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as the home of American soccer hooligans. How awesome is that? The East London football club, West Ham United, came to Columbus to play the Crew in a friendly, and a fight broke out in the stands.

I think that’s awesome for many reasons.  Here’s a few:

One: The hooliganism shows that Crew fans are passionate. How many times have you heard about passion in English football in the US? Exactly. None! It’s time that Crew fans treated every match like it was the Buckeyes vs. the Wolverines. I want to see dumped beers and a black eye or two.

Two: This is Columbus–hooliganism won’t get out of hand. This was an isolated skirmish in the stands that was broken up quickly. To me, it sounds like the perfect soccer match fight. It’s not like we have a hooligan firm of 35-100 fans who look for trouble at matches. You’ll have a few overzealous rowdies working their beer muscles, that’s all.

Three: It will have a good spillover to other sports in Columbus. The only other games in town are the Columbus Blue Jackets and the omnipresent Ohio State Buckeyes. Bucks fans are rabid, but pretty docile–again, this IS Columbus. Getting shown up by soccer hooligans would surely leave a bad taste in my mouth if I had season tickets to OSU football games at the ‘Shoe. Maybe OSU fans will step up their game with chants, scarves and the flinging of Budweiser and foam fingers. As long as they keep Buckeye necklaces from flying through the air, everyone will be fine. On the other hand, the Blue Jackets have no identity, such as the Red Wings, who throw octopii on the ice and fists in Joe Louis Arena.  Maybe, the Crew fans can throw a dish from one of Cameron Mitchell’s many restaurants on the opposing team’s heads. I’d opt for something other than swordfish, perhaps a crab cake, which can have good trajectory and can be flung from a clay pigeon launcher fairly easily.  Pull!

My family and I just got back from a fantastic vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC, where we spent a week with my parents and my aunt and uncle. Tom and Stasia Gilbride (My mom’s sister and her husband) own three condo units in an old hotel on the beach. I have to thank them for their immense hospitality. My family had a great time.

It was especially nice, since I have not been on vacation with my parents since 1984. Oh, my brother, Tim, and I had the opportunity in 1988, but we were going to hold our own party while they were out of town. That’s another story–of the perfect crime foiled–for another time. It was nice to spend time with my mom and dad and to let them get to know me again for the first time in many years.

They know me just fine. Mainly from the many visits I’ve had home between 1992 and last week for family get-togethers, holidays, my wedding, the kids’ baptisms, summer fun parties and the like. I haven’t, however, spent prolonged time with them in a very long time. It was good to play in the pool with my dad and my kids and to see my dad act like a grandpa, but really, he was acting like my dad all over again in my youth. I also got the chance to talk to my mom about little things, like how nice it was to spend this much time together and to talk to her the same way I would when I’d come home from being out as a teenager when she’d be coming home from work at Assumption Nursing Home. I really enjoyed the closeness.

My mom said it was nice for her to spend the long time with my kids, to become more familiar. We really only see my parents once or twice a month, so the kids don’t know them the same way that Karyn and I knew our grandparents. Mom was especially happy to see my youngest, Cecelia, learn to recognize her and become comfortable with her. She kept saying to Cece, “look who it is…it’s that crazy lady smiling at me again.” No, Mom. Not crazy. Just someone who is happy to be around family.

Today, I was driving back to my office from a meeting thinking about two chicken, spinach and mushroom Lean Pockets sandwiches I was going to scarf for lunch when a millisecond from my business’ parking lot, I had an undeniable urge to drive straight to Taco Bell for a number six combo–two chalupas and a chicken soft taco.

This doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary, except for the fact that I’m on Weight Watchers and just lost fifteen pounds.

“Relax,” I told myself. “You have 35 extra points to soak up the damage of that feast.” WW afficionados know what I’m talking about. The points program has a built in 35 point addition in case you blow your points for the day in a ridiculous meal like I did.

I had to stop and think for a minute about how familiar that split second felt. I’m reeeeeeally too comfortable and familiar with that feeling of:

Doo-do-do-doo…la-la-la…staying the course and becoming successful…hmmm…think I’ll do the exact thing I’m not supposed to do.

By the time I’ve come to my senses, I’ve come within an inch of ruining any progress I’ve made at setting a goal and find myself in a deep hole, thinking, “OK, NOW I can continue.”

WTF?

In college, I did this with relationships, term papers, and tests. Before I met my wife, I did the same with those relationships and my work. It wasn’t just envelope pushing around procrastination. I’ve come to believe that I have an unshakeable urge to set myself back so that if I fail…well, I was in the hole to begin with, so I’m impressed that I’ve actually come this close.

I wonder if this is what President Bush feels every waking moment of every day.

I’m not as disastrous as a self-inflcted foot assasin these days. But if you were to ask anyone who knows me today and knew me then, they’d say, “yep, that’s Hall…good ol’ ‘Six Shooter’ strikes again.”

In the case of my OCD fiesta, I actually can make up for lost calorie discipline with exercise and better weight manageent. I need to make sure this doesn’t slip back into the rest of my life as well.

I jumped on the Barack Obama bandwagon somewhere before I got to vote for him in the primary here in Ohio on March 4. I decided that while Hillary is a fighter, our country could really use a doer who can win. Obama’s done enough in my book to be that guy. Now, all he has to do is move here to Ohio for the next five months to let our undereducated populace know that he’s willing to go to bat for them.

Why does he have to move here? It’s pretty simple. In 2004, President Bush beat Senator Kerry 2,859,764 to 2,741,165 in the Buckeye State–roughly 51-49 % and 286-252 in electoral votes. The only upside here is that 59% of the independents went for Kerry, but even that was not enough.

In 2000, Bush beat Gore 2,294,167-2,117,741–roughly 50-46 % and 271-266 in electoral votes.

Even if you look at this as progress with the larger turnout in 2004 and the show of independents, you can’t argue that Ohio isn’t primarily a red-leaning state. It has three blue areas: Northeast Ohio (where I live), the Toledo area, and Franklin County (where Columbus is). I say red-leaning, since Gov. Strickland rode to power on the incompetence of former GOP Gov. Bob Taft and his connections to Tom Noe and the Coingate fiasco. So far, Strickland’s done OK; however, he now has the noose that former attorney general Marc Dann fitted for the both of them with his terrible Eliot Spitzer impression. Let’s not forget that the legislature in Ohio is Republican in both Houses.

Sen. Obama is going to have to work like a dog to win the Ohio vote from former Hillary Clinton supporters. I’m of the opinion that unless he recognizes her historic run in some fashion that he can then carry for the party–and convince the Hillary supporters that he can actually do it–he will lose them and the state in grand fashion.

Bush won by two percent in Ohio. Two freaking percent! Just because we earned a Democrat governor and senator after 2006 does not mean this state is in the win column. Gov. Strickland is a HUGE Hillary supporter.  Sen. Obama needs to get him on board yesterday. The same goes for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, whose wisdom holds a lot of weight in Cuyahoga County with the African American community. She is also a Hillary supporter.
In 2004, Kerry’s 46% of the state was 93% of the Democrats in the state who voted. The 49 % of Republicans who voted was comprised of only 66% of the Republicans in the state. I know that makes the independents argument from up top seem in error, but that’s what I’ve got here from CNN. This tells me that the independents are all pretty much in play. They had to have voted Republican to make up for the 33% of Republicans who didn’t vote for Bush in ‘04.

Ohio is in terrible shape. We have the largest mortgage foreclosure numbers in the country (right in Cuyahoga County not three miles from where I work). Graduates of universities and colleges leave skidmarks on their way out of the state. No worries there; they only comprise 21 percent of the population. Whichever candidate can imbue hope with a plan that will have tangible, immediate results for the state’s economy will win. I’m not sure that Obama’s message of hope alone is enough. He needs to be stronger here. It would help if he picked Gov. Strickland as his VP. Strickland is liked throughout the state as governor and as a retired Methodist minister. If he’s not, Cincinnati and the lower two-thirds of the state will lean toward an American war hero. That’s what McCain will be seen as–not as the third term of George Bush.

I was talking to my brother and one of my cousins this weekend at a family party. We discussed MySpace (See my other post for that!) and getting back in touch with one’s past. My 20th year reunion is taking place this Thanksgiving weekend and I’ve had the occasion to touch base with a lot of people I went with to high school.

My brother mentioned that he hasn’t looked back since graduating high school. He said that he “tends to be a forward-thinking kind of guy.” I get that–and it’s obviously successful for him. He has the idea that he needs to have a short memory in terms of past successes and failures, because he will have new challenges and new friendships to forge as he and his family moves forward.

In other words, he plays the corner–as in cornerback position in football. As a cornerback, you’re alone on an island covering, usually, bigger, stronger, and faster receivers. You’re also responsible for run containment on your side should a running back blow past the D-line and linebackers. If you blow a tackle, or get burned by a receiver who catches a pass and takes it to the house, you will have to line up again during the next time you’re on defense and forget the mistake–or success (interception, big hit) from the previous play. You can make the analogy with several different sports–with a soccer or hockey goalie, or a closer in baseball–you get the idea.

My life has changed a lot since high school and I’ve made the most of relationships that I’ve entered. I haven’t necessarily “moved on” from thinking about other people I knew in high school or college–or post college, or pre-Chicago or post Chicago. Here’s a perfect example. I was a member of a theater company called Shadowbox in Columbus. I worked my ass off for two years, but when it came down to staying there or staying with my girl, I chose Karyn–no contest, really. Effectively, I was thinking forward. Karyn and I moved from Columbus and I had little or no ties back to this group outside of stopping by the theater whenever I was in town to say hi.

That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t miss or think about those people and friendships I’ve moved on from. I still drop by the theater when I get a chance and e-mail invitations to our annual summer party (they’ve never come because of constant performing). Those two years were important to me, even though I’m very far removed.

Still, I don’t want to get stuck in the past either. When life becomes static, it’s easy to think about past successes and failures in your life to motivate you or to learn from the example. In some relationships, because Karyn and I moved on, it seems like there’s always going to be unfinished business. Should I/we forget these folks beyond summer parties and Christmas Cards?

Something wonderful happened on Sunday.

My daughter, who is practicing her ballet routine for her annual recital, said the following:

I really want to practice, because I want to be the star of the show!

I found that incredible–not so much that she said or meant it. Vivian is nothing if not determined when she has her mind fixed on something, but that someone with that will to succeed came from my genes.

In other words, I’ve never been the one to say “I want to be the best” or “I want to be the star.”  I’ve reached for the brass ring if it’s there for the taking, but I’ve never really been so competitive to fight for what I want.

I can say that there have been three or four times in my life where I have really strived for excellence.

First, when I was a junior in high school, I tore my right anterior cruciate ligament to shreds during football practice. I worked very diligently to come back and play football the next year. I didn’t start or anything like that, but I proved, at least to myself, that I can come back from adversity.

Second, I had to win back my girlfriend, now my wife, with whom I’d broken up, because I was afraid of what commitment might mean. It took time to win her back, but it was worth it. She could have had any amount of suitors she wanted during the time we were apart. I was very fortunate to win her back.

Third, I wanted to be a triple-threat–singer, actor, sketch writer–at the theater company, Shadowbox Cabaret. Within a year of starting there, I had sung with the band three times, created two repeat characters, starred in a one-act play, and written four or five sketches.

Fourth, and finally, I wanted to move to Chicago to try improvisational comedy and to live in a big city. With some coaxing, I convinced Karyn to come with me on this great adventure. I tried my hand at IO and at Second City for as long as I could; then, we married in Lincoln Park and lived in Wrigleyville for two years, until we found we were expecting our first child.

These are my success stories. I guess I’m also striving to lose weight–through weight watchers–and to control my obsessive compulsive disorder–through cognitive therapy and medication. I’ve never applied this kind of focus at any other time. I think I’m going to start right now. I can be the best fundraiser at the regional hospitals of the Cleveland Clinic Health System. There’s no reason that I can’t.  I’ll just follow my daughter’s lead.

At the end of last month, I was looking at the web site for my twenty-year high school reunion. There, I saw many of my classmates’ profiles–some had MySpace links for their home pages. Two of the people I could understand–they are both in bands and looking to promote their music. There is no doubt that MySpace is great for buzz if you’re a musician, or a comedian, or a comic book scribe or artist.

I don’t necessarily think it’s the best thing for just putting yourself out there, especially if you’re married and have kids. I tried having a MySpace page for about two weeks. Many of my friends from online are people I knew when I did improv in Chicago, or they are friends of my friends from Chicago. It was fun hunting all of these people down and having them be my “friend.” It spoke to the obsessive-compulsive nature in me.

Then, I started getting invites from young girls–avatars with boobs, winks. I can only assume they were young girls, since the pictures and online language gave away some of their age. After a while, I began to realize that I didn’t have much to offer anyone in terms of information that I couldn’t post here in a blog. So, I burned down my site.

So, back to my classmates. This discovery made me think. What is the age threshhold for having a MySpace page? According to my friend, Greg Wilson, the age of creep is 35. The exceptions to the rule are younger people who are more internet savvy and immigrants who have family overseas.  One of my other cohorts from high school, Jason Bryan, said that it’s unwise to have a site if you’re in any profession outside of entertainment, particularly if you’re a teacher.

I’m a teacher–it’s not a good idea to be that accessible to my students.  Not to mention that it’s a little creepy!  I’ve never had a MySpace page and I tell anyone who wants to be a teacher to remove themselves ASAP.  I know of administrators who look at potential teaching candidates to see if they have a MySpace account and it is definitely a determining factor–never in the positive.

That’s a really good point. Most people have links in their e-mail signatures, or in other personal web sites, that lead to MySpace and Facebook style pages.

One of the band people, Asif Khan, who is a drummer for Johnny Hi-Fi, has a MySpace page for his band. He warns more against Facebook because of their ownership language in their waivers.

Facebook is a whole other beast!  Read the fine print, stated clearly is a clause indicating that whatever you put on facebook, becomes facebook property, including music, words and pictures!  Myspace does not have this clause. Post at your own risk!!!

Michelle Dobrawsky is a lawyer and improviser in New York. She says being on Facebook is something to do, and it keeps her in touch with people. Plus, she is addicted to Scrabbulous, which, I’m told is a game. My brother, Patrick, has both. He’s 28 and is part of that Millenium Generation.  A member of my improv team, Nougat, from Chicago is also on Facebook. Brian Golinvaux uses it to keep in touch with friends and to see who has kids, or lives in different places.

My friend Gwyn Ashley has another view of MySpace.

I don’t think it’s creepy.  First, you can set your settings on MySpace for only your friends to be able to contact you, see your pictures and comments…that’s what I did,” she said.  ”And anyone asking to be my friend has to know either my last name or my emailI like MySpace in that it helps me stay at least in cyberspace contact with people I USED to know very well.  

 

That’s a gtreat point, too. Now I don’t think I’ll be going down that road just to make a connection or maintain a friendship, but I have to agree that it gets results.

I remembered this sentence from a day during my junior year of college. I was a news editorial major in the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Earlier that summer, I worked at an internship at the Youngstown Vindicator, where I was to write metro or city types of stories, since I knew the area. Unfortunately, two other OU Journalism students also got internships there. They were a year older, and, I suppose more polished, so they got the good stories and I had to create stories based on features, entertainment reviews, and local festivals. This suited me fine, actually, because I was able to write these stories pretty easily. My editor, Carl Basic (an appropos surname to be sure), usually had the red pen out when it came to my stories. This wasn’t unusual. Most interns–hell, most writers–get their first drafts hacked up by editors. Carl Basic made a meal out of my work all summer. I did put together a pretty impressive portfolio, but I’d had my fill of news writing and wanted to move in a different direction–advertising and public relations.

I told this to my advisor, Professor Donald Lambert. A tenured old salt of the newspaper world. He wrote one or two of my textbooks, I think. I told him that based on my experience last summer and my realization that newspaper reporters are not paid very well, that I’d like to switch to public relations as my sequence of my journalism degree.

He closed the book he was reading before I walked in, said,  “Well, I guess I have no use for you,” and ushered me out telling me that I’d need a new advisor.

I looked up the word superdickery in the encyclopedia later that day (this was 1990) and found a full page bleed of Donald Lambert’s face.

What. an. ass. I mean, I saw his point. He had probably seen a lot of promising writers forsake news writing for other sequences and had just given up trying to advise any of them after they moved on. That stuck with me for a while. I can’t remember who replaced him as my advisor–he was an advertising professor whom I’d had for a magazine writing/editing class, but the name escapes me. I’ll always remember Donald Lambert though.

My life has turned out ok jobwise. I’ve sold advertising, written copy, planned and ran events, presented and sold internet services, and raised money for colleges and hospitals. Still, I haven’t done as much writing in my life as I would have liked. I’ve been doing some grant writing recently, and sonuvabitch, if I’m not a really good writer.  I’m going to try to branch out into other forms of writing–for work and for fun. I don’t think I’ll send anything to Professor Lambert though.

When I was in school at the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University (I say this, because I used to be a journalist-in-training), we learned to corroborate sources of information to make sure we were being told the truth as journalists.

If only people had that ability ingrained in their brains–check and verify what you are told is the truth, it would be a lot harder for the government to snow us with propaganda. Fortunately, the internet is a good source of news information; however, it’s also a good source of echo chambers from every political bent that parrot what their ideologues want people to hear. It saddened me to read this in Sunday’s New York Times online.

Of course, we as civilians are told to rely on retired military experts to explain military procedure and war planning, because that’s not our job.  We’ve all seen Col. Ken Allard, Gen. Wayne Downing and other brass touting what the Pentagon and military are doing in their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What they forgot to mention is that they are specifically tailoring their ‘expert personal opinions’ to mirror what the Pentagon wants them to say, as opposed to the truth on the ground.

Go on and read the article. It’s long, so you might want to pack a lunch for it. I’ll wait…

…..

Back already? Awesome.  Do you own stock in Nortel Government Solutions? How about Northrop Grumman? Have you ever heard of Patton Boggs, or  McNeil Technologies?  Let me help out here.  Retired Air Force General Thomas McInerney sits on the board of Nortel Government Solutions and serves as an analyst for Fox News. Coincidence? Ret. General James Marks, of the Army, is a senior executive at McNeil Technologies, which is a lobbying firm for defense contractors. He was also a war analyst for CNN from 2004-2007. How about that?

Do you see the picture now? After calls of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay in 2005 and word of the insurgency in 2004, the Pentagon dispatched Generals Marks and McInerney to the networks to talk about all of the positives at Guantanamo. They helped downplay the insurgency, even when it was at its worst. For their good work, they were paid $500-$1000 per “hit” or appearance on TV. They also had their foot in the door for securing business for their friends in the military industrial complex.

The Pentagon said to them, basically, if you want to hang out at our bar, you’d better tell your mother you’re at the library studying.

Over time, the Pentagon recruited more than 75 retired officers, although some participated only briefly or sporadically. The largest contingent was affiliated with Fox News, followed by NBC and CNN, the other networks with 24-hour cable outlets. But analysts from CBS and ABC were included, too. Some recruits, though not on any network payroll, were influential in other ways — either because they were sought out by radio hosts, or because they often published op-ed articles or were quoted in magazines, Web sites and newspapers. At least nine of them have written op-ed articles for The Times.

So basically, the news reporters weren’t telling America the truth, because the media would rather take the word of bought and paid for officers. That’s what it boils down to. It’s all about the Benjamins when it comes to informing the nation.

Now, I understand the need to keep America positively focused after the reaction the nation took to Vietnam. Still, give us as Americans some credit! We can handle the truth about how the war is going. Should we have to go to BBC.com to get the real scoop on what’s happening on the ground in Iraq? Does America need to be psy-oped like we’re the enemy? Apparently, that’s the case.

This was a major theme, for example, with Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare, Mr. Vallely co-authored a paper in 1980 that accused American news organizations of failing to defend the nation from “enemy” propaganda during Vietnam.

“We lost the war — not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,” he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars — taking aim at not just foreign adversaries but domestic audiences, too. He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”

Just reading that last sentence makes me think of the sounds of jackbooting troops on parade and the strains of “Deutschland Uber Alles.” Are you kidding me? I never thought I’d see the day, where America would be taking pages of Joseph Goebbel’s propaganda playbook.

Dan Rooney just endorsed Barack Obama for president.

I didn’t really need Mr. Rooney’s word–I already voted for him in March to be the Democratic candidate–but if I hadn’t done so, that would have swayed me.

Dan Rooney is a legend. His family is arguably the best and classiest group of owners of a football team in the NFL, namely the Pittsburgh Steelers. They don’t make bad decisions. They’ve had three coaches in the past 49 years. The Browns, I think, have had 57 coaches in that span of time.

Top that off with Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis endorsing Obama and the position is closed–at least it should be in Pittsburgh. We’ll see how Obama does in PA. Fat lot of good my vote did for him in Ohio, but at least I got to be part of the process this time around.