Resilience

re⋅sil⋅ience

   [ri-zil-yuhns, -zil-ee-uhns]

–noun

1.	the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.

2.	ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.

Listening to other people's opinions, and being too close to something you're passionate about can cause you to lose sight of some feelingsyou may normally have towards that thing about which you are so passionate. This was my case with Kentucky Basketball.

After a controversial coaching change, college basketball's winningest program went through some changes in their style of play. Tubby Smith has been replaced due to his unwillingness to change up his recruiting staff, do to the lack of big prospects that had come into the program during his reign. Gillispie's first few games were far from smooth and as a result the team went under fire. The thing people forget is that the new coach, Billy Gillispie, has already revived two programs in UTEP and Texas A&M. The only thing is that this time he was handed a team who went 22-10 and was told to revive them. How do you revive a team that had made the tournament 16 consecutive times before you arrived. And the coach before you won a title. UK forward Perry Steven puts the expectations of UK fans into perspect very well when he says "They want you to win 7 out of 6 games"

Kentucky fans don't care about their record, but they do care about championship banners, and Tubby Smith just wasn't hanging any with his own recruits. His lone title came from the team Pitino had forged before he decided to leave to coach in the NBA.

During the change of regime from Smith to Gillispie, I had to listen to people attack the Wildcats, a daily occurance in Cincinnati, and it caused my faith to falter. They started last season 7-9. However, he coached the cats down the stretch of their last 16 games with a 12-4 record. His plan started to sink in and it showed. Their tourny hopes were crushed as their leading scorer, Patrick Patterson, was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his leg that would force him to sit out for the rest of the season.

This season we opened with a loss to a mid-major team. Cue pessimism. They would continue to lose to North Carolina, however this stung a bit less considering that they're the number one team in the country.

Then things started to turn. The cat's had a few cupcake games to fine-tune their skills, and bump their record to 3-2, after beating Kansas State to make it to the finals of the Las Vegas Invitational.

Welcome the night of November 29th. West Virginia made an amazing Sweet 16 run last season, and this season jumped out to a 5-0 start after defeating Iowa the night before. The Wildcats and Mountaneers delivered what was expected to be a big defensive struggle, the halftime score WVU led 26-16. Sure UK's defense looked good but their shooting was ice cold. WVU would push the lead even further, at one point leading by 12 with only 15:00 to play.

Then I remembered something I'd seen before the season's start. A video that played at the opening of Big Blue Madness, UK's 1st practice of the season, annually performed in front of a sold out crowd...

I lost sight of the fight in the Wildcats I had always seen as a kid, watching the "Comeback Cats" cut down the nets in '98. I'd assumed we'd slipped to mediocrity. I'd forgotten that UK has the most wins in the entire history of the sport. I'd forgotten that they have more SEC titles than all of the other SEC teams combined. I'd forgotten that they have the 2nd most National Titles out of any team in college basketball. I'd forgotten they were a team that was bred to win.

Kentucky would ralley to take a 37-36 lead with 7:36 to play and they would never trail again. The Mountaneers would score just 7 more points for the rest of the game as Kentucky went on to land the huge upset 54-43 over Huggins' WVU, and won the Toyota Las Vegas Invitational Championship.

For the first time this season, Kentucky is on the winning side of the upset, but that isn't what has me excited. It was the scrappy fight, determination, and resilience the Wildcats displayed that has me excited. It's that the swagger is back. The "we are the best team in college basketball history" mentality. Regardless of the record, that is what has always made UK special. Watching what SOUNDED like a home game, and seeing the THOUSANDS of UK fans who traveled to Las Vegas inspired me. Hearing GO BIG BLUE in Las Vegas being screamed just as loud as it is when it thunders through Rupp Arena in a home game made my heart race.

I lost sight. The magic shouldn't dissapear just because I attend the school now. It should only amplify. The Return to Excellence Begins Now. Maybe this isn't THE year. But if its not, its just a stop on the path to the inevitable.

Christmas music rant... and other various and related topics...

I have a specific self-enforced rule regarding Christmas music, and the more I have shared it with friends and family, I have learned that many people feel a similar way.

The rule...

Absolutely NO Christmas music before thanksgiving.

This rule is crucial for multiple reasons. For one it ensures that the holiday season doesn't extend all the way back through November and to Halloween. Christmas is a 1 day thing. Unless you count Christmas Eve, I'll give that to you. So ok it's a two day thing. UNLESS you're into the 12 days of Christmas thing. OK thats where I draw the line. It can be 12 days... but... by this point we're already talking December 13th... we may as well make it the whole moth of December at this point. TWENTY FIVE DAYS. But Thanksgiving is so close to December 1st. Why not just let Christmas begin right after Thanksgiving?

See what I mean? It's an addicting mind game that can take over your life. There needs to be support groups for this kind of thing.

BUT, I have exhibited some level of self control, despite the fact that in my mind I have let a single day holiday extend back into the previous month... making a 24 hour event somehow become a 30 day event. BUT I mean business when I say no celebrating it before Turkey Day.When the clock strikes midnight and Thanksgiving has passed, start up those radio stations that play the tunes non stop, and let the celebrating begin. And what better way to celebrate christmas than with christmas music.

A NOTE ON CHRISTMAS MUSIC: In reality, christmas music is actually just a collection of about 20 songs, performed by countless different artists. During what other time of year can you hear artists from such different spectrums as these two below, cover the same tunes or in this case go as far as to perform them together...

If you were to take the music and put it outside of the context of Christmas it would be a completely absurd notion: Listening to 40 variations of the same song. But we do it. And most of us love it. I am no exception. I counted the minutes to midnight when I put on Dustin Kensrue's new Christmas album, titled "The Good Night is Still Everywhere" (A GREAT folk christmas CD if you're into that kind of thing. I wanted to post a link but its not on YouTube. It is on iTunes however...) and rocked out. I recommend you do the same... its good for the soul, regardless of your beliefs. Most of them are more about the season than the holiday itself. Its more marketable that way...

Could I really get paid to do this?

Anyone who knows me relatively well at all, knows that music is a big part of my life. They also know that I have a strong desire to enter the field of Music Journalism as a career later in life. This semester opportunity struck in the form of an English teacher. I wrote a paper describing the evolution of my passion for music, leading to the ultimate decision to become a music journalist. She herself had a similar passion in college, and  wrote the music columns for the Kentucky Kernel (The University of Kentucky's daily paper). She would go on to do road production for bands such as Motley Crue and Pearl Jam, ultimately leading into a larger career in movie production (The bound journals in Will Smith's upcoming film "Seven Pounds" and the desert explosion scene in Termanator:Salvation, both her work). 

Anyway, she had enough faith in what she read that she personally escorted me to the Kernel's headquarters in the basement of the UK Journalism building and told them to consider adding me to their staff. I'll never forget her no matter how successful or unsuccessful of a journalist I become. Just having a teacher who cares enough about students to take time out of their day is a rarity these days, and it did not go unnoticed. 

I am now the Rock Columnist for the Kentucky Kernel, and in the 2 months I have been on staff I have already been fortunate enough to have written over 10 articles. In addition to writing my own pieces, the position has put me in a position to interview bands who just months ago I saw on stage at places as epic as Bonnaroo. 

To date, these are the columns I have written in chronological order:

Guitar Hero Gives Rock a Pulse in Generation of New Music

Review of Jack's Mannequin's "The Glass Passenger"

Bands to Tear Up Dame's New Location

Review of Noah and the Whale's "Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down"

Review of Mates of State's "Re-Arrange Us"

Review of AC/DC's "Black Ice"

Review of Rise Againt's "Appeal to Reason"

Review of Oasis' "Dig Out Your Soul"

Students Empowered by Woodie Awards (Includes interview with Ross Martin of mtvU)

Review of Ray LaMontagne's "Gossip in the Grain"

Q&A With Artists of the mtvU Woodie Awards (Includes interviews with Vampire Weekend, All Time Low, Santogold, She & Him) (I'm proud of this one, I got to talk to bands I love)

I think it'll be entertaining to keep all of my works logged to see if there is a growth as they progress. I certainly hope there will be. It would be fun to see. Regardless I hope this is the beginning of something great. Time will tell...

Every Now and Then...

something strikes a chord- you can relate to in almost every single aspect. A song, a movie, a TV show. Last night, Californication did just that for me.

Protagonist Hank Moody was having flashbacks of his life and his love for his love interest, Karen, and the show concluded with a letter he had written to her after they first met. The words in the letter almost directly apply to my feelings for someone in my life. The letter read as follows...

"Dear Karen,

If you're reading this, it actually means I worked up the courage to mail it, so good for me.

You don't know me very well, but if you get me started I have a tendancy to go on and on about how hard the writing is for me. But this, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to write. There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it.

I met someone. It was an accident. I wasn't looking for it. I wasn't on the make. It was a perfect storm. She said one thing, I said another. Next thing I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the middle of that conversation.

Now there's this feeling in my gut; She might be the one. She's completely nuts, in a way that makes me smile. Highly nuerotic. A great deal of maintainence required. She is you, Karen. That's the good news. The bad is that I don't know how to be with you right now and that scares the shit out of me. Because if I'm not with you right now, I have this feeling that we'll get lost out there. It's a big bad world full of twists and turns and people have a way of blinking and missing the moment, the moment that could have changed everything.

I don't know what's going on with us and I can't tell you why you should waste a leap of faith on the likes of me. But damn, you smell good, like home. And you make excellent coffee, and that's gotta count for something, right?

Call me

I'm faithfully yours,

Hank Moody"

Here's the video


As Eddie Vedder wailed the poignant lyrics of Pearl Jam's "Nothingman" in the background, David Duchovny, narrating as Hank Moody, a writer in LA, went on about his soul mate. His words are feelings to which anyone who has ever been truly in love can relate- feelings of confidence and self conciousness collide into one. You're so sure and unsure at once. But the bottom line is, despite the mess of questions, you know. You just know. You don't care what the circumstance is, what odds may be against you. You'll do whatever it takes. Moody knows. Love knows. I know. His letter struck a chord in me that I won't forget, the same way anyone else feels when they hear something that could have very well come from their own mouth. Moody's words may as well have been mine. The only words I would replace in his entire letter are the handful of "Karens" That name is reserved for someone else in my letter.

Kanye's Walk to the Edge

The infamously lighthearted rapper/producer had been promising for months that he was going to reveal a whole different side to his music as well as his personality, and he certainly meant business. 808's and Heartbreaks is unlike anything Kanye has released to date, and although I was a huge fan of his first 3 albums, there is something different about this one: Depth. Kanye means what he says, "my friend showed me pictures of his kids, all I could show him was pictures of my cribs." Kanye wonders if he's gotten too wrapped up in a life of material things, and let other, more important opportunities pass him by. The change in depth Kanye admits is a result of the loss of his mother.

Along with a change in depth has come a change in style. All of the songs are heavy in 808 bass loops, and Kanye has conformed to the world of auto-tuning his voice. However he does so in a manner that is irresistable. He writes unforgettable hooks, and the loss of his rapping is not missed as a result.

There will be a handful of pretentious critics who say Kanye couldn't pull off this sound, and that he lacks the depth, but condemning his past as a prediction for the present work is far from fair. Kanye succeeds with flying colors in my opinion. On such a rich day of music releases in The Killers and the 14 year wait for Guns n Roses' Chinese Democracy (entries to come on both in the future), Kanye's release outshadow's the competition.

A TIE??!!

ESPN Feature Comment 11/17/08:

"At least with a loss you can look at what you did and improve. A tie is the worst thing in sports"

I always knew it was possible but it is such a rarity to see a tie in any professional sport. And having it happen to a team I like, itfinally put things in perspective by making me realize 2 things.

1. A tie in any sport shouldn't exist. The game is played to determine a winner and a loser.

2. NFL overtime is stupid. Not that college overtime is the answer but there is no reason a team should lose without having a chance to respond. The sudden death system has to go.

I wish I had been blogging before the elections, but I'm only a week late. Anyway, the bottom line is that I will never forget the moment I saw Obama's acceptance speech. I'll remember where I was, what I was doing and how I felt. Call me sappy, but the music, the images, the power of this video will transcend through generations to come. I truly believe this will be one of the most historic clips of our lifetime and I am honored to have been a part of it.

Call of Duty: World At War

A year later, the series returns with a brand new installment...well not BRAND new, but thats the beauty. World at War is built off the same engine as COD 4 however it returns to a time where the series shines. This series is literally a series of improvements and changes from Modern Warefare. The ONE improvement they did not make was to allow guests to play in online matches. If that had been added it would have been near perfect. Other than that minor flaw the game excels in all aspects. Online play is incredible and the single player campaign is much more interesting than in previous installments. In addition there are slight improvements in graphics. Do not pass this game up.

Ktulu?

Yeah, okay, so I started this blog right before I went to see Metallica so they had an influence on the name. The final track on their second album, "Ride the Lightning" is called Call of the Ktulu. But the intrigue extends past Metallica and is rooted more in the story of the creature itself.

It is a fictional creature from a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1928. The "Cthulhu" (It has countless spellings and variations in pronounciation) is infamous for the utter terror it arrises in those who encounter it. The creature has been described and depicted in just as many forms, but all of the descriptions stem from some kind of combonation of an octopus, dragon and human.

The thing I found so interesting is that this creature is more infamous for the fear it evokes than being infamous for its actual features. It almost seems that the Ktulu is more of an epitome of fear than an actual creature, which in many ways adds to its mystique. What creature is so terrifying that people are more wrapped up in the fear it brings than in the creature itself. People know the Loch Ness but they arent terrified, but rather simply interested in the creature itself and whether it exists. The Ktulu is its own entity.

Sleek New Browser

The Google Empire is expanding its horizons as it has now created its own internet browser, Google Chrome. Out of curiosity and simple respect fo the creations of Google so far I downloaded it. I have found the browser has a very sleek design with extremely useful additions. It is in many ways a nice blend between Firefox and Internet Explorer, combining some of the best feautures from each. It does have its share of problems although I think most of them are my fault as I have yet to truly learn my way around the new browser. All in all it is definitely worth checking out.