If you grew up in Chicago, then you’re a Michael Jordan fan. Thanks to my friend Julian, I had the pleasure of seeing Jordan play while still in a Bulls uniform. (A good game too: a playoff game against the Utah Jazz.)
There have been plenty of “next Jordan’s”, since, but no real threat to Jordan’s legacy.
Then came LeBron James.
Ever since the hype started, I started to resent LeBron, but mostly out of silly selfish reasons. I just didn’t want anyone to take Jordan’s place so fast. I couldn’t deny his talents, but I still refused to be a fan. Yup, I was a hater.
Last week my friend Louie and I went to go see the documentary “More Than a Game”.
It’s a movie that documents LeBron’s high school basketball team, known as the “Akron Five”, and their 9 year journey of trials and tribulations together as friends and teammates.
If you’ve ever heard of this movie and simply referred to it as that “LeBron James movie”, you couldn’t be more wrong. Because it’s about much more than just him, it’s about a group of people, and their dedication to one another and a common goal.
Along with being a very good heart warming story, this movie gives an astounding example of what Family, Friendship, and being part of a Team truly is about.
Do you work in the corporate world and are part of a department that’s just a branch of a bigger department where everyone is “supposed” to work together as a Team to achieve one common goal or service -but yet never seems to be that way?
Then invite your department to go see this movie as a group outing.
If you’re at all interested in Improvisation, and/or, are in a Improv group already, then it would benefit you –and your group- greatly to see this movie to help you better understand what being part of a team really is about, and how important those that surround you truly are.
If you belong to any sort of group whatsoever, go see this movie.
I was reluctant to be a fan of LeBron before I saw this movie. But now I highly respect him as a person as well as an athlete, and will root for him the next time he gets close to achieving his next goal: an NBA Championship.
Jordan is still the Man, though.
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I’ve only dressed up once for Halloween as an adult. A couple of years ago I was ‘Ponch’ from “CHiPs”. I actually rented the costume and really enjoyed myself. (See me and Holly below)
Last year I did some cheesy mustache-creepy-guy thing, so I don’t really count that. (See me and Tabs below)
This year, as Halloween was approaching, I didn’t think I was going to dress up.
Then, two days before the 31st, it hit me: I want to be Admiral Adama from ‘Battlestar Galactica’.
If you ever heard of the remake of this show and thought to yourself: “Man, F that noise!
That battlestar stuff is for nerds and I wanna punch them!”, I know how you feel. I’ve been hearing about this show for a long time and hear my friends talk about it a lot.
Eventually I started to look into it and it turns out it was one of the hottest shows on tv (it ended recently).
A couple of months ago friend Jason was leaving town for a month and offered to Netflix the first season of the show for me.
Hooked.
HOOOOO-ked!!!
This is one of the best shows I’ve ever followed. It would take forever for me to write to try to convey how cool this show is and how and WHY people love this show.
So trust me, watch it and buy me a beer later as a thank you. Mater of fact, buy the beer now cause I know you’re gonna love it.
AAAaannnnyway…
So I went on the internet trying to look for his costume, but couldn’t find anything. The day ended with me giving up.
Later that night I decided to give it one more shot by going a different route.
So Friday the 30th I woke up early and hit the streets. But the streets were ready for me. It was pouring rain pretty bad, but Admiral Adama would not give up, so neither did I.
So I set out on what became a 4 ½ hour journey through heavy rain and wind.
First stop: Ragstop on Belmont. I found a ‘old timey” cop costume with the works, but I was only after the jacket. I tried it on, messed with it to see how big it was, etc., and I bought the costume for 25 bucks.
I then scoured the neighborhood looking for tailors who would be able to help me alter the jacket to my needs. 2 ½ hours later –and the last one I was going to visit- I found a place.
The lady took a look at some pics I showed her on my iPhone, listened to what I wanted done to it, and told me to come back in 3 hours.
Earlier in the day I asked friend Jason if he knew where I could find some patches. He didn’t, but suggested why not print them? So after dropping my jacket at the tailor I headed to Kinkos and went over several images before I found the one’s I thought would work best. I printed them, laminated them, and cut them out to their sizes.
Later I picked up my jacket and it looked great. I bought some Velcro, went home, and carefully placed the images I printed out on the jacket using Velcro.
I tried it on and…presto! I was Admiral Adama.
Here are some images of the costume and the “pins” and “patches I made”.
(I refuse to do the picture-of-me-while-holding-my-camera-in-front-of-a-mirror thing, so you just get this)
(I’ll upload some of me in full costume later)
I felt really proud of myself and not bad at all at the nerd I had become that day. I went to a party that night and felt really good at the reception my costume got from my friends.
I went to bar party the next day and had some strangers recognize my costume, which felt pretty cool too.
Halloween is over but I’m not getting rid of my creation. So if you have a costume party anytime between now and the next Halloween, invite me and I guarantee that Admiral Adama will proudly make an appearance.
So Say We All.
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The iO theater had auditions last weekend. There’s a person that auditioned that frankly didn’t need to, but felt that it was appropriate to do so to not only respect the process, but to also maybe help change some of the perceptions there have been about him for some time.
It was weird for me to see him go through the process because I know how he must have felt. With things like this there can be a twinge of embarrassment, a hit to the ego, and a humility that can be hard to accept and succumb to.
But he went through the process without a hint of self-righteousness or entitlement, and of course did great.
We were all very proud of him and decided that rather than put him through the process of a call back, to just go ahead and place him on an existing team.
After every group that auditioned, we told them that call-backs were the next day and that if we’d like to see them again, they would get a call a little later in the day.
Because we had decided to place this one person on a team already, I didn’t include him in my list of people to call back. But like the dummy that I am, I forgot to call him at all.
Close to midnight that same day, I was at a Halloween party and it hit me: “Shit!”
I immediately started to send texts to see who might have his number and luckily got a pretty quick response. I texted him to let him know what we decided to do and apologized for not having called him sooner.
I know too well that it’s very hard to accept not getting a call knowing you did well in an audition and were doing everything in your power to do things the right way and respect the process. Confusion sets in and resentment starts knocking on the door.
So I felt –and still feel- horrible imagining that I may have put someone through something like that.
If I did, I hope he understands it was a mistake and I, for one, am proud of him and highly respect his way of going about getting back to the place he feels he belongs and is at Home.
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I just finished the final season of The Wire. After resisting it for so long, I finally gave in and it quickly became my favorite show ever.
How this show never got an Emmy is beyond me.
Thank you Mr. David Simon for a wonderful show and for trying to show America what is happening in their own back yard day after day.
