Benghazi Apathy

I'm not sure what is more meaningful - the testimony made in this grilling, or the the fact that nobody cares about it.  

What in the world happened to our media?

Basketball Baby Video

Something tells me we've not seen the last of young Titus here...

Shinedown, Three Days Grace, and P.O.D. Concert Review for Green Bay

Green Bay rock fans were treated to a fantastic triple bill of rock last night, as P.O.D, Three Days Grace, and Shinedown rocked the Resch Center.  Unfortunately, for a nice bill, Green Bay failed to show their support.  The Resch Center was maybe at 50% capacity.  That's likely why our town gets bypassed for so many tours, and it is a real shame.

However, for those that came out, they were treated to a great night of music:

P.O.D

Unfortunately, the band was beset by some really bad mixing, as the drums in general, and the bass drum in particular, were way too amplified.  It washed out the sound of the rest of the band, and while it felt cool to have the drum physically shake through your body, it was way too much.  Despite that, lead singer Sonny Sandoval worked his butt off to get the crowd warmed up.  He climbed onto the railing in front of the stage to sing "Is that all you got?  I'll take your best shot" on "Boom" - the second song of the set.  The crowd did warm, but it took a lot of hard work from Sandoval.  Other highlights from their set were a very nice "Higher," an equally nice "Southdown," and a great sing along moment with "Alive"

Three Days Grace

Rockers Three Days Grace kicked off the middle of the show with a flash, as flame canisters got everyone's attention.  One could actually feel the heat from them when they were deployed.  New singer Matt Walst did a great job covering front man Adam Gontier as the latter recently retired from the band.  The guys didn't appear to miss a step, and Walst was impressive.

Also impressive was the guitar work of Barry Stock, who made lots of equipment changes, but played all of them extremely well.  Overall the band was tight, appeared to be having fun, and put on a great show.

Highlights include a great sing along with "Just Like You," an in-your-face "Chalk Outline," more audience participation with "Pain," the requisite "I Hate Everything About You," and a rocking closer of "Riot."  

Great show by a very strong band.  Well done.

Shinedown

The band executed the surprise of the night, as their set kicked off with drummer Barry Kerch taking the stage and starting to play.  Unbeknownst to the crowd on the floor, the rest of the band had made their way to the sound area and began "Enemies" from there.  It took about 45 seconds for the crowd on the floor to figure out where the band was - as you can see from my picture, even folks standing right there had no idea that the band was right on top of them.

Lead singer Brent Smith was a great front man, and was well complimented on vocals with Zach Meyers on guitar and an occuponymous Eric Bass on bass.  The band was nice and tight, and gave a very strong performance.  Kudos to Kerch on the drum work which was outstanding through the performance.  

Highlights included "Unity," "If You Only Knew," and a rocking "Bully" to close the night.

Overall, it was great night of rock in Green Bay.  It is too bad there weren't more people out there to enjoy it.

North Dakota Oil Fields As Seen from Space

Robert Krulwich has a fascinating blog post on massive amount of oil work currently going on in North Dakota.  So much, in fact, that it is clearly visible from outer space.

It very much is becoming the "Kuwait of the prairie..."

An Open Letter to Those Taking Joy in Chris Kyle's Death

This man is Chris Kyle.  He was the most lethal sniper in US military history, with 160 confirmed enemy kills to his credit.  He was so deadly that Iraqi insurgents knew of him, and even named him - The Devil of Ramadi.  He was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals.

After his return from the war, Kyle started a non-profit to help returning vets assimilate back into civilian life.  In that capacity he took a troubled PTSD vet to a shooting range.  That vet turned the gun on Chris and ended his life.

A story of the killing can be found here.  

Immediately portions of the blogosphere and left-leaning sites erupted with outright glee at this murder.  Posters over at Huffington Post had a field day tying this murder to the gun debate, and trying to out-droll each other.  I won't link to their pages because they're repugnant.  If you wish to see that garbage for yourself, go look, but I'll recap some of the main memes:

• He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword
• What irony
• This is karma

I'd like to respond to each of these.

• Indeed, those that live by the sword do die by the sword.  And those that live by their blind ideology to the point of celebrating a hero's death to make political point and garner comment room "cred" are pigs.
• Ironic.  Want to know what is ironic?  Ironic is typing in "LOL" and "#irony" in your Twitter feed, safe in the comfort of the 1st Amendment, about a murdered soldier - a man who was sworn to uphold and protect the constitution.  That is freaking irony, pal.
• If there is a concept of payback delivered by the universe, one can only hope that it has very special plans for those that laugh at and ridicule a dead hero.  That'd be a cold dish of karma I'd really like to see delivered.

A closing thought: If you're using the horrible murder of a hero to entertain your friends and move your political agenda forward, maybe, just maybe you're on the wrong side.  

We used to respect and honor our fallen soldiers.  Cheering and laughing about their death simply clarifies how absolutely polluted people have become. 

2013 Super Bowl Commercials - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Last night's Super Bowl was an entertaining match, both on the field and in the competitive landscape of advertising.  At nearly $4MM per 30 second spot, the stakes were high.  Here's my recap of who spent that money well, and who didn't:

The Good
Hyundai - Passing: Hyundai spent a ton this Super Bowl, and while their ads were just OK, this one in particular was both entertaining as well as strong on the feature of the product being advertised.  Nice work.

Time Warner Cable - Walking Dead: Likely a regional buy, TWC knocks it out of the park.  The commercial features a popular character from the series, and fans of The Walking Dead had to love it.  Very well done.

Skechers - Man vs. Cheetah: Animals are always a good attention-getter in commercials, and the FX in this ad are done very well.  Entertaining, and on brand.

Volkswagen - Get Happy:  I think this was the best ad of the whole Super Bowl.  Completely aligned with the brand, VW gets their message across wonderfully.  But since I've already discussed this previously...

Audi - Prom: It takes a while to build to the literal punch line, but when it gets there it is totally on brand.  Not a universal ad, but Audi is not a universal brand.  For their target market, this ad will resonate.  Outstanding.

The Bad
M&Ms - Anything for Love: The women eating the M&M just makes it kind of creepy.  This is the best they could do?  Poor execution, and not going to sell any incremental candy.

Blackberry - Zed Ten: My job requires me to be up to speed on the latest technology, and even I didn't get this commercial.  Not at all.  I don't understand who their target market was, nor do I understand their message.  $4MM right down the toilet.

Beck's Sapphire - Fish: Evidently, "black" beer is all the rage right now as Bud launched their offering via a Super Bowl ad as well.  Makes me think about such moves as "dry" and "clear" beer.  Ah, the memories.  Alas, I have no idea what the heck the fish is doing, or what it is supposed to represent.  

Coke - Desert Race: The folks at Coke are usually advertising geniuses.  However, this year's campaign was horrible.  Off brand, not entertaining, and a totally forced social media attempt align to make this 2013's most ineffective campaign ever.

The Ugly
Taco Bell - Old Peoples' Night Out: I didn't find this cute, or funny, or on brand.  It was kind of creepy, and I still miss the point.  This is going to sell more fast food?  I don't think so

Go Daddy - Nerd Kiss: I don't want to see any close ups of open mouth kissing, regardless of who is doing it.  I get that this probably is a home run for their target market, and I appreciate that they've finally graduated from using faux lesbian scenes after relying on them for nearly a decade, but this ad was just really too much.

Cris Carter - Best Offensive Player Ever for Vikings?

It was a great day to be a Vikings fan yesterday as Adrian Peterson won the league MVP and Cris Carter was voted into the NFL Hall of Fame.  Both were richly deserved for these incredible players.

While I do not want to overlook AP's stunning season - coming back better than ever from what could have been a career ending injury to fall a couple yards short of the NFL single-season rushing record - I really want to focus on Carter.  His unjustified six-year wait to get to the HOF demands it.

Consider the following records:

• All time NFL receptions - 4th overall
• Receiving TDs - 4th overall
• Total TDs - 8th overall
• Career receiving yards - 9th overall
• Most TDs of 7 yards or less (as well as most TDs for 6, 5, 4, 2, and 1 yard), thus proving his incredible value in the red zone.

And he did all of this with the following QB crew over a 12 year career:

• Wade Wilson
• Rich Gannon
• Sean Salisberry
• Jim McMahon
• Warren Moon
• Brad Johnson
• Randall Cunningham
• Daunte Culpepper
• Spergon Wynn

Of these guys, only Moon, who played with the Vikings at the end of his storied career, was of HOF talent.  Hence, it was Carter, not the guy throwing the ball to him, that is responsible for those gaudy career numbers. 

So what does that make him?  For my money, he's the best offensive player the Vikings ever had.  I know great cases can be made for Tarkenton and Peterson, but Tarkington had a much better cast of characters around him (especially the defense), and Peterson is not finished and may very well be one of the best running backs to play the game.  But if there is one guy that I could go back and watch play in his prime, it would be CC.

There are two things I'll always remember about Carter.  The first is how unstoppable he was in the red zone.  He could either make an acrobatic catch on the fade, out-jump the defender in the back of the end zone, or burn the cornerback on an up-and-out after going in motion.  One never knew what he was going to do, only that he'll likely find a way to create separation and  make a spectacular catch.

The second thing that struck me was his humility.  I remember having dinner at a chain steak house that my Dad had recently brought public (Minnesota Steakhouse, later named Timber Lodge Steakhouse) in Eden Prairie and getting seated next to a table where Cris Carter was having dinner with his wife.  This was at the height of Cater's career, and yet here he sat in the middle of a "B" list restaurant, not tucked into some private corner, eating and acting like any other patron.  And while people clearly recognized him, nobody bothered him because he and his wife acted just like anyone else.  It ran counter to nearly every pro-athlete encounter I've had before or since.

I'll close with a video recap of some of his amazing career:

Volkswagen's Racist Super Bowl Ad

The hottest thing on the web right now is a small but vocal minority of people that are claiming that the following ad from Volkswagen, slated for a Super Bowl appearance, is racist:




A couple of thoughts:

• Racist?  Ummm.  White people are shown as unhappy and a guy that talks with a Jamaican accent is happy.  It might be racist after all.  Against white people.
• I LOVE the Minnesota part!  "Da Gopha state!"
• If one takes a look at the comments on YouTube, you'd find that not only do Jamaicans not object to the ad, that they actually enjoy and are proud of it.    

The bottom line is that every legitimate "racist" claim gets done a disservice with over-sensitive claims like this.  Are we really that uptight that we can't enjoy our differences?  I thought we were supposed to celebrate diversity.  Maybe that only applies to non-white people.

I think the uproar proves that Volkswagen was right all along: maybe we should all take our overly uptight butts out for a ride in a fine German engineered vehicle and "turn da frown de utha way aroun."

Ya mon.