The New Jersey Jets

In the art of the post-event running diary, perfected by Danny, I'll recall my weekend trip to the Jets.

6pm - Come to pick up Mike to go on our way. While taking out an air conditoner this morning, Mike puts his hand through the window. Apparently he went to the hospital and got all kinds of shots and stitches, but tells me, "oh yea, I'm still cool to go." Man, that's devotion. Anyway, get his place and he's got to get his stuff together, I gave him a little grace that he wasn't already packed, I guess he was at the hospital or something. So I watch Rutgers play.
6:30: Man their defense is fast. This poor little quarterback is getting punished. I guess the score doesn't show it, but I don't think Rutgers was in any real threat of losing.
7, sometime: Rutgers continues doing what it does best, and I want to go to Friendlys. Man, I love Friendlys, right down to their cheesy commercials. It's kind of like this whole urban hipster joke, and I'm the only one who finds it funny. Come on, wouldn't it be cool if we all go to Friendlys all the time? Bunch of twenty something, hanging out, eat that clown sundae. Someone else has to be amused by this.
8: No! You're closed. Oh, Watertown Friendlys, of all weekends to rennovate. And why are you rennovating a Friendlys? Were the caramel stains too thick?
8:10: Introduce Mike to my new mix cd, Amerika the album. I kind of envisioned it as this exploration of the american pysche in our cultural moment, like the whole rampant patriotism and left wing anger, a mix of toby keith and bob dylan.
8:50: I don't think Mike understands what I was going for. Really, maybe needs a little tinkering.
9ish: Talk to my dad about Rutgers. Man he's giddy. Every article he's written in the past week has been Rutgers. I just want you guys to understand how much he's been following this team. As a kid, he would always take me to these Rutgers games all over the place, and they would always lose. I would walk away in shame with my little rutgers t-shirt, wondering why I couldn't be like everyone else who was happy. When rutgers first went division 1, my dad followed them around to every away game, and they lost every single one of them. At the UT Austin game he bought me a longhorns shirt, and maybe that should've been it. Then every year after that, it was always going to be the year, the year rutgers finally breaks through and gets that bowl game. Well, i do believe in miracles now.
9ish, little later: Boston market is out of sweet potatoes, I no longer believe.
10ish: Hey, Mike's really letting me listen to country, way to go Mike.
I dunno, like midnight: Well, we finally pull into Greg's place. I'm not really sure why we always mix the exit, it's like he lives in brigadoon.
8:00 am: Well, we are on our way. A quick stop at the closest dunkin doughnuts, about 100 feet from greg's place, and at cvs. For some reason the only water they had at cvs was specially formatted for babies. I felt kind of weird about buying a gallon of water with a picture of a baby on it. Just kind of odd.
8ish, later: Hey, alright, it's gospel blue-grass hour on xm. I'm telling you, this xm radio thing is addictive.
9:00: You know, most of these old blue grass songs are about death. I guess there has been a shift in modern worship music, I'd love someone these days to come out with a blaring pop version on jordan's stormy banks I stand.
9ish: I think I've realized that I could never live in the South. I have such this idylic picture of it, like an andy griffith episode, but with roaming bluegrass bands and barbeque. If I actually live there, it's gonna kill the dream. It's probably like the rest of America, but with a higher walmart/target ratio.
10:00 I'm pretty sure the gospel hour is over, I haven't heard anyone mentioning Jesus in awhile, and this song is about someone killing themself for love.
10:00 Did you know the jersey turnpike rest stop bathrooms have flowers in them, I'm just saying. It's like a french garden, but with a cinabon.
10:30ish I think: Hey, the first proof that there was a threat to this game: pulling into the parking lot we are greeted by a line of state troopers. I'm not sure how effective this is, I'm in a car, they're just kind of standing there. Maybe they'd take my tires out, I dunno, but I could probably still get pretty close to the stadium. But what are the chances, I pick one nfl game to go to, and it's the one with a terrorist threat.
Later: Wake up mike just in time to see the stadium, he likes it. I mean, for a stadium built in the 70s or something, it's not bad looking. I expect when they build the new one it'll be big and brick looking. The dream is they'll do what they do with stadiums these days, and put in aspects of its home, new jersey. Like, a big cooling tower behind the end zone.
11ish: Warming, warming coals. I've pretty much given up on keeping my hands clean, I hope mike is not worried about germs. But he has root beer, so he's not paying attention.
later: Heh, the zip car is definately gonna have a smoky smell for awhile. I know zip car has rules about keeping the car clean, but I don't know if they have rules abour the smell.
12: Mike asks if I brought ketchup. Nope, just beef, he's lucky I brought buns.
12:45 ish: Ah, and here we go. The seats are pretty good, in the lower deck and kind of near the 10. I love talking to Jets fans. Sure, they're negative and self-deprecating, and will always think the jets are going nowhere, but they're really prideful. I'm not sure how you do that.
1:10: And we start.
1:12: Hey, a first down after two penalties. Way to find a way to win, jets. If this was the pats, a commentator would throw in some quib about this is how the pats play football, let the other team makes mistakes, and I'm not joking.
1:20: Alright, staying with the no-huddle. I mean, I know the jets aren't good, but with a smart and level-headed quarterback with pennington, we can do wacky things like keep it in a no huddle.
1:30: Hey...touchdown that's nice.
1:40: And the jets come out and stuff detroit. This is turning out to be a nice game.
1:45: Alright, so here's the deal, the jets do not officially have cheerleaders. However, they do have 4 girls, in complete sweatsuits, who run around with big jets flags, and they occasionally use pom poms. So, are they cheerleaders? I'm going with no...they are completely covered, and most of the game they stand by themselves. They don't dance, they just kind of stand there. I'm gonna go with, glorified hospitality ladies.
1:50: And we score again, man, you can't stop the jets. Actually, this is pretty rare. Going into this game, I think the jets were being outscored in the first quarter something like 3 to 300. I think it's all part of the game plan, like giving up a safety to get field position.
2:00: A 15 yard penatly on Bullocks; so of course I yell out, "this penalty is Bullocks!" I think it's lost on the crowd.
2:15ish: Hey, they play springsteen, took them long enough.
halftime: 21 to 7 going into the half. Not bad, as long as we keep up that 4th quarter play. Mike goes to the bathroom, he's gonna miss the real action. At halftime, they throw out a few pee-wee football teams to run through a few plays. We all appreciate it, it's cute. Although this blue team is having a really pourose defense, the linebackers could use a little discipline. The best part of watching pee-wee football is that the kids don't go down, they just run into each other. It's like electronic football.
Beginning of the third quarter: Firemen Ed is going overboard on spelling "jets" over and over again. It's like once every ten minutes. Man this guy's excited.
Third quarter, later: Okay, now the jets play sweet caroline as well. This is weird, O've heard this song at a red sox game, a rutgers game, and now at a jets game. People just love this song, i think it's that ba-ba-ba part.
End of the third: Detroit goes up to 10. Whatever, good teams rally, and detroit is not a good team. The jets can let up a score or two, but to rally to have to score twice in a row.
Later: See, there ya go, score that field goal. There are actually detroit fans here. I really hope they didn't come all this way for a jets game. And the prize in mike's cracker jacks box was a sticker of elanor roosevelt. I'm not sure what I should do with this.
4th: Game over, Jets win. For some reason they play that weird "heidi heidi heido ho" song at the end of the game. I'm not sure where that tradition comes from. I suppose that's really what's lacking in pro sports, these odd manufactured traditions. Shouldn't we all gather in the end zone and sing the alma mater, or tear down the goal posts or something? Nah, let's just all fight to get out of the parking lot quickly.
Later that night: Well, any trip to New Jersey needs a stopover in a white castle, right? Sure, the rest of the country may have character and open spaces, but for some reason new jersey has a white castle on every block. This is a particularly strange one. There's seating for about 5 people, with little tables huddled into a corner, but a really wide line area. Unfortunately, the fire code says we could only have 6 people in the white castle, and it looks like there was about 7 people on staff. Mike makes the comment that this may not be the most efficient way to do things, I remind him that it is in fact a white castle.
1st White Castle Burger: Ah, the wonder of this place, little hamburgers in little cardboard boxes. Mike loves the first burger, it's cause they steam in the flavor. And little pieces of onions.
2nd White Castle Burger: Mike doesn't like it as much. Hehe, yea, that's the way it goes.
3rd and 4th White Castle Burger: These were particularly good for me, maybe it was the peak foliage of I-80, or the sunset over the applachians, or perhaps the fresh jersey air, wafting as if from vahlahala, but it's magical.
Almost New York: We really enjoying this XM radio, I think we've found two bon jovi songs and one springsteen song by this point. Maybe they taylor it to wherever you are, who knows. Like down south it's only lynard syknard, or in california it's only jack johnson, I'm not sure. And so we leave the state. Ah, it was nice while it lasted.
Remainder of Trip: Mike is pretty much asleep the rest of the way home, I suppose he lost alot of blood so it's reasonable. The rest of the time I just leave the radio sitting on a country station. The thing about country music is, for about half the songs, you can close your eyes and picture yourself at a cheesy wedding. I mean man, I must've heard like 3 songs written about a father at his daughter's wedding, like remember a few years ago when everyone liked butterfly kisses? Oh man, good times, good times. And so we close this little episode, I guess the journal got a little quick there at the end, but I'm kinda tired from remembering all this.

New New Orleans

I spent the weekend down in New Orleans, couple reason I suppose. Went to a Saints game, the D-Day museum, and saw the overall, oh, shall we say, historical moment of the city. My father and I planned the trip, we basically like to center vacations around museums and sporting events. It kept in tradition with the Rutgers/UNC game / Confederate History museum, and Astros/JFK assassination / Alamo trip. We like to fly Jet Blue because they have TV, it really takes alot of dread out of flying. I mean, if we were home what would be doing, watching TV; the TVs not as big on the plane, but everyone has headphones on so you don't have to talk to anyone. However, there's a few awkward moments before cruise where we'll all sitting around, waiting to watch the first of many sportscenters, so I did talk a bit with the guy next to me. It seems that the guy's cousin was the special teams coach for the tampa bay Buccaneers, and he was going down for the saints game as well. He was a nice new york man, great accent, gave me a dirty look when I said I was from boston, laughed at him for being a yankees fan, real great moment of bonding. The guy was also having lunch with Deuce McAllister later that day; I told him to say hi for me, Deuce carried me through a couple fantasy games. I mean, I know the guy kept getting injured, but man, he's still a human being, you can't trade him and drop him like a piece of meat. It's how I run my fantasy teams, it's not about winning, it's about building a life support group. Once the TV got going, I watched my two episodes of the A-Team. The first one, the A-Team got themselves into prison a'la Prison Break, to expose an underground boxing league run by the guards. But for some reason they then had to break out of prison. That non-descript guy pretended to be crazy so he could get his hands on a lot of garbage bags, somehow they got a hold of helium, they never really described that part, and made a balloon, sailing over the prison walls and onto freedom. Which makes me wonder, we are they always on the run for this crime they didn't commit if they could just break out of prison? And what's their ultimate goal, I mean, shouldn't they be trying to clear their names instead of running wacky capers? Anyway, in the second episode, the A-team formed an American all-star football team with BA Barracus and Joe Namath, to play against an evil German team with fascist tendencies. I'm not sure what the purpose was, other than to stick it to people who talk with an accent. My main point is this, if I unequivitably believe everything I see on TV (and I do), then during the 80's the nation was gripped in the chaos of underground boxing leagues and the jets tireless pursuit at defeating the nazis.

Now onto New Orleans. Large swaths of the downtown are back up to what they once were (I wasn't there before Katrina, so I'm just guessing here, but everything's pretty much open and running). They have really good subs there, called po-boys. It's got this great bread, and they put chopped up pickles and mayonnaise on everything. And they love these little fried doughnuts, it's basically fried dough. Oh, and oysters, oysters all over the place. And Bourbon Street may be just be one of the grossest places around, but the French Quarter has a persona and charm that can't be found anywhere else in America, it's rare to find another place like it. In fact, if you showed me a picture from say, a historic street in Boston, and I didn't know the exact place, I could tell you it's in Boston, or maybe Washington or Philadelphia. But New Orleans, it's itself. Of course, that's the neighborhood most in your face. There's the incredibly wealthy southern money section, complete the sweeping porches and gated communities, and the gentrified areas, with coffee and sushi shops that have free treats for dogs, and 30 something white people having sunday brunch.

Then there's other neighborhoods which are, well, simply gone. The most dramatic is the lower 9th ward. It used to be blocks and blocks of tightly compacted house, now it's just a field with an occasional house ripped right off its foundations and sent some hundreds of feet away. Other neighborhoods look more or less abandoned. You can still see the watermarks on the houses where the flood waters sat stagnated for weeks, and the spraypainted markings of animal search and rescue teams. I'd say about a third of the homes have a FEMA trailer parked out in front, and you can see they're doing some work in there. In one area I saw a housing development that looked like the crews worked on it up to the hurricane, and now the houses stand abandoned halfway to being completed. The truth of the matter is, no one is moving into the area, it's just empty. And as a results, whole shopping areas are abandoned. Mini-malls, like the countless one's you see elsewhere, with a burger king and a dentist office and a drug store, are just sitting there. No one's doing work on them, no one's tearing them down. Someone has got to own the land, but for now, well, it's just there. Except the Home Depot, everyone in town was there. I suppose it's more financial feasible right now than say, a toy-r-us. The most striking was the six flags amusement park. I mean, it's an amusement park, with multi-million dollar rides and attractions, I imagine all kinds of technical machinery and gears and chains and steel, is closed, without one ounce of effort being put into it. Call it what you will, slow rebuilding efforts, insurance details, whatever, people aren't physically there. To be a number on it, the population of New Orleans was around 600,000 before the hurricane, it currently stands at 180,000. As a point of comparison, that's the city of Boston becoming Worcester about overnight. There signs all over the city saying "Rebirth," and maybe that the best way of saying it. It's not going to be the same city, but it has this moment to define what kind of place it will be, and it's basically looking for people to take leadership and commitment to make this city something new, and hopefully better. We met one such woman on the rental car shuttle van. Before the hurricane, she lived with her six kids in the lower 9th ward. The breaking levee completely wiped out her four-bedroom house. At the moment she can't rebuild, no bank is willing to give a loan to build a home with no insurance, and no insurance is willing to take her. The sad thing she did have insurance on the home, but the company says it's technically a man-made disaster and not a natural one, after all, the broken levee destroyed her home, not the storm. There's a class action law suit going on, and hopefully she'll get what she needs. The other problem is there's little to no action of bring any power or water to the area. In the mean time she's still paying taxes on her land, heck, she even got a fine for not having her house gutted on time. Unfortunately there wasn't a house left on the foundation to gut. She commutes into the city 50 miles each way, and hopes to one day bring her family back. She wants to see the city again.

There's a goofy hope in all this, the Saints game, that was an unreal experience. I don't think I'll ever see a crowd like that at another sporting event. If you go to like a Giants or Pats game, the crowd is all gonna be 40 investment bankers and their clients. Just, really expensive tickets with the season ticket holder being a law firm of some such. But Saints tickets are cheap, dirt cheap, it's pretty easy to find tickets in the $15 range. That brings a different kind of crowd. The other thing that was cool that it was packed, usually when tickets are that cheap the crowd is a little sparse, but everyone, everyone was coming to this game. Sitting behind us was a bunch of middle school kids who got free tickets by keeping their grades up, to our left was a high school couple, to our right was this group of girls who seemed amazed by the game of football itself, and in front of us were a few roady 50-something women all in Reggie Bush jerseys. When Reggie Bush ran back the punt return, man, the place was gonna come down. And I don't want anyone to be cynical and say a football game is not going to solve the city's problems; cause in reality cities don't need to be saved. We can sit around and discuss of urban planning and economic theories and some such, but in the end, it's all people. And what this team is doing for these people is creating a community out of shared experience, where anyone and their mother can come and take part. Heck, the day after the game we talked to the girl working behind the mrs. fields cookie place at the mall, she was still beaming about that reggie bush touchdown, and she's going again next week. It's just the simple thing, that life is more than cities and amusement parks and urban development. For instance, the woman I was talking about earlier, she makes it a point to offer candy to anyone coming on that shuttle bus and asking us where we're from, and tells us all good morning, which, "is alot more than some people can say, because they don't even have that. If you can get up each day and say 'good morning,' then, hello."

So you've had a bad day

If the weight of the world has gotcha down, watch this little clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yGOrgQf6BQ