Bucks v Cleveland, Is it me?
OK, let's get the black socks rant right out of the way. Black socks Cleveland came to Milwaukee tonight, and they all looked terrible in those socks, but No 11, Zydrunas Ilgauskas was the worst. (He did quite a bit of damage to the Bucks, too, but that's later in this post). I know you're from Lithuania and all, but no, you are not going to convince me that your skinny white legs poking into those awful black socks is some hip and worldly Euro-fab look. This isn't a race thing, but if the black socks don't look good generally, they look especially bad on spindly, pale white calves. Coupled with his receding hairline, he's well on his way to the grampa-getting-ready-to-cut-the-grass look. But he's not old enough, so let's just call him an attorney on his lunch hour who doesn't have time to do a full footwear change, and needs to slip quickly back into his Allen-Edmondses before he heads from the court to the courthouse.
Anthem tonight from the Greendale High School band, who predictably played it perfectly straight. Word to my fellow clarinetists: always tune up right before playing, instead of more than 15 minutes before. Woodwinds have a tendency to go out of tune easily with humidity and temperature changes, and its enough of a change from the dark tunnel to the bright lights at mid-court that your failure to tune one last time came through loud and clear. You can get away with this outdoors on a football field, you cannot in the acoustic nightmare that is any indoor sports stadium. I learned this in basketball band in my high school. (Thank you Mr. Kocman for making us tune every time out.) "We tune because we care" is a good slogan to live by.
Bango the Mascot is still sporting a busted-up arm. This manifests itself most terribly during the normally clever Applebee's promotion. The jist is that you see Bango on the Jumbotron, picking up an order from Applebee's, then a video montage of him scurrying through the streets of Milwaukee on a Segway, through the stage doors, then through the tunnel, and then -- voila! -- here he is, delivering fresh hot Applebee's food to some lucky fan. Problem is, I can handle that he picks up the order in broad daylight, and its already night at the Bradley Center. I can let slide that the construction zone he zooms through is all done, and they've repaird that bridge and just this week are taking down the Wisconsin Avenue bridge over I-43. But throughtout the video montage, he's wearing a white (home) uniform and his arm is in perfect shape. Then he comes in, wearing a purple (away) uniform and his arm's all in a sling. This totally ruins the effect. C'mon Bango. C'mon Applebee's -- we can only suspend our disbelief so far.
And tonight apparently was Packers night at the Bradley Center. Ahman Green was sitting 10 rows or so behind us, while other Packers (I couldn't tell you who they were, my husband could, but this is MY blog, not his) were sitting courtside. Green was wearing a Bucks jersey, but with his name and Packer number on it. He was friendly and gracious to all around. Fox Sports Net chose to interview him, but geez, the guy's team had a crap season, and he just wants to chill out and watch some hoops from a nice, not at all ostentatious spot, and FSN has to call even more attention to him. Oh, and the huge Super Bowl T-shirt the FSN cameraman chose to wear while doing this was an especially salt-in-the-wound tacky touch.
I write all this to divert from the fact that tonight Brian and I witnessed yet another frustrating loss. Bucks come out strong in the 1st quarter, almost making me wonder if this was going to be a boring blowout. They're leading at halftime, with only one brief moment when Cleveland leads. They're leading by 5 into the 4th. And then they just run out of gas. They do this a lot, or at least a lot of times I see them. They come out like gangbusters, and then, poof, they're gone. But maybe it's just me. Maybe Brian and I are being punished karmically for leaving early the one time they come back with a miracle comeback win. Or maybe they need to actually start wearing some black socks.
Anthem tonight from the Greendale High School band, who predictably played it perfectly straight. Word to my fellow clarinetists: always tune up right before playing, instead of more than 15 minutes before. Woodwinds have a tendency to go out of tune easily with humidity and temperature changes, and its enough of a change from the dark tunnel to the bright lights at mid-court that your failure to tune one last time came through loud and clear. You can get away with this outdoors on a football field, you cannot in the acoustic nightmare that is any indoor sports stadium. I learned this in basketball band in my high school. (Thank you Mr. Kocman for making us tune every time out.) "We tune because we care" is a good slogan to live by.
Bango the Mascot is still sporting a busted-up arm. This manifests itself most terribly during the normally clever Applebee's promotion. The jist is that you see Bango on the Jumbotron, picking up an order from Applebee's, then a video montage of him scurrying through the streets of Milwaukee on a Segway, through the stage doors, then through the tunnel, and then -- voila! -- here he is, delivering fresh hot Applebee's food to some lucky fan. Problem is, I can handle that he picks up the order in broad daylight, and its already night at the Bradley Center. I can let slide that the construction zone he zooms through is all done, and they've repaird that bridge and just this week are taking down the Wisconsin Avenue bridge over I-43. But throughtout the video montage, he's wearing a white (home) uniform and his arm is in perfect shape. Then he comes in, wearing a purple (away) uniform and his arm's all in a sling. This totally ruins the effect. C'mon Bango. C'mon Applebee's -- we can only suspend our disbelief so far.
And tonight apparently was Packers night at the Bradley Center. Ahman Green was sitting 10 rows or so behind us, while other Packers (I couldn't tell you who they were, my husband could, but this is MY blog, not his) were sitting courtside. Green was wearing a Bucks jersey, but with his name and Packer number on it. He was friendly and gracious to all around. Fox Sports Net chose to interview him, but geez, the guy's team had a crap season, and he just wants to chill out and watch some hoops from a nice, not at all ostentatious spot, and FSN has to call even more attention to him. Oh, and the huge Super Bowl T-shirt the FSN cameraman chose to wear while doing this was an especially salt-in-the-wound tacky touch.
I write all this to divert from the fact that tonight Brian and I witnessed yet another frustrating loss. Bucks come out strong in the 1st quarter, almost making me wonder if this was going to be a boring blowout. They're leading at halftime, with only one brief moment when Cleveland leads. They're leading by 5 into the 4th. And then they just run out of gas. They do this a lot, or at least a lot of times I see them. They come out like gangbusters, and then, poof, they're gone. But maybe it's just me. Maybe Brian and I are being punished karmically for leaving early the one time they come back with a miracle comeback win. Or maybe they need to actually start wearing some black socks.
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