No token white guy

That should be a racist comment some years back, but these days it's rather accepted calling African-Americans black and Caucasian (Americans) white. It's just the way things are nowadays. Only the paranoid reacts and only the ones who overreact are paranoid enough to blow things out of proportion.

That said, here's a very interesting article (Who's Joe Alexander? Just ask NBA scouts by Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo Sports) i found over the net earlier today:

LAS VEGAS – The father’s cell phone rang back in Beijing and Steve Alexander sensed such joy in his son’s voice. Steve and his wife had dropped off Joe in Morgantown, W.Va., for the start of his freshman semester, and now the kid’s words tripped over themselves.

“Dad,” Joe Alexander gushed, “I love this place.”

For a moment, Steve wanted to believe such enthusiasm had been about the campus, the girls – and maybe God forbid – the classes. And yet, back in the Far East, where he had raised his son, Steve could just grumble an, “Oh no,” when Joe finally spit out these words:

“They’ve got a couch in the basketball locker room.

+++

“I’m blown away by him,” one Western Conference executive said. “He’s a freakish talent. And it’s scary how good he could be, because he’s just now starting to figure it all out. He isn’t driven, he’s obsessed. I think he’s the next Tom Chambers.”

Alexander sighs. “How come,” he asks, “they only compare me to the white guys?”

The most improbable story of the NBA draft on Thursday comes shrouded in mystery out of the Far East, the son of an American CEO who found great inspiration studying a culture where millions of people worked in fields so long and hard for so little. As much as greatness obsesses him, Alexander is just as moved to obliterate stereotypes and force people to reassess the way in which they label basketball players, the way they assign attributes based on race and background.

+++

Once, the power was lost in the West Virginia coliseum when he was shooting baskets late at night. So, Alexander drove his Nissan down the ramp and turned on his headlights to finish his workout. West Virginia’s coaches would always tell his father, Steve, these stories, and on a visit to Morgantown, his son was getting antsy in his dorm room at 9:30 one night. “I need to go shoot,” Joe told him, and soon, Steve had an uneasy feeling in his stomach when his son knew the one coliseum door he could jerk open to shimmy them inside.

+++

...He comes out of nowhere, out of the Far East and the hills of West Virginia, the biggest story of this NBA draft for the simplest of reasons: Joe Alexander wouldn’t take no for an answer.

So thank you to Mr. Wojnarowski for writing that article, i think and i feel that i have found a new player to follow in the NBA. Some posts back, i explained why i always like having point guards (in the NBA or the PBA) as my favorites--- and it's for the sheer reason of height and imitating their game in real life. Now i have some explaining to do why all of a sudden i picked this 6 foot 8 forward--- for sheer reason that i will have no rhyme and reason of imitating him at all in real life (Heck, he can touch the rim with his head according to the article!

There's only one reason: that article alone speaks of his passion for the game. And that's not hard to like at all. Not at all. Now, player fans like me? We adjust teams so here's hoping it's not the Milwaukee Bucks that draft him.

Pacman for Four!

First things first, these keys to the bout will look (sound) bloody familiar come Sunday (Catch the Solar coverage over Solar Sports or GMA; or if you don't want any part of the "delay" in the not-slightly-delayed telecast go to your nearest movie house, most likely they'll be offering this box-office hit) when you listen to misters Quinito Henson and Chino Trinidad, this year's pair-up who will go to Las Vegas to call the shots for the Lethal Combination: Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz fight.

My own prediction is listed below the LETHAL LIST--- do's and don't's for the pair of boxers who will slug it out for the lightweight championship.

LETHAL LIST: PACQUIAO

• PRESSURE COOKER
  
• Pacquiao is raring to become the first ASIAN to hold four titles in four different divisions! That’s pressure for any level of boxing especially for Pacquiao who carries a nation’s weight on his shoulders…
• Rather Pacquiao should forget about the “pressure of winning” but focus on the task at hand that is: to put “pressure on his opponent!”
• WEIGHT WOES
• Is Pacquiao indeed ready for the big time? Big time meaning bigger and heavier opponents?
• Yes, he dominated fighters in the super feather, but will his SPEED and POWER be diminished against a larger fighter in his first fight as a lightweight?
• Finally, how will this new weight affect Pacquiao’s strategy and game plan? Will he be more of a technical fighter and be conservative? Or will he revert to the old lock-and-load bruiser, banger go-go fighter and be aggressive?
• Other notes: Will the new weight affect his performance if the fight go the whole nine yards?
• MAN ON A MISSION
• The mission is: Beat Diaz not Who’s Next.. Focus focus focus…
• Pacquiao is now a grizzled vet inside the ring, but no mission is bigger than this one; Pacquiao realizes that and will use this as his primary motivation
• It should be clear with Manny that any future fights should be forgotten on this night and focus on the task at hand and not “the plans” after the fight

LETHAL LIST: DIAZ

IMMEDIATE BUT NOT INTIMIDATED

• Diaz should attack early and often but do not back down from the more popular (and crowd favorite, most likely) Manny…
• Reputations are earned inside the ring not what writers or critics say, Diaz should simply fight and not be distracted by the high-profile fighter opposite him
• BOSSY LIGHTWEIGHT
• Diaz is the lightweight champ and Pacquiao half-a-division lower… David should show Manny that rising in the weight division is serious business
• Since Diaz has been fighting in this division longer than Pacquiao, he should be better in recognizing which of the advantages should he use and disadvantages he should avoid…
• Diaz is in familiar territory, and he should act like it and force Pacquiao to make the necessary adjustments and not him.
• BRIGHTEST LIGHTS, BIGGEST NIGHT
• Diaz is fighting the fight of his career--- this is his biggest match yet, and he knows that.
• Diaz should be fighting like it is his last because this is his chance to be among the big-name fighters in boxing
• A Diaz win would mean more big-money fights in the future at the same time spurning one of the fighters who is one of the most popular in the world today

As they say, come fight night all the pre-bout keys and notes will be useless; this is so, so true from the point one boxer eat the knuckles of his opponent and the blood unabashedly comes out of that big embarrassed gash in either eyes.

My fearless forecast? Pacquiao in the later rounds, specifically the 11th round; two minutes and a half gone by and Diaz is bye-bye. Biased? Probably. Just win Manny, just win.

While we are at it...

So much for reposting every lyrics of my favorite song.. Particularly Rivermaya songs of old... Copy + pasted below are the "quotable quotes" (quote unquote as necessary as this explanation in an "open-close" parenthesis explaining the redundancy as significant for more emphasis) off their albums of the past. The B-sides that were never heard but has voices that definitely has more meaning than the commercially-released singles.

From the self-titled yellow album (1994):

Revolution

i could be a dreamer
i could be insane
but we don't need no Superman
to paint a brighter day

20 Million

And as i watch the candle
(burn/turn) this night (away/today)
My life collects another yesterday

Hate

Well, if you're happy then i'm blue
'cause I'm not so far but not with you...

...If only you were smiling, if i was reason
tomorrow, I could die.

... And this is not a love song,
don't even think it's your song.

Gravity

Somebody save me, ‘coz my mind is a train
And it don’t have a destination, and it don’t know my name
It keeps runnin’, runnin’, runnin’, runnin’,
well, that kinda explains,
why I see every single madness, but I cant see what is plain   

And i'm just starting. There are about five to six albums left. Another post, another album in another time. It's just too much for a single post. Let this be a lesson to your B-side existence.

Fever to start the week! Woot.

i was and am always fond of the B-sides tracks--- unreleased singles of the favorite bands and artists that are unseen by (almost unwanted) and unheard of by most of the average music fan. It's always a struggle of priority for these bands--- a tug-of-war of which to release; the more-commercially viable songs or the definitely more experimental and artistically satisfying to the critical ears and tastes but will be a major risk when released in the open market.

Rivermaya then was very different from the Rivermaya of today; i have to explain that to the new listeners--- most of them them new fans, either converted or newly acquired--- and re-explain it to the old school fans who knew the band on eye level only--- shallow opinions of an uneducated mind, which is rather understandable.

And oh, this maybe just a reactionary tale as close friends accused the band as the Philippines version of the foreign band Michael Learns to Rock, which outside the alcohol and diss-just-to-diss mission is lame, shallow and shallow plus lame. (If the discussion had more depth, they could have had more credibility but it's just it, it's a matter of taste and nobody wins in these kinds of discussions) Taste can never be altered but perception can be changed, you just hope some people have the capability of adjusting their way of thinking, especially since their way of thinking is absolutely naive and naively absolute.

Before i become accused of just being passionately defensive and before i become a diss-just-to-diss kind of person in discussions, i just thought of posting the "Fever" lyrics off Maya's album, Atomic Bomb (1997)

The title talks about my current state (which isn't known but that i feel very cold and very hot at the same time) and the entire song (lyrics and melody) just about sums up that the strength of anything (this case, a band's greatness) more than meets the eye (and your basic taste):
(*i believe the lyrics was a collaboration between Blanco and Mañalac.) And yes blast them all you want, i still have lots of B-sides to post anyway.

Fever
by Rivermaya

you're so good to me
a question
your intentions
you're so naive
ripe for the pluckin'
pretty to bleed
we look so good together
you seem so right for me
you promised me heaven
it seemed so right
a special today on roses
i'm so hot from dancing, dancing, dancing
got some tips from the butcher
a slab of shit
just like you
we look so good together
you seem so right for me
you promised me heaven
it seemed so right
like sun and fire
like dream and sleep
like a bird's flight
through a forest deep
two streams we die
in the open sea
like destiny
like destiny...
we look so good together (follow me, go follow me, go follow me)
(i'm dancing)
you seem so right for me (follow me, don't follow me)
(i'm dancing, i'm dancing)
you promised me heaven (follow me, don't follow me, don't follow me)
(i'm dancing)
you promised me heaven ( you promised me...)
heaven (home...)
heaven (home...)

Imagine nothingness

A few notes before we edit this poker thing-y.

Imagination = Creativity. Imagining cards from nothingness is equal as well to creativity, somewhat. Imagine nothingness... Imagine you hold it in your hand... Ha! Much like chances in life, eh? You just have to be creative enough to put a semblance of value to it.