I am basically done with all my stuff for the term. Yesterday I wrote a paper about the structure of Juno. I think it turned out well. I have to turn it in tomorrow, and hopefully that's it. Portland plays Orlando tomorrow at home, and I want to get to the Rose Garden around five so I can watch GO warm-up again. Last time I did that they played great, so I'm really their good luck charm and they don't even know it. Portland is undefeated at home. It is possible that streak will be broken this month. Boston comes at the end of the month, but before that we've got Phoenix, who we haven't beaten in forever; Denver, who have definitely gotten the better of the AI Chauncey Billups trade; Dallas, who sucks now but could possibly put together a good enough game to beat the Blazers; and New Orleans, a team that we need to beat every time we play them because there is a pretty solid chance we will see them in the playoffs. For my other class, forms of non-fiction, I just finished a rewrite of an essay about drinking and going to concerts. I think that its pretty good. I like writing about music, and I have been thinking that it wouldn't be too bad to write for one of the alt weeklies in town once this whole graduate school shindig is over and done with. I got a text the other day from a friend that said the MFA stuff is going to be online pretty soon. I'm hoping everything will go smoothly. I would hate to have to start my thesis right now, what with all the Blazers stuff I'm doing. I'm not too stressed, though. I was reading a article on Slate about the death of Zima, and while searching for it I came across another article about malt beverages. The author, who, if you read it, is named Ben Wasserstein, talks about being a college student at the time of the writing. I too was a college student in 2002, granted only at the end of the year, and I certainly wasn't writing for Slate. Actually I can tell you that at that time I had no idea what Slate was. I searched this young Mr. Wasserstein, as I am want to do when faced with a writing talent near my own age, read my entry about the horrible book Zoology written by Ben Dolnick who's DOB is sometime in the year 1982. What I found out was that Ben Wasserstein was, and still is, the son of Bruce Wasserstein. Bruce Wasserstein is the owner of New York magazine. When Ben Wasserstein wrote his drinking article for Slate he was an associate editor at New York magazine. You do the math. This information was at first good. Here was a dude that was obviously able to write in the capacity that he was because of who his father was. But then the truth set in. HERE IS A DUDE WHO WRITES FOR SLATE AND WORKS FOR NEW YORK MAGAZINE BECAUSE HIS FATHER IS THE OWNER OF THE LATTER. For all intents and purposes, Ben Wasserstein is the Kevin Love of professional writing. My father is not the owner of a magazine. I should give up my misguided attempts to one day write professionally. Everyone knows that Kevin Love's pop invented the Beach Boys and played pro basketball. If K-Love gets laughed out of the NBA, which he should, he could always fall back on writing catchy pop songs for white people from California.
For starters, the Blazers lost very badly to the Boston Celtics tonight. My recap isn't up yet, but it should be soon, and when it is it will be at trailblazers.com. The Blazers are 14-7, which through 21 games makes us the second best team in the Western Conference. The Boston Celtics are 19-2, which through 21 games makes them the best team in the NBA. We will get to that level, probably not this year, but we will get there. This was a big test. Playing the best team in the league on the fourth game of a tough five game road trip. We get them again at the end of the month at home. I'm not predicting a win in that game, but if this team has shown anything its that they can win at home. We get Toronto on Sunday, at the ridiculous time of 10 AM Portland time, what's the deal Canada. Toronto fired their coach like two days ago, so I feel like we should be able to win that game. Either way, we finish our second extended road trip with a winning record. For those of you that haven't heard, the other intern has now officially graduated. That means that I am the one and only sports reporter intern in the employ of the Portland Trail Blazers. Simply put, I now get to cover ALL of the home games that remain on the schedule. I have worked it out with PSU, hopefully, to get four credits next term for my internship. That means that I will only have to take one class. The rest of my life will be devoted to the Blazers. If we finish the season as well as we started it, that will mean some serious playoff action, and by serious I mean at least the first round.
