The Bell-Shaped Curve

I was sitting in my research perspectives class maybe a month ago and my professor was talking about the bell-shaped curve in statistics. He said something profound about it that I have been thinking about lately and may answer some questions that I have always wondered. "The bell-shaped curve is a pretty good way of looking at life." -Dr. Allen Jackson. If you look at a bell-shaped curve with normal distribution, you'll notice that most of the space occupied in the bell-shaped curve resides in the middle. When applied to humanity, what the bell-shaped curve says is that on any given topic, most people will fall somewhere in the middle. Let's take intelligence, for example. What the bell-shaped curve says is that if you take any ten people that provide a decent representation of the population two will be highly intelligent, six will have average intelligence, and two will have low intelligence. You can apply this to just about anything - athleticism, musical ability, height, etc. What this means is that on any given subject most people are average. This is not meant to be insulting because most people will be on the high end of some subject, albeit quite obscure in many cases.

I have often wondered why in the field of entertainment there are some things that appeal to me so much, that are of such high quality and depth and complexity, yet they never reach the masses. I read recently that arguably the most influential and popular jazz record of all time, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, has sold more than two million copies worldwide. I think that Kind of Blue is masterpiece, and yet it has sold a mere two million copies compared to Bat out of Hell by Meatloaf which has sold over 43 million and Millennium by Backstreet Boys which has sold over 40 million. How this applies the bell-shaped curve philosophy is that if most people are average then for something to appeal to most people it must be average. It is the same thing with classical music like the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 which I was in utter awe of after I heard it. There are very few people in the world, however, that would name that piece of music as one of the best they've ever heard. I can see this being applicable in the movie industry as well. Movies like Transformers, which to me was absolute garbage, continue to be smash hits at the box office. My favorite movie might be What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, no mass appeal there. Shows like Friends, whose series finale had 52.5 million viewers, have massive audience appeal yet are pretty average to me. There are exceptions of course, but the fact that there are exceptions concurs with the philosophy of the bell-shaped curve. Exceptions prove the rule, as they say.

I enjoy Michael Jackson's music, the TV show Seinfeld, and watching the Super Bowl just like multitudes of other people, but the bell-shaped curve makes me feel better about some of the things I like that others don't as well as the things that many others like that I don't. Does that make me elite? Of course not. Does that make me condescending? Absolutely not. Does that make me average? I hope not.

Josh Tittle

I am going to get a little solemn for just a moment. Earlier this week a young man named Josh Tittle died of sarcoma cancer. He was 22 years old. He grew up in the same town that I did but we went to different schools so I didn't know him very well. His sister, whom I didn't know very well either, went to the same undergraduate school as me and we graduated at the same time.

I met Josh when we were around 10 or 11 years old at a vacation bible school that I went to with a friend. I remember that he worked at CiCi's Pizza when we were in high school and I saw him there occasionally. Despite not knowing him very well I can't help but be deeply saddened by his passing. Typically when you hear of someone dying of cancer, he or she is middle aged or older. Although it is terrible every time, normally a cancer victim has at least lived a sufficient amount of time, most often outliving his or her parents. Josh did not outlive his parents. I can't even begin to imagine the grief they must be experiencing. Josh was my age.

While my toughest decisions on a normal day are which class to study for, what to do with my free time, or whether to eat in or out, Josh was deciding where he wanted his funeral service to be, who he wanted his pallbearers to be, and what to do with all his possessions. From the time he first went to the doctor because of some pain in his side to the time of his passing was less than 7 months. About 2 months ago the doctors told him there were no more treatments left that could help him and they gave Josh a timetable for the rest of his life of about 3 months. It is unfathomable to me what must have been going through his mind as he knew the inevitable.

I think that were I in this situation the only things that would keep me going would be family, friends, and knowing that I would spend eternity with God in paradise. Josh was a believer so I bet this kept him going as well. In times where there is little of it, that is the beauty of being saved by Christ and believing in his eternity. My prayers go out to Josh Tittle's family and friends. If his passing has affected me this much I know those closer to him are feeling it tenfold or more. If you want to know more about the entire situation here is a link to a blog that his parents wrote throughout: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joshtittle/journal

Now THAT is Music

Just about everybody has an opinion on music. Everybody has a favorite and a least favorite band. Everybody has a song that just reaches their core and pulls their emotional strings as far as they can stretch. On the opposite side everybody has a song that from the first note just disgusts them and their insides just groan in agony from having heard it. It is difficult, if not impossible, to judge what is good and what is trash with something so subjective as music. All we have are individual's preferences. Sure we can try to quantify it by #1 hits, record sales, harmonic complexity, or the test of time, but using those arguments hardly convinces anyone to change their preferences. How do we know what's good? I don't know, but I'll tell you what I think is good.

I now live in an area where there is a multitude of radio stations to choose from. Sadly, I mostly stick to two. I listen to the classical station and the jazz station. I could throw in the sports radio station that I occasionally listen to but that doesn't have much to do with music. This morning the first piece of music I heard was Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. What a way to start the day! Later on I heard Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor. Even when I reached my destination I just sat in my truck and listened to it until the final movement was done. It was magnificent! It was played by Sir James Galway, the second greatest flutist I've ever heard live. The greatest was my own girlfriend, of course. The other day I heard Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 The Pathetique. Yesterday I heard the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2. in C minor. After all these pieces of the music I just said to myself, "Now that is music." It is so deep, so complex, and yes, it has withstood an adequate test of time.

If you read my last blog you know I do have my favorites in the genre of pop/rock. But what I hear when I'm flipping around mainstream radio today is awful. Even most of what they play on retro radio stations does not please my ears. There is one station that says, "tired of listening to the same boring radio? Tune in to us...". I tried that and found out that they're just like the rest of them that I don't like. Almost everyday I try to listen to the popular radio stations and I hear a song that I like maybe 10% of the time. That's probably stretching it. Why is that? How come what mainstream radio wants us to listen to is so bad? Is it the bell-shaped curve principle? Like I said, I don't know. But its okay, the world can keep American Idol and I'll keep listening to the classical and jazz stations along with a handful of other people.

A Collection of Souls

Several months ago, but not too many blog posts ago, I wrote about all the trumpet players that I have seen in concert. If you are not a trumpet aficionado you probably would not recognize most those names. I have also, however, seen many bands in concert whose names you probably will recognize if you pay any attention to pop culture (which I do not condone, but sometimes it's inescapable!) Anyway, here is the list: Counting Crows (2x), Goo Goo Dolls (2x), Gavin Degraw, Lifehouse, Augustana, Maroon 5, Colbie Caillat, Josh Ritter, and Jamie Cullum. I could write individual posts for each one of these concerts if I ever run really low on material. The point of all this is that just a few weeks ago I added a few other bands to this list.

On September 2, I had the privilege of seeing Ryan Star, Black Stone Cherry, and the headliner Collective Soul. I was not familiar with Ryan Star but he is most famous for writing the song "Long Train Home" which was featured in the movie P.S. I Love You. He also wrote the theme song for the Fox television show Lie to Me called "Brand New Day". He put on an energetic show and displayed a wide range of vocal prowess. His tune "Psycho Suicidal Girls", though the title may suggest deep seeded angst and resentment, was catchy and fun.

Next up was Black Stone Cherry. I had heard of them before but I didn't know what to expect. Out came four guys with 1970s-esque long hair, clothing that looked like hand-me-downs from Lynyrd Skynyrd, a vibe that was primed to rock, and a sound that was rooted in an earthy mixture of blues and classic rock. Their set began in rip-roaring fashion, with fast guitar riffs, heavy drum kicks, legs flailing, and hair exploding like fireworks. Their lead singer's voice was blues-inflected, powerful, and just throaty enough to reveal the band's southern roots. The band backed off the accelerator with each song and eased into a ballad of sorts called "Things My Father Said". They kicked it up again at the end and finished with an in-your-face rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child". I was really impressed with Black Stone Cherry, a band from the small 1500 person town of Edmonton, Kentucky. They really shook the place up and delivered a strong punch to my thoughts that real hard rock 'n' roll was dying. It may still be but Black Stone Cherry is at least the respirator trying its best to revive it. Here's the official video of their hit "Please Come In" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKtpyeWb3jg

As the main attraction approached the crowd slowly began to multiply and my friend Shane and I were gradually getting pushed to the front, which was fine by us. Then Collective Soul entered the room and the crowd erupted. Collective Soul got their name from the Ayn Rand novel The Fountainhead where the phrase collection of souls is used to indicate a threat to the main character's individualism. Lead singer Ed Roland, son of a Southern Baptist minister, has pointed out that they chose the name not to make a statement about objectivism, egoism, nor because the works of Ayn Rand had any influence on his life. "We just dug the name," he's been quoted as saying. In their career, which catapulted with 1993's hit Shine, Collective Soul has had seven mainstream #1 hits, and five certified platinum albums. Needless to say, their performance lived up to expectations. I have always liked the band, but there were many people around me who surpassed my fandom. There was the overweight, balding up front flowing out back haired man with pork chop sideburns to my right who from the first note just closed his eyes, threw up two rock on signs with his hands, and just emersed himself in the music. There was the tipsy, middle-aged woman behind me who claimed to have seen Collective Soul in Morocco and preceded to tell me what a great guy lead singer Ed Roland was in person. There was another woman to my left who nearly fainted when Roland looked her way in the middle of the concert. They put on a high energy, diverse show that featured many of my favorites including, "December", "The World I Know", "Heavy", "Run", "Gel", and of course "Shine". I walked away more than satisfied with that musical experience. For a taste of a Collective Soul concert check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKROlUWkbsQ

I consider myself lucky to have seen some of my favorite bands in concert. I'm not done yet, though, as my sights are set on catching a John Mayer or Matchbox Twenty concert in the future. I'm hoping that the concerts I've seen thus far are just the beginning of a multitude of musical listening endevors in my life.

Driver's License Fiasco

As promised I will now expound on a car accident and subsequent bad luck that occurred a little less than a month ago. Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the Denton Police Department.

On the evening of Thursday, August 20, 2009 I witnessed a car accident at the corner of W. University and N. Ruddell. I fulfilled my civic duty by pulling over, getting out, and assisting in any way I could. The first officer to the scene asked for my driver’s license and told me that they would get my testimony shortly. I waited for about 30 minutes until accident investigator Gary Craig got my contact information and received my witness testimony.

He then looked for my driver’s license and could not find it. He said the officer I gave it to had given it to him and he must have misplaced it. He told me that he may have accidentally sent it with the ambulance but that he would find it and bring it back to me at my apartment that evening and gave me his card. I did not hear from him that night so I called the number on the card multiple times and finally left a voicemail. My call was returned the next day by someone else saying that I had the wrong extension, despite it being the number that was on the card. I then went to the police station that afternoon and asked for Gary Craig. The clerk had me wait for over an hour and then told me that he did not come in until 6:00 that evening.

A little after 6:00 I called the non-emergency police line and was told that Gary Craig was not in yet. I called again later and was told that Gary Craig was not in because he worked the day shift. After contesting that based on what the clerk told me earlier that day, the person who answered the phone said they would give Gary Craig a message and he would call me back. A few hours went by without hearing from him so I called the emergency line again. After explaining my situation again the person on the line stated, "I don’t know what to tell you, I already called him and left a message." I asked that he call again and finally later that night Gary Craig called me back.

He told me that he could not find my license anywhere, that he had lost it, and that he would email his boss, tell him the situation and his boss would contact me to tell me what they would do. I was never contacted again. I went ahead and after waiting in a line for over an hour had a replacement license made at the DPS. The license was $10.00 plus a $2.00 ATM fee since I could only pay for it with cash or check and did not have my checks with me at the time. I then emailed Gary Craig and called multiple times to tell him that I had a replacement license made and inquired on how I could be reimbursed for it. Neither my email nor phone calls were ever returned.

This situation has been an enormous inconvenience as I was in the process of registering for graduate school at UNT at the time and needed my driver’s license on multiple occasions. I was dealt with extremely unprofessionally by a few members of the Denton Police Department. I would like to get this resolved once and for all before I must take further action.

Thank you,

Jacob Tucker

The Denton PD responded to this letter by leaving an envelope with $12 in it at their front desk, which I of course had to go pick up. They also emailed me a justified apology. Justified apology is my term for when someone apologizes but also excuses his or her actions. In this case it was something along the lines of, "We're sorry but....I assure you this was not intentional.....he's a very busy man....the schedules fluctuate....that depends on what the word is is.....it was a wardrobe malfunction....."

That is my story of the great driver's license fiasco. Now it is public domain and I hope the Denton PD is prepared the civilian backlash that will ensure courtesy of my thousands of readers.

I'm Back

Wow! It has been a loooooong time since my last blog. Relatively, at least. It's literally been over five months so in the course of the earth's existence, which I believe to be about 4.6 billion years, that's not too long. But since my entire blog is only about nine months old, a five month hiatus is a substantial amount of time. Much has happened since my last blog. Let me explain.

I graduated with my bachelor's degree last May and then moved into an apartment for the summer. I didn't have internet access at the apartment which contributed to my blogging delinquency. Since I was only going to live there for about three months I didn't bother setting up internet access. In this day where most have a near infinite amount of information right at their fingertips at any given moment, I guess you could say I was "roughing it" for those three months.

Then at the beginning of August I relocated to Denton, Texas where I began working toward my master's degree at the University of North Texas. That's gone pretty well so far. I got a job as a reseach assistant and have my own office complete with desktop pc, one way mirror, and crickets. I like Denton. It's got a plethora of restaurants and places to shop. It has a lively music scene as well. One thing I will complain about though is the drivers. My hometown of Brownwood is known for many things, one of which is the bad drivers. However, in my 14 years of living in Brownwood I witnessed only one moving car accident and a handful of near misses. Within my first three weeks living in Denton I witnessed two severe car accidents (ambulances, stretchers, and neck braces involved) and witness a handful of near misses weekly. I will have more on one of those accidents in a future blog. This is not to say that it is a myth that Brownwood has bad drivers, but in my experience Denton's drivers are even worse. But overall, I have enjoyed my time in Denton thus far.

As you can see I now have the internet. I'm thankful for this because it keeps me up to date on important, necessary, influential current events that shape our perspective on the state of society. Like Kanye West's little episode at the VMAs. I will not expound on this, if you don't know what I'm talking about just look it up. My favorite part about that whole incident were President Barack Obama's subsequent comments. Off the record, prior to an interview, the President and some people from CNBC were engaging in some casual banter when the Kanye West incident was brought up. Someone asked, "Why would he do [that]?" Obama's response - "He's a jackass." That will probably be one of the few statements of Obama's that I agree with over the next four years.

Byron Stripling and Friends

I have mentioned before that I'm a musician and a jazz enthusiast. I play the trumpet and have been very fortunate to have seen many great trumpet players in concert. If you're a trumpet enthusiast you should recognize the names of Wynton Marsalis, Maynard Ferguson, Wayne Bergeron, Allen Vizzutti, Arturo Sandoval, Chris Botti, Dan Fornero, and Ronald Romm. I cannot even begin to describe the combined greatness of these trumpet artists and have seen them all in concert, even met a few of them. Last night I had the opportunity to see another great one in concert.

For Christmas my grandma bought four tickets to a Byron Stripling concert. It seemed such a long time to wait from December until April, but it was well worth it. My grandma, my youngest brother, my girlfriend, and I all enjoyed A Cabaret Evening with Byron Stripling last night. He had a combo of drums, bass, and piano. They played many classic jazz standards from Duke Ellington's "Caravan" to Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" to an incredible piano-only rendition of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". Stripling also sang a comical, play on words version of "Pennies from Heaven" called "Benny's from Heaven" and closed with the classic entertaining, crowd involving, gospel tune "When the Saints Go Marching In" with many others in between. Stripling dazzled with soulful melodic lines and tasty improvisation, the drummer Robert Breithaupt kept a solid, stylistic reign throughout, the upright acoustic bass player Lynn Seaton provided a strong foundation as well as fast improvisation (sometimes even with a bow) and perhaps the most impressive performer of them all was Bobby Floyd, a phenomenal pianist.

Afterwards, I guess because my grandma is a VIP, we went to a private party at an art gallery, had dessert and coffee, and met some of the performers. Stripling seemed very personable when I got his autograph and I had a nice little conversation with Bobby Floyd. My brother, who is a pretty good pianist, fantastic composer, and learning jazz also enjoyed talking with Floyd. It was a very fun evening and I thank my grandma for this amazing Christmas present in April. If you get a chance to look these guys up and learn more about them do it. And if you have the opportunity to see them in concert I highly recommend it.

Book Review: Chasing the Devil's Tail & Jass

I am an avid reader of all kinds of books. I think I've read more books than watched movies this semester. I enjoy reading non-fiction books about people, events, concepts, etc. but I enjoy a good novel once in while as well. I recently read Jass and Chasing the Devil's Tail, both by David Fulmer. These books can be called historical fiction because they feature real people that lived in real places during real historical events. It is a good combination of fiction and non-fiction in the same story.

These books take place in Storyville, a red-light district of New Orleans, right around the turn of the 20th century. They feature Tom Anderson, the unofficial mayor of Storyville; E. J. Bellocq, noted photographer; Ferdinand LaMothe, better known as Jelly Roll Morton, jazz pianist; and Buddy Bolden, cornetist and the man most historians credit with creating jazz as we know it. All these people were real but the story revolves around fictitional detective Valentin St. Cyr, a Creole of color. It also describes real streets, bars, stores, and brothels the way they existed at the time.

I do not know how I came to own this book but I found Jass in my closet a few months ago. I read it not knowing that it was the second book in a series of mysteries that have the same detective. I enjoyed it thoroughly and decided to get the first book Chasing the Devil's Tail. Both stories are murder mysteries infused with an atmosphere of rainy southern Louisianna where the depravity of prostitution is commonplace and a new craze in music is rising from being played only in seedy bars in the middle of the night to infecting high class white society. This music is known only as jass but would later be called jazz and be regarded as America's lone contribution to the world of art.

I consider myself a musician. I really enjoy playing jazz and am interested in the history of the music and its prominant figures. Couple that with an exciting, suspenseful murder mystery and I greatly enjoyed reading these novels. I have since ordered Rampart Street, the third book in the series, and am awaiting its arrival in the mail. To appease my non-fiction side I have also ordered In Search of Buddy Bolden, First Man of Jazz as a result from reading about this enigmatic genius in these two novels. I highly recommend Chasing the Devil's Tail and Jass by David Fulmer. I will let you know how Rampart Street is once I finish it. I'm looking forward to reading it and anticipate that it will be just as good if not better.

Musical Nostalgia

Every now and then I revert back to the tastes of days past and listen to music of the 1990s. I specify 1990s because I have also been known to listen to music from the 1890s or even 1790s but the subject of this entry will be the music that was being created as I was coming of age. The mid to late 90s was when I began making that great pilgrimage into adolescence. This is the time when most people experience the greatest number of changes in the shortest amount of time. The physical, emotional, and intellectual changes are abundant as each day has its successes and disasters. The perception is that the whole world is watching your every step and the slightest mistake will be witnessed by thousands. Tomorrow seems so far away in the eyes of a teen and each day is truly lived like it will be the last. Some of us even come close to that on a few occasions. I think that the music one listened to during this time always holds a special place.

The music that I listened to during adolescence was my choice. It sounds simple but its quite profound because prior to that I was just listening to music in my environment. I was listening to what my parents listened to. I come from a highly trained musical family, which I'm sure will be the subject of future blogs, so we listened to anything from Bach to the the music of Singing in the Rain to 70s bands like Chicago and KC and the Sunshine Band back to the music of The Wizard of Oz and Mozart. Some of it I still like today, some of it I have long since rejected, but the point is that I was not choosing to listen to this music. It was around me and it was all I knew. The music that you discover on your own takes on a significant meaning.

When I flipped on my first little clock radio I chose to listen to bands like Matchbox Twenty, Creed, Alanis Morissette, Third Eye Blind, Barenaked Ladies, REM, and Stroke 9 among others. I chose to listen to songs like "She's So High" by Tal Bachman, "Linger" by The Cranberries, "Leaving Town" by Dexter Freebish, "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus, and breakthrough revolutions to me like "Name" by The Goo Goo Dolls and "Long December" by Counting Crows. I could go on and on. One summer I mowed lawns and everytime I got paid I asked my mom or dad to take me to Hastings and I would buy another album. That was back when people actually bought CDs. It is difficult to debate what is good and what is not when it comes to music because it's all a matter of taste and opinion. That being said, the hit songs of today just don't measure up according to my tastes. It makes me think we are at a new low point regarding what kind of music is popular.

That's okay though because the music is still out there somewhere. Whether the artists are struggling to survive or have long since faded into obscurity the music is still there. Since that time my musical tastes have broadened but I ocassionally get nostalgic when I hear a song from that era. I appreciate the music of the 90s that was with me in that metaphorical roller coaster called adolescence. A time when things seemed so complicated but were actually so free.

Frustration into Experimentation Part II

And now for the moment you have all been waiting for - a update on my experiment from my entry titled Frustration into Experimentation. If you have read that entry I'm sure you're sitting at the edge of your seat, your mouth getting dry from anxiousness, the suspense so brutal you just can't take it anymore. If you have not read that entry then read it. If you have not read it and don't want to, fine, I'll sum up. There is a girl in one of my classes that dominates the discussion and I have set up an experiment to quantify just how much she monopolizes the class. Over a period of three weeks I kept count of how many times she spoke out in class, the total amount of class time she spent talking, and the percentage of class time spent having to listen to her. Now for the numbers. If you're a stats person (not many people are) you might enjoy this.

Bear with me as a blog post is not the best place for a data table because of alignment problems. But I'm sure you'll be able to follow anyway. The numbers will be ordered as follows: Number of times subject spoke in one class, total duration of time spoken, percentage of class time spent with subject speaking.

12 1:55 4%

14 3:03 8%
18 1:31 3.5%
6 0:53 2%
10 2:48 7%
15 2:46 6%

Mean = 12.5 2:09 5.7%

Median = 13 2:20:30 5%

Range = 12 2:10 6%

There you have it! Can you imagine being in a 45-50 minute college class and one person who is not the professor speaking this much? I have to admit that the last few days she has gotten better. But not after being on the receiving end of a few comical, not-so-subtle hints from other students that her talking has become excessive. In case you want more, never fear, I am not yet done with this experiment. Next, I will perform these same operations on all the other members of the class combined and do a comparative analysis of the two groups. Thank you for indulging me in this little experiment. I am well on my way to new discoveries in the social sciences.

Back from Hiatus

It has been about a week and a half hiatus since my last blog. Much has happened since then. The purpose of this entry will be to catch up on the latest significant occurrences in my world. First off, a follow-up to my previous entry about the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons went on an eight game losing streak. It was their longest since the 1994-95 season. They looked to be in absolute disarray when the improbable happened. With their next two games against two of the top five teams in the league on their home floors it looked as though the losing streak was bound to reach at least ten games if not more. But on Friday night they handed it to the Orlando Magic, a team that despite having its best season in more than a decade, cannot seem to find an answer to the Pistons. Detroit won 93-85. Then today an even bigger upset occurred as the Pistons beat the defending champion Boston Celtics. Detroit had an all around impressive game as they won 105-95. How can a team lose eight in a row and 17 of 22, look on the brink of disaster, and then turn it all around in three days to beat two of league's best teams? Well, the aforementioned (in previous blogs) Allen Iverson did not appear in either game with a back injury. This put Richard Hamilton back in the starting lineup, a place where he has been a fixture for the past six years in Detroit, until this season when he was bumped to accommodate Iverson. Hamilton scored 31 and 25 points respectively and had a great all around game against Boston adding 9 assists and 6 rebounds. Is there a correlation between losing against every opponent that came the Pistons way over the last two and half weeks then Iverson goes down with an injury and they beat two great teams away from home? I don't know. You do the research and tell me.

The university that I attend holds an annual Spring Sing where the fraternities and sororities each put on a ten minute show that follows a certain theme. It is a competition with prize money. This year the theme was children's books and my fraternity did Where's Waldo?. The premise of our show was that Waldo is a valliant hero who has just received an award for his acts of bravery. He subsequently disappears without a trace and his girlfriend Wenda hires Detective Gum Shoe to try and find him. It featured other classic "Waldo" book characters such as the troublesome convict Odlaw and the quirky, Kramer-esque Wizard, played by me. The show had a 1920s mystery feel, centered around Detective Shoe's witty monologues, and featured live music reminiscent of classic mystery films. As it turns out the detective was just a scapegoat for Wenda to look innocent as she and the other characters try to get rid of Waldo for good by shipping him to Antarctica. Our show was comical, intelligent, suspenseful, plot-twisting, and just plain entertaining. In addition to original live music played by members of the fraternity, it featured dancing, a rap, and an edge of your seat fight sequence - all in ten minutes! Everyone that witnessed said we would either win or at least get second place. According to the judges, however, our show was only good enough for third. That still won us $300 in prize money and more importantly it built a sense of comradery and accomplishment among the fraternity. Despite the results (which were still pretty good) we were still very proud of our performance. I could write an entire other entry on the travesties of mass appeal and popularity that seem to fit the criterion to win a competition such as this but I'll save it for later.

That is about enough updating for now. The Detroit Pistons seem to be a recurring theme in my blogs. It is the golden mean of basketball season what can I say? My school's spring sing was fun and rewarding even though I thought my frat was robbed by the judges. Soon I will give an update on my experimental study as mentioned in a previous blog titled Frustration into Experimentation.

Mama said they're'd be seasons like this

If you have read previous blogs you know that I am a Detroit Pistons fan and I will be through thick and thin. Right now is definitely thin. Last night the Pistons lost their fourth straight game. While the loss was disappointing it was not surprising. This season Pistons fans have had to endure more losing than we are accustomed to.

In the National Basketball Association each team plays 82 regular season games. If a team wins 50 of those games then they have really accomplished something and are probably regarded as one of the league's top teams. The Pistons have won at least 50 games in each of the last seven seasons. During that span they made it to the Eastern Conference Finals six times, the NBA Finals twice, and won the NBA Championship once in 2004. Just last season they finished with the league's second best overall record at 59 wins and 23 losses. This season has been an entirely different story so far. As of right right now we are approximately two-thirds of the way into the season and the Pistons have lost 25 games. They have already lost double the number of home games this year than they did all of last year. In November they lost three straight games and I thought the world had ended. That was before they lost five straight in January and you can imagine what I thought happened to the world then. Currently, they are on a four game losing streak with an absolutely brutal schedule up ahead. Their next seven games are against playoff bound teams with five of them on the road.

Despite all this, they have had a couple of bright spots this season. One occurred in late December and early January when they won seven in a row. The other occurred when they started the season by winning their first four games. What happened between then and now to put the Pistons in such an unenviable position? They pulled off a blockbuster trade that sent Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Allen Iverson. Coming into this season Iverson had the third highest scoring average in NBA history. Adding someone like that can only make your team better, right? Apparently not. Chauncey Billups had been the Pistons' team captain for the last six years and won the Most Valuable Player award in that 2004 NBA Championship. Taking him out of the mix, regardless of who replaced him, was going to put the team in major transition mode. I had a bad feeling the day that this trade happened, but can one player really cause the team to plummet so fast? Probably not. Another factor is that they have a rookie head coach in Michael Curry. I do not think that Michael Curry is a bad coach by any means. He has not been a head coach in this league long enough to be judged anyway. Any rookie head coach of an NBA team is going to have his rough patches. I guess it's the "nature of the business" as they say.

Despite all the disappointing aspects of this season, there are certainly some positives. If the regular season ended today the Pistons would still be in the playoffs. They have shown signs of brilliance by beating five of the league's top six teams at various points. And fortunately, the future is brighter than the present. They have a core of very talented players with lots of time left in this league and come this summer they will have $20 million to spend to add even more talent to that core. You have to take the good with the bad and the Pistons have been so good for so long that the bad was bound to happen sooner or later. However, there is still more basketball to be played this season. You never know, maybe they will surprise everybody. In the immortal words of Chris Berman, "that's why they play the game."

Walt Williams

Not many are familiar with the name Walter Allen Williams today. He is a retired gentleman living in Brownwood, Texas, the place of his birth, who volunteers for the city recreation department. Each Saturday during basketball season he controls the scoreboard for youth basketball games. It was here that a met him about a year ago because I am a referee for these basketball games. He is a nice, fun guy who is easy to talk to and has plenty of wisdom. But there is much more to Walt Williams than he lets on. You may be more familiar with the name if you were a Major League Baseball fan in the 1960s and 70s.

Williams played in the MLB from 1964 to 1975. He played for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. He was commonly referred to as "no neck" because he was short (5' 6") and had an incredibly muscular physique (over 30 years after his playing days he still has that muscular physique). He was known as being a very popular, fan-friendly kind of player with an infectious personality. Oh yeah, he was no slouch as a ballplayer either. Williams played outfield and committed just 19 errors in 565 games for an almost unheard of .981 fielding percentage. In 1969 he played for the Chicago White Sox and boasted a batting average of .304, sixth best in the American League. That season he had a strikeout rate of once every 14.3 at bats making him the 5th most difficult player to strike out. On May 31, 1970 he got five hits, two RBIs, and scored five runs in a 22-13 win over the Boston Red Sox. For his playing career Williams appeared in 842 games, got 640 hits, 33 home runs, 173 RBIs, 284 runs, and had a lifetime batting average of .270. In 1988 he was an assistant coach for the White Sox. Last year when I asked him about his baseball playing days he just kind of shrugged and said, "in college I was better at basketball."

Speaking of basketball, today Walt Williams told me a pretty interesting story. Nancy Lieberman is a basketball hall of famer and one of, if not the, best women's basketball player in history. In 1975 while playing with the New York Yankees, Williams said in an interview that he really liked playing one-on-one basketball and that he had never lost a game. Nancy Lieberman, who was living in Brooklyn, New York and had recently been named to the USA Women's Olympic Basketball Team, got word of this and challenged him to a game of one-on-one. Williams accepted and they ended playing in front of over 4,000 fans in New York City. I asked him who won and he looked up at me, paused, and said very matter-of-factly, "I've still never lost a game of one-on-one." I laughed. Later on, between games, we shot baskets together. He's still got a pretty good shot for a 65 year old former pro baseball player. Actually, Walt Williams has a pretty good shot for anyone.

259

That is the number of consecutive games the Detroit Pistons had sold out at The Palace of Auburn Hills, their home court. That streak, which began over five years ago, ended tonight. January 19, 2004 was day one of the streak, about five months prior to the Pistons winning the franchise's third NBA championship. Over the course of the streak Pistons' fans have been honored to see some great teams as well as many past, present, and future NBA greats. Names of the past that stand out are Ben Wallace, Corliss Williamson, Lindsay Hunter, Chris Webber, and of course Chauncey Billups. Fans are currently graced by the presence of players like Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Tayshaun Prince, and Allen Iverson. And a special treat has blossomed right before our eyes this year in the form of Rodney Stuckey. These players have taken much different NBA career paths and have very diverse resumes but they do have one thing in common. They have all donned the red, white, and blue jerseys and stepped onto the Palace court. The past five years have each seen 50 win seasons including a franchise record 64 wins in 2005-06. They have seen the Pistons make it to the Eastern Conference Finals every year and the NBA Finals twice. What is quite possibly most important though is that the last five years at the Palace have seen nothing less than exciting basketball result in a winning tradition.

The reason for the streak coming to a close tonight is probably a combination of a less than stellar season for the Pistons and the sputtering economy. It seems as though the Pistons have been in transition mode all year since the November 4 trade of three time all-star and former finals MVP Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets for former league MVP and perennial scoring champion Allen Iverson. The result thus far has been an unpredictable team that has defeated four of the league's top five teams but has also lost to some of the league's worst teams leaving us scratching our heads. To this point they have a 26-21 record which is still in the upper half of the league but not quite up to Pistons' standards. Another possible reason for the streak ending now is that prior to tonight the Pistons had lost four straight games at home and six of their last seven. A more pragmatic reason, however, is the receeding economy that has significantly affected the city. Detroit is known as the motor city and the Michigan economy is propelled by the auto industry. Needless to say, there have been hard economic times in Michigan lately and in particular Detroit. This entire season people have been slower to buy tickets. It is normal to buy tickets to a professional basketball game three or four months in advance but this year the trend has been to purchase only a week to ten days in advance. Of the streak, Pistons.com's official beat writer Keith Langlois wrote, "It took a worldwide recession, the likes of which most of the world’s 7 billion people have never seen, to bring it to an end."

What is perhaps the most incredible aspect of the sold out streak is that The Palace of Auburn Hills has the largest capacity of any NBA stadium at 22,076 and was built about twenty years ago making it the third oldest NBA stadium. So the streak of 259 consecutive sold out games came to an end tonight, February 4, 2009, a night that the Pistons' faithful saw their team defeat the Miami Heat 93-90. I would not be surprised if one day in the not too distant future the headlines read: 260 - Pistons break former sold out record. And I can guarantee that if and when that happens I will still be a fan.

Birthday Celebration = Kitchen Calamity

It has been a little over a week since my last blog. Ordinarily I would like to blog more frequently but it was a busy week and I chose to use my time doing other things. Some possible topics that I would have covered, however, are the super bowl, a rodeo, or more basketball. Regarding the super bowl I would have mentioned that the officiating was horrid, Bruce Springsteen was downright atrocious, and the commercials were mindless. The game, though, turned out to be pretty exciting. But that is old news now and not the purpose of this blog. The subject of this blog will be my girlfriend's birthday.

My girlfriend of just over a year and a half had her 21st birthday yesterday. Her name is Olivia. I like her name - its original but not bizarre. There is much more to her that I like than just her name but I'll spare anybody who might actually be reading this. In the weeks leading up to it when the subject of her birthday came up I would simply say, "on your birthday I'm kicking you out." And I did. Yesterday at about 5 o'clock I kicked her out of her own apartment. Then I took over her kitchen and went to work. I then proceeded to make more messes than that kitchen has probably ever seen, caused the smoke alarm to go off which I solved by pulling out the battery and opening the backdoor, and served an elegant, manly yet romantic dinner in about an hour. I cooked two pan-seared oven broiled rib-eyes topped with bacon and wild honey barbecue sauce accompanied by mashed potatoes with cheese and bacon bits, oven toasted french bread, and a dinner salad. It sounds scrumptious but that kitchen was chaos! I now have a new respect for people who can prepare an entire meal at once. There was no time to breathe. It was like juggling a beach ball, a flaming torch, a poodle, and a machete knowing that if anything was dropped you would go starving. Bad analogy.

Nevertheless, everything came out well and Olivia really enjoyed it. For dessert we had a red velvet birthday cake on which I spelled out Happy Birth Day Olivia. Yes, birth day was two words because I ran out of room on the top line. As for the gift, I got her an Ed Hardy perfume set with body lotion and a purse perfume or something like that (I'm not well versed in describing things of that nature). What I do know is that I thought it smelled excellent. Olivia thought so too and really appreciated it. I sincerely enjoyed putting on this birthday celebration for her. In the future, though, it will only be special occasions like this that I cook anything besides meat.

Frustration into Experimentation

I am a psychology major in my final semester of undergraduate work. I specify undergraduate work because as anybody in psychology knows you cannot do much in the field with just a bachelor's degree. A significant part of my coursework has been reviewing journal articles of experimental studies. During this process I have thought of many experimental studies that I would like to carry out just to satisfy my own curiosity. I am now finally doing it, and no, it is not for a class, it is for my own satisfaction. Let me start at the beginning.

I am currently taking a course on human sexuality. This class is mixed gender and gives some opportunity for open discussion. On the second day of class when we began to really dive into the topic one student, of the female persuasion (not that this has anything to do with it), monopolized the majority of the discussion and said some pretty derogatory statements regarding the male species. Some things that came out of her mouth included but were not limited to, "guys can have recreational sex because it doesn't mean anything to them" "I've never met a guy who could lead[on the dance floor] as good as I can" "guys will have sex with just about anyone, girls won't" and the classic anthem of the broken broken hearted - "guys are pigs". It was not just the generalization and inanity of her statements but also the frequency of them. I began to think, "I wonder how much of our class time was spent having to listen to her bleeding heart, anti-male, jibber-jabber," or something to that effect. Thus my experimental study was born!

For every class period since I have kept a count of how many times she has spoken and the total duration. I will continue to do this for the next several class periods then I will do the same for everyone else in the class combined. At that point I will also do it for the professor as well. My hypothesis is that she speaks with more frequency and longer duration than everyone else in the class combined and almost as much as the professor.

I know it's a work in progress and probably won't be taken seriously in the professional world but at least it will quench my curiosity and give me something constructive to do while the words pour out of this student's mouth like decrepid crusty syrup! In case you are at the edge of your seat wanting to know how the study will turn out - never fear - updates are on the way.

Democratic Disappointment

I am a senior at a small private university in central Texas. At this university I am a part of a national service organization. For now, I am omitting some details because they are not relevant to the purpose of this entry. One particular member of this organization had a somewhat strained and erratic relationship with some of the other members and at times did not exemplify behaviors that are consistent with our purposes. Two and a half years ago he decided to cease being a part of the organization by not paying his annual dues thereby becoming inactive. At the time there was some resentment and confusion toward this member for no longer wanting to be a part of our organization.

In the past six months, however, this former member has exhibited a significant improvement in his actions. He began to reveal himself as dependable, hard working, and sacrificial for the good of the greater organization that we serve, traits which before were hit or miss. I, for one, have been impressed by his overall consistency of late. He recently expressed interest in once again becoming a part of our organization. According to national policy once a person becomes inactive in the organization he/she must submit a written request, receive a 75% positive vote from the active members, gain sponsor approval, and pay the annual dues to become active again. After talking briefly with this individual, he informed me that he was willing to do all these things and I became open and even a little excited about the possibility of him becoming active again. He submitted his written request (along with food which is always a plus), and we discussed it in our weekly meeting. There were some mixed emotions about the subject but I had an optimistic outlook on the situation up until it was time to vote. The vote failed. It needed a 75% positive vote and only reached 50%.

I am of course in favor of democracy and I do not wish to control a vote. Individuals have a fundamental right to vote the way they choose but I was slightly disturbed by the outcome of this particular vote. I was disturbed by the grudges that were still held and the lack of forgiveness for one's past actions which in my opinion were certainly forgivable. I was disturbed that while some completely ignore their own faults they are quick to point out the past faults of others. I was also disturbed that while this individual's past mistakes were still being scrutinized his more recent accomplishments were going largely ignored. That was how the vote turned out, that was democracy at work, and despite being president of this organization there was nothing I could do about it. It begs the question, "How long does it take for our mistakes to no longer haunt us?"

Making the Connection from Brownwood to Detroit

As you will find out from subsequent entries I am an avid sports fan and my favorite sport is basketball. When I was first learning how to walk ages ago, I believe I was also learning how to dribble a basketball at the same time. My parents quickly learned of my ingenuity as I could turn any hand held item into a ball of some sort. At the age of seven I witnessed my first NBA Finals series as the Hakeem Olajuwon led Houston Rockets defeated the New York Knicks four games to three in 1994. I remember my first Slam magazine which featured a story about Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament playing a pickup game with Dennis Rodman. It also featured an excerpt from the book Fab Five by Mitch Albom, a book that would later become one of my favorites of all-time. As soon as my family had access to the internet in the mid '90s I became a basketball historian reading everthing I possibly could on the sport. I watched games constantly keeping up with players' stats and projecting what the statistical outcome would be. My dad attributes my having a profiency in math to this. You see, being a sports fan does have its academic benefits!

This is a little background, now let's flash forward to today. I am a Detroit Pistons fanatic. How did someone from Brownwood, Texas become such an enormous fan of a team in Detroit, Michigan? I was born in Lake Charles, Louisianna where my dad was the horn teacher at McNeese State University. My dad's time at NcNeese St. coincided with that of college basketball star Joe Dumars. Dumars attented McNeese St. from 1981-1985 and in the summer of 1985 he was selected with the 18th pick of the NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. There he was part of the "Bad Boys" who won NBA championships in 1989 and '90 and was named MVP of the '89 NBA Finals. Dumars played for the Pistons his entire career and upon his retirement in 1999, he became one of the few players in NBA history to play over 1,000 games with the same team. Dumars then became the President of Basketball Operations for the Pistons and currently still holds that position. Needless to say, one my proudest moments as a Pistons fan was in the summer of 2004 when Detroit won the NBA championship by upsetting the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers in a David vs. Goliath type battle. This happened in large part because of some major trades orchestrated by Dumars to assemble that championship team. In 2006 Joe Dumars was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. As I was first getting into basketball in the early '90s Dumars was in the prime of his playing career. When my dad told me about his connection with Dumars I decided I was going to root for the team he was on, the Detroit Pistons, and I have ever since.

There you have it. The circular relationship from Lake Charles to Brownwood to Detroit is now connected to explain my fanaticism for the Detroit Pistons in my own little sports world. If you don't give a flip about sports or basketball it's okay. It is just one of my many interests and I will write about many different subjects as they come to me. Go Pistons!

First Blog

I decided to create my own blog as I was pondering if all of my thoughts and opinions are really worth something. Some things that have been running through my head lately are the need for the ability to improvise in life, just how much gray area there is in this world, what playing music can do for someone, the Detroit Pistons new lineup, and why Michael Vick has been subjected to such extreme treatment. I have a rule, however, that I will not air my opinions on any matters between the hours of 12 and 6 am. Since we are now in this area of time, this blog will serve as an introductory sample of what is to come.