Holidays Around Here....And It's Arctic Death Storm 2008

I love Portland more than a lot of things, but one of the insane phenomenons that exist here is how snow affects the town. Because we have a lot of hills about town, when there is the slightest bit of snow around, it can make for an adventure driving. And since we have a lot of different weather affecting areas (Beaverton and all points west are higher up, while Gresham gets frozen like a Popsicle with the east winds, etc), the weather isn't the same anywhere in town. But what adds a element of insanity to the mix is our local television station's almost non-stop obsession with reporting the weather. It can go on for hours and hours of pictures of snow about the area, followed with the obligatory reporter stations of Sylvan hill (high point in town) and the Troutdale truck stop, where some rookie reporter slides around on the ice while talking to truckers that can't figure out why people driving certain cars feel the need to drive 80 miles an hour in a driving snowstorm without chains.

The Portland Mercury gets the whole situation right, courtesy of their news list. Even Fark has video of our adventures in trying to drive up a hill covered in snow. The area is down near John's Landing, and yes, it's amazing that nobody got into an accident. That's almost as good as some video they got last year of cars sliding around PGE Park taking out cars. What amazes me is that friends of mine that live in other areas and people that live out here can't imagine why this town goes nuts when the seemingly smallest amounts of snow fall on the ground. Gee, we can drive in this stuff in Minnesota, but why here when there's an inch of snow, the town literally shuts down.

Well, it's really simple. We have something called elevation to deal with, and there's lots of hills around town, and they might not be very big, but get a little snow on them, shake it with some ice and not have any sanding crews come near it for a while, and it becomes a regular sledding hill. We also have a lot of inattentive drivers, who don't realize that you can't drive as fast in the snow as you can on bare pavement, but I think these are some of the same people that freak out when it rains and then have to slam on the brakes because they can't stop as fast with water on the road. Personally, I find our fascination with snow endearing, as I love seeing the white stuff come down, but I could really do without the long TV coverage about it. But I suppose it's one of the things about here you just get used to.

The MLS Dog and Pony show came winding through town last week, as the commissioner and other officials toured the city and met with various personnel about the MLS bid. Merritt Paulson did some talking, the MLS folks did some talking, the city officials talked, and the task force set up to study stadium options asked a lot of questions. Some were pretty good, others not so much, but at least the group is trying to understand all of the challenges and positives about bringing MLS to town. Merritt has a good plan in place to bring MLS here, and is trying to learn from the mistakes of renovations past , while a lot of sports writers are asking simply what will MLS do if it comes to Portland? Even John Canzano has been talking about soccer, and if you can get him to talk about something, you've done your job well but get him to be positive about it, and you are really accomplishing a major feat.

Look, MLS will work here, and I can cover the thoughts in a few sentences. The MLS plan is backed by bonds purchased by the city, so there's no affect on city services. The bond payments are made by collecting taxes from team sales, ticket revenue, and salaries from the players. $85 million for an upgrade to PGE for MLS and getting a minor league ballpark for the Beavers is less of an investment that what would be required to bring any other major sport here. NFL and MLB require large stadium investments with a larger corporate support in town, and while the Rose Garden is suitable for the NHL, that won't happen unless Paul Allen either buys the team or supports the idea because he owns the arena. Yes, there's lots of details to be worked out, but when the MLS commissioner says "We want Portland in our league", that's a pretty clear indicator that they want our city there because they know what we have here, even if we are a little obsessed with the snow.

I've never done much traveling during the holidays to points that didn't involve seeing family. I've done all night Greyhound trips, flown in some of the worst weather possible over the holidays, even drove to some rather remote points just to end up with family for the holidays, and so this year, I'm actually doing something different. Girl, her mom and I escape to Las Vegas for a few days before Christmas to relax. I've been to Vegas a few times in the past few years, and it's a rather fascinating mix of hotels, debauchery, buffets, and entertainment 24 hours a day. I'm actually going to enjoy going somewhere to drink a bit, gamble a bit, and just get away from the day to day insanity around here. Wait, you are telling me the snow is there too? Maybe there is something to this snow obsession.

Finally, I've been listening intently to my local radio station who has been counting down the 94 best alternative albums ever as voted on by the listeners. The list is available here, and I'm not terribly surprised about who won. It was a rather unusual album when it came out, and it showed a generation that music could be dark, raw, unpolished, and yet extremely powerful. But I can't help but thinking that Nevermind isn't my best alternative album, and I probably would put it top 10 but maybe farther on the list.

Look, if this was a question of the most influential alternative album, it wins easily as it totally changed the face of music during the 90's. But Nevermind has some weak tracks intermixed with some great songs, the album can wear you down upon repeated listenings, and I think that Nirvana immediately gets more cred and attention simply because of Kurt Cobain's death. Yes, they are talented, but a lot of their tunes talk about some bleak topics. If that's all you want to listen to, well, I guess that's your thing, but for best alternative albums, I'd choose Weezer's Blue Album, Depeche Mode's Violator, Radiohead's the Bends, U2's Joshua Tree, or even Pearl Jam's 10. All five of those have a tight track set, varied track types, and even the more obscure songs bring something to the album. There's even some more obsure music by the Dismemberment Plan, Self. Futureheads and Hum that I would put up against this and call it some of the best music I've heard

But I suppose this is why stations put together lists or put up voting to get opinions. If anything, you get a lot of discussion about albums, and talking isn't such a bad thing. As long as it's not about snow, we should be Ok. Wait, it's lightly falling down here, I need to go watch the news about Arctic Blast 2008...

Before I go, here's some wonderful Christmas music for you to listen to. Enjoy!!

Random Thoughts from the World of Sports

The Olympics are a big part of my sports experience. I recall being disappointed with the U.S. boycotting the Moscow Olympics, but I also understood us needing to take a stand against Russia. The Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 were significant for me, not only because I watched as much coverage of the games as I possibly could, but I was able to assist with the Torch Relay as it came through Boise. I still have a picture of me and my friend John holding the torch, it was pretty cool. I was able to attend the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, where my friend Dave and I watched some hockey, aerial skiing, and spent some time in Calgary just running about and taking in the games itself. I've since watched Olympics go through various countries, the Winter Olympics go on a different schedule, and my personal experience of getting shut out of tickets to the Salt Lake games. I might try and travel to Vancouver BC in 2010, not only because the Winter Games are fun but I know the city well. But it's with great distress that I say that I'm not happy with what's happening now in Beijing.

It only slightly bothers me that someone lip synced a song in the opening ceremony because they thought the original girl wasn't pretty enough, and after seeing the actual footage on TV, it's annoying that some of the firework shots at the Opening Ceremonies were computer enhanced. I've heard that China is wanting to pull out all of the stops to put on the best ceremony ever, but simply put, this whole thing strikes me as a nation that is trying way too hard. We all know China doesn't have the best record of being an open country, nor do they deal with protests very well. Everything in their world is extremely structured, and the government controls all, even during this Olympics where the world was promised that we would see a new China. I'd think that with their human rights records and general bad impression on the world front, you'd want to be careful about things. But apparently a pretty face and computer images are supposed to make us all forget about Darfur and Tibet.

What I'm most irritated about is NBC's attempt to cover the Olympics. I'm used to watching sporting events that actually show coverage, provide analysis for what happened, and show the results. But the Olympics coverage is tailored more for the casual sports fan, as the coverage is littered with human interest stories, supposed live events that are cut and edited, and the footage is extremely slanted towards the US. I realize that NBC actually has numerous channels available to watch sports, and I've watched some of those channels simply to get away from the main feed. If an event is truly live, I'd expect it not to be interrupted with updates from other venues or in tonight's coverage, go from a supposedly live gymnastics competition to a swimming final and skip a whole turn. Seriously, it's as if NBC is thinking the viewers are all stupid and need to be force fed some patriotism and USA pride. I just want to watch events...

Which really gets frustrated when you have dozens of sports that rely on judging to determine results. I can respect most sports that have a clear cut winner because somebody scored more points, threw the object farther, jumped higher, ran faster or whatever. But to watch something where most participants do the same things and then have someone that is an expert determine who is better at spinning or tumbling or diving without really giving me, the viewer, any sense why one is better than another is dumb. A sport that needs to be judged is a sport that will create drama even if there's the smallest concern that something isn't right or there's inconsistencies in scores. When you rely on someone's perception to determine a winner, you run the risk of inconsistency and bias almost every time. Yet sports like baseball and softball aren't Olympic sports after this competition because they don't represent Olympic ideals. Yet tumbling and synchronized diving, gymnastics and boxing are, even with reports of judging issues in many past Olympics.

I can't take credit for the last point, it was discussed on the Morning Sports Page on 95.5 the Game during their morning show. I like the new format, and Gavin Dawson is a fresh approach to the sports game. He's a guy's guy but he also add some thoughtful comments and sensitivity to certain topics, plus he's a footy guy so that is a plus in my book. But seriously, guys, the problem with the previous morning show was that they talked Trail Blazers all the time, and I'm fearing this new version is risking the same issue. I love my NBA team, but I don't need to hear about every little move they make. I understand we are in a one major sport town, but there are lots of other things to talk about from the world of sports that are interesting. The talk didn't stop me from buying a quarter season ticket package for the Trail Blazers for me and girl, though, as I do need to see what all the fuss is about with this team.

After the Timbers match this weekend which I'll talk about a bit on Thursday/Friday in a preview as we face Montreal and then some afterwards, I'm going to get a new sporting experience. The LPGA Safeway Classic is next week at Columbia Edgewater, and I'm actually volunteering to caddy during the Pro-Am tournament on Monday. The proceeds for my volunteer work go towards Trillium Family Services, and at the very least, I will pick up some pointers for my golf game and spend some time outdoors. I will admit I don't watch golf on television because I find it extremely boring, yet I'll go out and swing the sticks anytime. Golf is a participation sport in my opinion, and watching it on television just doesn't have the same appeal for me as being there in person. Who knows, maybe I'll meet some famous golfers.

That's it for now, talk to you all later this week.