Spurs Playoff Games

I was a lucky boy this week

On Tuesday my friend Holly took me to see game one of the Spurs' 2nd-round playoff series against the LA Clippers.


Paper tickets? Not for these playoff seats!
We had a great time, of course.
Thanks Holly!



As always I tried to get a good shot of the tip-off.
Meh.
With this particular camera it's mostly luck getting anything good indoors, but I'm not complaining--I was there for the game.



Tony Parker (who turned 30 today) didn't score much, but still put his stamp all over this game.
Thought it was funny that the "MVP!!" chants went up during his free-throws despite it being awarded to Lebron James already.
Just shows that TP is SA's MVP in our hearts, because we love team basketball.



I was sorry to see George Hill go in the trade that brought us Kawhi Leonard, but now all is forgiven.
Not too many 20 yr old rookie starters in regular season, let alone the playoffs.
He is such a hard worker, and a great kid.
Big future for Kawhi.


Despite the lock-out shortened season, it's been a great ride so far.
And if you've never been to a playoff game, I recommend it.
Nothing compares to the energy, excitement, and sheer volume of the ATT Center in the post-season.

Televators***Evil Olive***Friday May 18

Be There!

The SPURS Are #1 In The West

The night before our mini-vacation we got to use my Christmas present and see the Spurs play Philly.
Best seats I've ever had, and a parking pass to boot--thanks again, Holly!

We had the best time ever!

Here's San Antonio's favorite referee Joey Crawford admitting to Coach Pop that his penis is smaller than a six week old snapping turtle's:
Tim Duncan looks on, having no idea he would earn a technical foul in this game despite not even playing. At the game the announcer pinned the tech on Pop, so we were surprised to learn the truth when we fired up our DVR. Even though it wasn't Crawford's doing, he might have been in trouble had the crowd of 18,000+ found out, seeing as how we haven't forgotten the time he ejected Timmy from that Dallas game a few years back for laughing on the bench.
Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter also wore suits that night, although they escaped the "DND--Old" that Timmy got entered into the stats on his own behalf.


Bruce Bowen had his number retired a few days before this game, and it brought back many fond memories seeing his jersey in the rafters with the other legends. 21, 20, and 9 are probably next, and they better find a way to enshrine our cranky old coach, too.
Since the year 2000, the SA Spurs are THE #1 franchise in ALL team sports in the USA, period. We have the best win/loss percentage in the last decade and the current one. Better than every other baseball, football, hockey or curling team--not just hoops.



I always try to catch the tip-off because it's the only part of the game when they use spotlights:



Manu Ginobili, the single most amazing and unpredictable player in the NBA:
Did you SEE that pass he made to Patrick Mills last night???


As a bonus, it was Military Appreciation Night. There were many moments before the game and during commercial breaks that brought a tear to your eye.



Danny Green making sure I'm paying attention to the Coyote:
It was super-cool being so damned close to the action you could hear stuff besides whistles and shoes squeaking. A little spoiled now. I want a job as a courtside photog in the worst way, but don't much like the idea of being one of those sweat-sprayed sitting ducks under the basket. I'd like to shoot their faces in coach's huddles during timeout and action shots from above the rim using remote-triggered cameras.


Pop coaches Manu:
Like he needs it. Probably better info flowing from player to coach in this instance. Manu can run a team once his playing days are over. Hell, there are like a half-dozen current NBA coaches who are former Spurs players, and the front-office spread of our alumni is staggering. The whole league is buying what San Antonio is selling.


The Spurs are on a 10-game winning streak right now, and just secured a spot in the playoffs even if they lose every game left in the season.
We have the best record in the tougher Western Conference, which makes us the top dogs in the league as far as I'm concerned. The East can bite me--they stink. Lebron James is never going to get a ring because he sold his balls years ago for shoe cash. He's a franchise and money-making machine but "King James" should read "King Choke". When SA whipped his Cleveland Cavs in the 2007 Finals, Lebron could have learned enough to make it to the next level, but he wasn't paying attention in class.

Our recent acquisitions of Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw, And Patrick Mills are genius moves for cheap $$, and already paying off.
The bench is crazy skilled and tough as nails. They WANT to win like I want to be able to tan--a LOT.
Our youngest player, 20 year old Kawhi Leonard, is already playing like a seasoned veteran, which is why he's a starter and a closer and a game-changer. We all miss George Hill, but Kawhi is the shit and RJ is already a distant memory.

TD21 looks like a kid again, and is dunking more than he ever has before.
Tony is the best damned point guard in the league right now.
Splitter has SO much junk in his inside game it's almost funny. A few years ago I watched a lot of EuroLeague games just because I knew he would come here eventually, and he was THE best big over there, fighting through double and triple teams with ease. A Duncan fan since he was a boy, this guy is going to be a major part of our future.

Manu is Manu again. We won plenty when he was injured, but Ginobili is our not-so-secret weapon. He can make the impossible happen every night.

Neal and Green and Blair are stepping up and playing like real men.

If we can keep it together and not lose anyone to injuries, there isn't a team that can keep us from our fifth Championship.
How the coaches will trim our roster for the playoffs is beyond me. There's only one guy that isn't performing above and beyond the level required.




I used my "ATT Center" Sony H1 for these pics because of the rule against detachable-lens cameras.
There always seemed to be an exception for the rodeo, which is why I got better quality pics of the action and concert.
This year they enforced the rule for the first time, so after one aborted attempt to enter I straight up LIED to two different screeners to get my Alpha300 into the building.
I think I haven't posted the rodeo/concert pics yet because I feel guilty.


Special Thanks to all my friends that came out to see Televators at Evil Olive last weekend!
Thanks for the beers and kind words.

The stress is mounting--heading up to WireRecording Studio in Austin this coming Wednesday for our big break.
Seriously, why couldn't this have happened 25 years ago when the dream of being famous was important to me?
How did taking a phone call while shopping at ROSS for picture frames and a can opener turn into this big crazy thing?

I'm glad that the band sided with me on including the song that my bass lines sparked into being back in January. The producer wanted to record a different one but we all believe that the 7-minute opus "Milk Run/Cosmic Stream" represents the future sound of Televators, so at least I'll have one of my compositions recorded professionally to serve as my musical legacy after 32 years in this crappy stinking business.

Judas Priest, Etc

A big thank you to my friend Holly for thinking of me first when her other friend bailed on going to the JP concert.
This was my eighth time seeing the Priest, and since this is their "last" world tour, I'll probably only get to see them a time or two more.
It was a bummer that KK Downing has already retired due to wrist problems, but the new guy looked just like him and played close enough to pass.

This is what corporate boxes look like at the ATT Center. I saw Metallica last year from a similar box, and it's starting to grow on me.
At my age comfort, space, a waiter, and a restroom 20 steps away rate higher than getting slammed by the 'tards around me.


I wasn't impressed by the sound engineer, and clearly Rob Halford is due for retirement. He sounded great for the first ten songs but after that luck had more to do with the results than the soundman's feeble attempts to keep things together.
I totally could have done a better job on the vocals.
The rest of the band was like a well-oiled pile-driving machine, as always.
Hopefully Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society was paying attention--Fast does NOT equal Heavy.
(They sucked)

Thin Lizzy should have played second instead of opening.
They had like 7 huge hit songs, and sounded great.




A Beautiful Mess played in Kerrville tonight, and when we were loading the equipment into the club I spotted a Coleman cooler just like mine except for the colors:
One of the cooks or bartenders is probably confused right about now, because when they got to work their ice chest's lid was white.

I never liked my green lid anyway--this is much better.
It's the kind non-hateful prank I prefer.


For a change the club didn't have it's backyard lit-up with a bunch of halogen floods, so I was able to shoot this view across the Guadalupe river:
The stars at night are big and bright...

More STYX

It's been two weeks since the rodeo and concert, and I'm still blogging about it?
Lots of other stuff has been happening, and I'm way behind.
Remind me of this when I'm complaining that I don't have any new pictures or stories.


Ricky has changed basses and Tommy's now playing a Les Paul, so you can tell that we've finally moved past the 1st song.
JY never changes guitars, and in fact has played this exact same Fender Stratocaster from the beginning.
A friend of his in college invented a distortion or booster circuit of some kind and installed it in the guitar. JY could never get the same sound out of any other gear, and got hooked on it. Forever friends, a boy and his Strat.




This guy sings almost exactly like Dennis DeYoung, the original keyboardist who sang some of the hits, but I think the new fella is less pretentious.
I explained to Sylvia that the other guys hated Mr. Roboto, Dennis's concept album that almost killed their career, and that they wouldn't play the title song. I was right.





Here Tommy is playing a 12 string electric that looks like someone took a saw to a Telecaster. Like me back in the day, he even played a solo on the 12 complete with bent notes. What a little stud.


I had just finished telling Syl about how the band was formed by the Panozza brothers, who played drums and bass, but who were now too old or too dead to tour.
Then who walks up onstage but Chuck Panozza! Ricky Phillips switched to a 6/12 doubleneck so Chuck could play some bass and feel like a star again.
After this song he sat behind the drummer and rested, then played the rest of the night. Two basses at once?
Very Spinal Tap at times, but they made it work.

Rodeo Concert 2011: STYX

What I like about the concerts after the rodeo is that you can take any camera and lens you desire into the ATT Center.
Also, they are only about an hour long which saves my ears.

In the case of bands like STYX, it means that there's no filler--100% Hits!


I wonder how many shows they've done where they arrived at the stage in the back of a pickup and had to walk through poopy dirt?



The only guys remaining from the '70s, James Young and Tommy Shaw:



Ricky Phillips on bass:



The only other time I saw STYX was around 1978-9 at the 3000 seat Palace Theater in Albany NY, front row balcony, on the Grand Illusion tour.
I knew their songs from the radio and was afraid of cheese, but was quickly converted. Tommy Shaw was an incredible performer, then and now.


You can Google the other guys.


Over a week later their songs keep popping into my head for hours at a time.

More to come...

Horses, Bulls, And Cowboys

More from the 2011 San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo

Thanks to Holly we got some decent seats--much better than any previous year.

Team roping is one of my favorites.


I've never figured out how the 2nd guy gets a rope around the calf's legs.
To be honest, some of them don't.

Here's my favorite sequence:
The rider's raised hand signifies that he's ready, after a rather long time spent getting to this point.

But I would imagine he wasn't quite ready for this:


Followed by this:


He managed to hang on to that wild beast, but was also awarded a re-ride a little later.


All 4 hooves are off the ground:


The bulls were all crazy this year:


Only one rider managed to hang on for the full 8 seconds and win some money on this night, and I don't think this was him:

That Rodeo Time Of Year

Yes my friends, the rodeo is back in town!
And for the 7th year in a row, San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo has won the large indoor rodeo of the year. Between this and the Spurs that's a lot of banners hanging from the ceiling of the ATT Center.

This year we weren't able to arrive early enough so I could walk around taking pictures, but I'm about out of ideas anyway.
Managed to find a man washing a cow before sundown, which is kinda kinky:

Then we ate.
Bacon-wrapped hotdog, chickenfried steak sandwich, Frito Pie...YUM!


We hit the doors just before the Star Spangled Banner started, and the staff closed the doors until it was over so we waited with mucho respect.


There was some of the usual rodeo stuff which you've all seen before, so let's skip ahead to my favorite event, the Mutton Bustin' :




Nothing better than seeing a 4 year old clinging for dear life to an angry sheep.

Got some cowboy action photos up next.

And after that, I'll go on and on about how great STYX was.

Got A SPURS Fix Today

For the second time in recent memory, server error caused me to get a LOT more bacon with my breakfast than I ordered. Oh darn.

Fortified by my extra pig meat, I braved the crowds on too-little sleep to see the SPURS practice at the ATT Center.
Free parking, free admission, this little gift to the fans is a yearly ritual for us.
$1 hotdogs and sodas.
With training camp only just begun it's a very early look at all the new faces, many of whom will likely be gone before the season starts.

And it's nice to see the vets out having fun.



I was bummed when Tiago Splitter hurt an obsolete tendon and had to sit out. The best player in the Spanish league last season, we've been waiting for him for years.

I didn't know what the Coyote was doing until reviewing pix in the car. Just...wow!

Did I mention that the place was infested with little kids?
Most were of an age where they won't rate a paid ticket during the regular season, so it was nice that families can give 'em a taste of the excitement.








More than once I just closed my eyes and reveled in the sounds and smells of a game.
Almost brought a tear to my eye--I love my team and city so much.

If anyone cares, the Blacks beat the Silvers with George Hill and DeJuan Blair putting up the most points out of all the SPURS.
James Gist, Alonzo Gee, and Garrett Temple showed a lot of hustle.
McDyess and Jefferson looked more comfortable than last year.
Coach Popovich was funny as usual, and it was great to see the return of Jacque Vaughn on the coaching staff. He's a school for our young guards, and will be a big help (for less money than Avery Johnson).


Afterwards, we went to DQ for mini-Blizzards and onion rings.