Wu-Tang Clan Is Nothing to Mess With

Yesterday I walked into my Journalism 721 class dressed the way I dress most days: jeans, clean Adidas, a nice sweater (yesterday's was light blue) with a button-up collared shirt on underneath. I looked sharp, in a very conservative way. My hair, while it needed to be cut, looked neat also. I was the stereotypical dude in a Starbucks at 9am on a Saturday. White as snow. I always have been, and there's isn't really anything I can do about it. I guess I'm not doing much to help myself by dressing the way I do, or wearing my hair the way I do, but for whatever culturally ingrained reason it's how I feel most comfortable. And I also think it is how I look best. Some people look great with a suit on, some people look best in sweats, I happen to look my best when I'm dressed like somebody at a Dave Mathews concert. You can't fight nature.

None of this is particularly interesting, except that I was also listening to music. This is the part that is funny. This is the part that makes this story worth writing in a blog post. This is the part that helps explain who I am much more clearly than trying to explain why I dress like Mitt Romney. I was listening to the Wu-Tang Clan. I love the Wu-Tang Clan. I have loved them since I first heard them in sixth grade. And the only thing funnier than a white 12 year old with a bowl cut listening to Old Dirty Bastard, is a white 28 year old in a sweater listening to Old Dirty Bastard. This means that for 16 years of my life, more than half of the time I have been alive, I've been bringing the mother*%$*ing ruckus. And I love it just as much today as I did back then.

There is a funny transition that happens in your mid to late twenties. You still get really happy when Saved by the Bell comes on TV, but you also have 4 episodes of 60 minutes on your DVR. You own things, you have savings, maybe even some investments, but you still dress up as a Ninja Turtle for Halloween. You get sore. Hangovers exist. Gray hairs show up...those jerks. But more than anything you start to figure out who you are. I'm always going to like Wu-Tang. Even when all my hair is gray, and I am that dude at Starbucks at 9am, I'm going to drive home drinking my latte listening to C.R.E.A.M.

------Other news--------

The Husky Men's Basketball team plays in Connecticut this weekend, and I will be there. Two games, one on Saturday one on Sunday, at the Mohegan Sun Casino. This is exciting for a handful of reasons. First, this the longest I have gone without attending a Seattle sporting event since I was 8. The last game I went to was a Mariners game in late August, so I am very excited to see a hometown team in person. Second, my buddy Mike Gastineau is calling play-by-play for the Dawgs this weekend. It is going to be great to see a friend from home, and he is getting me and my Boston pals free tickets. Thanks Gas. And finally, I will get to add Connecticut to my ever growing list of northeastern states that I have visited. I hear it's a real dump. I can't wait. I plan on putting all of my student loans on the craps table, let's hope the dice are hot.

It has come to my attention that the Huskies might suck this year. I listened to a lot of the Albany game on the radio, and from what I heard, this team can't guard a dead man. I hope Abdul Gaddy is ready to get an ear full if he can't keep the Seton Hall defense in front of him. Remember when Abdul was a McDonald's All American, and he was the second ranked PG coming into college, following only John Wall? Remember that?

------School Stuff-------

Here is a news report I did for school on a rib festival in Cambridge. It was really fun. Enjoy the video.

Weather

Hurricane Sandy happened. And then we got what is called a "Nor'easter" (Nahr-Eashaahh). Everything has a name over here. They are even naming the snowstorms now...I think what happened the other night was called Brutus. Et tu, Brute? I don't remember any rain storm ever having a name in Seattle, but that's probably because there aren't enough names for all that rain. Here is what my street looked like during the snow storm...

The fact is, the weather has been crazy over here. Lucky for us in Boston, Sandy took a sharp left turn at Atlantic City, leaving us relatively unharmed. It was windy, it was rainy, we got a day off school, but in the end we got very lucky. There is no doubt that everyone has seen and heard the horrible stories from New York City. The sea level was rising at about an inch per decade between 1900-2000, now it's rising at about 6 inches per decade. I am glad my grandparents had a pool when I was a kid, because we are all going to need to know how to swim in about 30 years.

Today it was nearly 70 degrees. So just to recap, in the past two weeks we had a hurricane, a nor'easter and what would have qualified as a decent summer day in Seattle. It's funny to live in a place where snow is no big deal. Brutus was the first snow of the year, and people here treated it like it was just another day. No one drives any differently, people don't immediately start freaking out...they just put on gloves and hats and keep on trucking. I made the foolish mistake of asking if we might get school off the next day, and my friends just laughed.

I am having similar run ins to my "Welcome to Boston" moments, when I complain about the cold. The majority of the folks who I hang out with from school are from very cold places. In fact, now that I think of it, aside from my one buddy from California all of my friends are from cold places. Some are from Boston and New York, a few are from Michigan, one is even from Russia. You don't get a lot of sympathy from someone who grew up in Moscow when you whine about a 35 degree day. But I'm a wimp, and I am not ashamed to admit that. I hear the exact same thing every time I mention how cold it is...."Just wait," they say. Or "This is nothing".

I suppose we are all proud of the characteristics of our home regions. Everyone I meet out here asks me if the rain in Seattle is really as bad as people say, and I proudly tell them that it's worse. Tell someone from Texas that you are hot, and they will tell you to visit Houston in August. Tell someone from Florida that it's muggy, and they will laugh at you. Well in Boston, it's the cold. And they are very proud of how tough they are. They wear their ability to deal with the cold like a badge of honor. I was talking to woman earlier this fall who has lived in Brookline, Mass for her entire life. She was talking about the major differences between Boston and New York, and someone asked her about the differences in fashion. She paused for a moment, and then sort of laughed. "In New York, they really care what they look like," she said. "In Boston, we bundle up and to heck with you."

She nailed it. Our professors here at BU tell us to "crystallize the lead", which means to tell the reader or listener the major piece of information in the first sentence of the story. This lady from Brookline crystallized the lead on Boston in one perfect sentence. So anyway, who's excited for this winter? Not me. Get ready for a bunch of whiny blogs from a freezing Seattle wimp.

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.