Dealey Plaza, the Cotton Bowl, and the New Cowboys Stadium

Hey UnderDs!  What’s good?  So the big 101D experiment is on the move again, up in Boston, Massachusetts this time to spend a snowy Holiday.  Everybody’s been talking about the big storms up there in the North East, while we were enjoying much more hospitable weather down in Texas.  Dallas was a fun town to explore for a few weeks, but it’s time to move on.  Gone are the BBQ joints, endless criss-crossing highways, cowboy hats, and an eerily quiet Dealey Plaza, where the former Texas School Book Depository still stands.  Our hotel was only a few blocks away from that infamous curve; brown picket fence, neatly trimmed grassy knoll, and ominous granite triple underpass all in such close proximity to one another.  The scene looks very much the same today as it looked that day in 1963; the way we remember those grainy photographs in the history books.   Of course today the Book Depository goes by another name and the six floor no longer houses school text, but rather a museum dedicated to the JFK legacy and its tragic and abrupt end that day in November.  I’d been to the museum a few times before and it is always stirring, saddening, and… frustrating.  This time was no exception, but I wanted to go again to see what was new, and to take Kisha of course. 

The sporting events side of things has taken a back seat lately to other more important matters.  For instance I decided (some might say, shockingly) against two straight opportunities to see the Mavericks play on consecutive Monday nights (our dark nights) and opted instead first for a night of Holiday Cookie Decorating at Kristen Beth Williams’ place (super DUPER fun and my first time ever), and second to shoot a Happy Hour Guys episode with the Great Jimmy Ludwig at a Beer Imporium called The Flying Saucer in downtown Ft Worth.  It was my first time taking the trip over (due west on I30) to the “sister-city” and I was impressed with their beautifully quaint and cultural downtown.  Now I understand why many people that I’ve met from the Ft Worth area throughout the years are careful to distinguish their city; “I am NOT from Dallas” :)

Our theatre was in Dallas; the Dallas Music Hall at Texas State Park, a fair-ground flush with a host of museums, theatres and cultural sites, Including the famous Cotton Bowl, with which we basically shared a parking lot  :)  And although I was unable to make it out to the new Cowboys stadium for a Sunday game against the San Diego Chargers, (again, 4 show weekends a killer for football watching :) I was able to take a tour the following Sunday, one day after the Cowboy’s impressive and improbable win against the previously undefeated New Orleans Saints.  Oh yes, the Cowboy Backers are beaming with confidence at the moment (a stark contrast from the week before when they rather unbelievably lost their 16th straight game in December!)

And oh MY, are they proud of their new stadium!!!  The New Cowboys Stadium, which, by the way, is the Largest structure of it’s kind on earth (and it also sports the largest HD TV in the world as well, for those that are interested in such things. Its almost TWICE as big as the second biggest.)  Well, I should say that some are proud of the new digs.  I was able to hang out one night with my friend Stacey Oristano who grew up just down the street in Arlington and was in town from LA for the Holidays (AND who’s father, Mark, has called Cowboy games on the radio for the last 30 years or so) and she expressed some embarrassment at the mention of the new stadium that screams of excess and impersonability.  She may have even used the term ‘monstrosity.’

I suppose that like Stacey, many lifelong cowboy fans have a significant emotional attachment to the old Texas Stadium (already reduced to rubble…  i.e. a brand spankin’ new parking lot! :) and will miss its little quirks and “flaws” while begrudgingly trying to accept their new uber sleek, utterly sterile, UFO space-station of a home.  At the old Texas Stadium they used to say that God was able to watch the games every Sunday through the hole in the roof (Apparently that actually IS what they used to teach in Sunday school, y’know if He didn’t have anything ELSE to do :)  My tour guide mentioned that at the new stadium though, even if the roof is opened, God would not be able to look down and see the game because of the enormous, afore-mentioned HD Video screen, hovering above the field.  Hmmmm, you think that’s worth the risk?  There’s no word yet on how the big man is taking the latest blow to his ego.  Although, one would think that He of all omnipotent beings would be able to see through the obstruction to watch a Cowboy game (if He were so inclined… or REclined… if He is like most typical NFL fans that I know, Ba-DUM CHiEEE!!!)  More realistically though, He has probably sprung for the NFL ticket in recent years enabling him to choose from a whole host of different games, which raises the question that I think we’ve all been secretly wondering about the NFL TV Package… does GOD get a discount?  Either way, to ease the minds and hearts of good Christian Cowboy fans, Jerry Jones had the old Cowboy STAR placed on TOP of the Thick HD Screen, so when God DOES look down through the hole in the roof, he can at least see the famous Silver Star of the Cowboys.  Oh well, I guess we all have to endure disappointment from time to time.  Oh, and check out Mark Oristano's new book A Sportscaster's Guide to Watching Football.  Funny Stuff!!!

While I was at the stadium, the grounds crew was breaking down the configuration from a Basketball game the previous night, when the UT Longhorns beat UNC 103-90, so the stadium can adapt to house almost any type of event (naturally including Monster Truck! :)  This year’s NBA all-star game will be there, as well as next years Superbowl, and starting this year the famous Cotton Bowl will no longer be played at... the Cotton Bowl.  For the first time since 1937 it will be played somewhere else.   Guess where!… Yup, that Giant UFO in Arlington.  The new order is here.  And Texas does it Bigger.  Get with it! :)

Boston is NExT... and a beautifully Snowy CHRISTMAS!!!
Catch ya soon on the UnderDogs :)
Thanks for reading!
Jeff

Detroit and Austin...

Welcome back to the Underdogs ladies and gentlemen. It's been a while, I know :) 
During our brief hiatus (inbetween posts) the 101D crew played Detroit (at the Fox Theatre, directly across the street from the Lions' And Tigers' stadiums, oh MY) and the great city of Austin Texas where the LongHorns rule, and the music scene is aLways pOppin! 

So chillin and "slackin" in Austin for Thanksgiving week was a whole lot of fun.  I got to hang out with my old friend Brian Snyder for the week while he showed us a lot of the local spots.  Aaaaaand for those of you that don't know... BumBumBumBUUUUMMM...  In an incredibly cooooL recent twist of fate, my girlfriend Lakisha booked a replacement role in the show and joined our tour in Detroit... (No indication yet on how much this development will effect my sports watching opportunities from town to town, although it is becoming clear that I don't own the remote control anymore :)  Aaaah, what a wONDerful problem to have!!! (Actually Kisha is usually very understanding and kind to me in this regard... AND, I daresay she even enJOYed herself on Friday night when we were fortunate enough to catch Kobe's Miracle Buzzerbeater to beat Miami by one in the StaplesCenter, All those Championship banners easily visable in the wideshot... Um, Lakers Banners, not Clippers... Incase there was any confusion ;) I mention this also because my availability to watch NBA games this year has been so limited, that i felt an odd satisfaction that night while actually watching a game LIVE... Breem, Jackson, and VanGundy on the call too! First time since June! Felt GooD... Anyway Austin was her first full week with the company, and we are HAPPY to HAVE her!!!  And by we I mean ME :)  Hi Kisha!!!

The last time I was in Austin, almost three years ago, I was able to go to my first ever NBA Developmental League game; the Austin Toros vs the Colorado 14ers. While watching that game I sparked up a conversation with some guy, who turned out to be David Kahn, one of the owners of the team, and former GM of the Indiana Pacers.  He asked me if I would write a testimonial for their website to promote the team and the fan experience, y'know, something like 500 words or so... I think I wrote 3000 :) anyway, you can read it here if you like. After the game, while with the Toros PR director Perri Travillion, I had the opportunity to meet Dennis Johnson, the great Boston Celtic point guard who was coaching the Toros at the time. Sadly, he died very unexpectedly shortly after that in February, following a practice.  While talking and laughing with Travillion in the parking lot, he suddenly collapsed and never regained consciousness. DJ was finally inducted, posthumously, to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 after years of being left out.  I'm currently reading Jackie MacMullan's book When the Game Was Ours about the great Magic Johnson/Larry Bird rivalry of the 70's and 80's, and in that book Magic says that DJ was the best defender he ever had to play against.   

This time around in Austin however there was no opportunity to see the Toros run or any UT sporting events while in town, but I am proud to say that some 101D cast members ran in the Annual Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot.  
(Um... I didn't run in the race, but I did root for my fellow 101peeps and cheered them on while they ran...  From my bed :)

ANYWAY, Currently we are in the Big D... Dallas, Texas for three weeks playing the Music Hall at Fair Park (right next to the Cotton Bowl!!!)  The Big 12 had their championship game here over the weekend, and those previously mentioned UT LongHorns from Austin squeeeeeeked past my boy Steve Barth's Nebraska Cornhuskers to claim a spot in the BCS Championship game... Against, who you ask?... the Alabama Crimson Tide. Ugh. The same Crimson Tide that Blasted my Gators in Atlanta this weekend in the SEC Championship. Ugh!  It was certainly a devistating loss for UF, and for our senior quarterback Tim Tebow, but it was also clear to every Gator watching that our arch-rivals really deserved it this time. There I said it. UGH!!! That was weird. Moving onnnn :)


The Plan for this weekend is to hopefully hit up the Dallas/San Diego game at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday inbetween shows. Just being in that stadium for a few quarters would be sweet.
I'll let you knoooooow ;)

Thanks for Dropping by
All the Best,
Underdogs OUT