1985 and chose Georgetown center Patrick Ewing. During the Ewing era, the Knicks were good but Michael Jordan always stood in their way of a championship. Ever since Patrick was traded, I just haven’t had a connection to this team. Favorite Knicks player: Patrick Ewing
- Denver Nuggets: I grew up watching the Knicks till I came to Denver to visit in 1994. I caught a Nuggets game and was enamored by the young team. The 1994 team went on to pull off one of the greatest upsets of all time when they beat the #1 seed Seattle Supersonics coached by current Nuggets coach George Karl. I’ve been a fan ever since. Favorite Nuggets player: Carmelo Anthony.
- New York Giants: While I grew up a Jets fan, I was also a Giants fan for one reason, they were coached by the king of sarcasm, Bill Parcells. Favorite Giants player: Lawrence Taylor.