Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
Wild At Heart
This weekend was a good and bad day for upstate NY. On Saturday I watched one of the best basketball games as my #2 Syracuse Orangemen beat my #1 Duke Blue Devils in front a capacity crowd. I wish I could have been at that game but it just didn't work out. Then we had 2 area deaths with the great Philip Seymour Hoffman who grew up in Fairport where my aunt and uncle live. He was one of the best actors in Hollywood with wonderful performances in "Punch-Drunk Love", "Boogie Nights", "Magnolia", "Doubt", "Almost Famous" and "Capote". He was one of the few actors that could get me to see a film based on talent alone. He had a great knack for playing characters that were slightly annoying, tarnished and unlikeable and making you want to root for them. He seemed like such a laid back awesome guy that it is a shame that heroine did him in. This was soon after golfer Daniel Downey, who graduated from my high school, died in a car accident in Alabama. Then things looked up again, as Rene Fleming, sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl. She went to school in Churchville-Chili where I went for Kindergarden and 1st Grade. I thought she did a great job even if she did seem a bit out of place but I love that dichotomy of styles (see her song at the end of the blog).
Speaking of which, I thought the Super Bowl itself was average. Despite loving defensive football, I just can't root for Pete Carroll after the way he left USC. I thought the commercials were boring but Bruno Mars really brought it for the half-time show. He seemed to channel Michael, James Brown, Joey Dee and many other greats in an energetic and beautifully produced show and I love that he had the Red Hot Chili Peppers on stage with him. Those guys are crazy and provided great contrast with their shirtless look vs Bruno Temptations inspired dress of his band. I rarely get into the halftime music but I was totally into it this year. Great job and I hope more people were impressed by a future superstar.
Speaking of music, here are a few shows coming up that I recommend:
Thursday (2/06) - Barenaked Ladies @ Ceasars Windsor, G Love and Special Sauce @ St Andrews Hall
Friday (2/07) - Expendables @ the Crofoot
Saturday (2/08) - Pixies @ the Fillmore, Karmin @ St Andrews Hall, Dave Mason @ Brighton Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday (2/09) - Verve Pipe @ Michigan Theatre, Black Angels @ Magic Stick