Tuesday, August 25, 2015

I remember… (10 years after Hurricane Katrina)

I remember a fictitious movie in 2004 that appeared on FX called “Oil Storm” in which a fictional Hurricane Juliette struck the New Orleans, LA area on Labor Day Weekend 2005, destroying Port Fourchon, and setting off a fictional chain reaction of events that would change the United States’ dependency of oil and gasoline forever…

I remember thinking “That’s crazy, it’ll never happen”…

Then I remember the summer of 2005…

I remember a crazy start to the Hurricane season in 2005…

I remember Anderson Cooper nearly getting cut in half on live TV from a flying metal sign back in July…

I remember a lot of named storm early.  I remember it was very unusual…

I remember thinking about the Oil Storm movie I had watched a year earlier, and began to wonder in mid-August was life beginning to imitate art…

Then in late August, Katrina formed as a Tropical Storm…

I remember that fictional Hurricane’s Juliette’s path in the fictional documentary…

I remember Katrina’s path starting to go roughly parallel to Juliette as it approached Florida…

I remember an E-Mail to the Tony Kornheiser radio show on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 as Katrina was about to make landfall just south of Miami say approximately the following, “You know it’s going to be a bad day when you turn on The Weather Channel and you see Jim Cantore doing a live remote from your front lawn”…

I remember Katrina actually strengthening as it moved over the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula from a Category 1 to a Category 2 Hurricane…

I remember a lot of flooding associated with Katrina and multiple deaths…

I remember thinking that was weird.  Florida had been struck by 4 hurricanes the previous year, and I didn’t remember any significant loss of lives during any of those Hurricanes…

I remember as Friday night approached it was starting to become clear that New Orleans could be in the crosshairs of Katrina…

I remember Saturday morning, August 27th, 2005, when it became clear Katrina upgraded to a Category 3 Hurricane and was aiming for the Crescent City…

I remember talking to my parents that afternoon about Katrina as I was watching mass evacuations from New Orleans…

I remembered the story that my dad told about having gone to New Orleans 40 years earlier in the aftermath of Hurricane Betsy…

I remember asking my dad about Betsy… The responses he gave about that storm did not give me much comfort…

I remember waking up the next morning to find Katrina had upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane and was a monster in size…

I remembered thinking New Orleans was about to die…

I remember thinking this was far worse than the “Oil Storm” scenario…

I remember telling someone I thought Gas prices would go to $4 a gallon after Katrina made landfall at church that Sunday morning before Katrina hit…

I remember watching Jim Cantore on TV that evening as he reported just north and east of New Orleans…

I remember he looked scared to death about Katrina and that he wanted no part of being anywhere near the Crescent City…

I remember turning on WWL Radio in New Orleans that night (870 on the AM dial) and hearing numerous tornado warnings and weather emergencies…

I remember wondering if New Orleans would survive until morning…

I remember watching news about the MTV Video Music Awards from Miami that Sunday night, where 3 days earlier Katrina had disrupted show prep…

I remember many of the MTV VMA presenters telling Katrina jokes like it was no big deal…

I remember that Monday Morning going to work wondering if we would be watching the death of New Orleans… and of Port Fourchon…

I remember watching Mobile, AL was experiencing major storm surge…

I remember initial reports seemed to suggest New Orleans had taken a beating but appeared to survive intact…

I remember breathing a premature sigh of relief…

I remember Tuesday morning when the scope of the disaster finally became all too clear…

I remember my heart sinking when I heard the levees were breaking…

I remember thinking not to panic, help would be coming soon…

I remember the scope of the disaster got worse and worse as the day grew on…

I remember wondering where the help was…

I remember wondering if people were still alive…

I remember that night into Wednesday morning the discussion was about whether we were witnessing a dying American city before our eyes…

I remember seeing the damage to the Superdome…

I remember hearing reports of suicide, rape, and murder in the Superdome…

I remember hearing the Dome was flooded in areas…

I remember wondering where was the help…

I remember wondering where was Gov. Blanco and Pres. Bush…

I remember reporters covering the suffering of the city… I remember people in anguish…

I remember the chopper rescues from rooftops…

I remember hearing roads out of New Orleans were destroyed…

I remember there was only one way out of New Orleans, and that it was littered with debris…

I remember on that Friday before Labor Day finally the National Guard arriving in New Orleans…

I remember thinking the tide was turning…

I remember not thinking once about the devastation in MS during that time…

I remember hearing initial death toll estimates of 10000 (thankfully never reached)…

I remember hearing about how Port Fourchon had survived Katrina…

I remember being unusually happy about hearing that…

I remember hearing about long gas lines, high gas prices, and pumps running dry in Atlanta on the Friday before Labor Day…

I remember Bush’s poor praise of FEMA director Michael Brown…

I remember people took Hurricanes a lot more seriously after Katrina…

I remember over caution about Hurricane Rita…

I remember how Hurricane Wilma surprised weather people with its track…

We all remember different things about Katrina, a storm that ultimately killed 1800 people and changed how we deal with future Hurricanes…  This is but a small trip down Memory Lane… What do you remember?

Saturday, July 25, 2015

The shell of a man behind “The Immortal”…

Terry Bollea (better known to the World as “Hulk Hogan”) was fired on Friday by the WWE.  No, fired isn’t the right word.  He was Chris Beniot’ed (or Crispin Wah’ed) by the WWE.  For those of you not familiar with that term, Chris Beniot was a wrestler who had won titles around the world, but made his biggest name as a member of WCW and WWE.  In 2007, Chris and his family were found dead in their GA home.  Initially the WWE paid tribute to Chris the night after his death… Until the truth came out that Chris had murdered his wife and son before committing suicide.  The WWE then scrubbed Chris’ name from all WWE/WCW videos and web pages.  It is hard to find his name anywhere among the WWE history archives today. Now, the biggest superstar name ever in WWE and Wrestling history has been given the same treatment, as not only WWE, but also rival wrestling organization, TNA, has erased all traces of “The Immortal One”.

The reason?  Racist statements made by Hogan on a sex tape he made with the wife of his then-best friend back in 2007.  Basically, he used the n-word… in a derogatory fashion concerning someone who was dating his daughter… while he was screwing another man’s wife.  This tape, BTW, is the subject of a $100 million lawsuit Hogan has filed against the Internet news/tabloid blog site, Gawker.  (Side note:  can we root for both sides in that lawsuit to lose?) The racist portion of the sex tape recently came to light via The National Enquirer.

Should Hogan be scrubbed from Wrestling history for these statements? No.  But is this just an isolated incident from Hogan?  Hardly.  Because while we used to worship the man who preached about “Prayers, Vitamins, and Training… Brother”, the Hogan that was off-camera was anything but.  He was clearly on Steroids during the heyday of the 1980s when Wrestling moved from Regional Territories to National and Global Prominence, thanks to the WWE.  If Vince had not been the target of the feds in the early 1990s, Hogan would have likely been thrown in jail for his steroid use. 

Instead, Hogan left the WWE for then-rival promotion WCW.  Ted Turner was all happy to use Hogan to challenge Vince for Wrestling Dominance, and allowed WCW to give Hogan “Creative Control” in several Wrestling matches. Yes, the infamous “Fingerpoke of Doom” match in January, 1999 is the most obvious, but there were other matches in the dying days of WCW where Hogan had some type of control in outcomes of World Heavyweight Title Matches.  Hogan also held back potential up and coming wrestler, preferring to “burying” rising stars, all at the cost of maintaining his legacy. 

After his Wrestling career was over, Hogan tried to use his star power as a GM at TNA Wrestling to try and go toe-to-toe with the WWE, but that experiment failed horribly after 4 years.  Among the bad decisions, Hogan controversially fired an up and coming TNA African-American Wrestler named Jay Lethal, who currently just happens to be the World Champion for another Wrestling Promotion, Ring of Honor.  Lethal has proven that Hogan screwed up regarding Lethal’s talent and may have unwittingly exposed Hogan’s own racist attitude long before the sex tape’s rants were made public.

Hogan’s private life isn’t much better.  Hogan’s wife divorced him for a younger man, and his children are either struggling with either law issues or trying to establish a musical career.  The reason Hogan returned to wrestling long after he couldn’t wrestle has more to do with financial issues than with Wrestling prowess.

There are other examples of Hogan not living up to the Hulkamania lifestyle he set back in the 1980’s.  Needless to say, given the perception as either the ultimate Good Guy in yellow or the spray-painting, backstabbing leader known as Hollywood Hogan of the nWo, Hogan’s real life is persona is more Hollywood than Hulkamaniac.

Eventually, Hogan will likely quietly return to the WWE at some point in the future.  Triggering the scrubbing of Hulk’s accomplishments in WCW/WWE comes off as Vince being petty.  And WWE does not have the best track record with African-American Wrestler stereotypes themselves (Junkyard Dog or Kamala, anyone?).  As for TNA Wrestling, they’ll be lucky to see the end of the year as a functioning entity.  Scrubbing Hogan from their records is more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.

Hogan doesn’t deserve the elimination of his name from Wrestling history.  But he is also not the Ultimate Good Guy Wrestler we knew and loved from the 1980s (just like Bill Cosby is not who we thought he was). He is just a shell of a person in real-life of what he portrayed on Camera back in the 1980s.

To steal a line from Hulk himself: What’cha gonna do?

Thursday, June 25, 2015

An open letter to my Southern Friends…

First of all, this post is directed to a set group of my friends.  So if you are from Yankee country… PISS OFF!  That goes especially for Indiana Rebel-Wannabes from Porter County… and for Marylanders that like to pretend they are Rebels but never had the guts to defy Martial Law to do anything about it.  You were not included in the Confederate flags for a reason, Maryland, even though Kentucky and Missouri were, OK?  The fact that you are the only Yankee state that includes a Confederate license plate is hilarious, especially considering how “progressive” you claim to be.

OK, now that Amateurs are out of here…

To my Georgia friends (those who still remain in the Southern U.S. and those whose hearts have never left):

I finally have to face the day I never wanted to.  A day that saddens me, but it has to be said.

It is time for me to let go…

I take no pleasure in saying this.  My Southern roots are complicated.  My family may have come from the Midwest, but my Mother’s ancestors are Georgia royalty.  She is a Walton.  Her ancestors fought for both sides in the Civil War, according to family history passed down by word of mouth.  I was born and raised in the shadow of Stone Mountain.  Whether it was Decatur or Snellville, I always considered myself a Southerner.  But I must acknowledge the complexity.  Lutherans aren’t exactly Deep South kind of people.

I remember the Georgia of my youth… the one portrayed in “The Dukes of Hazzard”.  I was there when Sorrell Brooke was Grand Marshall and going to Briscoe Park and hearing him as Boss Hogg.  What a great day!  I remember Six Flags over Georgia the way it used to be. Do you remember the Glass Salt/Pepper Shakers you could get which had the Six Flags that flew over Georgia?  I do.  I remember Stone Mountain as it was.  It oozed South.  I remember Dixieland music.  I remember the South Gwinnett Fight Song being a Rendition of “Are you from Dixie?”  I remember it all.  You remember it too.  The fact that you could get around town by foot or bicycle if you wanted to.  It was Mayberry, wasn’t it?  Nobody really got into serious trouble.  Never meant any harm on our pranks, did we?  And we had dirt back roads.  We could shoot bibi guns in our back yards and not have to worry about neighbors behind us… because they didn’t exist.

Yes, there were always ugly undertones which may not have shown up on the surface of Snellville or Gwinnett County, but they were there in the shadows.  Never spoken of, but those ghosts were there.  I never knew anyone directly associated with them, but I’ll bet the house Snellville had a few white sheets.  They may not have burned any crosses, but they were willing to jump over into Forsyth County and harass Hosea Williams back in 1987, right?  And the Stainless Banner was always there… publicly.

But times have changed.  The towns we knew are gone.  They have been replaced by crowded suburbs.  It’s multicultural.  You see, Atlanta became a hot destination thanks to A/C making Southern life bearable, and the vision many of its leaders had to show the city off to the world and bring the world to Atlanta.  And the World came, and the world liked what it saw.  They also came to other cities around Atlanta… To Athens, Rome, Macon, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, and other cities.  But the world has different attitudes than the natives.  They want to bring their culture, while at the same time having trouble with parts of the Southern culture, like some of the symbols.  At the same time, many native Georgians have ventured out into the world and have either returned with different perspectives or have never returned.  In the end, life has changed.  You want the true return to your roots, you almost have to go out to “Deliverance Country”… where you will have you head on a swivel every time you hear a banjo.

Now you are watching the symbols of the South being stripped from public and you think “That’s not what those symbols mean.  I know what they mean, because I was there.  It doesn’t mean hatred.  It means Pride.  Why am I being accused of being racist?  I treat everyone kindly!” Of course, we all like to think we are saints.  But can we take a hard look at ourselves and say we treat everyone kindly?  Can we say that about ourselves when we are around friends and co-workers who are non-Caucasian? Can we say we can treat everyone equally?  Or do we have even a tinge of bias that we can erase just by removing certain symbols to make people feel better?

I think the world of my childhood friends.  I have never met more kind, more loving, and more genteel souls than my Southern acquaintances.  I mean that.  So I say this as a friend… Consider making peace with the controversial symbols of the South.  And whether you keep them out or put them in that box in the corner of your attic or get rid of them altogether, know that I still consider you my friends.

As for me, I will always love my Southern roots.  I am better off remembering the good things about my early life… When I have the chance.  But now that I live in Maryland, I realize the world is a bigger place.  The best thing I can do to show the goodness of my Southern roots is be the best person I can be to all.  And I can do that without Flags or decals or pins of symbols from a more volatile era of our nation’s history.

Friday, June 19, 2015

The Post-McDonalds era of restaurants…

When I was younger and my parents would drive on trips to Cincinnati and to Valparaiso, McDonalds would always figure in where we stopped.  Whether it was the one just north of Knoxville, TN or the one in Elizabethtown, KY, or the dozen or so Mickey Ds we stopped at during our long 2 week trip in 1981 across the Eastern US and Ontario, CN, we always used the Golden Arches as a rest and recharging stop.  Partly because my sisters worked briefly at the Snellville location, but also because we knew we could rely on the quality of the food there, even though it was cheap.  You always knew you could find something to eat there.

As I went off to college and moved on to adulthood, my stops to the familiar McD logo got rarer.  Sure I worked at McDs main burger rival, Burger King, during HS and College days, but I also discovered that there was more to stops than just grabbing Chicken McNuggets, Fries, and a Sprite while driving the Interstate routes.  When I started dating my wife, I always wanted to try new places to see what I liked and what I didn’t.  McDs never figured into our date nights until after my kids were born.  After my kids were born, McDs visits started up again, but was largely in rotation with BK, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Chick-Fil-A, and other “cheap restaurants”.

This year, however, McDs visits have gotten fewer and fewer… even though there are tons of Golden Arches around.  And I am not the only one that has stopped going to the familiar logo.  McDonalds is going through a major slump in the US.  The chain that we all grew up with as kids has hit a wall.  People still go there, but not in the numbers or frequency they once did.  There are a number of reasons, but the upshot is this:  For the first time since at least stats were tracked on McDonalds growth starting in 1970, the Golden Arches will close more stores than it will open in 2015…  A shocking reality for one of the biggest property owners in the US.

So let’s look at some of the reasons for the decline of the Golden Arches:

(1) MCDONALDS ONCE TRIED TO BE A JACK OF ALL TRADES… AND WASN’T GREAT AT ANYTHING.  In their attempts to get more people into McDonalds, they have tried to have all sorts of options to compete with burger rivals, chicken rivals, fresh food rivals… and they forgot the basics, which is what they were good at.  They tried to be hip to adults at the expense of losing families who just wanted to get a Happy Meal for their kids or play on a playground.  And they forgot about quality of food, fast service, clean stores, and cheap prices.  A Big Mac meal now costs about $6 in many places, and has less quality than 20-30 years ago. 

(2) COMPETITION IS FIRECE NOW.  McDonalds is facing a myriad of new and old rivals chipping away at their dominance. Taco Bell and Subway is challenging with Breakfast offerings.  Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are also trying to get Breakfast Numbers away from McDonalds.  Chick-Fil-A has superior service in most locations, and has a stranglehold on Chicken Sandwich offerings.  Chipotle is making inroads with a new generation of customers that believe in fresh food.  Five Guys and other fancier burger places are even challenging the Golden Arches’ Burger Supremacy.  Burger King and Wendy’s are inputting Coca-Cola Freestyle Machines in an effort to get customers in their store.  Popeye’s is winning over people with their Fried Chicken.  And that doesn’t even account for Sit-Down Places that offer new food that McDonalds can’t even compete with.  For me, McDonalds is sort of at the bottom of the list of places I want to go to.  I’d rather go to places like Nando’s or Mission BBQ or the soon to be arriving in Maryland Steak and Shake before I would go to McDonalds.  Sorry.

(3) MCDONALDS ATTEMPTS TO REINVENT THEMSELVES HAVE BEEN DISASTEROUS.  In recent months, McDonalds has gotten rid of half their menu items.  Gone were mid-priced Chicken Sandwiches, variations of their Quarter Pounder with Cheese Burgers, and other sandwiches that underperformed.  McDonalds tried to offer a new way of ordering Value Meals that left many people confused (although I loved the idea of picking and choosing what things I wanted to have with my value meal).  That lasted three months before they changed back to what they used to do for value meals.  They got rid of the Dollar Menu, then brought it back.  They have been schizophrenic and it has angered customers more.

(4) THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY MCDONALDS AROUND IN SOME AREAS… NOT ENOUGH IN OTHERS.  Within 15 minutes of my house, there are about 10-12 McDonalds… far more than any other restaurant chain in the area.  They could probably dump half of those restaurants and still turn a corporate profit.  Do you really need Golden Arches of either side of Ritchie Hwy in Severna Park? Do you need 3 McDs within 5 miles along Mountain Road?  Meanwhile, McDonalds are fewer in other parts of the country. 

(5) MCDONALDS IS LIKE SEARS AND RADIO SHACK… IN A BAD WAY.  McDonalds in the 1980s was like Radio Shack and Sears… Dominant.  They were the top dogs and they acted like arrogant top dogs.  They oversaturated (especially Radio Shack).  Look at them now.  The Radio Shacks that are left are turning into Sprint outlets.  Sears may be dead in another decade.  McDonalds?  They probably won’t die out… yet. But more and more, McDonalds’ reputation is sinking lower and lower in the eyes of many people.  McDonalds needs to change course and fast.  Otherwise, maybe even the Golden Arches is not be immune to Chapter 11.

The next decade will see a reshuffling of restaurants as they try to vie for the title of most recognized US restaurant.  McDonalds could figure out what they need to do to remain at/return to the top, or they could slowly descend into irrelevance while other restaurants battle for the crown.  At this point, who knows.  One thing is certain, however:  The era of McDonalds dominance is over… and unlikely to go back to the way it once was.

Friday, May 1, 2015

This person is the biggest loser in the Baltimore Riots…

Regardless of your opinion of what happened regarding the death of Freddie Grey, regardless of your thoughts about the week of peaceful protests that sadly turned violent last Saturday night and again two days later, regardless of what Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said or didn’t say that may or may not have given the green lights to the cowards who looted the city, regardless of the feelings people have about the use of the word “thugs”, regardless of which politician looks strongest in the aftermath of the riots and the State of Emergency that followed… It is clear that one person has lost a lot of credibility in the aftermath.  And it may cost this person dearly in the coming months.  His actions over the last 15 years set the stage for the disaster which followed.  At this point, he may be less popular in the city of Baltimore than the current Republican Governor of Maryland.  He is clearly the biggest loser of the Baltimore riots.

That person is Former Mayor of Baltimore, Former Governor of Maryland, and possible 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate, Martin O’ Malley.  Surprised?  You shouldn’t be, if you have been following Baltimore politics since the 1990s.  O’ Malley used the city as a springboard for higher public office, but his decision-making set the stage for what followed.

Flashback to 1999, the last time Baltimore had any semblance of a competitive Mayoral Election.  Many of the state of Maryland’s Democratic party elder were lamenting the fact that the city of Baltimore was descending into chaos that was shown in fictional TV shows like “Homicide: Life on the Streets” and later “The Wire”.  Outgoing mayor Kurt Schmoke had done nothing to stem the tide of 300+ murders a year annually throughout the 1990s.  The party leaders wanted a mayor who could help remake Baltimore’s image and help bring in desperately needed money to help the struggling city.  Those leaders were begging Kweisi Mfume, then the head of the NAACP, to run for the top city job.  Mfume toyed with the idea, before ultimately declining.  That refusal to take the Mayor’s position may have cost Mfume when he ran for US Senate in 2006.  But back to the 1999 Mayor’s contest…

Without Mfume in the race, three main candidates from the City Council formed a spirited Democratic primary.  The anointed favorite was City Council President Lawrence Bell.  Councilman Carl Stokes (who recently remarked that instead of calling the rioters thugs, they should be called the N-Word) was considered the main rival.  O’ Malley, also on the city council, was the third person in the race.  Other names were in the race, but they were largely afterthoughts.

Bell and O’Malley focused on a “Zero-Tolerance” policy for criminals in their campaigns.  Stokes did not.  It clearly caused controversy in a town that was overwhelming African-American, where Zero Tolerance policing was considered a code word for racial profiling in many eyes.  During the campaign, Stokes managed to gain traction on Bell by attacking Bell’s views on crime.  O’Malley and Bell also had opposed the state taking over Baltimore City School in the mid-1990s due to the failing standards the city schools had been dealing with for many years.

In the end, all three candidates split the African-American vote.  But O’Malley won nearly all of the non-African-American vote in what turned into a surprisingly easy primary win as he got 52% of the overall vote.  The Democratic primary effectively was the election, as O’Malley won the general elections with 90% of the vote.

O’Malley highlighted using New York City’s Zero-Tolerance gun control policy, so it made sense that he picked a former high-ranking NYPD officer by the name of Ed Norris to be Baltimore’s top cop.  With O’Malley in charge, the city appeared to have turned a corner in terms of being a safer place to work, live, and play.  Coupled with the rise of the Ravens as an NFL powerhouse, things on the surface looked better.

But O’Malley’s views were not popular everywhere in the city, and nowhere so distinctly than the city’s west side.  The Western District had never really fully recovered from the 1968 riots in the aftermath of the Dr. King Assassination. Crime dominated the area.  And while the Zero-Tolerance policy was working, many in those areas felt the police were being given too much latitude in dealing with suspects.  They were suspicious of O’Malley and Norris.

Soon though, O’Malley was being hailed as the next generation of  Democratic Party leaders and so most of the city looked past O’Malley’s transgressions.  After Republican Bob Ehrlich upset Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend in the 2002 Governor’s election, O’Malley was looked upon by the Democratic leadership as the Democrats top voice in dissent.  And it got personal really quick as Gov. Ehrlich first tried to pluck Ed Norris away from O’Malley by nominating Norris as Maryland’s Top Cop.  Parts of Norris’ past came up, and O’Malley threw his one-time police commissioner under the bus.  Norris would ultimately be forced to withdraw consideration, and today hosts a morning talk-show in Baltimore.  Ehrlich then tried to once-again use the state to take over the Baltimore City Schools, but O’Malley wouldn’t allow it.  When the two finally clashed in the 2006 Gubernatorial Campaign, the bad blood between the two was at an all-time high.  Despite Ehrlich being very popular with the voters of MD, O’Malley won the election, then beat back Ehrlich again in 2010.

With O’Malley gone from the city of Baltimore, City Council President Sheila Dixon took over as Mayor and tried to soften O’Malley’s position on crime.  But after a few years, she was found guilty of taking gift cards intended for Baltimore’s poor youth and using it for her own benefit.  Her resignation in 2010 paved the way for then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to become mayor, which she currently is.

But people on Baltimore never forgot about O’Malley’s tenure as Mayor.  Though his impact was seen as positive by many—first as mayor, then as two-term Governor—some could not forget his views on criminals when he was Mayor of the city.  It may have manifested itself in last year’s Gubernatorial Election, where O’Malley’s hand picked successor, Anthony Brown (an African-American) was stunned by Republican Larry Hogan.  The post-election analysis proved telling.  In a city where Democrats, and especially African-American Democrats do very well in elections, Brown won easily, but it was by a far less percentage than what was needed to overcome Hogan’s superior advantage in the suburbs.  Many African-Americans probably chose not to vote in protest over O’Malley’s legacy.  A few even voted for Hogan, because Hogan actually campaigned in Baltimore City and cared enough to do so.

In the aftermath of the riots, Hogan has been on the ground in Baltimore, talking with the people of the city and with its leaders.  Though some may have criticized him giving the impression of throwing Mayor Rawlings-Blake under the bus for her response to the crisis on Monday, Hogan has shown a willingness to help out and appears to have shown a strong, yet caring hand in the situation.

As for O’Malley, he really hasn’t been around Maryland much since the elections.  He’s been too busy trying to be a potential rival to Hillary’s steamroller of a campaign for President next year.  But O’Malley’s national silence on the Baltimore situation has been deafening. 

O’Malley returned to Baltimore on Tuesday.  It was a disaster.  First, O’Malley had to ask an aide if it was safe to walk the streets of West Baltimore and talk with people.  Then, after being assured it was, he did—only to be heckled by residents who still remember his tenure as Mayor and how they believe it set the stage for the death of Freddie Grey.  Despite positive comments by some church leaders, the damage was done—perhaps fatal to his dreams of becoming President.

O’Malley is back on the pre-campaign trail.  Some have suggested a major speech is planned.  But O’Malley’s sins will haunt him if he runs for President.  Hillary is seen in a better light, especially after recent comments.  In the end, Martin O’Malley will likely be sitting the 2016 Presidential General Election on the sidelines, instead of being the nominee.  Baltimore’s sins have come home to roost on O’Malley.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

LTE Today: The long-awaited rise of the Dragon…

Sometime shortly after the New Year of 2015, an important milestone for LTE was crossed.  In some corner of the planet, the 500,000,000th LTE Subscriber was activated.  It is a remarkable achievement for a wireless technology that just over 10 years ago was first being proposed as a wireless technology.

I’ve blogged about how LTE was going to blow away WiMAX as early as 2010.  Heck, before LTE’s first network was activated in 2009, T-Mobile’s Neville Ray predicted that LTE would have 99% of the 4G market by the end of 2014.  He wasn’t too far off… LTE had at least 95% of the 4G market.  Now, LTE is sounding the death knell for CDMA technology, and it could render all 3G wireless technologies obsolete within 5-10 years.

LTE has continued to outpace even the most optimistic of projections regarding how the technology would grow over time.  At least 375 LTE networks are currently active across 130 countries.  Although LTE’s footprint is relatively small compared with older wireless technologies, it has been positioned and initially launched in large metropolitan areas, where LTE’s simplified architecture is prized over more complicated 3G networks.  In some countries, like the US, expansion has taken place to the point where now, over 99% of the citizens have access to a functioning LTE network.

And the one prediction I made in 2010 that was wrong as of 2012 has staged a remarkable reversal.  Mainland China has finally launched LTE across 3 networks using TD-LTE and it has been a huge launch.

Right now, the US is the largest LTE country in terms of subscribers with just under 150 million subscribers—mostly AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers (shut up John Legere, I’ve seen the numbers, you and Sprint combined are lucky to maybe have 20% of the total LTE share in the US).  But China is rapidly moving up the ladder.  Currently in 2nd place with about 100 million subscribers across its three networks, China is expected to pass the US in terms of number of LTE subscribers by around mid-year.  China’s largest cellular network, China Mobile, just blew past AT&T and Verizon to become the world largest LTE subscriber base, even though its network footprint is so small.  Heck, China Mobile is so big, Apple provided China Mobile with its own unique iPhone models. 

What the rise of China as a Wireless Force has done is that, for the first time ever, China is a major player in the Wireless World.  For many years, Europe and the US were the innovators in Wireless Technology, with Japan having an impact as well.  China was always playing catch-up.  They yearned for the day when they would have significant input on wireless technologies.  With LTE (in particular, TD-LTE), China has finally achieved being a voice in wireless tech.  And with 5G now being proposed and tested against, China can write a technology of its own that the world can accept as a global standard.

In the end, China will return to a glory they have seen over most of the last 2000 years.  What happens after they replace the US as Top Dog in LTE? Who cares?  For now, LTE is the great wireless technology… At least until 5G comes around.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The End of the Post-Johnny Carson Late Night Era…

Sometime later this year, the Post Johnny Carson Late Night Era in TV will, for all practical purposes, end with the retirement of David Letterman and the departure of Jon Stewart. When Johnny retired in May 1992, many of us wondered how we would soldier on without our favorite late night host. For the last 23 years, a variety of late night hosts have tried to fill Johnny’s shoes. While no one could individually, a group of hosts did an admirable job carrying on Johnny’s tradition.

Jay Leno. David Letterman. Jon Stewart. Craig Ferguson. And a host of others showed that life moved on after Johnny. Each late night talk show host brought their own variation of Johnny’s formula with a mix of their own style to the post-11pm crowd with varying degrees of success. Leno sat in Johnny’s chair at NBC and continued NBC’s domination of late night. Letterman had Johnny’s genius and support at CBS, while more than holding his own ratings-wise. Letterman also introduced his own prodigies in people like Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson. Kilborn would also entertain a brief run as host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central before a relatively unknown comedian named Jon Stewart would take the reins and send The Daily Show into the stratosphere for 15 years.

But now, they are leaving late night for various reasons and pursuing future endeavors. Leno, who retired last year, is pursuing his long-time passion for cars and occasionally pops up here and there on the comedy scene. Kilborn could not handle the national spotlight for long, and was last seen back in LA doing local TV. Ferguson lost out as heir apparent to Letterman—and got paid nicely for his trouble. His future is unknown, but it’s clear he may be heard from again. When Letterman retires, he will likely follow his mentor’s cues and ride off into the sunset, rarely returning to the spotlight post-Late Show. As for Stewart, he will either move over to the director’s chair, or become a major network news anchor.

The next generation replacing these late night hosts are already taking over.  Jimmy Fallon has replaced Leno in The Tonight Show Chair, and he has backup with Seth Meyers on Late Night. Jimmy Kimmel is given ABC a foothold in late night. Stephen Colbert, whose big break was thanks to Jon Stewart is Letterman’s heir apparent at CBS. And Comedy Central will find it’s next John Stewart, though it may take some time.

There are holdovers, to be sure.  Conan O’Brien, who was once Leno’s heir at NBC is still hanging on at TBS, although I suspect he has a retirement plan in place by the end of this decade. And Bill Maher, who started on ABC before getting a weekly show on HBO is still around, though his time is growing short as well. But for all practical purposes, the first generation after Johnny is calling it a day.

How will history judge these “children of Johnny” in late night? And can the next generation prove they, too, can thrive in a late night setting, like their predecessors?  Maybe we’ll know the full answer in about 15-20 years. For now, let’s treasure the moments we have with what’s left of the post-Johnny generation before they disappear.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Why Twitter is a “loaded gun”…

Steve Czaban of ESPN Radio Washington & Yahoo! Sports Radio once famously remarked that Twitter was a loaded gun.  After a controversial tweet in late 2012, Czaban had to deal with a firestorm of criticism.  He ultimately went into a self-imposed Twitter exile that lasted most of 2013.  The point: one wrong Tweet, and you could be in the trained crosshairs of certain groups.  Several celebs have been taken down because of Tweets.  Even the most innocuous of Tweets can find you in a world of trouble (just ask Bill Cosby and others).

Two tweets in the past week hammered that point personally home to me.  One was perhaps my most controversial Tweet to date.  The other came from CBS Radio & TV Talk Show Host Jim Rome, whose Twitter’s account I follow. 

First, my tweet.  Last Saturday Morning, the funeral for NYPD Officer Ramos took place.  Ofc. Ramos was 1 of 2 NYPD Officers assassinated apparently in retaliation for the deaths of 2 unarmed suspects at the hands of police in NYC and Ferguson, MO.  And yes, my controversial tweet concerned the funeral. 

Now I know what you are thinking… I went after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and his apparent lack of concern for NYPD Officers, right? Wrong. OK, maybe I went after the protestor who chanted for dead cops? Nope. OK, maybe I tweeted a scathing rebuke of the NYPD Officers who turned their backs on the Mayor’s eulogy, right? Guess again.

Here was my “controversial tweet”, which I later deleted:

"Interesting note about today's funeral for NYPD Ofc. Ramos... No Westboro Baptist Church members in sight to protest".

That’s it?!? On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 was minimal controversy and 10 was asking for trouble, I felt that tweet was a 2 at worst. No hastag, No @ address deliberately trying to egg on the church. Nothing. I felt that I had tweeted much worse snark about Ravens games this season.  No big deal, right? That was. until the alleged real Westboro Baptist Church, who clearly had their rabbit ears up, came back at me.  I captured some images of the responses.  First from the alleged Church themselves, they tweeted a picture trying to indicate they were there (which obviously, they weren’t).  If they were in NYC, they were clearly nowhere near the funeral; otherwise, they would have never made it out the Queens borough alive. Then they tried to tell me I was going to hell. Then the coup de grace. They lumped me in with VP Joe Biden, Al Sharpton, and the NYPD, praying for me to stop marrying gays. I kid you not!

I found the attention these “Christians” (and I use that term VERY loosely) directed at me to be funny.  I even joked about it on FB.  The fact the WBC Cult would be scared of lil’ ol’ me shows how far they have fallen.  Once upon a time, we used to get upset when they would protest funerals, like Matthew Shepard’s, soldiers who died in combat, celebrities, and even little victims of the Newtown, MA shooting. Now, they have been reduced to coming after nobodies. They excommunicated their founder before he died because he apparently softened his anti-gay stance in a moment of compassion. They are losing family members, who are coming to the reality that their hell, fire, and brimstone preaching about gays all the time is counterproductive.

Still, I made a mistake.  I gave them something they are in desperate need.  Attention. And a reason to hate.  They probably preached a sermon about me last Sunday, thinking I am some major agent of the devil. Not my intention, but I gave them something to chew on.  So I have decided to not do that again. If they need me and others to even comment about them in order to keep surviving on hate, it is time to stop giving them attention.  If we can ignore them, they will eventually disappear—whether peacefully (as in they will stop believing their hatred) or… well, think Jonestown, Guyana and Jim Jones.

Jim Rome, stirred up a controversy of a different kind during halftime of yesterday’s Rose Bowl in an apparent reference to Florida State’s Marching Band.  His tweet (also now deleted) went like this:

“Is there anyone not in a marching band who thinks those dorks running around with those instruments are cool?”

This was a reset of a take he unloaded over 5 years ago concerning “Marching Band Guy”.  Over the years, Rome has taken on various “Guys” who think they are athletes, but are really not in his mind… Guys like “Softball Guy”, “Soccer Guy”, “Bowling Guy”, “Fitness Guy”, “Pickup Basketball Guy”, “Fantasy Football Guy”, etc.  “Marching Band Guy” was one of his last Guys he ripped on.  And I know this was over 5 years ago, because that take is older than Joshua.

Anyways, as someone who has listened to “Van Smack” over the years, who used to be “Marching Band Guy”, and who still considers himself a “Bowling Guy”, I have had no issues Rome’s takes on “Marching Band Guy” or “Bowling Guy”. He played to his radio audience. No big deal. And I saw his tweet about the Marching Band last night and thought, “He’s just looking to ruffle some listeners’ feathers up a little.” I had heard worse when I was a South Gwinnett Band of Stars Member and verbal crap was hurled in my direction coming from the Drumline and Low Brass sections during Band Camps at the GA 4-H Camp.

Well, apparently, it stirred up a hornet’s nest.

Maybe it was the fact that Marching Bands have been dealing with negative press in recent years.  Like Florida A&M’s Marching Band, whose Famed group was suspended for a year after the death of a Drum Major exposed a major hazing culture that existed into this decade.  Like Ohio State’s Band, whose decades of hypersexualized culture was exposed last year, leading to the firing of their Band Director. Like the High School Director in Alabama who turned after school tutoring of female students into his own “Fifty Shades of Grey” fantasies that the young ladies were all too eager to satisfy. Like the fact that when most people think Marching Band Movies, they think of “American Pie” and what you can do with a flute at Band Camp instead of “Drumline”.

So the Band folks snapped last night and went after the “Pimp in the Box” in such a huge way that Rome was forced to make a rare apology.  And by forced, I mean that CBS probably told him they were feeling the heat and that he was potentially costing them money.  Rome could get away with it years ago when he had his own syndicated radio network and didn’t have to answer to a major company. He no longer has that ability now that he’s ultimately answering to Jim McKay’s son.

Again, I had no problem with Rome’s controversial post, because I used to be a Scrawny Marching Band Dork who wasn’t cool. But some Marching Band people were offended.  They thought Rome was being a bully, even though some of them acted like Marching Band Bullies in High School Band.  That’s what I find ironic. And look, just because you wake up early for 5:00 am Band Practice doesn’t mean you are more athletic than an athlete. I know this firsthand. After my three years of Marching Band, I tried out for the Basketball team at South Gwinnett my Senior Year-and didn’t make the cut. The Basketball conditioning kicked my butt in more ways than anything Mitch Lavender had ever put me through during a Band Camp (a Back-to-Front Sprint--known by a more insensitive name--was considered a Cool-Down day? Seriously, Coach Mudd?)

Anyways, the Band folks can call off the hounds now… Further agitation would be just piling on.  Marching Band Guy (and probably the rest of the “Guys”) has now joined “The Rat Family” in something Rome will never bring up on air or Twitter ever again.

As I said in the beginning, Twitter (even more so than Facebook) is a loaded gun.  Choose to use it wisely. From now on, I’ll try to focus on Sports and Tech—maybe Tweet an Election Day take whenever that happens. I’d like to think those things are innocuous… But I (and Jim Rome) must realize some people will always have their rabbit ears up…

So… “What’s Popping Twitter??” Winking smile