Burning down the....Jesus?

I became famous! If by famous I mean I live 3 minutes up the road of something that became a national story. It is quite rare to live by a national icon, I imagine I know what its like now to live by the Eiffel Tower, Seattle Tower, Sears Tower, so on....towers are popular icons. The picture helps with some size reference, it was 62 ft high and oddly proportioned.

The giant Jesus statue, also known as Touchdown Jesus or Big Butter Jesus, was hit by a bolt of lightening and burned down. The statue was not made of stone, which I assumed, but foam and fiberglass. There is honestly nothing left of it but the steel frame underneath it.

Here's the video!

I enjoy the girl's incredibly deadpan voice, she sounds like Becky from Roseanne. I also get the impression she is probably one of those atheist people, as no Southern Ohio Christian girl would be that calm as Jesus burns in front of her.

And pretty much every major new source and website carried the story, I saw it on Drudge, Towleroad, Yahoo News, the Guardian, Fox News, and so on and on. See, and that all happened 3 minutes from my house.

So people might be wondering why I am not even more famous by taking a video of it and having my deadpan voice narrate the end of an iconic sculpture. I was sleeping, I slept through the entire thing.

And if you think this the end of the statue, you under estimate the money raising power of a mega-church. The Bishops, the couple that runs the church, have already begun to work on rebuilding it. I guess there are some true recession proof jobs...

The Best Weekend? part 1

So this came up yesterday when someone started chatting me up on Facebook, which is a feature I find to be annoying.

Him: Hey there, what are you doing this weekend? (This guy friended through mutual friends, so I don't know him that well)

Me: Oh I'm going to Columbus

Him: Oh what are you doing? (Though he probably knew what I was doing given where this conversation goes.)

Me: Going to Pride with some friends

Him: Oh thats like the best weekend

I kinda wanted to commit a hate crime, though since we are both gay it will just be a normal crime. I don't find Pride weekend to be the "best weekend" but I guess for some people it probably is. You have a sudden influx of hopefully attractive guys, a re-appearance of a once popular female singer from the 70's,80's, or 90's, and get to take in a parade. You also can dress like a slut in public and call it protest...or remembrance or something.

Not that I am one of these, "Oh Pride is awful and stupid." It has a point and it is usually a fun weekend. I just don't consider it the "best weekend."

The best weekend to me is the first weekend when you have college football on Saturday and then NFL on Sunday. I pretty much have my weekends set and I always at least have something to do, watch football. It usually ends up being a long weekend when you start getting college games on Thursday Night and NFL on Monday night.

This weekend is the second weekend of September, which is the second week of the College football season and the first week of the NFL.

I use a part 1 since I will do a post about Columbus after I get back, I can at least see where it rates.

Texas saves the Big 12...or something

So it was just a few days ago, I and most of the sports world were pronouncing the death of the Big 12. The conference has sent a team to the BSC championship game almost every year. In this year's Draft, the first four picks were all from the Big 12. But as Colorado and Nebraska left for greener pasture, it seemed that the end was upon the conference. Then all of the sudden, the Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe came up with a plan to keep the conference together. He went right to Texas and basically offered UT what it wanted, more money. A new Big 12 (or whatever it is going to be) tv network contract will be drawn up and Texas will also be able to pursue the creation of the Longhorn Network.

I will give massive credit and lots of respect to Dan Beebe. The Big 12 was on the verge of dying just yesterday and he manages to save his conference. After seemingly outplayed by the Pac-10 and Big Ten, he managed to hold it together. He knew what to do in the end, he had to give Texas more money. For all the talking about wanting to be apart of higher academic standards and research institutions of the Pac-10, Texas really was happy with just getting more money.

So what could this possibly mean for the future?

The Big 12 might as well call itself the Longhorn Conference or the Big Texas Conference, cause its obvious that there is only one star in the conference, the Lone Star. Hook'm Horns!

The Big 12 is now at 10, and will have to add at least two teams to have a championship game. I'm not really sure who they would add, since coming in sort of means you agree to play second banana to Texas. Arkansas used to play with Texas and other schools when the SWC existed, and its a regionally good fit. The problem is Arkansas is in the SEC and it seems unlikely a school would want to leave that conference. Utah is possible but it might be courted by the Pac-10.

Pac-10, who looked the winner at the start of this, comes off not looking so good with just picking off Colorado. They do gain the Denver market but Colorado is not a national player in really any sport. If they can't add Utah or some high level school to bump them up into 12 schools, it seems like more of a bust than an achievement.

And unless something else happens, we all look kind of stupid for suddenly proclaiming the end of little conferences and the beginning of mega-conferences. As much as mega-conferences seem like the future, but it might not be in the best interest of each college. As long as some schools, like Texas and Notre Dame, can make far more money and leverage power on their own, they have no need for mega-conferences.

Kind sucks it all ended so anti-climatically.

A professional source.

Tired of Being Bored

Really tired of always feeling bored...

This is obviously a problem of my own making and there is something I could do about it, but I just find meaningless ways to keep occupied. I watch tv or reload the same web pages, but none of it makes me feel better. I just get kinda anxious and somewhat depressed.

I should have done something at the gym while it was open, or actually do some kind of real cleaning. I want too but I just have this weird feeling of malaise hanging over my body.

I should write something at least, blog post or some fiction. I just get this self defeated feeling about writing anymore, at least when it comes to fiction.

This was pointless, still bored.

And it has begun, Conference Realignment!

Well when I talked about it before, Conference Realignment in sports seemed to be something that would be a slow, evolving process that would take some years. The Big Ten was the first to speak about it openly and it seemed like they would make the first moves in expanding out. The Big East or the ACC seemed to the be the most likely conference that would be raided and then fall apart. How things change in a few months.

Today, Colorado has announced it will leave the Big 12 and go to the Pac-10. It might not be the only announcement we get either, as Nebraska is poised to also leave the Big 12 and head over to the Big Ten conference. The Pac-10 has become extremely aggressive in recent weeks and has also made a play for the six major schools in the Big 12, including Texas and Oklahoma. This could end up creating a "mega-conference" which would turn the west and south west into basically a huge Pac-10 market. It would arguably put it on the top of the conference standing as it would have; USC, Texas, Oklahoma, who have all either won or be in the BSC championship game each year in recent history.

Like I stated earlier, I honestly didn't think the Big 12 would become the conference that would be raided. They had two powerhouse teams in Texas and Oklahoma, which would have anchored it into the college world. Now the Big 12 could survive but it would only happen if it could hold on to either Texas or Oklahoma. And there is no guarantee that the Pac-10 will woo those schools in, I can't see the SEC sitting back any longer. Everyone wants Texas, Go Longhorns!

The political aspect of this is fascinating, because college sports is huge business and has lots of social influence. Governor Perry is apparently trying to broker a deal that will make sure that wherever Texas goes, A&M and Tech will also go to the same conference. The Governor of Missouri was, or still is, trying to sell Missouri to the Big Ten Conference. With so much money at play, no one wants to miss out.

Notre Dame still holding out....come to the Big Ten...

Fall of Troy

Well the mighty walls of the college power came tumbling down today, the NCAA sanctions against USC finally came out. It doesn't look good for a program that was definitely on a decline this year and Carroll hasty exit to the NFL. And with the looming possibility of a Pac-10 super conference that includes Texas and Oklahoma, it looks like it might be the end of its domination of the west coast.

The major sanctions that came out were a 2 year ban on post season play, so no bowl games. They will mostly be playing spoiler for schools I guess, they have nothing to lose which might make them a more dangerous team. Kiffin still has to have a high win to lose ratio, but I'm not sure people can expect for him to keep his team motivated since there is nothing for them at the end of the season road.

They will also have scholarship reduction and recruiting limitations put on the program, so you basically inflicting a talent drain on the program. Considering how competitive it will be now that you are in a conference, possibly anyway, with Texas and Oklahoma; seems like USC's future continues to become dim. Kiffin, if he can whether the next couple of years and its not like any of this is his fault, will have quite a challenge on his hands to rebuild the program. He did a great job of making Tennessee better and he has the personality to do it, but it will be daunting. They will no longer be the big fish in a conference but possible a second tier school with Texas looming over all.

Music: Alejandro by Lady Gaga

I swear I will start posting something other than music videos, this just allows me to be lazy. I promise I won't be lazy anymore, just real life work has taken up my time.

So we have the latest "music video", though really the label should be more like art film, from Lady GaGa. And its getting mixed responses, I think everyone agrees its a great video but is it GaGa Great? The last video she did, Telephone, was basically an over the top film that borrowed several influences from 70's exploitation films and everyone seems to have loved it. Alejandro borrows several elements from Madonna and people seem to be less than enthused. The video doesn't have an obvious storyline and its cold, Gothic, wintry setting doesn't fit the sunny, europop sound of the song.

We basically have a stupid controversy about whether this means GaGa is over, yea cause the video has only been out tow days and has over 8 million views cause she is over. The song itself, which most people didn't think was one of the strongest on the album, is a top ten hit and probably push up to top five due to the video. Its incredibly stupid to talk about, media needs a new storyline about her so why not push this idea of her faltering.

Anyway, so back to the video itself. I love it, I've watched it dozens of times because something about it just works for me. The imagery is stunning: militarism, catholicism, homo-eroticism, 30's Germany, 90's Herb Ritts, its quite a package. I like the choreography of the video better than some of her past videos. Yes, it has some very 90's Madonna moments. The one part that really stands out to me is the catwalk/vogue scene that happens at about 5:30 of the video. I really think its awesome with Gaga and soliders doing some rather incredible model stepping.

I think it might actually speak more to the influence of Klein than Madonna, that Madonna had a lot less to do with the look of Vogue, Express Yourself, etc. Klein was the dominant influence and she just went a long. Klein definitely repeats his themes with Gaga, though they definitely edgier and darker in Alejandro.

The video's message, or one of them, is that gay relationships are strong, honorable and powerful like that of a military unit. Thats refreshing to see, since we are often portrayed as weak or effeminate.

I am just more sorry that this video might be remembered as a Madonna knock off when its actually something much more.