Play Ball!!

Although the season officially began last night with the White Sox and Indians, the season really begins today. With 26 teams in action today, the promise of a great MLB season is underway. And despite President Bush's weak sauce in Cincinnati, we're underway. As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the Cardinals and the Red Sox. Today has looked good for both teams so far. At this point, I'm watching the Red Sox and Rangers on ESPN2 and Mike Lowell just went deep to make it a 7-2 lead. As a fan of Boston and St. Louis I can be encouraged by a number of things. Curt Schilling looked great. He pitched 7 innings giving up only 2 runs on 5 hits. Mike Lowell's homer is a great sign. Lowell was fodder in the trade that brought Josh Beckett to the Red Sox. Traditionally he's been an offensive threat, though last year he struggled. Getting a change of scenery and a quick start can be very good for Lowell and the Red Sox. Coco Crisp has been phenomenal in centerfield, despite no caveman appearance. David Ortiz hit a home run and doubled. At the time of this post, he's 3-4 with 3 RBI (ends game 3-5). And not to be outdone, in Philadelphia the Cardinals have jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the 6th. Cris Carpenter looks good, and Albert Pujols has 2 home runs (the second of which was an upper deck blast). Another good sign is Scott Rolen's grand slam. Coming back from a shoulder injury, it means a lot that he can make a big impact. I'll be tracking Albert Pujols all season.

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I will preface this post with a few disclaimers.

1. I am a Laker fan.
2. Hindsight is 20-20.

I grew up in Portland. Though I don't remember it, I was alive during the Championship win in 1977. I remember Billy Ray Bates, Darnell Valentine, Kiki Vanderweghe. The first games I attended I saw Dr. Jack Ramsey (PhD in Education, in case you ever wondered) coach. I held on tight as Mychal Thompson did curls with me and another 2nd grader when he visited our school.

Jim (Yes, Jim not John) Paxson led the team in scoring. Kelvin Ramsey, Kermit Washington...I could go on about the 1981 Blazers, but I won't.

The first game I went to was against the hapless Utah Jazz...the pre-Malone/Stockton Jazz. Billy Ray Bates seemed to have flown higher than our seats to dunk. I was hooked on the game.

However, something happened the next time I went to a Blazer game. Los Angeles came to town. I was already a fan of the Lakers, I'd written a biography of Kareem Abdul Jabbar in 4th grade. This was the Showtime Lakers. Magic Johnson, Kareem, Worthy and a rookie from Oregon State University and Benson High School, AC Green. I remember that the Portland crowd cheered when AC was introduced.

Things had gone awry the previous summer. Portland ended up with the second pick in the draft. This was an interesting predicament. I think it was pretty clear that Akeem (prior to his name change to Hakeem) Olajuwon would go with the top pick. When the second pick came around, I'm sure they were thinking they were just a piece of the puzzle away from greatness. They had two quality guards in Paxson and a young Clyde Drexler and solid forwards with Calvin Natt, Mychal Thompson and Kenny Carr all they needed was a center. Olajuwon was gone, so the next best thing was Kentucky's Sam Bowie.

This is a huge piece of Blazer lore because the picks that followed Sam Bowie were Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, etc (incidentally, Carl Lewis [yes, the sprinter] was also drafted by the Bulls). The Blazers passed up three hall of famers for Bowie who became a huge bust which I can tell you already figured out by the blank stare on your face. 2nd picks are always a challenge. This may be a lot of people's answer to the topic question. However, without Michael Jordan the Blazers reached the Finals twice.

Of course, Jordan reached the finals 6 times and won each time.
Things went wrong from the end of that second finals appearance. And lots of common questions come up:

1. Should they have traded Drexler (afterall he left and won a title)?
2. Should they have played Jermaine O'Neal?
3. J.R. Rider?

No doubt one of the biggest problems with the Blazers, and it's still a problem is that they overpay for potential. Their roster today is dripping with talent and potential, but there's no way they should be so far above the salary cap with that production. Here's MKinMotion's blueprint for the Blazers...and you better hurry before they become the San Jose Blazers or St. Louis Blazers.

1. Pick a couple of young players and build around them. But you must stick with the players you choose to build around and not keep changing.
2. Get rid of Travis Outlaw or get him to change his number (#25), see #3.
3. Get some good karma by retiring #25 for Jerome Kersey (who incidentally left the Blazers for the Spurs and won a championship), #30 for Terry Porter, #00 for Kevin Duckworth and #52 for Buck Williams...even Uncle Cliffy if you're up to it.
4. Stop making bad trades and bad deals. I think their still paying salaries to Pippen, Sabonis, Bonzi and Damon. (That's sarcasm, by the way, so no need to email me about being inaccurate).

We All Come From Somewhere

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about heredity. Genetics are fascinating when you realize there are little things good and bad about yourself that are merely fingerprints of the past. I spent some time digging through a few boxes of family photos last night. It's quite a trip to see photos of your parents and grandparents; aunts and uncles; even cousins. I'm going to put together a few posts over the next week or so with some ideas about where I came from.Grandpa George
Hamburg High School (Hamburg, Iowa c. 1929)

MK in Motion

Brown Junior High School (Hillsboro, Oregon c. 1989)

Mitch Hedberg (Feb 24, 1968 - Mar 29, 2005)

In honor of one year after Mitch Hedberg died, here are some quotes...

"I was in a casino, minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, 'You're gonna have to move. You're blocking a fire exit.' As though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. Unless you're a table."

"An escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. You would never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there.'"

"My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them. "

"I opened up a yogurt, underneath the lid it said, "Please Try Again" because they were having a contest I was unaware of. But I thought I might have opened the yogurt wrong, or maybe Yoplait was trying to inspire me. "C'mon, Mitchell, don't give up. Please try again. A message of inspiration from your friends at Yoplait. Fruit on the bottom, hope on top." "

"I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've travelled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map... so it won't fall down."

Thank you, you've been great.

What Were You Doing a Year Ago?

What Were You Doing a Year Ago? Can you remember? I can, and this is why...

I woke up in a hotel room in Anaheim, California with a sunburn and saw the biggest Rock Band in the world in San Diego. Where were you?


Incidentally, it was the opening show of the Vertigo tour. In December I got to see the boys close out the North American Vertigo Tour in Portland. Bookends. I posted a few pictures from March 28, 2005 on flickr. Lightning Jack can't keep his eyes open for pictures.

Called Out

I received an email today from someone who will remain nameless. They called me out. The main point of their email was that it has been a while since I've posted anything and that I keep saying "more on that later" or mentioning that I will post something that I don't. Specifically a few weeks ago I mentioned that I would post another edition of MKinMotion Q & A and I didn't. Looking back, it looks like I even said that I would do it that night and the RSS feed stayed silent. I apologize to those of you who expected something...who am I kidding, I apologize to the person that noticed and called me out for it...but I already did in a reply to their email, so I'll just move on.

Q & A with MKinMotion

Q: How's the "next great american novel" coming along?
A: I have been writing, but nothing seems to be going anywhere. If someone could make a living writing short stories, I'd be golden. So, I'm trying to take a short story and instead of it being just a glance into someone's life, to expand it. One of my writing professors once said to always cut by 1/3 but to know 3 times as much as you write. I could expand on that more, but I think I've already lost most of my visitors.

Q: What are you watching on TV these days?
A: As most of you know I'm a huge fan of TV. I've of course been watching Lost...this year I was encouraged to watch 24 (even though I haven't watched previous seasons) and I'm totally engaged with Jack Bauer now. I've been watching West Wing as it closes out the series. I've got mixed feelings about the end of the show, but I'll spare you. I've never watched The Amazing Race, but it hooked me one night. I enjoy The Unit. Which, the Unit and Amazing Race are on tonight on CBS...though, I don't work for CBS or any advertisers...or anyone.

There are more questions to answer, but I fear I've already bored most of you stiff.

Send your questions to mkinmotion(at)gmail(dot)com.

Because It's Going Around

Red is where I've been, blue is where I've still got to go.


NOTE: No political statement is being made by the uses of Red and Blue.

The Next Larry Or The Next Luke?

Adam Morrison, 6'8" G/F played his last game as a college player tonight. And it was a tough one. Quite amazing actually if you have UCLA in your Final Four. Morrison led the NCAA in scoring and has been compared to Larry Bird (obvious skin pigment and peach fuzz mustache not withstanding). The guy can shoot, handle and pass. But does the comparison really stick?

Luke Jackson, 6'7" G/F of the Cleveland Cavaliers occasionally makes the highlight reel by being on the same floor as LeBron James. At the University of Oregon, he was a superstar. He led the Ducks in scoring and rebounding and was constantly making the Sportscenter reel with his dunks and shots. Thought of so highly, he was taken number 10 overall in the 2004 NBA draft. Going from 21.2 points and 7.2 rebounds a game, to his career average in the pros of 2.7 points and 1 rebound a game. Bird, while at Indiana State, racked up TSN's Player of the Year, the Naismith Award, the Wooden Award, and with only 3 years of college play ended his career 5th in all time scoring. This doesn't even cover his pro career where he won the Rookie of the Year, the MVP 3 years in a row, and won 3 championships. You tell me, is Adam Morrison really the next Larry Bird or his he the next Luke Jackson?

Send hate mail to mkinmotion(at)gmail(dot)com.

Episode Nineteen: Hall of Fame

Although I have a lot of respect for this year's inductees and although I have a lot of their music floating around in the iTunes mix, it is a little bit of a let down from last year. Last year saw U2 and The Pretenders, 2004 saw Jackson Browne, George Harrison, Prince, Seger, Traffic...this year? Here you go...

Black Sabbath, Paranoid (1970)

Originally titled War Pigs, the record company convinced Sabbath to change the name. They kept the cover of the acid trip cop in spandex with a sword and shield. That's their War Pig, the record company thought it would be interpretted as an anti war statement against the Vietnam War.

Blondie, Autoamerican (1980) & Plastic Letters (1978)

Sex Pistols, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (1977)

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (1959)

Kind of Blue is not only one of the greatest jazz albums of all time, but it's also one of the most accessible albums for the non-jazz listener. John Coltrane plays sax, and Miles does something almost no one else could do...he makes trumpet sexy.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Street Survivors (1977)

Most everyone knows about the plane crash that killed three members of Skynyrd. Street Surviviors was released within days of the tragedy. The original cover featured the band standing in flames, the record company and surviving members wisely changed it. I've included both. Incidentally rock lore has it that Aerosmith looked at buying the plane that went down but their manager passed on the deal. Aerosmith fired their manager because he didn't get them the plane.

Episode Eighteen: By Request

Living Colour, Vivid (1988)


Pearl Jam, Ten (1991)
Pearl Jam's initial band name was Mookie Blaylock, who at the time was playing point guard for the New Jersey Nets. When the band was signed by Epic, there was concern about the name, so the band settled on Pearl Jam, but in honor of their first name, they titled their first album Ten (Mookie Blaylock's jersey number).

Primus, Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991)

Sailing the Seas of Cheese was recorded in Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA where I saw INXS play earlier this year.

AC/DC, Back in Black (1980)

Requested as a great album cover "because of what is not there."

Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain (1984)

U2, Rattle and Hum (1988)

This album put Sun Studios back on the map. Requested because of the use of the silhouette.

Episode Seventeen: 50 Years

In March of 1956, Elvis Presley released a self-titled album. The opening track of the album was "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Blue Moon." Elvis had already made a name for himself with singles recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, not to mention his work with the "Million Dollar Quartet" (Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis). In January of '56, "Heartbreak Hotel" was released as a single and quickly spread across the country. Two months later his first full length album was released without "Heartbreak Hotel" on it. The cover of the album features a frenzied Elvis stumming his guitar. It was mimicked by The Clash with their London Calling album.

Plug In

I've set up a guest map associated with MKinMotion. Do me a favor and click the button on the right and put a push pin where you are. It's the one on top. Thanks!! Keep those questions coming, I will be answering a few of them this evening.

MKinMotion (at) gmail (dot) com

Tournament Talk and More

So things have gone downhill since the 14/16 first day. I ended up with 25/32 for the first round. In the process of those 7 teams being eliminated, my second and third round picks were hurt as well. And to make things worse, it hasn't helped my elite eight. My final four are still in it, though only two of them have played in the second round so far.

Terrell Owens signed with the Cowboys. It should be pretty interesting to see him interact with Parcells.


The Cubans beat the Dominican Republic team today to advance. I definately thought that the Dominicans would be in the final, but similar to the US team, lots of great individual players, not a lot of chemistry together.

A Sports Post

As mentioned in a previous post, I mentioned my Final Four for the NCAA tournament. BC survived in 2 OT's, so I'm still safe on my Final Four. There were 16 games yesterday and I got 14 right. I missed UW-Milwaukee upsetting Oklahoma and Montana upsetting Nevada, though I was close to writing Montana. So what that means is I successfully predicted the A&M upset of Syracuse and Alabama over Marquette. Today should be a another great day of games...hopefully without as much drama as yesterday. Is Adam Morrison amazing, or what?

The US team got bounced from the World Baseball Classic. Maybe they learned their lesson about A-Rod.

Episode Sixteen: Happy St. Patrick's Day From Dublin

Q & A with MKinMotion

Here are a few questions I've received over the last couple of weeks.

Q: What are you listening to that I might not be?

A: At this second, I'm listening to Shawn Mullins' 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor. I've been listening to a lot of The Elected, KT Tunstall, and a lot of random things. You can always view what I'm listening to up to the second by clicking here.

Q: Who do you have in the final four?

A: I have Duke, UCLA, UConn and Boston College. But that just means that only one of them will make it.

Q: What can I do to get started blogging? How do I get people to read my blog?

A: Blogging is easy. It requires no real technical skills, and where it does you can easily steal from others. I'd suggest going to Blogger and just start. The second part of your question is a little more complicated. First I would reply with "Content, Content, Content." Your content must be interesting, original and personal. Consistency is a big one too. This is starting to sound like a seminar "The 3 C's of Blogging Success." If you are inconsistent with posts, people will forget and lose interest very easily. Now I have to think of a third C, because there are always 3. Connections. There it is. You can't be ashamed of your blog, if you truly want to drive traffic to your blog, you're gonna have to let people know about it. Those people, if they enjoy it, will tell others about it. Make connections with other bloggers. If they enjoy your stuff, they'll generally add a link on their blog to get to your blog.

Q: What are some of your favorite blogs?

A: I use Bloglines to subscibe to a lot of blogs. I've also installed a notifier so that when someone updates their blog, it pops up and tells me. But it doesn't take much for me to subscribe to a blog. I don't however subscribe to some of the big popular blogs. I have a lot of friends that blog, so I subscribe to their blogs. What I didn't mention above when I mentioned connections, is the "Six Degrees of Blogging." If you follow a link on my blog to another blog, then a link from there, then on and on and on, you will discover something new, guaranteed. So in answer to your question, I regularly visit:

The Mad Fishicist
Schmetzger
iRich
WWdN (Wil Wheaton)
Super Special Questions Blog (Mike Doughty)
American Copywriter
Savage Chickens

As always, questions can be sent to MKinMotion(at)gmail(dot)com.

Episode Fifteen

Halfway through 1972, Pink Floyd entered Abbey Road studios to record a concept album they had been performing in it's entirety during their concerts. Initially titled "Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics," Dark Side of the Moon has become an interesting peice of rock and roll history. The cover depicts a prism which is meant to represent the light shows that the band was known for during their performances. Alan Parsons had made a name for himself engineering The Beatles' Abbey Road, but Dark Side of the Moon was what put him on the map. He allegedly swapped shifts with other employees in order to be involved with as much of the album as possible. The album spent 741 weeks in the Billboard Top 100...that's not a typo, 741 weeks (591 consecutive weeks was the longest run it had). With songs like "Time," "Money," "Brain Damage," and the opus "Eclipse," it's no wonder. This was the first album that featured all the lyrics written by Roger Waters, who would go on to craft several concept albums on his own and with Pink Floyd.

Episode Fourteen: "We've got to make room..."

"We've got to make room..."
Those are the words that must have gone through the production geniuses sessions when they whittled the history of music down to their 50 greatest album covers. Maybe it's because I'm a fan, but does it seem weird that the Beatles didn't make the cut? Well after all, they had to make room for these gems. With this evidence, I rest my case against VH-1 and based upon your support will re-initiate the MKinMotion album cover project.

All It Takes

I happened to be flipping through channels yesterday afternoon and I stopped on VH1 long enough to see that they were counting down greatest album covers. Not only were most of their choices poor ones, but it has made me re-think continuing with mine.

Episode Thirteen: The Mad Fishicist Strikes Back

Let this be a lesson to all of you. Sending not only suggestions, but the pictures along with them is not always a good idea. Here are The Mad Fishicist's submissions. There were two others that I'm not going to post...believe me, I'm protecting you all.

But in all seriousness, Bolokai Ikonus T. T. The Mad Fishicist, wished for me to revisit an album cover I merely passed over in a previous post. I can't say enough about Johnny Cash's American Recordings. It relaunched the career of Johnny Cash and became a staple for MKinMotion and The Mad Fishicist. The 1994 album cover features "The Man in Black" with his two dogs. The names of the dogs are "Sin" and "Redemption" and Cash noted that neither is completely black or white. Pretty profound for a man who found both. The album that featured Johnny Cash with just a guitar and several cover tunes won the 1995 grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

As always, comments, suggestions and questions can be sent to MKinMotion(at)gmail(dot)com. I've aquired enough questions to put together another Q & A post. So look forward to that and get your questions in. Please make sure to note if you wish to remain anonymous.