Tim Russert just died. 

My initial post: 

I’m in shock. I just got home and will have MSNBC on all night. I was at the hospital and my cell went off 5 times and i couldn’t answer it but i knew something happened.

To explain it to non politicos, I’ve said it’s like Johnny Carson dying well before he ever retired. Or it’s on the level of John Lennon. The best of the best. Or to us hockey people, it would be like Scotty Bowman when he was still coaching, or Messier after ‘94.

He was so far and away the best — it was him, then everyone else. Barbara Walters just said, “This is a huge loss to America.” And she’s right.

He set the standards, and just about every journalist in the business was his student.

The Mayor of Buffalo has put all flags on government property at half-mast.

I remember him holding up the Washington Capitals jersey on MTP during their recent playoff run.

Passion . . . child-like enthusiasm with a genius’s intellect . . . the white board . . . “Florida Florida Florida” . . . And I think he’s the guy who came up with the “blue and red states” that we all now live with. The colors used to be different on the different networks, but it was he and NBC that really established the red for Repubs and blue for Dems.

I’ve got so many MTPs on tape, man — going back 10 or 20 years.

I got to meet him on election night 2004 and we shared a prankster’s wink and smile. “Can you pass the Russert test?”

November 4th this year should be dedicated to him.

As Bob Dylan ended his tribute to Jerry Garcia: “There’s no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep.”

RIP good brother.

= = = = = = =

Some facts, trivia, stories & comments about Tim from MSNBC’s outstanding non-stop coverage this aft / evening . . .

MSNBC did not run a single ad starting from when the news first broke (around 3:00) until 8:33PM!   

Meet The Press (MTP) has been on the air for 61 years, since Nov 6 1947 - the longest running show on television. 

The Smithsonian put his white board in their permanent collection! 

His using that in the 2000 election was rated one of the top 100 moments in all of Television history. 

When talking about politics, his face would light up was like a kid on Christmas.  And he listened to people’s answers. 

He was the guy who called this Democratic primary. 

It was the night of the North Carolina / Indiana on May 6^th when he said, “We now know who the Democratic nominee is.”  It was when Russert said it — and that definitely — that it was like a judge rendering a verdict.  Other people may have said it, but it was when Tim said it that it meant everything to both campaigns, and every journalist in the world. 

David Gregory - When the word got to the Hillary campaign headquarters that Russert had called the race over, the air went out of the room.  He had that gravitas.  And no one else had it. 

That he didn’t want MTP to be an argumentative program.  He knew exactly what he wanted to do with that show, transformed the show, and transcended journalism.  If he said something, you could take it to the bank. 

He was a key witness in the prosecution of Scooter Libby. 

He had one son, Luke.  And his father Big Russ was still alive. 

And Sunday is Father’s Day.  L  how sad. 

Fuck.  I can’t believe he’s not here anymore. 

Mike Barnacle - named his son Timothy - and Russert was at his Christening. 

He was a player-coach to other journalist - one of the team players, but also the coach of the team. 

He was always the smartest guy in the room. 

They didn’t reach Chris Matthews in Paris until 7PM.  He talked about how everyone in the room would say “Russert is here.”  His presence meant more than anyone else’s.  But he was not a cocktail party guy. 

How red-eyed and choked-up some journalists & others are - Al Hunt, Mike Barnacle, Keith Oberman, Chris Matthews, Campbell Brown, CEO Jack Welch barely making it through their tributes. 

He was a devoted friend to all who knew him. 

GE/NBC  CEO Jack Welch - “this has affected me like only a few days in my life.” 

Mario Cuomo was a mentor to Tim.  “We’ve lost him when we need him most.” 

He was so grateful for the life he was living.  He was very spiritual.  He felt blessed to have his elderly father. 

Tim’s closeness to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.  What smarter person could he have been around?! 

He was a lawyer.  

He intimidated his colleagues cuz he was so smart. 

Moynihan said to Russert about the Ivy League hotshots in the Senator’s office.  “What they know, you can learn.  What you know, they can never learn.” 

He was the guy who popped the David Duke bubble - when he appeared on MTP, it’s Russert’s questions that ended his political rise. 

That he could impersonate Sen. Moynihan’s voice so well, he would actually take calls on his behalf in Washington. 

He brought Chuck Todd into NBC and expanded his role. 

He was the guy (because of his credibility and clout) who changed MTP from a half-hour to an hour. 

That the statements that he got on MTP are part of the historical record of Cheney and others in their statements about the lead up to the Iraq War, and so many other historical events.  He was creating a record for history. 

He changed not only MTP, but every other serious news show on television.  He set the standard.  As Matthews said, “He was the gold standard.” 

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post:  He understood politics so much better than everyone else.  His encyclopedic knowledge, and his work ethic made him so outstanding.  He’s such an institution and presence in Washington.

Crew members are working tonight with tears in their eyes.  They still have to work tonight and were so touched by him. 

Leadership qualities.  Family base. 

Ben Bradlee (Wash Post) - when the release of your guests on Saturday becomes a must-know in Washington, you know you’ve arrived. 

Tim’s hour-long show in MSNBC on the weekend is also gone.   He just had Jim Webb on last weekend - and I’ve got the tape of it!  J 

his doctor: Dr. Michael Newman — asymptomatic coronary artery disease - he did his best with exercise and life style.  April 29^th stress test.  was on the treadmill this morning, as on most days. 

They occur without warning.  no way to detect them.  there was rupture of cholesterol build up.  he had an enlarged heart.  they did the autopsy and found the break in the artery. 

he was taping the opening for Meet The Press. 

within a few moment they knew Tim was in trouble.

an intern who knew CPR began doing it. 

they needed a defibulator. 

He was known to have coronary artery disease. 

Even in a witnessed cardiac arrest, survival is only about 5%. 

His weight was an issue. 

Oberman at 8:  “If he wasn’t the story, he’d be here guiding us tonight.” 

He’d taped his weekend “Tim Russert” show in the morning!  There’s one last show!!!!!  John Harwood was on.   (and it appears as though Kelly O’Donnell, among others) 

Lindsay Graham was scheduled to be on MTP this Sunday. 

Time Magazine just listed him as one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World. 

Brokaw:  he was called today “a little after 2:00″ this aft.  They said, “He’s collapsed.  It doesn’t look good.” 

Tim loved the game of politics.  He always said, “I have a face for radio.”  Hair spray never touched his Irish locks. 

He was clinical.  He diagnosed people. 

He was the brightest aide on Capital Hill.  He knew where everything was. 

He and Brokaw were both big Chuck Berry fans!  They had a bet who was going to lose the most weight - and the winner would get a platinum Chuck Berry record!    

He was also hugely into Springsteen - was more into than anyone around him at a recent concert. 

He was burning it at both ends. 

His dad just went into an assisted-living facility in Buffalo. 

His son was really into politics too, and had just graduated college with a major in history. 

Chris Matthews at 8:20 - He was “us” as a country.  He was role model for me.  He was the hardest worker he ever saw.  The preparation.  There is no one who beat him.  He constantly reminded us to look for the truth.  It was a competitive business, but he shared with everybody.  The David Duke take-down.  Tim didn’t say Duke was a racist — he forced Duke show it himself. 

We lost the quarterback tonight. 

How he got Moynihan through his first re-election. 

17½ years on MTP.  The longest serving host ever. 

He reinvigorated the Sunday morning news shows - he forced the other networks to step up. 

Frank Rich (NY Times):  He changed Sunday Morning.  It was the biggest meeting of newsmakers.  There isn’t another single entity in news that had this position.  Yet he wore himself lightly.  He took on the most powerful people in America - but he was never a gotcha wise-guy. 

History is about stories - and he understood it and could bring it out of others.  

David Gregory - there’s a crater left here in the news world. 

He jumped through the phone with enthusiasm.  He had such a joy for children. 

Bob Scheffer his competitor from Face The Nation:  “He made me better.”

Obama:  He was the standard bearer for good journalism.  But also a great person. 

John Edwards:  He was the yardstick by which every other journalist was measured. 

“Go get ‘em.”  was his written sign-off line to good colleagues. 

Now he’s gone. 

 Dynasty vs. Dynasty.  Skill vs. Skill.  These upcoming Finals games will be as good as hockey gets.  It’s Rocket Richard’s Habs vs. Gordie Howe’s Red Wings.  It’s Frazer -  Ali.  Borg - McEnroe.  Hitchcock vs. Scorsese.  Beethoven vs. Bach. 

In the 3 years since the lock-out and with “the new NHL” we’ve had a one-hit-wonder win the Cup who never even made the playoffs any other year since about the Clinton administration, followed by the Disney Dirty Ducks action movie - neither team, IMHO, will be or should be remembered in hockey history. 

Contrast that with the Detroit Red Wings, who, after this year’s performance by Montreal and their “fans”, has clearly become the undisputed Classiest Team in the NHL.  They haven’t missed the playoffs in nearly 20 years, finishing with over 100 points for the last eight years in a row, winning 6 President’s Trophies, 3 Stanley Cups, plus a half-dozen Norris’s, a hat trick of Selke’s and gawd knows what else, and have the winningest coach in NHL history, Scotty Bowman, up in the box guiding the troops, with Stevie Y riding shotgun.  This is the Gold Standard in hockey.  They’ve drafted well (say, Datsyuk 171^st overall, or Zetterberg 210^th!), are coached brilliantly, play a skilled game, and are fronted by a couple of the most artful forwards in the sport. 

And the Penguins are what a hockey team is all about - youth and veterans, skill and brawn, with underdogs and superstars.  Plus they also happen to have two of the best forwards in the game.  And they’ve got the best points-per-game player in history in their skybox, and just a year ago their coach led them to the 4^th greatest single-season improvement in points in NHL history.  Add to that:  the whole team was almost sold-off to another city (but saved by that player in the skybox), and they’ve been living on a shoestring budget for what seems like forever, and play in the oldest (but loveable) dump of a building in the NHL (”The Igloo”! - what could be better!). 

Pittsburgh has an edge in offense, Detroit has an edge in defense, and both have solid goaltending.  One ‘tender is 10-2;  the other 12-2.  Of all the active playoff goalies, they are 1 and 2 in wins, 1 and 2 in GAA, 1 and 2 in save percentage.  Detroit’s Osgood has only dropped two games after taking over from Hasek;  and Pittsburgh’s “Flower” hasn’t let in more than 2 goals in any but four of his last 32 games, going 27-4-1!  And he’s all of 23 years old! 

Both teams have never lost a game these playoffs when leading after 2 periods.

Both teams have knowledgeable fans in their barns that the hockey world can be proud of, and both teams have lifelong hockey people as team owners and a lineage of very astute GMs.  In fact, both teams have exactly the same composition for their starting line-ups:  both have more than half their team (11 starters) made up of draft picks who’ve been developed entirely within the organization;  and each team made five smart free agent pick-ups;  and each only needed to trade away something to get their remaining four players.  That’s some very smart hockey management right there. 

In fact, with both teams so insanely and equally talented, it’s probably going to come down to coaching and preparation and mindset.  And in this regard, Detroit probably has the edge.  Not to mention the experience of all their players who have son the last game of the year before. 

Both teams are a textbook blend of European and North American talent;  and one team is captained by a European, the other by a Canadian.  And this year has already made history with Crosby being the youngest team captain in NHL history to lead his team to the Finals, and if he wins will be the youngest captain in professional team sports in North America to lead his team to a championship.  Or, it’ll be the first European captain ever to hoist the Cup in the NHL. 

Both teams have a history of current and former smart GMs, and neither team is assembled for a one-year push, nor bought their way to where they are by snatching other teams’ stars.  And both have fantastic, facile, effective Field-General coaches who’ve adapted to their opponents, and made their team greater than the sum of its parts. 

Detroit has its Darren McCarty destitute & rehab comeback story, and the Penguins have local Pittsburgh boy Ryan “Bugsy” Malone as a leader of their offense.  It’s an English-Canadian goalie vs a French-Canadian goalie.  And in their brain-trust, both franchises have former Team Canada captains (Lemieux and Yzerman) who shared a Gold Medal victory together at the Olympics, and are now battling each other over the “silver”. 

And they’re both “attack” teams -  just think about the wild end-to-end breakaway action we’re gonna see!!   The “Oh my god” dekes, and the “howdy do THAT?!” saves.  Lindstrom’s defense feeding Zetterberg and Datsyuk, and Gonchar & the boys feeding Crosby and Malkin!  And how these four forwards are going to be the masters who lead our sport for years to come.  And what’n the hell is with Gary Roberts and Chris Chelios??!!  I mean, they were battling in NHL playoffs before Crosby & Malkin were even born!  Literally.  And one of them’s wearing Gordie Howe’s uniform! 

And speaking of Gordie, these Red Wings are breaking his and Terry Sawchuk’s playoff records!  That’s all.  And Crosby just broke the record of every pro athlete in North American team sports when he won the scoring title at age 19. 

And WHAT is with these team playoff records?!  One team is 12-2 and the other is 12-4!  Huh?  Did I hear that right?  Is this the Habs best year vs. the Islanders best year?  It sure looks like Dynasty vs. Dynasty to me. 

The only other teams in NHL history to go 12-2 or better in the playoffs  . . .

Montreal in ‘68   –  12-1  (won Cup in 3 rounds)  

Montreal in ‘76  –  12-1  (won Cup in 3 rounds)

Detroit in ‘95 - 11-1  — (but lost the Cup Final to new jersey 4-straight)

Edmonton in ‘83    11-1  –  (and lost the Cup Final to the islanders 4-straight) 

The Wings have been the best NHL team over the last decade, and the Pens will be for the next. 

THIS is what hockey is all about. 

It’s Original Six vs. Second Six. 

Forget the Sistine Chapel, this series-opening face-off is going to be God and Adam down off the ceiling and touching fingers at center ice. 

This is going to be one for the ages, the one we live for, the Final that will be talked about the rest of our lives. 

It’s Edmonton — Islanders ‘83.  (if the Pens lose) 

or it’s

Montreal — Philly ‘76    (if the Pens win) 

It’s a turning-point Cup. 

It’s like a good jam that builds to a crystalline moment of eye-bulging clarity. 

It took three years, three verses, three time’s the charm to get here, but we’ve got it.  I have no idea how it’ll go in the final, but 7 games with encores would be sweet. 

This year’s Final will be historic and insanely exciting even if it’s a sweep for one team, but here’s a bellwether:  If the first two games (in Detroit) are a split we’re in for an all-time classic. 

The only prediction I’ll make is that both teams are capable of winning at least two games from the other - which means it goes to 6 games minimum. 

Weird Facts:

On average, the Penguins are younger (by 5 years), they’re taller (by 2 inches), and they’re heavier (by 13 lbs). 

Crosby lives with Lemieux.

Malkin lives at Gonchar’s.

Staal lives at Mark Recchi’s. 

Scotty Bowman coached both teams to their last Stanley Cup! 

Gary Roberts and Chris Chelios played against each other in the Calgary-Montreal Stanley Cup Final in 1989, almost 20 seasons ago. 

Chelios has played in more NHL playoff games than any other player in history. 

Since the NHL switched to the current format after the lockout, each Division will have sent exactly one, and only one, team to the Stanley Cup Final: 

North-East  -  Ottawa

South-East  -  Carolina  

Atlantic  -  Pittsburgh

North-West  -  Edmonton

Pacific  -  Anaheim

Central  -  Detroit

And get this!  -  In the 3 years since the lockout and the rotation of teams playing only 2 divisions in the other Conference each season, in all 3 SCFs since the change, the two Final teams have NEVER met during that regular season.  What are the odds of all that?!  Answer:  The Hockey Gods are smiling.  

The last 9 Stanley Cups in a row have all gone to the team with the home ice advantage in the series. 

Also:  This is guaranteed to be one of the closest Stanley Cup Finals in history. 

Detroit & Pittsburgh’s 210 mile separation is the closest any two teams playing for the Stanley Cup have ever been from one another - except for the Islanders - Philly in 1980 (120 m), and Boston - Rangers in ‘72 (189 m).  (Det-Chi = 239; Det-Tor = 244). 

All games start at the same time wherever you are  -  8 PM in the East. 

The game-day pattern goes: 

Saturday, Monday, Wednesday,

Saturday, Monday, Wednesday,

Saturday (game 7)

easy.  :-) 

Enjoy the speed, skill, chess n drama!

Brian

karmacoupon@gmail.com 

http://www.brianhassett.com/ 

click here for Wings line-up in printer-friendly one-sheet in Word

click here for a printer-friendly Pens line-up on one page in Word

                                     The Prankster Meets The Penguin 

So, I went to the Ranger game last night at Madison Square Garden.  What a hoot!  Before the game, there was some rock band called Overtime or something playing out front on the plaza;  and there were these shooting gallery games like at the Hockey Hall of Fame where you shoot the puck at little holes around a lifesize photo of Lundqvist, and another one that measured how hard your shot was.  And there’s this giant bronze statue of some guy outside the Garden, maybe it’s Mr. Garden, i don’t know, but they had the old guy decked out in a giant Rangers jersey.  

I went in for the pre-game skate and a bunch of Ranger fans had made scorecard signs like diving judges hold up during the Olympics.  And there’s one guy walking around in complete diving gear with a snorkel and facemask and a “Crosby Diving Team” shirt.  And all behind the net that the Penguins were shooting into during warm-up was a line of people holding diving scorecards.  Of course, Crosby answered this by setting up a goal a minute into the game.  And the Rangers never really recovered.  It ended up 5-3, but it was even more lopsided than that.  

When it was over, I didn’t want to leave — as usual.  I said to my hockey brother Rob, “This is like after my last Dead show at (nearby) Giants Stadium — i didn’t want to leave the venue and we walked all around the upper hallway looking down at the emptying stands and the stage tear-down.  Just keep soaking it in.  I didn’t know at the time it would be the last show ever, but just in case it might be, I always soak in everything to the maximum.” 

So we do just that up in Blue Heaven, surveying all of MSG like a wide-angle photograph developing on the brain, burning the image onto the glossy paper of memory.    

My poor buddy’s a hardcore Ranger fan so he’s a little down seeing his team essentially eliminated, but he’s being very easy-going about it  – if only because he’s a little stunned in shock.   So, we finally leave and luckilly come out on the 8th Avenue side, and I guide our stroll around by the load-out door where there’s about 50 fans waiting to get autographs or just to cheer the players as they leave.  As soon as we get there, Mario Lemieux comes out in a car with his wife, and I’m thinking, “This is sort of interesting.”    

There’s just tons of bright-faced young hockey fans — like this one kid, it was his 15th birthday, and he’s there with his dad and wearing one of the old style teal Pittsburgh jerseys like they wore for The Winter Classic outdoor game this year.  These kids, these fans, all know what the players look like without their helmets on, and they’re shouting out their names as they see them walking out in their suits to get on the bus that’s parked in the runway.  Some different Penguins come walking down the ramp and go right past us.  A couple of them stop and sign autographs.  

And all of a sudden, there’s big Hal Gill!  So i go over to him — he was kinda lost — like he was walking past the bus along the sidewalk, and had to stop and turn around, and I’m, “Hey Hal!  Good to see ya!  And good luck, eh?!  Hey, I’m from Toronto!”  And this makes him break into a big smile, “Great!” And I’m, “I’m so glad you get to be with this team now.  It’s the only way a Leaf will ever win the Cup!” and he laughs, and says thanks, shakes hands and heads for the bus.  

Then a few people start yelling, “Hey Jarku!” as Ruuto walks up — another guy I wouldn’t know from Adam — Ind i suddenly remember I have all these hockey cards in my bag, and pull out my Ruutu card and run over just as he’s about to get away and the 15 year old kid gives me his Sharpie and Ruutu signs the card.   

Then a couple others come along in their fresh n snappy suits, and then — there’s one guy I actually recognize!  Jordan Staal!  It’s just cuz he’s always on TV, and is really tall and skinny and has that sorta blondish hair and he’s just walking right out past all the fans and out to the street.  I run up to him cuz he’s really one of my favorite players — hockey’s new royal family and all — and i start walking along beside him going, “No way!  Jordan!  Way to go man!” and I’m slapping him on the back of his brown leather jacket and he’s not wanting to break his stare from straight ahead, almost like a guard at Buckingham Palace who’s supposed to not turn his head.  Not to mention him thinking, “Who is this crazy Rangers fan?  And am I about to be attacked?”  But I’m just making such a big fuss over him he’s goin’ with it, and I look up at his face that’s about as far away as the top of the Empire State Building, and I can see he’s got this huge beam on and is laughing — and I’m just sorta running along beside him since he’s walking very fast and determined, and I’m about 5 jumbo beers into it and I just kept slappin’ him on the back and raving on about how great the team is and how I’m rooting for them and he’s just laughing away at my enthusiasm and stick-to-it-ness.  

So, he’s walking the same direction as Hal and Ruutu were, and I realize their bus is parked out on the street, and so I watch as he and the other guys climb up the stairs and disappear into their dark cave.  It wasn’t a regular big charter tour type bus, but a mini-bus, like you see shuffling people around at airports.  

All of a sudden, I dunno, but . . . suddenly there was no security type person standing at their bus door, and I thought, “Ah-ha.”  

So I walk out nonchalantly into the road as though I’m just going to cross the street, and I see the bus door is open!  And I go, “No way!”  

So, I turn, and just Boom – I run up the stairs and onto their bus!  

There was a driver in the driver’s seat, and he didn’t say anything.  It was really dark in there so it was hard to see exactly, but nearly every seat was taken — like they were just about ready to take off.  So I stand up at the front like a tour guide holding onto the silver pole, and I just start in on this riff, super excited, quite skiddlie, but i just started goin’, “Hey you guys!  I just wanted to tell ya you’re just great!  And thank you for what you’re doing for hockey all over the world.  This is just the best thing.  The way you’re doing it, inspiring the kids, and hockey fans all over, it’s just fantastic and i just wanted to make sure you guys knew it and how much it’s appreciated, and you guys are doing the right thing and doing it the right way!”      

It’s really dark, and I don’t know most of the player’s faces, but I can see Jordan Staal, he’s on the aisle about 2 rows from the back, and maybe he had an overhead light on or something, but I could see his tall head and he’s just got this huge teeth-beaming smile on — a fellow twinkling prankster for sure.  As a performer, you often pick out one person in the audience and deliver the show to them.  Zone in — and if you’re totally connected to that person, have them hanging on your every word, you don’t lose your train, and everybody else can ride along.  So I’m sorta delivering this whole spontaneous monolog to Staal.  

And it was so weird, cuz you sorta picture a hockey team’s bus as i dunno, rowdy, partying, everybody talking at once — sort of a Slap Shot scene.  But everybody was in very proper suits sitting quiet and back-straight in their seats like a troop of uniformed soldiers or something.  But the General was on the bus!   

And he was right in front of me!  The very first seat beside the stairs is Coach Therrien, and he’s laughing away, I couldn’t believe it!  But I knew I had the room if he was laughing.  :-)  But I didn’t wanna look too closely in case he signaled for me to leave.  And it’s so great that in this 9/11 world they weren’t too freaked-out by this strange guy jumping into their midst.  Neither the coach nor the players nor any staff ever made a move to stop me, and here I was given this spontaneous, unsolicited pep-talk to the entire frickin’ Penguins team!  

I’m looking right into the faces of the guys in the first couple of rows but I couldn’t positively identify any of them — those damn helmet disguises they wear!  I think the rookie type guys have to sit in the front — none of the first few rows were Laraque or Talbot or Malkin or Malone or any of those super recognizable faces.  

I had the presence of mind to realize that they weren’t kicking me off, and that I actually had the entire team’s rapt attention, and the coach is sorta rocking back and forth in his seat he’s laughing so much.  It was like open mike night, and the host had just nodded that you can do another song!  :-)  So I did.  

I went into something like, “I’m from Canada,” (I wanted them to know I’m an authentic old-school purist hockey person, not just some demented drunk New Yorker)  So I told them, “I just drove all the way down here to see you play tonight, and I just want you to know that everybody up there is rootin’ for you guys.  And what you’re doing is just great!  And just keep goin’!  The whole hockey world is rooting for you guys.  Believe me.”  And I gave ‘em a nod & a stare with a good long pause.  

I remember thinking that I didn’t wanna say anything to jinx it — like talk about The Cup or anything beyond this series.  So I just said again, “What you’re doing is just great!  Keep doin’ what you’re doin’!”   I couldn’t believe I was there — and I was sort of running out of material and didn’t want to overstay my bizarre welcome, so I just gave them a happy final wave in farewell and scampered down the stairs as fast as I climbed them.  The whole time I was just beaming with joy, and I’m sure that’s what allowed me to be there unchallenged.  

So, . . . that was the night I ran onto the Penguins’ bus in the middle of the playoffs and gave them a pep talk.  

you can also hear my crazy live morning-after riff (the April 30th episode) at

 http://thatradio.podhoster.com/index.php?sid=1399

Brian

BrianHassett.com

karmacoupon@gmail.com  

click here for full Rangers line-up, in Word, for nice print-outs

My good friend Teresa is a season ticket holder, up in the blues, in section 418. She’s a great Rangers fan, a great New Yorker, and a great buddy… she hooks me up with Rangers tickets! Most of my greatest all time Rangers memories are thanks to her, especially in the past several seasons: the Rangers first home playoff game in almost a decade, first home playoff win since ‘97, Mike Richter night, Jagr night every night, and Shanahan’s 600th goal, or Avery vs Tucker and Orr ko’s Fedoruk…. This year the home opener with Leetchie appearance, and the incredakarmic miracle-ing in to Leetch night with all the Ranger legends there plus announcement of Graves #9 jersey retirement, and can’t forget being able to take my buddy Brian to see Crosby and the Pens (”SIDDOWN, CRAWZBEE!!”).

So she tells me she’s got an extra for the home finale vs the Islanders and it’s fan appreciation night. I do my usual post work pre game ritual: pound a few $2 beers at Spanky’s, have some wings, and by 6:40 I’m making my run down 7th Ave. and I’m feeling good as i enter MSG. Another ritual: I pick up a couple of Labatt’s for me and T. She’s such a hardcore hockey fan she prefers the Canadian brew so i like to have one waiting for her when she gets in. I say hi to the crew as i settle into my seat, it’s a great bunch of folks to watch a game with. Guys who’ve been Ranger fans since before i was born, one guy who does sports radio on WFAN, . . . just a fun, entertaining bunch. T gets in and we watch the Rangers finish the first period down 1-0 to the Islanders. After my Labatt’s i decide i should slow down or this’ll be a messy night, so i take a bathroom break and when i come back, T tells me a Garden rep came thru and told her she was picked for the Fan Appreciation jersey giveaway at the end of the game!

We head down during the third, teams tied at 2, and T goes off with the other FA winners one way, I go off with the other FA fans with a cute garden rep who takes us thru the belly of MSG. We take a left past the Zamboni, walk several yards, and stop in front of the runway leading to the ice. A bunch of fans are getting anxious: we can’t really see and have to rely on the crowd reaction to know what’s going on. At the time we were trying to win home ice over the Devils before having to face them in New Jersey in the last game of the season. I figure regardless of the outcome of the game, the real experience is us getting out there by the ice!

Rangers announcer Al Trautwig walks past us and down the runway. The third period ends but we’re still tied at 2. Nothing doing in overtime, then the we lose in the shootout. With the game over, we’re led down the runway towards the ice, we take a right and go right into the visitor’s bench! Al is interviewing Brendan Shanahan on the ice about 8 feet from us. A trainer squirms thru us picking up towels, rolls of tape, and water bottles as we get our cameras ready. T and the rest of the fan appreciation winners are coming out onto the ice.

In a weird almost surreal moment I look around at the view from the bench: at the white ice in front of me, the size of the playing surface, the distance to the penalty boxes, the view of the close seats all around, the huge hanging scoreboard overhead, the banners hanging up in the distant ceiling …. I realize I’ve only ever seen this view on TV or in photos — but now I’m here!

I’m snapped back to reality when i look out on the ice and see the FA winners are all holding up cards with players’ numbers and names written on them. As i watch players take off and sign their jerseys and find the lucky fan holding up their names, I remember me and T were talking about how it’s such a great team there’s no one who’s jersey you really wouldn’t want….then i see Christian Backman find her and hand her his jersey, i think, “Oh yeah, we forgot about him.”

Regardless, a truly amazing Garden experience, and as a sweet encore we’ve both been immortalized in the Rangers.com photo gallery…T in a Fedor Tyutin shot and I’m standing in the bench of a Jagr jersey-hand-off shot. So, a major shout to my buddy T and hockey brother B! And a great 2008 season!!

= = = = = = =

by Rob Salmon

The most points in the league (112) — and winner of the Art Ross Trophy.

Most goals in the league (65) — winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Most goals in a season by a Left-Winger in NHL history — 65.

The first player in 12 years to score over 60 goals.

He led his team from dead-last / 15th place in his conference on Dec. 30th to 3rd place by season’s end. The first team in NHL history to be in last place at the midway point of the season to then win their Division — just 3 months from the deepest hole to the top of the heap.

Led the NHL in points in the last month of the season — the final playoff push for all teams & players — with 31 points; and had 10 multi-point games in his final 16.

Led the NHL in power-play goals (22).

Led the NHL in even-strength goals (41).

Led the NHL in game-winning goals (11).

Led the NHL in lead-changing goals (30).

Led the NHL in multi-goal games (13).

Led the NHL in 4-goal games (2).

Led the NHL in “late-game pressure goals” with 29 (defined by the league as overtime or third period goals when the score differential is 2 or less goals).  And naturally led the league in late-game pressure points with 44.

Led the league in game-winning goals in the third period (5).

Led the league in third period goals overall (26).

Also led the league in opening period goals (17).

Led the league in shots (441) and shots-per-game (5.3). This is the second most shots ever taken by a player in the history of the NHL. Only Phil Esposito had more — once. (Since coming into the league, he has more 10-or-more shots in a game (18) than the next 4 players combined.)

As Dr. Phil put it recently: “Alex is going to get over 550 shots in a season, and when he does he’s going to score 85 or 90 goals. They say Gretzky’s [goal] record is not going to be broken. Well, when I got 76, they said ‘Nobody will ever get 77.’ Records are made to be broken. And Ovie shoots enough that he’s going to do that. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy as physical as he is that scores like he does. He’s playing smarter now, and he’s just getting better and better and better.”

And he’s 22 years old.

And over his first 3 seasons he’s only missed a single game.

(How do you say, “Yikes!” in Russian?)

And along with all of the above, out of the 955 players in the league this season …

only 10 threw more bodychecks than he did;

only 8 had more takeaways from other players;

only 5 had a better plus/minus! (and this on a team that was dead-last for half the season);

and only 1 had more hat-tricks.

and did i mention he’s only 22?

= = = = = = = = =

Brian at karmacoupon@gmail.com

BrianHassett.com

I’m stickin with the Eastern winners being the Habs, Pittsburgh, Washington and the Rangers.

And in the West: Detroit, San Jose, Minnesota, and hopefully the Dullass Steers knock out the Brutuzzi Phucks (the 3rd fewest goals scored in the league, and they’re proudly #1 in getting penalties — again).

Every one of the goalie match-ups this year is to die for! We’re in a golden era of master ‘tenders, no doubt about it.

Carey Price vs. Tim Thomas. The Habs will keep their 8-out-of-8 season streak going against Boston — not to mention that it’s actually 12 straight going back thru last season, or their 23-and-7 series record overall. This is future Hall-of-Famer Carey Price’s magic run spring — a la Cam Ward in ‘06 and Kenny the Giraffe in ‘71. And all the games are on CBC.

Marc-Andre Fleury vs. Martin Gerber. A Pittsburgh-Ottawa opening-round rematch from last season, with the opposite result this time. (ie; Pens in 4 or 5) Fleury should be great, but most importantly this is Crosby’s year to prove it. And now he’s got a smokin’ Malkin and a happy Hossa ridin’ shotgun. Plus someone named Gary Roberts is back in the line-up; just in time for his time of year. And in the Blessings From Above Dept.: Jim Hughson will be calling the Pittsburgh series on CBC! He’s the best there is. And again every game’s on CBC (’cause a Canadian team’s involved).

Chistobal Huet vs. Martin Biron. Washington — Philly. SOOOO glad Pittsburgh are NOT playing The Philly Goon Squad — and for the good of the sport and the health of all athletes, I hope the Throwaway Newspaper Supplements are eliminated in 4 by the super-on, high flying, hard hitting Capitals. Christobal Huet is in the zone, and they’re 11-and-2 since he joined, with a 1.63 GAA and .936 sv%. Marty Biron is in slo-mo at 2.59 and .918.  Thank Gawd — all games are on TSN! and a couple doubled up on NBC as well. For a separate story on Ovechkin’s records, see: http://brianhassett.com/2008/04/09/ovechkins-1s-this-season/

King Henri Lundqvist vs. Marty Brodeur. The New Jersey Satans managed only one shoot-out win in 8 games against the Rangers this year, so the Blueshirts have got Dr. Evil’s number, and I expect that the ugly-uniformed franchise will quickly slurp back into the swamp from which they came in short order. All games (except #2) are on TSN.

Dominik Hasek vs. Dan Ellis. Red Wings v Predators. As lovely a story as the forever-underdog Nashville Vegetarians is, they won’t be pulling any upset over the best team in hockey. Over 82 games the Red Wings are once again the President’s Trophy winners, and have let in the fewest goals, scored the 3rd most, have the 4th top point-getter in the league, and a coaching and management culture second only to Montreal. Plus, they have the best goalie tandem in a long time — their 2 netminders finished #1 and #4 in GAA in the league — and when was the last time one team had both the best and the 4th best in the league?! Only the weekend afternoon games 2 and 6 will be broadcast in Canada, on NBC. Game 3 is on TSN, and that’s it (so far).

Evegni Nabokov vs. Mikka Kiprusoff. San Jose vs. Calgary. What a showdown! The Sharks are firing on all cylinders and positions — see: Thornton, Campbell and Nabokov. They’re 20-and-2 in their last 22, and this is their year for The Finals. But meanwhile, here’s Calgary, with the best player playing in Canada in Jerome Iginla, and the country’s only Western team representing, with a killer Kiper goalie and an experienced playoff coach. The problem is, they’ll overplay their “toughness” — they have the most fighting majors in the majors, which is appealing to some and repulsive to others, and have taken the 2nd most penalties overall (whereas San Jose is the 2nd least penalized team). They could easily end up losing this with a man in the box to one of the best PPs in the league (who also happen to be numero uno on the PK!) No matter what, this should be a doozy of a series, but will go to the Sharks even if it has to go to 7. All games on CBC.

Niklas Backstrom vs. Jose Theodore. Minnesota - Colorado is the other exciting series in the West — evenly matched, both smartly coached, highly skilled, non-goon hockey. Even though I’m a jersey-owning Wild fan, how can you not love Team Sakic? With Ryan Smith, Peter Forsberg, Paul Stastny, Adam Foote and a revitalized Jose Theodore. For hockey’s sake, it would be great if this went 7 games — and it’s too bad one of the two has to be eliminated. At least 5 games on TSN: 1, 2, 4, 5, & 7.

In The Also-Rans Dept. — like Hawkman, I’m certainly hoping the classy and classic Blackhawks make it in next year. And also John Davidson’s team, the home of the blues, St. Louis. In the East, it’s great that Tampa just won the Stamkos Sweepstakes. The franchise were founded by Espo, and were the first offense-first team in a decade in the NHL when they won their Cup. Another superstar to play with Lecavelier & St. Louis is a real good thing.

Hopefully the wonderfully skilled, clean playing, and buoyantly enthusiastic Russians will eliminate some of the ethically-challenged teams and players in the first round.

I know it’s as blindly optimistic as hoping for politics to be played clean, but I live in hope that these playoffs are. May this be an injury-free playoffs for all players.

You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Puck on, hosers!

(And feel free to leave your predictions and observations behind.)

This is shaping up to be the best hockey in a playoffs maybe ever — seeing how the quality of NHL has gone up so much in the last few years.  Especially the top 4 teams in each conference.  This year’s second round will likely see a lot 6 and 7 game series.  The reason I’m jumping ahead to the second round . . .

A funny thing:  in the East, the only close series is the 1-8 match-up.  Get this: 

This year, Montreal beat Boston 8 out of 8 times. 

The Rangers beat the Devils 7 out of 7 times.  And

Washington beat Ottawa 4 out of 4 times.  

That’s gotta have never happened before.  8 out of 8’s are very rare, let alone to have them be match-ups in the playoffs — usually teams who lose 8 out of 8 to anyone don’t make the post-season.  And to have it be a clean sweep in 3 series is pretty unusual. 

And then to add to the wierdness, the only series that was close is the 1st place vs. the last place team.  But even they came in consistent blocks:  Philly beat Pittsburgh in the first 4 games, then Pittsburgh came back and won the most recent four. 

 Out West, the Minnesota Wild won their division for the first time in their franchise history.  And of course, San Jose only losing ONE of their last 21 games!  And classy Detroit once again proudly leading the league. 

And how bout this — that the top 3 point getters this season as all Russian!  Ovechkin, Malkin, and Datsyuk.  And didja know, Datsyuk, in 3rd overall, played in all 82 games for the Red Wings, and got a total of 20 min. in penalties all season!  He has to win the Lady Byng. 

And speaking of trophies, at least a couple are pretty obvious:  Hart MYP to Ovechkin (and bet ya he gets the Pearson too), and Jack Adams Best Coach to Bruce Boudreau at the Caps.  Since he took over Nov 23rd, Washington has gotten the most points of any team in the NHL, except beaten by only 1 point each, by Pittsburgh, Detroit and San Jose. 

And I know there’s no trophy for best GM, but the Caps George McPhee brought in Chritobal Huet, Sergi Federov, and Matt Cook at the trade deadline, who were all actually the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stars in a recent game. 

And how their team went from dead last (15th place) in November to 3rd place — that’s got to be the single biggest jump in position since its been a 30 team league — maybe ever since expansion. 

I guess if the recent manditory rule of one Canadian team vs. one U.S. team for The Cup continues, we’ll be enjoying a Montreal - San Jose final.  Carey Price trying to pull a Dryden / Roy rookie season Canadiens goalie coup, or Coupe as they say in Quebec. 

Feel free to leave your evaluations, observations, predictions or Weird True Facts here. 

And may the best teams win!  

Puck on! 

This happens in the last second of the season, when it’s all over.  You can see it here: 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4C3MwenwNgg

This is the alternate captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs intentionally spearing a first-game rookie in the nuts at the last second of the season.  You can see the spear at the 4, 13, very clearly at 22, a second one at 26, and again at 43. 

It reminds me of a certain Domi elbow to an Islander’s head at the end of another season not long ago. 

It’s not just that they’ve sucked for 40 years (Chicago hasn’t won it either), but it’s incidents like these that are then defended by their fans that makes this team and its devotees so disliked.  You think of what so many fans in this town said about their best all-time player a month ago when he wouldn’t agree to be shoved off the ship.  And how it’s so painfully similar to what they did to Frank Mahovlich many years ago.  And what the team did to Darryl Sittler.  And Lanny McDonald before that.  It’s just a legacy of bad sportsmanship from ownership to the players to the fans, that seems to be reinforced by its own culture, and repeats itself over and over and over again. 

But what a lovely final and fitting image for all hockey fans and players to take with them into the playoffs and post-season:  The alternate captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs spearing a 1st game rookie in the nuts after both the game and season are decided. 

It opens Friday, April 4th.  Here’s some info on it . . .

Shine A Light  (2008)

The Rolling Stones, with Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, Blondie Chapman, Bernard Fowler & Lisa Fischer, and a 4-piece horn section led by a wailin’ Bobby Keys.

Special Guests:  Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera, Jack White 

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Cinematographers:  Scorsese brought together seven of the best in the business, all of whom would normally be heading up their own pictures:  lead d.p. Robert Richardson (The Aviator, JFK);  Robert Elswit (just won the Oscar for There Will Be Blood, also Good Night and Good Luck);  Andrew Lesnie (all three Lord of the Rings;  King Kong);  John Toll (The Last Samuri, Braveheart);  Emmanuel Lubeski (Sleepy Hollow, Lemony Snicket, Children of Men);  Stuart Dryburgh (The Painted Veil);  Ellen Kuras (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind),  and several other top cameramen.

Filmed over 2 shows, in the fall of 2006, at the Beacon Theater, NYC (cap. 2800).

Length:  122 minutes

Shine A Light  is originally a song from Exile on Main Street.

18 songs - “some never played live before” - probably just “Champaign & Reefer”. 

(although some reports say 20 or 22 songs)

            (4 from Some Girls;  3 from Exile;  2 each from Beggars & Let It Bleed)

All songs Jagger/Richards, except Just My Imagination and Champaign & Reefer.

.
Jumpin’ Jack Flash  (released as a single, June ‘68, recorded during Beggars Banquet)
Shattered  (Some Girls, 1978)
* She Was Hot  – some cite as a highlight  (released as 2^nd single from Undercover, 1983)
All Down The Line  – Ronnie on slide — (Exile, 1972)
Loving Cup,  with Jack White  – reportedly fairly lame  (Exile, 1972)
As Tears Go By  — Keith on acoustic 12-string (December’s Children, 1965)
Some Girls  – a highlight - the band has fun with it — (Some Girls, 1978)
Just My Imagination  (Temptations song, from Some Girls, 1978)
* Far Away Eyes  – is great!  Ron Wood on peddle steel; Jagger on acoustic — (Some Girls, 1978)
* Champagne & Reefer,  with Buddy Guy (Festival Express star! J ) - a movie highlight - Mick on harp; (written by Muddy Waters, on his King Bee album, 1981) 
Tumbling Dice  (from Exile, 1972)

   band introductions
You Got The Silver - slide guitar, with Keith lead vocal (his first ever on a Stones record; Richards original, Let It Bleed, 1969)
Connection  – only partial  (Keith song & lead vocal, from Between The Buttons, 1967)
* Sympathy For The Devil  – great version — (Beggars Banquet, 1968)
* Live With Me, with Christina Aguilera - doing one sexy song, where she takes a scat solo for the 2^nd instrumental break.  —  (Let It Bleed and Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, 1969)
Start Me Up  – reportedly only so-so  (Tattoo You, 1981)

encore:
* Brown Sugar   – great Bobby Keys sax! — (Sticky Fingers, 1971)
Satisfaction   (Out of Our Heads, 1965)

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

you can hear the Aguilera duet here:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=7e4dOi46wa0

American-based computers can watch it here:  www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=220655

= = = = = = = = = =

original Beacon concert set lists:
10/29/06:
Start Me Up
Shattered
She Was Hot
All Down The Line
Loving Cup
As Tears Go By
I’m Free
Undercover (Of The Night)
Just My Imagination
Shine A Light
Champagne & Reefer
Tumbling Dice
You Got The Silver
Little T&A
Sympathy For The Devil
Live With Me
Paint It Black
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Brown Sugar

11/1/06:
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Shattered
She Was Hot
All Down The Line
Loving Cup
As Tears Go By
I’m Free
Some Girls
Just My Imagination
Far Away Eyes
Champagne & Reefer
Tumbling Dice
You Got The Silver
Connection
Sympathy For The Devil
Live With Me
Honky Tonk Woman
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Satisfaction

Additional songs played during rehearsals at the Beacon (Maybe for some DVD extras):

Shine A Light
Undercover of the Night
Fool To Cry
Mannish Boy
Beast Of Burden
I’m Free 

LIVE WITH ME
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

I tell ya,

I got nasty habits, I take tea at three,
The meat I eat for dinner
Must be hung up for a week,
My best friend, he shoots water rats
And feeds them to his geese,
Don’cha think there’s a place for us
In between the sheets?

Come on now, baby
We can build a home for three,
Come on now, baby
Don’t you wanna live with me?

There’s a score of harebrained children
They’re all locked in the nursery,
They got earphone heads, they got dirty necks,
They’re so 20th century;
Well they queue up for the bathroom
‘Round about 7:35
Well don’cha think we need a woman’s touch to make it come alive?

You’d look good pram pushing
Down the high street,
Come on now, baby,
Don’t you wanna live with me?

sax solo

Come on now, baby,
We can build a home for three,
Come on now, sugar,
Don’t you wanna live with me?

The servants they’re so helpful, now,
The cook she is a whore,
The butler has a place for her
Behind the pantry door,               (and ya gotta think of Bill & Hillary who were in the audience!)
The maid, she’s French, she’s got no sense,
She’s wild for Crazy Horse,
And when she strips, the chauffeur flips,
The footman’s eyes get crossed.

Don’cha think there’s a place for us
Right across the street,
Don’cha think there’s a place for you,
In between the sheets?

Christina’s scat solo

Come on now, baby,
We can build a home for three,
Come on now, baby,
Don’t you wanna live with me?

Originally recorded May 24, 1969. Released on Let It Bleed on December 5, 1969
Lead Vocals: Mick Jagger  Electric Guitars: Keith Richards & Mick Taylor  Bass: Keith Richards  Drums: Charlie Watts  Tenor Sax: Bobby Keys  Pianos: Nicky Hopkins & Leon Russell  Backing Vocals: Keith Richards
Brian - karmacoupon@gmail.com

http://www.brianhassett.com/

I’m looking for an autographed copy of the book “Barefoot in Babylon” by Bob Spitz, about the Woodstock ‘69 concert.

It has all sorts of autographs in it of people who were at Woodtsock ‘69, many of them “To Brian” 

I am that Brian, and have been looking for it since it disappeared in NYC in 1982. 

If you have the book, or have ever seen it, please let me know.  Reward! 

Brian Hassett

karmacoupon@gmail.com

905-825-0911 

 film review:  Lucky Numbers (2000)

Directed by Nora Ephron; starring John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Roth, Ed O’Neil, Richard Schiff, Bill Pullman, Michael Rapaport, Michael Moore. 

First of all - this is made by Nora Ephron!  Heartburn!  Sleepless!  Her and Penny Marshall have to be the two best female filmmakers going - at least of the older gen. You know you don’t get an amazing cast like this together unless you’ve got someone like Ephron at the helm. 

For sure this is no Best Picture - but it is some low-budget dark comedy magic. 

Flipping channels one night I happened to luck into the scene where Richard Schiff’s Jerry confronts Tim Roth’s Gig in the strip-club kitchen over the rigging of the lottery.  For me, it’s as Dylan sings of Gregory Peck, “I’d watch him in anything.”  Either of these two stop me in my tracks.  Ya gotta think this scene was at least partly improvised - and wow, what a gem! 

So i watched the rest of it.  Then tracked it down, and have now seen it about 10 times since.  Almost every scene is funny, tight and great. There’s not a lull through the first half-hour, and all the way through the hour-15 mark it’s pretty note-perfect. Truthfully, the final reel is a little uneven, but who needs comedies to get nicely wrapped up with a bow?

And WHAT a cast!  Tim frickin’ Roth, Travolta, Rapaport, Pullman, and Richard Schiff!!  Masters all.  And Travolta’s hilariously hopeless weatherman is perfectly pathetic.  After Pulp Fiction turned things around, it was this and Primary Colors that won me over to him. 

And Bill Pullman’s lazy cop is priceless!  He doesn’t even enter the movie until an hour in, but I laugh every time I just think of him.  “The lower back . . .  it’s an enigma.”  “Where . . . do you find girls like that?”  “You know what would be unfortunate — if we got into that whole ‘let’s-follow-him’ rigmarole.”  “Great.  Now I’ve got another 20,000 forms to fill out.” 

And then the insane Lisa “There is a limit to my classiness” Kudrow.  And even Michael Moore is actually believable.  And then Al Bundy with a station manager’s job!  And Michael Rapaport is perfect as dumb Dale The Thug — especially the scene when he first meets Travolta at his house. 

And there’s choice cameo bit-parts including by the great Canadian improv actor Colin Mochrie playing the manager of the Denny’s, who’s most recognized for all the “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” shows he did.  And the goofy blond stand-up comic and over-the-top actress, Maria Bamford, plays the lucky loopy waitress. 

And what a great soundtrack! The Cars’ “Moving In Stereo”!  Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time”!  “Hey, Big Spender“!  Rickie Lee Jones!  “Mack, The Knife,”  Blondie!  “Freeze-Frame by J Geils!  “Love Is A Drug“, and “We Are The Champions” when the truck’s pulling out in the snowstorm.

For the most part, the writing is just fantastic.  Almost every frickin’ scene.  I assume Ephron helped, and maybe her hired-gun pal Carrie Fischer.  It’s too good for one guy.  Adam Resnick, the main writer, was from “The Larry Sanders Show” and Letterman.  The characters are just fantastic (ly flawed and horrible!) 

If you like this kind of thing, make it a point to find “Beat The Devil” (1953), the same kind of comedy noir, except via a well-buzzed John Huston, with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorie and a ton of other true characters. 

Lucky Numbers is based on the true story of a Pittsburgh weatherman rigging the PA state lottery in 1980.  You can learn more about it here:  http://www.answers.com/nick+perry?cat=entertainment

= = = = = = = =

by Brian Hassett 

karmacoupon@gmail.com

http://www.brianhassett.com/

                           The Grateful Dead Played My 30th Birthday

                                                                     Or

           Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned At A Grateful Dead Concert

            The weekend of my 30th birthday, four old friends drove from Winnipeg to New York to help celebrate it, and the Grateful Dead flew in from San Francisco to play.

            It’s a curious story how the Dead have ended up following this displaced Canadian around all these years.  I first heard them at an older friend’s house when I was about 16.  Of all the musical vibrations emanating through my teens, I’m still not sure why it was these guys who were strumming the rhythm of my inner pulse.  Why wasn’t it The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis, Bruce, or any of the other aural entities who captured my peers’ ears?  Why was it the Grateful Dead, a San Francisco acid-rock band from the sixties, and not some Canadian beer-rock band from the seventies?  I mean, I’d barely even heard of acid, let alone knew what it was, let alone done it at one of their concerts.  And I’d certainly never been to San Francisco.  Fifteen years later, I’m still amazed that what struck me then, continues to strike me today.

            After I first heard this otherwise unknown band in Winnipeg, I held their sound between my ears and went off in search of their records.  The stores in my farm implement outpost didn’t have a Grateful Dead section.  Most didn’t even have them under “Misc - G.”  Finally in some basement New & Used joint I found one, and the journey began.  At the time, no one else I knew was listening to them.  I mean no one.  And since they weren’t on the radio or anything, it was difficult to put their records on at parties.  I remember it got to the point where I would plead to get one side played, which would give me a fix for the night.  Even then, before I’d ever seen them, or even thought that I would, I was living on nightly fixes.  Little did I know the size of the future doses.

            The concept of seeing a band live wasn’t even in our frame of reference.  In Winnipeg, we weren’t too sure what a concert was, and were hardly aware that they existed.  So few tours came to town, the ones that did were more like a traveling exposition that everyone felt obliged to attend but didn’t quite understand.  And it seemed like the Grateful Dead were something that happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. 

            But one afternoon, there in a 7-11 on the corner of this lily-white elm-treed neighborhood in a mid-western prairie town, I was flipping through a Rolling Stone magazine when I came across a two-page photograph of a huge crowd of people that looked like an aerial shot of Woodstock ─ only the caption read, “100,000 rise for The Dead.”  I later learned this was the famous Englishtown, New Jersey concert, and I was looking at the heads of many of my future friends.  I remember crouching there, slurping a slurpee out of a plastic hockey cup with the condensation dripping to the floor, looking at this black & white spread of people pushing toward the stage, and realizing it wasn’t for Jimi Hendrix and a cast of hundreds.  “The Dead again?  Who are these guys?”  A hundred thousand was the population of my town.  I realized then that something was definitely going on in America that we didn’t know anything about.

            These odd little experiences began piling on top of each other out there on the frozen tundra.  There was the time that out-of-town band played at The Zoo and covered their tunes.  There was that poster on the wall at the babysitting place.  There was that chapter in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. 

            After high school I bought a van, with my subconscious mind muttering, “This’ll get me to a Grateful Dead concert.”  The next spring, friends and I drove to Vancouver and settled in.  Before long, word filtered up that the band was playing in Seattle.   The show was sold out by the time we heard about it, but I remember phoning and pleading, and somehow getting to mail them a money order because the extra soundboard pulls or something would be going on sale in a week.  Either way, from our naive little apartment on the wrong side of the border we were able to procure our first tickets to a lifelong adventure.

            The initial show was general admission, and there was this unusually comfortable conformity in the amount of space each person took on the floor.  The Deadheads we talked to all seemed surprised that this was our first show.  We were wondering, “What do you mean?  Isn’t it yours?  Why do these people all think this is strange?  Why are they grinning at us like that?”

            After a summer of starving out west, I ended up in college in New York, whereupon the Dead promptly came to town for eight shows at Radio City Music Hall.  Suddenly the phenomena I’d brushed up against in Seattle was in town for a fortnight.  What were once misunderstood expositions was now a visiting circus!  And what a spectacle it turned out to be, with the camped-out American hippies pulling off a coup at music’s Palace of Versailles!  This was the sacrificial whiplash of my indoctrination, where The Innocent Canadian gets snatched up and flung through the American Animal House Fraternity, with everyone plastered on a 20 year bender of social freedoms.

            And now, on this most recent birthday weekend, as I danced across the threshold from my first three decades and into the next, the house band was playing once again. 

            My old school buddies from Canada and I arrived in the parking lot at noon for a 7:00 show, joining tens of thousands of tailgaters already in full twist.  Every car, hatchback and van was smothered in transparent Dead decals, every window exposing the backpacks, cloths and gear of a moving army with too few vehicles.

            Various periods of the band were playing from stereos in every direction.  Wherever we stood, dancing licks from some incarnation would dominate, until we wandered on and a different one would weave into focus.  The most deadicated were blasting crystal-clear speakers perched on rooftops, inspiring you to linger a little longer when the tune was sweet.

            There we were, broiling on the blacktop of a steel-filled parking lot in the devastating heat of a Greenhouse summer, with beers and juice were for sale every few feet, and grilled-cheese sandwiches twice an aisle.  The visiting foursome had never been to a Dead show before, and despite my fervent preparations, they were still stunned silent.  But after we had encircled the Giant coliseum once, they seemed to have internalized the dancing shuffle and oft-interrupted pace, and were singing the collective tune of the kind, kind day.

            Granted, there were overripe school kids guzzling beer, and here we were in our thirties, but there was no question that they were us and this was the culmination of a personal dream.  From those little tid-bits in a 7-11, and chance platters at a pal’s place, I was finally able to pull a group of old friends into the Kaleidoscopic Dancehall after all these years.  I’d spent much of my teens trying to convince everyone we should move to California.  The Great Migration never took place, but now some latter-day version was. 

            The long, circular asphalt stroll somehow condensed the years gone by.  Here, far from the madding Mounties, were free-styling Americans ─ that most shocking group in the eyes of Cautious Canucks ─ who were smoking joints, tossing frizbees, and GOING FOR IT, something that’s as foreign to Canadians as all-English labeling.  Here were my four porcelain-white brothers a million miles from the jaywalking tickets of home, sashaying through the breast bouncing, sun worshiping euphoria of a world they’d never seen.

            I wish I could have time-traveled the optimistic faces of my youth into the land I discovered later, but then who doesn’t?  In New York I was able to find what we’d been striving to build on our own on that frozen permafrost.  I’ve never been able to share, except on occasional weekend outings, the findings of my Expedition South of the 49th.  But now, here we were, crossing the boundary between the plans of our twenties and the work of our thirties, and the faces and flames were together once again to share it.  It’ll be a different picture at the next decade’s dawn, but for now, as youth was burning away like that last slurp of gas from an empty tank, at least the car was full of the same faces as when the journey began.

            Not everything was perfect.  It was stupefyingly hot, and a couple of the gang didn’t quite get The Big Picture, but that’s part of it too.  It’s what we are not that defines us as clearly as what we are.  We weren’t of one mind back then, and we weren’t that weekend on the tarmac.

            But what we were was together, and if there’s anything homo sapiens crave, it’s more of the same.  If you can gaze into the human mirrors of your childhood every couple of years, you’re never going to grow too old, or wander too far astray.  If you can’t tell how fat you’re getting by trying on your pants, invite your soulmates over for coffee and check the waistline.  You can be full of shit, but they’ll see it.  You can blow your balloon as full as you want, and they’ll pop it.  Your carefully stacked rationalizations will topple in a breeze of your own reflection.

            And it’s a joy.  It’s a joy when you wake up to find you that you’ve been doing something right all along.  And it’s even a joy to see where the sails need trimming.  Only old friends can bring that into focus.

            And so it is with any band, … or novel, or movie, or canvas.  Good art grows with you.  If it’s real, it’s there for a lifetime, and you’ll grow up in its landscape.  Charlie Parker when you’re 50, or van Gogh at 60, will still inspire a celebration of life, but they’ll be in a different shade than today.  All the tingles you ever felt are still there for the rekindling.  The masters of eternity knit with the golden thread of our spirit, and have weaved a little of each of us into their song.

= = = = = = = = = =

by Brian Hassett

karmacoupon@gmail.com

www.BrianHassett.com

Here’s an article I wrote on the film Festival Express, published in Relix Magazine, April 2004. 

Drivin’ That Train . . .        

The Festival Express Rolls Again After 30 Years

by Brian Hassett

“That was the best time I’ve had in rock and roll,” said Jerry Garcia. “There were no straight people.”

In the summer of 1970, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and scores of other musicians took a chartered train trip across Canada. And it’s on film. Really, really good film. Coming to theaters this summer. DVD to follow. But go out of your way to catch it on the big screen for the full concert experience. At the Toronto Film Festival last fall, tears were rolling down cheeks during Janis’s soul bearing, and spontaneous applause erupted mid-song, as if it were a jazz club.

Plus, this is the best Jerry Garcia on film. I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

And it’s the wildest