Saturday went largely as planned. I posted my story and inadequate sketches in the morning, and went to the hockey game at night.
As we entered the arena, the song playing was “Welcome to
the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. Now, there is never a bad time for me
to hear a My Chemical Romance song, especially that one, but it was extra
meaningful this time because I had just listened to the relevant Smodcast:
The deal is that Kevin Smith had been greatly influenced
by Welcome to the Black Parade, and he brought Gerard and Mikey Way on to talk
about it, and actually, they took so long in the first session that they never
got to the song, so this was the second session, #235.
Where it all started was a video on Youtube, Once an
Oiler, that was a tribute to Wayne Gretzky, starting with childhood pictures
and covering his time with the Oilers. I suspect it was a response to his going
to the Kings. (I don’t think anyone in Green Bay has made a “Once a Packer”
video for Favre.)
Anyway, it was Kevin Smith’s first time hearing the song,
and he was really affected by it, and that’s completely fair. The song is
amazing, and there’s a lot to it, which makes doing a section by section
analysis reasonable, and I think I have already written about how brilliant the
overall structure of that album is in general. In addition, this video is
pretty good. It starts with childhood shots, and Edmonton shots, and then it builds
and you get the Stanley cup in there, and it’s pretty moving, and it works well
with that song. It does get a bit repetitive in the middle, but assuming you
have to use existing, available footage, rather than going back in time and
shooting your own, it’s really pretty good. Good synchronization with the
drums.
And, I just watched that video today, because even though
listening to the cast had me considering watching it, entering the game to that
song, kind of clinched it. Plus, later they played “Umbrella” and that also
came up during their chat, because it was playing a lot when Gerard and his
wife were dating. Fortunately, my sisters identified the song for me, because I
would not have recognized it on my own. So I listened to that today too. It’s
been a day of new experiences. You can see why the blog post is late.
Actually, the music was pretty good overall. It was
mostly older stuff—lots of pre-Public Enemy rap and older songs. Actually,
right after “Black Parade” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” came on, so there was
something for everyone.
The game was amazing. I was so disappointed in the
newspaper article on it, because it was really flat and lifeless. I know it can
be hard to convey the excitement of a game verbally, but it’s like they didn’t
even try.
So here’s the deal. Maria follows it more closely than I do, and she kept emphasizing how Seattle is the main rival and we (Portland Winterhawks) hate them. Well, we may hate them, but it would appear that we do not hate them nearly as much as they hate us, or they have way worse self-control. Mentally, I think the violence is stupid, and you should just play the game with sportsmanship and skill, but this was insane, and it’s kind of fascinating.
There was plenty of shoving and sticking, but at one
point the one Seattle player got one of ours in a headlock and just started
punching him repeatedly in the head, and it was all kind of confusing, so I may
not be getting the details exactly right, but the one ref tried to stop it, and
got shoved off, and then more people got involved where two refs ended up on
the ground—one because he was knocked there, and another later because he was
lying on a Seattle player to hold him down!
I have never seen them spend so long discussing
penalties—it took a while to sort it all out!! Finally they read off the list
of penalties, on both sides, and the last thing the announcer said was “five
for fighting”, which I would have missed, but the girls in front of me thought
it was funny, and I realized, right, that’s a band. I thought I did not know
them, but actually, they sing that song that I thought was Ben Folds Five,
because I get my 5’s mixed up apparently, but I listened to both of them today,
and they sound quite different. (New experiences.)
Incidentally the refs were much more aggressive about intervening after that little melee.
Incidentally the refs were much more aggressive about intervening after that little melee.
I suppose it was worse for Seattle because they were
being so outplayed. The first score happened at just 3:24 in the first period,
followed by another at 5:01 (both by Matt Leier). At the end of the first
quarter it was 2-0, ending at 4-2, victory Portland.
Obviously, it was the first goal that set off the barrage
of teddy bears. Now, I’ve been to a few games, but this was only my second
teddy bear toss. As much as I worried about that one bear, seriously, it
happened to three bears on my side this time. There was another that got caught
in the glass, and on the other side it looked like three got stuck, but they
were able to shake them all down.
Realistically, the puck doesn’t even hit the net that
often. I suppose the issue is more the damage that it would do if it did manage
to hit anyone in the face, and that would be considerable. So the net needs to
stay, but seriously people, take off those hooks! Once it’s no longer on disply
in the store, it has no purpose, and it can create problems.
They did flash a picture of the pink one up on the screen
with the caption “Don’t forget me!”, so I guess they know how to deal with it.
Other fun things caught on video included several Santa’s rocking out (I think
it was Santacon that day), and one kid who tried to hide, but then the camera
left, he got out, and the camera zoomed back. It’s a little mean perhaps, but I
found it funny and his friend was really rocking out. I guess every shy kid
needs an outgoing friend.
An irritating thing was that the Timbers Army was there
and being really loud. There is being supportive and there is being a
distraction and making it more about you than the game, and it just felt
disrespectful. I did hear some people yelling “Shut up!” and them, and
eventually they did.
Disappointing things were the overall take of 12814. the
other year it was 16321. Plus a lot of them were really small. Come on, these
are for needy kids—get them something nice! I loved the big pug though—that was
adorable.
Anyway, that’s it in a nutshell. Watch “Once an Oiler”,
listen to “The Black Parade”, support minor league hockey, buy toys for kids,
and cut off the hooks. I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s really not.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment