A Completely Logical College Sports Business Blog and Random Thoughts on Chicago, the Illini and the World
For most Chicagoans, this Van Halen song conjures up images of Harry Caray pounding cans of Budweiser during the 1984 Cubs run to the playoffs. (Remember this commercial? Van Halen spelled backwards is Nelah Nav.) After being reacquainted with this video, however, it’s going to be hard to get rid of the thought of David Lee Roth gazing into my eyes with his pink tank-top or whatever the hell he was wearing. Enjoy!
(This and a ton of other clips are on the Frank the Tank Channel on YouTube.)
This week’s classic music video is fitting considering that Terrell Owens’ publicist looks like she had an allergic reaction to the crack rock. In the meantime, to this day, I’m still perplexed as to how The Dogs don’t have the same notoriety with my generation as other flash in the pan rap luminaries such as Vanilla Ice, M.C. Hammer, and Sir-Mix-a-Lot. That needs to change starting today.
(This and a ton of other clips are on the Frank the Tank Channel on YouTube.)
Once upon a time, a major rock group could play air guitar, air drum, air bass, and air keyboard in a music video and be completely serious about it. That era ended about a week after the premiere of this video. In the meantime, considering the Steve Perry connection, I think this is the perfect theme song for the now-dead 2006 Chicago White Sox.
(This and a ton of other clips are on the Frank the Tank Channel on YouTube.)
Today is the start of a new feature called Frank the Tank’s Classic Music Video of the Week. As the title suggests, I’ll be regularly posting a nostalgic blast from the past to get your music jones on (with a heavy emphasis on old school hip-hop and ’80s monster arena rock).
For this week’s offering, it’s a song with lyrics that most people of my generation know better than the words to the Star Spangled Banner. However, I completely forgot how ridiculous (read: awesome) Sir Mix-a-Lot’s accompanying video was with the “booty stage” and subliminal messages. I couldn’t think of any song better suited to kick this new feature off.
(This and a ton of other clips are on the Frank the Tank Channel on YouTube.)
How can we explain what’s been happening with the White Sox this season? Even though we currently have the third-best record in baseball with the AL Wild Card lead and are coming off a spectacular extra-inning win against the Yankees, there’s an ominous feeling on the South Side of Chicago these days that the Sox are going to fall down hard. There are the obvious changes from last season, from the weaknesses of the starting rotation in general to our recurring Mark Buerhle problem, where our ace from up until a couple months ago appears to have now caught Steve Blass Disease. At the same time, the departure of clubhouse leaders Aaron Rowand and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez might have put a dent into team chemistry.
However, there’s one mega-difference from 2005 that I haven’t heard anyone speak of yet: the absence of the great Steve Perry. There’s nothing unusual about celebrity fans, ranging from Jennifer Garner and her no talent assclown husband with the Red Sox to that kid from “Malcom in the Middle” with the Clippers. What made the Steve Perry situation unique, though, was that he was the equivalent of a trade deadline rent-a-player for the stretch run of the season. Here was a guy that had absolutely no connection to Chicago other than playing a few Journey shows at the Rosemont Horizon back in the ’80s (although bandmate Jonathan Cain is a Chicago native) that ended up being the ultimate bandwagon fan after the White Sox adopted “Don’t Stop Believing” as their theme song. Perry rode this resuscitation of his career to the point where he ended up celebrating with the team in the locker room after clinching their first World Series championship since 1917 along with being a prominent part of the subsequent ticket tape parade.
The average diehard Sox fan, including myself, found all of this particularly disjarring at the time. In fact, we prided ourselves on not being the bandwagon celebrity draw that the Cubs have always been, so it was incredulous to see an aging rock star with no previous association with the City of Chicago, much less the White Sox team, somehow become vaulted to the position of a top Sox fan within the span of a couple of months. Now, however, I recognize that Sox having Steve Perry in the late-summer and fall of 2005 was the equivalent of the Astros grabbing Randy Johnson at the trade deadline in 1998 – the last piece that pushed a team on the cusp of greatness over the top and into the postseason.
I’m not saying that we need the return of Steve Perry for the next few months (although “Any Way You Want It” is a great song while playing golf or for any wedding or bar mitzvah celebration), but there’s certainly a void in the theme song and rent-a-celeb category this season. I’ll take any nominees on this site to fill this crucial spot, with a preference toward lead singers of late-’70s or early-’80s arena rock bands (unless the nominee is the divine intervention named Flavor Flav, who would be an automatic winner). Any way you want it, that’s the way you need it…
(Image from Wikipedia)
Some random thoughts for your Final Four weekend:
1) Bucky Survives and Advances – Forget about Presidential elections. What terrifies me about the voting patterns of the Red States is that Bucky Covington could very well be our next American Idol. If you've watched this season at all and have any discernible taste in music (or just an appreciation of proper intonation), you know exactly what I'm talking about. Not only did he not finish in the bottom 3 this week, but next week everyone has to sing country songs (looks like I'll be just tuning in for the results show), which plays right into Bucky's Southern Strategy. We can't let this happen. Vote or die, people!
2) The Pink Line – I seriously thought the Chicago Tribune was pulling an early April Fool's joke on us with this morning's front page article. Unfortunately, every time I set the bar lower for the CTA, they manage to limbo right under there.
3) Kelvin Sampson Hired at IU – The only thing more surprising than the announcement of Sampson's hiring at Indiana is the tepid response of Hoosier fans. As I said before, IU fans were expecting Coach K to drop everything, move to Bloomington, and bring along Phil Jackson and Pat Riley as his assistants. Notwithstanding the ignorance of its fan base, I believe that Indiana made a great hire and he was certainly as close to the top of the coaching mountain as the school could reasonably attain.
Take this from an Illini guy who was hoping that IU would screw up and bow to nepotistic pressure to hire within the “Indiana Family” a la Steve Alford (or the gold standard of Isiah Thomas): anyone that argues that Indiana should have hired Alford over Sampson is insane. Sampson has proven he can win lots of games and recruit great talent at the basketball backwaters of Pullman and Norman. It's interesting to note that the Hoosier fans that are most critical of the baggage regarding Sampson's calls to recruits are pretty much the same people that vehemently defended a coach that choked his players. Seems just a little bit hypocritical for them to pull out the "integrity" card, no?
All in all, Kelvin Sampson is a great fit for Indiana and is going to provide some tough competition on the floor and on the recruiting trails in the Big Ten. Indiana fans ought to thank their lucky stars they got this good of a coach.
4) Final Four Predictions – I'm not betting against George Mason anymore – I'm a believer. So, I'm going with George Mason over Florida and UCLA over LSU in the semifinals.
Have a great weekend!
A few quick thoughts on my first-ever Rolling Stones concert at the United Center last night:
1) Mick Jagger has an insane amount of energy for any rock star at any age, much less someone who’s 62 years old. I’ve seen a good number of bands and I’d be hardpressed to think of anyone who ran around stage and put as much into a performance as Mick. This is all from a guy who once said he’d rather be dead than still be playing “Satisfaction” at age 45.
2) The Chicago indoor smoking ban does not apply to Keith Richards.
3) While most of the show was accompanied by a dazzling light and video display on a huge stage, my favorite part was when a portion of the stage actually moved out to the center of the arena for several songs. All of the background displays were then turned off at that time so it was just purely the band playing on a tiny stage surrounded by fans on all sides. It was a great effect since it almost felt like I was watching them in a small club for those songs rather than a large sports stadium.
4) Whatever you may think of the Stones’ songs, they are certainly spectacular entertainers. Even my wife, who isn’t a big Rolling Stones fan, thought the show was awesome. All in all, it was an incredible experience.
Meanwhile, there’s a lot of sports to talk about – I’ll be back soon.
“Pro wrestler-turned-yoga guru” Diamond Dallas Page is suing Jay-Z for trademark and copyright infringement over the use of the “Diamond Cutter” hand symbol. This is the type of story, sent to me last week by my buddy Matt, that made me want to become a lawyer.
After discussing this case with my boss (a real productive use of time), this is probably not going to end well for the world’s foremost pro wrestler/yoga guru, but it’s not as crazy of a case as it looks at face value.
Regarding the copyright infringement allegation, artistic expressions are one of the main areas that the Copyright Act intends to protect. I know what you’re thinking… how can a hand gesture be an artistic expression? Well, think of it this way – at Juilliard, the world’s preeminent fine arts school, students can study music, drama, and, most importantly for the purposes of this case, dance. It is well established that a choreographed work, which at its core is body movement, is artistic expression and copyrightable as long as it is in a tangible medium (i.e. a live performance is recorded on tape). As a result, it’s not too far of a stretch that a hand gesture might fall under this category.
However, it may be difficult to show that a short hand gesture meets the copyright requirement of being the “fruits of intellectual labor” because of its brevity. For instance, short phrases or dance moves are not copyrightable. A hand gesture might be too short in its execution for anyone to be able to claim a copyright.
The problem for Diamond Dallas Page is that the copyright infringement allegation is probably the stronger of the two claims. The brevity of the hand gesture doesn’t matter in a trademark infringement claim, but proving confusion is an essential element.
From the article, it looks like Diamond Dallas is basing his trademark infringement argument on that the public is being confused as to the source of the Diamond Cutter – Diamond Dallas’ attorney claims that people are starting believe that the pro wrestler/yoga guru borrowed it from Jay-Z instead of the other way around. However, this really isn’t the intent of the confusion test. Instead, a court would probably focus on whether Jay-Z is trying to confuse the public by using the Diamond Cutter in order to pass himself off as Diamond Dallas or benefit from the association economically with Diamond Dallas. Based on the minimal facts that are in the article, both of those scenarios would be extremely hard for the pro wrestler/yoga guru to prove.
P.S. If this goes to trial, could you imagine the showdown between Diamond Dallas’ entourage and Jay-Z’s posse in the courtroom? Court TV needs to show every moment of this trial.
P.P.S. On another Jay-Z note from Matt, I’ll be looking for my 2003 Mitchell & Ness Jay-Z retirement jersey under the tree next week. This will go right next to my 1998 Michael Jordan and 2003 Roger Clemens jerseys.
FRANK THE TANK'S SLANT 