Grades v. Warriors 04/13

[Bricklayer]

Theme tonight: Fun Soundtracks

Salmons ( B ) -- good all around first half when not bitching at the refs -- been doing that recently for whatever reason. Got quiet after half though, and started turning it over. Had trouble bringing the ball up cleanly. and while he was at one point actually, get this, playing as our PF, did not help on the glass against an equally small Warriors crew.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER -- one of the best selling soundtracks of all time, this one was right at the heart of the disco movement, and featured the famous Bee Gees hit Stayin' Alive as well as host of other hits for the white suit and platform shoes crowd.

Cisco ( B ) -- started slow other than one nice fast break finishing over Baron, but came back in the second quarter with good energy. Took it to the rim, hit Justin on the cut after he slipped a screen and rolled to the hoop. Continued the strong streak into the third and was giving us a boost on the defensive glass, but faded late, could not hit his shots, and his most memorable play of the night occurred as he blew a wide open dunk on the break to open the 4th. Was a major momentum swinger at a time when our fools were still threatening to woss it. The Warriors immediately began to chug back out to the lead in the wake of that play, and we completely collapsed after a ridiculous third.

DAZED AND CONFUSED -- the first of several retro soundtracks on this list, this one featured more fun 70's classic rock than most greatest hits albums, including Slow Ride by Foghat, Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo by Rick Derringer, Love Hurts by Nazareth, music by the Runaways, Black Sabbath, Kiss etc., they couldn't even fit it all on one album and released a followup "Even More Dazed and Confused".

Reef ( A ) -- woohoo...there is hope after all. All we have to do is find a way to move the Kings to a 6'6" and under league and Reef can be our own version of Shaq. Shareef must have felt like he was in high school: with the exception of a handful of minutes for Andris Biedrins, he was the biggest player on the floor for either team on the whole night. And he had one of those games, kind of like that big old potbellied guy on the pickup courts with the groundbound post game and the knee brace from that injury he had back in 1979 -- slowest player on the court, looked like he was 50 with that ginger Patrick Ewing stride of his, but by far the best post player out there, and too sneaky/saavy for the few guys in his size range. Had a good first half 9 and 5, but wasn't much impact as we were being blown off the court. But had a completely ridiculous 3rd quarter where the Warriors interior "defense" completely collapsed, and Reef just dominated. By my count, a 14pts 9reb quarter for Shareef, which are numbers you just don't see very often (unless it be by post players against the Warriors of course). Wavered on the A or A- though, because despite the monster quarter leading us back into it, he completely disappeared in the 4th -- as in COMPLETELY. After a 14 and 9 3rd (or some such), I do not thinnk he had a single point or board in the final quarter. Decided to stick with the flat A just on the theory theat the final quarter had more to do with the team not finding him than him fading, but as usual with that excuse for Reef, it does not explain his complete disappearance on the boards, no dirty work points etc. Anyway, better quarter than most of his games, and powered him to one of his best overall games of the year.

THE WEDDING SINGER -- while I thought the movie was overrated, the soundtrack was fun -- a massive throwback to 80's cheese, even featuring a cameo from the ghost of Billy Idol. Features music from Idol, David Bowie, Thompson Twins, The Police, Culture Club etc. etc. Here's something to make you feel old -- the movie itself is now nearing 10 years old.

Martin ( C ) -- ok first half in the game that better seemed suited to his talents, but really seemed lackluster. Not bad so much as...just did not feel like he was going full speed. Hit a pair of largely meaningless threes in the 4th as the Warriors pulled away, but even those were just kind of casually heaved up there. And without them we are talking about a 12pt game. Not a bad game precisely -- numbers are only a little below his season marks -- but this was a big high scoring up and down game, and Kevin was just a guy. He may be young, but kind of felt about his game like I did about Mike and Ron's -- maybe just playing out the string for our big three.

LAST OF THE MOHICANS -- and this might come closer to "favorite soundtracks" -- this was just one of the best I've heard. No popular music, although one Enya song was slipped seamlessly in near the end of the movie. But a really nifty collection of powerful Celtic inspired pieces every bit as passionate as the movie was, and one of the best of the orchestral music breed (Braveheart, Gladiator, LOTR series etc.).

 

[Bricklayer]

Bibby ( C- ) -- Mike's play down the stretch here as been as hard to predict as his season -- he goes absolutely off against Phoenix, in what may be his last great memeory as a King (although a performance which is currently hurting us), then appeared to be really just packing it in and coasting down the strecth, then inexplicably pops back up ont he roadstrip in Memphis and San Antonio with big games clearly trying to win, and then comes back home and promptly delivers another going through the motion effort. Did little other than hit a couple of scary threes in the third, and watched Baron have a big game the other way (much of it actually not directly against Mike).

EASY RIDER-- another soundtrack as cultural milestone, the movie helped launch the whole outlaw biker and Harley as "chopper" or "hog" schtick, and the soundtrack gave the Hells Angels something to ride along to -- iincluded of course the classic biker song Born to be Wild, but also songs by The Byrds, Jimi Hewdrix, and Bob Dylan (written, not performed).

Artest ( C- ) -- in off the bench because...well not sure. Was it just Muss's matchup mania gone too far? Just end of the season stuff? An Injury? A pun ishment? Who knows. Not really sure it matters. But whatever the reason, Ron kind of looked lost out there for much of this one -- didn't really seem to know what his role was goingt o be, and had little impact. Uncharacteristically quickly picked up 3 fouls. Was reinserted...and picked up a 4th just as quick. Drew some fouls, and did briefly alarm me by making a little push there in the early 4th, but it went nowhere, and Ron, along with Mike and really Kevin, were all afterthoughts this time out.

SINGLES -- and this was the great grunge soundtrack from the heart of that era -- actually at its very beginning. Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Screaming Trees -- grunge may not have ever exactl been "fun" -- part of the idea behind it. But this album was full of songs by its top young artists.

Price ( D+ ) -- third straight lackluster game for Ronnie, and in a track meet where both teams spent most of the night with 4 guards on the floor, ronnie still barely cracked double figures in minutes. Did little enough with them though besides almost killing himself, or Mikael Pietrus, on an over the top hustle play int eh meaningless final 30 seconds of the game. Along the way also did a spin move so fast that he left the ball behind for a turnover -- minor detail, and may have developed a hitch in his FT stroke.

FLASHDANCE -- you know, I was noticing something as I went through this list: they are all older. At this point you could almost call this a "classic" list of sountracks. And I wonder what's changed there. Its not my musical tastes coming into play particularly -- I probably own more music from the last 10 years than I do from the all the years before that. Its just, in the category of "fun" soundtracks, what has really qualified in the last 5-10 years? Not many. Thought of the Almost Famous soundtrack, but thought the Dazed and Confused collection was better, thought of 8 Mile, but that was mostly one huge hit song, and more powerful than fun. Gladiator/LOTR were strongly considered, but I didn't want to make the whole list just big epic stuff (and they were more moody than fun). Anyway...Flashdance. Not the greatest of moveis, although not as bad as it got rapped for. Classic follow your dreams/Rocky type plot...except with a beautiful industrial welder by day/pseudo-exotic dancer by night. You know, plausible. But Jennifer Beals actually made you root for her character, which is something so many of those trite movies seem to forget about. Anyway, enough about the middling movie -- soundtrack was very big, bigger than the flick, and included not only the theme song, What A Feeling by Irene Cara, but also Maniac, Manhunt, Lady Lady Lady, music by Laura Brannigan, Donna Summer, Kim Carnes. Multiple Top 10 hits from the early 80s.

Douby ( D ) -- got minutes, and was in in the first quarter, but got got off to a slow start and did nothing offensively. Did have two good defensive plays -- a nice little steal off of a sloppy inbounds pass by Barnes, and then started the 4th with a steal and breakaway to Cisco for the dun...oh...er... damn ( Cisco clanked it off the back of the iron). Also at one point faked himself right onto his own butt on the same possession where Price would then spin but leave the ball behind, and looked slow on his release as he went 1-8 from the field. Not exactly a sterling effort in return to action.

FOOTLOOSE -- and my musings about the dated nature of these soundtracks has led me to a theory -- 80's cheese + 70's classic rock. Maybe its the nature of the music itself, and the changing realtionship of music to video. Or maybe its the music industry changing so that you ae highly unlikely to ever get half a dozen top acts all contributing top tracks to a flick today. That's what happened in Footloose, which induced not only the big title hit by Kenny Loggins, but also Let's Hear it For the Boy, Bang Your Head (Quiet Riot), Hurts So Good by John Cougar Mellencamp, music by Sammy Hagar, Bonnie Tyler, Foreigner etc.

 

[Bricklayer]

Williams ( B ) -- last man in because we like to matchup with the Warriors, not make them match us. But it was an awkward game for him with all the small bodies around. Really had minimal effect on defense, and was checked off the glass by Biedrins (kind of a bigger version of Justin actually) and all the long rebounds off the threes. But continues to show good instncts on offense on how to make the most of his limited skils -- made a couple of good cuts to the front of the rim, and with no opposing bigs around to interfere, just galloped right to the rim. Numbers look more than respectable: 9pts 5rebs in 15+min. And game was decent. But this time out it was only going to be either he or Reef on the floor, not both. And we definitely did better with Reef.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN -- this soundtrack was simply amazing, and unknown as its likely to be in some circles, it quite notorious in others. Powerful and moody orchestral and choir stuff by Basil Poledouris, and then when it soars it perfectly captures the barbaric, primal spirit of the film. Which basically means if you've ever had a really rough day and dreamed of heading back to work to cleave all of your antagonists up into little squishy chunks with a giant broad sword, this is the music to do it to.

Muss ( ) -- well, what to say. Just check out our starting lineup for the beginning of the whackiness -- 4 guards and 1 aging SF and you are thinking that Muss had once again managed to outsmart himself wiht lienup cutesiness. But in some ways, you almost could not blame Muss -- look at the Warriors own lineup. The same arrangement, except with Harrington in the middle rather than Reef. The problem beign of course that that is playign right into Neliie's hands -- he alwasy wants to make you react to him, to play his game, for which his team is just far better suited than yours. And Muss has complied in each of their macthups this year as the old man has schooled him. At one point we took it to a rodiculous extreme with Douby/Price/Kevin/Salmons/Williams out there in some sort of return to high school flashback. The Warriors were playing 4 gurads themselves most of the night, and still had size advanatages at just about every posiiton. Jason Richardson looked like Shaq out there as he was posting poor Quincy (who can NOT be an NBA off guard consistently at his size/strength). And so we played the Warriors -- the one team in the entire NBA who we outrebound on the year, and we got pummeled by 10 on the glass, and barely put up a whimper of resistance on defense. The momentary revelation that even old Reef can work over the ubersmallballers was not enough in and fo itself to save us. And you know what? That's alright. We're just wrapping things up now, playing young guys, having most vets not named Reef mail it in (Reef of course has been in this situation his entire career, so is unfazed), and moving up draft slots. 3 more to go, and then onto the rebuild.

TOP GUN -- so I was wondering what to do for this last one, and I thought, well why not go for the 80's jugular? Pretty sure this was the #1 soundtrack of all time at one point, and part of the movie that really launched Tom Cruise into supernutdom. Strongly considered the Purple Rain and The Who suggestions, but they kind of fell into the same category as the Beatles Hard Days Night and some of the old Elvis films -- not really soundtracks so much as single artist albums that happened to have a movie attached. Part of why I shied from 8 Mile too. And was also thinking of something like Shaft or some such -- wanted a funky soundtrack. Oh well. Anyway, this one needs no apologies though: Take My Breath Away also was a #1 and made Berlin huge, Danger Zone was another Kenny Loggins soundtrack hit. Cheap Trick, Loverboy, Miami Sounjd Machine, and a great selection of oldies (I guess from our perspective today oldiers): Otis Redding, Righteous Brotehrs, Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

[Sluggah]

last of the mohicans soundtrack is phenomenal. good call.

 

[Widowmaker2k]

May I request Tommy?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Don't overlook Purple Rain, the greatest soundtrack ever.

 

[6th]

Bricklayer, you amaze me sometimes. You not only spend all your time developing your notes of the games to grade the players, but then you spend what must be an enormous amount of time developing your theme. You are totally awesome.

I must confess that I have gotten to where I go through and read the themes 1st and then I go back and read the grades.

 

[GoGoGadget]

you know, I was noticing something as I went through this list: they are all older. At this point you could almost call this a "classic" list of sountracks.

I got myself all ready to throw out a list of recent soundtracks that should be considered -- Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Goodfellas, Hairspray, Cry Baby, Batman Forever, Desperado, Leaving Las Vegas, Romeo + Juliet, Four Rooms, Dead Presidents, Lost Highway-- and they're all well past the 10 year mark, too. Only ones I can think of from the last decade are The Matrix, O Brother Where Art Thou?, both volumes of Kill Bill, Snatch, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and now Grindhouse.

Think the big difference is how few directors know how to effectively use music anymore (why, you'll notice, several of the soundtracks I listed come from the same few directors who happen to be brilliant in that regard). Most soundtracks these days are little more than a random collection of popular songs.

 

[doone]

Bricklayer, you amaze me sometimes. You not only spend all your time developing your notes of the games to grade the players, but then you spend what must be an enormous amount of time developing your theme. You are totally awesome.

I must confess that I have gotten to where I go through and read the themes 1st and then I go back and read the grades.

Lol, don't worry 6th, you're not alone.

 

[tubiscus]

I'm lovin the themes Brick....How many of these do you have on vinyl??

I'll own up to four of them, but have 'em on cd too!