Random Stuff 12.6.2008

- The first post I made on this blog was over a year ago, in October 2007. Of course, you remember every word of it anyway, but here's the link to it. At that time, Side Bar (of Where's Luke superstardom, of course) predicted that Teaneck's Five-Star Cafe would go out of business quickly with a Dunkin Donuts across the street. Well, lo and behold, Five Star is fully operational. Infact, Sunday 11/30 I enjoyed a Hobo Con Queso to go. Of course, arriving home an hour and a half later, I had to pay the price on the toilet for a few minutes, but it was well worth it. Delicious breakfast and a laxative in one, can't beat it.

- Back in the 90s, a guy named Darcy Frey went into Coney Island (apparently, very ghetto there) and followed around three basketball players and chronicled their struggles to make it to success after high school basketball in a book called The Last Shot. (Joey may have gotten this as a gift for me.) Anyway, the story also touches on a cocky freshman who was on the team with this group of seniors named Stephon Marbury. After recalling his background, I'm not that shocked that "Starbury" self-destructed eventually when he was not having his ass kissed from all angles. Consider an excerpt from this review that touches on Steph:

The book does contain a fourth player, less involved in the central events of the book than the other three, a tiny freshman phenom of a point guard and basketball savant, with blazing speed, a yo-yo handle, otherworldly court vision, and a deadly shot. He is the most cocky and the most jaded of the four, always flapping his mouth and even deriding Tchaka's abilities to his face. He had not one, not two, but three older brothers show promise in high school but ultimately fail to make their 700 and end up in some sort of juco purgatory, and the experience has clearly impacted his family; his father approaches Frey directly and asks him how much he's going to be paid for Frey's book, having seen too often how young players are chewed up and spit out by those looking to profit off them and left with nothing. Unlike the other three, the freshman is shameless about hitting up Frey for meals at McDonald's and soda money, and is clear about his intentions to get his from college recruiters, admonishing the other three for not asking for any illegal gifts; he dreams of getting hooked up with a white Nissan Sentra, which are, in his own words, "milk." But he also benefits from his loss of innocence -- he vows that he won't turn out like his brothers, and puts in hours with tutors every day so that he can live up to that vow. He turns out to be the book's lone success story, propelled out of Coney Island by immense talent and confidence and a drive forged by the crushing failure that had preceded him. His name? Stephon Marbury.

- Man, I can't stop (re-)listening to Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere album. My current song du jour off of it is Necromancer. Just weird, quirky, and clever music. Has anybody heard that song Big Brother on Kanye West's Graduation album? Interesting description of his feelings about Jay-Z. Any thoughts on that?

- Just rented the Muppet Movie. It was ahead of its time and a lot of fun.