Thirteen and one half years ago, we moved into our house here in Skokie. We met a lot of the neighbors, they were and are wonderful people.
It’s been a long time now, but I don’t remember how we met our neighbors at all he end of the block. You couldn’t help but notice the house, a little Hobbit looking hut with unusual trim. Eventually, we found out that our neighbor was a 6’7″ black man who I had seen playing parties while at Northwestern, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. I saw him and Johnny Johnson many times at NU, dancing alone and with others in a down home blues euphoria.
I remember being a bit intimidated meeting him, a blues legend who knew and played with all of the greats: Muddy, Buddy, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, so many more. Here was a living history of Chicago blues music. I approached him as a legend, but he would have none of that. I was his friend; hugs were plentiful; and he always kindly answered my questions about his friends and times on the South Side, when my parents and grandparents were young and in that crowd.
He had a birthday party at Evanston Space every January, and we would go and bring a lot of people with us. He loved seeing his neighbors up front. (He and I share the same birthday month, and one year, the concert was on my birthday – a Saturday. Man, I was very well served that evening.)
No matter what, I was always amazed by his energy on stage – in his 70s and 80s, he may have looked tired off stage, but once he got up there, he was rockin’. I was always amazed at one additional fact – the Chief was left-handed, but back when he learned to play, he learned on a right handed guitar. Even after he had enough money to buy left handed guitars, he still played guitars for righties. Most amazing however, was the fact that Eddy played the guitar still strung for a right handed player, so he played the blues, Grammy winning albums, Blues Hall of Fame membership, playing the guitar upside down. (As someone who can barely play a right handed guitar and I’m right handed, it’s astounding.)
So, my friend Lisa Holton had the unfortunate duty of forwarding a link that said that the Chief passed today at 83. The sky is crying as the song goes. We will miss his music. We will miss his grand good humor. A large piece of blues history is gone. But I will miss my friend, the legend who never acted like one. The man who loved when my youngest, Elizabeth would bring him a plate at our annual block party, a party he enjoyed because he could just be himself, no one would ask him to play. He could just relax.
So long Chief – I know we were friends, but it was an honor to know such a great and kindly man and musician.

The NFL has announced a rule change that would penalize any team whose players kneel for the national anthem At first, the reports were for a team be assessed a 15 yard penalty. However, this plan had a major flaw – players talking to one another or looking across the field and see players from one team kneeling. Simple tactic – players from the other team start kneeling – 15 yard, offsetting penalties against both teams.
So, the league has instituted a rule that all players on the field must stand for the anthem. However, players can choose to not be on the field for the anthem, either in the locker room or in the tunnel leading to the field. I have not been able to determine how much money would be the potential punishment and if this could be passed along to the player. In any event, the Players’ Union is reviewing the rule to determine if it follows the rules of the collective bargaining agreement.
Again, we have old, rich, white men trying to legislate the behavior of young, predominantly young black men because the protest is hurting the feelings of many “snowflake” right wing zealots who want their football violent and pure. There’s no need to go into the free speech and civil rights implications, nor do we need to rehash the Colin Kaepernick protest and collusion lawsuit, but if the NFL believes that they can sweep the protests under the rug and hope that no one notices, they’re wrong. Many NFL players have been emboldened by Kaepernick and his inability of getting a job in the league because of his political beliefs. Besides, NFL attempts to blunt controversies regarding plaayers’ head trauma issues and violence against women have not fared too well. Why does Roger Goodell suddenly think that this will work?
For a very rich executive, Goodell and the NFL office don’t do a very good job.

Actually, not really embarrassment for the league, but certainly for many of the coaches and general managers in the league. The first true expansion team to make the Stanley Cup Finals, the Las Vegas Golden Knights has won the Western Conference title and will face the winner of tomorrow night’s Tampa Bay Lightning/Washington Capitals game 7. The only other expansion team to play for the Cup were the 1968 St. Louis Blues, but that doesn’t really count since after expansion, one of those franchises were guaranteed to play in the Finals.
Already, the league could just give Executive of the Year and Coach of the Year Awards to George McPhee and Gerard Gallant, men who targeted the kind of players they wanted who were available either as direct picks in the expansion draft or players who could be acquired in trade or in agreements to not take other eligible players. Only 2 players were well known and the first was only to avid fans: James Neil had won Cups in Pittsburgh but became expendable as the two-time defending champion Penguins had their own salary cap issues. Also in Pittsburgh, Marc-Andre Fluery was redundant with the development of the younger and cheaper Matt Murray in goal. Long time readers know that I feel that Fluery is a great regular season goalie, but runs into problems in the playoffs, but that hasn’t happened yet.
The entire roster took the way they were acquired with a chip on their collective shoulders. Everyone picked them to be lousy, but by picking fast aggressive players to match Gallant’s style, the Golden Knights got off to a great start and rode that wave throughout the entire season, finishing on top II of their division and among the top teams in points. The “conventional wisdom” was that they would suck, but they didn’t listen to the wisdom and success would break through the first year curiosity factor and may have helped build a nice fan base in Sin City.
However, long time hockey men are pissed off, especially the front offices of teams who either have never won the Cup or those who haven’t won it in a very long time. Heading that list are two leading Original Six Canadian franchises: the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs are still suffering from decades of mismanagement under former owner Harold Ballard, and the team has not won a title since 1967, the longest active draught. Things are certainly better – they have made the playoffs the past two years, and they have break out superstar Austin Matthews, but they are still young and they have a Stanley Cup winning coach Mike Babcock and Brendan Shanahan as President, so they have hope.
Which is more than can be said for Les Habitants. The Canadiens failed to make the playoffs this season, and haven’t won a Cup since 1993, an unheard of streak for the team that still holds the record for most Stanley Cups – 24. Canadien fans’ patience has been sorely tempted as GM Marc Bergevin has not done a very good job in crafting the team, highlighted by the trade of defenseman P.K. Subban to Nashville for fellow defenseman Shea Weber. Both are top blue liners, but Weber is 7 years older and nearer to the end of his career. Coach Claude Julien was brought into this mess after taking the blame for not enough wins in Boston despite leading the Bruins to the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship. So, it’s really not his fault that the team has no identity, not enough scorers, and many feel are wasting the prime years of one of the best goaltenders in the game – Carey Price.
It will be interesting to see what the rumblings will be in Toronto and Montreal and among other teams with long Cup draughts and high expectations (Rangers, Capitals in they lose game 7, Blues, Wild among others). For now, however, the Vegas castoffs have turned the hockey world on its collective ear. That’s always fun to see.

There has been a big deal over the weekend regarding Major League Baseball and Cubs’ infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist over footwear. One might ask: is he wearing orange cleats, or stiletto heels or maybe 1970s era Gene Simmons KISS platform monster shoes? As it turns out, Zobrist wears black cleats, he says as a tribute to previous era players.
MLB obviously has nothing better to do other than count its money, so the league reportedly contacted Zobrist because there’s a rule that shoes must be predominantly in the player’s team colors. For the Cubs, this is, of course, blue. Now, I would think that no one really makes that big a distinction between blue and black, and while I don’t really see Zobrist’s wearing of black shoes being a significant tribute, who really cares? (Yesterday, teammates Kyle Schwarber and Steve Cishek wore black cleats in protest along with Zobrist.)
Again, if Zobrist wanted to wear pink shoes (not on Mother’s Day like yesterday) or wear camouflage shoes or something ridiculous, baseball should say something. But Black vs. Blue – I think there’s better use of time, effort and money.

Truly, I knew that this day was coming; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Federal Law prohibiting sports gambling were unconstitutional. According to the 6-3 ruling (I haven’t read which of the “liberal bloc” voted with the conservative justices), states can make their own determinations on the issue.
Actually, does this really have any significance? Draft Kings and the other online betting websites have been operating for years, set up I believe, outside of United States territorial boundaries. Of course, sports books are legal in Nevada and a few other states already.
So, what does this really mean? To me, it just means that local gambling casinos can get in on the action, meaning more revenue for states and municipalities. It’s another sin tax, and one that people will participate in gladly. The old fears that gamblers would try to access players, coaches and referees to try and throw games or shave points still exists, and in fact, is probably a bigger risk than ever. However, with the major sports leagues and the NCAA allowing and even putting out betting lines in every newspaper and on dozens on online sites, that horse has long left the barn.
The only thing I can see getting hurt are office pools. If you can bet legally online or locally, with the chance of winning thousands of dollars, what do the office pools have other than bragging rights? And perhaps the illegal bookmakers may suffer, but maybe that’s a plus?
I’m sure that there are pundits on ESPN even now spouting fire and brimstone bromides that this will be the end of sports as we know it. It won’t – people who want to bet, are going to bet. Now, people can get their bets in and the government gets tax revenue.
I’m OK with that.

Unfortunately, I have not fond memories of the dark, cold years when my Blackhawks were just plain lousy. Of course, the last 10 years or so have made those years forgettable. This season however, the Hawks weren’t very good, and so, for the first time in those 10 years, I harken back to the days of not really having “a horse in the race” during the NHL Playoffs. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t watch any games, far from it; but it did lead me to have a tradition – who DON’T I want to win.
Back in those days, it was fairly easy – I hate the Red Wings – simple. I don’t like St. Louis either, so I don’t want them to win. During the great last 10 years, I added Vancouver because our rivalry with them was so intense.
This season of course, the Blackhawks stunk up the joint and missed the playoffs. As time has gone on, teams’ fortunes have changed – Detroit and Vancouver didn’t make the playoffs themselves and haven’t in a while. (Plus, will we have the same passionate hate for Vancouver now that the Sedin sisters, I mean brothers have retired?) St. Louis were eliminated on the last weekend of the regular season.
What to do? The traditional nemeses were already out. So, who to root for/against? One team was easy – while I have no real feelings for or against Pittsburgh, they’ve won the Stanley Cup 2 years in a row, so I’m tired of them. I not very fond of the California teams – L.A., San Jose, or Anaheim, but not the level of hatred reserved for the others. I don’t like the Wild, but they never make it out of the first round anyway. I do dislike Nashville because of their front office who try to keep opponents from attending their games. If they were a bigger market, they wouldn’t have that problem. In the east, at the start of the first round, mild dislike was reserved for the Flyers just because they’re from Philadelphia, and I will always hate Columbus as long as they have John Tortorella behind the bench.
Now, we’re one game 7 away from making it to the Conference Finals. I generally am okay with the Bruins, but with Brad Marchand licking people, I am very happy that they’re sitting at home. Marchand is a pest, but the licking took it too far; he knew he could get away with it because no one would risk taking a major penalty for beating the crap out of Marchand. I felt sorry for the Capitals, winners of the President’s Trophy twice over the past few years, but never being able to get past Pittsburgh, but not anymore. They ousted the Penguins last night and so we won’t have to listen any more about their dynasty. The Cinderella team has been Las Vegas, and the Golden Knights continue to play well, swamping the Sharks in 6 games. All that’s left is the deciding game 7 between Winnipeg and Nashville Thursday night. (Why so long NBC/NHL?) If the Jets win, then I really won’t have anyone to root against.
So, I like the Lightning, if they win, it’s cool. I can live with the Caps. I wouldn’t like it if the Preds win, but I like P.J. Subban so I could deal with it. I would LOVE for the Golden Knights to win because it would piss off a lot of old time hockey purists and a lot of front office people who thought Las Vegas would suck like most expansion teams do, but they were shrewd and got the type of players who could play an up tempo style, and with Marc-Andre Fluery in goal to stop the odd man rushes, they have done what was thought to be impossible.
Let’s get the Conference and Cup Finals going. I’m certainly ready.

Long time readers know that I am a movie fan. I watch lots of movies, have attended the Toronto International Film Festival for 17 of the past 19 years. I used to watch lots of comedies, but they don’t do much for me anymore – too many dick and fart jokes, very little wit. I love dramas, and kung fu films, documentaries, foreign films. I still believe in buying physical discs of films. There are however films and stars that I’m not a big fan of. Sometimes, it’s because of the genre, sometimes it’s because the star, or the director are bad, or, in real life, scumbags. Then there is one actor who isn’t bad, doesn’t seem to be a bad person, but I don’t watch his movies – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
While I’ve been out of work, I have watched a number of movies in theaters, giving myself a break from searching for work and doing stuff around the house. Usually, at Academy Awards time, I’ve seen one half of the films nominated for best picture. This year, I saw all but two (of 9). There is nothing at the Cineplex this week that I wish to see. Ready Player One, usually my cup of tea, leaves me cold (aided by a comment on Facebook by a female sci-fi fan that the book is misogynist trash).
The big film of the week is Rampage, an action film based on a video game starring Dwayne Johnson. It has big monsters; I love Godzilla and King Kong movies. Why don’t I want to see it? Perhaps the fact that I’m not a gamer. The only video games I play are sports games. I have no particular interest in seeing Tomb Raider; I wasn’t a big fan of the first Jumanji, so I skipped the second one, even though it seemed amusing.
I asked myself, was it Dwayne Johnson? He’s a good looking man, buff. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy (unless you are Vin Diesel). He has had his challenges, getting cut at football, going against his father’s wishes to follow his footsteps into wrestling. He has been very candid about his battles with depression. He has a casual, movie star quality about himself. He has more talent than many.
Then what is it? My girls and I watched “Tooth Fairy” on cable some time back, and it was innocuous, mainstream entertainment. I like his vocals for the animated Moana. HBO’s “ballers” series is a more adult project, but I don’t watch it. Looking at his films on IMDB, there are a lot of family films, mindless entertainment projects including the G.I. Joe films, or the Fast and the Furious series. None of which are exactly targeted for my demographic. He’s popular though – the highest paid movie star in the world.
I don’t hate Dwayne Johnson movies; not like Michael Bay films. What I’ve seen of Johnson’s films, they are well made, look good, and please the masses. In the words of Graham Parker “I don’t appeal to the masses and they don’t appeal to me.” Like I said above, he seems to be a very nice man. Just not to my taste, and that’s OK.