The other night I finally got to check out the New Madison Square Garden for the first time during the opening round of the Big East Tournament. The basketball was incredibly bad, without a doubt the worst I had ever scene, because had I been home the channel would have been long changed before the point where we were actually rooting for new levels of ineptitude, which we found ourselves doing by halftime of each contest. Still... it was a good time.
Madison Square Garden
My first observation of the night, as always, had to be "my God there are a lot of hot women in here", and there were. You expect any college level sporting event to bring the ladies in droves, but that wasn't who was in attendance, even for this low demand Tuesday night happening. The hotness ranged through every age group. In truth though, just as it is at Yankee Stadium or any other such place.... no one shells out that kind of cash and brings a dog to the show. Beasts of Burden have to pay their own way, buy their own ticket.
Hot Chicks at Yankee Stadium
We sat up in the 400 section of the Garden, you know, the cheap seats, as if any seat in the Garden is cheap anymore, which brought me to my second observation, and most glaring and thought provoking of the night. For all of the renovations that they made to the place, up there in the rafters they still just had a single men's room with two piss holes and one toilet. The new main concourse is unbelievably beautiful.... the only change upstairs was taking the old, beat up seating from the 200 section and sliding them up the stairs. It all only goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and the members of the world that are allowed to play in the sandbox are the ones who already have the money to do whatever they want anyway.
Four gay men sat down in front of us just after halftime brandishing books and a sweater that looked like a toilet rug draped over the back. Time and again when Ringo would talk to me, loud enough for me to hear him over the crowd, one of the gay men would turn and stare with a disapproving look. In my younger days I would have ripped him apart over it, goading him into a choice of either leaving or getting punched in the face. In my funnier wise ass times I would have just made an obvious show of staring dead at him with the same stupid look on the face he was giving. Look, I don't care what you do in your free time, away from me, but how the hell do you go to a ballgame and give incredulous looks to fans for being loud and having fun?
When in Rome.....
Its great to try new things and go outside of your element, but the reason the saying goes "when in Rome do as the Romans do" is because (1) the experience is in doing something different and more to my point (2) you don't walk into someone else's house and expect them to live by your standards. If you want people to be quiet so you can read your book go to the fucking library, not a ballgame. If you want to talk about sweaters, try a coffee shop or some damn trendy hipster spot. And if you DON'T want people going nuts around you, stay the fuck home, because that's the joy in going out to a ballgame, letting loose, going crazy, and having fun.
Who the hell are any of us to judge others, in their environments, by our own ridiculous standards?
I finally caught "The Rum Diary", which I thought was very solid even if underwhelming, but it did leave an impression on me, as Hunter Thompson always does. The first thing that took hold was this.... Amber Heard is enchanting.... she's the kind of beauty that you just can't pull your eyes from, and just puts that stupid shit eating grin on your face without your noticing it was even there.
But two lines from the film caught hold of me, "The average person don't want to rock the boat because he wants to climb aboard it" was the first. You can see examples of this every single day in every aspect of life. We want the fun, we want the fame, we want the fortune and everything that comes with it, so we're always willing to turn a blind eye to all the ills of the world so long as we can keep the hopes our illusions provide. Unless of course, as in the case of recent "social" movements that fail to see the underlying facts, the boat we're trying to get on is simply being part of the club. And then it turns to activism without clarity, direction, or truth.
Truth... that seems to be a theme here. The other line that hit me was "I smell bastards.... and I smell truth". The way of the world is that the bastards out there cover the truth at ever turn, and present you with their own bastardized way of looking at things.... and you eat it up every time, taking polar sides on issues that aren't real, without finding out the facts behind any of them for yourself. Or worse, shunning the facts as nonsense because you don't WANT to believe it. That's because the average person doesn't want to rock the boat, because they want to climb aboard.
It all left me with this question..... would you recognize the truth when you heard it?
The sad answer is no. ABC News reported just last week that new studies have found, with all of our technology in this information age, that people now make up their minds in 250 milliseconds. That's barely enough time to blow a fart, and yet we become unyielding in these decisions, and about all the most important things. That explains so many terrible issues I would have to write a book to get into it.
Finally.... its been a week now since I've laid off coffee ( I only allow myself 1 cup of decaf in the morning) and I feel so much better about myself. Here are some fun facts for you about caffeine, a drug every bit as dangerous for your body as alcohol or narcotics.... caffeine from a single cup of coffee takes 10-12 hours to break down completely and continues to work on your brain in that time. Caffeine affects men twice as hard as women and strips them of their ability to manage stress. It also triggers anxiety, leading to panic attacks and a general sense of unease, and since the same chemicals in the brain that cause anxiety also bring on bouts of depression.....
The damn shame of it is that I love coffee... but I love myself more.
Truth.... find it before you open your mouth. Find it before jumping on the social bandwagons. Use your brain for more than 250 milliseconds.
