Category: Culture

Names Without Frontiers

 

I’m very confused about naming. Parents choose names for their children and usually there’s some reason for it. Sometimes the reason is family or friend related, sometimes it’s trendy or celebrity driven and sometimes a name even indicates aspiration. What about names that just seem weird? What encourages a parent to choose a name that will automatically draw laughs, gasps or disbelief?

 

Some researchers think this trend is largely about narcissism in an increasingly individualistic culture. While that’s probably true to some extent, shouldn’t parental narcissism lead to bold, heroic, fabulous, august names for kids? Instead, everyone seems to know someone with a name that feels problematic. I would love to receive some insight on this phenomenon. I just don’t understand.

 

 

FDO

 

Lessons of Andrew Johnson

 

I’m reading an interesting biography of Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed. Her primary contention is that Johnson was a wonderfully talented man who rose far beyond the expectations of his birth. Johnson utterly failed to recognize that his ability to transcend his station came from the sheer accident of his Whiteness.

 

Johnson’s intense disdain for the aristocrats of the South was almost entirely about the status of poor Southern Whites. He never connected the condition of poor Whites and poor Blacks who were slaves then newly freed people. It’s sad that the poor of America’s 21st century still struggle so much to make cross-racial coalitions.

 

It's amazing that we can still learn so much from one of the 19th century's most dramatic failures.

 

 

FDO

 

Gay Marriage as a Civil Rights Issue

 

I believe that marriage is a public expression of a private relationship. Folks are allowed to think their own thoughts about the private element of any relationship. However, in the respects that marriage is a public issue, isn’t allowing same gender marriage simply a matter of civil rights? How can our society feel comfortable picking and choosing which people are allowed to participate within our legal frameworks?

 

The array of legal and economic benefits that marriage provides is astonishing. Telling people that the gender of their spouse should disqualify them from receiving those benefits is an obvious injustice. Yet, that’s what most of the states continue to do. It was more than forty years ago that miscegenation laws were finally lifted via Loving v. Virginia. Those laws denied marriage rights to people based on the race of their spouses. What’s the difference between race and gender here?

 

I hope that we move quickly enough toward marriage equality for homosexual couples that we don’t need another Loving case but until then I’d like to share a brief statement my wife and I included in our wedding program.

  

We appreciate and respect the values and benefits of marriage, thus it saddens us that not everyone is allowed this opportunity. Fifty years ago, our marriage would have been illegal in most states. Now, it seems clear that making different laws based on race is discriminatory and wrong. We think that making different laws based on sexual orientation is also discriminatory and wrong.

Please join us in supporting laws, initiatives and politicians who advocate marriage rights for everyone. Let love be the highest law.

 

 

FDO

Slowly but Surely

 

More thoughts on the New York gay marriage victory soon. In the meantime, here's part of a post about gay marriage I wrote last August. It feels appropriate today.

 

 

While judicial decisions are critical stepping stones, it is ultimately the support of the American people that generates the permanent force of change. That change is occurring. Most people I suggest this to think I’m crazy but I believe that gay marriage will be legal in half the states by 2020. That's my hope and my prediction. We're on the way, people. Slowly but surely. We're on the way. 

 

 

FDO

 

The First Fires

 

There were massive thunderstorms last night in the Indianapolis area. This morning there were multiple houses on fire and the common response seems to have been shock. It's almost as though we forgot that lightning can generate fire. I suppose that's okay. After all, in modern America, we are dramatically unaccustomed to being subject to the whims of nature.

 

The storm and aftermath made me wonder again about the initial human relationship to fire. I have lots of questions but no answers…

 

How many times have people discovered fire?

What was the first source of ‘controlled’ fire? Was it lightning; was it lava?

Was it an accident?

How long ago did it happen?

Were the people who found it hailed or cursed?

Did those individuals become powerful as a result?

Did it happen multiple times in the same place or in different places?

Have other animals ever ‘controlled’ fire?

If not, when will it happen?

 

Lots of questions but no answers.

 

 

FDO

First Thoughts on Heat-Mavs Part Deux

 

Yes, part 2 is how this series is being presented because it’s only been 5 years since the teams met in the Finals. There is a core of institutional memory of that series in both organizations that’s interesting. There has been consistent ownership and management and the two players remaining on each side fill important roles. Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki are the home grown superstar/best player in franchise history and Udonis Haslem and Jason Terry compose the emotional core of their teams. Otherwise, though, for both squads, there have been such substantial changes that neither team seems very connected to 2006. 

 

Almost the entire rosters have turned over for these teams. The Mavs are a collection of cast offs, former All-Stars and just past their prime guys who have all coalesced around the goal of winning a title. The Heat are, of course, the model for contemporary team building. Grab as many stars as possible and fill in the blanks around them.

 

It is that collection of star players, Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, that seems to be the key to this series to me. While Dallas’ players largely get the ball in scoring areas based on ball movement and double teams of Nowitzki, Miami has a more consistent offensive attack. Wade and James are almost always in scoring areas because with a move or two, each guy can get to a comfortable spot with an advantage. There were times in the Mavericks’ victory over the Thunder that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook seemed to be able to score at will. That scoring was predicated on speed and athleticism.  Wade and James have speed, athleticism, experience, confidence and great options when they need to pass the ball.

 

Some of Dallas’ offensive limitations have been masked by their incredibly accurate three point shooting during the playoffs. Miami expects to give up 3 pt attempts as long as they are contested. Miami will be able to slow down Dallas’ offense and force Nowitzki to win games by scoring 50 points a night. Dallas has very little chance of corralling James and Wade; that will be the difference.

 

Official Prediction: Heat in 6

Gut Feeling: Heat in 5 games. Yes, that means clinching the title in Big D. What a perfect scenario that would be for the most popular villains in NBA history.

 

FDO

 

 

RIP Macho Man

 

It's been a week since Randy 'Macho Man' Savage died. It took me a little while to gather some thoughts about him. These are them.

 

I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling since the late 1980s. Unlike most kids at that time who were able to choose between the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF), I never preferred the WWF. My granddad was a big fan of boxing and my dad liked it pretty well so it feels natural to me that when I began exploring wrestling with some real passion, I gravitated to the more realistic of the Big Two.  That was clearly the NWA.  

 

For me, one of the important differences between the wrestling organizations was the World champion. In the WWF that was usually Hulk Hogan and in the NWA it was usually Ric Flair. While most kids were awed by the larger than life Hogan, I was awed by the pretty normal looking Flair. Hogan was billed at being 6’ 8” and 300+ lbs. To me that seemed absurd as did his in ring antics. He’d get beaten up by some monstrous looking guy then shake his head a lot and become invulnerable. Uh, yeah. He’d run through a couple moves, pin the guy and the parade started. (There was not really a parade but that’s what it felt like.)

 

On the other hand, Flair was incredibly vulnerable! In order to stay the champion, he sometimes needed to cheat, sometimes he needed help from someone else and sometimes he needed to get lucky. That seemed perfectly realistic since Flair was listed as 6’ 2” and around 240 lbs. Even though he was a big guy, Flair was never physically overwhelming and was often overmatched by bigger, stronger, faster guys. He used his brain as much as his body and that appealed to me greatly. Hogan’s successes seemed overly scripted and painfully predictable while Flair’s seemed uncertain and complicated. That Flair was just as successful as Hogan awed me.

 

Then in the late 80s, Randy Savage moved from being an up and comer to being one of the biggest stars in the wrestling universe. He was one of the smaller guys in the WWF but wrestled with the same kind of attitude, intensity and spirit as Hogan did. His ascendance was marked by a change in his wrestling style to fit into the Hogan mold and that’s ultimately why I never became a fan of his. The paint by numbers approach sold lots of tickets but left me cold. I thought I was kind of missing out on Savage but I wasn’t sure why.

 

The difference between his Wrestlemania matches in 1987 and 1989 is amazing. In 1987, wrestling against Ricky Steamboat, Savage utilized an amazing array of holds, flips, dives, counters and counters to counters. In 1989, wrestling against Hogan, Savage used lots of punches, power moves and presentation elements. The first is a revolutionary technical, artistic exhibition while the second is a triumph of style over substance. It is, of course, to Savage’s credit that he excelled at both styles. It’s interesting for me to recognize that I was never a fan of Savage’s particularly though I always recognized his ability. What I've realized in the past couple years is that he always seemed to have excellent matches with all the guys I really was a great fan of.

 

Savage had tremendous wrestling based feuds with guys like Tito Santana, Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, Flair and even Jake “The Snake” Roberts. In all these feuds, Savage made his opponents look great and kept up with them, move for move. I suppose the bottom line is that Randy Savage could always do everything he needed to in a wrestling ring. That strikes me as a pretty good definition of greatness.

 

 

FDO

 

 

Race Day

 

As a Circle City native, Memorial Day weekend always feels festive. I never participate but the Indy 500 permeates the environment in Indianapolis.

FDO

 

 

Race Day

 

Camper cities

Traffic for miles

Checkered flags wave

In all directions

Coolers full of Bud

Dirt cheap sunglasses

Tank tops

Jake the snake around

Brother Henry’s neck

Grilled brats and burgers

“Show us your tits!”

Naps on the infield

Day long engine drone

A rainbow of cotton candy

Tires over the fence

Some foreign guy wins

May is beautiful

In Indy

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2004

 

 

Basketball Hall of Fame (kinda)

 

 

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame needs to consistently expand and develop an NBA focus or be augmented by a separate NBA sponsored Professional Basketball Hall of Fame.

  

I have generally felt this way for several years but the elections this year cement that position for me. 2005, 2007 and now 2011 have all been awful. (Mercifully, 2009 was so obvious it couldn’t be screwed up with Jordan, Robinson and Stockton all getting in.) Part of the problem seems to be the attempt to use HoF voting as a method for separating the immortals of the game from the merely worthy. Baseball thinks having an ultra-exclusive Hall translates to more majesty for it. For that sports HoF to be a staid, limiting, judgmental institution is somewhat appropriate for a game that illustrates those same qualities to an unhelpful degree.

 

 

But basketball is dramatically different. Basketball is about art, passion, creativity, expanding, redefining and breaking limits while erasing barriers. Lots of people do basketball in incredibly different ways; that’s part of why basketball has become the American sport that clearly translates best to the rest of the world. Steve Nash and Dwyane Wade can dominate a game just as surely as Yao Ming and Dwight Howard do. The variety of skills and talents that can lead to success in basketball should be mirrored in its HoF.

 

 

There is a clear hierarchy in the world of basketball and the NBA is unquestionably at the top. The best players, coaches and executives in the world aim for the League. Consider that Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski is consistently asked if he will leave his top level college job for an NBA job. I have never heard anyone suggest that Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson might leave his top level NBA job for a college job. Never. Former NBA All-Stars Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson have recently played outside the US and everyone feels sorry for them because they have fallen so far. Meanwhile, players like Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili continue to leave their countries to play in the NBA because they want the chance to play with the best in the world. I don’t believe the HoF should eliminate the number of contributors, coaches, women and international players. What it should do is recognize the hierarchy everyone else does and give more credit to the players at the highest level. That seems natural and fair.

 

 

Lots of individuals would benefit from this expansion but current and future fans will benefit more. There will be more people to celebrate, more accomplishments to note and more exceptions to the rules. Isn’t that what we want from sports? And what we often get from basketball?

 

 

This year’s elections of Artis Gilmore and Dennis Rodman fix two glaring oversights but there are probably a dozen other players that should be in the Hall but aren’t. Every time I start making a list it saddens me. Maybe I’ll do that later.

  

 

FDO

 

The Happiest Movie Ever Made?

 

In my kitchen there is a Wizard of Oz promotional calendar. The month of April describes the film as ‘The Happiest Movie Ever Made!’

 

WTF?!? Are you kidding me? The Wizard of Oz is a great movie to be sure. I love almost everything about it from the singing to the dancing to the innovative visuals to the intelligence of the movie to its important cultural impacts. But The Happiest Movie Ever Made? What a rotten, mean joke! The movie features a false god, political corruption, malevolent witches, terrorist attacks, family dysfunction, murder, kidnapping, natural disaster, drug use and abuse of power. And topping it all off, at the end of the movie, Dorothy decides she wants to stay in Kansas!

 

I realize childhood didn’t mean the same thing in 1939 as it does today but can you imagine seeing billboards saying ‘The Happiest Movie Ever Made!’ and walking into the theatre to see The Wizard of Oz? As Flavor Flav would say, “Don’t believe the hype!”

 

 

FDO