An Audio Summary of the Redskins' Woes

Greensboro, NC -- Another NFL season, another disappointing Redskins season.  A few weeks ago, the Redskins hit a season low on Monday Night Football.  A 59-28 trouncing by the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles led to this brilliant rant by (Washington, DC) 106.7 FM The Fan's Chad Dukes.  

Chad Dukes Rant on the Redskins

And for the record, I completely echo Dukes' sentiments!

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Greensboro, NC -- So, you probably thought that this blog was extinct.  It's been three and a half months since I've last invaded this space.  Did I get sucked up into the corporate world?  In married life?  In fall sports (i.e. The World Series, College Football, etc.)?  Yes, it's partly true.  While I've been an active blogger since early 2007 to coincide with my move to North Carolina, I've been an inactive blogger this year.  I got married, but I've also launched an exciting new podcast with my good buddy and co-host Trivia Tim Beeman.  His blog can be found in the left column.  As you can tell by his blog entries, he's as eagerly excited about this new expedition as I am.  The podcast, called The Less Desirables (www.TheLessDesirables.com), looks into the "leftover" or less desirable information that's not usually found in mainstream media.  Further, the podcast wraps your sporting, music, movies, and technology news from the past week into a 60-minute segment.  To ice the cake, we have a "beer of the week," hand selected by Tim and me ourselves.  

So, before you start complaining about the lack of blogs, and ergo, my lack of Redskins' rants, my heart and soul has been poured into this shiny, new podcast, The Less Desirables.  Give us a listen, tell your friends, try one of our beers, kick back, relax, and enjoy the latest podcast available every Wednesday evening from www.TheLessDesirables.com.  Cheers!

Married Life

Greensboro, NC -- Today marks the first blog as a married man.  Hooray!  Does it feel any different being married?  No.  But, I do feel a sense of obligation and responsibility to my new, beautiful wife.  I'm already getting slapped on the wrist for not check with her about planning a trip to check out a SEC game next month; Oregon-Tennessee.  

The big, iron spotlight has now fallen.  It's kind of sad now that it's all over, but there's also a sense of relief.  Each weekend, my life was consumed by some wedding appointment, or my bank account was constantly being drained over frivolous needs.  I also have more free time, which means more blogs and better analysis on the weekly podcast, The Less Desirables. 

The wedding party, wedding emcee and TLD co-host Trivia Tim, our parents, and Graylyn all did a spectacular job with the wedding festivities.  Despite the rain, the events were not altered too badly.  We had to move the cocktail hour inside, but other than that, nothing else was affected.  I had a little snafu with my tuxedo rental (missing pieces), but that's what a best man is for.  Great job to everyone involved, and thank you to our guests for coming.  I'll touch on the honeymoon in the next blog.

Yadkin River Valley, Day 2

Greensboro, NC -- We returned to the Yadkin River Valley on Sunday to snap more photos of vineyards signs with us in them.  Since we're having a "wine themed" wedding, each of our guest tables at dinner will be named after a North Carolina vineyard.  A photo of that vineyard with us in it will be displayed in the center of the table.  The other reason, and perhaps more important, is to taste more local wines.  Here are the places that we visited, but did not try any of their wines:

• Westbend Vineyards
• RayLen Vineyards (closed on Sundays)
• Brandon Hills Vineyard
• Allison Oaks Vineyards
• Shadow Springs Vineyards
• Sandy Ridge Vineyards

We did stop, interact, and taste several wines from two vineyards; Misty Creek Vineyards and Hanover Park Vineyard.  The proprietor for Misty Creek must have been one of the nicest people that I have ever met.  With a gentle demeanor, the owner provided a dazzling display of his finest wines.  He even offered us a free puppy after his dog recently gave birth to five puppies.  A true gem of a winery with first class service.


On our second stop, we tried a generous tasting of wines crafted by the owners themselves.  At this place, the husband and wife ownership concocted several blends by mixing various wines (similar grapes but different ages) together.  The "HP Reserve," a $42 bottle, was perhaps the best wine that I tasted all weekend.  A power couple of art instructors, the owners' marriage brought them to the south of France on their honeymoon where a dream of owning their own vineyard became a reality in the Yadkin Valley.  Just another treat along the Yadkin River trail.
 

A Late Spring Trip to the Yadkin River Valley

Greensboro, NC -- I had the distinct pleasure of taking a day trip to the Yadkin River Valley, which is an area in the northwestern part of North Carolina.  The area rests about 25 miles northwest of Winston-Salem.  The climate boasts superb conditions for the growing of wine grapes, complete with red clay mud (soil), sufficient sunlight year-round, and cool breezes from the Blue Ridge Mountains nearby.  While we didn't get to try all of the vineyards on our agenda, we made two pit stops; Shelton Vineyards and Stony Knoll Vineyards.

Shelton Vineyards is a well-known vineyard in NC where you can find a good selection of their wines in your local super markets.  Their red wines are very flavorful; even their Merlot didn't have that typical dry-out taste.  We had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Ed Shelton personally during our last leg of the wine tastings; the "sweet" wines.  As Mr. Shelton told us, the land in Dobson, NC used to be a large dairy farm, and in the early 1990's, he and his brother got the idea to grow grapes.  While the rest remains history, Shelton Vineyards has exploded into one of the top 5 (I believe) wine producing vineyards in our state.  The area of land was magnificently maintained -- a crown jewel in this rural area of the state!

Stony Knolls Vineyard was a much smaller producer located on the banks of the Yadkin River.  Again, we had the opportunity to chat with owner Mr. Van Coe over his prized possessions.  In this area of the state, you make the land work for you.  It's your source of income since there are no office buildings or other edifices to produce revenue.  Mr. Coe was very proud of his investment, and rightfully so.  He had a 6 year old tasting room that captured the environment of the rest of the property.  I was impressed with the vineyard's output considering its size and staff.  Mr. Coe explained to me that he's working on getting his wines to commercial mainstream since you can only consume them at select hotels at this time.

If you haven't had the chance to venture to the Yadkin River Valley, I highly recommend a day trip to the area.  The muddy waters of the river slice through the best land to grow grapes and produce eloquent wines.  As Mr. Shelton said, "Let's start a wine party!  People would never fight or disagree, unlike tea parties, coffee parties, or 'beer' parties."  Well put.

NFL Draft Tweets

Greensboro, NC -- The NFL Draft has come and gone, but yet, I still couldn't resist posting these tweets from the weekend despite the 3 weeks that have elapsed. 

• "Patriots collecting draft picks like Larry King collects wives.''

-- @LASportsAgent, sports agent and attorney Mark Slough, in the midst of the Patriots' tradefest on the Friday night of the draft.

• "Ohio U has pick before Ohio State.'' 

-- @Coach_Eck, Ball State offensive line coach Jason Eck, after the Patriots took Ohio University wide receiver Taylor Price with the 90th pick, before the first Buckeye went in the draft.

• "LenDale White traded for a ham sandwich, which he ate.''

-- @adbrandt, former NFL executive Andrew Brandt, now of National Football Post, after Seattle acquired the disappointing (and sometimes overweight) White and defensive lineman Kevin Vickerson simply for swapping draft spots in the fourth and sixth rounds Saturday.

Grand Day for Winston-Salem

Greensboro, NC -- At long last, after three and a half years since the idea was first proposed, Winston-Salem is opening their new ballpark downtown tonight.  While I am not attending the game, and the game is being played during this writing, the park's beauty is nothing but magnificent.  I pass by the 610,000 bricks twice a day to my "day job."  The park currently holds 5,500 spectators, but the key to the park is that it's accessible in 360 degrees.  When I attend ballgames, I like to walk around the park and coddle my beverage in the outfield (at minor league games).  However, it's always a pain to walk in a "U" to get from the entrance (right side of the field) to the left field area.  In this park, you can walk in any direction around the field.

The Winston-Salem Dash (get it, Winston "dash" Salem) are hosting the Potomac Nationals amid cloudy skies, but it's currently 75 degrees.  It wasn't easy to reach this day -- there were many setbacks along the journey.  There was strong citizen opposition out of fear of raising taxes and ultimately, using the monies for more needed expenditures, such as schools and roads.  The team and the city ran out of money in November 2008.  In April 2009, B's Bistro blogged about the ballpark progress.  It wasn't until September 2009 that BB&T stepped in to bridge the financial gap, and work on the park resumed.  It was sad to see a 70% completed park sit there for 10 months untouched.  With a tight deadline of Opening Day 2010, the workers and the city finished the park in the nick of time.  It's a beauty with the city's unique skyline sprinkled across the asymmetrical outfield wall.  I plan on taking in a game this month; I guarantee it'll be worth the wait.

The "Great" Offseason Trade

Greensboro, NC -- If the Redskins aren't going to dab their hands into the slim free agent pool this year, they might as well make a splash with a cannonball-sized trade.  This deal isn't necessarily about money, but it's still Snyder politics at its core; bring in the best player available and start selling jerseys.  While I do believe the Redskins offense will be much improved both at the quarterback position and overall coaching, the team is not one player away from a deep run in the postseason.

This trade will forever forbid our eyes from seeing Sam Bradford don the burgundy and gold.  I believe that it would make more sense if the new regime built their team from the ground up, as in drafting a quarterback and rebuilding the offensive line.  These quick fix patches -- like potentially signing Flozell Adams -- provide very little depth and stability at critical positions.  While most sources and fans believe that the trade will work out well for the Redskins, including my trusted source Peter King, I don't believe that it'll bring long term success or improve the team by several wins.  Jason Campbell probably wasn't the solution at quarterback, but most of his dropbacks that resulted in sacks were not his fault. 

Games are won in the trenches with your offensive and defensive lines.  If your offensive line is stable, any capable running back can find the holes, and any professional quarterback that has sufficient time will eventually find the open receiver.  If your defensive line can apply pressure to the quarterback, and force the offensive into doing things that they don't want to do, then the defense will be successful.  Until the Redskins realize that games and championships are not won at the skill positions, it won't matter who is coaching the team or calling the shots from the front office.  Drafting Oklahoma State OT Russell Okung would be the next best step for this franchise.

I believe that we can get a year or two of good quarterbacking from McNabb.  He's mobile, he still has a strong arm, and he's smart.  It's going to be difficult rooting for him at first because I've cheered against him since I was in high school.  These intra-divisional trades are always odd and unusual.  They usually don't occur because one or both teams are fearful of looking foolish, and aiding the opposition, if the trade doesn't pan out in their favor.  It'll be interesting to see what the Eagles do with the 37th pick in this month's deep NFL draft.

Opening Day

Greensboro, NC -- In the greatest sport of them all, we all know that time begins on Opening Day.  When every team has a sense of hope, this first Monday in April should be a national sports holiday with all of the day games and the NCAA Championship to cap off the night.  But in today's space, we're here to make our predictions for the upcoming baseball season, so here goes:

Division Winners
AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Twins
AL West: Angels
AL Wild Card: Red Sox


NL East: Phillies
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Rockies
NL Wild Card: Braves


Playoffs

ALDS: Yankees over Twins; Red Sox over Angels
NLDS: Phillies over Rockies; Braves over Cardinals


ALCS: Red Sox over Yankees
NLCS: Phillies over Braves


WS: Red Sox over Phillies


MVP's
AL MVP: Mark Teixeira, 1B, NYY
NL MVP: Albert Pujols, 1B, STL


Cy Young's

AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez, SEA
NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay, PHL


Rookie of the Years
AL Rookie of the Year: Austin Jackson, DET
NL Rookie of the Year: Jason Heyward, ATL

The Secrets of Fine Dining & Relationship Growth

Greensboro, NC -- In addition to writing and podcasting, I read a ton of different blogs, sites, and books, as well as listen to several newscasts, mainly NPR.  How else do I gather the information that I scribble here without being interested in the news?  I recently crossed the path of this social, economics-driven blog, called "Relationship Economics" by David Nour.  Nour, an Emory University graduate (like myself!) poses some interesting economic questions with a social bend to them.  I like this post from last year, named "Change Our Questions."  I'm going to re-post Nour's blog entry from last April below because I occassionally experience this situation with my fiancee when we're "fine" dining.

My wife and I were at a great local restaurant recently and noticed that they were doing terrific business, while many others are suffering. I couldn’t help but wonder why?

Through a closer lens, I noticed:

• Seemingly loyal customers (you can tell, because they know the menu without having to look at it!) created by great past service which reinforce strong personal and business relationships;
• Extremely attractive ambiance where people want to hang out (casual, comfortable with an understated elegance);
• Appeal to diverse age groups (our favorite three categories: just married – still gagah over each other, married with kids – typical conversations about school issues and concerned about the babysitter back at the house, and empty nesters – free at last!)
• Diversity of menu items (notice I didn’t say quantity of menu items!)

Which made me think about some of the companies all around us: when any organization reduces staff, cuts back on travel and entertainment, minimizes its marketing or advertising campaigns, and generally shrinks its market presence, it is in a doom loop. A critical part of any company’s reputation is its brand equity – a fundamental contributor to that brand equity, is the organizations portfolio of relationships. In many companies, those relationships (within as well as external to the organization) are being ignored!  You simply cannot cut your way to growth!

How are you preparing for the market recovery?

Arizona Wrap-up

Greensboro, NC -- It took me a over a week to recover from my travels out west, specifically to Scottsdale, Arizona for a couple of days of bachelor debauchery and catching a glimpse of some Spring Training baseball games.  The weather was absolutely perfect; 84 degrees, sunny, and skies as pristine as the Scottsdale streets.  Since it hardly ever rains, the roads and concrete throughout the greater Phoenix area are as clean and smooth as glass.

Day 1, A's at Cubs -- The Cubs offense looked very strong with Derrek Lee hitting a bomb during his first at bat.  Geovanny Soto looks more comfortable with the bat.  There was no sign of Alfonso Soriano, but maybe the hitting magician, Rudy Jaramillo, the Cubs' new $800,000/year coach was working his magic on "Sori" behind the scenes.  I'm not sure if the Cubs have the explosive offense that they think they do, but don't count out Jaramillo's influence.  I smell another 3rd place finish in the NL Central with Sweet Lou hanging them up at season's end.  There's not too much to say about the A's, other than their pitching and defense must make-up for their dreadful offense.  I saw Rickey Henderson in the dugout, who I'm sure was brought in to teach the youngsters some baserunning skills.  They'll need to steal some bases -- and contradict the Moneyball rules -- in order to generate some runs this year.

Day 2, Rockies at Giants -- In a beautiful park in downtown Scottsdale, the Giants and Rockies squared off in an intra-divisional, ace-pitching match-up of Jeff Francis and Matt Cain.  I'm always suspect of the Rockies pitching playing in the thin air of Denver, but they have some hurlers with excellent make-up; Francis, Hammell, Jimenez, and Cooke.  Conversely, I feel the same way about the Giants' offense -- putrid.  It's tough to manufacture runs when it's cold in the middle of the summer at your home ballpark, and the ball doesn't "fly out" of the park in the hot summer air.  But, it's difficult to generate runs when you don't have a masher or two in the middle of the lineup.

I had the distinct pleasure of residing in the W Hotel during my stay in Arizona.  On my final night, the Phoenix Suns hosted a Celebrity Event in the pool area of the upscale hotel.  I met Amar'e Stoudemire, Jason Richardson, and Leandro Barbosa.  All nice guys out on the town for the evening. 

So, what's the point of flying out to Phoenix to report on some Spring Training games?  It's fun, it's an escape of the cold weather for a few days, it's drinking beer at 1:00 in the afternoon, it's a surreal scene in anticipation of the opening of the greatest sport of them all.  Plus, it was my best friend's bachelor party.  Amen.

Muse and their Uprising

Atlanta, GA -- The level of sound produced at The Arena at Gwinnett Center last night almost tore off the roof in this suburban area.  Opening their first show together for their North American tour, the Silversun Pickups and Muse put on a raucious performance for the sold-out arena.  The SIlversun Pickups opened the evening with a groovy 30 minute set, closing out with a lethal performance of "Lazy Eye."  By their sound, dress, and style, one can easily conclude that this band came from alternative doldrums of New York or Los Angeles.  LA it is.

Standing on three pillars that spanned from the stage floor to the roof, Muse opened their show by opening the pillars at the equator.  With each member launching into the group's newest hit, "The Uprising," the crowd went into hysteria.  The set list included all of their major hits, including "Undisclosed Desires," "Maps of Problematique," and "Starlight" over a 19-song, 2-hour performance.  Trying to master the sound and acoustics within a closed building requires a great amount of skill.  Muse and their technicians certainly mastered the volume levels.  Taking a page out U2's book, whom they recently opened up for on their tour last year, Muse utilized an impressive array of laser lighting, stage props, and sound to put on a stellar performance last night.  The sound itself is a fusion of mid-90's artist Our Lady Peace and early 2000's artist System of a Down.  The rifts and melodies topple the hard, grunge rock sound, which is a good thing when you're looking for a distinctive sound.  Based on this performance, I'm looking for Must to be the "breakout" artist for 2010.  They've been around for quite awhile (mid 90's), so maybe they're just "late bloomers."  This breakthrough North American tour could be the key to the band's uprising.

Thoughts on the Olympics

Greensboro, NC -- I believe that I've tuned in more to these Winter Olympics than any of the prior games in my life.  Coincidentally, the USA is performing mightily at these games between hockey, skiing, speed skating, and ice dancing.  At every Olympics, an American star is born -- somebody who we either never heard of or heard very little about prior to the games.  I must admit, as a sports junkie, I've never heard of Apolo Ohno before.  The only reason I've heard of Bode Miller was that he was an alcoholic, and it costed him heavily in the Torino games.  The wonderful ice skaters on TV last night have been non-existent until they took the ice this week.  There is very little exposure on these athletes, yet the way that they're able to perform certain tricks, fly down a mountain or ice luge at 90 mph is not only very brave and breathtaking, it is commendable.  The boundaries of their comfort zones must have no limits, or they were shattered at an early age.

With either the Russians or the Canadians being eliminated tonight in hockey, the Americans have an excellent shot to capture Olympic gold.  Germany has begun to catch us in the medal count, but there's only a week left.  I'd love to see the gold for men's hockey -- it would show just how far the team has come from the pitiful performance at the 1998 Nagano games.

Welcome 2010

Greensboro, NC -- Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year since the last time that I formally checked in. I have many updates to provide you -- the first being the most important. On October 2nd, I proposed to Ms. Kaylin Murphy. We will be getting married this summer in nearby Winston-Salem, NC.

Second, as you can tell, the blog posts have been non-existent since last summer. I have embarked on a new project that have taken my musings and thoughts through audio waves. Along with my partner "Trivia" Tim Beeman, we have started a weekly podcast called "The Less Desirables." Our website is up and running at: TheLessDesirables.com. We touch on everything -- music, movies, sports, beer, technology, economics, and pop culture. It's a little bit of your world dolloped on a 30-minute platter every Wednesday evening. Be sure to check us out on our website, or by downloading the podcast on iTunes (available every Wednesday night).

I will still be blogging frequently, but the substance in the blogs may be less verbose. The writings and preparation that goes into a blog post will go into the production of the weekly podcast. In essence, you'll still be getting my same blogging material, but just in a different format. With NFL free agency, Spring Training, and an upcoming trip to Atlanta to see MUSE, a lack of material won't be a problem. Cheers.