Reunited
So I guess I am really no different than most general managers in the sport who view George as a cheap option to throw the ball deep. But unlike the NFL, Madden takes very little of George’s luggage as a supposed malcontent into consideration and his outbursts do not exist in the digital theatre. George, to me at least, was the symbol of hope and promise unfulfilled. Drafted first overall the pundits maintained that he would rewrite the records books straight out of the University of Illinois. This did not happen. He was taken by talent challenged Colts squad and he was just a piece of the overall puzzle as opposed to savior. I always viewed George as a cog in machination of offense. He would never be the leader but still a valuable asset.At this point I am the St. Jude for the Jeff George experience. I hold on to some deranged hope that he will resurrect a squad and lead them to an improbable Super Bowl victory. Stranger things have happened. Remember Trent Dilfer was a bust that became a champion later in his career. We, at DavidPatrickCastro.com/blog, hold on to hope for George and his ability to throw the deep ball. The vertical game has missed you sir and you are as timeless as the tides that wash into the Oakland bay.
“I’ve always been able to throw the ball, George said. “I’ve been blessed to throw the ball. And I think I’ll be able to do that till I’m 60.”
Escape From L.A.
Lindsey and I took in the Diamondback vs. Dodgers game on Saturday night. Like the other 40,000 folks in attendance we were drawn by Chad Tracey Bobblehead Night. As I’ve itterated before , http://davidpatrickcastro.com/blog/2006/08/13/welcome-to-the-terrordome/, there were many fans rooting for the opposite side. When I attended a Cubs game at Chase Field the crowd was 40% Chicago fans. I thought this was a bit high but the Cubbies have fans everywhere and will always be a popular squad but I had no idea that so many Dodger fans live in the valley. Phoenix is a land of tranplants and gypsies and last night was another example of this transient town.
Since 1990 Phoenix population has jumped 50% and as of 2006 the city is the sixth biggest city in the United States and expectaton by various experts inthe field have the city bumping up another 50% in the next eight years. To date Phoenix is 517 square miles of urban sprawl and has surpassed L.A. in size. With it’s continued growth, in population and square mileage, the problems of big cities have come to the desert.
“Cities like Phoenix that change very rapidly tend to have high crime,” said Scott Decker, the chairman of the criminology department at Arizona State University. “The economy can’t absorb newcomers. There’s a lack of established traditions. In cities of high transient populations like Phoenix, that’s what’s going on.”
To date Phoenix has surpassed L.A. in homicides and car thefts per 100,000 residents. In overall rankings L.A. has a higher amount of crime than Phoenix but it seems that the writing is on the wall for the Valley to take on the same problems of its big city brethren.
To an outsider Phoenix is viewed as a land of opportunity where the middle class American Dream is still alive. 
Hard work and dedication can lead to a bounty of opportunities.
Per one report if Greater Phoenix were a country its economy would rank 45th in the world. Most of this econmic growth has occured between 1991 and 2001.
With plentiful jobs and a growing housing market Phoenix is the ideal town to move to. I fall under the same tenets. I had heard and read about the burgeoning economy and the ability to afford a home. I headed east by south east and found a good job in a solid field. But upon closer inspection there are clear cut signs that Phoenix would be no different than L.A. in time.
Before I moved out here I remember having a conversation with my friend Emily on the pros and cons of the Valley. All she said was that Phoenix was essentially L.A. without the glamour and dirt of Hollywood. The depravity was available but there would be no Hollywood chic.
Thank you, Al Davis
Will I maintain these ideas next week when the new Madden hits the shelves. No doubt. I’ve been doing it for years and the players have changed names but there roles are the same. Jeff George was replaced by Byron Leftwich. Leftwich gave way to Hackney. Al Davis has maintined the same schemes and replaced the parts as time passed on. Kerry Collins, Aaron Brooks and Andrew Walter are no different than Lamonica. Moss is no different than Cliff Branch, Willie Gault and James Jett.
Dark Knight or Rainbow Swinger?
I am not a comic book kind of guy, peruse IseeRobots.com for that info, but I have seen all of the Batman flicks. They have run the spectrum from crap to pretty cool. Within these various interpretations of the Dark Knight there have been many constant themes. The isolated man sworn to avenge a heinous act. A beacon of hope in a society gone mad. And a closet homosexual that hides behind the dual identities of Bruce Wayne and Batman.”I was in a rubber suit and I had rubber nipples,” George Clooney of 1997’s Batman & Robin said. ”I could have played Batman straight, but I made him gay.”
If Superman represents unabashed Americana then Batman seems to represent the notion that society keeps many of their darkest secrets hidden in a closet. Bruce Wayne maintains the dichotomy of millionaire playboy and masked crime fighter. For him there can be no true sense of identity. The lines of reality are blurred to the point where an outsider could have no idea where he ends and Batman begins. The proof though, in Batman’s hidden sexuality, is obvious to the casual observer upon closer inspection to the lifestyle he keeps.
He befriended a young Dick Grayson and raised the lad in his own image of masked avenger. Their’s was a strained relationship of an adult who was aware of his desires and a confused kid raised as both a partner and as a servant.
“At home they lead an idyllic life,”Dr. Fredric Wertham maintained in his 1954 study Seduction of the Innocent. ”They are Bruce Wayne and ‘Dick’ Grayson. They live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful flowers in large vases, and have a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown. … It is like a wish dream of two homosexual living together.”
Throughout the Batman flicks Bruce Wayne is being persued by various vixens and yet, despite their greatest efforts of come ons and near strip tease, are unable to take away Gotham’s finest from his appointed duties as mentor to a young man and masked crime fighter. These romantic oddities have been prevalent throught the late 20th century flicks and Wayne’s lack of interest seemed to be based upon his duties as opposed to his sexual orientation.
“There are only “masculine, bad, witchlike or violent women” Wertham said. “If the girl is good looking she is undoubtedly the villainousness. If she is after Bruce Wayne, she will have no chance against Dick.”
It seems to me that the Dark Knight hides his sexuality behind both a mask and a separate role as millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. The media of Gotham maintained that moniker for our hero and like Rock Hudson the ultra secretive Bruce Wayne has fooled the media. Within S/M stylings Batman can be free to live the life he chooses without judgment. The world has no inkling to his truest identity because he maintains a dual plane existence and maybe he doesn’t know where one role begins and the other starts. In a conservative Gotham there is no room for an openly gay champion for the people, hence the mask and cod piece. If granted the opportunity to be himself, as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, we could have another homosexual crime fighter because I am assume Wonder Woman is tired of championing the cause of justice and sexual freedom by herself.
